11am - After watching a non-stop crowd around Wild Earth the day before, I set out Saturday with the intent of getting a chance to speak to James Thrush at Super X Studios. Why all the difficulty? Wild Earth took 3 awards at the IGF, including the top award, the Seumus McNally award. Checking out Wild Earth was well worth my time, and I was thankful for the few moments that James took to talk to me. The game is most similar to Pokemon Snap, but honestly comparing this game to that one is a huge dis-service to this one. In Wild Earth, you play the part of a photographer who is taking photographs in the African plains. As you go along you hear narration and are asked to photograph specific subjects, like a Zebra running. You score points for each of your shots, and then all of your images are put together in a webpage story. The graphics on the game are absolutely amazing, and Super X Studios is still planning on making them a bit better before the game is finished in December. They were nice enough to let me take the Tech Demo of the game they were displaying at the conference, which I look forward to previewing in the near future.

11h30am - One of my favorites going into the conference was Pontifex 2. As I walked up to the location where it was being displayed, I found Josiah Pisciotta trying to make a train get over a broken bridge. If you haven't had a chance to play Pontifex 2, then I definitely recommend it. At least read the review and see what you think. Josiah was great to talk to, he had a smile a mile wide, and it was certainly deserved. Pontifex II won the audience choice award which meant of the 4 games I picked to win awards, 3 had! (Unfortunately BaseGolf was left out despite my expectations) Chronic Logic is working hard with Pontifex II, sending it cross-platform to the Mac. The hope is to introduce it into more schools, and I think that would be a wonderful thing for the game. Josiah also mentioned that they are going to get away from Bridge Building games for awhile after having made 3 in a row, and would be moving on to a different type of builder. This one would be a multiplayer supporting up to 64 players, where the players worked in groups in different areas of the game. Somewhat vague, but interesting to be sure.

12pm - Furcadia was one of the games that I hadn't had a chance to check out before the conference. The main reason for that is that the game is MMOSG. Which means in my head that it takes a tremendous amount of time to play. The game took me by surprise. It follows some of the same ideas of The Sims Online. That is to say that it is entirely about socializing with the other people who are playing. More interesting though is the fact that it has been running for 6 years. So yah, it sort of pre-dates the Sims. Being first, it also doesn't sport the graphics that the Sims has, but it does have some things that the Sims doesn't. For example, the creator Dr. Cat, has created a scripting language called DragonSpeak. This language is very simplistic...it doesn't even look like code. However, it allows people in the game to share their dreams and other things with other players. One player even created a BomberMan clone using the language...so it is somewhat powerful. With 40,000 regular users, and 100,000 occasional users, Furcadia is one of the most played games you may not know. What is more, it is completely free!? Players can choose to upgrade their characters with things such as wings for a small yearly fee. Doing so helps keep the game going. Maybe I'll even get sunk into it and review it in the near future.

12h30pm - Having spent most all of my time on the finalists section of the IGF, I wandered over to the Student Showcase section. Turned out to be a huge mistake. I was feeling slightly queasy all day, and all those FPS games really did me in. I went from one game to the next, getting a little sicker at each stop. Actually, I should have stopped where I began. Valence was the first game I stopped at. A great little puzzle game by some students from DigiPen. The game was clean as can be, and was a lot of fun to play as well. The object, connect three different colored balls together by dragging them. The balls represented electrons, positrons, and neutrons. Really one you need to play to appreciate, so check out the DigiPen website. Also of note was Toy Trouble, though Breakin' Battle was where most everyone seemed to congregate.

1pm - I crashed at a table for about 20 minutes, and then after I got my legs under me went for lunch again. That little Italian place was great, even 2 days in a row.

2pm - Coming back from lunch I was sure all my nasuea had gone away, but then I made the mistake of just glancing at another FPS. It was unfortunate, but the good side was I was playing a game meant to be played by the blind. Taking that to heart, I closed my eyes and concentrated in on Terraformers. This was a really interesting concept game. In the game, you play the part of someone checking out a Terraforming facility that transmitted a distress signal. You can maneuver by listening to different audible clues, such as a compass that tells you your coordinates. The game has interesting tasks, such as matching up different sound keys with different sound locks. You match the correct sounding key to the lock. When you pull up a menu, you hear a number of clicks. Each click matches an item on the menu. Then of course as you select to each item, the menu item it read. Since the game is so focused on sound, all the sounds in the game were fantastic in quality. It was well deserving of the sound award.

2h30pm - Realizing I haven't taken any photos. I have a very poor man's digital, but I used it to take a few shots. Nothing ground-breaking, but memory filled anyway.

2h45pm - Mr. Bigshot. I went to take a look at this game and I watched for a few minutes as the developer talked to a potential customer. After watching for awhile, I decided that the game didn't quite fit the audience I had for this site, so I looked over at the screen next to the Mr. Bigshot screen to watch Josiah try to make a non-linear bridge in Pontifex 2...I wonder how many bridges he built over the length of the conference...certainly a cool way to pass the time.

3pm - Made my way over to Word Ninja. I hadn't headed there before due to the online only nature of the game. I was sorry I had waited so long. The guys from Shimzoo games were great to talk to, and I really felt bad I was so sick and hammered by the time I got to them. Still it will open up a chance to email in the future, so not all was lost.

3h05pm - In a sick induced haze, I headed out of the building. Rather unfortunate that I hadn't felt so well during the second day. On the shuttle back to the hotel, a young programmer sat in front of us. When we asked him what we was doing he mentioned he was a senior in college and would soon be graduating. He then planned on launching a career as an independent, though he had not yet created any games. I probably blew him off more than I meant too, but it gave me time for pause.

One of the big problems I perceived from the conference, is the industry's perception of independent games. I get the feeling that the industry looks upon independent developers as developers who aren't good enough to make it elsewhere. That perception is often increased by the fact that nearly every programmer who doesn't have a lot of experience tries to make an independent game. The best independent games don't come from people who have no prior programming experience. In fact, for most people, doing an independent game company as your first venue into the gaming industry I believe is the wrong move. For the independent industry to move forward, quality games need to be produced. With things such as the Torque engine available, making good games is easier than ever for an independent developer to do. I hope more developers take advantage of the independent market by making games that are high quality and original in concept. The independent market allows for developers to create any type of game they so desire. It should be looked upon that way instead of the learning grounds of the unlearned.

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By: Russell Carroll
Posted: Sunday March 09, 2003