Post post mortem
Had a decent time at Post Mortem last night; I think I'm going to make a monthly habit of it. An open but passively advertised event (I honestly don't recall how I originally heard about it), it's much less crowded and stressful than certain other pub-based nerdly events I could name. Arguably its industry focus helps keep the number of attendees down, but it's not like they ask for proof of employment at the door. The fact it's out in "the boonies" of Waltham probably helps more.
I ended up spending not a dime on the whole adventure, which is always nice. The commuter rail ticket-seller ignored me during the trip out, as sometimes happens, and a collision of events at the venue led to two drink tickets and a free buffet of hot pub food for all comers. I would end up bumming a ride home from a Gameshelf crewmember I bumped into there.
(OK, I did drop a couple bucks on tips. I think I was in the minority of people who were actually tipping the bartenders as they surrendered their drink tickets. WTF, people.)
Didn't write a company name on my nametag, which was an error, because evocative company names can act as a great conversation starter at events like this. People will either see a name they recognize and want to talk to you for that reason, or see a strange name and want to talk to you for that reason. Next time I'll just write "Appleseed". Though that's not the name of either of my game-producing personas, it is the name of the one thing I consider "my company" right now, and makes for a fine conversational lead-in.
Introduced myself to the event's organizer and asked if he knew anyone doing anything with Live Arcade. He didn't, which surprised me. I said, "Well, you do now, ha ha ha," big deal. The organizer is a cool dude and a great host, anyway; he makes a point of attending with an easy-to-find bright orange shirt on, and makes a point of drifting around and making sure everyone's happy to be there. He's done that at every Post Mortem I've attended off-and-on over the last couple of years.
Bumped into my Gameshelf friend and a friend of his, who has created games in the mobile market, a topic always interesting to me. Through that conversation, we drew in another indie game developer in a situation much like mine - writing the code for a casual game, contracting out the art & sound work, and looking for a publisher. Key difference is that she's going to shop around a finished and ready-to-publish product whereas I'm just shooting for a get-the-point-across prototype right now. Looking forward to following up with her.
Talked to a guy writing a book having something to do with game culture. I said I had a handful of angles he may be overlooking and would follow up with him as well.
The formal presentation was about selling "virtual goods", those little one-dollar images you can buy as gifts for people on Facebook (or indeed here on LiveJournal), or bonus clothing to spruce up your avatar on an online game, or what have you. Right, that thing that you probably look at and go Arrghh people are stupid that's the one. I decided that it didn't have much to do with the kind of downloadable, add-on content that, as a hopeful XBLA publisher, I'm interested in. But it was interesting to learn about nonetheless.
I ended up spending not a dime on the whole adventure, which is always nice. The commuter rail ticket-seller ignored me during the trip out, as sometimes happens, and a collision of events at the venue led to two drink tickets and a free buffet of hot pub food for all comers. I would end up bumming a ride home from a Gameshelf crewmember I bumped into there.
(OK, I did drop a couple bucks on tips. I think I was in the minority of people who were actually tipping the bartenders as they surrendered their drink tickets. WTF, people.)
Didn't write a company name on my nametag, which was an error, because evocative company names can act as a great conversation starter at events like this. People will either see a name they recognize and want to talk to you for that reason, or see a strange name and want to talk to you for that reason. Next time I'll just write "Appleseed". Though that's not the name of either of my game-producing personas, it is the name of the one thing I consider "my company" right now, and makes for a fine conversational lead-in.
Introduced myself to the event's organizer and asked if he knew anyone doing anything with Live Arcade. He didn't, which surprised me. I said, "Well, you do now, ha ha ha," big deal. The organizer is a cool dude and a great host, anyway; he makes a point of attending with an easy-to-find bright orange shirt on, and makes a point of drifting around and making sure everyone's happy to be there. He's done that at every Post Mortem I've attended off-and-on over the last couple of years.
Bumped into my Gameshelf friend and a friend of his, who has created games in the mobile market, a topic always interesting to me. Through that conversation, we drew in another indie game developer in a situation much like mine - writing the code for a casual game, contracting out the art & sound work, and looking for a publisher. Key difference is that she's going to shop around a finished and ready-to-publish product whereas I'm just shooting for a get-the-point-across prototype right now. Looking forward to following up with her.
Talked to a guy writing a book having something to do with game culture. I said I had a handful of angles he may be overlooking and would follow up with him as well.
The formal presentation was about selling "virtual goods", those little one-dollar images you can buy as gifts for people on Facebook (or indeed here on LiveJournal), or bonus clothing to spruce up your avatar on an online game, or what have you. Right, that thing that you probably look at and go Arrghh people are stupid that's the one. I decided that it didn't have much to do with the kind of downloadable, add-on content that, as a hopeful XBLA publisher, I'm interested in. But it was interesting to learn about nonetheless.