Dave Gilbert’s gamedev blog

A few days ago I presented The Shivah at a Jewish film festival in Madison, Wisconsin. Here is a report. Sort of.

I was standing outside Port Authority on the corner of 8th and 42nd street. It was 6:30pm Sunday evening. The night was cool but pleasant. To my right, the bright neon lights of central Times Square beamed at me. To my left, countless buses approached from the West Side Highway. Not one of the buses was the one I wanted.

I was heading to La Guardia Airport, and I was getting impatient. It seems to be the one airport in the New York area that doesn’t want you to reach it easily. I saw dozens of Newark Airport buses approach me, and a subway station on the corner provided easy access to JFK airport.

Then my cell phone rang. It was Northwest Airlines, telling me that my flight had been canceled. The next flight? 6am the following morning. The bonus? I’d have to make a connection in Chicago. Well, great. At least I hadn’t been en route to the airport already. Thanks heaven for small miracles. Still, I’d have to wake up at 3am in order to make a 6am flight. Not a happy prospect, but what could I do?

So, I set my alarm for 3am and went to the airport like a good little drone, only to have that flight be delayed even further and make me miss my connection in Chicago. What was originally supposed to be a quick two hour jaunt to Madison was transformed into an 8 hour wrestling match with Northwest Airlines, whom I will never fly with again.

Suffice to say, I made it. I had enough time to take a nap, shower, and then make my presentation at 7pm. I then went back to my hotel, went to bed, and woke up the following morning to go back to the airport. All-in-all, I spent more time in transit than I did in Wisconsin!

All right. I know. Enough bitching and moaning, Dave. What about the presentation?

It went quite well, all things considered. Matt, the festival coordinator, did everything in his power to make me welcome and comfortable – even going so far as to getting me a giant sub of a sandwich when I told him I hadn’t eaten. They hooked my laptop up to the A/V system, and Rabbi Stone was beamed up onto the huge screen behind me. Definitely the largest that pixellated Rabbi has ever been.

I didn’t design The Shivah with a live audience in mind, and I was worried how an audience would react to something like this. I figured I’d just play through the game, and when the game presented me with an important dialog tree I’d ask the audience (by show of hands) which one to choose.

Another concern I had about presenting the game was a chunk of the story was told through text narration, meaning it was just words on the screen. I figured just waiting for everyone to finish reading would get very boring, so I decided to read them out loud myself. Matt dutifully provided me with a massive bottle of spring water.

The audience itself wasn’t a large one, but it was a very enthusiastic one. It was also a very bloodthirsty one, as the most violent and foolhardy actions in the game ended up being the unanimous choices.

It took me about 90 minutes to get through the game, skipping all the extraneous dialog options and extra bits that aren’t important to the story. This left about 20 minutes for some Q & A, and we ended at 9:50 sharp. Bang on time.

Verdict? Great fun. Travel issues aside, it was a very unique experience and I’d do it again!

So over the years I’ve shared my experiences and photos of my trips around the world. From the hagwons of South Korea to the houtangs of China to the green hills of England and the steep roads of San Francisco, I’ve dutifully reported on all of them.

A week after my return from GDC, I am packing for yet another trip. This time it’s to the most exotic place I’ve ever been.

Wisconsin!

I’ve been asked to present The Shivah at the Wisconsin Film Festival. I can’t recall a video game being presented at a film festival before, so perhaps this will be the beginning of a new trend.

So. Wisconsin. Don’t they make cheese there, or something? Either way, I’ll be sure to tell you how it goes.

Hey, comments are working again! What are you waiting for?

So, yes. I’m back from GDC. I wasn’t able to hop online every night and give you the play-by-play like I did last year, but to be honest there wasn’t much to say. As I said, it was much more laid back this year, at least in terms of partying and getting awards and meeting famous people. Still, much was done. Here are the highlights, in bullet-point format:

Monday
- Meeting with Big Fish
- Marketing meeting with Playfirst
- Telltale party at The Cellar, where I met Steve Purcell and Ron Gilbert again
- Having cake with the ladies of Writers Cabal, to celebrate their one-year anniversary.

