or maybe something uplifting…

So the GDC is over and done with. I took over 30 pages of notes (the paper kind). The sessions Jeff and I chose were on casual games or web-based games whenever possible. Brian Robbins led three roundtables on different aspects of web-based games, which encompasses most casual games. We participated in all three sessions and it was definitely worth it. I had been a little apprehensive about getting out there and getting involved but the discussions there really made me feel that I’m on the right track and what I’m doing makes sense.
Read the rest of “Back from the GDC”…

This morning we started with a session called How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days. The two presenters, Kyle and Kyle, shared lessons they’d learned while working on the experimental gameplay project from Carnegie Melon University. They also showed some of the games that came out of the project. There were lessons I’d heard and some that I didn’t expect.

In the Experimental Game Play project, participants followed 3 rules:

1. The game must be made in less than seven days.
2. The development team for each game has a size of one. One person does concept, design, programming, art, and sound (that’s one person for all those features, not one each).
3. The game would be built to include a previously ageed-upon theme. There were many sessions for the project over the year and each session had a theme that participants must include. Examples of themes were things like gravity or springs.

Read the rest of “Rapid Prototyping from the Experimental Gameplay Project”…

Last night we got together for dinner with Erik, Dan Howard, and Scott. We got to talking a little about scrum and agile development, micro ISVs, and working in the software industry. All-in-all what you’d expect when some software-types get together and chat.

Today we took it easy, tooled around Mountain View a little bit in the morning. Scott took us for a quick walk around Yahoo! It sounds like they’re doing some pretty exciting things there. The next generation of Photos will be pretty sweet.

Here’s what the weather’s been like for us:

Okay, it hasn’t rained the whole time, but I’ve seen a lot more of the windshield wipers this time than any other California trip.
Read the rest of “Tooling Around Mountain View and so on”…

The drive yesterday was simply amazing. Jeff and I have seen LA before and we’ve both been to San Jose, but the drive between the two has some of most beautiful natural views I’ve ever seen. We flew in to Los Angeles on Saturday and spent the afternoon there. After picking up dessert at Real Food Daily we drove up to Ventura where there was a room at La Quinta waiting for us. After checking in we took the half-hour trip to Santa Barbara for dinner at Spiritland Bistro and drinks in a local bar.

The part Jeff and I have been planning out over the past couple months however, was yesterday’s journey. I’ve done parts of Highway 1 before - Candace and I travelled between Malibu and Laguna Beach last year on our E3 trip (you can see some of the photos from that trip at OnBeaches.com). This year Jeff and I packed the whole 350-odd miles into one day.

In the morning we got on the road pretty early, maybe a little after 8:00. Jeff drove first and I took a few pictures out the window. I know logically that there’s no real reason to pick up a camera in a car driving at 70 miles per hour, but there’s something that gets me every time I’m on a trip. There’s this instinct to capture and hold on to great memories of great places. There’s no real shareable value in photos shot out the window of a moving vehicle. Generally they’re only of interest to the people who were there since the quality is only good enough to act as a queue to the sense of adventure that the scenery stirred up in the first place.

When we got into Santa Barbara in the morning we went up State Street (the main drag). There’s a wharf that juts a long way out into the water. We took a walk out to the end and soaked in the ocean smells and clear views out to the horizon. The wharf also affords a look back over the city laid out in front of the mountains. I’m still learning to use my new camera - a Digital Rebel XT, but I think I shot a few nice ones.

We’d hoped originally to spend some time on Leadbetter beach, but when we got there it was way too windy. I took a couple pics of the highway winding up and away from the city and a couple of the sand and surf, and that was enough. I guess next time I’ll pack a little warmer when the weather reports say 50 degrees and overcast.
Read the rest of “Pacific Coast Highway Drive”…

Since Jeff and I are looking for something to do on Monday (March 20) in San Jose for dinner, and Joel Spolsky’s going to be speaking at EclipseCon in Santa Clara that week, I thought I’d check the JoS discussion forums and see if there was going to be a meetup.

I met Joel at a lunch he organized in Toronto last winter. It was a pretty cool experience, having read so many of his essays. The first one I read from him was on starting an ISV (Microsoft term for any software vendor besides Microsoft). It really stuck with me and started me thinking a little differently about business. That was years ago and I don’t think I could find the particular essay let alone cite the bits that got to me, but at the time I spread it around because I found that Joel looked at things differently and expressed his ideas so clearly.

I didn’t see anything about a lunch or dinner going on the first time I looked. I emailed Joel and haven’t heard back yet (no worries, it’s only been a few days and he must get bags of mail). It looks like he has a crazy speaking schedule, so maybe he can’t do the informal get-togethers anymore. My next search on the discussion forums did turn up a question about a Santa Clara meetup - don’t know how I missed it the first time. Unfortunately comments are closed because of the age of the thread, so I’m resurrecting the idea here.

I got so charged up by hanging out and chatting with other software developers at the last get-together that I thought it’d be a good idea to go ahead and get in touch with some people so we can get a few people togather, have some dinner and have some talk about software, business, games and internet stuff.

My initial suggestion here is for the House of Siam at 55 South Market Street in San Jose 151 South Second Street, San Jose(updated, see below) at 5:006:30 on Monday, March 20. I suggest this restaurant because both Jeff and I have been there a couple times and liked it and they’ve got good vegetarian options. It’s not nearly as formal as their web site lets on. I’m sure they could handle the crowd of five or ten people that I expect will turn up.

If you plan to show then add your comment to this post (they’re moderated, so don’t sweat it if it doesn’t show up immediately). Also check back here before you head out there since plans change.

Update: Of course plans do change, but only slightly. There’s no more House of Siam at 55 South Market, it’s in a new location just a couple blocks away at 151 South Second Street between a Starbuck’s and a Quiznos.

It sounds like there should be about seven of us there so far, I’ve made a reservation with room for some more people to join us, so if you’re interested then the invite is still open.