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gamer
Guest
By N. Evan Van Zelfden
How do game developers spend their Saturdays? They probably gather at Richard Garriott's lakeside estate, feast on BBQ, listen to live music, engage in padded sword fights, toss water balloons, and start very small bonfires.
You are driving down a road. Ahead of you are two immense wrought iron gates. Normally they are closed. Today, they stand open and deserted. On either side, the rock walls are dripping water. The canyon descends at the end of the road, the road itself appears to drop off into space. Slowly, you drive through the gates...
This isn't some role-playing game. This is, in fact, Richard Garriott's real-life estate in Austin, Texas. The Ultima designer has built a little piece of Britannia-on-earth. And on this Saturday, it's hosting the local International Game Developer's Association BBQ picnic.
The road winds and descends impossibly for some time. It narrows and turns to gravel. On the left is a sheer wall of rock. Finally, volunteers in bright yellow shirts can be seen up ahead. They're directing cars to parking spaces on the flat bottomland, under enormous pecan trees. "Hey!" one of them calls, "The party's down here."
Once parked, the first thing to explore is the miniature village. There's a jail, lighthouse, tavern, church, watermill, town hall, and endless houses. Across a brook, there's a lawn with a castle facing off against a ship. In the distance is one small house, nestled by a large rock.
At the edge of the woods, there's a sign warning of the haunted forest, and noting the witch's castle is one mile away: I'D TURN BACK IF I WERE YOU.
[IMG]http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/06/igda-austin-picnic-18-thumb.JPG[/IMG]
Richard Garriott told Kotaku the full story behind the buildings. "A lot of the early Ultima characters - Iolo, Dupre, Sentri, Mariah - they were all my college buddies here at the University of Texas, which is where I wrote the first few Ultimas."
He'd borrowed their personalities, likenesses, and Society for Creative Anachronism names. "Years later when I bought this property, a lot of them were still pretty active in the SCA, so I built these cabins in homage to the history we have together."
"The first one that I hand-built myself with my girlfriend Kelly was for Iolo," Garriott said. "Then, this gypsy wagon you see over here was for Mariah. Iolo was really a guy who makes crossbows here in town. Mariah is my assistant Michelle who's worked with me since Origin, and now NCsoft."
Garriott builds another cabin every three months or so. And the bigger structures, such as the theater, the castle, the ship, those are built once per year. "Based on whatever party theme we're throwing that year, I'll add another structure for that event," he says.
[IMG]http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/06/igda-austin-picnic-05-thumb.jpg[/IMG]
That infrastructure comes in handy when Garriott has various parties, from his big Fourth of July event, to company parties, to the SCA, or, like today, the IGDA event, where the developers got cold drinks, spots in the shade, and talked shop while waiting for BBQ.
While a Frisbee was seen, the most popular pastime was Chanbara, which is a very fancy way of saying "hitting each other with padded sticks." Or, fencing with non-metal swords. Which is all a very therapeutic way to challenge co-workers to a duel, and still be able to work when Monday rolls around.
Things took a surreal turn when a dozen-and-a-half costumed crusaders arrived. They happened to be in town to audition for the Sci-Fi original series "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?" One of them was good enough to make the cut (we can't tell you who), and will appear in the July 26th premiere. And when it came to super powers, all of them had Chanbara skills.
[IMG]http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/06/igda-austin-picnic-35-thumb.jpg[/IMG]
Moments before lunch was served, a small speech was given to the crowd of 300. Rodney Gibbs, a studio head of Amaze Austin who acts as the IGDA-Austin front man, thanked the vendors - barbeque from the Saltlick, drinks from Opal Devine's, and ice-cream from Amy's - as well as the sponsors and volunteers.
Richard Garriott said a few words, joking about being the "old fogey" of the Austin game industry, having worked with some of the assembled developers before, adding "if I haven't worked with you, it's a pretty small community, and I'm sure I will in the next decade or two."
Garriott then introduced the event sponsor by saying, "I don't know about you guys, but at NCsoft, we're a 100% Dell shop. In addition to being a great sponsor, these guys really do make great products."
Glen Robson, Dell's director of gaming was brought up in a small town in Scotland. He joked that, were it not for the game industry and coming to work in it, his career choices were limited. "I'd be tossing a caber, or worse, I'd be knitting."
An indescribable BBQ lunch was followed by a lazy afternoon of talking, water balloon fights, and ice-cream. As evening settled in, torches were lit, and people began to gather in the replica Shakespearean theatre for a musical performance by The Captains of the Chess Team.
The band is a spontaneous game-industry ensemble consisting of famous audio guru George Sanger, his intern on keyboard, game designer Josh Hamrick on drums, Linda Law on bass, guitar by W. Scott Synder, and fronted by Midway Austin's audio director, Marc Schaefgen.
"You've all been beautiful," Schaefgen told the audience between songs, adding, "We are the captains of the chess team, and we will pwn you!" The set list included Safety Dance, a rousing performance of Video Killed the Radio Star, the ever popular Numa Numa (originally "Dragostea din tei"), and the Star Wars-centric parody Yoda.
There would be a warming fire later on, following the encore, and people would slowly go home. But the band was the culmination of a good day. The audience was into it, and the feeling prevailed upon one developer so hard he just had to mount up on the stage and get to gigging with the band.
The ones that get into it are definitely the kings of the party.
galleryPost('garriottcastle', 58, 'Garriotts IDGA BBQ');
Special thanks to Clay Hillhouse for additional photographs.
[IMG]http://feeds.gawker.com/~a/kotaku/full?i=ieDkto[/IMG]
More...
