Post Conference Ideas

Bigor, the Israel convention for roleplaying, miniature, and board games was earlier this week, during the still ongoing passover holiday.

I've played some games I was familiar with, as well as a few new ones, including Yinsh, Cavemen: The Search for Fire and Kings of Israel.

Some were better than others, but the most influential so far has been the Pathfinder card game.

The idea of a co-op game where you can not only customize your deck to match your own style as play but help your teammates during the post scenario trading phase seemed different to me, and I started thinking about implementing and expanding this idea into video games.

I guess MOBAs have some of these elements of helping other people build their characters and form strategies to defend and attack on multiple fronts, but I think it could be pushed even further - if killing mobs gave out experience points to the entire team, which needs to decide on how to distribute it.

What if different characters were suited for different tasks, which would unlock equipment best used by team members going after different goals?

How about players unlocking abilities for their teammates but not themselves?

A game based on combat and magic linking all these abilities seems like the easiest and obvious choice, but I've also given some thoughts to some more unusual themes such as city building, or flying an airship.

GDC Fever

The GDC Europe volunteer application form has come up a week ago, and there is a lot of action going on the facebook group for past volunteers. Everyone is excited about this year's event, anxious whether they will be picked, worried about sleeping and transportation arrangement, and anything else that needs to be taken care of.

As I wait for a response for my own application, hoping to hear a yes, wondering what I'll find this year in Cologne, Germany, I also think of my past experiences, and I thought I would share.

GDC Online 2011 in Austin, Texas, was my first GDC and I was delighted to have been chosen as a volunteer.

Small when compared to GDC and focusing on online, mobile and handheld, it nonetheless presented ample opportunities to gain new insight, network, and collect the all important swag.

GDC Online had the best parties in my opinion, with free food, open bars, more swag and enough room for everyone.

I wasn't able to enter as a volunteer at GDC 2012, but had plenty to do with my expo pass.

This show was huge: The career fair alone was about the size of GDC Online's expo, and I visited most of the booths with my business cards, portfolio and resumes. I went to the main expo floor and collected swag, spent some time in the Play area before the press got in, talked with the conference associates I met before or followed on social media, sat through the breaking in sessions and showed up at some parties.

GDC Europe 2012 was another conference I managed to get into as a volunteer. Similar in size to Online as far as sessions go, it had a tiny expo, although it was through here that I got my first art test.

My fellow volunteers at this show were more diverse than in Online, which I enjoyed (where else can a German, Swedish, Dutch, Briton, Greek, Turkish, American, Australian and Israel hang out in a bar and talk about video games?)

Lunch at the convention center was a definite bonus, although the parties weren't quite as good as the American counterparts, held in expensive places with insufficient space.

The best part about this show may actually be Gamescom - the computer game trade show which follows. While the main halls were open to the general public, volunteering at GDC gave me access to the business area, where I collected even more swag, got VIP passes to cut through lines which could reach 3 hours long for a hot game like Assassin's Creed 3, and made even more contacts. At the main halls I checked out some of the hottest new games (and a few duds,) took photos and yes, collected swag.

Can't wait to do it again, and with enough luggage space to take all my swag home.