[Update] I’m back in Seattle and (mostly) recovered. Thanks to everyone that came to either of my User Research or Game Design talks. Special thanks to all the readers that introduced themselves; it seems like I am reaching my intended audience of “veteran game designers”. A narrow demographic, to be sure. Unfortunately, I spent too much time networking and not enough time attending interesting sessions, but I may cheat and do a wrap-up based on the GDC Vault at some point.
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No posts this week. Between a vacation and delivering two talks I just don’t have time to write anything worthwhile. If you are going to be in San Francisco, you can catch me here:
- March 1st at the Game User Research Summit on “Useful Research: Recommendations Designers will Actually Act On”
- March 3rd at the Game Developer Conference proper on “Design in Detail: Tuning the Muzzle Velocity of the Plasma Rifle Bolt on Legendary Difficulty across the Halo Franchise”
If you are in the audience and read the blog, please come up afterword and say hello. I’d love to find out who is reading this thing and get your feedback face-to-face. I’ll also be posting summaries and responses to the lectures and panels I attend when I get back.
Rewarding Play 
Hope you have (or had?) an enjoyable, relaxing vacation!
Thanks, yeah, the trip was great. I highly recommend Turks and Caicos. Beautiful islands, wonderful people.
And both my talks went well, too. So I am feeling pretty good right now. 8)
Glad to hear it! Can’t wait to see your notes from the talks at GURF and GDC.
or rather GURS as my fingers failed to type
Didn’t have time to say hi at the conference but I enjoyed the talk :)
Great! Glad you enjoyed it. I’m just happy I finished on time this year! I had to cut about 30 slides, but it was worth it not to have to rush.
Good to chat with you at GDC.
“Can’t wait to see your notes from the talks at GURF and GDC.”
Seconded. I recall a very perceptive comment you made on spending hours driving the warthog because you wanted to internalize the mechanics that were good, a practice I regularly employed. Great blog, by the way.
Thanks. Glad you like it. My talks are so long, I’m trying to avoid just cut-and-pasting for weeks by breaking them up a bit.