What an interesting, rewarding weekend. Saturday morning found me completely unprepared to ascent mount mindcamp. I had not read the philosophy documents, or even the address, and had no idea even if it was an overnight. On a pancake laden morning, I sat down with the computer to figure it out, make my list, and completely overpack. The main things I figured out was, I may or may not be staying the night, I may or may not like the food, and I definitely needed to be there by 12 noon OR ELSE. So I packed, and considered the bus, and begged for a ride. The 2 year old was screeching the whole time, my nerves were shot, and every cell of my body was crying out: go to the mall instead. Then to a nice restaurant. Then to the spa. (I can be a bit of a princess). But my family dropped me off at mindcamp anyway.
What I brought:
* 20 CDs of mine from 1999. Many were gone quickly, then I think people got shy about the last three. So those will probably go to Andru and the gang. Very gratifying to bring some music of mine that I have had a bumpy relationship with. After all, the guest piano is gone from our house, I sold the one I owned, and I no longer work someplace with a piano in the lobby, so practicing over the past decade has been spotty. Part of it is a symbol of the fact that I think music is somehow extra. Cooking, however, is not extra, and so I spend the past decade channeling my energy into that. Go figure. My goal for giving away CDs was a) to get them out of my house, b) maybe to have a musician hear them and want to play along, c) fishing for compliments. If you want a CD, it is very much dotcom era lillith faire stuff. E-mail me and I�ll send you one. And yes, I want to make music part of my life again.
* The last of the crab. I found out it was Tanner Crab. Very yummy stuff. And now I have a freezer with some space in it! We acquired the crate of crab because my brother has connections to the fishing industry. It was a great deal, although we could not finance the purchase of the chest freezer at the same time, so it was also a short term possession. As many good things are.
My first attempt at spontaneity:
* The free stuff table was right at the entrance of the building. It seemed to capture the spirit and philosophy of mindcamp. The ideas spoken here are free. This is an NDA free zone. The people are free. Nobody is being paid to be there � excepting possibly the happy people from Google. The knowledge is free. The format, however, is very structured. Every interaction between the event and the attendees has a sort of syntax. The free table is a table. It has this position in the building. The stuff on it is free.
* I immediately saw the enormous stack of this American life CDs. Someone had burned them from some source. I did not want to find out. There was maybe 200? Which thrilled me. My relationship with TAL is of constant seeking and obstacles. When I get a moment when it is on the radio, I pull over and listen, pretending my errands take that much longer. Occasionally I remember the feeling and the ideas coming from the stories and vow to listen to them online. Then, I recall the adherence to the .rm format, which brings up a truckload of baggage, and I shy away from the archive. Finally, I decide I will buy each of the CDs with actual cash money in order to escape the baggage, the timing, and technology hurdles. Of course that is never going to happen. Then these CDs appear as if the wish fairy was on the job that day. I take a modestly sized stack. I swing back, notice there are some list, and grab a second stack. I think the shame kicked in at the third grab. I did share. Really.
* I put up a silly notice about a geek triathlon invitational which I might just follow through with. The notice, um �fell down� or something. The idea is � only geeks can enter. Only people who think �fun run� is an oxymoron are qualified. We would run � the way around greenlake. Then swim like 2 laps. Then bike to the nearest internet caf� to blog about it. Why would this be interesting? Each person has their own reason. I have always wanted to do something and get out there physically, yet the uber-jock thing is insanely intimidating. Anyway. The idea is still interesting.
My three words:
* Hi I�m Elizabeth Grigg and my blog is called reverse-engineering happiness. My three words are: Chocolate. Peanutbutter. Mashup.
* I had maybe 200 introductions to listen through to work on that one. Good, huh?
* Many Microsoft people sitting in clusters. Some soon to be ex-Microsofties. Some brilliant and vivid exceptions. A good bunch.
2pm session: Startup Pitch:
* Due to overenthusiasm I agreed to take notes / write on the whiteboard. Little did I know the organizer had not arrived, so the pen wieldeth mighty. (I just like to use the word wieldeth). Anyway, I took notes, which means I can�t remember what anyone said, especially about MY IDEA
* Buzz spoke of ActiveWords. He requested help from the developer community in porting this product to other platforms. The product is excellent. Here is why I don�t use it. I don�t use ActiveWords because, as a UI interaction designer, I need to be in close touch with consumer pain. I need to have my finger on the pulse of how hard it is to use a PC. ActiveWords minimizes that pain. If you�re not a UI interaction designer, you might want to give it a try. It�s so effective, it might cause you to wonder why using a PC was so hard in the first place.
