I went to GameHouse and learned a new term, "casual gaming".

I know, all my girlfriends saw that title and were all, “Uh! Mah! Gah! I can’t WAIT to read about casual gaming!!!” You said that, right? Right? 

*crickets chirping*

And what is “casual gaming”? It is an experience with a game sans “major ordeal”. You can turn it on without having to commit an hour or all night. There is pleasure and little anxiety… not too complex… just a “Hey, I’m gonna go unwind for a little bit…” kind-of experience. At least, that was my understanding… Like solitaire and sudoku… though there are losts of casual games that require a bit more thumb dexterity or finger tapping speed than those 2 games. In either case – just “casual”, as opposed to the type where you see people descend into a dark basement and morph into a dark persona…

Anyway. Now I feel like I can add another tally-mark on the post-it of tally-marks I keep to track my growing geek-ness. Adding to my technical geek-ness makes me feel cool! “Cool” is so cool. Plus, the other tally-mark post-it poster boards I have keep track of how many times I’ve had wipe up pee accidents over the last 9 years. Not my own accidents, but of my little “potty trainers” over the years. Yeah, that one does not evoke similar feelings of coolness. 

I know, I keep getting off-track. So, on Tuesday, I had the wonderful opportunity (a big “Thanks!” to Seattle Mom Blogs for the hook-up) to visit the casual gaming headquarters of GameHouse! –See my teaser here– Not only did it mean I got a full tour of what goes on there, I got to go to the city like a big girl and drink coffee unencumbered and go into shops and not get kicked out… Only to find out I can’t buy anything in those shops, but that didn’t keep me from LOVING going into those shops! Anyone want to buy me the HAWTEST $670 jacket?… *still swooning* No? Wanna meet me in Seattle one day and drool on it with me? I am so doing that again!

    

One more of me on the streets of Seattle:

I arrived at GameHouse early, but got to finally meet and hang out with Mamikaze and her little one for a few minutes. Once we got to GH, we slapped on our nametags and scooted on over to a conference room.

A delightful lunch awaited us, and a thoughtful introduction to GameHouse was given. To my dismay, I learned that the group of blogging mommies that joined me (Astacia, Carrie, Candy & Peggy) – and I,  were considered the target demographic… A.K.A. “middle-aged” women. I! Know! Since when did I become middle-aged? But yeah – 80% of the folks who buy and use their product – pretty much moms. You can read Carrie’s post about our tour here, and Candy’s post here.

After all the chit-chat, we got to hit the tour. Since I think I have adult-onset ADHD, I was all over that. First stop, Game Design:

It was at this point in the tour they talked about, uh… game design. It can take 4-12 months to get a game out – depending on whether it’s a new game or an updated version, or the general scope. GameHousers – if you are reading this, my apologies for my lack of techical-word usage or disconnect in full comprehension. Feel free to gently (yes, I am sensitive, with a big heart) correct me in the comments section. I will happily amend where needed

After Game design, we headed to…

At the art creation “stop” we saw the guy at the computer make all the pictures on his computer colorful. *oohs and ahs*

Next stop: Programming. I couldn’t find a sign to take a picture of, but I figure that’s kind of appropriate for the given stop. The guy at the computer entered code and showed how the addition of code changed the behavior of the game we were previewing – a new Text Twist. It seemed most of the gals I was hangin’ with “got this” for I imagine each of us have had to crack our own blog code from time to time. Yeah, you bet I added a tally mark to that post-it the first time I hacked my own code! *feels an inordinate amount of self-pride*

The next station was a lot of fun to see:

That fella is so musical his head breathes colorful music notes… really! I did not utilize the most awesome free photo-tweaking tool on the internet. I would never do something like that…

Last on the tour was…

As one might imagine, the guys who have this job, literally, get to play games all day! 

Finally, it was our turn to play… I played the Wii for the first time. And shame on me for not remembering the name of that game. It was one of those search and find games. It was fun. And also I suck at searching and finding… unless I am looking for the rogue bottle of ketchup in the fridge so as my 3 year old can drench her chicken dinosaurs in it… Or the last bottle of beer… for me, not for her.

I watched Carrie play this game:

It’s not out yet, but since I am so important, I got to see it. I could have played it too, but I wanted to have time to go here:

I know, it looks like I am crushing on the guys there on the left… but actually I am crushing on the game that you can’t see! It’s Collapse! Chaos and I luuuuurve Collapse! All that popping and carrying on. I played Collapse! A LOT after the birth of my third… it was my mindless escape. And that game has been my love ever since… let’s just say upon leaving GameHouse I promptly accessed my iPhone apps and bought that Collapse! Chaos for my phone – which just happened to be relased that very day – at a reduced price for the first 10,000 buyers. Oooh, might that earn me another tally mark on my geek-ness post-it???

I am almost done, I promise! Before I knew it, it was time to go… Of course GameHouse didn’t let us go empty-handed… They sent us away with some swag! The bag-o-goodies has been poured through by my family, but here’s a picture of my t-shirt:

There were several fun colors to choose from, but I chose the fun red … a wonderful compliment to my sparkly Converse:)

And that my friends is a post of great proportions. I am beat! So beat, I have no wit left for a proper closing. Peace and thankfulness.

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