Saturday, March 28, 2009

Debacle '09 Las Vegas

Back when we posted the blip on the first debacle that took place last year in Bolinas, we promised a more lengthy post describing this year's debacle. Sorry for such an obscenely long lag time, but at last you have the background for our new app that was the product of that oh so productive week in Vegas.

Surprisingly enough I am not being facetious when I say that it was a productive week. We had rented a house out in the 'burbs, so there wasn't too much distraction as far as the normal Vegas trouble of gambling, girls, and whatnot.

When we got in Saturday we holed up and spent the majority of days (and significant portions of the nights) working. Contrary to the 2008 debacle, the name proved not to be an issue. Instead some of the time consuming troublespots turned out to be the maps (finding the algorithm to convert latitude/longitude to pixel placement on the screen) and the server (everything).

The hours of intense work still proved to be fruitful, and by the time Thursday rolled around we completed the first official playtest. Granted the build we tested was far from perfect and crashed fairly consistently, but for less than a week's work I think it turned out pretty well.

It's probably worth mentioning that we weren't total hermits during that time. We checked out CES, went out for a nice dinner one night, poked around the casinos, and took a stroll down the Strip. There was also a fab party Saturday night hosted by the company we do some contract work for, although maybe half the team had left by then.

So I know we haven't really posted much of a game explanation, but taking a look at the site and the video posts should give you the gist of what Seek 'n Spell's about.

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