The day started with breakfast: bananas and oranges – healthy old men we are! Then we went on to get some real breakfast and coffee at Congress street. I met my panel leader for the gamification of a documentary – Suvi Helminen – at 11:00 (she was one hour late… 😉 Our panel discussion is called ‘The Playful viewer’ and you can read more details (or put it on your schedule) here. It’s upcoming Tuesday at 14:30 hours.

At the gaming expo we saw Cliff Bleszinski in a panel about the Oculus Rift – the all new virtual reality gaming device. They received 2,5 million dollars from 10.000 backers. Let’s see if VR becomes the new standard of immersive gameplay!

– Postmaster
– Lynx Laboratories
– Subtle data
– Axelo
– Aumanil
– Taskbox
– Meritful
– Rock Your Paper
– Stormpulse (which was the only one note worthy in my opinion…)

The full article of ’10 steps to make you more interesting’ is stated here, since she previously published it on the Forbes website.

After that – we went to a party organized by the Dutch Fellows, free booze and dancing women, what more does a geek want?

On the third day of SXSW we did the following:

Watched the documentary innovation lab of MIT, where some cool things are happening, altough gamification was not mentioned.

We went to an – almost empty room – and watched the talk Games for Good, basically portraying the different options you have to publish a game… Not really innovative and ground breaking…

Since I couldn’t get into the presentation about Minecraft (too many parents and kids were in the room and they apparently had an advantage over international press…?) we just strolled the floor of the gaming expo…

Gaming Arena

– Steam’s box: read IGN’s vision about it here

– Augmented Alternate Reality Games the future? iPhone becomes scope rifle. This was actually quite cool. You just put you iPhone on a ‘specially developed’ gun and there you go: paintball 3.0 !

Make love not Porn

Hoping to learn t=from payment and distribution methods used in the porn industry I felt this presentation was more a promotion for socialisation of sex and open discussions of sex – as opposed to porn. More about this keynote here: http://makelovenotporn.com 

After arriving in Austin yesterday after a nine hour flight and four hour car drive, we (Mike and I) picked up our badges at the Austin Conress Centre. Then we headed up to our lovely Air BNB place at ‘Pat and Bill’ only 1,5 miles away from downtown. I shared a bed with Mike, which brought me back to my college years I guess, but, it beats couch surfing I guess…. We met up around eight with our two other cowboys in crime Bas (Vanguard games) and Michiel (Little Chicken Game company) at coyote ugly…. Talk about old glory gone…. 😉

Today the game starts to visit about 100 keynotes, inspiration sessions, drinks, art events, interactive installations, dining, wining, etc…

My schedule for today is in the picture and I noticed a lot of things start at the same hour…. So I guess I am not yet done making choices… 😉

SXSW – The biggest creative blend of Film, Music and Interactive art & entertainment takes place in Austin – Texas. I really look forward to indulging myself seven days during the festival. I rented an apartment for myself and three friends that also work in the creative / games industry. For the past weeks I have tried to set up a schedule to visit all the interesting keynotes. workshops, seminars, meet-ups, mashups etc. but it’s just too much!

We have decided to just ‘go with the flow’ and see what people we meet and were people go. So if you’re going – LET ME KNOW! Send me a tweet @BartHufen

I will probably follow everything on the ‘digital domain’ from MIT sessions to start-up material…

http://sxsw.com/film/sessions/digital-domain

And of course – there is one event I will be visiting at least, since I am in the panel 😉

My opinion about gamification of film has been influenced positively since the release of ‘The Walking Dead‘ was released. I first started playing on iPad, but now my girlfriend and I are playing it on PlayStation 3 and she’s scared shitless! 😉 It reminds me of the classic ‘point and click’ adventures of the nineties.

The advantage the game has over film is that it’s all animated and not ‘film fragments’… Since your mind is ‘actively involved’ in adding ‘imagination’ to the experience, you don’t feel too much interruption. In a ‘real’ film, you witness ‘real-people’ experiencing real stuff, so every ‘moment of choice’ feels like an interruption (pause-play)…. But I haven’t played Suvi’s project all the way yet, so don’t take my word for it, but try it yourself!

Play her project here: http://www.48hourgames.com 

Check out this video of the PlayStation 4. My verdict? I think they developed a good vision, made the right choices and executed well accordingly. To summarize it in my own words:

– Instant access to your favorite games

– Relevant offers based on your current catalogue

– Connected and sharable experiences (multiplayer & sharing scores & moments)

– Elegant (simple & easy)

Since I will be speaking about games, gamification, applied games and my book the upcoming two days in Istanbul I might as well share this slide about the evolution of game platforms, also because the most recent addition to platforms can be pre-ordered per direct. The Game Stick that works with a controller and a USB stick is a sheer novelty!

Although they (Ouya, Gamestick, Onlive) still have to prove their success I am really curious if they will change the way we will play our games in the living room. Yesterday I tweeted that Apple will introduce the ‘next gen’ game console in a form called ‘Apple TV’ probably this year. Providing gameplay through their iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads as controllers. How great it may sound, personally I still prefer controllers that have buttons. And what will Sony introduce along with their PlayStation 4…? Indeed – touch screen – in between their two sticks. Another mistake in my opinion. They could better have made their buttons even MORE analogue. So I can use the buttons as a ‘gas pedal’, or for sneaking (pressed slightly), walking (pressed normal) or running (pressed all the way). I advice the traditional companies to stick to their competences and optimize their systems in line with their own vision to keep hold of their fan-base instead of trying to become a ‘all in one- product… Stick to the Core I say! And let the young innovative companies try to shake up the world with novelties like the Game Stick….

Forget all you ever heard about Gamification! Check out this 15 minute presentation about how to build loyalty through the ATARI model (Trigger, Action, Reward, Investment). It strongly ties into what I believe of how you can change human behavior. You can use this model along and in line with my Cocha-model.

I think you should consider this circle a ‘vicious’ circle like and the experience that happens when players reach a state of ‘flow’ through the ‘game loop’…

If the video doesn’t play, go to Nir’s website:

www.nirandfar.com

You can find a full explanation of the Cocha-model here.

A great short film by Sight Systems. Will this be my future…?

Where can you find me the upcoming months?

6-2-2013 Marketing Information Event in The Hague (The Netherlands)
19-2-2013 Gamelab – Moderating the ‘Bloopers in the gaming Industry workshop’ in Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
20-2-2013 & 21-2-2013 Gamification Workshop in Istanbul (Turkey)
1-3-2013 Joining forces with Today Designers in our new office in Utrecht (The Netherlands): De Vechtclub XL
7-3-2013 until 14-3-2013 SXSW in Austin Texas (USA) attending as press
14 & 15-4-2013 Euroforum Gamification conference in Hamburg Germany at the ‘marktplatz’

Work in progress of our new office…

Yes! I received the program for SXSW the coolest digital interactive film music festival of the world! I will be there the whole week and also be covering the music & film events thanks to Molblog!

Be sure to follow all my updates through Twitter and this spot right here!

Here’s the line-up / schedule for this year: http://www.sxsw.com/schedule