How do game developers spend their Saturdays? They probably gather at Richard Garriott's lakeside estate, feast on BBQ, listen to live music, engage in padded sword fights, toss water balloons, and start very small bonfires.
You are driving down a road. Ahead of you are two immense wrought iron gates. Normally they are closed. Today, they stand open and deserted. On either side, the rock walls are dripping water. The canyon descends at the end of the road, the road itself appears to drop off into space. Slowly, you drive through the gates...
This isn't some role-playing game. This is, in fact, Richard Garriott's real-life estate in Austin, Texas. The Ultima designer has built a little piece of Britannia-on-earth. And on this Saturday, it's hosting the local International Game Developer's Association BBQ picnic.
The road winds and descends impossibly for some time. It narrows and turns to gravel. On the left is a sheer wall of rock. Finally, volunteers in bright yellow shirts can be seen up ahead. They're directing cars to parking spaces on the flat bottomland, under enormous pecan trees. "Hey!" one of them calls, "The party's down here."
Once parked, the first thing to explore is the miniature village. There's a jail, lighthouse, tavern, church, watermill, town hall, and endless houses. Across a brook, there's a lawn with a castle facing off against a ship. In the distance is one small house, nestled by a large rock.
At the edge of the woods, there's a sign warning of the haunted forest, and noting the witch's castle is one mile away: I'D TURN BACK IF I WERE YOU.
[IMG]http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/06/igda-austin-picnic-18-thumb.JPG[/IMG]
Richard Garriott told Kotaku the full story behind the buildings. "A lot of the early Ultima characters - Iolo, Dupre, Sentri, Mariah - they were all my college buddies here at the University of Texas, which is where I wrote the first few Ultimas."
He'd borrowed their personalities, likenesses, and Society for Creative Anachronism names. "Years later when I bought this property, a lot of them were still pretty active in the SCA, so I built these cabins in homage to the history we have together."
"The first one that I hand-built myself with my girlfriend Kelly was for Iolo," Garriott said. "Then, this gypsy wagon you see over here was for Mariah. Iolo was really a guy who makes crossbows here in town. Mariah is my assistant Michelle who's worked with me since Origin, and now NCsoft."
Garriott builds another cabin every three months or so. And the bigger structures, such as the theater, the castle, the ship, those are built once per year. "Based on whatever party theme we're throwing that year, I'll add another structure for that event," he says.
[IMG]http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/06/igda-austin-picnic-05-thumb.jpg[/IMG]
That infrastructure comes in handy when Garriott has various parties, from his big Fourth of July event, to company parties, to the SCA, or, like today, the IGDA event, where the developers got cold drinks, spots in the shade, and talked shop while waiting for BBQ.
While a Frisbee was seen, the most popular pastime was Chanbara, which is a very fancy way of saying "hitting each other with padded sticks." Or, fencing with non-metal swords. Which is all a very therapeutic way to challenge co-workers to a duel, and still be able to work when Monday rolls around.
Things took a surreal turn when a dozen-and-a-half costumed crusaders arrived. They happened to be in town to audition for the Sci-Fi original series "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?" One of them was good enough to make the cut (we can't tell you who), and will appear in the July 26th premiere. And when it came to super powers, all of them had Chanbara skills.
[IMG]http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/06/igda-austin-picnic-35-thumb.jpg[/IMG]
Moments before lunch was served, a small speech was given to the crowd of 300. Rodney Gibbs, a studio head of Amaze Austin who acts as the IGDA-Austin front man, thanked the vendors - barbeque from the Saltlick, drinks from Opal Devine's, and ice-cream from Amy's - as well as the sponsors and volunteers.
Richard Garriott said a few words, joking about being the "old fogey" of the Austin game industry, having worked with some of the assembled developers before, adding "if I haven't worked with you, it's a pretty small community, and I'm sure I will in the next decade or two."
Garriott then introduced the event sponsor by saying, "I don't know about you guys, but at NCsoft, we're a 100% Dell shop. In addition to being a great sponsor, these guys really do make great products."
Glen Robson, Dell's director of gaming was brought up in a small town in Scotland. He joked that, were it not for the game industry and coming to work in it, his career choices were limited. "I'd be tossing a caber, or worse, I'd be knitting."
An indescribable BBQ lunch was followed by a lazy afternoon of talking, water balloon fights, and ice-cream. As evening settled in, torches were lit, and people began to gather in the replica Shakespearean theatre for a musical performance by The Captains of the Chess Team.
The band is a spontaneous game-industry ensemble consisting of famous audio guru George Sanger, his intern on keyboard, game designer Josh Hamrick on drums, Linda Law on bass, guitar by W. Scott Synder, and fronted by Midway Austin's audio director, Marc Schaefgen.
"You've all been beautiful," Schaefgen told the audience between songs, adding, "We are the captains of the chess team, and we will pwn you!" The set list included Safety Dance, a rousing performance of Video Killed the Radio Star, the ever popular Numa Numa (originally "Dragostea din tei"), and the Star Wars-centric parody Yoda.
There would be a warming fire later on, following the encore, and people would slowly go home. But the band was the culmination of a good day. The audience was into it, and the feeling prevailed upon one developer so hard he just had to mount up on the stage and get to gigging with the band.
The ones that get into it are definitely the kings of the party.
galleryPost('garriottcastle', 58, 'Garriotts IDGA BBQ');
Special thanks to Clay Hillhouse for additional photographs.
[IMG]http://feeds.gawker.com/~a/kotaku/full?i=ieDkto[/IMG]
More...