My brother and I arrived in Indianapolis around 6:30pm Wednesday. We checked into our hotel and then went to dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery. After dinner, we took a walk through the convention center and picked up a Gen Con program to familiarize ourselves with what was going on this year. It was about 9:30pm at this point and the convention staff asked us to clear out, which we did.
Thursday, we toured the Exhibit Hall. I posted the pictures on Flickr temporarily. I’ll place them here on The Gamer Hotsheet once I’m back home again. I’ve only talked to a few of the exhibitors so far, though I expect to talk to more of them today.
Compared to last year’s exhibit hall, the number of exhibitors appears to be down quite a bit. The art section is larger, and there are large areas of what you might refer to as “open” space in the back of the room where children’s games and other family activities are taking place. In the past, these areas would have been filled by exhibitors or a sparse seating area.
There are a lot of familiar faces in the Exhibit Hall this year. Catalyst Game Labs has a prime spot near the main Exhibit Hall entrance, Titan Games is here, Fantasy Flight Games, Goodman Games, Pegasus Publishing, Konami, Paizo, Aberrant, Champions Online, and Privateer Press. Some exhibitors I didn’t recall seeing before are here, too, including the Chicago Toy and Game Fair, Game Crafters, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, and various medieval clothing and jewelry vendors. The Flickr gallery I linked to above should show you the vast majority of the vendors here in the hall.
Odd Society
I talked with the developers of an online game called “Odd Society” for a little while. Af first blush, it looks like yet-another MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). It isn’t. For a start, it’s a single-player online game (”SPOG”?). To play, you purchase the game for ~$10 U.S. which includes 12 hours of playing time. Gen Con attendees who speak with the vendor are given a code that allows the game to be purchased at a substantial discount. The gist of this game is that a society of creatures called “ODDs” lived in a factory tower. Some of them were cast out and are trying to survive outside the tower. You, the player, are helping them rebuild their world through quests you take on in the game.
The graphics look decent, and gameplay is handled through a point-and-click interface. The in-game quests form a storyline that should appeal to adventure/RPG fans.
The developers explained that the concept of this game is to provide a more relaxing alternative to a typical MMO like World of Warcraft (WoW). WoW players often have to be in guilds to succeed in arena and raid activity, and these guilds usually demand players be online certain times of day, days of the week, and play for so many hours per week. This can become difficult or stressful on the player. Odd Society dispenses with this multiplayer concept. Players can be online for as short or long a time as they like. They can be online whatever days and times they like. They don’t have to worry about meeting the demands of guilds, raiding parties, arenas, battlegrounds, etc. Of course, the unspoken flip side of this is that it’s a solitary experience without the social elements of a typical MMO.
Fantasy Flight Games’ Battlestar Galactica “Pegasus” Expansion
In my Origins 2009 write-up, I discussed the base “Battlestar Galactica” game. It’s actually a really fun game, even if it’s tilted heavily in favor of the Cylons. Fantasy Flight is demonstrating the Pegasus expansion here at Gen Con, and I’m planning to sit with them for a demo later today. I’ll tell you more when I know more.
Writing Right Seminar
This morning I attended the “Writing Right” seminar, a panel discussion of three established and published authors. In it, they shared their thoughts on what it takes to get a novel written, and make it a good one.
When asked what one aspect of the craft of novel writing they felt was most important, the panelists all agreed that character was key. Good characters, they said, can sustain a bad plot but bad characters won’t keep a good plot afloat. One author suggested writing a complete biography of all your main characters before you start your novel, so that you know what that character desires, fears, loves, hates, etc. This will help you as you flesh out the story.
Another, seemingly obvious, tip was that you need to actually get a draft of your novel written. You can fix the problems in a 300-page draft and turn it into a decent novel. You can’t fix 300 blank pages.
One suggested you try outlining your novel before you begin writing, though the other panelists say they don’t do this.
One panelist said that although he usually develops his novels “organically” (writing it as he goes rather than following an outline), in a case where he was having trouble fitting all the scenes he’d written together properly he used index cards on which he wrote down each significant scene in the book, one per card. Then he was able to set the cards down on a table and work out a way to arrange them that resolved the problem.
Another common piece of advice was “Don’t quit your day job” while working with your schedule, spouse, etc., to make sure you set aside both time to write and time for your family.