So, GDC. The Game Developer Conference, held annually in San Francisco. It is the single largest gathering of video game developers in the world. If you have played a video game in the past year then whoever made that game is undoubtedly represented here in some way. San Francisco is as international as American cities can get. More accessible than New York City in countless ways, friendlier, cleaner, I can confidently assign it this honor. There are teams here from all over the world. Sweden is strongly represented, as is Canada. But there are teams here from Croatia, Portugal, and probably just about any other country that has internet access. The beating heart of GDC is the W hotel. Its fancy-schmancy, theyve got a nice lounge in the lobby, and without any exaggeration I can tell you that this lounge is completely packed at all hours of the day. With the number of time-shifted europeans this bar never closes. The lounge of the W is where the deals are all struck.Hell, its where I struck my deal for StarDrive. You come here, you dont even need to order a drink. Just a find a spot to open up your laptop and pitch whatever it is you have. Theres always a willing ear to listen. Its better with a drink. But this year marks my third GDC. This year I come not as a hopeful candidate to join the ranks of those who have proven themselves, but as a member. It feels different. The press treats you differently, the other devs nod politely when you introduce yourself and mention your game, and you return the nod. We all know what it took to make it through the gauntlet, and were all here sort of running through it again, or lining up for our attack run at least. My team this year, on the production side, remains as lonely as ever. Its me here alone, but Im joined in spirit by the solid work of the many talented artists who have contributed to StarDrive and StarDrive 2. Then weve got the Dutchmen, Erik and Ray. Erik is the serious-minded CEO of Iceberg who keeps the ship on course. An ex-military man perfectly suited to his task, but with a childs heart powering the machinery that loves to play games. Ray is the younger of our two Dutchmen, affable, with a quick smile and a warm, genuine greeting. The Iceberg trio is rounded out by Howard, from London. Howard is like the grizzled veteran of a hundred battles of video game production. If you have liked video games over the past three decades, then chances are Howard has had a hand in at least one of them. A great man to share a drink with and chew the fat. Weve also got the rest of the Iceberg portfolio on station this GDC. So theres StarDrive 2 which were out promoting, but also a number of other titles like Starpoint Gemini 2, a space RPG from Croatia. Mario and Daniel are two brothers who are just a delight to talk to. Mario sounds like a super educated Borat. Hes got a Masters in History and has many enlightening thoughts on the state of his country and eastern europe. His brother Daniel, we can discuss technical issues at length and its great to have someone that can speaka my language. There are two guys here with two indie games from Portugal, and there is also a big team here from Paris with Amplitude Games. Their shit is awesome and I really look up to their creative director, Romain. I had a great opportunity today to have lunch with Romain and a journalist from PC gamer who spent about an hour picking our brains about 4x games and indie development. I think we may see a story with that material, I hope so. It was a great talk. All in all, Im having a great time. Iceberg rented out two really nice suites at the W and I get to stay in one of them. So now its a little bit of jazz in a comfortable office nook to type this missive and close out the evening. I miss my wife and my boy. Love you all.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 07:10:56 +0000
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