March 23-27 in San Fran.
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the only place in the world where having A.D.D. is appreciated (and encouraged). The barrage of excitement is fantastic as you are constantly inundated with awesome games, tech, and the murmur of game talk. Its the kind of place you want to put a mall-kid-leash on the friend you came in with, since there is always something flashier, more colorful, innovative, or alluring to draw you away from the first flashy thing.
On March 23-27, the Moscone center in San Fran morphed into the gaming capital of the world. On the EXPO floor, the schizophrenic glitches between networking and play replicate the organized chaos of a pinball machine. Every game publisher, developer, video game scholar, and industry nerd could be found somewhere inside the delightful cacophony of games and light. Time to play some games!
The United States Army (TCM Gaming) had a couple guys in fatigues on the floor pitching their newest simulation wares. LUDUS played one of their training FPS games, but died a few times –we couldn’t figure out if the insurgents were are friends or foe (fail!). With our arms crossed over our badges reading “UCLA” the army dude elucidated their primary objective at the GDC. “Our charter,” reads the Army’s gaming pamphlet, “is to acquire commercial as well as government off-the-shelf products to cut costs and reduce development time.” Essentially, their goal is to find consumer games that can quickly convert into training tools for combat units. Gives a whole new feeling to “headshot” doesn’t it?
The OptiTrack/ARENA folks had a super nice showcase of their mocap gear. One full body and one face motion (shown in photos) –both under 5-kay. The break dancing full body guy really took his job seriously, and gave the other mocap cpny’s something to aspire to: better actors. The woman who was displaying the facial software was also extremely expressive. There were other companies showing off their mocaps, but they weren’t as exciting to watch. Technically speaking, we’re not sure what was better gear, but if judging solely on presentation: the ARENA guys (and girl) win, hands down.
Ian Dallas’ game, The Unfinished Swan (not shown), OWNS simple & elegant. Built upon a single core mechanic, the game needs little instruction in order to play (the guy put the controller in my hand and said “play”). Done and done. Dallas himself wasn’t around when we got to his booth, but we did find out a few things about him: he’s a second year MFA student in Tracy Fullerton’s lab at USC, and he made a rad game. With games like Flow and the Unfinished Swan emerging out of the EA/USC/Fullerton lab, it seems to be a pattern that students like Dallas and others are rocking really unique indy games.
LUDUS can’t wait to get back to L.A. to connect with these cross-town masterminds. Potential speakers? Anyone?
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