gee dee cee !!

I just got back from the Game Developers' Conference (aka GDC) which was in San Francisco this year. My two first surprises were: 1) it's going right back to San Jose next year and 2) San Francisco was more fun and less hassle than I predicted. The hotels were significantly more expensive (as were meals) and there were way more vagrants, but there was more stuff to do 'close by'. I guess that if someone else is paying, I give the slight edge to SanFran; otherwise it's San Jose all the way.

The main thing was that I now know where to get good coffee either place. (I was worried about that)

My three roundtables went well, and they were once again well attended by heavy hitters in the 'game tools' world. I had heads of tools departments (with other engineers) from BioWare, SCEA, Pandemic, & RedStorm; and Senior Engineers from Microsoft, EA, Bungie, Maxis, EA, Linden Labs (SecondLife), and a few other shops worthy of mention whom I can't remember. There were also folks there who didn't give their affiliation.

I also got to meet several 'second tier' famous people in the 'biz. (meaning known to us, but not to the public at large) and got to help Jim Van Vert (author of 'Essential Mathematics for Game Programmers') give his roundtable after he lost his voice. I really like saying 'Hey, I read your book.' to people attending my roundtables. :-)

I also met Will Wright indirectly, standing there (he walked up to us!) while he and my co-worker (Sheri) spoke about the Quality of Life roundtable we had all attended. Unfortunately, I didn't think of any of a thousand good things to say until after he left. Fortunately I did manage to keep my mouth shut as I struggled to think of something good to say.

Better to keep one's mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt...