Well, it's all over for another year. I'm not sure how many Gamesblog readers made it to the three-day GameCity festival in Nottingham, but believe me it was worth the trip.
Sadly, I missed Thursday, but arrived just in time on Friday afternoon to meet the creators of Geometry Wars (an interview I'll post on here later this week) as well as Ike Adams and Alex Navarro from Harmonix, who were lovely chaps, and really excited about their trip to Nottingham castle the day before. They weren't saying much about the Beatles game announced a couple of days before the festival, but it seems that the whole of the Fab Four's musical career will be explored, rather than just a specific period, and I get the feeling it's going to be a very different experience to Rock Band.
It was also great to witness the main square filled with hundreds of people in zombie face paint...
The organisers set out to break the world record for the most zombie dancers gathered in one place – and they succeeded, launching 1227 people into the record books. I loved the fact that it wasn't just kids and teenagers – there were whole zombie families hanging around out there lumbering about to Michael Jackson's Thriller.
Friday evening saw a great Halloween event at the Britannia Hotel. It started with Rock Band on the main stage with dozens of kids (most still with zombie face paint) queuing to rock out in front of a small but enthusiastic audience. Adams and Navarro themselves got up for a couple of songs accompanied by event organiser and ex-Edge editor Margaret Robertson on bass. Their rendition of Don't Fear the Reaper was wonderful.
Later, Paul and Storm, the backing band for Portal soundtrack provider and acoustic geek legend Jonathan Coulton, provided a triumphant set, filled with witty songs and japes. Coulton himself was on later, pic-n'mixing his own back catalogue with some great covers. The fitting finale was 'RE: Your Brains' his wistful ballad about an office stand-off between zombie marauders and terrified survivors. At one point, Coulton implored the kids in the first few rows to loom at the stage like real zombies, then regretted it almost immediately – 'hey, zombies, you're crushing my laptop!' he screamed uselessly.
Meanwhile, Rob Yescombe of Free Radical Design created a brilliant Resident Evil Live experience in a darkened service corridor. Festival-goers were ushered in one at a time and told to get down to the end of the corridor, grab a party hat, then get back. Each victim was given a torch and told that if they encountered a zombie they had to 'shoot' it by shining the flashlight in its face and counting to seven.
And sure enough as you crept through the dark, Rob's zombie helpers would start lurching in from side rooms and beneath tables. It was bizarrely scary, and also extremely videogame-like - I found myself strafing around corners and scoping darkened corners like a cross between Max Payne and Fox Mulder. Sadly, about three-quarters of the way through I tripped over a zombie I'd already shot, straight into the arms of another lumbering monster. Game over. (I bet Leon Kennedy will never go out like that).
Saturday saw two great talks, both of which I'll cover in more detail later. Jonathan Smith from TT Games, the publisher of the Lego Star Wars, Indy and Batman titles, chatted about the birth of the Lego game concept and about the responsibilities developers have to provide a rewarding educational experience. Later, Alex Evans of Media Molecule delivered the event's 'Vision Statement', covering the genesis of LittleBigPlanet and its immediate future. All fascinating stuff.
Then, Saturday night was Gamesblog curry quiz night. The day got off to a dodgy start when I discovered half the prizes hadn't turned up. Luckily, we managed to scrape together quite a decent bounty, including a Wii! People seemed to enjoy the event, which mixed retro trivia with a couple of creative rounds and a videogame sound challenge. I managed to alienate the Harmonix guys with some really stingy marking (sorry guys!), but the winners certainly looked happy at the end. Thank to all who turned up.
There weren't as many people as there should have been at some of the events, especially the closing gig (you should have been there for the awesome Swedish NES covers band, Powerplay), but this was partly down to the clash with the London games Festival, and partly due to the expense of staying in a large city for three nights. Co-organiser Iain Simons told me that they're planning a radical shake up for next year's event. I hope whatever they do, it doesn't alter the festival's easy-going, haphazard charm.
