Earlier this evening was “Demo Night”, an event co-produced by the New York and New Jersey chapters of the IGDA. It was a chance for local talents to show off their games… so naturally, a few folks were assuming I’d have one on-hand myself. Unfortunately, I didn’t, even though I really should have. But this isn’t the place to really go into very personal business, so…
Anyhow, quite a few games were demoed, some good, some not. Perhaps the best one were a pair of titles produced by Large Animal, which is not only located in the heart of Manhattan (and just four blocks away from my former digs at Ubi Soft NY, which is now home to the ever growing Gameloft) but who’s offices they were lending for the event. Also, its where Coray Seifert works, who’s not only the IGDA NJ co-coordinator, but an all around super nice guy (I met him last month at the Game Engine 2 event).
The first one was TeamUp, in which you control three girls, each with a unique ability (one can jump, one can push, and one can throw), in puzzle-based levels. It?s simple and cute, and had a rather gameLab-ish vibe. The second one was RocketBowl, which can be best described as a combination of bowling and miniature golf. It?s a 3D title, has a 50?s vibe, and seems to have a ton of potential.
Other standouts include The Adventures of El Ballo, a rather keen looking side scroller for OS X and the latest game from Jonah Warren. I first met Jonah at Gamer?s Nite Groove from just a few weeks ago who had his Full Body Games installation on hand (I even got to play a bit of Two Touch). For tonight, he showed off Organsim, a super simple, but super brilliant puzzler (which once again, felt like a gameLab title, especially Blix).
An outfit called Thup showed off Avatar Prom, a community based game in which one takes a date to the dance and must face off against stuck up ?haters? in a turn based, Japanese RPG-ish fashion. It was produced for The N (God I miss that channel and their Pete & Pete reruns) and is apparently super popular, though it was easy to tell why.
But it was a bit awkward to watch since the game before it, Popularity High, was almost exactly the same thing. Produced by a much smaller team (and with far less money? actually none), it?s another community based game in which a player must create their own persona (though Avatar Prom had a far more robust and customizable means), and become the most popular.
Unfortunately, in addition to being far more polished, Avatar High just seemed liked more fun; not only was there more to do, the core gameplay made totally sense, whereas I simply could figure out how Popularity High?s own dancing based gameplay worked. Also, the fact that Avatar High, a game backed by the billion dollar Viacom corporation, and is aimed at 14 year old girls, features mostly lesbian couples (as said before, it?s a community based, and since it?s almost all girls?) is pretty damn awesome. But I still felt bad for the guy behind Popularity High as the Thup people wowed the audience with their super polished product (especially when they showed off the animation editor).
As for the rest of the event, it was the normal smoozing and boozing one would expect from an IGDA meet. Saw some old faces (a few I was glad to see again, and others I knew this time to avoid) and met some new ones. Even a few students from my class came out to the event. One I had believed to be a fellow member of the Gaming Age Forums, but had never asked if he was, till tonight (he claimed to have been waiting forever for me to make the connection). The other simply made me drop my beer, but the bottle landed right side up, which even I have to admit was pretty impressive.
The addition of the Jersey crew certainly gave things a bit of a different feel; almost everyone that I talked to from that side of the fence were quite friendly and approachable, and not all overly cynical and stand-offish like some of my New York ?brothers?. Speaking off, some of the more notorious, headache inducing members were there, and in full effect, ready to brag to anyone about whatever stupid project they?re working on, which they always claim is guaranteed to push X number of units, is making their V.C.?s salivate, and is purportedly going to come out for PS2 and Xbox.
Two standouts from the Jersey side include a really nice (and cute) girl who writes occasionally for IGN and a guy who was pretty loud and honest when offering his two cents regarding the games demoed and the other people in attendance. I liked this guy so much that I offered him a job; the other game design teacher at SVA is stepping down, so I offered to help find a replacement, and this person seemed to fit the bill. He too was annoyed by the amount of lip service that was going around (almost all from NY folks, of course) and the current state of game academia (and hence why I feel he would make a great instructor; he actually gives a shit if students who study the subject are actually learning game design).
It?s no secret that I?m rather annoyed and disappointed by many on the New York side of things (hence why I?m not exactly a popular person in certain circles), and tonight?s event, in which I finally got to interact with the Jersey members simply re-enforced what I?ve been saying for a long time. That is, if the New York game development community wants to thrive, they had better start acting like they?re in one, by becoming more aware of what?s going on and start supporting each other, instead of staying in their little corners of the room. Lord knows I?m getting tired of talking about issues and having no one seem to even care, to the point where I now go to the NJ IGDA forums for any sort of discussion instead of the NY forum (which Coray finds pretty funny).
