David Braben talk

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 12:01 pm

I just found out about this via Twitter:

A BAFTA LIFE IN VIDEO GAMES: DAVID BRABEN
Princess Anne Theatre, BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LN

Celebrating 25 years since the release of ground-breaking 3D space simulator Elite, British development legend David Braben reveals his unique perspective on combining cutting-edge technology with innovative gameplay.

— BAFTA calendar (Monday 14 september, 19:00)

Website · Post by **Cody** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 12:11 pm

Interesting...I hope they make a transcript of his talk available.

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 1:09 pm

Monday, that doesn't leave a lot of time.

CmdrJmsn · Post by **CmdrJmsn** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 5:18 pm

Ah, yes, I have been invited to this. If I can get away from work in time, I was considering going.

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 8:18 pm

Well if you do - feel free to come on here and inform and gloat in equal measure!

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 9:29 pm

ClymAngus wrote:
Monday, that doesn't leave a lot of time.

why?, what are you planning?

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 11:33 pm

Well I was planning popping along but my daughter needs picking up so, not happening. To be honest I think the other dude is more my speed. Braben seems a little bit litigation happy. You'd have to watch your words round him.

I'm not very good at that.

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 8:30 am

Perhaps somebody might shout from the back "When's Elite IV coming out?!"

Post by **Micha** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:51 am

Hmm, tempting to go as well. And it's only 10mins walk from my office..

@CmdrJmsn: How do you get invited?

CmdrJmsn · Post by **CmdrJmsn** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 1:07 pm

A friend of mine has tickets (I'm guessing she's a member, she's a bit of a media type), and asked if I wanted to come along.. Of course, I did, being a bit of an Elite nut and general geek

Otherwise, I think you can buy tickets, too:

http://www.bafta.org/calendar-event.htm ... 0000Monday

Post by **Micha** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 2:19 pm

*G* Was just trying to blag free tickets there...

Anyway, will be there tonight. Wearing a black "PlayStation3" shirt, if anybody wants to say hello.

Post by **Micha** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:18 pm

Well, IMHO it wasn't a half bad evening.

David came across quite sympathetic, not at all how he's portrayed online. Unfortunately I wasn't quite pushy enough to actually talk to him after the discussion (he was surrounded by suits for quite a while, and then had to rush off to catch his train).

The discussion started off with his early days, how he got started with Elite (and also some high-level overviews of how and why they developed the RNG to generate the galaxies), difficulties of getting a publisher and whatnot. Apparently the console display only made it into the game in the last few weeks (not just the radar, the entire console) - they'd already given the game to the publisher but they hadn't mastered it yet.

Spent a fair bit of time on that, then moved onto his progression onto the Acorn Archimedes, Zarch, Virus, etc., then more briefly onto his more modern games.

Elite IV got mentioned, but only in so far as that it will not be released until David is happy with it and that it brings something fundamentally new to the Elite universe.

Website · Post by **Cody** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:23 pm

Thanks for that, Micha.

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:40 pm

Micha wrote:

Elite IV got mentioned, but only in so far as that it will not be released until David is happy with it and that it brings something fundamentally new to the Elite universe.

Too late, we've beaten him to it!

CmdrJmsn · Post by **CmdrJmsn** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:57 pm

Unashamedly dialup-hostile:

..also, if you want to see a video (not mine, my ticket-conjouring compadre took this):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox6seIm6o3c