Back From A Week in Germany

Found myself in Cologne once again, a volunteer at GDC Europe 2013 with a trade visitor pass to Gamescom which  I made full use of.

Some things were different this year, like my stay at a hostel or the fact that I had no shifts on Wednesday. Other things were similar, like the foot and back pain and the lack of meals.

Parties were better this year, in general, both from the networking aspect and from the free drinks / swag / comfort in room aspects. GDCE sessions a bit more boring than last year, and I had fallen asleep in practically each one I attended, the only exception being one of the sessions I was scanning for (a familiar role from GDC Online,) not that it was super interesting, it was more because I had been working and later had to sit on the floor.
Met some friends from last year, made a few new ones from the volunteers.
Grabbed more freebies than last year, regretting I hadn't brought a bigger bag and being forced to leave stuff behind.
Only scored a couple of VIP passes, one for Square Enix the other for Bethesda (given to my by a fellow volunteer who didn't have the time to use it) and didn't get to fully use them. Wasn't all that interested in checking all Squenix had to offer (I think RPG demos don't work well in a trade show environment, they require a slow build up and can be text heavy, being in German certainly doesn't help.)
Experienced the Oculus Rift, playing a demo of CCP's Valkyrie, played Forza 5 on the XBOX One, but didn't think the long lines for the PS4 were worth it. That'll have to wait for next year which I'm already planning for and thinking of improving. I'll probably spend Wednesday at the entertainment area if possible.

Still in the process of following up on all the leads I gathered. I had 25 business cards to work with, I thought I needed to save them for solid leads, ended up coming back home with a few, so there's some fear I may have missed some chances, but there's no helping it now.

Back in my daily grind of not knowing when I work my minimum wage shifts, falling even further behind in my app development class, and wondering if I'll finally give in and sign up as a freelancer.
On the positive side, it didn't seem that long ago that I thought it was going to be a long time before I get another holiday yet here we are celebrating the Jewish new year, and I've been back to board game night. Played 3 new games this week, and enjoyed them all: Summoner Wars, Battlestar Galactica (won as a Cylon sleeper agent,) and Courtier (won my second game.)

As far as game design ideas that sprung from these shows, there is nothing defined: just thinking how bad game pads are for finer control in FPSs, and how one might come up with truly innovative gameplay.