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"Are There Any Jews in the Audience?" - IGDA's Demo Night 4
One part of the game featured Stone confronting another rabbi. Dave then asked the audience what one gets if they ask a rabbi a question, and a few knew the answer: another question, which was incorporated into the scene that was being presented. The player's character would ask a question, and the other "evil" rabbi would respond. Afterwards, the player could either ask another question or choose to throw a punch. If the evil rabbi had given a rabbinical response, which was another question, then he would be immune to any physical action. But if he was a "poor" rabbi and didn't respond with a question, the blow would connect. Afterwards was a breakdown of the technical end; a demonstration of the Adventure Game Studio, which the game was authored in. It's a simply tag based editor, and even someone who isn't a “super coder ”like himself had no problems importing characters created from a graphics program (Photoshop), setting up path and parameters for their actions, and constructing a simply action sequence. Dave also passed along several other notes, such as how the game was definitely inspired by the "insult sword-fighting" from LucasArts' The Secret of Monkey Island. The Shivah was originally created for a contest, and when the deadline had passed, the graphics were improved upon, though only slightly. He noted that reviewers have called the game a "rabbi-off".
Unlike all the other presenters, who had a handful of folks who were interested in some key details with all the other games, everyone was dying to know more about this game. A person in the audience asked about the methodology, with Dave's response being: "Sitting in a cafe, with a pencil." Another asked about the voices (each character has his or her own spoken dialogue), which were real actors from Dave's improv troupe, who were all willing to work for just pizza. Once again, a total “outsider” managed to make a game, completely on his own terms, and took the event and its audience by storm. Perhaps more so than any other game that night, The Shivah and Dave Gilbert best embodied what Demo Night was truly all about. After the event, I was able to ask Dave how he felt about that evening… Gamasutra: What did you think of last night's event as a whole? Dave Gilbert: As a whole, I really enjoyed it. Being a relative newbie to the whole thing, it was very interesting to see what other games were being made. The fact that they weren't all insanely high-budgeted games with the latest graphics and 3D lighting techniques and super-duper everything was very encouraging to me, personally, and really said a lot about the New York gaming scene. GS: Previous to this, what was in your mind the definition of the "New York gaming scene?" DG: When I started making my games, I never thought about perusing it as a serious career, so I didn't pay much attention to the scene. It wasn't until maybe a year ago that I began looking into it, and my impression was that the scene was practically non-existent. I knew of gameLab, but they seemed to be the only fish in the pond as far as I could tell and I only found out about gameLab through Nick (Fortuno), who I knew socially at the time. So to answer your question, I thought the scene was extraordinarily small. GS: What were you're exact thoughts going into the event? DG: TOTAL NEUROTIC BREAKDOWN! A friend of mine, Sande Chen suggested I write Wade [Tinney, about taking part in the event]. I didn't take it seriously, but figured I didn't have anything to lose, so I did. [And] I was so surprised when Wade asked me to present the game. It was a pleasant surprise, but it soon gave way to freaking out. I kept thinking that it was an amazing opportunity, and I was worried I would blow it. I was nervous, but after meeting everyone and chatting with people, I quickly relaxed and enjoyed myself. When I finally got up there, I threw my prepared speech out the window and just had fun with it. |
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