Seriously, the single biggest impact I felt the entire time was the wind on Wednesday night after the GI.biz/Develop Awards after party (and bear in mind that included - amongst other delightful, exciting and exhilarating things - a Pimm's appreciation session and more free drinks than I could spend vouchers on - I actually ended up leaving with more than when I arrived).
Walking from the Hilton to the party took 10 minutes. Going back took half an hour. Very amusing and kinda fun, but Jesus it was Mother Nature at her most buffeting.
Anyway, let me take you back to the start of the week, I'll talk you through what's been happening in detail as an apology for the lack of daily updates.
DISCLAIMER: You may feel I go a bit off topic every now and then, dwelling on seemingly pointless diversions, but bear with me.
First up this blog was set up as an honest and un-filtered look into the development of Knuckle Sandwich.
Secondly, I like to think that some of the details reveal something of my personality and that gives this blog a unique side.
Finally, technically everything that happened at the conference affected our experiences of the show, and clearly of the work we did/didn't do on the project.
Here we go (it's long)...
Day 1 - Monday:
Arriving in the UK after a 3 day bachelor party in Amsterdam (including the World Cup final...) meant getting up at 6am. Not fun. Nevertheless Jon and myself went home, unpacked, rested momentarily and then repacked to come down to Brighton - our first time in this wonderful city. After 2 and a half hours of cruising down the sun-baked motorways of Essex, London, Kent and Sussex, we arrived with a bit of MIA blaring on the stereo, and decamped at Pete's place.
Pete is Jon's sister's boyfriend, a laid back and incredibly nice young man who also 'does art' for Blackrock Studios. He had offered to put us up for the week, and even trusted us with a spare key. Incredibly kind of him, it also saved us poor Indies a butt-ton of money.
So then we headed into town for a drink and dinner with the mighty and mightily talented Adam Boyes (he used to run the Product Development department at Capcom US). I first met Adam Boyes a good few years ago when I was at Leipzig with Proper Games, when I had to cold-call the Capcom booth in an attempt to sign our game. Long story cut short, I successfully pitched Flock! to him, and that was the start of a really good friendship.
So he's recently done the right thing too and set up by himself as Beefy Media, and we thought it'd be ace to catch up. Taking Jon with me, we had a couple of beers and decided we needed food. On recognising the always-smiling Tim Flett of Escape Studios earlier on in the hotel bar, I thought it'd be a good idea to ask if he knew a good restaurant... and then the five of us had a few drinks, got to know each other. Tim was there chatting to Mike Cox from Monumental, so we all shook hands and started more went for dinner and some partying - that lasted until around 3:30am.
Fun, but ouchy.
Anyway what that meant is, wonderfully, we now have someone interested in talking to us (and vice versa) about browser-based plugin technology, and what might well be a good alternative to Unity. So the lesson learned here is - use any (decent or believable) excuse to walk over to a known face - you'll be introduced to their friends and colleagues. This has happened to me many a time before so I can vouch for it. In fact some of my best friends around the world I have only met through this.
It's essentially like walking up to a hot girl in a bar, but with slightly less chance of being rudely snubbed and losing face!
Day 2 - Tuesday:
The first day of the conference, dubbed Evolve, saw me heading in to register and collect my pass (the free one) and then trying to flirt/charm/force my way in to the full thing. To their credit the lovely (and helpful) volunteers put up with my attempts to blag and I spent most of the day hanging in the lobby, drinking water, and recovering from the night before.
It meant I saw a lot of people, some recognisable and some not, and met up with the chaps and chapettes from Abertay Dundee, where I went to study Computer Arts between 2000 and 2004.
Honestly I got a bit bored standing around a lot - Jon couldn't leave the house for fear of leaving it left open and unlocked, and mostly I just killed time in various manners. But that was fine because later on I met Toby Allen an old friend of mine who is currently a jet setting producer - we chatted business with his current employer and then went for lunch. We randomly meet up, Toby and I, every other year or so. It's the weirdest thing, and inexplicable - neither of us can really remember where or how we met, but every time we do we have a giggle.
Anyway, this time we went to catch up over lunch (unexpectedly vegetarian goodness at Food for Friends - yum) and put the world to rights with a bit of hair of the dog. Not sure it worked, but we definitely were on the right track with discussions on how to manage teams of various sizes, the way we see various production methodologies working, and how to budget properly.
