Gamecamp, The Upgrade and London Bloggers

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I’ve been out and about the the few days…a Gamecamp was held at the weekend, then I went to a book reading and finally another installment London Bloggers Meeting

Gamecamp 4

Gamecamp May 2011

The fourth round of Gamecamp, it had, according to the numbers I totted up, 225 people passing through its doors, the largest ever. My involvement this time was less than in previous ones, (holidays and work getting in the way), but I spent most of the day on the door, so at least met (briefly) almost everyone who turned up.

I did squeeze in a few sessions. The first was a pretty practical session about tips for improving games. Succintly they are:

  • Think hard about the controls and what you need the player to do
  • Out time into the tutorials, not leaving them until last. Make sure they reflect the context of the game
  • Involve the audience in testing. Not your friends or fellow developers, but complete strangers
  • Recruit the right users. It’s not demographics, it psychographics
  • Think about success factors up front. Define what a successful design/game experience is before you go into testing!

Other sessions i attended included one a philisophical discussion about the mechanics, aesthetics and dynamics of game design and one on character journeys, or rather the lack of them, in video game design.

The Upgrade by Paul Carr

The Upgrade book reading with Paul Carr

Monday night was a trip to the only Uk reading by Paul Carr from his new book The Upgrade, on the surface a story about how to live your life in hotels and have mad adventures but underneath, more about how Paul changed – and saved – his life by stopping drinking. I loved the story, reading it in less than 24 hours and suggest getting it! As I bought a Kindle edition, he had nothing to sign. Instead, he annotated the front page of the electronic version, as seen in the photo 😉

London Bloggers’ Meetup

London Bloggers May 2011

I’ve been going to this meetup for years and it keep going from strength to strength, thanks to Andy Bargery. last night was sponsored by Hotwire, with the presentations and panel discussion all about travel blogging. Another successful night.

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