Just about the last thing I ever thought would happen to me was being mentioned in some Michael-Musto-like celebrity party wrap-up article, but somehow the unthinkable has happened… San Francisco is a strange place where the fabric of social networks warps and the fact that I can operate a computer puts me a degree or two closer to the limelight.
I was at the Linden Labs party in the usual evening crawl after GDC, sick as a dog with a cold which left me without a voice, and one of Kellan’s friends introduced me to a writer for the SF Chronicle. She diligently took notes (my voice was shot, so it’s not wholly her fault that she calls an EdD a “PdD”) on a final project two classmates and I are working on in Second Life which at this point is little more than a twinkle in our eyes and a sketch on a single sheet of paper, and now voila — we’re a phenomenon. Guess I have to make something of myself now to compensate.
The Game Developers Conference was fun and I guess other people are blogging about it and particularly about Little Big Planet, which was beautiful and should be a great open-ended toy to give to both kids and adults, but I didn’t think it was as genuinely revolutionary as other people thought. As an engine, it seems suited to doing platformers with great physics and not much else. It will not be helpful if what you want to build is, say, first-person shooters, casual games, or MMORPGs. Still, should be great fun.
Saw an understandable (!) talk on balancing game economies by Wizards of the Coast people (did not expect I would be able to pick that up quickly), two good talks on large-motor interfaces, great presentation by Harmonix crew on balancing the demands of casual and hardcore gamers, inspiring pep talk by Miyamoto-san, and Robin Hunicke’s lovely passionate mechanics-dynamics-aesthetics work turning The Sims into a Wii game. Rode the carousel at Yerba Buena today with some of the conference staff, good buddies from earlier conferences. Made a great scene with moves cribbed from Harpo Marx, a pen, a full roll of receipt paper stolen from the bar when the coat-check attendant wasn’t looking, Andrew Leker, and Justin Hall at the speakers’ party last night, seeing as I didn’t have a voice and had to communicate SOMEhow. Good times.
Kellan’s been pointing out to me that I really haven’t posted hardly at all lately. I’m sorry. I think the blog’s in some manner of crisis as to what it’s about. As am I, to some extent. More when I’ve straightened out a bit.
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