EGW History
Note: On the older versions of the site, these were all listed as separate entries - but in the interest of consolidating all the links, here's a short history of EGW from 2010-2002. In a nutshell, lots of people have packed into lots of tiny rooms to see odd little games - some of which turned out to be quite popular.
2010: Well ok, this year was an exception. We actually decided not to host the EGW that year (mostly due to a lack of strong submissions). Instead, there was an hour-long Nuovo session that focused on the more experimental IGF finalists. We needed a break anyway...
2009: We had a bunch of great games - including Shadow Physics. Let's all give a lovely round of applause to Destructoid , the Onion, and Grumpy Tech Guy who took some time to write the session up.
2008: We finished on time (highly unusual)! 800+ developers got to see a wonderful set of demonstrations - including Jon's expert play-through of some of the hardest levels in Space Giraffe (truly an amazing display of talent). Check out Robin's write-up and photos - and Gamasutra's coverage of the event.
2007: Kim Swift joined us for a sneak-peak at the then-unreleased Portal - much to the delight of everyone in the (larger, darker and significantly less overheated) workshop session. We also saw more of Jon's game Braid, and a bit of Flower as well! Here is Gamasutra's take on what it was like!
2006: We had an *excellent* demo from Harmonix, of the never-shipped freestyle jamming mode from Guitar Hero. The room was absolutely packed (see image above from that year), and some people couldn't get to the session before the fire marshalls closed the doors for good. Too bad - because Eric smashed his toy guitar after ripping out a pretty amazing solo. Here is the Gamasutra coverage.
2005: the CMU team that eventually became indie developer 2DBoy gave a presentation covering their university projects in experimental gameplay! We saw Mark Healy's project Ragdoll Kung Fu, as well as an IndieGameJam all about characters. Robin's post about the event is here.
2004: Keita Takahashi demonstrated the yet-unreleased game Katamari Damacy! We also showed a big slate of physics-based Indie Game Jam (2) games - which included a game inspired by "Waiting for Godot", and a game about Iyengar Yoga! Here is Robin's writeup of the demonstrations and her photos from the Indie Game Jam.
2003: In the second year of the Experimental Gameplay Workshop - we demoed a set of Indie Game Jam (1) games that used shadow tech. We also got a fantastic demonstration of Matsuura Masaya's rhythm game Mojib Ribbon - which used speech synthesis to generate the vocal track, and pioneered a "paper and watercolor" art style later seen in games like Okami. Robin's pix from the Jam are here.
2002: was the inaugural year of the Experimental Gameplay Workshop - and the debut of the Indie Game Jam. This is where the magic all began!