A Couple of Gamers

Gamercamp was like Regular Camp, only Fun and slightly more Co-ed

Posted on Nov 22, 2009 by Lori in Events

(I was going to make the requisite American Pie allusion, but Calhoun beat me to it last Thursday…)

On Saturday morning, I awoke with the usual amount of weekend meh. I had been writing, tweeting, and writing about Gamercamp all week but, when it came time to actually get up and take the 10-minute bus ride to the Lower Ossington Theatre, I was about as motivated as, well, an adult gamer on Saturday morning could be. Thank goodness for Dave—he wiped the crud from my eyes, took me out to breakfast, and reminded me of the fun date we were about to have (which you are about to experience vicariously through this post…).

Though I thought we were going to be late, we arrived just in time to be filed from the reception area into the main theatre were the micro-conference was to take place. Cookies, coffee and, of course, game-themed cupcakes from SWEETMEAT more than made up for the early start time (1 p.m.? Really?) the kids had to endure and, after catching up with Jaime Woo (the cute guy on the right in the baby-blue t-shirt), finally meeting Imaginary Thomas (the cute guy on the left in the hat—whom you might remember from my imaginary interview with him earlier this month), and getting some brief face time with Shaun Hatton from Toronto Thumbs (not pictured here, but pictured here), the festivities began.

Lori: There was originally a paragraph here about the first two speakers but, due to multiple requests to change the content of said paragraph, I have removed it.

Next up was Michael Todd of Spyeart who regaled us with heroic tales of how he made a game in a week. In fact, he made multiple games in multiple weeks. But, oddly enough, the games of which he’s most proud (and the ones he touted most highly, like Broken Brothers Deluxe) are the ones that took longer. Go figure. Seriously, though—the game-a-week concept is, indeed, an intriguing one. Just not one that could be practised by one who has to deal with a significant other. If I’m wrong. Michael, please correct me (with details on how you achieved said superhuman feats without pissing off said significant other)…

Last, but certainly not least, my favourite Toronto developer, Nathan (can’t get enough of that Critter Crunch) Vella of Capybara Games talked about making indy art for indy games. The short version of his talk was that, if you have too many cooks in the kitchen, it’s harder to create cheap-and-cheerful game art. Or that you need to be passionate about what you do when you make it. Or that it’s better to hire people you know because the people you know are more likely to recommend people who know what they’re doing. I don’t know—I had a Red Bull and got lost in his eyes. And I heart Critter Crunch. For the love of god, isn’t that enough?

Pages: 1 2