The timeframe from the Sunday evening prior to GDC Online’s summits beginning and the Friday morning journey back home was nothing short of a whirlwind of fun, facts and a flurry of things happening all at once. I met a large number of interesting and fun people during another fantastic journey to Texas. The amount of creativity that exploded from within the walls of the Austin Convention Center and the different restaurants around town was as palpable as the rain and the heat. Despite the weather wackiness, few folks seemed too perturbed by it, especially in the busy Expo Hall.

The Expo Hall

Packs of gamers and game designers passed through the pathways among the grid of booths throughout the Expo Hall. Booths ranged from the extravagant lounge and hangout spot settings of Google and Riot Games to the more traditional style as seen over at more staffing-focused companies’ booths. Conversation swirled around me like a river of sound while I checked out each booth and took a tour of a room filled with creators of fun. TV screens were spread throughout the Expo Hall each with their own cool video or promo.

One screen at the Riot Games booth showed sped up Photoshop work of art for League of Legends, another displayed promo videos for social games ranging from real-time strategy, sci-fi to fantasy to more casual puzzlers. Most of the screens were more to display works in progress or what was out now, less so in the realm of playable demos, but that didn’t mean things didn’t look any less awesome. I even saw folks over at the Vigil Games booth taking photos holding up a replica of the massive sword used by War in the first Darksiders title. Let me tell you, that thing was gigantic and sweet.

Along with the giant swords and fantastic recorded art skills, there were a variety of students and professionals looking to meet up with one another, network, chat, converse, etc. There was definitely a lot of business card swapping, and not just in the expo hall, though it certainly happened. If you’re someone who’s looking to get to know some game industry folks and get your name out there, then I’d suggest swinging on by GDC Online and introducing yourself.

Although, there were also demonstrations such as the online game service On Live in which they showed off being able to distribute the service across multiple platforms pretty much right next door to the guys who make World of Tanks. All the while, down the way, a costumed Mario and Peach talked about the next greatest leap in server technology. Who says plumbers and princesses don’t know anything about electronics?

Granted, there were also giveaways, meet and greets, and a multitude of topics discussed regarding design, games, fun and the next big project different studios were working on, but mostly the Expo Hall was buzzing with a rush of excitement and fun that can only be crafted from those that love games. It helped, perhaps, that game creators were there to stoke that flame of excitement as well. I even snagged a poster of Death, the next character in the Darksiders series, signed by the guy who thought it all up himself, Joe Madureira. A pretty amazing Expo Hall to be sure.

The Game Narrative Summit

The latest and greatest in technology, toys and games wasn’t the only thing that piqued my interest at this giant conference in the middle of heat-laden Austin. There were a slew of summits happening all at the same time from programming to business to game writing to game design to everything in between. Needless to say, it was difficult to choose what and where to go to, despite having a handy little book that detailed each summit and session.

Being focused more so on narrative design, along with different folks in that area of the industry, I decided to go with the game narrative summit, which included a funny panel from writers at Valve, a talk from Atari co-founder and Chuck E. Cheese creator Nolan Bushnell, and a great talk from Cory Herndon from Carbine Studios about shortening that quest text that you usually skip over if it’s too long in an MMO (c’mon admit it, it happens to the best of us), and tons of topics along the way.

The talk Nolan Bushnell gave kicked off the Game Narrative Summit and touched on his predictions as far as where the industry and its writing is headed, but he also went into detail on his career, where he’s been, what it takes, and gave a pep talk of sorts.

You could feel the creative drive of Mr. Bushnell as he talked about his process in creating Atari, Chuck E. Cheese, etc. along with pushing for folks to take their ideas and look toward the technology of their industry to create better games. Overall, I came out of the room energized about games and the entertainment that’d be brought with them. This attitude seemed to purvey throughout the conference, and it was great being around such positive folks.

Night Life with Game Devs

Despite the Austin Convention Center being the main location for most of the conference, the true destination of the night was the bar The Ginger Man. This bar had has a huge wall of different brews to choose from in all manner of types, colors and tastes (needless to say, there were a lot to choose from). The Ginger Man was an awesome hangout spot to chat up throughout the night about games, the industry, the latest Dr. Who episode, and a bunch of things that gamers really get into and understand. It was amazingly easy to sit down with these developers, some coming from as far as the UK or further, and have a beer to talk shop without the massive crowds of the convention center.

The atmosphere of The Ginger Man was fantastic and the myriad of different folks that were spread out throughout the industry had all manner of stories and anecdotes that made for great fun. I highly recommend heading here if you’re due to be at GDC Online next year, it was great!

However, chatting and drinking wasn’t the only occurrence at The Ginger Man during the conference. The International Game Developers Association’s Writers Special Interest Group (or IGDA Writers SIG for short), had a bit of an improvisational writing competition. The prizes were a few console games, glory and a bit of fame, and clear wonderful applause. Pens and paper were passed out to all of the 50 or so competitors (including yours truly), and various prompts were given. Judges slowly whittled away at the numbers until two writers were left standing, and Ed Fear (a writer and producer at Curve Studios) took home the coveted prize of the Wii game Raving Rabbids.

Challenges included a warm-up of describing a given game enemy (of the genre of your choice), naming and giving the combat finishing line of a character from Dynasty Warriors: My Little Pony Edition (my entry was the fantastic “Flutter-Shogun”), writing the Facebook status messages for Raccoon CityVille to recruit players (i.e., “Bob just ate half your brain! Trade him ammo?”), as well as various others. In all of these challenges, you not only had to write coherently, but you also needed to complete the challenge in five minutes or less. If you haven’t tried improvisational writing, it’s a blast, and seeing game writers from all over practice it and create whacky crazy characters was a lot of fun.

Wrapping It All Up

All in all, spirits were merry, drinks flowed, and laughter followed after a long day of discussion of games theory, game writing, gaming services, Dr. Who, Star Wars, games new and old, and a plethora of topics that were plenty geeky and entertaining. At some point I intend to venture to California for the “mother ship” of game developer conferences and attend GDC in San Francisco, but if you’re at all looking for good food and drink, a bit of gamer camaraderie, and plenty of great people to hang out with (think Cheers for gamers) then I’d highly suggest going to GDC Online. It’ll leave you winded but laughing and having fun all the same.