Heading for Home

You may have gathered by now that I like San Francisco. Even though the streets are very sloping, I still loved walking around. I've taken more pictures in the last week than I have in the last six months. And I'm pleased with every one of them. Lovely place. But today we had to leave. Although there was time for a little shopping trip and a few more snaps.

Love the color

Inside the Apple store

Art Expo

Reflections

We did a lot of walking

A saint for every occasion

Can you see Jon Purdy in this picture?

Ending Up

Nice view after we had seen 300

Well, the conference has finished. I just thought I'd put down in words what I've managed to learn from my time in out here, at the various sessions and on the exhibition floor:

• Sony are starting to do some sensible things with the PS/3. I hope it is in time.
• Community is the new buzzword for everything. That and getting your wife to play computer games (I'm looking forward to that one)
• Writing a shader is actually quite easy. (especially if you just fill in the blanks in a Microsoft lab)
• The Nintendo Wii controller is just as hard to program with as I thought it would be. Probably more so.
• XNA Express is even better than I thought. The tutorial on it was a model of clarity and fun.
• The Motion LS800 is a truly wonderful portable computer (I plan to write a whole item about this lovely device)
• Computer games writers take incredible pride in their work, and the games that you take for granted contain huge amounts of technical ability, imagination and passion. You think there is passion in a Ferrari? Take a look at something like Motorstorm, or Gears of War. These people love their work and it shows when you hear them talk about it.
• Computer games should be taken at least as seriously as other media fields such as TV and film.
• The film "300" sucks.
• San Francisco might be my favourite place on earth. Maybe even better than Hull (although the bridge is a bit smaller).

And with those profound thoughts floating out there into the ether, time for the Friday photos.

Dusk.

We didn't bother with steak in the end

..'cos Lori's had pinball

I just love this back screen. The rightmost zero is just stuck in there to make all the scores seem bigger...

XNA Party Time

Thanks to help from Kieran at Rare, Jon and I managed to snag invites to the XNA party, which was held at a really swish nightclub.

We had to pick up the bus outside the Metreon centre

As soon as we got to  the club, had our ticket taken, hand stamped and passport checked (no - really, it was that exclusive) we grabbed some free food and drink and, old people that we are, headed for the chill out zone. Which was really, er, cool.

The blue ceiling was amazing

Microsoft do parties well. Very well. Sitting watching the world go by with people bringing you free drink and food works for me. After a while though, we thought we'd explore the place.

Blue with XBOXes

We wandered into one room and found a band playing.

Forget the "Wedding Singer" looks. These guys were seriously good. And loud.

And they had even more XBOXes for gameplay whilst you party

Finally, we went upstairs and took a look at the winners of the XNA Express challenge. These people had spent the last few days at the show creating a video game from scratch using only XNA Express Edition. The winner looked very snazzy, with real time lighting and all sorts. If the competition runs next year there will be somebody from Hull in the mix, you mark my words.

XNA Winners

Then, having drunk and eaten our fill, and with the band ringing in our ears it was out into the chill night for a brisk walk back up the hill to the hotel.

From Shaders to Singstar via Mario

We started the day bright and early. At 9:00 we were learning how to use shaders at an XNA lab.

Plenty of nice monitors for the XNA lab..

It has to be said that I'm not actually a great video game programmer. But after today I'm a lot happier writing shader code. Even if it looks a lot like C++. Once we'd got our flashy music player working I bailed out of the lab and headed for the next keynote. I really wanted to see the next man speak.

Building Mr Miyamoto

Shigeru Miyamoto is a true video gaming legend. The man behind Mario and a host of other Nintendo classics last came to GDC 8 years ago, and today he was back to give another presentation. The slant was broadly similar to the Sony pitch yesterday. Community is good. Games which are fun are good. And we now have games which can bring in people who up until now have never played games. Including Mrs. Miyamoto. The presentation ended with some mouth watering footage of Super Mario Galaxy.

Coming to a Wii near you soon

At lunchtime I took a bunch of pictures.

Reflections on a city square

Flowers

Another nice day

Later on there was another community themed talk, this time by the brains behind EyeToy, SingStar and Buzz. It seems to me that games are getting more and more mainstream, and soon they will be part of life for pretty much everyone. Later we went for another wander.

567 Pine

Grant

More nice lumpy streets

A planet you are going to want

Today was the day that the conference really got going. The exhibition was open and we had the first keynote presentation.

