Plan for David Myers

It's time for my semi-annual .plan. I guess the only upside to creating so few .plans is that hopefully they're worth reading. If you don't think so, what the hell are you doing reading this one now? Go away! Shoo! Ok, for the rest of you, hopefully you'll enjoy the dribblings of my fading memory of IGC '03 below.

Indie Jam

Very cool, and of course one of the primary highlights was Jeff Tunnell singing a pretty darned good rendition of Cocaine. That was worth the price of admission alone. I found it very interesting how many people in the community were musicians. Maybe there's a connection between the creativity necessary as a game developer and the creativity needed as a musician? I would've joined in the jam myself, but I'm pretty sure no one wanted to hear my mad clarinet skillz on a funky version of La Grange. Maybe next year. ;)

Art

I am no artist, but I have great respect for those out there that are and who can produce cool-looking shit. When I was a teenager I used to think that making a game was like magic - how did they do that? As I learned more about programming and game development, I figured out how to do many of the things I was awed by in a game.

One area of game development I find that still evokes that feeling of magic is game art. Again, I frequently find myself thinking how did they do that? I spent a good half hour or so standing outside one night at the IGC with Joe Maruschak, Danny Ngan, Logan Foster, and Pascal Bos talking about art. I came away feeling that maybe a little time spent learning more about art would be a good investment for an aspiring game designer/producer such as myself. Joe suggested one book in particular that I plan on checking out.

More 21-6ers than you can shake a stick at

21-6 had a terrific turnout at the IGC, and if that didn't help us when it came time for stuffing the ballot box for the ShowOFF awards I don't know what did (j/k). Christoper Brethen, Mike Nelson, Matt Sayre, Kevin Ostrowski, Ron Yacketta, Pascal Bos and the three founders of 21-6(me, Justin Mette, and Ryan Mette) all attended this time around. I cannot stress enough the good that can come about from meeting your teammates in person.

Chatting with Mike Jahnke and Phil Carlisle

I consider myself a pretty lucky guy to have Mike from Bravetree working on Bugg Out with me. I'm very interested in learning more about visuals for games, and in particular adding character wherever possible in the game. Working with a talented and experienced artist fairly closely and seeing what makes one of them tick has been a great experience so far. I am hoping to take away much from the experience for future projects I work on.

I spent a lot of time chatting with Phil and really enjoyed his company. Phil is really a down-to-earth person who has some interesting thoughts about the indie game scene. So much about developing/selling games as an indie is just figuring out what works and what doesn't. Personally, I don't think that many people have much in the way of knowledge here. I think that people like Phil might be standout's because they are thinking a bit out-of-the-box on marketing, distribution, and development of games. I'm looking forward to what he accomplishes over the next couple of years.

Giving presentations at a conference

I have no real fear of speaking in front of an audience. God knows that standing in front of my peers and talking about game development is easier than standing in front of 40-odd people I have never met at a company I have never visited and trying to sell them on a product like I have had to do as a consultant.

However, I have to admit I was a little bit out-of-sorts when at the IGC because quite frankly though I've done more than a lot of people who are trying to make games, I still consider myself a newb at much of this. And joining Joe Maruschak and Mark Frohnmayer on a game design panel in front of a good chunk of the IGC audience is a tad intimidating with so few games under my belt. Especially when you have experienced designers at the IGC like Kevin Ryan and Jeff Tunnell - what exactly am I doing up here again?

In the end, however, both times I spoke at the IGC were good experiences and I look forward to learning more before next year's event and passing on what I've learned.

Rejuvenation

I've already seen it before at GDC and IGC and MacWorld, but I can reaffirm that having face-to-face time with your teammates and peers is like a shot of pure adrenalin. After having spent the last six months back at a day job that is not 21-6, I have firsthand experience on how tough it is to keep your outlook optimistic when grinding through making a game. I feel for those of you out there who haven't had a chance to come to some event like GDC or IGC (especially IGC). If you have any way to make it next time around, make every effort to do so. It very likely will change your point-of-view about what you are trying to do - in a very positive way.

To sum up...

I could write all day on the IGC and experience I had there, including the strip club some of us ended up at on Sunday night after my having way too many double Jack and Coke's, but maybe those tales are better told at IGC '04. ;)

I do want to give a shout out to anyone I haven't mentioned already above that I did get a chance to chat with at the IGC, including in particular the guys from Maxgaming, Plastic Games, Pinoli, and Midnight Ryder. You folks helped make the trip very memorable and I'm looking forward to the next time.