Yesterday’s Playful conference was a lot of fun. The day was packed with a lot of varied talks with no low spots. Here’s a very brief summary of what happened. It’s brief as I don’t take notes at conferences. Not because I don’t believe in it, but because I forget.

• James Wallis spoke about OuLiPo
• Roo rocked out
• Matt Irvine Brown talked about drawing more dots to enable others to join them. His TrumpetHero and Singing Sock Puppets were inspired.
• Adrian Hon gave a very honest account of how gaming can be addictive as well as cause addiction.
• Eric Clough took us through the incredible New York apartment he designed as one big puzzle.
• Chris Delay of Introversion Software demonstrated how procedural content generation can be used to generate entire city-scapes.
• Kars Alfrink did something interesting.but my brain has ejected it. Sorry Kars, I look forward to rediscovering your talk. He has put a full transcript of his talk online. Thanks Kars!
• Alex Fleetwood spoke about his project to combine virtual and real world dramatic experiences
• Tom Armitage went from saying “all games today are multiplayer” to “all games have always been multiplayer”.
• Sandy Spangler from Sony stepped in at the last minute to talk about the history and future of the EyeToy.
• Eric Zimmerman gave a very energetic performance. Again, my brain fails me this morning.
• Matt Biddulph explained how game controllers can easily be tinkered with to provide new and interesting uses
• Iain Tate talked about why the Highscore is a key feature of social gaming.
• Jolyon Webb talked about teeth with some very life-like CG heads
• Kieron Gillen ended the day encouraging us all to plagarise ideas. Why has no-one cloned The Sims yet?

Well done to the guys at Pixel-Lab for putting this together. I look forward to next year.

I saw Roo twitter about Playful a while ago and thought it looked like fun. Then I realised that as it was on a Friday there was next to no chance that I would be able to go. Then I realised I’m on holiday that week - not a going-away holiday, but a not-at-work holiday. Then I realised my Sister-in-law is coming down from Norfolk on that Friday to stay with us over the weekend. Then I realised we’re going up to London to meet her on the Friday. Then I realised that would involve a long day shopping in London with my wife and Sister-in-law and possible a trip to see Mamma Mia!*

Then I realised I have a wonderful wife.

Then I realised this all means I probably get to act as a roadie for Roo’s one-man (rock) band.

Then I realised I had over-used a certain linguistic technique.

(In case you don’t get it… I’m going to Playful)

* The ‘!’ is part of the name; it in no way signifies any excitement on my part.