* I also might have been the only other person in the room who had read �Your Money or Your Life.� This is a markedly different program than quicken etc, because it maps your value system to your expenditures. You can�t actually achieve any of your financial goals unless you do so. The track-your-finances product was pitched and most people didn�t understand (it seemed to me). If you want to change your financial life, this is how to do it. It�s a huge development and also an advance for humanity. I have not used the product, but I have read the book several times.
3pm session: Free & Open Source Board Game Design
* Ron Hale-Evans treated a smaller group of us to the piecepack, which is a gaming system. (warning, link goes to PDF). Ron has ran, entered, and won some contests for games based on this system, which either fall under the category or original or �port� (where you take an existing game and map it to the piecepack).
* I learned of something called letterboxing which I definitely have to look up, it�s sounded a little like the way dogs communicate across time and space (pee on something and wait for another dog to walk by and read what you �wrote�), and also sounded like PGP. You need to be in nature, too. Gotta look that one up.
* Ron showed us the board game Orion which I will be buying for my kids. It is a gaming system, seemingly like a flat rubik�s cube, but with many different objectives and a supercool 1971 type look and feel. I mentioned to Ron my grandfather in law (who just passed this year) was the inventor of Terrace and of course he is enough of a gamer to know what that was. Great to get Ron�s card and feel the world becoming a little less limiting and more fun.
4pm session: Indie Game Development
* What a session. This was essentially Q and A from 3 individuals who were holding down full time development jobs at Sony Interactive, but also doing their own project on the side. How did they pull this off, keep morale up, and not go broke or insane? This was the line of questioning on my side. I jotted down the names Dan Thompson and Tom Armstrong, and am sorry I didn�t get the third person�s name. Nobody seems to show up in any search engines. Here is a paraphrase of my take-homes:
* Indie gaming does not necessarily equal casual gaming. You can deliver an indie game without it falling into the casual game category. But it�s hard to do and you have to keep your focus. Because of the constraints involved with indie games, a casual game concept may be a better one to implement, especially if it doesn�t need tons of art. 3 and � D realism, complex plots and character development.
* Constraints, you say? Isn�t indie game development some kind of fantasy land, where you can come up with a cool idea at 2am and have it implemented by 5am, without having to ask anyone�s permission? Can�t you just surf on credit cards, hire all your friends, do whatever you want, and get rich quick? (insert flashback from my life in 1992. � . and we�re back.)
* Yes, constraints. If you�re ready to do indie games, here is the advice I didn�t follow but wish I had. (Nah, I have no regrets. But if you like your credit rating and are not 22, you might take heed).
1) Don�t use your own money. Yes, this means you will be doing developer art. Yes it means you have to buy people pizza. Look, publishers like PopCap can �finish� a game you have submitted by dropping in new art easy. Keep going and get it as done as you can. As soon as you start paying people, you realize you need more artists, and all that art needs revision. It spirals out of control.
2) Pick an easy concept. Pick something you can finish. Don�t pick an idea that is ambitious. Pick the smallest thing you think will be a slam dunk to complete and still be a game. Because it�s really hard to finish a game. Just give yourself an opportunity to do so by picking the easy concept first. Finish the game, and if you still think it was easy, pick a harder concept the next time. How do you tell the difference between an easy concept and a hard one? The perspective can be huge � choosing top down shooter takes out the other 4 sides of any particular tile, you are left with only the top tile. This is enormously enabling. Also, light source does not have to pivot in 3D. These types of technical decisions add up to how complex your idea is.
3) Prototype and make sure the thing you want to develop is good. Use flash, something called raj (I have to look this up), any other prototyping engine can help you tell whether the gameplay is spot on.
4) Hire lawyers. They are worth the money. The contracts you are shown are clever and riddled with decoys. This is way over your head. Pay the lawyer.
5) Make it superclear who owns your game. Who owns your IP. Because some people working on your game might not be getting paid, and they might think the game is theirs.
Other notes:
* Darwinian was brought up over and over again as the example of indie game development done right
* Don�t turn your nose up at mods, some mods of unreal, for example, can be rather unique. It�s a whole category of indie game work that maybe does not get the respect it could.
* Overall this was a very cleansing session for me, because it seemed all the mistakes we made were so inevitable. We picked console game development. We picked a large concept. We used our own money. We didn�t prototype because we were too impatient. We wanted to be original and unique and brilliant and did not have our stake in the craft of the work, we were more focused on the result. But hey, you only get to be 22 once.
