GDC/SAN FRANCISCO

From April 19-22, I attended my first "work conference" called GDC or the Game Developers Conference. Approximately 20,000 nerdonauts who all work in or around video games descend on San Francisco for lectures, info sessions and job fairs for three full days of gaming goodness. I took part in the following sessions:

***Building a Successful Production Process
***A Future Wide Open - Unleashing the Creative Community
***Production: Basics & Beyond
***The Future of Story in Game Design
***Bioshock: Audio Post Mortem
***The Future of Animation is Games
***An Agile Retrospective
***Music in Video Games: Surpassing the Scope of Film Scores
***Building a Better Design Doc

I also spent the weekend with my good friends ADAM & JEN, having never been to San Francisco, I took the opportunity to stay a few days and see everything I could including: Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, Coit Tower, the Presidio, Chinatown, the Palace of Fine Arts, Haight & Ashbury, Union Square, the Transamerica building, Lombard Street, Marin County and the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a lot of fun and even though the weather was absolute crap, I still got a good idea of what the city is like. I also ate at some amazing places throughout this adventure, in fact it's fair to say that I never had a disappointing meal once. I hit: LULU, LE CHARM, NEW DELHI, COLIBRI, POMELO, HOUSE OF NANKING, FOG CITY DINER and FIREFLY! Great eats all around but Best in Show goes to House of Nanking for being the best Chinese Food ever. A big shout out to Adam & Jen for being such gracious hosts and for carting me around the city to show me the goods.

So now that it's all said and done, what do I think of GDC and San Fran? Well GDC is a great experience, good information sharing and gathering, plus it's great to see some old colleagues from jobs past. One the downside, sometimes I felt that the lectures were too high level and never really got into the meat of topics. Also if you are ever at GDC and see a lecture called "The Future of Animation is Games" stay away, it's a trap. The only lecture I walked out of for being a total waste of time.


As for the city, it's great to see all the sites you always hear about or remember from film & television especially Alcatraz which was my favourite but the city itself seems a bit right down, like everything needs a coat of paint and some handywork. There's a lot of cool history and the neighborhoods (like A&J's Noe Valley) are pretty nice, self contained little sweet spots that you could honestly spend all your time in. The views are spectacular, the people friendly enough and honestly, HOUSE OF NANKING is the best Chinese Food I've ever had, serious, Josh and Adam told me so but I didn't trust them... they were right, it's the bomb! I couldn't believe it... so good.

Now there's two reasons to return to the Streets of San Francisco, Adam & Jen and that kick ass Chinese Food. I'll be back and next time, Michelle is coming with me!

PICS FROM GDC HERE
PICS FROM SAN FRANCISCO HERE

HELLFLIGHT

Waking up t 3:15am to get to the airport for a 6:30am flight to L.A. is bad enough but what about when the flight itself is a good old fashioned HELLFLIGHT... well that's what happened to me. Not because of the flight, plane, staff or turbulence but thanks to the sick lady beside me.

I got to the airport around 4:30am, whipped through the ticket counter, waited til 4:45 for Customs to open, got through there and was the first person at my gate (weird being the only person in an area of a major airport). Anyway, Timmy Ho's was still closed and thanks to the lack of sleep and no caffeine, I was quickly becomming a Grumpasaurus Rex. Finally, Tim's opened, more people arrived, we were let on the plane and by 6:40am we were taking off as scheduled. I was in Row 8 next to a married couple, we exchanged hellos and I fell asleep, hopefully I could sleep for the entire flight. I was wrong...

I woke to the sound of wretching and the smell of good ol' crapola. It seems that the lady next to me was airsick or something as she was throwing up in the bag and expelling gas. As snoozing was no longer an option, my minimal coffee fix long gone and the smell of body functions gone awry knocking me for a loop, I plugged in my iTouch and tried to escape with the comedy of Anchorman. She got worse, she seemed to go into some kind of diabetic seizure, the flight crew called for a doctor and she had an oxygen mask placed on her face just as she passed out.

As you can imagine, 3 flight attendants, a doctor, a worried husband and a sick wife were all crammed into Row 8 next to the large, bald dry heaving, sleepless Italian trying to ignore it all, it was quite the sight. Could I move? No, the flight was full. Could I get out of the row? No, mine was now the busiest on the plane. All I could do was make myself as small as possible and concentrate and not throwing up on myself thanks to the smell.

This lasted for about 45 minutes until we landed at LAX. I was so sick by the end of it from the sights and smells that it threw me off for the day, add a delay of over an hour for the flight home and I was a Category 1 zombie by 10pm when I crashed. Nothing like a good old fashioned Hell Flight to start the day.

CARMINE: 3 WEEKS OLD

Last night Michelle and I were lucky enough to visit our new puppy CARMINE. All of the pups are doing well, their eyes are open and they are all mobile (well if, shaking & crawling across the blanket is being "mobile" then that's what they are). IT looks like Carmine will be coming home to Corsiworld on March 19th but for now you can see some new pics of the "Big Ragu" right HERE!

THE RETURN TO EUROPE

Well it's done. The time off from work has been approved, the tickets are purchased and Corsiworld is going back to EUROPE! A whirlwind tour of Amsterdam, Prague, Venice & Rome. We are leaving in April along with The Forbzez and in the end we will hook up with my Parents for the last few days of the trip in Rome. Should be good times! I LOVE EUROPE (The Continent... not the band)

TUROK

Well after more than two years, my company, Propaganda Games, released its first game title, TUROK. It's been a hell of a ride and I for one am really proud of the game and to celebrate the milestone, we had a fantastic LAUNCH PARTY which I am still paying for this morning :-)


Anyway, the reviews have been coming in fast and furious but I wanted to share this one which I agree with totally. It's a bit long and full of foul-language but I feel it hits the nail on the head perfectly. Enjoy...

SCOTTISH DINNER

Although Robby Burns Day has come and gone, we met with Todd & Ali, Jason & Saisha for a little Scottish Celebration. We feasted on Scottish classics like Cockaleekie Soup, Haggis, Roast Beef, Neeps , Stilton Potatoes, Shortbread and Stout Floats. We even gave speeches like the "Ode to Haggis", good times!!!