This meeting was held the day after an enormous blizzard so attendance was a fraction of November's meeting. The hardy souls that did make it out were treated to an excellent presentation from Jason Compton comparing several aspects of TV game shows with video games. He made a number of intriguing comparisons such as how a seemingly tangential feature can sometimes have significant impact on the enjoyment of the game/show. He also noted several good examples of how an attempt to modernize or improve a show can actively detract from the enjoyment thereof, not unlike with video games. The only way Jason could have improved the presentation was by including the infamous William-Shatner-completely-loses-his-cool-and-throws-furniture clip from $20,000 Pyramid. Jason excluded it from his deck due to the poor quality of the video, but I have no such compunctions.
Aside from Jason's talk, we also had some discussion on the importance of tax credits for game developers in Wisconsin. It's a topic that has come up in the past, especially in light of the tax credits provided for film producers in the state. Making Wisconsin more attractive to game development studios and other areas of technical innovation is clearly of great importance, not just to a state that has been heavily invested in manufacturing but more specifically to the wide array of students participating in the various games-related fields of study throughout Wisconsin's schools. As an IGDA chapter I hope we're able to further our involvement in this issue.
As per usual, the meeting adjourned to Friday's for rampant socializing and exorbitantly overpriced burgers. In and amongst other discussions I was pleased to meet (hope I get the names right) Matt, Phil, Cat, and Patrick, a group of indie-devs-with-day-jobs who drove down nearly from Green Bay. That's quite a haul, you guys. I'm glad you made it.
And a quick shout out to my homies at Raven -- Andre Dusette*, Eric McDaniel, Brian White, and Nathan Rausch. Good to see you guys, as always.
*word to the wise: Don't play this guy in Cutthroat Caverns. He cheats. Not as much as Vondrak, but it's still pretty egregious.
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