Week 819

What’s this? I’m blogging about my work on a weekly basis – a simple way to track and archive whatever it is I spend my time on.

Last week on Monday, I visited Flavour to talk to founders Emily Jacometti and Jaïn Nigtevegt. They are working on interesting stuff and I keep encountering them during consultancy projects, so it was high time to catch up.

On Tuesday, I edited a new batch of short game reviews for nrc.next. Hyrule Warriors and Hack ‘n’ Slash were both done by Jurjen Tiersma, and published on Thursday alongside Zoo Tycoon by Harry Hol. I also wrote a short piece on the Indigo showcase, but it seems like that didn’t make it into the paper.

I also got some disappointing news that day, as I discovered the Dutch Foundation for Literature is not giving me a grant to work on the expansive novel I’m planning, Sexy Sadie. They don’t motivate their decision at all, but I’m guessing it has to do with their evaluation of De verdwijners. I should put an ‘under-appreciated by the literary establishment’-sticker on that book…

Somehow the news didn’t really surprise me though, and I didn’t nearly feel as bad as with earlier rejections. I sent off a request for an explanation and a ‘pro forma’ objection straight away (to probably complain about a lack of literary diversity later on), and am starting to think of ways to write this baby without external funding.

On Wednesday I finished the Guido van Rossum / Python interview article with David Nieborg, which appeared in Bright Ideas on Friday: Bij Dropbox spreekt iedereen Nederlands. Not sure I understand that headline.

That night, I crossed the North Sea by plane with Collin van Ginkel of Two Tribes Games for EGX London 2014, a large games show aimed at the general public. We went there to show off robot hacking shooter RIVE in the Rezzed area; we had a demo station and a bunch of flyers.

It was the first time I’ve attended such an event as a ‘developer’, and I found it surprisingly fun to pitch our game to attendees. The demo station was manned non-stop, and many people finished the demo. Most of them seemed to really like the game, giving me a confidence boost. Even better, RIVE was shown simultaneously at Indigo here in Utrecht, where it got enthusiastic response too.

We survived standing around and keeping up energetical appearances by sleeping regular hours, drinking lots of water, getting a massage, and eating well; we took advantage of London’s international kitching, having Indian, Filipino and Lebanese dinner. I also met some friends and colleagues at EGX, like Takashi Ebiike, Tim Symons and Martijn van der Meulen, which was nice.