Lionhacks

Since moving to SF a week ago, I’ve been having the time of my life. If I’m only running on 4-hours of sleep a night, I must be right? A new friend of mine, Steven Tran, is the marketing coordinator for the Game Developers Conference which centers around game development, sharing tools, tips and technologies for unbridled professional learning, networking and gaming fun! Easily one of my favorite games was a music based game (no screen or visuals) called Johann Sebastian Joust. Might I add that it was nominated and won the Innovation Award at the IGF. Here is the description from the site:

The goal is to be the last player remaining. When the music — selections from J.S. Bach’s ”Brandenburg Concertos” — plays in slow-motion, the controllers are extremely sensitive to movement. When the music speeds up, this threshold becomes less strict, giving the players a small window to dash at their opponents. If your controller is ever moved beyond the allowable threshold, you’re out! Channel the power of J.S. Bach, and try to jostle your opponents’ controllers while protecting your own.

The game even evolved as I attended the conference because on the first day players were much more aloof to any strategy. By my fourth game I was able to stealthy circle the entire group and blow their controller up to become the last man standing (and laughing, muahahha). But by the second day, the players lowered their stances and frankly got a lot more pushy. Anyway, this was one of my favorite games in the conference and I really appreciated the abstractness of playing a console game showcasing music with no visuals! Try it if you get the chance!! Sweet smell of Victory! From the official site (jsjoust.com):