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SXSW 2009: Datapop tuneage for your Tuesday

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 24th 2009 at 7:50PM }

While we're scampering around GDC in the hunt for gaming goodness, we thought we'd drop a bootleg tune from last week's Datapop concert party at SXSW, which went exceedingly well. The venue was packed with sweaty chiptune lovers, and it actually rocked a lot more than we thought it would. Check out the gallery below from the event, and bounce along to the song from Sievert -- embedded at the bottom of the post.

If you're itching for more tunes, hit up the 8bitpeoples site for a ton of free music from most of the artists at the show. Warning: listening is addictive.

Gallery: SXSW 2009: Datapop

SXSW 2009: Gaming as a Gateway Drug: Getting Girls Interested in Technology

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 23rd 2009 at 1:19PM }

The "Gaming as a Gateway Drug: Getting Girls into Technology" panel at SXSW proved to be extremely interesting, and sparked quite a debate on Twitter during the talk. The panelists focused both on the increasing number of girls getting their game on and the ones that eventually become employed within the gaming industry.

Ostensibly, they want to use gaming to get girls interested in the STEM career tracks, which are usually boy heavy: science, technology, engineering, and math. The panel was moderated by Dee Kapila of Girlstart, a non-profit organization aimed at getting girls interested in those fields. Kapila and the rest of the panel brought up some interesting points, and you can check out the highlights after the break.

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SXSW 2009: EA Dead Space - A Deep Media Case Study

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 21st 2009 at 12:10AM }

One of SXSW's panels that showed off the effects of Panelitis Fakeoutitis (where a panel sounds much better on paper than it actually is) was "EA Dead Space: A Deep Case Media Study," which sounded like it would be a dissection of the game and what went into creating it.

A closer reading of the synopsis noted that it was all about "the method and the madness behind Electronic Arts' use of cross-platform marketing." Wait? What? Marketing?! Well, we went anyhow, and you can check out the highlights beyond the break.

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SXSW 2009: Free Datapop Gameboy chiptunes party open to the public

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 17th 2009 at 4:30AM }

If you're interested in all 8-bit music and chiptunes, then you'll want to get yourself to the free Datapop party in Austin this Wednesday night, March 18th. It's free, open to everyone, and will be full of Gameboy music from people like Bit Shifter, Nullsleep, IAYD, Anamanaguchi, 8Bk OK, Graffiti Monsters, and Sievert. Free game-related music, free drinks, and free admission? Three of our favorite free things. We'll be there, and if you will be too then let us know and come say hi.

SXSW 2009: Being Indie and Successful in the Video Game Industry

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 17th 2009 at 12:15AM }

There's a wealth of indie-related gaming panels and goings on at SXSW this year, ranging from the previous "Games By The People, For The People" panel, the GameSalad folks, and the retro-cool Get Outta My Face arcade cabinet. Heck, there's even a company that wants to bring back Hypercard stack games. So we went back for more indie gaming panel goodness, just because we could.

This was a panel by the game developers this time, rather than the people who run the companies ... so what did we learn? A lot of the same from the previous panel. Sadly Jonathan Blow couldn't make it, and was replaced by the above inflatable doll with the Freddie Mercury mug. Although covering his absence nicely were panelists Kellee Santiago from thatgamecompany, John Baez of The Behemoth, Ron Carmel of 2D BOY, and Joel DeYoung from Hothead Games who moderated. Check out the highlights after the break.

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SXSW 2009: Game Design Competition rewards elite game designs with Elite Xbox 360s

by JC Fletcher { Mar 16th 2009 at 12:42PM }

This year's SXSW ScreenBurn Festival was the first to hold a game design competition for amateur developers. The finals in the two categories, Casual and AAA, were held back-to-back, with the four finalists in each category presenting their designs to an audience whose applause would determine their fate, and a panel of judges who would ask questions about the concepts and the possible execution of the games.

