Well, we all had fun here, didn't we?!!
(708k, Stuffit Archive)
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It would seem that just about everybody went to ECTS this year.
It was my "first time" (ECTS-virgin), and I only found out about it because DEnnis told me. For someone interested in the games industry, it was worth the trip.
While it seemed that many were just there for the freebies (quite a lot to be had, it was evident), and even a few where there for the girls, some actually went with the intention of learning something (can games be classed as educational?.. surely yes).
Sunday, eveyone met up under Sony's 'solarium' stand, and that was quite a highlight as far as I was concerned: I'd already met a few folk on the Middlesex University course - which is what got me into NetYaroze in the first place, but that's another story - but there were many new faces. It was nice to put faces to names and if you were there, nice to meet you!
I came away making two new friends (Andreas and Robert, both introduced to me by DEnnis), and I felt 'uplifted' having met so many like-minded folk: let's face it, there are times when we sit at that damn keyboard and 1am and wonder what on earth we're doing, and does anybody care? Apparently, they do.
Being a Nintendo 64 fan primarily (actually sold my first Playstation to buy it!), I was keen to see their latest games. Zelda looked brilliant, I'm looking forward to getting it. Also found Banjo-Kazooie an enjoyable game to play. It's along the lines of the original Mario 64, and that was the game that inspired me more than any other... ever! It's also partly why I'm doing this Yaroze lark right now.
There were a number of good-looking Playstation titles knocking about (not forgetting the football game on the Yaroze!), but at the moment, I'm concentrating so much on learning techniques myself, and thinking of the kind of games I would like to play (and, therefore produce), that I didn't quite have the enthusiasm of a young teenager with a Playstation.
I was impressed with some of the new ideas that are in games, and the new ways of producing graphics, using voxels and mathematical curves to describe 3D shapes. Don't you just hate it? You feel like you're getting to grips with something that is already two years older than the industry, and they come along and invent something new, that's gonna take even longer to learn!
Ever get the feeling that you're never actually 'gonna get there?'...