Dreamhack Atlanta

In November, I hit the road again for another indie showcase. This time, Atlanta!
Every year, Dreamhack Atlanta draws gaming fans far and wide to the Georgia World Congress Center. Like other Dreamhack events, the event has a large e-sports focus. The hall was filled with stages for various tournaments– Counter Strike, Smite, DOTA, Super Smash Bros, Rainbow Six, and other games all hosted large tournaments at this event.

This was my first time submitting a game to the event's 'Indie Playground' (it's free to submit, which is a huge draw for me). I submitted FLAMBERGE, my large-project-of-many-years, generally best enjoyed in quiet sessions alone (it's singleplayer), and FLAT FORM FIGHTER, my dirty, loud fighting game/side project. Even though it's a much smaller endeavor, I've been submitting FFF to more events just for the fun of it. It's loud, fast, and best with friends, which makes it a big hit on show floors.

I was accepted for both games! I let them know that if I were to choose between the two, I would bring FLAT FORM FIGHTER. I was told that no, I would be given the floor space to show both games (a double booth).

...Holy cow. 20' by 10'... if I want the space to be filled properly, I'd need...4 setups? Maybe 2 FLAMBERGEs and 2 FLAT FORM FIGHTERs running...at the same time. Putting together 2 setups at other conventions had already been no small task. 4 was sheer madness.

I had the help of two FLAT FORM FIGHTER teammates, Mike and Nick, helping me. They mostly work on the music for the game (my favorite part). We drove down to Atlanta from DC on Thursday, and threw our stuff in the booth that evening.

The setup

ASTER is a multiseat program for Windows, allowing one PC to run multiple instances of Windows, each with their own inputs/outputs. I used it for my Awesomecon setup back in April to much success. Wanting all this to go smoothly/without undue sweat and tears, I decided to use the program once again.

It all worked out! ASTER worked successfully. I had one large desktop box running FLAMBERGE to two stations, and one very lovely Intel NUC running FLAT FORM FIGHTER to two stations.

The Intel NUC has a surprising number of inputs/outputs for such a small box. It has 6 USB ports (nearly enough to support my whole situation without a hub - unfortunately I needed 7 - 2 mice/2 keyboards/2 GCN controller hubs/1 N64 controller hub). The real kicker is that it has 2 HDMI outputs- so no weird hackery required to get 2 TVs up and running.

No voice!

So- in the week leading up to Atlanta, I got very sick. Not wanting to miss the show, and with my AirBnB already reserved, I tried every remedy in the book to get better. On the road down, I took a lot of mixed medicine, including decongestants. What I did not know is that decongestants can get rid of your voice pretty quickly. I woke up Friday morning (first day of Dreamhack) without a voice. When I spoke, it sounded more like a raspy cough resembling words.

With a lot of players to speak to, and an interview scheduled (a live, on-stream game demo of FLAMBERGE), the day was a bit of a mess. My FFF teammates Mike and Nick were an incredible help. Though they weren't experts on FLAMBERGE I recruited them to help communicate the game to players. Nick spoke for me during the notably awkward interview (still went better than I expected).

Socials, meeting game developers

The Indie Playground brought a lot of developers, many from the Atlanta area, but some from as far as San Francisco. I got to demo several other games, and a lot of student projects! There was a separate student showcase, which I think was a really excellent idea on Dreamhack's part.

My neighbor - Smashball Blitz
Their game is a really interesting take on ball-bouncing puzzles and target breaking. It's /full/ of juice and is just generally a joy to play. http://finitereflection.com/smashball-blitz

My other neighbor - Bot Gaiden
This game was hard! It's a game that likes to kick your butt and demand that you move faster. My main enjoyment from this game is how it incentivizes speedrunning and high-risk play. http://swordswipestudios.com

Death Carnival
This team is in absolute machine and their game was some of the highest quality work at the showcase. The game was fun and looks/sounds/feels brilliant. https://store.steampowered.com/app/827210/Death_Carnival/

Everybody's Sad
This was a real treat. This was a short lovely VR experience about taking care of all the sad things in your apartment. I think it's worth everyone's time if they get a chance. https://store.steampowered.com/app/898080/everybodys_sad/

Luke and Connor's Photo Fight
Over in the student showcase I played 'Luke and Connor's Photo Fight' which was an absolute blast. It does the '2 players on one keyboard+mouse' setup really well and just overall is super well made and super fun. https://lobsterclowngames.itch.io/luke-and-connors-photo-fight

Path to Harmony
I was really happy to see a student game that tackles the tactics genre! I love the style and look of it. The strategic mechanics and story were both in very clear view even in the short time I played it.

On Saturday, we went to a meetup at Monday Night Garage, an establishment nestled in a collection of former warehouses-turned breweries/bars in southwest Atlanta. Inside was quite literally a garage, complete with a gigantic helicopter-blade sized ceiling fan (made out of actual helicopter blades, I think) and assorted tables of different styles/sizes. Outside featured firepits and warm Christmas-style lighting on little miniature thoroughfares between the different businesses.

Atlanta was a really great experience, and I'd love to go again sometime. Big thanks to all the warm devs I met there, and to the great hosts of the indie playground!