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Spotted @SXSW 2009: Jonathan Coulton in a giant fishbowl

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 15th 2009 at 10:30PM }

Geek songster extraordinaire Jonathan Coulton was on-hand at SXSW, being interviewed in the aquariumrific Studio SX stage. You can watch the full interview at some point later on SXSW.com to hear Coulton talking about reaching his geeky audiences, how he crafts his songs, and why he loves audience misbehavior. He capped everything off with a live performance of the unofficial Portal anthem "Still Alive," which really doesn't get old no matter how many times you hear it.

SXSW 2009: That Doesn't Suck! Inspiring Creativity With Spore

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 15th 2009 at 4:30PM }

Although Spore's ship date has come and gone, many people are still fervent about creating new creatures, vehicles, buildings, and more for the game, and they've chalked up over 86 million users creations and counting so far. This panel was about the the wealth user created content out there, and also served as a springboard for talking about the first full Spore expansion pack: Galactic Adventures.

Caryl Shaw is a producer at Maxis, and she showed off the new expansion pack, and talked about the tools that Maxis and EA strive to give users so that they can create their own open-ended adventures, which is what Galactic Adventures promises to do. She tooled around inside the game for a bit, showing off the planet terraforming features and a combat-focused user created adventure. But what caught our eye most of all was the sheer amount of extremely creative user creations that just stagger the imagination.

While Spore might have come out and disappointed some, this panel was enough to make us want to bust it out again when we get home and either get busy creating, or get busy exploring some of the jaw-dropping user content. Check out the highlights after the break.

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SXSW 2009: Indie meets arcade in Get Outta My Face

by JC Fletcher { Mar 15th 2009 at 2:30AM }

The secluded Snowrunner Productions booth in SXSW's ScreenBurn Arcade housed a rare sight: two actual arcade cabinets. Even rarer: the cabinets featured a new game: Will Brierly's Get Outta My Face: a jittery, slightly psychotic action game about a blue cube who has to dodge a rush of red cubes. It's not just a hobby project, either -- Brierly is planning to market Get Outta My Face to restaurants, clubs, and arcades, and it's already found a home in a few venues.

After playing the bizarre novelty (in classic arcade fashion, I failed out of my first session within a minute), I spoke with Brierly about the crazy process of making your own arcade game.

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SXSW 2009: Games By the People, For the People

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 14th 2009 at 6:30PM }

So you enjoy playing video games, right? That's what probably brought you to Joystiq in the first place. But have you ever thought about making your own? Right now you're probably thinking, "But, Kevin... doesn't that take millions of dollars and a huge development team?" Well you happen to be in luck, because the answer is no. You can pretty much do it all on your own for pennies. But what's the secret to making it awesome? 5 out of 5 panelists agree: you need to have a good story, or a really interesting idea. Simple, right? Start thinking, and find out more after the break.

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SXSW 2009: A lifetime of gaming in a single booth

by JC Fletcher { Mar 14th 2009 at 5:30AM }

It is not my intention to shill for a beverage, but Mountain Dew's installation in SXSW's ScreenBurn Arcade was too cool for me not to share. As I walked by, I noticed a cozy little setup with a couch, a vintage TV, an NES, an Atari 2600, and a pile of games; a booth employee was playing some Super Mario Bros. I looked around a bit and found that Mountain Dew's expansive booth featured separate areas dedicated to discrete eras of gaming.

In addition to the early-mid '80s corner, the booth featured an SNES/Genesis shrine, a setup with a PlayStation, N64, and Xbox, and, of course, modern installations, one of which featured Wii Sports and the other Rock Band. The whole effect was more than nostalgic, it was soothing -- I can definitely imagine getting away from the stress and crowds by whiling away time in 1985. And more than that, it was like seeing my own life in distinct little pieces. That PlayStation/Xbox room might as well have been my dorm room -- except for the nice furniture and TV.

As great as the booth was, it didn't necessarily make me crave any Mountain Dew, though the booth staff gave me some anyway. Kudos to the Dew for abandoning the "extreme" for a bit and doing something incredibly sweet.

