I met the guys behind Simian Escape tonight. Sorta. I'm not sure I actually met them, since the guy I "attempted" to speak to was dismissive and rude, but hey whatever... I don't get mad, I just use my google juice. :)
So here's how it went... (If you don't know who these guys are, there's an article here: www.joystiq.com/2007/03/07/xna-challenge-simian-escape/)
I was at the Halo Pre-Launch Party at Microsoft. Had a great time, lots of cool people, etc. In the middle of it all, are these two guys sitting around with their laptops open (the ONLY people I saw with laptops, in the middle of the Halo party, no less) showing off a splash screen for something called Simian Escape. FWIW, I hadn't actually heard of them, or the game, so I was a little curious who they were and why they were hanging out drawing attention to themselves, so I got a little closer and heard one of them mention GarageGames (makers of TorqueX.)
Hey, I think to myself, I'm into TorqueX, these guys are obviously into TorqueX, sweet... let's have a little chat. Could be cool.
Boy was that ever a bad idea. (If you clicked on the link above, it was the guy on the right.)
Turns out, this guy is a bit of a prick. He immediately starts bitching to whoever would listen about how TorqueX doesnt do this or that out of the box, but then he's also talking about how he's such great friends with all the GarageGames guys, and then he goes on about how Microsoft told them they would handle all the art assets for the XNA Challenge, but when they got there MS was like "we never said that" and so they "called their friends at GarageGames and had them supply graphics for their game."
Basically, he was sitting around bitching to whoever would listen, but if you actually tried to talk to them (or at least when I did) he was totally dismissive. I just love these guys that come to Microsoft events and then sit around dissing Microsoft... and for that matter, why brag about your great connections with GarageGames, and then bitch about them too in the same breath.
Ironically, the art was definitely the coolest thing about the game, and they didn't even do that part. (Don't get me wrong, most developers can't draw worth a damn... myself included, but this guy was just a jerk.) I'm not sure what exactly he had to be so arrogant about, but hey... at least the rest of the event was pretty kickass.
I got to play some Halo 3. Got my butt handed to me, of course, but still had a great time. Also played a few rounds of Guitar Hero II on the 360. Met some interesting people, saw a TON of coworkers there (not surprised.) Definitely an event worth hitting.
Also, even though I'm no FPS god, by any means, Halo 3 is frickin beautiful!! I'll definitely pick it up once the lines die down. It just might have bumped Unreal Tournament 3 off the top of my list... and that's saying a lot.