Tuesday
- Mostly boring day, at least in terms of GDC stuff. I only had the Wed-Fri pass and there were no meetings today. It was going to be a tourist day, but it was pouring rain.
- Went to the Cartoon Art Museum
- Had lots of coffee and watched the rain
- Had thai food with Edmundo Ruiz and Dierdra Kiai
- Went to the IGDA party, which was mega crowded but fun.

Wednesday
- Free bagels at the conference center! This is why I spend $800 on a pass and flew all the way out here.
- Wandered around the career expo floor. Not that Janet or I needed a job, but it was interesting to see all the booths and collect all the free swag.
- Went to a session called “God of War: Deconstructing an Epic.” Thought it would be about creating epic stories for games, but it was just a straight post-portem. Mostly technical stuff, which didn’t interest me.
- On camera interview with Digital Trends. This had been stressing me, since I had never been interviewed on camera before. Turned out to be pretty easy.
- Interview with Adventure Gamers
- Interview with Gamezebo
- Funny how three interviews in a row totally wiped me out. Back to the hotel to nap until Janet was done going to sessions.
- Playfirst party at night. It was “sleep” themed, to go with their recent game “Dream Chronicles 2″. Beds and mattresses everywhere.
- Emergent technologies party. No idea who those people were, but they threw a good party

Thursday
- Wandered around the IGF expo room. Turned out that one of the IGF finalists was made with AGS.
- Had a nice long kick-off meeting with Playfirst. They brought in Thai food and we sat around a big boardroom table and discussed my game. It was a totally new experience for me, and I’m sure I had a deer-caught-in-headlights expression most of the time. The meeting went longer than expected, and so I had to race back to the conference center for…
- interview with an Indie Gamer podcast. Basically sat down and answered questions. Should be online in a few weeks
- Couldn’t get into the Eve Online/White Wolf party (which boasted Dominatrixes and whips and SnM rooms amongst all sorts of craziness) so we opted for a drink with the Arkadium folks instead. Edmundo sooned joined us, having also been unable to get into the party.

Friday
- Lots of sessions. Ernest Adams spoke about God Games. He’s always a great and interesting speaker, but this time I felt he was less so. He mostly discussed a God Game that he once tried to make but got cancelled, which wasn’t very interesting.
- Game Designers rant panel. There wasn’t much ranting. Each panelist stood up and began their spiel with “Everything is great, really!” One guy didn’t even say anything, he just threw dozens of balloons at the audience and we spent 5 minutes bouncing them around.
- Lunch with Deirdra Kiai. She always has kooky ideas for adventure games, and I insisted that she stay indie and don’t “go commercial like me,” since her ideas are so cool and out there. Hopefully there will be a market for funky games like the ones in her head.
- The line for the Portal post mortem was out the door and down the hall, so Janet and I opted for a panel discussion about startup game companies, where newbie CEOs talked about their experiences. I’m not sure if anything they said applied to me, but maybe one day it will.

Saturday
- Rain. Lots of rain. Janet and I walked to Coit Tower. Never said we were smart.
- Lots of wandering around and sitting in cafes.

So, yeah. That was pretty much it as far as GDC was concerned this year. Despite it’s laid-backness, it was just as inspiring and invigorating as it was last year. I’m definitely returning again!

For those interested, I have also created a little PHOTO JOURNAL OF THE TRIP.

Till next entry,

Once again I’m making a pilgrimage to the Game Developers Conference here in San Francisco. Last year I was nominated for a Choice award and spoke at the serious game summit and basically was treated like a rock star for a week. This year plans to be more subdued. I don’t think I’ll be blogging about it every day like I did last time, but I’ll do the best I can. I dragged my gamedev programmer girlfriend Janet along this year. What’s nice is that even when I’m doing boring business stuff, she can still enjoy the conference all its nerdities.