Crowd pleasing football

Before the presentation we played a kind of football, bouncing a large ball into goals each side of the auditorium. Our side lost. Then  it was on with the show. This one was from Sony, who make the awesomely powerful (so they keep telling us) PS3. Very little that I've seen of the PS3 has convinced me of this power.

With the exception of MotorStorm and some tech demos there has been little that has impressed  me about this machine so far. Namco should be singled out for an especially big kicking at this point, their PS3 versions of Tekken and Ridge Racer are a textbook exercise in lazy launch coding. I can understand the pressures that they must be under, but I still can't see  an excuse for serving up poor rehashes of previously great games. Anyhoo, I digress.

Fortunately today the talk was not pixel pushing power, but community. Things kicked off with a description of the Home service. This is not an old BBC radio channel, but a virtual world of take on your personal space on the PS3.

Coming to a life near you

You can wander through an advertising adorned 3D environment, select and position furniture and Sony products around the place and generally make your pretend existence and appearance better than the one you have at home. There is a community area too where you can play pool better than in real life, and a place to put the trophies from all the games you've bought.

There was no evidence of a world between these virtual spaces, so whether you can walk across rolling hills and ford babbling brooks to get to your friends pad for a spot of low quality Tekken remains to be seen, but if Sony get their act together on this one I can see property values in Second Life taking a bit of a downturn.

A virtual world worth visiting

At the end of the talk was the best bit. The game "Little Big Planet" takes social gameplay, realtime physics and the rendering power of the PS3 and creates a really fun place to be where you can build and modify the game environment as you play the game. This did look good, and had a Nintendo like appeal, in that I could actually see a game that was using the technology to make new kinds of gameplay experience.

At the end of the presentation I must admit that I'm now quite happy to be getting a PS3, something that I wasn't too sure of when I went in...

The Rob and Jon Show

Today was the day that Jon and I sang for our supper, so to speak. We were the "international" part of an international discussion of computer games and curriculum. I talked about XNA and Jon talked about Skill Set Accreditation. We both only had five minutes to fill, which is both a blessing and a curse. Not much time for bad things to happen, but hard to fit everything in. In the end it all went swimmingly. And there are pictures.

Gathering for the conference

Need a haircut

Had a haircut

A bit of abstract stuff

Flags

Off for a walk

This is what makes the cable cars work....

Nice Church

Wires

Refueling

Bikes

I love this kind of stuff...

Down on the wharf. Ask Jon about the lens he nearly bought...

Work that lens....

I've no idea what the boat is called. But it looks nice

"Love Songs" album cover shot....

Our hotel is about under that flag...

Nice sky

..and just one more...

Teaching Fun and Games

Did some proper work today. We saw some very good presentations about the way in which games are made, and what games makers do. There was also some good stuff on gameplay.

I'll put up a more lengthy discourse on this later, for now you'll have to do with some pictures:

A great place for lunch

This is the Cheesecake Factory atop Macy's

It has a great bar. The temptation to start at one end and work our way along was hard to resist...

..but this is the view from the balcony. And the main reason I went.

Star and Stars and Stripes

Jon waits patiently. Enjoying his coffee......

Back to ground level

Flowers

Night streets

Managed to stay up to 8:00 pm today. Maybe even later tomorrow....

SF Shopping

The good news (I guess) is that after today the conference will start, which will mean an end to sight seeing and a great reduction in the picture count. However, until then....

Having got this wide angle lens thingy I though I'd have a play with it. So we set off downtown in search of shiny things to buy and photo opportunities.

What happens when you don't use the fisheye correctly

What happens when you do...

Yummy

We found this shop which sells amazing tellies for amazing prices. If I could get one to work in the UK I'd bring one home on Saturday. There were flat screens built into all kinds of really detailed models. Curse you NTSC...

Stylish TVs are us

Love the colours

If we ain't got it, it means you don't need it..

I've bought mine, comrade..

I love these models, I really wanted a Jane Austen action figure for number one wife, but they don't seem to do that one

More wideangle misuse

..and again

Some captions write themselves

Whenever we go back to the hotel, it is always uphill.....

SF Sightseeing

Authors Note: this is another graphics heavy post. Sorry about that.  But there are some nice pictures (and I've put even more on Flickr)

Some things you just have to do. If you go to San Francisco you have to go see the bridge. So we did. Boarded a boat trip at 10:00 in the morning (which was very quiet, we had the run of the top deck) and away we went.

