eat. sleep. game.

So we managed to get through day one of the GDC with only minor blisters and chafing, and that’s saying a lot after a 12 hour stretch of booth crawling. However, we did pick up some interesting tidbits during our hours of toil and strife, and so I’ll relate a few of the highlights to you before we go into detail later.

The main expo floor was initially daunting, but we quickly got used to it as we meandered from booth to booth. As expected, Nintendo didn’t make much of a showing, though Phantom Hourglass was a blast when we got to try the multiplayer features. The rest of their games consisted of slightly sub-par titles like Brain Age for the Wii, Mario Soccer (which looked almost identical to its Gamecube counterpart), and the all of the differently colored Pokemon titles. I believe they are up to about, oh, 73 different versions now.

Sadly enough, Sony’s booth wasn’t too much better, as their main attractions were God of War II and Fl0w. What surprised me the most, however, was that Microsoft didn’t have their own booth on the main Expo floor at all. They had a booth set up in the North hall for the Independent Games Festival, and had one set up for the career booth area, but were strangely missing on the showroom floor. While disconcerting, I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. I’ll have to fish around for more clues before I can validate the cause for their absence.

Apart from the main industry giants, it was clear that this year’s theme in developing technologies was immersion, as Chuf points out. There were head sets that utilized player head motion to control the camera on screen (which could be amazing for first person shooters). A company called amBX developed a combination of lighting, wind, and rumble technology for PCs to follow in game scripting to produce the appropriate effect. The coolest device there was one that had already been announced a while ago: The Novint Falcon. A device that wouldn’t be out of place in the Minority Report, the Falcon is a mouse that operates in a 3D environment, with full feedback capabilities. By feedback, I mean rubbing the mouse against an in game surface will produce ridiculously realistic feelings: the Falcon emulates the visceral feelings associated with sticky surfaces, rough surfaces, bouncing balls, drawing bow strings, etc., with remarkable similitude. It is truly difficult to describe how realistic and powerful the feedback capabilities are unless you try it yourself, but, well, that requires money, doesn’t it? Sorry to come up short on that front, but there is no way around it unless you’re willing to drop over $200 dollars on the beast.

As always, the free swag is always one of the best reasons to keep attending events like the GDC. I myself walked away with some nice Bedlam items from the Canadian company that shares my moniker, and plenty of beer cups from various companies that were at one point filled with deliciously frosty brews. And, since enough companies were good about the free beer, let’s just say that the award ceremonies at the end of the night were certainly more entertaining than they ought to have been.

In any case, that’s just a tertiary look at our day one highlights from the GDC, we’ll have pictures and more detailed articles for you later.

-Bedlam-

I managed to scrounge up some free passes to the GDC this year, so we’ll definitely be going for at least Wednesday’s events, and possibly Thursday and Friday as well. Our choice to stay past the first day will largely depend on an entertainment to cost ratio: Since we have to get the time off work, plus pay for gas, parking, and food, it will be quite the kick to the balls for our respective pay checks. But we’re willing to make the sacrifice for you, our esteemed readers!

Now, enough sap, let’s talk GDC.

Based on the structure of the event, we can expect to attend the five introductory conference sessions, whose topics range from the trend towards creative stagnation, to attracting the non-gamers with simple pickup games. Our passes will also grant us access to the booth crawl and main Expo floors, which should be the areas that we as gamers will appreciate the most.

In fact, it might actually be the only thing we can appreciate, since the vast majority of those attending the conference will be industry insiders who are intending to purchase tools and other assets for their respective companies. However, as this is one of the last few venues for developers to strut their stuff (alas, E3, I shed a tear for thee), I find it almost impossible to believe that we will be disappointed. And with 12,500 expected attendees, most of whom will be the veritable who’s who of the gaming world, I’m sure we can expect to see some seriously innovative material. Or at least something flashy, and at worst, something only moderately regurgitated.

With a little luck, we’ll have some juicy info to distribute on the prospects for our gaming future, so check back over the course of the week.

-Bedlam-