Lecture at Games Convention Developer Conference

Leipzig, Germany

Even before the implosion of E3, the Games Convention in Leipzig was the biggest game trade show in the world -- and yet surprisingly few American developers know about it. 130,000 people come from all over Europe to see the latest games. At the same time, there's a conference for developers. I was invited, and gave them a version of my lecture from this year's Game Developers' Conference in San Jose, "A New Vision for Interactive Stories." I could only stay one day, unfortunately, but I met up with some old friends and made a number of new contacts too.

Leipzig is in the old East Germany, but you wouldn't know it to look at the town. 17 years after the wall came down the city bustles with life. Modern hotels and the colossal convention center, Leipziger Messe, give it the look of any prosperous German city. I'll definitely go back for longer next year if they want me.

Ernest Adams joins advisory board of Women in Games International

I'm proud to announce that I have been asked to serve on the advisory board of Women in Games International, a group founded to improve conditions for women in the game industry and encourage new women to join. I have long been supportive of this aim, and was delighted to accept. Something like this was tried in the mid-90s, but didn't work out. WIGI was set up in 2005 and has already given several conferences around the USA and in the UK -- the amount of interest is enormous. I look forward to serving and lending what assistance I can to their efforts. The industry has long suffered from a dearth of female talent, and WIGI should help to remedy that.

A Visit to Norway

Drammen, Norway

I hadn't been to Norway in years and years, so when I got the chance to go I couldn't possibly turn it down. One of my clients, Ravn Studios, flew me there for a few days of consulting on their current project. This is a picture of the team. Black T-shirts and heterogeneous hairstyles -- can you tell these are game developers? The woman in front is their lead designer and boss.

Afterwards I took half a day to be a tourist, and went to see some of the polar exploration ships in Oslo. Most impressive was the Fram, a wooden three-masted ship intentionally designed to be frozen into the ice -- it's incredibly strong. The picture below is of the Gjøa, the tiny little vessel that first discovered the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific, via the Arctic Ocean north of Canada. The Oslo harbor is in the background.