Tour Boats

Setting Sail

Bridge and Boat

Flying without flapping

Bridge and Bigger Boat

Where's Purdy?

Not as big as ours, but quite impressive non the less

Contre Jour

Heading Back

I bought a sensible hat. Or did I?

Look at those two gulls taking aim.....

Gulls and Bridge and Flag

Sailing

"The Rock"

Jon "I'd have cracked out of there in week" Purdy

So there...

Jolly boating weather

Pier 39

Fancy a pedal? We got the boat in the end

Tulips

Boats

Basking case

Yep. It's a real one

Lumpy lanscape

At this point the memory card in the camera was full, and so you are all spared the bucket of frogs that Jon wanted me to take a picture of. However, there is always tomorrow....

Chinese New Year in San Francisco

So we were walking down the street, and wondering if it was normal in San Francisco for people to stand at the side of the road and watch the traffic go past. I mean, they've had cars in America for quite a while, right? And the novelty must have worn off by now you would have thought. We asked someone what was going on and they told us that New Year Parade was just about to go past. I'm pretty sure it wasn't laid on just for us, but it felt like it.

Waiting for the parade

Here they come...

All together now: "Y M C A".....

Horse Power

"Did you vote for me? Did you?"

Cool Outfits

Coolest Car

Flying the flag

Insert "tender behind" joke here

Of course, we were all really waiting for some dragons

We were not disappointed

Does he have a dentist?

I hope these say nice things.

And so into the sunset

Colourfull news

Back to the hotel

A nice shot to end on

Chinatown, where it all goes down

Author's note 1: I'm fiddling with the time and dates of posts to make things seem in sequence. And this post is very graphics heavy.

I think I may have used up all my luck for the rest of the year. We arrived and found that the hotel is right on the edge of Chinatown. So there are loads of wonderful shops and stalls to look at, just around the corner. And then we got to see the Chinese New Year parade. And I had my new camera to play with....

Wonderful.

Author's note 2: Most of my pictures also feature some part of Jon Purdy, perhaps a bit of a shiny head or patch of tasteful shirt. See if you can spot him in these shots. There are even more on Flickr for you to refine your Purdy spotting skills.

Calibration shot for "Where's Purdy" competition. I didn't ask him to smile, which is probably just as well...

On the way to the hotel (that is not Jon in the foreground)

Hotel Lobby roof

Down California Road

Chinatown

My kinda store. I'm taking orders......

Balcony

Nice brickwork

Soul Men Sounding Good

"Win one for me daddy..."

More stalls

All set for the Crazy Taxi racing

Just make sure you use it for the forces of good...

Open Wide

For some time I've been after a wide angle view for my photographs. I found a shop which had a whole bunch of these. Having negotiated a really good price (no - really) I bought this thing to whack on the front of the camera which gives it an almost-fisheye effect (hence the round edges). This was the test shot in the shop. You might see this used to some effect in later snaps.

If you are going to make a bronze statue, why would  you make it doing that?

More later.

Travel in Hope and Pain

I've managed to wangle a trip to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco California. Not quite sure how I did it, but very pleased to be going. Anyhoo, we made trip today. We started in Humberside airport at 5:00 am and thence (posh prose) we moved  on to Amsterdam.

Starting from Schipol

"The Dammed" assemble

The plane was full. And I mean full.  And since it was the "nerd express" to the conference everybody had used their internet skills to bag all the best seats by booking online. This meant that there was not a tall seat for Rob. The cabin staff were very sorry. I was even sorrier.

Legoom, KLM style

There should be a rule requiring airlines to hold the legroom seats for tall blokes like me who really need it. Perhaps I should start an e-petition... Mind you, winging about slightly uncomfortable seats on a free trip to California sounds a bit rich to me, so perhaps I'll keep quiet.

The girl in the window seat took a picture for me

Anyhoo, we got there OK and on time, and had a smooth taxi ride to the hotel.

First view of SF

We are going to freshen up (whatever that means) and then go for a wander round town. For the first time ever, I'm staying in a city with a proper middle (as opposed to a bunch of malls) and so it should be fun.

Kitchen Orchids

The Orchids in the kitchen are doing well

Durham Roses

I just liked the colours.

Pirates Ahoy

Went to see number one daughter play tonight. Actually,didn't see her play at all, since she was in the orchestra pit at the York University Gilbert and Sullivan Society production of Pirates of Penzance.

The PR machine

Now, as you all probably know, I'm not really one for culture. I remarked, as we were listening to what I now know to be the overture, "Aren't there supposed to be singers in this..."

