Ah, Edinburra, what a beauty lass she be...

I'm currently sitting in my hotel room, having just completed our second Machinima presentation here at the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival/Go Play Games event. I just left the EICC (not before looking around for Mr. Hancock for a number of minutes) and then decided to retire to my room for a quick nap before the evening plans.

A shot of Edinburgh Castle just prior to my being nearly run over by those right-sided drivers.

It's been quite a fun 3 days, and the presentation went smashing well (yep, picking up my fair share of Scottish colloquialisms). I've never felt more comfortable away from home than I have here. In addition to the EIEF being a great fest (and not to mention how cool a space the EICC is), I've had the pleasure of hanging again with Strange Company (both past and current members), as well a chance to sit in and listen to the idea machine that is sci-fi author Charlie Stross (a recent Hugo recipient I might add). There's nothing quite like the charm and comfort of an out-of-the-way Scottish pub - though I believe those thoughts may have been slightly amplified by the various ales we sampled.

Anyway, it's been a great event. While I may be a bit biased, my favorite presentation of the conf was Ken Perlin's (though Matt Costello's was also exceptional). Ken spoke of several items that had been floating in these temporal lobes (canned animation is dead), and others that were exceptionally insightful (contingent narrative architectures). I will bother him to post his presentation online once he returns to the States, as I feel that anyone involved with Machinima (or related matters) should refer to his concepts behind procedural systems.

Still looking forward to that single-malt fest. Hugh promised me the definitive malt primer a few days before I leave Edinburgh so that I might recover from it.