8am - Ah the joys of being a webmaster.  PHPBB had an exploit that allowed the forums on the site to be hacked, so I was a bit behind on posting to the website this morning and spent a good piece of the morning hopefully taking care of the problem.  Certainly the worst may not be over, though my worry with this kind of garbage is that more may be in store. 

9am - Simon Hallam was up so I chatted him for awhile about hacking, the Wik site had also been hacked this week, and we eventually moved onto other topics like the future of the IGF.  My question of what the goal the IGF really is and how it could be best reached lead us to almost talking about it, though the gamers should always come first and several came by as we were chatting.  I though perhaps restructuring how the finalists were chosen, perhaps taking the top 1 or 2 from each of the rating categories (Graphics, Audio, Innovation, Technical design) and then the top 2-6 games in the overall rating that haven't already been included (or more probably going the other way around, taking the top overall and then the top in the categories that weren't already included).  I think that will help to ensure that the innovative games are included.

I then talked to Coray from Large Animal Games and unfortunately didn't have much chance to stay long, though I did find out that they are doing a 5-pack free expansion for RocketBowl that should be out soon.

I again fought with my camera and after deciding I just need to buy a new one, found out that Bryce had a real camera and got a few pics of the conference (though it will be a few weeks before they get put into this article...apologies)

10h30 am - Death of 3-in-a-row.  This session is based on thought that 3-in-a-row puzzle games are dead, though at the same time the panel started by saying that they were the top selling game last year.  The first foray into answering the question of whether or not they were dead was that no they are not dead, just as sitcoms are not dead.  The point was also made that it isn't good to pass up your own possibly great game in order to make another Bejeweled game.  With the casual gamer the rules are different, and it is important to keep the audience in mind as what they want is the first key.  Perhaps another thought, at least in my mind, is that the casual gamer market is a group that still isn't playing games, so for them, this huge group of people, these games are new to them as their first foray into gaming, not the same thing they have been seeing over and over for years. 

The session shifted to the different portals telling developers what they needed to do different, such as more localizations for different languages, and strayed away from the topic of "A Brave New Casual Game World" for most of the session.  I found this to be really unfortunate, as the meeting really boiled down to the portals telling the developers "make this type of game, we can sell it," which in my mind has little to nothing to do with any type of new world, but that is likely the Indie slant I have.  Perhaps the business information is very helpful to the developers as they try to make ends meet, but I cannot help but think that the focus on making games that meet the market wants will stifle innovation. 

12 noon - We had planned to watch the recorded Will Wright presentation, but at the last minute, no wait 5 minutes after it was supposed to start we were informed that EA was not allowing it to be broadcast.  As if we needed another reason to hate EA. 

With that frustration in mind I headed down to the expo floor for a last pass through.  I had wanted to check out Nintendogs first hand and it seemed a perfect opportunity.  That 'game' is everything you may have been hearing.  It is definitely a unique experience that will make you smile.  I enjoyed throwing the ball for my dog to catch and entering the Frisbee competition.

From there I hit the 3D Game Studio booth, but without much to say.  I wandered my way around the floor, trying out the DX1 by ergodex and found that Sun was showing off Tribal Trouble.  This much-delayed game was one of the RTS games I looked forward last year, but like the others (Battlescape, World Fables) it ran into trouble and hasn't been made available or finished yet.  The demo at the booth was great to check out, though the 'simplistic' game control that was supposed to make the game easy for anyone to play really left me confused as to exactly how to play.  The standard RTS control scheme and map would have worked well here.

I left the expo and hit the IGF again, snapping a couple more shots and finally meeting up with the Revolved team.  That left just a few developers I hadn't had the chance to meet with over the span of the conference, something that I consider quite a 'win' for me.  The developers of course don't sit by their booths all day, so catching them can be somewhat based on the randomness of the universe.  In addition I try not to interrupt them if they are explaining the game to a developer.  At the end of the day, that means that catching them all is pretty uncommon.  Still I think I probably hit 2x as many this year as last year (though I traded emails with most all of them over the last month).

1 pm - Lunch - Really gross sandwiches...mine ended up in the trash.

1h30 - After the disappointing lunch I went back to the website and tried to ensure I hadn't missed anything from our hack-attack.  I spent an hour making some changes and unfortunately missing out on meeting that I would have had with the CEO of Game Trust...but unfortunately my email was keeping me from getting my mail...grr...

2h30 - I showed up just a touch late for the Indie round-table that Greg and I were going to run.  I quickly found Greg who was chatting with a number of Indie people, including Mark Temple (I of the Enemy), Sean Doherty (Freelance Games), and soon the Ninja Bee crowd showed up.  Talking to Steve Taylor of Ninja Bee I suggested that they try to enter Outpost Kaloki in the next IGF if they didn't have a publisher by that time.  Currently they are hoping to get a publisher, so we may never see it, but it seemed a good idea :).  One of the more interesting comments from the team was that Nintendo was the only company that they went to that asked them first how the game plays and wants to play the game, the other companies are more concerned about the business side of things.

4pm - I had intended to go to the "Audio Innovation in Downloadable Games" session, but with each of the Indies around and the IGF closing down it seemed a shame to leave the group and a chance to chat with everyone.  I got to talk with Josiah a bit and it appears that Chronic Logic may be moving to working on multiple projects at the same time within the studio, which should be interesting to watch.

5 pm - We had planned to go to dinner at 5, but I still needed to say a few goodbyes, including Alex at Chronic Logic, and the  Slitherine Strategies team (Legion Arena).  I suggested that Legion Arena be submitted again as the game was apparently very different when it was submitted.  Certainly the number of models that the game is currently showing on the screen at one time, with 4000 units fighting in a battle is a wonder.

5h30pm - The group of 12 made it over to Buca di Beco for dinner and had a great time.  I won't even try to name everyone in the group, but it did include Sillysoft, Chronic Logic, Gastronaut Studios, Ivan Weiner, and a lot of us press people.  The whole spectrum of Indie Games was discussed, and the sad truth that this group and moment was disappearing into the past kept encroaching on me the more the evening went on.  This has easily been the most enjoyable IGF/GDC I've been involved in, and it is sad to see it end.