The big news of the week thus far is… I AM GETTING PUBLISHED! It’s something I’ve had to keep silent about for months now, and it’s nice to finally be let off the leash. You can read the press release on the internets if you wish, or read about it in more detail on the Wadjet Eye Games website.

I went to the Telltale Games party last night. It was a zombie-themed party to promote their latest Sam and Max game (which is about zombies, natch). I spoke to a guy in an awesome fedora, who turned out to be Steve Purcell, the creator of the original Sam and Max comic.

My camera’s battery was stupidly dead, so I have no pics this time around. I’ll do better next time! Till later,

-Dave

So the other day I gave a presentation to a bunch of game design students at NYU. I still find it funny that you can actually major in game design these days. I was born ten years too early.

Anyway, the topic was indie gaming, and in my case it was specifically about being an indie game developer. I basically just told them my life story over the last few years, condensed into one hour. Easiest speech I ever gave.

Comments seem to be not working anymore. Usually comments are sent to me for approval (unless you’ve commented before), but that doesn’t seem to be happening anymore.

Oh well. If you have something to say feel free to email me (dave at davelgil dot com). It’s been cold outside and I’m stuck working at home instead of the coffee shops. My dog Cooper is good company but he’s a lousy conversationalist.

So it’s well known by now that I do most of my work in Starbucks. It’s a lifestyle that suits me reasonably well. Over the last two years, I have become an expert on every Starbucks within a 5 block radius of my apartment; especially in regards to the tables near convenient electrical outlets.

Server issues nonwithstanding, there’s a reason why this blog doesn’t update as often. This is mostly a developer blog now, and there’s only so much mileage I can get out of “I sat in Starbucks all day and worked”.

However, I think I can get plenty of mileage of the people I sometimes meet INSIDE Starbucks.

Case in point, the other day. The table in front of the electrical outlet was occupied, but the table next to it was free. There’s a certain ritual of decorum that goes with this situation. I unpacked my laptop, unrolled the cable, then waved to my neighbor and uttered a sheepish “excuse me” while I maneuvered behind his chair in order to plug the darn thing in. Mission accomplished.

Over the course of the next several hours, I had a bunch of other neighbors sit at that table. I suppose I could have saved myself a lot of trouble and just moved my junk over when the table was free, but it was a busy day and I couldn’t be bothered.

Eventually, the time came to leave. The chair in front of the outlet was again occupied. I waved to my new neighbor and asked “Hi, could you do me a favor and unplug the cord behind your chair?” He shrugged his assent and reached behind his chair.

Suddenly I heard a “snap!” and he jerked his hand back as if burned. My harmless little electrical cord decided at that moment to rebel, and delivered a static shock of nasty proportions. He looked surprised for a moment, and my guilty conscience reared. “Omigod, you okay?” I exclaimed as my neighbor regained his composure.

“Sure I’m fine,” he uttered. Then he stood up and walked out.

Now, people stand up and walk out of Starbucks all the time. There’s nothing unusual about that. However, he had a jacket and laptop and a cell phone on the table. He left it all there.

I didn’t process this yet. I figured he was just going to the bathroom or something. I unplugged my cord (which didn’t shock me), and packed up my stuff. It eventually dawned on me that he didn’t walk toward the bathroom. He walked toward the front door. I looked out the window and saw the guy there, just standing outside the door. I thought he might be smoking a cigarette, but nope. He was just waiting.

My overactive imagination started rearing, and frantic thoughts started to hammer against my brain. Just what was this guy doing? Was he lying in wait, ready to pounce on me as I walked out? Was he pissed at me for indirectly giving him an electric shock? And, most importantly, was there a back door to this place?

There was no back door, but I figured it was a good time for a bathroom visit. My logic ran thusly, if the guy was still waiting outside when I got out of the bathroom, THEN was the time to really wonder. Otherwise, I’d just walk out and forget about it.

