So these things happened at GDC…

Michelle Clough gave the blow-the-doors-off breakout talk of the Narrative Summit, and acquired the nickname “Atomic Ovaries” in the process. Go check out her talk on the Vault. I’ll wait. And you’ll understand.
I may have offered a sip from my flask to the honorable Mayor of Baton Rouge, LA.
Alexander Bevier did a great job of stepping up for the IGDA Writers’ SIG and ran a kick-ass edition of Write Club. The fact that the final question was about writing dialog for a gritty FPS about a vengeful cabbage whose family has been shredded (working title: Cole’s Law) is entirely beside the point. Bravo, Alex.
There was orange wine. Three kinds of orange wine.
Two of my favorite designers nearly got into a fight, and I’m not sure one of them even noticed.
Roughly 84 Californians, very few of them native, asked me “When are you moving out here?” When I said “I’m not,” they looked very surprised.
Over 70 people showed up for the last iteration of my Game Writers’ Round Table on Friday, during the last slot of the conference. I am humbly pleased that folks were that into the material.
There was a playtest of Squatches and Scotches, my home-brew card game. We did it in a bar. Because it was GDC.
The estimable Mark Nelson and I argued college basketball in front of internationally celebrated game designer Ken Rolston, whose transparent amusement at our hammer-and-tongs debate was one of the most genuine expressions of joy I saw all week.
When it comes to college basketball, by the way, Mark Nelson is still wrong.
After innumerable years of saying “someday I’m going to…” I finally took a look around the Contemporary Jewish Museum, around the corner from the Moscone Center. It took maybe an hour. (But it was worth it for the Lobel exhibit alone.)
One of the security personnel at Moscone West told me, “I appreciate your enthusiasm.” Seriously.
Had breakfast with Nicole Lazzaro and Lee Sheldon, which made me feel a lot like the Sheriff character on Eureka, brain-wise. Wow. The smartness.
Many people whom I admire as professional peers did terrible things to my book.
The legendary Brenda Romero had multiple slides in her PPT presentation featuring asparagus.
I bought Hal Barwood’s book. You should, too.
There was a moment during an interview where I actually had to pull out the “I could tell you but I’d have to kill you” line.
The game writing crowd found a new bar and promptly drank it out of most of its scotch. Monkey Shoulder, we hardly knew ye.
Some people did some really disturbing things with milkshakes.
I discovered the downside to staying at a hotel with hall bathrooms and showers is that it has hall bathrooms and showers. Especially if the shower is next to your room and two of your hall mates like showering together.
People ate the roast beef in the conference lunches. This was a mistake.
Steve Meretzky promised to show me 100 places with better drinks than the Tadich Grill. 98 to go. Next year, then…