Anyhoo, the production was excellent. It is surprising how many of the songs have found their way into my head over the years. It was great to see the performers enjoying themselves as much as the audience. Actually there is not much of a story to the show, it is more a collection of sketches and songs and a bit of shameless pandering to Queen Victoria at the end. But that didn't get in the way of the fun. I took the tiny camera and grabbed a few snaps.

Pirates!

Ladies!

The model of a modern Major General....

The Police

The happy ending....

Repeat Offenders

We had another open day today. Some of the candidates that turned up had been at our earlier one in November. I fretted a bit about using the same appalling jokes as on their earlier visit, so I took special care to add some new and untried material to my bit. Oh well. Although the ET joke seemed to go down OK. Thank you for coming folks, and I hope you all enjoyed the day.

I also went up town first thing, and took the little camera. The light was very good.

Right in the middle of Queen Victoria Square. What are the chances eh?

View from the car park

Game On with Bing

Yesterday we went off to London courtesy of Electronic Arts, who had arranged an all expenses paid (perhaps my favourite three words) trip to the Game On exhibition at the Science Museum with free beer (perhaps my favourite two words) and a talk from Bing Gordon, EA's Chief Creative Officer.

Just before we boarded the magic bus

We set off at 10:30 prompt, bound for London. The M1 was kind to us, so we got to the big city in good time. I'd taken the big camera, so it was time to go off and take some snaps.

The Natural History Museum looking good

We piled into the tube and took a ride up to Oxford Street.

Oxford Circus

Fruit and Veg

Then, at 6:30 the doors opened and it was, quite literally, Game on.

EA had set up some gamer pods around the museum. That big shiny thing at the back is the wing of a Spitfire plane.

Bigging Up Bing

First up was the talk from Bing Gordon. Very interesting. Some good comments about life, followed by some more specific discussion of video games.

Health note: these are pulled from my recollections, if anyone who was there remembers differently then I apologise in advance.

From the life point of view:

• Find out what you really enjoy doing and then try to get to do that as your day job.
• Don't be afraid to fail.
• Set yourself big goals (but make them testable so that you can decide when/whether you reach them)
• Maximise your learning opportunities
• Set very high standards and give everyone who fails to meet them a really hard time. There is nothing more demoralising than a boss who accepts poor quality work.

This is all good stuff. For me what was also interesting was that one of Bing's heroes is a chap called David Ogilvy. He was an advertising executive who ran some of the most successful campaigns of all time and went on to set up one of the largest Ad agencies in the world. I remember reading one of his books a long time ago (I've always found the advertising field fascinating) and I would advise you to take a look as well. Then the talk turned to games. More from Bing:

• Games are becoming hobbies (people play them in the same way that they would build model railways, or go fishing)
• Games are including things like searching, trading and community..
• .. and search engines and other tools are starting to behave like games
• By around 2012 we can look forward to movie level realism in games

There was a very good question and answer session at the end, and then the doors to the Game On exhibition were thrown open and it was time to get in there and start playing.

..but first a drink

Game On indeed

Not the kind of high score I'd take a picture of, but there you are

Jon Purdy gets back to basics

One of my all time favourites, Ridge Racer

Not sure quite what this is, but it looks fun.

I used to own quite a few of these....

Then, at 10:00 we all clambered onto the magic bus and headed back to Hull (I had a kind of bet with David Byrne from EA that all our students would turn up on time - and they did. Kudos guys).

Many thanks to the highway engineers who added around an hour to our journey back just because they wanted to play with their big Meccano near one of the bridges. I finally managed to hit the sack around 4:30 am, just as the birds were starting to sing. But it was a good trip.

Thanks to EA for setting it up and making us so welcome.

Snow on the Road

..and so there is

New Year at Hornsea

First, a happy new year to both my readers. At Chateau Miles, we have been know to celebrate the arrival of a new calendar by heading off to the seaside at Hornsea. Today the weather looked reasonable, and so we set out. On the way there it seemed like a bad idea, in that we drove along underneath some very nasty looking clouds and the odd smattering of rain.

But when we got to the coast it was wonderful. It was very blustery, but this really seemed to blow out the cobwebs at the start of the year. It was also pretty busy, and one or two valiant souls had actually gone for a paddle. I'd taken the big camera, and so I took a bunch of snaps.

New Year seaside

Arcadia

Lights

Early Riser

A nice way to start the day