We checked into our hotel that didn't turn out to be the the best, but it had beds and hot water - that was enough. However we had to take turns in sharing the two double beds...
We had a pretty tough time getting over the jet lag due to late nights and early mornings, but that didn't stop us from having a great time! Everyday we would have breakfast at a place called Lefty O' Douls (however I was having major stomach issues so couldn't eat a lot :( ). On the second night in San Francisco we went for drinks round Ron Carmel's house and met the rest of Indie Fund as well as the other teams they're funding (Andy Shatz again and Steve Swink). This was all pretty overwhelming, considering we'd been speaking to these guys (and girl) online for the past 7 months - but was great to finally meet them all. We all went out for dinner at a burger place near Ron's house followed by more drinks and testing out Indie Fund games afterwards. We ended up getting a taxi with Nathan Vella - that was a pretty intense experience as the cab driver sped down the slopes of San Francisco - really did feel like a roller-coaster ride!
The next day we spent some time checking out San Francisco and finding our feet in the place. Unfortunately we ended up giving $15 to some pranksters in the street and the odd $5 to a bum or two, but nevermind! Later on in the day we hit up a Hookah bar and had a pitcher of beer, fun times! Also got friendly with the barmaid Jenn which was cool (she ended up letting me play my iPod in the place!).
GDC was pretty epic - the Indie Games Summit was on the Tuesday and this is where we had our big announcement! I was pretty nervous going up on the panel in front of 1000 people, but I definitely feel much more confident now :). Nervousness aside, it was great to be up there with Indie game veterans, Ron Carmel, Kellee Santiago, Nathan Vella and other developers, Andy Shatz and Steve Swink.
Once the expo opened we were well on our way to check out all the latest tech, including the Nintendo 3DS, which is something quite spectacular! Seeing really is believing. Checking out the IGF games was good fun too and seeing a bunch of our Indie friends from across the globe was nice (Solace team, Spiky Snail, Alexander Bruce and few others). One of the perks of the expo was the free beer - that was quite amazing! I would text Jon and Dave and they would literally come running to find it :D. We also had a few meetings with other companies, including Epic Games. Nothing was more epic than walking around the expo with Mark Rein discussing stuff followed by heading back to the Epic booth for more free beer! There was also a chill out zone where they had Halo: Reach playing, so I managed to get my fix in :P.
We attended a bunch of GDC talks and filled our minds with inspiration. We met up with a fair few people - I went for lunch with Jamie Cheng, the creator of "Shank", we hung out with Indie Fund members, went to an Indian restaurant with Kellee and her husband (and Matt), met Adam Sessler again, caught up with Jonathan Blow (JB!) and chilled with the Solace guys.
There were many parties going on every night, and unfortunately I forgot about one (that turned out to be awesome!) - but nevertheless we managed to get around. The exposure of QUBE was great because it meant we no longer felt like "nobodies" or just "students". When we told people what we were making 8/10 times they had heard of our game!
Other things we did included watching the IGF awards, eating out lots and checking out the Golden Gate Bridge - which was mind blowing! We also got our photo taken with two random girls haha.
Overall I had a great time - it was quite a different experience to DICE being bigger and busier. It definitely was good to get out of the studio and have some chill time with the team :).
