Riot Games dev Joel Gonzales has teamed with four other moonlighters to form Team LowPolyCount and re-re-release humorous ASCII-style roguelike Game Conference Game for free. Young developers can now practice the art of conferencing before the spring events such as GDC and PAX commence.

“We wanted to help aspiring developers begin their training in the fine arts of schmoozing, partying, and hiding from unwanted conversations,” says Gonzales. The goal is to build as much fame as possible, by sharing your ideas with recruiters and nabbing ideas from other developers when you run out of your own. You also want to avoid angering conference associates and being cornered by employment-hungry students who will “waste your time arguing about game consoles.”



I didn’t quite make it to 500 fame, so I only earned a QA job at the end. What job did you earn?

[update: Its history seems to extend from a 1976 and 2008 game. Chris Best was involved with the 2008 release and was involved in this project, too. I will update again when I hear back from Gonzales.]

[update 2: From Gonzales: “We had a false start a long time ago, we had it up, but nobody could actually get to the website to play it. (Bad choice in hosting providers) I had already sent out PR so some people put up the story even though they couldn’t get through. I ended up taking the game down after a couple hours of connectivity trouble and I have not had it up again until now.”]