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The phrase, “what an amazing night” gets written all the time. After any gathering that brings people together to meet, learn, and share ideas and experiences, people are often struck with a sense of awe.

I cannot speak for anyone else who came out to The GAMES DAY Podcast episode 100, but for me it was an incredible experience.

When we were planning the event, we joked on Ian’s couch that if we could get 20 people to come out in the middle of the week, just after both Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat were released, we’d be happy. Sure we felt bad for the owners of APK Live – with 20 people it might not be able to recoup the costs for employees – but we were prepared to try to cover the missing bar tab out of pocket if need be. It was so important to us to create and provide the event we’d want to attend that we didn’t really care about whatever downsides that popped up.

Preparation

Then with Corey and Warren’s help, we created a website that was redesigned over and over and over again, with content rewritten completely, and stuffed with the normal GDP quirkiness (did you read the footer of the site?). Then a Facebook page, and got ready to be a pest on Twitter.

And the “campaign” started. We relied entirely on social media – Twitter and Facebook mostly – to get the word out and invite people. After the first day we had 5 people confirmed on our event Facebook page that were coming. Not a great sign considering that there are six on our team and all have Facebook accounts, but we were hopeful.

Then over the next couple of weeks the numbers started steadily climbing and the number of “no” never eclipsed the “yes” folks. When we got to 20, I was overjoyed when the number jumped to 30. Then 40. Then 50. Then 60. By launch time, the number was at 65 confirmed on Facebook. I know that things change at the last minute re: plans, but I figured we’d maybe get 40 out.

Gamers unight!

What we didn’t expect was to have over 100 people show up for our 100th episode.

There were so many people that I’m not sure I carried out my plan to walk around the entire venue and shake hands with everyone to thank them for coming. If I missed you, I’m sorry about that.

The games

We had Portal 2 and Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds running on projectors loaned to us by Primeweb and Rakehell Row (the screens were from them too) and I don’t think I saw the controllers lay still on a table for more than 30 seconds. Thanks to Valve for sending Portal 2. Everyone I talked to about it was blown away. A couple of people said that Marvel vs Capcom 3 was on their to-buy list in next couple of days as well (you should, it’s great).

The music

The Black Frame Spectacle completely rocked the house. We’re a bit biased – The Black Frame Spectacle’s lead singer and guitarist is Ian Sullivan, one of the co-hosts and co-founders of the show. We have to be nice to him – it’s in our contracts (yes, we actually have contracts). But just like the games, the number of positive emails and comments I’ve received since about their performance are rad!

After the rock, we took a break to get the show fired up. Because of technical issues with faulty cables and feedback loops with house mics and our own gear, that break turned into a 30 to 40min affair. Luckily, we had prizes to hand out while things were taken care of. Thanks very much to not only the attendees for staying and waiting patiently, but also the technical team for working through the issues with calm, level heads.

Something else we tried this time was having three extra hosts on the show, in an effort to involve more local industry folks (of various “levels”, hardcore, pro, and indie) to get their opinions on the gaming news we were covering. I was a bit intimidated at first, but very quickly discovered that they are just gamers like the rest of us, which made the conversation easy and natural. Thanks to Chris, Mark, and Simon for being friendly and offering up their industry opinions.

Lots and lots of prizes were handed out including games, tees, action figures, books, music, passes to DIG London, 4 passes to see The Hobbit at The Grand Theatre, an HD webcam donated by Primeweb, and an Atari 2600. I was worried there would actually be too many prizes, but I think the amount was just right. Thanks to all the sponsors who helped make the night awesome.

For me, the entire night was full of win. The GAMES DAY Podcast’s ultimate goal is to build a community of gamers we’d want to get together and play games with. Wednesday April 7th proved that there are lots of local gamers interested in that same goal. Thank you all very much for coming and hanging out with us – we had a blast.

I’m also blown away by the fact that a friend of the show created a costume of the Monster. How freaking cool is that? She let me keep the mask. Be sure that someday when we get an official HQ, that mask will be on prominent display for all to see.

Photos by Mathew and Jeremy