Friday, March 19th, 1999, was the date of the 2nd Annual AI Programmer's
Dinner at the CGDC (okay, GDC now). As with our 1998 dinner there
were lots of invitees, and we ended up with a whopping 36 attendees...way
more than we had ever expected. This second "gathering of geeks"
was truly an amazing event, as we took over the back dining room of Miro's
Mediterranean Cafe at the Crown Plaze Hotelfor nearly four straight hours.
The dinner was, quite frankly, a blast. Animated conversations on game
AI echoed up and down the table, assisted in large part by the restaurant's
thoughtful placement of paper on the table clothes. It didn't take long
before developers were scribbling out diagrams all over the place.
The following are two posts from Eric Dybsand and myself on
Gamasutra detailing
many of the events at the dinner.
We had a great time! There were 36 attendees at the 2nd Annual AI Programmers Dinner, held at Miro's Mediterranean Cafe at the Crown Plaza Hotel in San Jose, during GDC'99. Up and down the table, were animated conversations on computer game AI, physics and computer game design. The restaurant thoughtfully laid paper down on the table clothes, and within minutes of the group gathering, pens were out, diagrams were emerging, theories were being proven (and disproven) and a whole lot of info on computer game AI was being exchanged. I found myself too fascinated (and with too sore a throat) to do anything but watch, listen and learn as computer game AI concepts were mixing with pasta, beef and chicken and the occasional glass of wine or beer. For those of you who did not attend, we hope you consider doing so next year, when we host the 3rd Annual AI Programmers Dinner at GDC 2000. Eric
I can only echo what Eric has said. The 2nd Annual AI Programmer's Dinner was a huge success. Up and down the table were animated conversations on a variety of topics. I sincerely believe that better games will be made precisely because of this dinner. The most memorable moment for me has probably got to be Steve Rabin and Karl Meissner scribbling away on one corner of a table sheet, working on an ever more elaborate diagram as they discussed path-finding algorithms! I got a picture or two of this combined genius in action; it should be on my AI web page in a few days. Thanks again to everybody who was able to attend! Hope to see you again next year!! Ferretman
The following is a list of the attendees. I removed the "company" listing that was on the First AI Programmer's Dinner page, mostly because that's so very subject to change in this industry.
Who Email
--- -----
1 John O'Neil oneil@spinglass.com
2 Jamie Siglar jasiglar@tiac.net
3 Garner Halloran garner.halloran@redstorm.com
4 John Walker john.walker@sierra.com
5 Lasse Thomasson lasse.thomasson@stockholm.mail.tellia.com
6 Michael Zarozinski MichaelZ@LouderThanABomb.com
7 Jonathan Branam sspeare@yahoo.com
8 Paul G. Silva zform@student.umass.edu
9 Eric Dybsand edybs@ix.netcom.com
10 Karl Meisner kmeisner@activision.com
11 Steve Rabin srabin@gaspowered.com
12 David Henry ???????
13 Reid Sweatman reids@dynamix.com
14 Chuck Walbourn chuck@toast.net
15 Richard Rouse richard@lplizard.com
16 Joshua Goldshlag jgoldshlag@wesleyan.edu
17 Teut Weidermann teut@compuserve.com
18 Jesse McClusky aci@weblink.org
19 Carl Klutzke klutzke@earthlink.net
20 Neil Kirby nak@lucent.com
21 Jeff Mallett jeffm@zillions-of-games.com
22 Jon O'Brien jon.obrien@redstorm.com
23 Brian Gantt bgantt@onegames.com
24 Bryan Stout bstout@mindspring.com
25 Julian Gollop julian@mythosgames.com
26 Nick Gollop nick@mythosgames.com
27 George Shackelford gshackel@quicksilver.com
28 Cei Gladstone ???????
20 Stephan Assadourian ???????
29 Steven Woodcock NoSpam_ferretman@gameai.com
30 Ryan O'Rourke ryano@wizbang.com
31 John Bolton jbolton@nwcomputing.com
32 Alex Sherman asherman@nwcomputing.com
33 Nicolai Czempin nczempin@dialup.nacamar.de
34 Adrian Smith fon@ii.net
35 Anthony Weise antwiese@ozemail.com.au
36 Craig Reynolds craig_reynolds@playstation.sony.com
Seating arrangements:
N
W E
S
1---2---3---4---5---6---7---8---9--10--11--12--13--14--15--16--17--18
| |
| |
| |
19--20--21--22--23--24--25--26--27--28--29--30--31--32--33--34--35--36
![[The whole GDC 1999 AI Progammer's Dinner bunch mugs for the camera; looking East on Seating Map]](graphics/aidinner991.jpg)
![[Steve Rabin and Karl Meissner do some impromptu pathfinding analysis]](graphics/aidinner992.jpg)
![[Steve and one of the Amazing Gollop Brothers]](graphics/aidinner993.jpg)
![[Steve ponders weighty matters]](graphics/aidinner994.jpg)
![[AI discussions at high speed]](graphics/aidinner995.jpg)
![[Doesn't Neil just look like a Lucent guy?]](graphics/aidinner996.jpg)
![[Heavy discussions on the future of game AI]](graphics/aidinner997.jpg)