Heading back to the Hilton we joined in the ice breaker drinks, where I caught up with the most enthusiastic man in recruitment - Pete from Jagex - and introduced him to the group - as soon as he caught wind of Tinka's Norwegian origins he went off on a proper rant about how amazing Norway is - of course the Nordic scene is gaining momentum, a country with a stable economy, pricey amenities and beautiful scenery no more than 3 or 4 hours from London on a plane this was good to know. They have a relatively short history with games, but plenty of room to rise up as a hotbed.
Later on Jon, Toby, Tinka and I went for a bite to eat at Zizzi's and had a giggle at the expense of Toby's card bill when he stays in Norway. After a yummy pizza and an incredibly weak tasting Italian beer, Jon headed home (he's been poorly all week really) and the rest of us had a pint at the nearest pub. Bumping into more conference people there was no real surprise, and in an attempt to get a real sense of Brighton's nightlife Toby and myself headed to Life, under the arches.
If anyone has been there they'll know what to expect - a nice enough place playing RnB, with a seemingly inflatable hot tub. Narrowly avoiding being peer-pressured into it was an experience, but more importantly the atmosphere (and this proved to be consistent the whole week) in Brighton - and bear in mind this is on a Tuesday night - is simply brilliant. People of all styles, appearances, preferences and clichés were gathered in the same place enjoying themselves immensely. This may well explain why studios as different in their outlook as Blackrock, Zoe Mode and Relentless set up here - and it's something that has really endeared me to this city.
So 3am comes and goes, and I head up the wooden hill.
Day 3 - Wednesday:
The next morning I was beginning to feel a little rough around the edges (repeated shots followed by multiple rum and cokes will do that to you) but had a meeting with Aardvark Swift to attend.
The meeting was really eye opening - my company is a one man band, and Knuckle Sandwich is a two man collaboration so I wouldn't have been surprised if the meeting had gone very briefly, but Hollie and her colleagues talked to me about some very cool and interesting opportunities. Some were clearly motivated by our mutual benefit, but at the same time news that they are considering expanding their really cool Search for a Star award in the future was heartening to say the least.
I have to apologise to them though, as a very pretty girl was sat at the table nearby having a few meetings as well, and I kept sneaking a cheeky glance over at her. I know it's a tiny bit off topic, but I thought I'd mention it because it was something that affected my work that day, much like all the alcohol - and that gets mentioned a lot too. Wouldn't want to be biased. Anyway, hi girl at the table. Hope you had a good day!
Also of note was the hideously slow amount of time it took the tea to get served later that morning - like literally about 10 minutes from standing right at the bar to receiving the still-needed-to-brew mixture.
Aaanyway, I somehow managed to get myself a free internet access card for the helpful ladies at the front desk, and did a bit of time killing until Adam Boyes caught me and we talked business. He got to see a nice pre-alpha build of Knuckle Sandwich, and we talked both of our business aims - a very cool catch up as you never know what might happen in the future with people as talented and driven as him.
That afternoon I caught a free talk on narrative that was good, if a little rushed towards the end. The examples the lady (need to find her name!) made about her work on Tomb Raider 4 made it all the more interesting.
That evening Adam, Toby, Tinka and me went to Jamie Oliver's Italian Place, a really nice place that served good food. Some was excellent, some was a little disappointing, but the value was ace. Recommended if you ever end up in Brighton.
Afterwards we made our way to the GI.biz / Develop Awards after party, early so as to secure good seats which we found in the carpeted section, and proceeded to use as many of the free drinks vouchers as possible. The only time we did differently was when I found out the group we were with (an interesting technical artist from Relentless joined us too) had never experienced a good Pimm's, and so the education began.
The entire night was epic in so many ways, and some of the repeatable highlights include failing miserably to take photos for a new set of contacts, failing to give another contact my phone number (some reason my card wasn't good enough!), failing to keep my glacial cool when exiting the Boy's room and finding myself skidding across a slippery puddle of spilled drink (though I didn't make contact with the ground, thank god) and also failing to stay sober. That's a lot of fail, but there was some win too, so don't worry too much on my behalf.
Also, side note - Tameem Antoniades is a totally lovely guy, spoke to him m for almost a whole 5 minutes and he left a really caring and easy going impression on me. Ace guy, hope he says hi on the email. I was actually introduced to him twice, but that's no bad thing!
Day 4 - Thursday:
So after 1 hours sleep (not the record you may initially think, over the course of the day I found people who had simply not slept, and had gone to get breakfast at 6am after still technically being on their 'night out' :)
Of course, this meant there was a much slower pace that day, and despite managing to grab a proper pass, there just wasn't the energy of the day before, either side of the conference divide.
