I've had very limited connectivity here in Park City, but I am here at the second annual game festival at Slamdance. We were lucky enough to be here last year, so I can report on the changes and evolution of the festival.

The games are both more and less prominent this year. All of Slamdance (the films and the games) take place at Treasure Mountain Inn, at the top of Main Street. Last year we were out in the lobby of TMI. There were fewer games last year, and we showed the games on chest-height tables in that area. This was great because we got a lot of foot traffic -- everyone attending the films passed through the lobby. However, we felt a little like second-class citizens, sort of "tacked on" to the film festival in the extra space. This year, the film ticket counter is in the lobby, and there is a "game lounge" further back in the hotel. The lounge is set up with bean bags and plush cushions, with the computers low to the ground. The room is bigger and has nice ambience, but it doesn't get the foot traffic from the festival like last year. That said, the festival organizers have done a great job integrating the games into the festival. We feel more a part of it, and they've been announcing the the games at all the films. Still, one of the best parts of last year's festival was showing our games to so many random passersby, and I've missed that this year.

Exhibiting games is hard. Unlike films, which screen on their own, so to speak, games aren't usually designed to sit and run all day. They don't reset into idle states well (the way arcade games do, with attract loops and so forth). And PC's aren't always intuitive devices. When you go to a film screening, you just sit there and watch the film. The director makes a brief introduction before the screening, and then does Q&A afterward. I haven't shared this idea with the organizers yet, but one way to make the game festival work more like the film festival would be to hold game screenings. Each game could get an hour or two slot when it would run on all the computers in the space, and the developers could do a screening of sorts, showing the game on a large screen and doing an artist talk about it. It would allow us to sort of "premiere" the games, invite people to come, and generally make it more event-like and more consumable by the film festival attendees. Of course, there are problems with this -- some games require considerably more than a few minutes time to play effectively, but in my experience people don't play for more than a few minutes anyway at exhibitions. Ideally, you'd want screenings and a lounge or space with all the games, but space is at a huge premium in Park City. Anyway, just some random thoughts for now.

As with last year, chatting with the other developers (they call us "gamemakers" here, a variant of "filmmakers") has been great. I'll share more photos and more about the games soon.

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