2015#14 Inktober BurpDoodles & UniteMelb2015 & GCAP15 & PAXAus & GamesWeekMelbs Mega Post

Didn’t know Brie Code was speaking at LadiesInGamesNom during this & I wasn’t too great at mingling haha

I was able to talk to people I didn’t expect to! But hey as you can see, I was mostly making BurpDoodles and listening to people have conversations haha

Awesome talk by Cherie Davidson on her move  to Media Molecule during the LadiesInGamesNom

Inspiring stuff from Brie Code on making things  more inclusive plus she’s so fun to draw!

This is Giselle being hardcore & wonderful during the LadiesInGamesNom

So Alan just remembers me as someone walking around lost  with a big bottle of sparkling water D:

For the record, he later insists that I didn’t look lost to him haha

GCAP Overall Thoughts

Previous GCAPs I had mixed feelings (and as mentioned, I have blogged about it here if you are that curious).

I’ll go into personal thoughts during the next Hermit Burpcast as I believe that it’s just really my struggle with “getting myself out there”, making friends (if any) and finding where I belong.

Yes it’s my 3rd year at GCAP and sometimes I still don’t know if I have anything worth saying or contribute because prior to this year’s GCAP, I haven’t made or provided anything that people would know or care about. I still don’t know if I have even now but does it really matter?

The Impostor Syndrome strikes again…
or rather my terrible, harsh self judgement…
or perhaps I’m not entirely clear on who I’m interested in to talk to – at least enough to share that with others.

There is quite a lot of self exploration & growth to be had in my life and I usually don’t indulge until I’m reasonably comfortable and somewhat prepared with the uncertainty at hand.

Yes uncertainty. That is what life is. (:

Digressing! I’ll put most of that personal stuff aside for the Hermit Burpcast and here I shall focus on GCAP as a conference! (:

The food is generally good, hopefully the bag would be better & sturdier next time and the talks are up to you and whether you are interested in a given Speaker and their topic of choice or not. There are loads of talks going at the same time too so you usually feel like you’re missing out on something.

Personally I learned some things, I got some revision on some others and I fought to stay awake by learning how to strategically drink coffee at certain times. And I don’t particularly like coffee. I can tolerate it at least! Great to see cool tea drinkers around too! I just wanted strong caffeine so I denied the tea.

Aside from keeping your brain working to take in talks, it’s generally time spent seeing & greeting vaguely familiar faces you don’t get to see otherwise.

If you’re here to learn from the announced Speakers, do attend GCAP! If you’re there to meet more people, there are after parties and get togethers during the whole week that happens after/beyond GCAP and throughout the year in the city. You don’t necessarily have to attend the conference yourself if you’re financially tight on money. I know a few people who didn’t go to GCAP but attended the parties & chatted with people all the same.

It also depends on what you really want to get out of it – if you have nothing specific then you will probably struggle. My own mindset this year was: “at least I get to BurpDoodle people and I’ll post it a week later in a blog post!” Ninja Leonie time!

So when gritfish suggested I should also individually tweet out my BurpDoodles and my gut reaction of “but I don’t want to spam people!!” was over…

I had very little sleep on the night/morning of Day 1 and processed & tweeted out my Speaker BurpDoodles. Because I knew I wouldn’t have internet access when I’m out at the conference.

As a result, I was a zombie during Day 2! I planned to actually catch up with twitter when my brain could function late in the week so I was pleasantly confused when a few people acknowledged them with kind words. Admittedly, I felt less lonely and invisible? But I didn’t know what kind of feedback I was getting.

One told me to get internet on my phone but I’m a frugal hermit! I’d like to be present with my surroundings if I can control it and not be at my phone all the time. I have no use for portable internet in my usual life and I usually ask for help if I need something checked haha

Will I go next year? Hopefully…!
I’m still an invisible Ninja BurpDoodler.

If finances aren’t looking too great, I might try volunteering instead. But if I did, I probably won’t be able to BurpDoodle the Speakers. There’s actually a waiting list to volunteer so I’ll probably won’t get to do that either! :<

Personally, GCAP was generally a good time. I don’t have as much mixed feelings thanks to the aforementioned mindset. Just accepting and embracing being alone as the default. (:

PS: I’m not recommending what I do to anyone else because your circumstance is different from mine! I’m terrible at this thing called “networking” and my attempts are over the place. I’ll stop here as once again, I’ll elaborate further in the Hermit Burpcast.

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PAXAus Shenanigans: games!

I did my best at being support at PAXAus in the mornings.

When I’m not working, I got to do some fun things, played games on my own and with my bro (thoughts on said games coming in Sunday’s video) and I didn’t get that much freebies – I keep seeing them around! I hear people sell bits of their internet soul and/or cheat their way out of it to get the tech freebies though.

I did end up covering a portion of my bag with badges for indie games! But I’m not doing it as an avid collector!
It’s more of a “Hey I played and/or support many of these games so if someone recognises one we might talk about it!” kind of thing. (:

EDIT: Hey it’s a photo of the Indie game badge!

A friend wanted to see the Indie game badge bag I talked about here in this post. So here is half of the covered bag!

I probably don’t have everything but it’s a mix of old and new! I didn’t get to play all of the featured games either.

Still, it’s on my bag as a talking point!

I’ll let you play the “guess which game/company is which” game haha

My feet were in SOO much pain. As in every day of the three days.
I was physically not doing that great and was noticably hobbling and waddling at one point.
I pushed my stamina too far >:

Further Shenanigans as follows:

I did my first ever Miniature painting class! 😀 I haven’t done so before! Time flew so fast!

