:: JimBlackhurst.com ::

So lots of stuff happened while I was away at GDC, and I didn’t get time to blog about it. Firstly, the most boring space shuttle mission in recent history landed, gasp, safely. However, we won’t be waiting long for the next one, Endeavour on STS-123 is already out at the pad and due to launch on March 11th (6.28am!). It’s going to be a long mission, 16 days, with the main focus the installation of the Japanese Experiment Module (Kibō).

Of course, the main news is that the US decided to shoot down USA 193, which was also a bit of a shame, it would have been much more exciting to watch it crash and burn. The announcement that they would shoot it down led to all sorts of predictable conspiracy outbursts and ranting about how it was all a big cover story for US ASAT tests. I’m sure the US did want to shoot it down to prove to china that they can shoot satellites down as well, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t do it before or actually planned this, it was all just opportunity. I was in my hotel room reading up on SeeSat-L when I discovered the news about the impending shoot down, due at about 10:30pm (iirc) that night. I suddenly felt quite vulnerable sitting there in a big US city. If they miss, or otherwise screw up, there could be some very, very, angry countries out there. Perhaps I’ve been watching too much Jericho.

So it’s all over and we’re home and mostly cleared of the jetlag. Overall it was a busy show, the effect of E3 dying is obvious to see, GDC is now as much about business development as it is about games development. I actually found it a bit frustrating to get around simply due to the number of people present. And I didn’t get a T-shirt.

I can’t believe I’m going to say it but… I think the iPhone is going to be a great gaming device. Damm Apple and all their ultra popular design. I was turned off touch screen by a generation of weak underpowered devices who didn’t have enough processor grunt to refresh the touch and update the screen, let alone run any games, but then I saw the LG Viewty. At last there was a touch screen device that responded to a touch with out having to wait a week for anything to happen. Nearly. Then I relented and allowed myself to be in the same room as an apple device for a short time, and found that I was deeply impressed. The screen is huge, both in resolution and real estate and the touch is so responsive, it almost feels predictive. The motion sensor works and the multi touch pinch is fun. This could be a great gaming platform. I’ve never been at a show where there was more anticipation for one technology release, namely the official iPhone SDK (now delayed untill march).

The main event also had it’s moments. I have been thinking a lot about PS3 Home, and I can’t help thinking that it’s not going to be a mediocre so-so. It will either be the most laughable attempt at community ever or a brilliant success. My game of the show was Chat Noir which I thought was perfect in every way. The experimental gameplay sessions, was terribly disappointing except for a few notable highlights, namely Ricky showing off Bernie, which was brilliant and a preview of the awesome Crayon Physics Deluxe. Where was the indie game jam? The whole event seemed to be lacking the energy of previous years, it was the first time in 6 years that I’ve seen empty seats in that room.

It rained a lot too.

After waiting for ages, STS-122 finally launched last night, it was one of the few launches recently I’ve not been around to watch on nasa TV. It all looks like it went smoothly, except for the usual foam breakup. The sensor glitches in that had kept the launch date on hold appear to have been fixed. “We won’t have the ECO sensor problem again. We’ve licked it,” [nasa administrator] Griffin told SPACE.com.

I just hope that ‘lick’ a metaphor…

In other news, your friend and mine, Mr. Burt Rutan and his team at SC are getting ready for a test flight of SpaceShip Two sometime ‘towards the middle of the year’ It will be flying from the worlds first space port (unless you count Star City in Russia, but that is military I suppose) which is going to be in the Mojave desert, and designed by Norman Foster’s bunch. I’ve seen it written that “The world first private spaceport will be designed to relate to the dimensions of the spacecraft and blend with its desert surroundings with a combination of geo-thermal, solar and wind power used to create a very low carbon footprint.” Which is handy considering the huge amount of stuff thrown out of the back of SS2’s rocket motor as it blasts it’s way into space (or the stratosphere at least). I think that the renaming of VSS Voyager to VSS Spirit of Steve Fossett is a brilliant move and I’m hoping that one of the three as yet unnamed VSS craft will be named after Carl Sagan.

I love it when people are inspired to really think differently about games and how to use games hardware. Is it just me or are we seeing something of the future in this video?