Dec 18, 2014

mom pop game shop

mom & pop game shop

Dec 18, 2014

Year-end Roundup 7: PlayStation Experience

After a week or two of “respite” (involving a semi-disastrous but romantic trip to Michigan in the middle of a so-called “arctic bomb-front” aka a hurricane of snow) we were off to the final event of the season, Sony’s debut fan-event, the PlayStation Experience, in Las Vegas, a mere two weeks ago (almost caught up!!) Our mission: to set up a cozy booth for Night in the Woods (available for pre-order now!), and then kind of sit around and talk to nice people for a few days. MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED. It was awesome to catch up with folks we hadn’t seen in a while (and some we’d seen quite recently but already missed anyways), and thank Nathan Vella in person for all the help and advice he provided when we found out that we would have a booth and not just a kiosk-station or whatever. Trying to do this without him taking time out of his crazy schedule would have been… difficult. Surprise highlight of the show though was this impromptu Shigeto set:

Oh also that thing with the ducks and this and that other thing. But yea - super fun show, massive thanks to Nick Suttner and Brian and everyone else at Sony who helped organize this thing and for including us! OK: so, even though that was our last trip, I’ve got a few more posts planned for this end-of-year roundup thing, including a quick breakdown of exactly what we did to put our booth together and how much it cost and stuff - that one is coming up soon! I’ll also do a roundup on progress with our partner projects and of course on our internal work as well. Getting close :)

Dec 18, 2014

Year-end Roundup 6: Zoo Machines!

Immediately after GDC Next we flew from Los Angeles to Paris (bypassing Austin entirely, for better or worse) to make sure we made it to Zoo Machines in time. We met up with Kaho Abe at CDG and boarded the TGV (aka amazing bullet train) up to Lille, near the border of Belgium.

Zoo Machines was utterly fantastic, and reminded me of a lot of Bivuoac Urbain. The best part was the image above was not even lying a little bit - this was a hardware jam as much as it was a software jam. Jammers built very experimental games - no shooters here, no platformers. There was a game where the game state was sent to the player via webcam and board game doppelganger, there was a big head full of buttons you put your hands into to control an Octodad-like physics disaster, and the talk of the jam was a kind of moderated intimidate truth-or-dare like game about strangers and a curtain. It was all very strange and very wonderful. It was great to finally spend some time with Joon (of 100-player Canabalt fame), and I also met Paul Vauvrey (Kingdoms), who provided a ton of help and insight with that prototype I started out in LA. Phew - ok - we’re getting close! Just one more trip to go…

Dec 15, 2014

Year-end Roundup 5: The Last GDC Next

This was my first GDC Next (neé GDC Online (neé GDC Austin)) and by some twist of fate also the last GDC Next ever (my bad??). This was also in some weird ways a kind of layover on the way to France (more on that tomorrow) but it was a treat to share a panel with my friends Rami and Zach and try to dig down into the different ways we approach marketing for indie games. Getting to spend an afternoon with Greg Rice and fellow Michigander Zac Gorman didn’t hurt nothin’ either!

A panel on grassroots marketing for indies at the last-ever GDC Next. Adam Robezzoli from LA GameSpace (we made Alphabet with Keita Takahashi for them!) was kind enough to host me while I was there, and I got a lot of work on my new prototype (more on that tomorrow too) done in his living room. We wrapped things up with some late night Spelunky with Beau:

Spunky Wrecking Crew with @ADAMATOMIC @AttractModeAdam cc @mossmouth

— Beau Blyth (@Teknopants)

November 5, 2014

I was reminded that night of just how generous a game Spelunky is, how rich and full of discovery despite the retro trappings. As a kind of … gift, of sorts, from a game maker to their audience, I find it so inspiring!

Dec 15, 2014

Year-end Roundup 4: Tecnopolis (Argentina)

The 5am aftermath of asado at an indie studio in Buenos Aires. Midway through October we traveled to South America for the first time, and went all the way to el fin del mundo, Buenos Aires Argentina, to participate in the game lectures segment of Tecnópolis, a kind of year-long indoor/outdoor science fair and hands-on museum a few minutes outside the downtown area. In addition to an ongoing gallery of beautiful indie games they also invite guests to speak to an audience of local developers about relevant topics. This trip was a blast. In addition to being outrageously kind and thoughtful hosts, the food and architecture were such a treat. It did not take long for us to discover alfajores, and the aforementioned asado almost defies vocabulary. And the whole time we were surrounded by beautiful courtyards, vine-covered terraces, wide streets, and meandering parks. As a big Christopher Alexander fan, it finally sank in how influential South American architecture was on his ideas. Every place we went felt like home. We also had the honor of spending quality time with a bunch of talented game makers from the area. I’ve known Daniel Benmergui for years, and some of the earliest Flixel contributors were from Argentina, but it was great to meet and talk with so many other smart artists and clever designers. It was pretty inspiring all around. I got the sense that Buenos Aires was kind of the indie capital of South America in many ways. I think we are going to see a lot more work from that region soon! We capped off the trip with a guided tour of La Boca, courtesy Agustín Fernández from Chimango / Pewma, and it was just the best. Thanks again to everyone and I hope that our talk was even remotely as interesting for you as this trip was for me!

Dec 12, 2014

Year-end Roundup 3: Indiecade

A bunch of super smart people (triple-D, Liz, and Loren) playing weird new games. Photo credit LA Times (i think). This was only my second IndieCade somehow, but it was a busy one. If you’re not familiar with IndieCade, it’s the closest thing we have in the states to GameCity, my favorite of all festivals. And IndieCade has grown into its own marvelous thing over the years. It is easily the most progressive and inclusive mainstream festival I’ve attended, and that deeply good vibe meant a lot this year especially. But it was busy! We did a live-coding Flixel demo, in which I built a Bit Pilot clone called (groan) Blit Pilot in Sublime in about 45 minutes (source code here). Then I represented Juegos Rancheros on a panel about communities and local game meetups. After that I got to sit in on a discussion of sustainability for small commercial studios. I really appreciated the opportunity to participate in these sessions and I hope they were helpful or useful to the audience! The sustainability panel especially had some great moments I think, and there should be a video of that available soon. Also I finally met DoseOne (and Loren Bednar and many other wonderful folks) in person, despite having made an entire game together last Christmas. So that was nice!