AlanWithTea

AlanWithTea · @AlanWithTea

29th Jun 2015 from TwitLonger

Highlights of IRDC 2015 UK


Explaining the concept of mushy peas to one of the Curious Expedition developers. He bravely ate some.

Being the middle of a Spartacus-like "I'm Darren Grey, no I'M Darren Grey" routine when Darren Grey appeared.

Discovering that Tom Ford was Tom Ford.

Tom Ford mentioning that hearing me speak without looking directly at me is confusing due to the familiarity of my voice.

Finding that Mark Johnson looks perhaps even more Sicilian than I do.

Discovering that the NVA's entire food menu is varieties of toast.

Seeing Mark Johnson getting more and more fierce in his determination to beat Darren Grey at 'Hey, That's My Fish!'

Darren's reaction when I challenged his claim to have a Duke in Coup. His utter disbelief was hilarious.

Roguelikers having drinks in a cave system beneath a castle.

That one guy who came in during the public roguelike exhibition, started with Incursion and gamely worked his way around every playable game we had, then left without a word.

Recording an episode of Roguelike Radio face to face with everyone (and feeling like I made a decent point or two).

Witnessing a protracted (but friendly) debate between Aaron Steed and Pete Hurst about reverse engineering procedurally generated sokoban puzzles (and the suggestion to illustrate it using beer mats).

DarkGod watching me play ToME4 badly.

Tom Ford thanking me for Let's Playing ZigClimb.

The range of presentations! They covered all sorts of ground, from game-defeating AI development, to real world architectural design, to alternative applications of death in games.

Speaking of presentations - the revelation of plans for a RedTube-based Doom-like shooter.

The running gags and references - Sean Bean, modability, and (on the final night) "Damn it, Grey!"

Going for dinner and finding that my table consisted of me, DarkGod (ToME4), Pete Hurst (DC:SS), Paul Jeffries (Hellion), Aaron Steed (Red Rogue) and Tom Ford (several of my favourite roguelikes). It's weird finding yourself at a table with all these 'names'.

Expressions of surprise from several people that I hadn't signed up to speak. Flattering.

The posters and general trappings/organisation of the event. Mark and the NVA staff both did a great job.

Darren and Mark's masterful spy performance in The Resistance.

The reactions from members of the public who entered the roguelike room - a mother with young children who entered, glanced around, then said "let's go and find your dad"); a 10-12 year old boy who literally turned on his heel and ran from the room; a father and teenage son who tentatively sat at DoomRL, poked at the keys for a few seconds, then sheepishly shuffled out.

Darren gradually luring Mark into the world of board games.

The wall of dev signatures - there are now more roguelike devs on there than anyone else!

Most of all, just the friendly and sociable atmosphere. IRDC is an event of two parts, it seems - one part interesting presentations and one part sprawling social event.

(There are undoubtedly many small moments I've missed and will remember later.)

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