Saket Vora

At the same time as these two green/cleantech conferences we going on, the main attraction for the City was the Game Developer’s Conference, the largest gathering of game industry professionals and independents on the planet. I’ve known about the GDC for a while now through my friend Mike, who has attended three of them in the past. Helped by the growth of the industry and the decline of E3, the GDC has really expanded and the 5 day conference is packed full of technical tutorials, issue summits, discussions about business practices and industry trends, and showcases where people can reveal the innovations they are working on.

One of Amit’s friends was an exhibitor for NASA (he’s working for NASA developing their social media) and got us tickets to an afterparty on Wednesday night and then Expo Floor passes which we capitalized on for Thursday after the ThinkGreen conference ended. At the afterparty, I told him how much of spaceflight dork I am. He asked if I could name all the astronauts who walked on the moon. “Just the ones who walked on the moon or all of Apollo?” For my troubles I got  a sweet NASA pin. ;)

One area was entirely dedicated to the indies (the heroes!), a sizable amount for schools and countries hawking themselves (spoke to the guy from Wake Tech), and then of course some of the big names. Word on the street was that companies had really scaled back this year — didn’t have the same crazy feel like last year. I went by Havok’s display at Intel’s booth where Tim showed us what the the crazy physics engine could do. Mike came by and walked around with us for a while too. Some interesting things:

• Ambient peripherals. You can get tiny desk fans, desk lights, and rumble keyboard wristpad that can be activated as you are playing a game to help make the ambient environment match what’s going on.
• Ultra-compact, low cost real time motion capture kits
• An ultra-sonic based Wii-like remote for the Xbox 360
• Neurosky’s brain-wave powered control device
• PS3′s 3D glasses enabled games

A lot of focus on new ways of game interaction. After the expo hours wrapped we wanted to go get a bite to eat. A lot of places shut down in the financial district, but we got some Chinese food before we made our way to the uber metrocool W hotel’s lounge for an afterparty. Exhausted after 3 days with very little sleep and facing a packed Friday, I left soon after to catch the Caltrain home.

Really memorable and exciting 3 days in the City, that’s for sure!