D.I.C.E. Summit and IGC Finals in Vegas!

Wow, where to begin...Last week was hands down an amazing experience and some of the best days of my life! Excitement pumping through me as the plane landed into Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. I've never seen so many bright lights in my life! Next up we headed to the hotel, ripped off big time by the taxi driver - and saw a glimpse of the Strip on the way to La Quinta (unfortunately we didn't stay at the Red Rock!). Tired, but still high on excitement, Dave and me decided to hit up Chicago's for a pizza and pitcher of beer :). That didn't go down to well in the morning as we had to be up bright and early for the DICE Summit. Actually, I think we hit the gym that morning (I wanted to go in the pool but it was closed :( ) after eating some gooey waffles mmmmm. Unfortuantely we weren't quite sure how much we had to dress up and so went in suits - we got there and everyone was in jeans and shirts! It was great though, the hotel was amazing :D - We got our goody bags (containing a hoody, t-shirt, mouse and loads of other cool stuff) and headed to the Indie Game Lounge where we met all the other Indie Developers (Andy Shatz - Pocketwatch, Niv Fisher Spiky Snail, Dino Patti - Playdead) and set up Q.U.B.E. on my laptop so people could play. Soon after we met Kellee Santiago which was cool!



We also made good friends with the Solace team and went for a Mexican with 'em. Most of the time I was pretty jet-lagged because there wasn't much time to sleep! Literally an early morning followed by a late night due to after parties etc. Was all good fun though - and chilling on the Veranda in the hot sun was a good hangover cure!



We attended some interesting and inspirational talks and the IAA awards evening which was a very eye-opening experience. We got to indulge in the luxury food, drink and company of some of the top names in the industry! Ted Price was sat on my table and he was bringing us beers from the bar! The next thing I know he was up on the stage presenting an award to someone! It was just a mind-blowing experience :) The after party was also good - just being able to network and talk to these people was amazing. I met Jade Raymond, Jessica Chobot and a few other well known people :). The next day was our big day - I prepared the publisher pitches and readied myself for the talk on stage with Adam Sessler. We headed over to the Red Rock a bit later than usual (everyone was wondering where we got to). The publisher meetings went pretty well! And then the Indie Game Challenge awards happened - was a very exciting experience. I was a bit nervous, but when I got up on the stage things weren't so bad! I gave Adam Sessler a mood cube and then I reminded him what Q.U.B.E. stood for - was pretty funny! After the chat, I received a trophy and had to do the whole "Thank you" speech on camera which was fun! For the rest of the night, we got to go to a party in a $7000-a-night penthouse suite which was soo epic - swimming pool and pool table - amazing! The plane journey the next day, however, wasn't such a good experience. Bring on San Francisco next week!