gewgaw

I got my copy today! WOOT for perks!

Well – after a week of the flu, pushing to zero bugs and a bunch of craziness (including my birthday!)… I’m finally gearing up for GDC! Finalizing the press schedule for Bash Party, my talks, meetings, parties and lunches. Wow – how does a week in the future go by so quickly?

A highlight this week was definitely my visit The Mirman School, for their annual celebration of Women in Science and Technology. The students were so bright, enthusiastic and genuine… gasping out loud when they heard that the keynote speaker was someone who worked on video games!

It has been a crazy push this last month, for sure. Between finalling the game, playing games for the Experimental Gameplay session, and prepping my talks.. there have definitely been times where I wonder why I spend so much time volunteering outside of work. But then – I have an experience like yesterday – and am reminded that it’s because I love sharing my love of games with others. There’s nothing better than giving that joy back to the community!

Especially when you can do it with a game! Seeing the kids giggle and gasp as they toppled toweres of blox, explored underwater and outer space physics… it was like having my birthday all over again. And IGN’s first hands on with BOOM BLOX Bash Party mirrors this experience as well! Just knowing that this game will get out there and provide so much entertainment makes the labor pains fade from memory.

Now for some quality time with our peers! Can’t wait to see and play what you’ve all been up too – discuss the state of our industry, and make plans for the year to come. It’s going to be a great one!!

WOOT!

The Original BOOM BLOX takes home a BAFTA!

Congrats to everyone who helped – every contribution from concept to playtest made the game what it is.

Way to ROCK!!

Awesome

And speaking of the depths of the sea… the new BOOM BLOX Bash Party trailer is now up on Game Trailers, MTV.com and Joystiq!

Yay!

So – as I posted before, my sound director Brad is a super adventurous dude – and recently convinced us to take a paragliding and sea kayaking adventure down in La Jolla which was fantastic!

In the fall, he also offered to teach us all how to SCUBA dive, since he’s becoming certified as a Dive Master. I considered over the winter, and when the weather began to warm up, decided to take the plunge and started classes along with a bunch of folks from work!

Learning to dive was much really an adventure! There is a lot of equipment to learn, operate and master. It’s a little to get started, and you have to purchase some things alongside your rentals… like fins (mine are HOT PINK), a mask and snorkel. And last but not least, the idea of running out of air as you are 40 or 60 feet below the surface of the water is kind of freaky – so you need some time to adjust… and study!

Our first day was focused on education – testing our knowledge of the dive tables (tracks the nitrogen in your blood!), procedures and common problems we might encounter on a dive. Then – a pool day where we become familiar with the equipment as it functions underwater. Biggest learning: My legs are floaty! When I try to achieve “neutral bouyancy”, my legs tend to float up, keeping me from laying flat in the water (like a fish). Who knew?

After our pool day I was pretty confident that I could handle the equipment – all I had to deal with was the cold. The water here on the coast is very chilly – especially down where we were going (kelp forests off of Catalina and Anacapa islands). A heavy wet suit, hood, booties and gloves will get you most of the way to comfortable – but the feeling of cold cold water on your lips and forehead (the parts that are NOT covered by your gear) is pretty striking. Your lips actually turn a little blue!

Diving with a buddy is key – and it’s important to keep eyes on them at all times. We did have a moment where Ben got caught in an updraft and had to surface unexpectedly – just as I was enjoying the view of some starfish on a kelp bed.

It is *not* fun realizing your buddy is suddenly not where you expected! Especially when you’ve heard tales of divers drowning in kelp because they get tangled, freak out and spit out their regulators. Yikes!! Luckily, Ben is super zen – and was bobbing safely at the top when we surfaced. Our training kicked in as it should, and our instructors (Brad and Stuart) were right there to make sure everyone was ok. This is why you study and test before diving – and plan your dives thoroughly.