Gallery: Mountain Dew ScreenBurn booth

Joystiq invades SXSW 2009!

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 13th 2009 at 11:30PM }

If you're in the vicinity of Austin, Texas, then you're probably in town for SXSW - the interactive, music, and film festival. We are too! Both myself and JC Fletcher will be here bringing updates from panels, attending the Screenburn Arcade, and checking out the gaming scene here at the festival. If you're in town, leave us a comment and say hi. Who knows, we might buy you a Shiner Bock. Stay tuned for more SXSW coverage, and check out years past right here.

SXSW08: ScreenBurn Arcade in pictures

by JC Fletcher { Mar 11th 2008 at 8:00AM }

Despite being the centerpiece of SXSW Interactive's game-focused ScreenBurn Festival, the ScreenBurn Arcade has yet to achieve the expansive grandeur of other conventions' expo floors. The entire floor was enclosed within less than half of the Austin Convention Center's convention space. Most of the real estate in there was taken up by just a few exhibitors. The Championship Gaming Series held a draft at ScreenBurn, and had a large, flashy area of their own on one side of the floor, with constant bouts of Dead or Alive 4, Forza 2 and other games taking place.

Wizards of the Coast had one of the largest installations directly in the middle of the floor, with space to play board, card, and miniature games -- as well as, of course, space to buy said games. The relative size of the booth actually made it seem more important, and almost drove me to buy some Magic cards or something.

Many of the booths were playing popular released games -- GameTap, of course, had a selection of classics, and Guitar Hero III and Rock Band were mainstays. The only booth I could find that was demonstrating any pre-release games was Gamecock, who brought the demos of Pirates Vs. Ninjas Dodgeball, Hail to the Chimp, Insecticide, and Legendary from EIEIO, as well as Dementium.

The most popular booth in the Arcade was not really game-related: Austin Laser Art offered laser etching of cellphones and other items, and had conventiongoers waiting over an hour for the chance to burn their expensive stuff.

ScreenBurn is just in its second year, and we're certain that the festival and the Arcade will continue to grow in size and popularity. This year, however, it was a great place to play some Rock Band and lose at Dead or Alive 4.

Gallery: SXSW 2008: ScreenBurn Arcade

SXSW08: Virtual worlds and indie games to dethrone publishers

by JC Fletcher { Mar 11th 2008 at 5:00AM }

Multiverse cofounder Corey Bridges' talk at SXSW Interactive may have had the title "Virtual World and Game Development: Rise of the Indies," but it soon became clear that "Rise of the Indies" was a nicer spin on "Fall of Publishers." The talk turned out to be surprisingly inflammatory as Bridges predicted the death of the traditional video game industry in favor of near-universal adoption of virtual worlds. "Video game publishers are dead. They're walking corpses. They just don't know it."

Bridges has the track record to back up wild predictions, having been right about things like graphical web browsing, online mail-order DVD rental, and, uh, computer security (by association, as in he was involved with each of these early on). To see this person attached to an MMO development platform is basically troubling for people who would like to continue ignoring MMOs.

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SXSW08: Inside Austin's Developerscape

by JC Fletcher { Mar 10th 2008 at 2:00AM }

In this panel, a group of Austin-based game developers set out to discuss the unique Austin game development community, moderated by journalist (and Joystiq contributor) N. Evan Van Zelfden. In the course of the discussion, a bit of neuropsychology and hilarious anti-MMO (and pro-MMO) vitriol also came out, along with a lot of reminiscence.

According to Junction Point's Warren Spector and NCSoft's Dallas Snell, the Austin game development scene, as well as its current MMO focus, have their origins in, uh, Origin. The Ultima developer moved in Austin in 1986 from New Hampshire, and many companies spun off from ex-Origin personnel. Spector was hired at the company after time spent teaching at UT and working at Steve Jackson Games, and then a stint in Wisconsin at TSR. Snell was at Origin during the 1986 move.

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