When I got out of the bathroom, lugging my laptop, I saw my new nemesis walking across the room to his table. He noticed me, and he stopped. He looked like he was about to turn back toward the door, but then reconsidered and went to his table.

A close call? Perhaps. Overactive imagination? Most certainly. Lesson learned? I’ll unplug my own damn cables from now on.

I never thought that having too many customers would be a problem. Truth is, it’s NOT. But, the timing could have been better.

Let me back up a bit. Over the last couple of months, both Legacy and Unbound have found their way onto various casual game portals. It was a move that was highly-advised by other indy game developers, and a move I finally made after many months of dealing with some nerdy technical security issues.

My experiences thus far with the Casual Game market have been fascinating, but I’ll leave that for another entry. The end result was a that whole new market opened up for my games, and sent several thousands of new people to my website to see what all the fuss was about.

The Wadjet Eye website had been perfectly able to handle the traffic it had been getting, but suddenly it got slammed. I don’t understand the technical details, but the traffic was so heavy that the server refused to upload or download any large files. In other words, every customer who purchased a game found themselves with an interrupted download.

I, however, remained blissfully unaware of all this. I was on vacation at the time, for two weeks. While all my new customers were getting corrupted downloads and getting pissed, I was traipsing around the UK with my girlfriend, visiting historic Bath and York and walking through misty moors and falling into the mud (true story). Suffice to say, when I arrived home to check my email I was in for a surprise.

(As an aside, a special thanks must go to Klaus Schlichter, my beleaguered webmaster who quickly set up a mirror to host the game files, and who dealt with a chunk of the emails from confused customers).

I dreaded dealing with this problem, but deal with it I must. I sat down and went through the many emails I had received from customers, apologizing profusely to each and redirecting them to a mirror. I was convinced that this was going to be a huge setback for me, that my reputation was now shot and I was going to have to work doubly-hard to get it back.

However, I was in for another surprise. These customers, who had every reason to be pissed off and angry with me, were extremely nice and understanding about the whole thing. I’d say 90% of them replied with a virtual laugh and a “these things happen” message.

Lesson learned? I’m not sure. I guess that things are bound to go wrong, eventually. When they do, don’t make excuses. Just apologize and try to make up for it. You’ll find that people are more understanding than you think.

Yep! I’m back online. Welcome back. Be careful not to break anything.

Will write more soon.

The Blackwell Legacy has been called many things, but never stuck up its own arse before.

It’s an image I have trouble picturing, and yet one that I can’t stop thinking about.

I find discussions like this fascinating. Why are most of my customers so reasonable and nice? Come on, guys. Get your hate on. For me.

It’s come to my attention that I suck at first person shooter games. I’m not only bad at them, but I physically can’t play them.

An IGDA buddy of mine dropped by my place last weekend with his Xbox 360 and a few games. One of them was the well-known Halo 3. I’ve heard of the Halo series, but I’ve never played any of them and I was curious to see what the fuss was about. It was definitely gorgeous to look at, and blowing up colorful aliens bent on killing you certainly never gets old.

However, I couldn’t last 45 minutes before feeling queasy. The constantly shifting first-person POV caused my wussy stomach to flip and flop and threaten to disgorge my lunch. After awhile of this I handed the controller to my friend and let him take over, while I tried to prevent the world from spining.

I can play a game like Grand Theft Auto or Shadow of the Collossus and I’m fine. Strange, when you consider that the camera shifts and tilts just as much. However, in those games the camera is always focused on the character I’m playing, so my eyes have something to hang onto. In first-person shooters, there’s nothing. The screen shifts and spins and my stomach churns in protest.

Am I just getting older? Perhaps, but this has always been a problem for me. I was a young and spritely 22 year old when The Blair Witch Project came out, and the shifting and shakey camera work had me convinced I was going to throw up. Maybe it’s just part of my genes or something.

This could be why I like adventure games. Sweet static backgrounds! No shifting POV! My stomach likes that very much indeed.