I think of GDC as a giant television with a million different channels.

 

And I think of being a journalist at the GDC is sort of like being a stoner with the TV remote. It’s a weird stream of consciousness interupped by the occasional moment of clarity.

 

What’s stuck out in the last few days?

 

• The Media Molecule guys designed some really vicious death animations for Sackboy—catching on fire, having his stuffing eviscerated and chomped in half by creatures—but decided to go with a kinder, gentler form of death for the game.

• People have used the apparently simple tools in LittleBigPlanet to create staggering, complex mechanical computers in the game. And they put it on Youtube. Seriously. This is the craziest thing I have seen in a long time.

• Noted interactive fiction game designer Steve Meretzky managed what must be a GDC first. His screen shot for a game design he titled, “Call of Booty” presented a gigantic first person phallus pointing down a corridor at some bimbo. Disturbing, yes. But in his defense, he was a part of the game design challenge, a competition based on the theme, “My first time.”

• Maxis game designer Chris Hecker not only brought up Kant’s aesthetics in a speech about user generated content, he showed a picture of the book.  Three cheers for game designers who read books!

• And you can always count on running into interesting folks who do interesting things,including Malcolm Ryan , an Aussie game academic who reviews books about games—wordsonplay.wordpress.com