Neon Play

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GDC, we loved you!

We’ve been to some great conferences in London, but we’ve never been Stateside. But that all changed last week when our CEO Oli Christie, made the trip over the Pond to the wonderful San Francisco.

San Francisco Neon Play

Why did we go?

Well mostly to network, to learn, to have a bunch of meetings and to see if McDonalds really do taste the same everywhere in the world (they do). 

Shock to the system

On the first night, Oli was woken up by his bed shaking somewhat. He was sleeping by himself, but maybe the chamber maid had to awaken him from his jet lag. But no, it was an earthquake. Yes really, a 4.3 magnitude earthquake. Have a look at the Richter Scale visual below for the earth tremors.

GDC San Francisco earthquake

Talk the talk

Oli went to some fascinating talks from Facebook and they guys from Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride and Bejewelled Blitz - it’s always good to learn and you generally get one shiny, golden nugget of information from each talk you go to.

Network does work

It was also an amazing place to network and meet people who you probably wouldn’t normally bump into in Cirencester High Street. Bizarre, but true. So Oli met the guys from Get Set Games (Mega Jump), our Antipodean friends from Pik Pok (Flick Kick Football), Peter Vesterbacker from Rovio (some game called Angry Birds? No...? Nor me) and a host of other top global developers who really know what they’re doing.

Stop...Hammer Time!

There were some great parties where the music was too loud and you felt old by wanting it to be a bit quieter so you could actually talk to people, and at one of these shindigs, sponsored by the kind folks at Kiip, Oli met the one, the only, the legend that is MC Hammer. Yup, that’s right, Hammer go Hammer, MC Hammer. Quite remarkable.

MC Hammer and Oli Christie, Neon Play

So all in all, it was one hell of a trip. GDC is completely manic and you barely have a second to stop and think and relax, but it’s a buzzing place to be with all the people in the right place at one time. We’ll definitely go again next year as it’s quite simply the best games event in the world. We’re worth it. Maybe we’ll even fly business class next time as it’s a long old way.


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