I spent the morning in the hotel lounge nursing tea, and waited for a meeting that didn't happen due to the smallest of mistakes (wrong phone number) and then managed to snag a few sips of hot choccy from another hang-over nursing attendee which actually only made the hangover worse.
So, weirdly, my craving for sushi led me to Yo Sushi at lunch. Had a giggle with a new friend, who kindly (and fortunately) brought up the free ice cream. Relentless had paid for a van to give soft whip to anyone with a conference pass (anyone with few enough teeth, and a scary enough stare... weird story). If you know me, you'll know I got a little too excited at the prospect, and continually spent more effort walking into the wind than is reasonable - the weather had been windy as hell for a full day and night by this time, but the promise of soft vanilla ice cream was enough to keep me motivated :)
Oddly by the time I got the Hilton I'd forgotten about the van (even though it was parked outside... must have been the cumulative effects of the various late nights) so instead I went and sat at Tameem's talk about Alex Garland and their new game at Ninja Theory. It looks great, and the studio should have a big hit on its hands when they release it.
Remembering my previous excited quest I then headed out for a free ice cream with Adam, then got free beer at the hilarious (and in one example weirdly preachy) Opinion Jam, hosted by a hilarious chap who's name escapes me, but apparently works at Telltale. The idea was for members of the audience to walk up to the podium, and try to convince the rest of us of an opinion.
Pretty wildly different, topics covered included the idea that tax breaks would kill the industry's future, that games demos are killing it now, and that games are generally too big and too sprawling to make financial sense for developers to make. A call for compact and polished games, essentially. Also, someone misguidedly tried to preach to the audience about their own product - a free games paper - but the very amusing Ellie Gibson saved the day by saying that instead of focusing on getting women into (men's) games, we should try to get men into 'girls' games... Just Dance et al. She had a point too, and won the audience shout-vote by a country mile.
That done, we headed for the lounge again and caught up with some people I met at the party the night before, while waiting to go for (more) sushi with Mark Rein (him from Epic) Greg Zeschuk (him from Bioware) and 9 other industry types. All way more important and influential than little old me, but thanks go to Adam for inviting me too. Very kind of him. I ended up eating very yummy (but very slowly delivered) sushi, washed down with crisp Japanese beer and fruity cool sake. I have to apologise for not remembering the names of the other people at the table, I am a bit terrible at remembering them and never got a chance to exchange cards, but they were all interesting and bright people.
Afterwards we headed for drinks, losing Adam and Mark on the way (it was the end of a loooooong week) so the remainder of us sat with interesting beers (turns our Dr Greg loves to try new beers and ales...) and talked new paradigms and the challenges of development these days before moving along back to the hotel lounge again and sat shooting the shit for a few more hours. Mark was there, sat at his iPad so we joined him, and it turns out none of the group had ever had a Pimm's at all. Weirdly cyclic, but easily fixed, as the boys behind the bar at the Hilton jumped into service generating 2 lovely pitches of the stuff. After a short bit of ribbing about the fruitiness of the proposed drink, the guys and gals all really liked the concoction, and conversation turned to how you'd market it in the US of A.
More people drifted off, as Ellie and a group of her friends turned up, so we joined them and I had to sit there fighting off drunken sleep after foolishly attempting to make rose with Red and White wines. It might've worked, but it just made me sleepy - a glass of water helped to stave it off so I could enjoy Dr Greg, Ellie and the rest's company for a bit more. I finally gave in at around 4:40am, and after announcing my imminent arrival Greg kindly asked for my business card. He may never email, but it was nice because I thought we got on quite well, drinking and chatting about the things we had in common. A really nice, charming, unassuming, bright and funny man.
A lovely end to a lovely time, all told.
Lessons learned?
But what did I gain, except a near student-like ability to take drink and a small ache in my neck from all the bottle-sipping? Well there have been enough words I'm sure we all agree, so here are some hard figures for you.
4 days spent
£300 spent
26 business cards collected
35 follow up emails sent
2 follow up phone calls to make
6 individual potential business opportunities generated
100+ totally new experiences lived through
Overall score: 10/10 :)
Seriously though I hope you don't think this was an account of a debaucherous trip to Brighton. The conference is only half of the reason to go; meeting people, getting to know them and making contacts are just as important. I went along with minimal preparation (only 3 meetings booked for definite) and still I am absolutely sure it was both immensely enjoyable on almost every level, and also immeasurably valuable.
Cannot wait till next year.
PS: typos will be fixed when it's not midnight.
You, sir, are a scholar and a gentleman. Thanks for making the conference so dang likeable!
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