Current sketches

Recently I've been working on some planning sketches for a potential piece to sit in the living room. My lovely hubby to be has suggested I draw and ink two geisha girls to sit in the alcove over our television. I really want to focus on their outfits so I'm trying to learn more about fabric and drapery.

Luckily I have loads of bridal mags lying around so I have lots of reference material.

Books, glorious books!

I've added a good read widget to the side of the blog. It seems I just can't get enough of these widgets. Please feel free to recommend titles to me. I plan on blitzing the local library next week as I come to the end of the current title that I'm reading.

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.

GDC Diary Day 3

Luckily I'd remembered to put my half a pizza in the fridge before I slumped into my bed the previous night. Cold pizza for breakfast is brilliant when you are feeling a little worse for wear.

Alex and Anthony had been up most of the night trying to get our Cletus demo sorted and so I think everyone was pretty tired. We arrived at the Moscone centre to begin the last day of talks before we had to set up for our IGF stand, me cradling my bottle of water and desperate for coffee to ease my pounding head.



The indie game makers rant was something I was determined not to miss and it didn't fail to impress me, even through the fog in my brain. Kyle Gabler and Phil Fish also gave an excellent
presentation on the art of promoting indie games. This was very helpful to me and I made sure to make substantial notes. Sadly I brought the worlds most pathetic handbag to San Francisco and as soon as I placed my notes in my bag they fell out. This is where twitter came to my rescue which I'll explain in a bit.

We were setting up our IGF stand that evening so I was sent on a mission to locate some clay. Anthony and I were going to demonstrate how we created some of the assets in the game on our stand and required a particular kind of clay called Van Aken . I make the worst decisions when I'm hung over and deciding to wander off into San Francisco without a map, not really knowing my way round and with only sheer determination to find an art shop was one of those bad decisions. 2 hours later I was hot, bothered and about ready to give up. Luckily I must have been sending out 'I'm lost' vibes and a friendly guy walked me to within spitting distance of an art shop that had the correct kind of clay. I gave him a badge to say thank you but would have happily given him a lung or a kidney at the time.



Armed with my bag of clay I headed back to the venue to sort out expo passes for Anthony's girlfriend Michaela and a sneaky pass for Dan Paladin. Alex and I got the bare minimum set up for the next day and met Andy for some Tai food. This is where twitter saved me. Just before bed the Cletus Clay twitter account got a direct message from Scott Macmillan at Macguffin Games. He had located my note book and was willing to bring it to our stand the next day. Twitter is AWESOME.

Anthony and Alex were once again up until crazy o clock getting a playable demo for Cletus sorted. At one point the internet in our apartment went down and Alex and Anthony resorted to skulking the streets sapping wifi from whatever house had failed to password restrict their connection. They were the wifi ninja's.

GDC Diary Day 2

Emerging from our warm duvets and having been fuelled with caffeine it was time to embark to the Moscone centre to get our passes for the week and start attending some talks.

Due to a bit of a balls up with our weeks passes we missed the first event of the independent gaming seminar and had to squeeze into the back for the next talk.

Every talk was really informative. I'd never attended GDC before so really didn't know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. There are some fantastic write ups and most speakers have put their presentations online which I highly recommend checking out. Indie gamer has a list of online copies of the talks given.

Two of the most inspiring talks were made by Cactus, the man who churns out a game a minute and Petri Purho who created Crayon Physics Deluxe and runs Klooni Games. Cactus should get a prize for the most entertaining presentation, armed with Graphics and sound effects like I'd never seen before, he gave great insight into his thought process and the way he works. Petri on the other hand gave a very honest talk about his work on Crayon Physics and the problems he faced and how winning the previous years IGF grand prize had affected him. I left both talks very inspired and itching to create something exciting.

Feeling a hundred times more human than I had the day before I finally managed to chat coherently with some fellow indie developers during the coffee breaks. Erik Svedang, the creator of Blueberry Garden turned out to have the best hair I've seen adopted by a game developer and Jens Bergensten, the programmer behind Harvest Massive encounter, became a firm friend and helpfully introduced me to a lot of people I wasn't brave enough to approach at first.

Alex May and Rudolf Kremer's were also internet friends whom I'd never actually met. The interview I conducted with them a while back was all done over msn messenger. Just as I was about to leave I bumped into Rudolf and instantly it was agreed that alcohol should be consumed and the Cletus Clay and Dyson teams should meet properly. Alex and Anthony had returned to the apartment so that they could work on getting our Cletus Clay demo all set for Wednesday so I went to find Andy and a good pub.

