GDC Diary Day 4

Due to time restraints and because the last two days of GDC were much the same, this is my last GDC diary entry. I had a fabulous time and want to remember every single detail. However days 5 and 6 were the days I was most hung over so I think it best to sweep my groggy recollections under the carpet. One thing that I do have to mention about my last day at GDC was Giant robot. This was a shop that sold everything I could ever want. It is also where we attended an amazing art exhibition about game art. The photos at the bottom of this post contain some of the snaps from that exhibition and other misc photos from San Francisco. (scroll down!)

Day 4 was both the first day at the booth and the day of the IGF awards. I got up bright and early, applied my war paint, dried my hair and was out of the door, fashioning my Cletus Clay t-shirt as I went.

Heading on to the Expo floor my jaw dropped. I've never attended an event like this before so really didn't know what to expect. The night before the whole massive room had been filled with bits of metal, chairs, timber and a whole lot of crumpled paper. Today a behemoth of stands had arisen from the chaos. There was a stand constructed completely out of wood, skimpy ladies wearing lycra floating around a very plastic looking ngage stand and some athletic people sprinkled in little lights, dancing about for the motion capture stands and that was just a small selection of what you could see.

The IGF section of the hall was right at the back so once I'd taken in all the stands around me I was able to sit and focus on our little nook. Armed with stickers and a banner Andy and I finished jazzing up the Cletus stand. Before I knew it the room filled with industry people, milling about like pigeons looking for a crumb.The Dyson guys were in the booth next to ours and had a bit of a problem with their monitor. Luckily one of the yellow t-shirt clad heroes that were our designated helpers for the event managed to score them a new one just before the crowds got silly. And boy did the crowds get silly. Toilet breaks were a near impossibility for parts of the day because of the people wading that would entail. We got some great feedback about Cletus and how the game actually plays. One guy played through the one level we had playable 3 times in a row on the last day of GDC! We think that is because he enjoyed it and not that he didn't realise that it was the same level over and over again. He didn't speak much english so we can't know for sure.

After a mad dash to the nearest pharmacy for some deoderant (I'll be damned if I smell bad at the first awards ceremony I've ever attended) and a quick change in the little girls room and it was time to head for the red carpet and into the IGF awards ceremony. Free booze and mini hamburgers awaited us buffet style. We were sat at table 13 (unlucky for some) with the Digital Eel team who were up for an audio award. Everyone was looking very daper. We got some friendly advice to stock up on the free beer as they whip it away once the ceremony starts. Andy and I waddled back to our seats with multiple brewski's in tow moments later.

We sat down just in time, the lights dimmed and everyone was hushed as the award ceremony began. Alas we did not win the award we were nominated for. However the game that did win the art award, Machinairium, deserved the title.

After a couple of amazing videos by Mega64 that had us peeing ourselves a little with laughter it was time to get smashed. We hadn't won anything, but that was okay. I tugged the sleeves of the Dyson guys and mentioned that booze was what was needed. They agreed and we set out and on to the streets of San Francisco to find our first watering hole.

A few pubs later and we were all sufficiently sozzled. Brain, the musician from Dyson, and I had a fantastic conversation about comic books and everybody bonded over expensive American booze. I hadn't realised, but in America they don't use shot measures like here in the UK. The guy at the guy just pours straight from the bottle of alcohol delights into your glass. Very willy nilly.

It was long past my bed time by the time we got back to the apartment and a couple of litres of water later and a paracetemol and I was dead to the world.