[arg_discuss] Develop 2006 + Group Gathering

[Adam Martin]

A much smaller gathering this time (obscured by the megalithic amBX 
stand in front of the IGDA booth), but we had 7 people come along mostly 
to learn about ARG's, from backgrounds as diverse as AI, mobile, and 
audio. Hopefully some new faces on the list in the coming days...

Develop was a good conference - short, sweet, and by the beach. For a 
2-day conference, we managed to get in to a surprising number of 
parties, although I think the VIP room at the Ocean club probably won 
hands down. A whole lot of mingling later, and yours-truly several 
pounds lighter in Perplex City cards now transferred to the hands and 
pockets of the great and the good, I'm confident the ARG message is 
continuing to spread far and fast.

My personal feeling is that this year, at GDC and Develop, the 
receptiveness for ARG's and interest in them from developers seems to 
have increased considerably. That's partly that we've got better at 
distilling out the most interesting - and most revolutionary - aspects, 
but I think it's also the knock-on effect from the big mainstream 
successes of gameplay and story of the last year or so, combined with 
the mini-boom as people ramp up for next gen.

Organizers permitting, I hope to get the slides for my talk up this 
weekend. It was a relatively small audience, but given I was competing 
against Sega's party, Codemasters party, and ... a free Razorlight show 
on the beach, I think we did well ;).

-- 
Adam Martin
CTO, Mind Candy Ltd

tel: 0207 501 1904 - fax: 0207 501 1919
www.perplexcity.com - www.mindcandydesign.com