Category: Game Developers

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Game Developers Conference 2012 is in the bag and, for me, that bag was mixed. It was mostly an excellent show personally and professionally, but there were some mishaps and annoyances too. Here’s a breakdown of the RPad experience (which is about two percent as cool as the Jimi Hendrix Experience) at GDC 2012.

– Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first. I’m sick from GDC, a cab driver from Arrow Taxi refused to return my mobile phone (leaving me phone-less for two days), and I didn’t get to attend any panels. The first two things are…whatever. People get sick and people lose phones. The last part still annoys me. The opportunity to hear incredible game creators talk about games and trends in gaming is rare. I can catch a game preview any week. Getting to learn from and report about the top creators in the business doesn’t happen nearly as often. It was a wasted opportunity for me and a lot of people that write about games. Speaking of which….

– Last year, I wrote that I was happy to see more GDC panel coverage. I didn’t notice any progress this year. It annoys me that so many publishers show product during GDC. It annoys me more that game journalists cover so many products during GDC. Last time I checked, the “D” in GDC stands for developers. Instead, the publishers are shaping the majority of GDC coverage. That sucks. Products are covered most of the year. Let’s take a few days to focus on the people behind the products, right?

One of my friends was complaining about journalists calling GDC boring. “They don’t know what they’re missing,” was the sentiment. He was totally right. Instead of covering fascinating panels, learning about how games are made, interviewing developers, and learning about trends in game development, a lot of reporters spent the vast majority of time writing game previews. It’s such a tremendous waste.

– Okay, let’s change the record to something positive. I got to see so many outstanding people. My favorite parts of the show were the nights. Going out to dinner or attending parties with some of my favorite game makers and/or old friends was brilliant. Food highlights include House of Prime Rib with some friends from Japan and a brilliant rib eye with a hot chick from 2K. The drink highlight was Bourbon & Branch with Zoe and the Capps family. Actually, that was probably my favorite night of the show (aside from the phone incident) — great conversation with fantastic people and exotic alcoholic concoctions.

– I really don’t like that Apple’s iPad press conference overlaps with the GDC keynote. That’s two years in a row. It was dickish last year and it was dickish this year. I know that Apple is one of the biggest and most successful companies in the world, but its iOS products benefit greatly from gaming. It would be nice if Apple acted like “a part” of the videogame business instead of “apart” from it.

– Speaking of the iPad, I was completely caught off guard by a joke from one of my favorite game creators. The delivery was soft spoken and the tone was serious. Thank Zeus I wasn’t drinking anything when the punchline was delivered because I would have spit whiskey on an outstanding game maker. Basically he said, “Well, you know when the iPhone 4S came out people said that the ‘S’ was for Steve. It was going to be called the iPad HD to stand for ‘He’s Dead.'” I laughed, felt guilty, and felt shocked all at the same time.

– It was cool seeing Blake Freeman promote Noobz. We hung out for a bit one night and I also caught him at the restaurant where I devoured that monster rib eye. I’m thrilled for him and I hope the movie does well. Gamers should support it for being “real” with gaming. On a side note, he saw me with Zoe one night and with Melissa the next night. I wonder if this gave him the false impression that I’m slick with the ladies. I’ll have to clear that up for him…and also confirm my role in Noobz 2.

– It’s funny that a lot of people I know in publishing and development are exponentially richer than when I first met them 10+ years ago. It’s sad that I’m poorer than I was 10+ years ago. At least I have my health. Oh wait….

– I’m really impressed by the progress of mobile gaming. Infinity Blade and Rage raised the bar for mobile games. Infinity Blade: Dungeons looks phenomenal on iOS; I can see myself playing more of it than Diablo III. Eden to GREEEEN looks sweet on Tegra 3 Android tablets. There’s a secret game that I saw on Tegra 3 that totally blew me away. Mobile is arguably the most exciting segment of the gaming market. It’s getting pretty awesome.

– There’s a lot of stuff I’m leaving out because it would be improper to share, but it was phenomenal talking to so many talented people at GDC 2012. Although I didn’t get to learn from any panels (still annoyed at that), I did learn quite a bit from talking to people from some of the most creative companies in gaming. Perhaps next GDC will be covered the way I want it to be (Gamasutra’s outstanding coverage aside — it’s their show, after all). Until then, I’m grateful for catching up with excellent people that I know and meeting a bunch of excellent new people too.