GDC 2012 - DYAD Racing PS3 PSN GDC PLAY

DYAD - Through the wormhole. 
Among the many games showcased at GDC Play, DYAD had to be my favorite. For one, I'm a sucker for audio-centric 'art' games. I'm a big fan of Jeff Minter's Tempest 2000, and the Atari Jaguar's VLM. I'm also a big fan of Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Rez, and Dylan Fitterer's Audiosurf (and soon to be released Audiosurf Air). And let's not forget TRON the movie, which stylistically seems to permeate through all of these games and has defined the visual style for all things retro digital, and futuristic cool. 
Over the years there has been quite a few indie developers creating unique music based gaming experiences that pulse, ripple, and echo in euphoric psychedelia, where the gameplay is very much part of the soundtrack. DYAD is the latest entry into this category.
From Toronto based developer Shawn McGrath, the objective is to propel yourself forward through a visually stunning wormhole by attaching, or 'hooking' yourself to enemies (particles), while avoiding them. The more strategic connections you make, the faster you go. The game is described as an abstract racing game, though I don't think there is a multi-player competitive mode.
Playing the demo at GDC Play, there were several tracks to choose from. I was able to get a hang of the game, after hitting several particles which slowed me down. The player can rotate around the tunnel, much like Tempest to find the best line. Once I got into the rhythm of the game, it was pretty entertaining and I could see myself getting hooked. Despite comparisons to other games, DYAD is an experience unto its own.
The game had been submitted to festivals, but seems to not have won over any of the juries. However, I'm sure that gamers will enjoy the combination of sounds, eye melting visuals, and gameplay.
DYAD is set for PS3/PSN, with possible PC release.
Looking forward to it!
http://www.dyadgame.com 

GDC 2012 Sample Sumo Music Technology GDC Play

GDC PLAY 2012 - SAMPLE SUMO AUDIO RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY

So it's been a few weeks since GDC 2012, and I'm finally getting around to going through all the business cards I've accumulated over the week at the conference. With so many social events, it's easy to forget where certain cards came from, but in the case of Sample Sumo a Belgium based tech company, I immediately recalled it was from GDC Play.

GDC Play is a separate area from the the main Exhibit Hall, and Conference area. it is the equivalent of a convention's 'Artist Alley' but for independent developers who wish to display their games and products. Sample Sumo's audio technology demonstration was pretty memorable. Using sounds to trigger gameplay behaviour, the user could either tap, pots and pans, or wood blocks to get the correct sound effect, which the microphone would then pick up.

Being demoed at GDC Play was Cows 'n' Order.

It's a neat technology that could be applied to something like Microsoft Kinect, or Sony Move, or even without a camera, or controller. Seems like all you need is a microphone, and well, sound! Would work well with handheld gaming on smartphones or PS Vita, and Nintendo DS.

Read more about Sample Sumo at GDC http://www.samplesumo.com/node/48


Sample Sumo
http://www.samplesumo.com/

GDC 2012 - Game of Thrones Bigpoint

Game of Thrones by Bigpoint


A free to play MMO based on the popular series is coming soon by Bigpoint. In the mean time, enjoy this Throne.

PARTY! GDC 2012 IDA Ireland Bourbon and Branch

PARTY! GDC 2012 IDA Ireland Bourbon and Branch

The IDA Ireland party was held at Bourbon and Branch, a very cool 1920's style speakeasy establishment. Located in downtown San Francisco's Jones st., the location is very easy to miss because of the unmarked exterior. I walked past it once, then realized I had missed it when saw some people who were dressed unlike the surrounding homeless characters, enter this door. 

With the password for the event, I entered, and was led through the bar, and to a back room that had to be unlocked, which opened up to this really cool room. I at first felt slightly out of place since I was the only non-Irish in the room. The Irish people were actually quite friendly. After a few drinks, I didn't feel so out of place. 

The bartenders made a variety of strong drinks, which I never got the names of. Definitely worth a return trip. Really interesting experience. It felt like I wasn't even at a GDC event.

Bourbon and Branch is reservation only.

