OK, so we're on for Friday, April 22 at 7PM at the Pizza Port in OB.  See you there!

OK, it's on. Anyone have a favorite place? How bout we try the Pizza Port in Ocean Beach?

http://maps.google.com/maps?um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=pizza+port&fb=1&gl=us&hq=pizza+port&hnear=San+Diego,+CA&ei=6uCnTa-xL4yCtgebzOHdBw&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CAcQtgMwAQ&iwloc=5263033598630706182

On that note, let's do another one!  How does Friday, April 22 sound for everyone?

Also, seeing the creator of Fract tear up over winning an IGF award having gone back to school at 28 to learn how to make games was pretty touching.

I got the nerdflu on Wednesday night, so I partied less at this GDC than in years past... BUT IT WAS STILL MY FAVORITE WEEK OF THE ENTIRE WORLD.

Maybe my highlight was deciding to hold a live Monaco playtest on the big screen at the end of my talk... on a whim.  Then without realizing it I invited Chevy Ray and Cellolose to be two of the thieves in the crew.  The game went great, no crashing, everyone seemed to get it, and the audience was cheering.  *PHEW*

I love GDC.  Indies are the best people in the world. :D

GREAT SUCCESS.

I think there was eight of us there.  Glaiel got carded.

Sorry I forgot to post this, but we're getting together for dinner at Pizza Port in Solana Beach at 7:00.  LL, that's actually fairly close to you if you can find a ride down.

It's looking like I may need a lift up there, due to my wife/driver suddenly finding out she has a job interview in town tomorrow evening. The situation may yet change, but if anyone is going to be going by the UCSD area... 

No problem!  PM me your phone/address and I'll pick you up on my way up!

OK, Thursday it is, 7:00PM Thursday at Pizza Port in Solana Beach.  If anyone down here in the city wants to carpool, I'd be down with that!

CRAP CRAP CRAP I just realized I had to change my plane tickets, I'm out of town that night!!!! ARGGG Sorry guys.  Can we postpone a week or do it on Thursday?

Awesome, so right now we have 6 including myself, I believe.  Looking forward to it!

For me, each game has its strengths - this the the first year that for me, all are actually worthy of the prize.  I'm having a hard time deciding, and it's making me think about what I think the prize means.  This type of thought process likely goes on with each of the judges, and the eventual outcome will simply be a sum of all of those philosophies.

Lol laxius force was entered to the IGF? Good thing it didn't win anything I guess, I can already imagine the epic ragedebate that will follow

Heh, yeah, like I said, I don't remember the actual scores I gave it.  And it's possible I liked it because in comparison to the rest of the games in my compulsory group, it was relatively fun.  The only ones in my 15 that I remember deserved nominations were Zeno Clash for art and Incredibots for tech.

As for the student showcase, no I don't know when they'll announce I'm afraid.

but that also brings us back to the earlier issue: would it be possible to provide entry instructions, official rules, and perhaps some of the website in other languages next year? as someone mentioned, a lot of people would enter if they didn't need to speak english to enter. or even just to put out a call that the igf is looking for translators, that'd be a good start. there are plenty of people on this forum who would probably be willing to translate the igf materials into their native languages.

That's a great idea.  I'm going to use my magical powers of Google Alert to get Brandon Boyer and Simon Carless to read your post.

Yeah, RPGs haven't always fared so well.  I was always disappointed that no game in the DROD series ever was nominated (I know, most of them are puzzle games, but they are kind of RPGish).  A shame...

I do remember voting for a Gamemaker game 2 years ago when I was a judge.  Didn't get in though.  Can't remember what it was called.

EDIT: it was http://www.laxiusforce.com  At least I think I voted for it, I remember liking it.

it's just weird to me that no jrpg before recetear has ever been nominated in any of those categories over the igf's 11-12 year history; even if you don't like jrpgs you do have to admit that some of them can have pretty good visuals and music.

The IGF has certainly become more globally recognized over the past 6 years.  I'm not at all surprised that no JRPGs were finalists before that.  And in the past 6 years, I don't know of any that were entered that deserved to win.  I think this is just a problem of the JRPGS being made in... yknow... Japan, and the makers not knowing or caring about the IGF.

I think I'd better stop arguing the point before I rage quit.  I certainly could be wrong.  I grew up playing C64 and PC games, not console games.  So my experience with platformers for the first twenty years of my life is fairly limited.  I have played a lot over the past 12, but that doesn't make me an expert.

I've also not played a lot of JRPGs.  I like some of the ones I've played (Disgaeia), I'm ambivalent about others (FFVII).

I do believe that indies have innovated a lot over the past 5 years.  Since so many indies make platformers, I believe that a disproportionate amount of that innovation has come within the framework of platformers.  I don't believe it's something necessarily inherent to the genre.

That's pretty much where I stand.  I'm willing to be educated on innovations that I don't know about, and I'm willing to be corrected if I think something is innovative that is in fact a copy of an earlier innovation.  I would love to hear about innovations in JRPGs for instance.  I love innovation in games.

But the argument about which genre is most innovative is probably not going to be resolved.

First, let me just say that I'm not actually saying TD games haven't been innovative, but that you are being strict with your definition of innovation when it comes to platformers and not with TD games.  But... if you'd like me to apply that strictness here (which I disagree with)

1) instead of upgrading towers on a straight path, you upgrade each statistic individually

Any RPG.

2) enemies are required to get something and then leave the way they came in rather than going from an entrance to an exit

Any game with a CTF mode.

3) invisible enemies and towers which detect them

Starcraft

can you name anything from, say, gish (which you claimed to be an innovative platformer), which is as innovative as any of those three things?

You are controlling a character that is a physically accurate amorphous blob and the controls revolve around adjusting invisible changes to his physical characteristics that allow you to get to places you couldn't otherwise get to.



I'm just saying that your standards for what passes as innovation in platformers are too high.  It feels like you've just planted your flag in this argument and are unwilling to move...
EDIT: I take this part back, it's a reasonable (if frustrating) discussion.

Cmon now, except for the mouse cursor shooting, absolutely NONE of these would have come close to even passing the smell test for something that was TRULY NEW that you applied to platformers.

Ahem, Paul, your double-standard is showing...

however, the genre is often used as an example of games which all play the same, even though those into it recognize how innovative and fresh the genre is, and how many mechanical variations there are (e.g. defense grid: the awakening is nothing like plants vs. zombies). this is kind of a great example of how not playing a genre much makes one think they're all the same.

Ah, you picked a good one.  I agree, there's been lots of innovation in Tower Defense!  And yes, I've played a TON of tower defense games.  I think they're great.  But the scale of the innovations within those games is actually quite small, and the easy dismissal you make of the things that I would define as innovations in many recent platformers could just as easily be applied to the things you describe as innovations in the TD genre.

(but remember: i wasn't claiming that jrpgs are more innovative than platformers, you were claiming that platformers are more innovative than jrpgs.)

Well, not specifically, but by implication, yes, I suppose, though I fully admit I'm not educated on the subject... *ahem*

EDIT: The thing about the innovations in TD games is that they tend to only apply to TD games.  The reason I think Platformers have had more innovation is that in many cases, their innovations actually apply to all of game design.  So while it's a different point, I would argue that the innovation that has happened in platformers has also been more IMPORTANT than any other genre.

All this and I'm not really a big fan of platformers... hohum.

My argument was that platformers have seen more innovation in the past 5 years than other genres.  You disagree.  Which genre has more?