Daily Archive

I’m not at GDC. This upsets me greatly because well… I wish I was at GDC. I think it would be sweet to throw down in some Risk or Carcasonne with the big names in the industry at breakfast. Plus, I mean, they supply the coffee. You can’t beat that.

So instead of making GDC posts this week, I have decided to create a whole new category of post entitled, “There in Spirit.” In these posts I will be sharing my thoughts on what is APPARENTLY happening at Expos like GDC, E3, E for All, etc. Why? *Shrug*

First of all, let me just say that I am EXTREMELY excited about the formation of the PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) and have sent them an e-mail asking how I can get involved. Yay PC’s!

Next up, Audiosurf. I bought this game a few days ago and now I hear from the GDC news that it is up for some awards. It BETTER win them! Branching from that, though, is the announcement that Harmonix (Yay Boston!) is working on a game with procedurally generated content which begs a couple questions: A. Are they copying Audiosurf? or B. Did they hire the Audiosurf developers? Hopefully B. These guys KNOW how it’s done. Audiosurf is high quality awesome for only $10.

Now for some other games. American McGee’s Grimm. I give it a strong thumb up. Thumb though. Not thumbs. I shall elaborate. I love the style, I love the concept, I love episodic gameplay. I don’t like how cheesy the trailer was (minor gripe when it comes to the game itself) and I’m not sure how I feel about it being GameTap exclusive. Steam has boatloads of potential now that Valve (bless’em) is allowing anyone to put their game up on Steam. It’s like it’s begging for Grimm. Now don’t get me wrong, GameTap is cool. I just don’t see how what with the internet being as big as it is how anything can be exclusive to one medium of digital distribution. But that’s just me. Truthfully, I was really hoping to see something on American McGee’s Oz. Kind of a letdown.

I’m passing out so I’m just going to say a couple more things. Yes, I wish I was at GDC, but mostly just to see Brenda in the Game Design Challenge. Hopefully a video will be posted on YouTube or Gametrailers after it happens. If not we’ll have to make her tell us about her design when she gets back to teaching next week.

Well I think that will do. Also Darius posted a link with a very interesting Power Point presentation on MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics). Normally I don’t “read” PowerPoints in my free time, but the whole MDA thing has been kicking me in the teeth since Brenda’s test. It was good to get a few questions I had cleared up. So much thanks to Darius Kazemi for posting that link.

Sleep time for mes. Expect another “There in Spirit” very soon.