5pm session � I split my time between �Building Seattle�s AdHoc Tech Community� and �TaxiBus Shuttle Service.�
* Went to the community one first, which was run by our fearless mindcamp organizers. Expect more frequent events. My only request is to continue the freedom through syntax concept. It works.
* Skipped out and dashed into the taxibus shuttle service session. Tom Bihn was there, seattle bag designer, returning feedback to a presentation that I had missed. I sympathize with the problem of being in an odd spot for the bus, not wanting to pay for a cab, yet life without a car being too damned hard, and cars themselves being too damned expensive. However I did not see a solution that trumped the concept of Flexcar IF (and only if) they add the feature of delivery and pick-up. A bike rack on every flexcar, and bike messenger types (the kozmo.com guys still need work, right?) deliver you the car at location A and are perfectly happy to pick it up when you are done at location B. But of course I have not thought about the problem as much as these guys.
6pm the Google Dinner
* Why are these guys feeding us? OK, I�ll eat. What�s the catch?
* Wow, that was good. Catering by Kaspar�s. Most excellent.
* Sat with Jen Zug and contemplated my departure that evening. If I am to depart. Which I didn�t know. Glad for the offer of the ride.
8pm
* Eager for a new session, but the dynamic after dinner was different. I scratched down the session for Communicating for Clarity and Compassion (which I often lack) (guess which one) (see what I mean) but it seemed canceled. At least the little sheet was no longer up.
* I chickened out of the Be My Freud session for someone who wanted help adjusting to life after Microsoft. I thought it would bring up too much baggage for me to attend. Instead, I sat on the couch with Anita Rowland and Jack Bell (UIEvolution) playing songs from Ziggy Stardust and acting like we had poor impulse control when really we don�t.
* Then while sitting there Heather Flanagan came to tell us the Freud session was a ruse � and the group of willing freud wannabes ended up disbanding. Methinks the joke was not meant to touch a nerve.
9pm Balloons
* Feeling spacy and like my brain was seizing up. Stopped in the lab for a minute in pursuit of a game of Werewolf which was a game I had not heard of. It sounded promising. At least dramatic. But I had the schedule wrong and the topic was balloons. Thought I was up to the challenge. Thought wrong. Ended up failing at putting together a balloon airplane. Slinked out of there noisly with everyone noticing. Oh well.
9pm Lightning Round session
* This is where each speaker is timed to 5 minutes. DRM was discussed, not very pointedly, and we heard some more product pitches, and then a much needed howto on product pitches.
* I wanted to catch Jack Huang who had the terrific idea of a restaurant as a UFO which could take off and land from any location. However he vanished in the nearest UFO right after speaking. Jack � we have to talk! Don�t give up on the dream!
* After searching on this blog for my entry on the �As If� restaurant chain of my own devising, I have come to the conclusion I need to remind you all of this idea and specifically Jack as soon as humanly possible. Perhaps it dates from my old radio weblog days and the entry is now off the air.
* I should have done a lightning round and perhaps a spontaneous session on my alternative ending idea to HP6. Didn�t think of it until later. Would this have bored everyone?
10pm
* Good hallway conversation with Trevor F. Smith, game industry professional.
* Trevor was in the Indie Game session with me and was paying close attention to the great wisdom being bestown in our direction.
10:15pm
* Spacey feeling continuing. I still haven�t found Jack. Honestly think I am just walking the hall at this point. I get to look at Aaron Tinling's demo of the flash card application he is working on.
* There is a bowling match being run by the Wii people.
* Some other people have taken apart a shop vac in order to build a neumatic tube system. Things are shooting across the hall. Time to smile and head home, happy to have Jen and Bryan drive me there.
* The game of Werewolf begins in my absence.
7:30am
* I return in my own car, slept and showered, with my kid in tow.
* The game of werewolf has continued throughout the night. The people who actually slept / spent the night are not awake. The werewolf people are getting cranky. They slap their knees and accuse each other of various things.
* The Nintendo people have taken the Wii home. My son is crushed.
9am
* Seeing that there are no more sessions, I grab swag and leave. We go to Fred Meyer to buy shoes. Real life is back.
What to conclude from this weekend�s adventure at mindcamp? I could not have designed a better weekend. The environment allowed and even celebrated the two qualities I have that irritate people most � ideas without thinking them through first, and poor impulse control when commenting. Maybe that�s the same quality. Anyway, I was like a fish in water. Going �what�s water?� It was big fun and I feel ready for my week. Maybe not in terms of groceries, amount of sleep, or laundry, but psychologically and emotionally ready.
Keep it up Mindcamp Team! Woot!
"Mindcamp 3.0"