A new studio, Casuality & IGC, Puzzle Poker, etc.: an update

"What I Did This Summer" by Matt Sayre (in progress)

Well, after months of looking we finally found a new house in the crazy Seattle real estate market. One of the best features of the house is its 730 sq ft detached garage, most of which we'll be transforming into my new recording studio. I've learned a great deal about soundproofing and soon we'll be able to get into the actual construction. It's currently unfinished, which is great since that'll make it easier to seal all the holes, stick insulation in, and then frame a new wall. It's going to be a double wall construction when it's all done which should give us some good soundproofing. It has a high ceiling, which will be the tricky part in terms of construction, but will be awesome for the sound waves that will be bouncing around in there. I'll be posting a postmortem when it's all done and maybe someone somewhere can learn from my inevitable mistakes and unlikely successes. If you've ever wanted to watch "This Old House" hosted by a tuba-playing video gamer, this is as close as you can get. :)

the unfinished loft area of the garage

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I attended Casuality a couple weeks ago and came away feeling pretty good about it. I met some great people who all seem very dedicated to making the next big (money-making) game. The conference seemed geared especially toward questions of how best to make a lot of money, which is fine. But issues of fun seemed secondary. So the conference just seemed pretty dry. Advergaming, conversion rates... that sort of thing. It made me realize just how awesome IndieGamesCon is. Really, for less money you get tons more content, excellent food, the ShowOff zone, and comparable networking potential. I got to chat with Jay and Jeff from GG a bit and it was great seeing GG there spreading the word. I pimped TGB a lot myself actually, seeing as how a non-programming audio guy like me is able to make my own prototypes without too many tears.
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Puzzle Poker is addictive. I've been able to tear myself away from it lately, but in order to really get a good feel for the game I had to play it a lot. I have over a million chips and have the fourth highest game on the casual setting. I'm no SecretSauce but I can hold my own. Yes, fear Yogurt. Ah, it's so nice being able to "research" a game like this. I'm glad the new music has been received well. I've been working on my big band sound and I think I've got it working about right. Many thanks to Kevin Ryan for allowing me to work on the game and give its audio a little update!
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Looking forward to the rest of summer...