Plan for Danny Ngan

(This post is mirrored on my blog at blog.dannyngan.com.)


IndieGamesCon 2005 was an absolute blast! It was a wonderful opportunity for me to reconnect with old friends, make new friends, and step back into the indie game development scene for a few days. Lots of beer was drunk, plenty of good conversations were had, and more than a few fun games were played. I'm still tired from the incredibly fun but exhausting weekend.

The good times kicked off on Thursday afternoon with Associates Day. This was a time for GarageGames and its Associates to get together and talk about current and future GarageGames projects, get early information on upcoming announcements, and just hang out and talk shop before the mass influx of people. We were also recruited to help setup equipment at Mallard Hall, but we did get pizza for dinner and unlimited beer.


For me it was very much like a mini-family reunion. It was a relatively small gathering of like-minded people, and I felt like I knew everyone there, even if it was only online. I'll be honest and admit that I zoned out a bit during the main presentation during the afternoon, but I blame that on having driven 5 hours from Bellevue to Eugene and then immediately sitting down in a dark room. I did catch the majority of the information presented, so I wasn't completely gone.

Friday was a relatively short day as far as IGC was concerned. Most of the day was devoted registration and general setup, so Logan Foster, Pascal Bos, John Kabus, and I decided to take a stroll around the University of Oregon campus. I hadn't been back there since I left in March 2004, and I was curious to see what things were like one year later. For the most part, the campus is the same. There are some new covered sitting areas, the museum is finally finished with renovations and open again, and there are some updated traffic flow areas. Otherwise, it felt the same as when I left. It was a nice walk (it was sunny and warm that day) but a rather surreal experience as I felt both happy to be back and happy to have moved away. Many good memories, many not so good ones. Just another chapter in my life.


After the walk around campus, we returned to Mallard Hall in time to officially kick off IGC. Mark Frohnmeyer gave the opening keynote, and everything from that point on was one long and crazy ride. We ate lots of really good food, we drank lots of beer, we played lots of games, and more than a few of us acted like idiots, no thanks to the alcohol. I didn't partake of too much beer, because I had to drive all weekend, but I still had fun.

Between the piles of food and pints of beer and throngs of crazed and drunken game developers, I managed to fit in a few hours of actual game time. There were a handful of Xbox360s at IGC with some Xbox Arcade titles available for anyone to play, including GarageGames' very own Marble Blast. MB was much prettier and more shader-fied than ever, but it was still the same good ol' ball-based action/puzzle game. Geometry Wars was an intriguing title not necessarily for its gameplay but for it's seizure-inducing array of exploding particle effects and distorting grid backgrounds in a circa 1980s Asteroids-style graphics. Whether or not this is a good thing remains to be seen. Both Marble Blast and Geometry Wars will be among the Xbox360 Arcade launch titles.


It was neat actually playing games on the Xbox360, but I was more interested in the games running on the lovely 30" Apple Cinema Displays scattered around the conference hall. The two games that sucked up most of my game time were TubeTwist from 21-6 Productions and Diner Dash from PlayFirst. Both are great casual games that are easy to pick up simply by playing through the tutorial levels. Both progress well through varying levels of difficulty. And both are amazingly evil and addictive games. I should also mention that TubeTwist won the Player's Choice Awards for Best Single Player Game and Best of Show.

Aside from the games, most of my time at IGC was spent hanging out with all the cool kids from the GG community, switching between beer and Diet Coke every night, and doing my best to get embarrassing and unflattering photos of everyone. There were very few moments that I didn't have my camera armed and ready to capture the moment. For the times when I was too tired or lazy to walk around, I turned my camera over to Justin DuJardin, Ben Garney, and Melinda Russell and let them have a go at getting some fun shots. Yes, I was a little worried about the well-being of my camera, but it survived the weekend unscathed.


The 208 shots that made the cut from IGC can be viewed as one massive set, or you can view each day in smaller chunks:

Associates Day
IGC Day 1
IGC Day 2
IGC Day 3

As usual IGC was an incredible experience. I have fun every single year, and this year was no different. I'm already looking forward to IGC 2006.