Blade Edge

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So last night didn’t go exactly as planned – many of the GG guys realized shortly after the conference that they were beat and didn’t really make it back to the office. Davey and I just played some Soul Calibur with Brian Richardson before they went out to grab some dinner. So I just chilled on the couch till John Kabus from Synapse Gaming showed up to do dinner with Josh Williams. Synapse is behind the Torque Lighting Kit and we both chatted for about an hour while Josh was talking in his office to Andy Yang about the new Office Telephone systems they were planning on installing next week. After Josh and Andy were done, I hitched a ride with Josh and he dropped me off at Mark Frohnmayer’s house just as Mark was getting home for his little “post IGC cool down” party. Mark was one of GG’s founders and a great guy to talk to. Only three other developers showed up so it was just a small little gathering. Mark showed us some of his more entertaining blog entries – he’s a pretty funny guy in that laid-back 60’s-style kind of way, you can just imagine him saying stuff like “totally” and ” right on, dude”. And he actually does sometimes . So the “party” died down rather quickly and while I waited for my friend to come pick me up I showed Mark and his friend Eric (who wasn’t a developer) Galaxy Conquest. In fact I did my first usability test ever (which is pretty amazing seeing as the game is like 6 years old (in other words I’m retarded)) and had them sit down and just try to understand how to play the game. They couldn’t (big surprise). While it wasn’t a revelation to me it was disappointing nevertheless, but I took some time later that night to draw up some ideas of how to get people playing the game without having too much stuff pop up in front of their faces and after reading the statement “you must take over your opponent”.

Right now tho I’m sitting here playing around with TorqueX in the boot camp for today. They have a TGB bootcamp tomorrow but my flight is tonight, which is unfortunate but that’s okay. I’m getting to mess about with TorqueX components which is what will be the mainstay of Torque2 and will also give me an idea of how best to leverage Behaviors in TGB. So it’s not like I’m not learning anything. Steve Zepp is running the session and answering all our questions.

After this is over I’m going to help the GG guys pack up and hitch a ride (or walk a few blocks) over to the GG offices and see if Davey’s ready to cash in his rain-check on some Guitar Hero jamming – tho I also have to talk to him about some stuff for Game Institute. Also just want to say goodbye in person to anyone who’s hanging around the offices. I’m getting picked up around 7pm for the trip to the airport and my flight home.

It’s been fun, glad I was able to make it out this year, can’t wait to come back.