My first miniature is a monstrosity as expected. As a newbie, I learned a lot though!

Would I do it again? Maybe! It allows me to sit down at least!

The sign ups run out REAL early though so you’d need to put your name down for a class in the morning while you can!

Lucy, Lauren, Snow, Stephanie and Liam on Their “PressXToWoo: Mature Relationships and Romance in Games” Panel at PAXAus #PAXmance

Random takeaways:

• Chell and GLADoS is a romance
• Check out @GXAustralia
• A lot of Dragon Age and Mass Effect talk
• Snow is Kind and Award Winning and … you get the idea.
• There needs to be more relationship options in games
• Depiction of relationships isn’t done too well in games as typically it doesn’t go beyond sex as the end goal
• All the Visual Novels! There’s a Facebook group if you’re into it
• Potential of a podcast with the above five? :0

Lucy told me to come to her panel &  Lauren kindly helped me get in without too much pain

I wasn’t faring too well, was physically exhausted and I couldn’t sit on the ground in line.

Day 1 PAXAus was intense for me at work so I really appreciated the help!

Entertaining fun times & discussion about #paxmance  Mature Relationships & Romance In Games Yo!

My BurpDoodle gift for gritfish whether he uses it as an avatar or not;  (all the same) my MIGW15, GCAP15 & PAXAus experience is better for it. (:

It was an art request from him originally as he was wondering if I could draw him or whether I’ve already drawn him but I haven’t managed to attend much talks (desperate ouchies mode from doing 3 full days of PAXAus), let alone his talks because I usually end up being so exhausted from working or stumbling about at the Expo Hall.

I haven’t been doing much Speaker BurpDoodles during PAXAus also because of the daunting long lines (I can’t stand that long) and the lack of time I have.

As gratitude for his suggestion to tweet out the Scribbly Speaker Burpdoodles in the first place, I made an exception and made one for him as a gift anyway. As congrats for the Award win too! Pretty happy he enjoys his new avatar. (:

I’m saying this here to make it clear that unless you’re commissioning me, I don’t do art requests (free work).
But I do make surprise art gifts and I Burpdoodle for myself when I attend a talk I’m interested in (:

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The past month: update on the feet & Games Week aftermath!


My injured feeties! (no it’s not just because of Games Week)

This is probably my last/second last update on this as this is an ongoing thing I’m managing. Bear with me.

They hurt. After a while of walking. Still I need to walk to get some exercise overall. Rest in between is needed else I’ll strain it too far and they’ll be sore for a long while and at worse, swell up again.

As you know from previous posts, it’s something I’ll need to live with especially when I need to get some life living going! Sometimes letting people know about my limits about my bad walking stamina helps so they’ll be more patient walking with me. Or they can just walk ahead and scout for me so I don’t have to walk too much about during “desperate ouchies” mode. I really appreciate them when it happens! 😀

Anyhooberhow; I went to the GP for nothing. She didn’t get the blood test results from the hospital (so…all I did was update her about the situation as the hospital didn’t email or give her anything despite me being told they would). I have a rheumatologist appointment in the next several days so hopefully I get some loose ends revealed to me by then. No solutions will be expected; it’s just a matter of being thorough really.

In the meantime, I actively sought for medical compression socks (which were uncomfortable), bought and refunded shoes that didn’t work for me and got inner sole cushions (didn’t work for long). Still, I knew I would be out and about a lot and I would be really pushing my limits here during Games Week. Yes, I wasn’t feeling okay sometimes.

Everyone else had painful feet too though mine are weak and they get a headstart of pain in my soles and bits of my ankles every morning :0

Hopefully in the future, I won’t fall into the trap of pretending to be okay when it’s gone too far! I probably will though as I’d rather not focus on myself in person if I can help it. Pain was and is expected. But hey I won’t talk about it if it keeps my mind off it!

Plus I’d rather not eat painkillers as a regular thing.
I can deal with sore feet and watch out whenever it feels like it’s escalating.

Hey.
I got this.

Games Week Aftermath! 


I am exhausted. I haven’t been able to get proper recovery time as I wanted to get this post and Sunday’s Special Burptalk finished while it’s still fresh!

Then I need a break away from the computer.
And then get back to personal work.
And eventually catch up with Facebook…somewhere.

TWITTER?
After all this, I find myself with more followers for some miraculous reason. I’m tweeting loads more because of the BurpDoodle shenanigans.

It’s weird because prior to GCAP, I was at a point where I was resigned to having around 200 followers for a long time yet. I was honestly at a state of being happy with what I have.

I mean, somehow there’s my GCAP15, PAXAus & GamesWeekMelbs BurpDoodles in Storify form thanks to GCAP! :0 It just happened & people seem to like them very much! I am pleasantly overwhelmed!

All the same, I strive to be grateful with what I have and I make it clear that people are free to unfollow if they’re expecting a follow back or if my tweets no longer interest them. Likewise, I’ll probably do some unfollowing at the end of this year to keep twitter manageable as a feed, not because those people are my enemies!

Special thanks to Andrew, Tony, Jane, Brie, Clinton, Ben, Tim, John and Lauren for being part of the kind BurpDoodle Avatar Club (:

NOW ABOUT THIS HERMIT BURPCAST…
Again, when it gets published later this month, I’ll go into detail about “Networking: Being Alone as the default” at the HermitBurpcast.