At the Game Developer's Choice Awards at GDC, I heard about a little game called Audiosurf. In the craziness that was GDC, I found myself too busy to play the demo. Recently, I read on a game blog about how Audiosurf was available via Steam. Now that there was a demo, and I had no more excuses. It was time to give this award-winning independent game a try.

Audiosurf may be a rhythm game, but it's quite different from Guitar Hero or Rock Band. The layout does look similar to Guitar Hero from the screenshots; however, the gameplay itself is quite different. Songs you choose (from music files on your computer) are mapped into something resembling a racetrack. Blocks are places across the lanes, and they can vary in color (depending on the mode). There were a few different modes to play, including dodging certain color blocks and collecting other color blocks.

I found the game to be slightly difficult at first. I didn't quite understand how I was supposed to stack matching color blocks into columns that moved with me, and how to strategize to get maximum points. Sometimes, the columns would fill too quickly on the fast parts or they wouldn't clear matching colors out fast enough, so I would lose points. However, there were some nice touches in the mechanics, such as having the gray blocks (which don't match with anything) clear out automatically, reducing the punishment. Also, there were power-ups and other details that made the game more complex.

The mechanics encouraged skilled play, and I could tell just from the short demo that the game had a nicely scaled degree of complexity. I tried to choose a wide variety of songs during my demo. I absolutely loved the idea of using music I know and love (avoiding difficulties that arise from unfamiliarity with some songs in games such as Guitar Hero). However, this freedom also means that the level of difficulty can vary greatly between songs. Even if I'm familiar with a song, it may have portions that are just too fast for me to handle.

Audiosurf requires different skills than many mainstream rhythm games on the market. It's mainly a matter of timing. I really enjoyed being able to pick my own songs, meaning I never had to play one that I didn't like. Audiosurf may not have had the budget of games like Guitar Hero, but it is certainly a fun rhythm game and a neat way to appreciate your favorite music.  

Prior to playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I had no experience with the series. I had often heard of Brawl tournaments, but I was intimidated by the frenzy and skills of the dedicated fans.

However, there was one tournament that I chose to attend. At GDC, one of my fellow volunteers (CAs) had brought a Japanese Wii with a copy of Brawl. This was before the game’s release, and I thought it would be worth checking out the game, even if it was just for educational purposes. Soon we had a tournament, with rounds scheduled in the evenings. I signed up to play a round, even though I knew that I had no shot at winning.

During the few minutes that I played, I felt that I was given a crash course in crowd dynamics and the real spirit of Smash Bros. While there was some skill involved, a lot of the game seemed to be based on chance and being in the right place at the right time. The controls aren’t very refined, but there are a few things you can do to gain an advantage, such as getting power-ups. The crowd added a whole new dimension to play, as they would cheer when someone did major damage. The crowd also helped me when I got a smash ball by shouting “Press B!” I was playing as Samus, and it was great fun to unleash the Zero Suit version from the bulky armor.

I never bought Brawl, but I have had the chance to play the localized version with my friends. I tried out the co-op mode with one friend, which turned out to be more frustrating than fun. When playing in co-op mode, you only get the number of lives as you would on single player mode. This seems fair until playing through the levels, where enemies are all over the screen and it actually becomes easier to die with a partner taking up prime strategic locations on the screen. It’s much harder to avoid certain ranged attacks, so lives seem to disappear faster.

I played group melee mode with a few different friends. It’s tough to be a beginner because I had little chance of winning, but I felt that I could improve my chances by sticking with certain dependable characters like Pikachu. The skill gap still makes it a bit difficult to have fun (for a sustained period of time), but there is the option of teaming up in melee. I found that it was a lot more fun when I was helping a friend instead of fighting against them.

I didn’t play much of the other modes, but I did watch other friends play. One friend complained about the single-player mode, claiming that the levels were poorly designed so many features were frustrating. When I observed the levels, I began to see how some tricky areas of the levels depended more on chance than skill to get through, such as an area where enemies would continually freeze you because of the way they were lined up.

There were a few elements of this game that really bothered me. First, the sounds were incredibly annoying when you weren’t watching or playing the game. The sound effects were short and repetitive. Characters such as Pikachu with odd voices got on my nerves fast if I wasn’t involved in the game. The pace of the game itself is hyper like the sounds, with changing environments and fast moves. However, the controls can seem slow to respond due to set animation loops, so it leads to impatience on the part of the player. Also, there seemed to be a lot of useless features, such as being able to arrange and photograph trophies or make a virtual scrapbook with stickers. While these features may have appealed more to a Japanese market, it seems a ridiculous waste of time and resources to me when the single-player levels could’ve used more refinement.

While Super Smash Bros. Brawl does come with a few neat features, such as building your own levels, it seems to have a lot of frustrating elements in single-player mode and other areas of the game. It is certainly strongest in the group melee modes, but that comes as no surprise, given the proportion of time players will spend on that mode. It seems that this game could’ve benefited from a better allocation of resources by cutting a few single-player levels or additional features that seem to detract from an otherwise decent fighting game.  

I had heard that the Game Devevloper's Conference (GDC) was one of the biggest game conferences, but the idea of going was a vague idea for me when I went to the D.I.C.E. Summit last year. However, by the end of the year, I was convinced that I needed to go. Aside from my general interest in learning about specialized career topics, GDC became something more for me when a group project from school (The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom) was selected for the IGF student showcase at GDC.

Even if your game is nominated for an award at GDC, that doesn’t mean that the whole team can get in for free. Before I knew that my game was selected, I had applied to be a volunteer (a Conference Associate or CA). I wanted to go to GDC whether or not my game got in, and I was quite surprised when I found out that we did make it. Regardless, I had no idea that volunteering would be such a fantastic experience.

As a GDC CA, I was given an all-access pass to the conference. This meant that, when I was not on duty, I had access to any session, tutorial or workshop. The CA program is incredibly well-organized, and each of us got to request three time slots to have off (to attend a specific session). I had the opportunity to go to a full-day tutorial on game writing (Learn Better Game Writing in a Day), which was quite helpful as an aspiring game writer.

The game industry is small enough right now to have a sense of community. While there were thousands of attendees at the conference, I kept running into people that I knew. Guest speakers, contacts from internships, and friends of friends somehow seemed to find me if I couldn’t find them. Also, many of the speakers were very approachable. I met Mac Walters, one of the senior writers on Mass Effect, after he spoke in a session. He is a real inspiration for me, and I appreciated the opportunity to meet him in person and ask for his advice.

Aside from the community of developers attending and speaking at GDC, I found a fantastic community in my fellow CAs. Everyone had a genuine passion for games, so it was very easy to make new friends. It was a lot of fun to be part of a group of such hardworking, dedicated people. I found some great people to spend time with and I was never lonely.

GDC was a fantastic experience. When people back at school asked me how it was, my eyes would glaze over and all I could say was “awesome.” It was very inspiring for me to meet the people I admire and to see so many gamers together in one place. I came back more motivated than I’ve ever been. I highly recommend this conference for students. It’s a fantastic way to learn more about the people and the companies that create the best games on the market. GDC also provides opportunities to learn about specialized topics in the video game field. I found it to be very rewarding and I hope to go back again next year.