Wednesday Recap

Yesterday I had a breakfast meeting with Katherine Wyman, we discussed her visiting UCF and she invited me to give a guest lecture about the DAU card game at the Devry facility in Orlando. I also went to the exhibit hall and picked up information about the current state of the job market to report on for Rudy's class when I get back. I got offered a scholarship to Australia if I am willing to go study programming. While I was in the exhibit hall I picked up information on a new virtual world and a voice communications integration tool for games that could possibly used in the DAU game when it goes online. I went to dinner with two researchers from the University of Skovde in Sweden and discussed their games program and what can be improved. Then I went and had drinks with more Devry Faculty and a DS programmer and celebrated receiving my official acceptance letter from UCF. The buzz in the serious games sessions seemed to be alot about mobile for learning be it DS or cell phones, although becuase the DS is a much more closed platform it makes it much harder to work with. Yesterday at the 10 things the serious games community wants session, we discussed how we would all like access to devkits for things like the DS and the PSP.

No pictures yet, we have some, but no cable to upload, I will send a link when I get back.

Monday and Tuesday Recap

First of all I really do not enjoy flying, especially when my flight is delayed which would lead to a missed connection causing me to half to switch flights and fly across the country with no guarantee I will ever get to my destination. I was supposed to arrive in San Fran at 8:30, I got in some where around 2:30 am and they lost my luggage. So that meant my first day at GCD was spent in the clothes I had both flown and slept in. But despite all that they first day went well. It started of with a keynote by Square Enix's chief strategist about Squares move into serious games. I cannot tell you how excited about this I am. Having a major company involved in the community will add so much legitimacy to our cause. Squares first serious game is a game teaching how to make games. Its cute, and I would buy it, although they haven't announced whether it will be solely in house or commercial. I also caught Tim Holt's session on MMP (massively multi player) games for serious games, and got a few new names to look into like club penguin, Whyville, and Habbo hotel. I went to Alicia's talk on research questions that the serious games community should be looking into. I also attended Peter Smiths talk on Serious games applications of next generation technology. I attended the Serious Games Reception monday night, met some cool people, like the aforementioned Square Strategist , Ian Bogost from Ga Tech, Roger Smith from the army, Randy King from PEO STRI, Perry McDowell from NPS, Doug Whatel from Breakaway, Mike Zyda from GamePipe and Michelle Roper from Federation of american scientists. Jan Cannon-Bowers was there to help introduce me to people and show me off.

Tuesday I attended Ian Bogost's persuasive games lecture and the Serious games top 10 things we want from industry lecture. I also attended the IGDA party and met Eitan from MIT comparative media lab, Daniel Vogel from Epic Games, Katherine Wynman from Devry. I also attended the Second life party as a VIP. There I met Time Langdell from National University, Kenneth Yeast from 7 studios, and Philip Tan from MIT comparative media lab.

I also had time during all this fun and networking to pick up some schwag for myself, my roommate, my undergrads and my team at work.

Tomorrow the Expo hall opens tomorrow so alot of networking and schwagging will be done, in addition I am meeting with Katherine Wynman to talk about a possible partnership with UCF IST.

Almost Time To Go

So its 10:45 Sunday morning. My plane leaves at 2:30, which means be at the airport by 1:30, which means be at my brothers by 12:45 which means leave here at 12. The last couple days have been really busy, with packing and homework and the like. But now I get to sit on my couch and freak out. I really hate plane rides, the landing and the whole falling out of the sky feeling really freak me out. But if thats what it takes to get to GDC then I am ok with that. My brother is nice enough to be taking me to and from the airport and lending me his camera, so expect pictures soon.