I Was Here, by Tom Francis

I Was Here

San Francisco looked strange from the plane, like a building-farm. I was back there to see a very different studio this time, though I can’t talk about that yet, and also managed to do different stuff with my spare time. Last trip Steve Gaynor, who I only knew vaguely online, was nice enough to meet up for lunch, and this time 2D Boy joined me for a fancy tea. I very much like developers who are able to perceive journalists as humans rather than organs of the industry, even when perhaps not all of them warrant the status.

With a little luck and a lot of generosity, I was also able to hitch a lift with the guys who made Lugaru down to the birthday party of the guy who made Gish, alongside the guy who made Spelunky, there to sip Guinness with one of the aforementioned guys who made World of Goo, the guy who made Bridge Builder, and the guy who made Braid. There was a dangerous concentration of genius in the room, so true to my promise to pocket my journalist hat, I was careful not to ask any good questions of any of them. We played the X-Men arcade game instead.

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The_B: Who did you play as? Tell me it was Wolverine. G'wan. And Gabler better have been Venom. Although I guess he wasn't in that game.

Still, Venom with the voice of the Goo Balls would be all kinds of awesome.

Bret: Nightcrawler's best.

Was it one of those six player jobbies?

If so, who had to player Dazzler? Inquiring minds want to know.

Aftershock: I'm surprised you didn't explode. I would have.

Plumberduck: I assume Jonathan Blow went off on a half hour tangent about how the multiple tines of Wolverine's claws represent the Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, right?

Stan Lee: I was there too!

ZomBuster: All those guys live in San Fransisco?

DoctorDisaster: They put Dazzler in a video game?

That's awful.

EGTF: Is it sad that as someone coming close to the end of my teenage years, I'm using BBC iplayer to watch X-Men cartoons?

You make the life of a video game journalist sound exotic Tom, first evenings with Robbie Williams now this.

Whilst on the subject of journalism do you check your futurenet email? I emailed in about a month ago asking questions about that work experience PCG was offering. I came across as bland and arkward in it I believe, so I understand why I didn't get a reply back in a hectic PCG office. I'm wanting to know if you got it at all though really.

Ludo: Did you actually take that picture? It's awesome.

peterd102: Woah

J-Man: If someone photoshopped that picture it would look like something straight out of Mirror's Edge.

Chris Evans: San Francisco - the home of all indie game devs

Little Green Man: I really like that bit of you in the video on Edmund's blog. "Congratulations on being two years older than me". Awww.

Kodiak: Yeah, San Francisco has weird streets. After the earthquake at the turn of the century, the city planners decided to rebuild the city in a perfect grid, and didn't give a rodent's fundament if the landscape got in the way of all the right angles and straight lines. That's why some inner city streets try to go straight up a cliffside and other streets have to tunnel through a granite ridge. All that unnecessary planning and construction and hardship, and it ends up looking like a weird little building farm.

SenatorPalpatine: That's pretty sweet. Must've been pretty hard not to ask any questions.

And that's a very cool picture, where'd you find it?


	Pentadact: Yeah, the pic is just a crop of one I took from the plane: LGM: Ha, I didn't know that had gone up. Link, if anyone else wants to see: http://edmundmcmille... ...-time.html Stan Lee: At the party? Either you looked a lot younger than that time I met you in Santa Monica, or you're another Stan Lee and consequently a hard man to Google. EGTF: RobIN Williams. Dno about work XP, Tim's department.

Bobsy: According to Future Publishing they're not currently doing work experience:
http://www.futurenet... ...xperience/

But I'm pretty sure according to PCG magazine they are. Mixed messages!

The_B: They only generally advertise it on the site for a short while, the places go pretty quickly. I only got my place last year thanks to a mixture of good timing and good luck really - it wasn't an advertised position as far as I know anyway...

On another note - I half wondered why Tom was promoting the new Edge covers other than it being interesting that there was 200 of them. Having now got it, I see his name in the contributors section. Damnit Francis, you have used your wily powers of persuasion again for EVIL and self gain. (I applaud this)

Kollega: Oh,damn it. Why? Why all the celebrities (including gaming/development/inernet ones) live in California,and i'm stuck on the other side of our planet?

Just felt i absolutely needed to say that.

Lack_26: How to design San Francisco; Lesson 1.

Street planning:

- Draw a square
- Repeat

KING: The square streets of modern cities, especially most American cities, makes me do this:

:(

Also: They have Guinness in San Francisco ?


	Pentadact: It comes in a freaking bottle.

Ludo: :) Is it Guinness Orisinal? That stuff is just odd. Has to be draft for me.

The_B: There is only one place I've ever been to that ever does Guinness in a bottle.

It was a pole dancing club.

And fucking expensive.

Bobsy: Bottled Guinness is generally okaytimes, but misses the point of Guinness entirely.

Jimmay: Just wanna say it's not always in a freaking bottle. I'm in Chicago and I think it's a crime against nature as well.

Lack_26: Just played the HAWX demo, good fun and nice to have something that makes you feel cool and doesn't take too much effort. I don't think I'll buy it, the demo scratches that itch too well. I might pick it up when it's released on budget though.

Roadrunner: Guinness is the only beer I like, and even then if it was a weigh up between Guinness and sparkling water, I'd take the water xD

Not much of a fan of alcohol...Except spirits.
I can't really talk though, being underage and all.

EGTF: Thanks Tom, sorry about doing the idiotic thing of getting singer and actor mixed up.

I'm in Chicago next weekend, I'll have to check out this bottled Guiness phenomenom. And take artistic pictures out of a plane. But no playing *unannounced* game for me, I lack the importance and 9 years of age that Mr.Francis has over me.

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		Probably not intentionally, the positive outlook of the main character also plays to my own subconscious desires to live in City 17. It says something about a game’s artists when they create a dystopia so beautifully it undermines the dystopian bit.

James

By Pentadact

I Was Here

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