In one of the rare occasions I’m in San Francisco not for GDC, it was nice to finally have a bit of breathing room. While I did have a bunch of meetings booked up, and of course, presented at the Swissnex event to launch their game design exhibition, I had time to finally visit Alcatraz. Grimly impressive indeed! And, took time to stroll in Buena Vista Park and wander around Union Square, etc.
It was a quickie trip, but nice to experience SF under a different context. Here are some photos:
Sophie Lamparter welcomes attendees to the Swissnex exhibition space.
Florian Faller (Zurich University of the Arts) presents his award-winning indie game Feist.
On the ferry heading to “The Rock”.
Rows and rows of prison cells.
The “playground”, with a taunting view of civilization across the water
It was Fleet Week in SF, so there were jets constantly flying overhead and performing barrel rolls.
View of the Golden Gate Bridge from the peak of Buena Vista park.
Awesome graffiti on Haight Street.
So many efforts to connect folks from the game industry with folks from academia fail. I’ve been a part of many of those failures, not fully factoring what motivates each side… However, with the recent “Experiencing Stories with/in Digital Games” colloquium I helped to organize at Concordia University, by placing specific games at the center, everyone was able to get more fully engaged.
More specifically, we picked four games (Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, The Graveyard, Amnesia: The Dark Descent) and had academics present brief essays on the games (two per game) and then invited someone from the design/writing team to “respond” and provide insight into the realities of development, plus tons of audience Q&A. The format was a huge success and provided a rare opportunity to see academics and developers connect. (That said, a few developers in the audience later admitted to me that they had no clue what some of the academics were saying ;)
We also were fortunate to have David Cage share his thoughts on story in games, and give insights to the creative process behind Heavy Rain. On the second day, it was more an intimate affair with students presenting work-in-progress research and getting feedback from the various speakers the day before.
Overall a great event, and nice to know that our risks to innovate with conference formats paid off.
Here are some quick photos:
Nick Montfort (MIT) and Flourish enjoying some sake during the pre-conference speaker dinner.
Bart Simon (Concordia) opens the conference.
Marcel O’Gorman (Waterloo) presents his essay on The Graveyard.
Nick Montfort (MIT) exploring Mass Effect 2.
With waving hands, Thomas Grip (Frictional Games) responds to commentary on Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
David Cage (Quantic Dream) discusses the history of story and art.
Post conference drinks and chatting.
Day2 student projects mentoring session.
