Majcher.com

Whee, busy day for a Saturday. Had our semi-regular Saturday morning AGD meeting, getting stuff together for the next couple of panels we're hosting ("Diversity In Games", with Sheri Graner Ray and some other likely candidates), and for our booth at the upcoming Austin Game Conference - we've been working with Chris Sherman, the organizer, off and on, and since we're a local non-profit and all, they're giving us some free booth space, which is mighty nice of them, considering what they usually charge. Even nicer when we found out that they're giving us a bigger one, since we decided to share it with Bob McGoldrick's folks from ACC's game development program. We're also going to talk with the IGDA folks a bit upstream from us, and try to organize some kind of semi-official convening of as many of the national IGDA chapter coordinators as we can wrangle together on such short notice. There's apparently already a get-together of some sort at GDC, but that's way too expensive for most people, and it'll be cool to have a nice little YAPC-style mini-con for those not attached to a large corporate entity. And, along with the new and current stuff, I've still got a significant list of stuff that I'd like to get done to our website that I've had backloaded through these few months of hairiness. So, there's that.

After the meeting, I ran downtown to my improv class at the Hideout. I gotta say, I didn't really know what to expect, but I think it's turning out pretty well. The instructor is a good guy, we've got a class full of not-obnoxiouis but not-boring people, and I like the direction that it looks like things are going. There's a lot of standing and falling down and acting like an idiot and hollering and whatnot, which is pretty fun, and a little more action than I usually get in a typical afternoon of sloth, which is also a good thing. (The guy who organized the recent zombie attack on the American Idol auditions here is also in the class, so we got some entertaining little inside bits on that. Branes.)

Bernie picked me up from class, and we stopped by Wiki Wiki next door to get some teryaki bowls, and then back home to chill for an hour or so before heading back out to the Downtown Alamo to catch the new Sinus show of Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. Jesus. I think the boys have met their match. I mean, we've seen them do some pretty terrible movies - Crossroads, He-Man, and a variety of awfulness from John Travolta - but this was the first one where we were just squirming in our seats, waiting for it to be over. I mean, they were still funny as usual, and the "stop the movie" bit was up to par, but man, nothing could make that piece of shit stop stinking. We stumbled out of the theater like we'd just witnessed someone getting their head blown off in front of us; just totally dumbstruck, in shock. I'm starting to get the Fear again, just thinking about it. Gotta stop now.

Also, in the free time I've had in the last couple of days, I've finally gotten around to building out a functional skeleton of the game I've been rolling around for Gizmet, and I think it's gonna look pretty good. I've got Quoc's wife, Eva, signed up to do the UI and character artwork for me, so it's not just going to be my usual crappy programmer art in the final product. It's been too long of a while since I've actually kicked out any working game code (except for the class I taught this semester - branes) and it's a good feeling to actually make something of my own for a change that's not tied to some crappy, bloated, corporate piece of junk. I mean, the corporate junk pays a lot better, of course, and I've got a long way to go and not a lot of time to get there, east bound and down, but hey, actually enjoying programming! There's a concept! Now if I can just figure out how to get paid for this, my master plan will be complete. But first, back to the check-bringer.