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2010 IGDA-Austin Summer Picnic Thank Yous, Wrap Up, Links, Compromising Photos, etc... By Mike "Mr. Mike" McShaffry - Gator Driver and Trash Collector
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It was another hot Texas Summer day, alright – and approximately 557 brave souls came out to Richard Garriott’s Castleton Village on Lake Austin to see some old friends, meet new ones, and generally have a great time. First the thank yous, then you can see what really happened at the picnic this year!
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Thanks to Richard Garriott! First, I’d like to thank especially our host, Richard, pictured here with Laetitia Pichot de Cayeux. Richard generously allows us to have our event at one of the most perfect spots in all of Central Texas. Even when the sun is baking the surrounding landscape the picnic crowd can relax under the cool shade of majestic oak trees, enjoy swimming in Lake Austin, and explore Castleton Villiage. Thanks Richard – I hope we were good guests and can get an invitation back next year. Also – I can’t forget Dale Flat, Richard’s property manager, who is always just a phone call away for me to get out of whatever emergency I happened into. |
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Thanks to our sponsors, especially Gendai Games, makers of GameSalad! I also want to thank our sponsors for the event, especially Gendai Games who was our 2010 picnic Party King sponsor. Without them the entry to the event would cost nearly $40/person! Please take a little time to read about the companies and products that helped make the event so affordable to so many Austin area game developers! |
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Information about GameSalad |
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Terminal Reality, makers of the Infernal Engine, sponsored the live music at the Curtain Theater! |
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Thanks to Bill at Austin Business Computers for sponsoring Amy’s Ice Creams! |
And many thanks to our Picnic Friend Sponsors:
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More Thanks to lots and lots of very important people! This kind of thing could go on forever so I’ll try to keep this brief and to the point! The following people deserve thanks too…
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Enough Thanks! What Really Happened????
Picnic Nearly Cancelled! - This was the year the picnic almost didn’t happen! The typical army of planners we usually have dwindled to a scarce few. Because we’ve done the event a few times though, we figured it would mostly be on autopilot and one night Gary Gattis and Mr.Mike decided to do the picnic no matter what. Besides the planner problem, big sponsors were hard to get until Gendai Games, TRI, and Austin Business Computers signed up. That, and the triple effort of a much smaller planning team which included IGDA-Austin Chapter Coordinator Amy Goldenburg, freshman President-elect Jennifer Bullard, and Curtain Stage Manager Fred Schmidt, our show was most certainly going to go on.2010 was a close call for sure – hopefully next year we’ll have more volunteers to help with planning! (Hint, hint.)
Setup was actually kind of relaxed this year – with the one exception that the first waterslide delivered, a dual lane slip n slide, completely failed to inflate. No worries, though, Austin Moonwalks packed it up and delivered a better one, IMO. Around 2pm the guests started to arrive, and the yellow shirt volunteers got everyone parked and into the fun.
At some point during the afternoon I drove by in the Gator™ and was treated to a group of about 12 kids, completely covered in mud. Evidently the process of getting out of the water slide and running over the grass had degraded the grass into a big mud hole, into which the same kids would slip and fall, laughing the whole time. I yelled over to the kids and said, “hey kids – don’t you know you
Who Showed Up – Looking at the RSVP list there were employees from nearly 40 game companies in Austin and elsewhere, including Bigfoot Networks, Bioware, Blizzard, Certain Affinity, Challenge Games, Critical Mass, Disney Interactive, Dragon’s Eye, Edge of Reality, Electric Bat, Famigo Games, Gearbox, Gendai Games, Ghostfire Games, Heatwave Interactive, id Software, Junction Point, KingsIsle, Lightbox Interactive, NCSoft, Phunware Inc., Portalarium, Red Fly Studio, Redbird Flight Simulations, SEGA, Sneaky Games, SperaSoft, Spiderwood, Steel Penny Games, Steve Jackson Games, Super Happy Fun Fun, Tandem Games, THQ/Vigil, TimeGate Studio, Trion Worlds, UTV True Games, Volition, and Zynga.
Congrats to Bioware for bringing the biggest group at 42 people!
It’s too bad KingsIsle had their picnic on the same day as ours – maybe we’ll join forces next year!
Most of the guests were from Austin, Texas and the surrounding area, but we did have visitors from California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, and New York.
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The Afternoon Antics
 Scare for a Cure got busy right away chaining up the Zombie Hoard and making new ones – for those of you who don’t know them they are a group of very creative people from all walks. Every year they put on a charity haunted house just up the hill from the picnic site, and they use the IGDA-Austin Picnic as a fundraiser and to recruit new people!
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 Not only was June 26th the date of the IGDA-Austin Picnic, but it was also the official launch of the Portalarium Home Office Houseboat! Certainly the first game company in Austin to have office space on water that I know of – I just hope they get rid of all the Black Widow spiders that were reported to call the place home before real operations begin! The Portalarium folks were giving 30 minute lake tours until the steering gave out – I understand that Dallas Snell had to swim to shore and retrieve a jet ski to tow their offices back to dock! |
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Dale Flat, Richard’s property manager had also created a homebrew waterslide for a Boy Scout Troop that had occupied Castleton the weekend before – lots of kids had a great time going down that – and we can thank the Portalarium folks for manning that and the canoes and paddleboats.
Even though the canoes were supposed to go out for 30 minutes or so, one unidentified couple grabbed a canoe, rowed up stream a bit, parked the canoe, and exited into the woods for some unknown activity, most likely butterfly watching. Something like 90 minutes later they remerged and returned the canoe – those must have been some nice butterflies!
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Dinner –
At just before 6pm we started the announcements, including the introduction of Jennifer Bulliard, the new IGDA-Austin President. Many thanks to Gary Gattis who was suckered into the job over a year ago, and who served the office with distinction. Billy Cain served as MC.
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Jennifer Bullard, President IGDA-Austin
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Michael Augustin, Gendai Games |
| At 6pm on the button the non-existent dinner bell was officially rang, and the good hard working people at Salt Lick BBQ served about 550 people in a smooth 30 minutes! That’s one reason we invite them back every year. Amy Ice Creams had already begun to serve their wares – and the drinks were flowing quickly over at Opal Divine’s booth. |
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 The hot summer day had cooled to a classic warm Texas summer night, and soon enough the live music at the curtain theater kicked on to entertain the crowd. |
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Nighttime
The evening’s opening band was the Descendents of Erdrick – an Austin band that reimagines video game tunes in a heavy metal theme. I’m so glad multiple people told the organizers to “HIRE THIS BAND” because their music was great and I hope they feel like coming back next year. They even wrote a special version of “Stones”, a tune that was one of the central themesongs for the Ultima series created by Richard Garriott, who owns the property.
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The Descendants of Erdrick
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Next up were The Love Vandals – another local Austin group that plays some punk rock tunes. Lots of people in the crowd recognized members like Beverly Garland, Carol and Richard Roberts, all of whom used to work for Origin Systems. Multiple people had never heard Beverly sing before and were amazed that she had such a powerful singing voice! Go Beverly!
At the end of the Love Vandals set, people started making their way to their cars, but were transfixed by the sight of Lisa Drippel, Adam Rice, and other firedancers who’d already started spinning under the oak trees. They were a true sight to behold, and were a great way to close out the evening. |
