ErikH2000
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Now that I've gotten over my 3-day stomach flu, it's time to write up an account of Brittany and I's fantastic trip to Atlanta, Georgia. I gave a speech about my new pet topic, stepping games, at the Gathering for Gardner conference. The speech was okay. A lot of other cool stuff happened. Here's my write-up on the whole affair:

http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewsitepage.php?id=100110

-Erik

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Citrus
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Poor you! I bet it would've gone better if you had gotten to part five. I hate technical difficulties! This would be a good place to put that beating the PC uo emoticon if I could find it.

My one comment, how can an underwater ferris wheel catch on fire? Or is that the whole point?

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AlefBet
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Erik, you and your facetious fires will get us all into trouble someday. Seriously, I could have been killed by my brother in his disoriented state after waking him by laughing out loud. (I guess I shouldn't let him take naps on the couch with katanas.)

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ErikH2000
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Ezlo wrote:
Poor you! I bet it would've gone better if you had gotten to part five. I hate technical difficulties! This would be a good place to put that beating the PC uo emoticon if I could find it.

You know, the part that made me angry was that I went out of my way to make sure my laptop worked on the big screen during a break well before my presentation began. Then I went up there for my presentation, plugged the laptop in, and got a blank screen. The audio-visual guy from the hotel scrambled to help me, but it took too long to get the big screen showing my laptop's screen. I don't know what I could have done differently except maybe earmarked an early section of my speech to talk about without the laptop. Bleh.

My one comment, how can an underwater ferris wheel catch on fire? Or is that the whole point?

Yes, I think you are getting my joke. It would take a rather spectacular failure to make an underwater ferris wheel catch aflame.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

ErikH2000
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AlefBet wrote:
(I guess I shouldn't let him take naps on the couch with katanas.)

Man, I'm not gonna ask. Petersen's are just weird, I think.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Pinnacle
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Very innovative use of the image floor.
Who needs PowerPoint anyway?

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Chaco
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Heh, use DROD to talk about DROD

Great going, Erik.

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AlefBet
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ErikH2000 wrote:

AlefBet wrote:
(I guess I shouldn't let him take naps on the couch with katanas.)

Man, I'm not gonna ask. Petersen's are just weird, I think.

Actually, it's "Petersons" (an "o" and no apostrophe), and I'll confess that you're not the first to make such a remark about us. I'll take this opportunity to declare talking to former roommates off-limits. (The katanas might have had a touch of facetiousness to them as well, now that I think back.)

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I was charged with conspiracy to commit jay-walking, and accessory to changing lanes without signaling after the fact .

++Adam H. Peterson

gamer_extreme_101
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For the record - I'm up to two new articles now. Thank you Erik!

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Bombadil
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Very interesting...

Is there any more footage from the conference? Photos, videos, audio recordings?

Can we have the speech text or the hold you used for it?

Please...?

ErikH2000
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File: The Appeal of Stepping Games - No Screenshots.hold (484.8 KB)
Downloaded 85 times.
License: Public Domain

Okay, Bombadil. I'm gonna lay it on you.

Here is the hold I used for the presentation. You can run a demo from the entrance that will have Beethro walk through the whole thing. During the presentation, I made liberal use of pause, fast forward, and rewind. I also trained myself to stay carefully away from mousebuttons and a number of keys that make the demo exit. It would have been disastrous if I got far into the demo and hit one of those keys. At that point, I'd have to run through the demo again from the start to reach the same point. PowerPoint still has a few advantages over DROD for giving presentations.

For posting the hold on the forum, I removed floor image screenshots for MESH, Drain Storm, Wonderquest, and Sokoban and threw some cheesy looking block text in there instead.

I'll post my notes in a reply after this.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

ErikH2000
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File: The Appeal of Stepping Games.doc (46.5 KB)
Downloaded 89 times.
License: Public Domain

Here's my speech notes. I imagined that I would freeze up in front of the crowd and robotically recite my speech notes word for word, but thankfully I didn't really look at them much while I was talking. I guess they were more useful for organizing my thoughts in advance.

There is a secret URL given away in both the notes and hold. Feel free to have a look.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Bombadil
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Thanks a lot!

Tomorrow in the morning I'll look at them. It's 4 am here right now (I'm back from taking a few drinks with some friends)

Swivel
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Friends don't let friends take drinks. Or do they?

Well, one time I had Sprite in the prescence of a so-called friend. I realized that he were a true friend, he wouldn't let me drink something with high fructose corn syrup included. Then I joined a support group. All that I drink now is water, and I shun those who do otherwise.

By the way, Erik, the hold is great. I assume that you go downwards from the room with "Everything" in it.

ErikH2000
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Swivel wrote:
By the way, Erik, the hold is great. I assume that you go downwards from the room with "Everything" in it.

No go west from "everything".

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

stigant
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I asked the hotel to wake me up at 8am Saturday morning, so I could go listen to Roger Penrose talk. Penrose is a famous guy who... oh, just look him up if you don't know. The hotel didn't wake me up, damn them. I stirred around 11am with that guilty I-slept-way-too-long feeling. So I missed Penrose, unfortunately.

Hehe, I had the opportunity to see Penrose speak when I was Rice University about 10 years ago. I believe he spoke on irregular tilings of the plane. Unfortunately, I came down with the one and only migraine headache I've ever had. I spent the entire speach curled up in my chair in the fetal position, and remember very little of the speach.

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