Austin GDC Quick Picks

Off to Austin GDC this week, so I'm putting blogging on hold until I get back. For those of you coming to Austin, here are a few things that caught my interest.

Firstly, I could use some support in my own speaking session: What Do I Do Now? Narrative Devices for Guiding Players in Ballroom B, 11 am to 12 noon Friday 7th. Frustratingly, they've set me opposite the tail end of Richard Dansky & Daniel Erickson's Game Writing Workshop which runs from 9.30 am to 12 noon on that Friday. Oh, and also directly opposite Nicole Lazzaro's The Four Most Important Emotions of Game Design. Oh well...

Other things that stand out for me include Michael Gibson's Negotiating Mind Games, Thursday 6th 9.30 am to 10.30 am, which is about writing games of negotiation, and Austin Grossman's Literate Gaming: How We Can and Must Do Better at Writing for Games, Friday 7th 1.30 pm to 2.30 pm. I'm interested to see the tack taken here: there are specific problems that prevent the games industry producing "literate games", and I'm curious to see whether Mr. Grossman has suggestions for how we might circumvent these barriers.

And Only a Game regular Darius Kazemi has no less than two sessions at Austin — Gameplay Metrics for a Better Tomorrow on Thursday at 1:30pm — 2:30pm, and Networking 101 on Friday at 3:00pm — 4:00pm.

To anyone I know who's going to Austin this year, I look forward to seeing you there!

Comments

[Craig Huber]

Attended your presentation at AGDC... an excellent job, thank you very much.

Will you be posting the slides? I'd like to direct my blog readers (only a few stalwarts, but all fairly rabidly interested in games and design) to your presentation, I think there is significant value there.

[Chris]

Craig: thanks for the kind words! I believe CMP will be publishing proceedings to the internet at some point soon - if they tell me where they can be found, I'll provide a link.

Best wishes!