We took the team out on a field trip and look what happened
Red 5 - Wednesday, 28 March 2007 01:02
In the admittedly young history of Red 5 Studios, there have been many achievements. However, it’s going to be hard to top the beer volcano we accidentally “unveiled” at GDC ‘07. Unfortunately, we’d all left our cameras in the back of someone’s Yugo, so there wasn’t any way to document the moment when frothy beer-magma burst out of the keg and shot up to the ceiling tiles of the convention center. So sadly, our alcoholic Vesuvius will only be remembered in song and story by those who met us at GDC, and witnessed the glorious event.
Convention booth, pffft. We brought our own lounge.
Even the website was brought to GDC. Bam!
So close, yet so far, far away.
Boothcrawl, 10AM. We kid, we kid!
Attack Formation
Fortunately, we had plenty Red 5 Squadron members manning the booth. It’s moments like this that make us proud: they all risked bodily harm by ably moving people to safety, while doing their best to keep any beer from going to waste. And despite this little eruption, we managed to turn potential disaster into a conference success story. It certainly helped that we bedecked our booth in full tiki bar splendor, complete with a live video conferencing system. Each day at five o’clock, we opened the Red 5 Tiki Bars at GDC and at Red 5’s office in Orange County. The two locations were linked through the unbridled awesomeness of a Tanberg Video Conference System. Not only did the video link-up make attendees feel like they were in Orange County, it gave them a chance to meet the developers and designers who couldn’t make the trip up north.
But it wasn’t all boozing and back-slapping: we managed to bring our game face to the show. Mark’s panel on “MMO: Past, Present and Future” went very well. Mark shared the stage with some real industry rockstars, and the room was completely packed. In case you couldn’t make the conference, you’re in luck: GDC Radio has a podcast of the panel available for purchase and IGN’s posted their notes on the panel. Though who these “Factor 5” guys are, we couldn’t say.
You Complete Us
So after a week of beer volcanos, Tiki Bars, and panels, we really want to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth. We had such a blast meeting and talking with everyone. In hindsight, bringing our team of developers instead of recruiters to an event like GDC made such a big difference; the level of discussion goes to eleven when we can talk to you one on one, peer to peer, and we’re thrilled nearly the entire OC team joined us at the conference. All in all, we got the chance to meet and share beer with six hundred people in the industry, and we can’t wait to do it next year!
(Once, you know, we’re done recuperating.)