GDC 2009 and PF party

So far, have not gone to any panels or lectures for GDC.
We picked up the PF badge in my name on Sunday night and went out for dinner with my cousin Chris at Thirsty Bear Brewing Company.

Little did we suspect that Satoru Iwata, president and CEO of Nintendo, would be seated at the table next to us.

Did not talk to him of course. Geeked out about it on the street outside and Chris found a picture online to compare with our memories. Yes, it was him.

Today PlayFirst launched Wandering Willows to the public and I was happy to be able to go to our PF developer party at GDC.
I met several developers who seemed excited to hear about Willows, and talked to them about their projects and all. Also really good to see Kenny who works in SF but has been in NZ for months, and Michelle who works on the East Coast.

This was the 2 year anniversary of first meeting Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games,
after my cousin Chris Dahlen smartly recognized him at the PlayFirst Diner Bash 2007 and I managed to connect him to Kenny briefly at the party. Kenny already was a fan of Dave's game The Shivah.

That led to us starting to work on the early stages of the game that became Emerald City Confidential - which along with WW is one of the other games that launched this quarter.
I can't take credit for more than that initial work to get the deal signed, since Michael and others took over at that point, and the project was nto necessarily easy to finish.
But I do feel really good to have helped them make the connection. Maybe it feels a little like being a literary agent - matching up writers and publishers. I think the game is quite good, as do many reviewers.
And Dave has learned a lot about what works to get the casual audience more into his games.

After the PF party I felt a little lost. Too early to go to the Minna Mingle, which I hadn't RSVP'ed to anyway.
Most of the other PF people were taking a developer out to dinner.
I called a couple friends and Chris to see where they were, and walked past the Minna Mingle. That intersection at 4th and Mission was interesting: small hordes of people, mostly guys, wandering around apparently from party to party? dinner to party?
I saw one small group of women go by. Also did some good eavesdropping. It didn't feel too weird to just hang out there since there were so many people around. And I still had a little buzz from the PF party.

Not too sure I wanted to enter into another crowd where I didn't know people, I decided to jump on BART and go home. I also have a dinner on Wed and Dave's Wadjet Eye party on Thursday.