By far, the second ocean dive day was my favorite! We were mostly done with our training and able to focus on enjoying the beautiful, strange and ever-changing underwater environment. I was esepcially relaxed once I had successfully removed & replaced my mask underwater – which freaks me out a little because it involves breathing through your mouth only when your nose is exposed to the water.

After a nice tour of the kelp, we headed to a small inlet, to dive with young sea lions!

This was probalby one of the coolest experiences I have had with wildlife. They were at once wild and playful, close and far away. Even though they had the grace of dancers in the water, and were within an arms’ length as they came close… they were instantly teleported by their strong fins and tails such that they felt like a vision. Like smoke, running past in the water. Magic!

Luckily, Brad (who took all the underwater photos in this post) was able to capture the sea lions on video – so you can see for yourself just how graceful these funloving, diver-loving creatures can be:

As you can see from the linked videos here, the fearless beauty and playfulness of sea mammals is truly touching. And if you’ve ever kept an aquarium, you know that fish also have a strange, captivating manner as well. This experience totally transformed my perspective on what it means to dive. Not just something you do on vacation in Carribean – it is a whole new universe to explore and enjoy!

Yesterday I got notice that I am official certified for open water dives! This means I can continue to dive here in California – taking classes in bouyancy, night diving, and navigation. I can continue to explore the reefs and kelp off the coast here… and hopefully, go diving when I take my post-ship vacation. Thailand is looking likely…

Big ups to Brad, Ocean Adventures Dive Company here in Venice and our fantastic and fun instructor Stuart Tanner – who did a wonderful job teaching us how zen out, descend, and swim with the fishes. Best Bradventure yet!

And we are jamming out to Beck and Danny Elfman.

I love u guys. :)

Yay! Henry Hatsworth – the most excellent and puzzling adventure is unveiled!

With some games out there, going hands-on is a love/hate experience for us. Just like everyone else out there, we anticipate a title, hope the team can live up to the game’s potential, and once we get our grimy little hands on it, it’s obvious the title just isn’t as good as we were hoping. We play it, keep a level of cautious optimism, but it’s usually a long shot to see something like that improve before launch. EA’s latest DS title is a puzzle/platform hybrid game, and its design isn’t the only way Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is breaking the mold. The first time we saw it, we fell in love with the concept. We went hands-on, and it rocked. Now we’ve got what is possibly a review version of the game in our hands (pending Nintendo approval and all that technical red tape), and once again we’re loving Henry Hatsworth. This one has been an obvious DS power player since the very beginning, and it’s still a blast to play now.

Add this one to your wish list.

Yay! Go HH! Smashing!

PS: Go become a friend of Hatsworth on Facebook, a fan…. or follow him on Twitter!

First official “mention” of BBBP on IGN podcast:

“We can’t write about it, due to NDA, but it is awesome. Instead of saying, “We played Boom Blox” We can say, “hell yeah bitches we F’n played Boom Blox” that will give you an idea of how much we loved it.”

:)

EGW judging coming to a close – we will have answers back to folks within the week. GDC party planning also got a jump-start (thanks Jane!!!), and I got a whole 9 hours of sleep yesterday. Wow – it’s nice to be almost done.

Great link from Kevin Marks re: Facebook and open gardens. As I mentioned in a lecture yesterday to Jesper’s class at MIT – one approach to casual-ifying any experience is open-ness: giving access to the content, giving praise, envisioning the experience as a constent flowering of new experiences – not just an earn & burn cycle. Super excited to see how smaller games and apps can leverage this approach in the next couple of years.

Also – thanks to Edge for the shoutout in the Hot 100 – and kudos to Rod, Jenova, Jon and all y’all for getting up there! Games are the communication medium of the 21st century – let’s keep pushing to expand their reach and capacity to create joy!

Finally – yes, there will be a birthday/party at GDC! Saturday, just after the conference. Save the date and make plans to stay in SF if you can! Jane & Lulu are doing the heavy lifting on this (I’m still shipping!) but I can’t wait to see you all! Travel safe!