Industrial Development Authority Ireland - Big Fish Games
http://www.idaireland.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgr2bjWydro

http://www.bourbonandbranch.com/
501 Jones Street  San Francisco, CA 94102

PARTY! GDC 2012 Super7 Insert Coin PixelJunk 4am

PARTY! GDC 2012 Super7 Insert Coin PixelJunk 4am


Super7 has always been on my list of toy shops to hit up if ever I was in town, I just never had a chance to visit the shop until my recent trip to San Francisco. It seemed like the forces had aligned and I had an opportunity to check it out. Fresh off the plane, I was in a bit of a groggy state, going out into the night and in need of a party. 


Super7 is a well known Kaiju figure shop with a side of Japanese Star Wars figures, and limited print graphic tees. I knew the place was cool, I just didn't know how awesome it was until I got there. 


With the Game Developers Conference in town, they threw a party for the launch of their new line of gamer tees called 'Insert Coin', so I jumped at the chance to check it out. After a sardine packed BART ride from downtown, and a walk through a dark street towards Haight St., (fearing I would be stabbed), I found Super7. Then I realized, I could have just taken the bus! (Their previous location had been in Japantown, and is now located on Haight.)




The party was packed with art fans spilled on the side walk.  Sony's PixelJunk 4am was being demoed at the event. Using the Sony Move controller, users can create and layer sounds and beats using the visualizer on screen. The experience has been described as similar to the music process of a DJ, transitioning through beats, with the ability for people to spectate. 


The visualizer is like an instrument, with button inputs creating different sounds, when the controller is waved around, or whether buttons are held then released. I could definitely see the depth in program like this. Though I don't think was a way to save out the audio into a convenient format to create and share. (PixelJunk 4am was also set up on the Expo floor at GDC, Sony booth.)


The Insert Coin tee designs were all pretty creative, taking retro gaming and design and slapping it on a tee is a tall order, but these artists did a great job. Unfortunately, I didn't pick up any of the gamer tees, and instead opted for the In-N-Out secret menu tee by artist Josh Herbolsheimer. Fans of burgers should appreciate this.











The boys and girls over at Super7 were very chill. Keep up the good work guys!


Check out the pics from the event!

http://super7store.com

ADDRESS

Super7 Store
1427 Haight St (@ Masonic)
San Francisco, CA 94117

INSERT COIN T-Shirts @ SUPER7

The more gamer shirts the better. Meat Bun has some fantastic tees, but these ones are quite good too.

Insert Coin Collection Designer T-Shirts: Pizza Man Fever, NES Sleeve, Arcade Rorschach, Kremlin Rocket, Bit Runner & Controller Family TreeSuper7 presents a new collection of T-Shirts with the Insert Coin Collection series featuring some classic arcade games.
From the top left to bottom right:Pizza Man Fever
NES Sleeve
Arcade Rorschach
Kremlin Rocket
Bit Runner
Controller Family Tree
Kremlin Rocket and Pizza Man Fever are available online now (HERE) with the rest of the collection available next week. $25 each.

http://blog.super7store.com/insert-coin-collection-designer-t-shirts-pizz

SUPER7 PIXELJUNK INSERT COIN GDC KICKOFF PARTY

Super7 and Pixel Junk are throwing a party !

#GDC Kickoff Party! Tomorrow night 3/6 6PM ft@PixelJunkNews 4amblog.super7store.com/game-developer… Drinks sponsored by @PBR_USA

8bitSF presents POW: INDIE MUSIC & DEVELOPERS COLLIDE

This is gonna be a hot one.

In honor of the 2012 Game Developer's Conference, 8bitSF is proud to present POW, a celebration of the indie spirit. POW is a colossal night of sound + vision, and features performances by some of the best acts in both gaming and chip music as well as demo tables and presentations by indie developers Muteki Corporation (Dragon Fantasy), Open Emotion Studios (Revoltin' Youth), Yobble (Air Guitar) and more!

Tuesday, March 6

8pm - 1am.

chip music. electro. experimental.

21+.

$8 advance;
$12 door;
$5 w/ GDC badge

http://www.dnalounge.com/calendar/2012/03-06.html

VENUS PATROL COMING SOON

I was lucky to have one of my custom toys (Ness Custom Munny) featured on Offworld for Boing Boing back in 2009. A wonderful website with content from videogame culture.

Unfortunately the site was shut down suddenly (RIP 2008-2009), but the creators have been cooking something else called Venus Patrol. It's funded by Kickstarter and is expected to be even better than Offworld.

