GDC was another incredible experience for me. It was our first year out there as a real company, as a real indie, and it didn’t disappoint.
Here’s Piece of Pie at the IGF Summit:
I attended the Indie Summit, and the Expo, spending most of my time at the IGF expo. And if you missed it, here’s a short interview I did with the folks at gamedev.net. Good fun:
Highlights for me included:
- Kellee Santiago and Robin Hunicke (from thatgamecompany) discussing the process and challenges of exploratory development. This honest and thoughtful discussion really struck a personal note. The difficulties of development, the self-doubts and breakthroughs, the responsibilities involved, the ups and downs; to see a successful indie struggle with and overcome the same issues we face, well, it all really hit home. And it was also very encouraging in a way. If you’re a small indie or development team, you would do well to read that article.
- The GAMMA party, a drunken event full of indies featuring 6 one-button games on show. I was star struck by all the “indie celebs” around, much to the amusement of my friends.
- Meeting and hanging out with indies from all over. We’re still a young and unknown team, which is fine, as we haven’t released a title yet. Even so, everyone at the Summit and the Expo was just very friendly and welcoming.
- A free Nexus One phone, courtesy of Google. It almost got me arrested at the German customs (forgot to declare it), but it also paid for a good chunk of the trip. Thanks Google!
I also caught up with old friends from my days in the UK. Former Evolution (now Sony) colleagues were everywhere and repeatedly footed the tab on food/dinner/drinks, adding their contribution to the indie world. Thanks guys!
Several of my former colleagues at EA were featured in the IGF. Gordon Midwood was nominated for his awesome retro rhythm game Lilt Line for the iPhone. He barely lost out in the Best Mobile game category to the “indie” team behind Spider.
Meanwhile, my friends at Hello Games had Joe Danger nominated in several categories. They unfortunately lost out to the “indie” team behind Limbo, and the ever popular Monaco (by the excellent Andy Schatz). Still, their fantastic game is gonna sell bucket loads when it comes out in a few months on PSN. Keep an eye on it.
Unrelated to games, I finally got to sample the delights of In n’ Out, a hamburger joint rumored to have the best burgers in the US. And dear God I was not disappointed. I would move to California just for In n’ Out.
GDC is by far my favorite developer gathering of the year and I can’t wait for GDC 2011.
What about The Game?
Well, I showed the game to a few people at GDC including a couple old designer friends. Several brainstorm sessions produced quite few good ideas and reinforced our belief that we’re on the right track.
Since then, we’ve been busy beavearing away. The tools have reached at a stable state and productivity is way up. All the the post-IGF and GDC feedback has been integrated, and work is coming along nicely. We’re focusing on a new demo right now, with an internal deadline of early May.
Back to work we go!
