So what’s new in Luke-land? Well right now, I’m sat in California getting some much needed R&R and visiting an old friend. I’ve actually been out here for most of March already working, which has been a really interesting experience.

For the first 2 weeks, I was at Chartboost University, a program run by the ad platform company Chartboost. We had submitted our application in January and were really excited when we heard that we had been accepted! So myself and Verena (who is now working with me on projects at Robot Overlord Games) packed our bags, polished up Easy Money and headed to San Francisco.

The CBU program is effectively a 7 day bootcamp where some of the sharpest games industry folks from the Bay Area dropped as much wisdom on us as they could. We learnt a lot about the business of games and especially free to play. It also allowed us a really great opportunity to work together in person. Verena is based in Austria, so we rarely see each other, and for two weeks we tried to make the most of it. The game has progressed a lot in that time, Verena’s new art assets are going in and we tweaked a lot of other stuff. More importantly, we agreed a lot about what we are going to do going forwards.

After CBU wrapped up, onwards to GDC! It was my first year attending the conference as an IGDA Board member, my second year as the Scholars Coordinator and my second year as a speaker. There’s way too much to remember and try to process about this past week. I went to some amazing parties, met some excellent people and had some great meetings. I’m feeling super energised and enthusiastic. That said, I can’t wait for sessions to go online as I was way too busy to make it to many – in fact aside from sessions I was speaking at or running, I made it to just one, which was the Microtalks session. I was walk/talking with someone headed to it, and since I was at the door and so many of my friends were taking part in it, I decided to sit in.

The past few weeks have been incredible. I’ve learnt a lot, met so many awesome people and I’m feeling really positive about the projects I’m working on. Hopefully I’ll have some great stuff to show you all soon!