I'm highly looking forward to this much needed hub for game culture.

I will be attending Venus Patrol / One Life Left GDC party
http://www.facebook.com/events/293509414040041/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774616737/venus-patrol-charting-a-new-course-for-videogame-c

PENNY ARCADE EXPO 2009 Pre-registration ONLINE NOW

PAX 2009 Registration online NOW!

Pre-Registration for the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo (Sept 4-6) was announced last week on February 18th, and with six months away until the gamer expo hits the Seattle Convention Center for a third time since departing from Bellevue, it's never too soon to start planning.

This time around it seems that the organizers paid some attention to the cries from attendees of PAX 2008, because now they're planning to place limits on badges. Many complaints from the previous years revolved around the lineups in the exhibit hall, overflow of crowds, and media presence, which dampened the spirits of some expo-goers who didn't expect the expos growth to affect their enjoyment. Obviously with the popularity of the event growing each year, PAX will never be the same as it was in it's first few years.So get your badges/passes/plane, train, or bus tickets/hotel reservations, as soon as possible! On the plus side, San Diego Comic-Con is 10 times worse than PAX in terms of crowds.

Now I'm not too concerned with early registration. In fact I haven't even been thinking about registering for PAX. It's on my list of conventions to attend this year, but there's so much going on in the months prior to PAX that it's not a high priority just yet. I've been going to the expo since 2005, and thinking back to other years, I've always got my passes closer to the actual date, and in a sense quite late compared to other people. I've always managed to get in though, so unless something terrible happens in 09 that prevents me from going, I will be at PAX, late registration or not. This year sounds like it might be a different story though, so I may register in the next few days.

To-do: Register for PAX. Register for San Diego Comic-Con.

No GDC09.

I'm unfortunately cutting the Game Developers Conference (March 23-27) out of my cons to attend this year, saving up for a trip to Hawaii in the summer, as well as another trip to the great San Diego Comic-con, and whatever else might come up. I'm bummed I'm gonna miss out on all the educational talks, entertaining games, and crazy ass late-night happenings at GDC after hours (drunk, open bar). Those really important "networking" events. HAHA!

GDC is awesome. Maybe I'll go back in 2010.

Vancouver International Game Summit 2008

The 2nd annual Vancouver International Game Summit, organized by Reboot Communications Ltd. proved to be a solid 2-day experience (leading into Vidfest) featuring a mix of eclectic speakers, that not only inspired conference goers but educated them as well. Whether a professional or student, animator or game designer, the VIGS agenda offered sessions that kept attendees genuinely engaged.

It's getting there, it definitely getting there. As someone who has in the past attended such high-profile events like the Game Developers Conference, and the Electronic Entertainment Expo, I can say with certainty that VIGS, is well on it's way to establishing itself as a major industry conference. The smaller atmosphere may lack the lights, bells, and whistles, of those larger shows, but I think we can all benefit from it's much less chaotic feel. I personally wouldn't want this local event ballooning into a GDC-esque mega-conference, but with the much respected SIGGRAPH coming to town in 2011, and with the new Convention center getting closer to completion, the summit, might need to step it up with a larger presence and more sponsors in the future.

Even though the Vancouver International Game Summit, (which is often times referred to as the Vancouver Game Summit), claims to be an 'international' forum, the speakers weren't so much as international as one would expect. I have yet to see game developers from Asia or Europe speaking at the show. Jason Rubin, and Shane Kim, are not good examples of internationalism. Opening up to a more international community would definitely draw more interest, which I think the summit needs more of.

Reboot Communications should definitely take cues from CMP Group, and the success of GDC to help with the planning and organizing of future VIGS. One aspect of GDC that I think everyone can recognize as being integral to a conference, is the availability of lectures, via an audio recording for purchase, or complimentary for attendees. These are most important for journalists writing articles, as well as educators, to gain access to information they can utilize in their curriculum. I found myself recording these sessions for work, and being able to refer back to them was a great asset.

