So, tonight at 18:00 the Nordic Game event started with the INDIE NIGHT.
The students and I mingled first with the crowd, then went to hear the presentations - which were short and sweet.


First, there was a funny speech about whimsy and whimsicality in games, then we got to hear about how to give games some juiciness. The latter, by the way, was achieved - if you believed the tongue-in-cheek presenters - by simply adding some of the basic principles of classical animation into the way things are programmed to move.
      Quotes:
      "You can never have enough particles in your game!"
      "Add little eyes & faces into everything!"

We all got to play a little game called "AAAARRRGGHH!" which was designed for some 350 people. (I hope I got the number of A's right in the game's name.) Surprisingly, it was a screaming game. The reds won, I think. Or was it the greens?

A guy called Jeppsson from Blackberry reminded and persuaded us to look closer at that platform and the new Playbook tablet. It was interesting to hear that Blackberry apparently has more paid apps downloads than the Android market, and that most of those apps are games.

Nathan Vella (@Capy_Nathan), who said he had just flown in town, challenged us to think closer if a much-repeated phrase about the game industry is true or not, namely the saying:
      "Ideas are a dime a dozen - execution is what really matters."
Nathan made a good case that ideas are actually super-important, and that execution alone can be f*cking boring. But: devaluing the importance of ideas is a way to decrease the role of games as a part of today's media culture.

Four people talked about indie games that they really hated, and then we heard about "Booth Babes with Brains". (Don't ask... I really don't know what that was all about. But most participants liked the idea.)

When the talks ended and free beer was announced, I left the students there and decided to come back to the hotel. Tomorrow at 8:30 the event will go on.
Oh, and Klemen K said he would also put some images of tonight here later!


Written by
Carita Forsgren
23.5.2012, Malmö