Deciding that food would be a good idea before beer consumption Andy and I found a pizza place and indulged in some lovely cheesy pizza. The concept of getting something 'boxed to go' is still a bit alien to me but having only managed half my pizza I loved the fact they could wack it in a box and I could tuck it in my handbag for snacking on later.

Flagging down a cab we then made our way to a bar called Brick which was right next to where Brian, the musician from Dyson, was staying. A couple of beers later and we were all wittering away like we'd known each other for years. Eventually it was time to head home so Andy and I started wandering the streets looking for a handy taxi. Whilst hunting for our lift home we came across what seemed to be a pretty authentic all-American bar and decided one more beer wouldn't hurt.

This was a mistake.

Andy and I still aren't entirely sure what dirty dealings were going down in that bar but we have a feeling that the older lady playing pool wasn't slipping the young gentlemen next to her money for beer. This is when we decided to call it quits and make a hasty exit.

GDC Diary Day 1

Bleary eyed, I stepped out of San Francisco airport the day before the Game Developers Conference 09 kicked off and was given my first taste of America. After a mere moment I was quickly bundled into a yellow taxi and I felt like I'd entered into the land of television. My first sighting of a cop car on route to our apartment led to squeaks of glee followed by disappointment when it didn't explode and flip over aka every cop car chase I'd seen on my television screen.

Arriving at the apartment where the entire Cletus Clay team was staying (student style) I finally met Anthony. Severely jet lagged I dread to think what his initial impression of me was. Having been working with him for over a year, to groggily grunt a hello was not exactly the first impression I had intended. Still, it was a very exciting moment and it was fantastic to put a human face and character to an online friend and colleague.

With introductions out of the way it was time to ingest some beers and enjoy some grub at the indie developer gathering. That evening was a bit of a blur for me. I do remember staggering up to a lot of people whom I really admired and pulling strange facial expressions and garbling my sentences whilst trying to explain that it was really cool to be in their presence and I hoped to see them around during GDC. I accidentally ate half a chilli thinking it was a pepper and the fire in my mouth gave me the energy to start chatting with David Hellman who was sat next to me. I loved his artwork in Braid and have been following his blog for a little while now so was a little in awe of him but after a brief chat about the differences in the UK and the USA I realised that he was a great guy and that sometimes meeting your hero is a good thing .

Sadly I was too tired to brave the indie pub crawl that occurred after the meal and headed back with Alex for some much needed sleep. Anthony, Andy and Michaela however were dirty stop outs and crawled into the apartment sometime in the early hours. This led to a bit of a slow start to day 2.

Watchmen - The other white meat

Before my weekend of drunken frivolity Tom and I braved Cineworld and embarked on an adventure to watch Watchmen. Having only managed to read about 2 thirds of the original comic I wasn't really sure what to expect. I loved V for Vendetta as a comic and thoughaly enjoyed the movie adaptation so had hopes for a good show.

The experience was slightly marred from the beginning due to the toss pot behind getting a bit arsey when I shhusshhed him. Unable to locate the source of the shuussh he spent the first 10 minutes of the film angrily asking who shhusshed him. Unwilling to get either shouted at or beaten up I sunk low in my seat and kept a low profile and eventually he gave up the hunt.

The film itself was quite captivating. My memory of the comic is foggy at best but I do recall finding the character of the night owl really really weak. However Patrick Wilson brings a whole new dimension to the character instead of the flacid nobody that the comic portrayed him as. The comedian was pefectly cast and being a massive fan of Billy Crudup I was very excited by the prospect of seeing him in all his blue glory.

The story itself was told well and it was an entertaining evening. I wouldn't say I was blown away but having not really enjoyed the comic I went to see this film expecting a mediocre event. By the end of the film I was pleasently surprise by the depiction of the characters which saved this film from the possible 'ok' status I was going to give it and instead made me lean towards a 'pretty good'.

That brings me finally to the nakedness. I don't really regard myself a prude but every time I saw Dr Manhattan's man stick I did find myself stifling a school girl giggle and I am sure that I am not alone. However from the experience I can safely say I don't get to see enough naked beautiful men in the films I watch and am in favour of more blue knobly bits on screen.