Jason Rubin gave a fantastic but some what disorganized keynote, recounting his long career as former president of Naughty Dog, and now as a game industry outsider/ consultant in a very talky informal lecture. He offered inspiration for those thinking of becoming entrepreneurs, and discussed the industries diversity. Propaganda Games, also discussed a 5-day mini-game competition they had at their studio, which brought out some very creative projects within a very short amount of time. They found that this was a great team-building experience, that required quick prototyping. The technology panel, New Frontiers in Animation, featured art directors and technical leads from local game studios, who talked about animation getting overshadowed by next-gen graphics, middleware, and the uses of mocap vs. keyframe animation. "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - The Business and Game Design behind the 2007 Game of the Year", and Fostering the Leaders of Tomorrow were also great panels.

Though the Press facilities were next to nonexistent -- no private press room, where we could charge laptops, and type up papers, and the lack of internet access, with locked wi-fi that the Hotel Hyatt was offering for a fee, which I had to go out of my way to request the code for -- despite those inconveniences, I hope to see the summit continue to grow as a must attend industry event, in the epicenter of Canada's game industry that is Vancouver.

GDC '08: Steven Spielberg's BOOM BLOX

Photo and Video Vomit

Since Steven Spielberg played the Wii alongside Miyamoto at E3 a while back, Boom Blox has been brewing. The interactive experience of the latest Nintendo console proved irresistible to the film director, who wanted to make something the whole family could enjoy. It has come a long way, and at this years GDC the games production has been laid out for all developers to learn from.

The following video and images were taken by me during the session. The video can be found on my youtube page, and is strictly for educational purposes.

Not sure what to do at The Game Developers Conference? Check out "8 For GDC '08"

Getting it together, to make the most of your time at GDC

The GameCareerGuide has been running some very useful features over the last few weeks for those heading on down to Frisco for this year's GDC. As if "The GDC Survival Guide" wasn't enough, Jill Duffy's article "8 For GDC '08", will help you tighten up your conference schedule to sort out what's really important. Because there's a lot to see and do, there's no way you could possibly get around to doing everything, unless of course you had clones. Which most of us don't. Choosing two or three major things on your schedule each day, and leaving the rest open for whatever comes up could help in the long run. This is especially important for conference goers with too much on their plates, or for those who have restrictions on their conferences passes. Limited passes may be limited in the sense that you don't have access to every corner of the convention, but that doesn't mean you can't make the most of what you already have access to.

With only 2 days away, it's best to be organized!

One of the problems I had last year, was actually finding time to eat. Running around from session to session, and booth to booth, I'd want to grab a snack, but I also didn't want to waste time. Stopping and having a meal becomes difficult. This includes staying hydrated. Water bottles are a must! In the end you'll soon realize that GDC is an exhausting, but rewarding week-long experience.

Related: myGDC, and The GDC Survival Guide, Looking Forward to the Indie Games Festival

ATTN: Conference Goers - myGDC, and GDC Survival Guide!!!

The 2008 Game Developers Conference is just around the corner. With only a little over a week away before one of the industries major events takes place in San Francisco, you have to wonder if you're at all prepared for the excitement. That is if you're actually going.

And what better way to prepare for the event than to read up on how to approach the conference, especially if it's your first time.

No this isn't E3. It's better... of course, in a different kind of way. The focus of the GDC conference is education, and networking. It's all about communicating with industry peers, learning and sharing ideas, and experiences in game development. It's about getting your game seen if you're a developer, and widening your network of contacts if you're a student or professional, all the while being in a welcoming environment. Not to mention all the announcements, parties to attend, and games to play.

There are two things you MUST check out if you're going!

Survive this!

The GameCareerGuide has a fantastic article on surviving GDC called The GDC Survival Guide, a feature I wish I had written. Haha! James Portnow did a bang up job detailing what's important for the first time conference goer and the info is also great for those who have previously been to GDC. Don't be left without your business cards! Definitely give it a read.

Myspace for the game industry

Another great feature (as in website tools as opposed to written articles) is the myGDC networking feature, on the GDC website. It's like myspace for the game industry, and you can actually customize your profile (unlike a certain 1 to the Up). You can post your conference schedule, post on the forums, and connect with just about anyone who's going to GDC. But unlike other social-networking sites, myGDC is for game industry professionals, so don't expect any immature profiles, or antics. The profiles read more like resumes rather than myspace greetings. Also if you plan on sending random invites to your favorite game designers, expect a swift denial. Friends lists on myGDC are tighter, and are a reflection of people you've met, worked with in the past, or plan on meeting at the show.

With these tools, you're well on your way to becoming a conference fiend! Goodluck and see ya at the event.