The IGF and GDC Awards Ceremony

All in all, we’re very grateful with the chance that was given to us by the IGF Comitee as a finalist. We were able to meet many experts from at the latest trend in video-games, as well as experts from the industry, including staff from Konami, Square-Enix, Capcom, Namco-Bandai, and many others.

Read the rest of the article for more photos and lessons learned from the GDC!

Though we didn’t have the biggest exposure in the hall (it was quite big with huge stands from Sony, Nintendo, Intel, Nokia, etc.), some (important) people did have a lot of interest in both Wind and Water and in Yuan Works; including someone from Konami (Online Division) who was really into the game and told us to email him. That felt great!

Sony’s stand while it was still being constructed. Yes, there is a (very) big display on the back!

Most people didn’t know what a GP2X was, and had a hard time understanding why a half Chinese, half Costarican team was developing a game that looked like Japanese on a Korean handheld! It really helped that we spoke four languages.

Among one of the persons we met was the creator of Blood Cross (a Korean commercial game soon to be released for the GP2X).

We didn’t win the IGF Mobile (our category was Best Audio), and one of the lessons we learned is that, at least with this competition, results aren’t exactly based on a objective point of view and are somewhat biased, since we don’t exactly agree that a game that cannot play Music and Sound FX should win this category, while W&W has many studio-recorded songs. And regarding the best game, a game that has only a few repetitive stages shouldn’t win when there is one Nintendo DS game (Drawn To Life) that was so polished. I have this feeling that the contest was more mobile-oriented, rather than mobile and handheld consoles, as it was mentioned in the IGF Mobile website.

The creator of Ookibloks, an IGF Finalist

One of the things we loved about the GDC was seeing a lot of indie games, including Noitu Love 2, Ookibloks, and Fez. Actually, the IGF stand attracted more visitors than any other stand I think, even though other stands were well-placed. We also saw many stands about motion-capture software and equipment.

One of the greatest indie games was Noitu Love 2. Can’t wait to play it!

It was quite a week and we had to work a lot, but it was really great! Meeting and seeing a lot of people who make or made the games we love was great!

Do you recognize him? He’s Ralph Baer, the father of video-games!

A good thing is that we had W&W to play when we were tired!

A great Time Chain, but I still can’t beat my Time Chain 98 record.

We do hope that there is an IGF and IGF Mobile contest this year so that we can go to the GDC 2009 again next year! Since we’re finally back, we’ll add a cool layout for our blog, as well as development about our new projects soon. Keep in touch!

 
“We’re Back!” –Chrono Trigger

We have good news! I’ve finally uploaded some pictures about the GDC (Game Developers Conference) 2008 held in San Francisco, where we were invited to attend to as an IGF Mobile Finalist.

Anyway, enough talk, on to the pictures!

The Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles Stand! We were making some tests today (Tuesday), the conference starts tomorrow at 10AM, and W&W is looking great

Heres a picture we took of the Moscone Center West on Sunday, while it was still closed. The main conference (where we are located) is at the Moscone North.Read the rest of the entry for more pictures!

Just a random picture of San Francisco, near the Moscone Center.

The Moscone Center South. Only a few (one?) event is held at the Moscone South. It’s bigger than it seems!

A picture from the escalator, while it was still not too crowded.

That’s me resting next to the Main Hall (on the back) where we will be on exhibition. Yeah, I was really tired after walking around for many hours.

And that’s Yuan-Hsi playing W&W!

The first look at our own Stand, while it was still being transported to the IGF Mobile stand where we will be.

AMD’s stand. As you can see on the back everyone is still setting up their stands (it was quite dangerous just walking around all that stuff).

GDC Mobile Reception party. Yuan-Hsi is showing W&W on the GP2X to the President of Nokia of the Chinese Division (right front), as well as the Elements Interactive Staff (on the back).

Stairs reaching the Main Conference at the Moscone Center.

The PlayStation stand. There is a huge LCD display (not sure if it’s LCD, but it is not projected) showing of some trees on the back.

This is what happens at lunch time. It gets pretty crowded everywhere!

No, I’m not playing. I’m just testing the game to make sure it runs tomorrow

Besides the LCD display, we’ll have four GP2X so that everyone can see it running on the GP2X!

We have tons of other interesting pictures, but it’s a little late and I gotta wake up early to prepare our Stand, so I’ll try to post some more of the real conference which begins tomorrow, so don’t miss them!

Our preparations are now finished and here are some pictures of our flyers, prints, and T-shirts. Enjoy!

W&W flyers

W&W T-Shirts: If you see us around with those on don’t forget to say hi!

Prints