Angry cuteness and the Great AfterParty.

Holy fuck, I overslept, - I screamed in the morning of day 2 of Casual Connect.

The smallest possible size for a disgusting photo.
Yep, I look like crap in my sleep.
This is an edited cell-phone pic. 

It was about 8 and I needed to be at the hotel by 10 to attend the lecture of Ville Heijari from Rovio - the company that made the famous and cute Angry Birds.

And now I'm also addicted to these.

Quick makeup, packing clothes to change for the evening's glamour party, the press pass... The video camera has been cheated on with the photo camera.

The conference place seemed much quieter and sleepier. Probably after the HallowScream party... Some people were hiding their eyes when passing by other people, and I got bored counting those whose hangovers could even be seen by someone who isn't very much familiar with that state.

I felt especially sorry for the English-speaking guy who tried to pick me up at the party - he had to hide his eyes from most people. Ok, I agree it's a LOL. :)

I managed to attend at least a half or Mr. Heijari's lecture.

He was talking on fan communities of overwhelmingly popular games like Angry Birds - both how to entertain existing fans and how to make the audience grow. It made his speech and presentation stand out since he had chosen an interesting manner of presenting - he spoke both as an expert and a fan of his job. At least this is the impression I got.

Ville was wearing a piggy plushie as a necklace. So damn cute! ^__^

He emphasized on importance of   characters for a successful game.

Looks like the students of our university at a boring class where everyone's reading something of their stuff ))

Even the simplest idea can be brilliant with cool characters. While a perfect draft might be totally killed by unsuccessful "faces".
The Angry Birds company - according to what I heard - looks more like a creative team than a business in the Ukrainian understanding of this word. Most people there are working on developing the game while some business professionals promote and sell it.

They also mentioned that they're planning to go on with the Birds out of the game - that is, using them in things other than the games, like plushies, comic books etc. An example was shown on the screen - btw is that Chinese or Japanese? ^^

Vlad, the friend who introduced me to the game developers ' hangouts, also suggested interviewing Mr. Heijari, and I ran after him just as the lecture ended.

LOL there apeared a line of those willing to talk to the guy from Rovio. He gladly agreed for an interview and we sat down and talked on different issues.

Since most of my readers and vistors here are somehow into japanese pop culture that involves a lot of cute characters, I'll mention that Ville said the Angry Birds aren't going to fight Hello Kitty, but they're currently trending more than her. ^__^

I blushed and asked for a pic. Here's what we got:

From the left: Ville, Piggy, Orchidee.

And then Ville gave me a cute black bird plushie! It's now guarding my handbag and cheers me up - each time I see it I think of the awesome time we've had at CC. :)

Cuteness!

The 2-hours lunch break started when my interview was over.

I had an appointment with Sociality Rocks event founders. I was getting my brains ready for a scary formal talk - like those I've sometimes had while working as a journalist at other destinations.

But everything turned out to be a nice chat of people with similar interests and different working skills. An interesting talk I enjoyed a lot. I felt as if I've been to the future - whatever silly it sounds. What made me feel this way was...instant befriending people on Facebook. (:

The photo above shows what I noticed when was having the meeting. =))) I've been a fan of this paper for a rather long time, I have a newspaper fetish and am crazy about all resemblances of English-speaking environments within Ukraine. And - another eye-catching headline. I grabbed a paper planning to read it while having breakfast at the hotel's cafe. Texted the chief editor telling him that I loved the headline. :D

By the way we gained a new addiction during the conference. Orange coffee. It's like latte coffee, but with orange juice and cinnamon. I guess it can be called our "drink of the days". By the 3rd one the waitresses already knew we'll order 2 orange coffees. :D

A breakfast in the company of Alexander the Russian mummy, then Mokona came over and we went to explore the territory again. She had an appointment with the Big Fish Games people who were to help her to get familiar with the iPad and download her fave games.

While I was running around Mokona managed to catch up with Ville and ask to sign his business card. :) She came back shining and showing it to me as well as a red Angry Bird perching on her wrist. Sometimes it's more than pleasant to have a starting fetish on something cute. *__*

 

Anton giving us a private lecture on iPad using. :D
Pic by Sasha.

Both of us were sleepy as hell, and there was coffee in one of the halls. No wonder we went there.
Sasha captured me in the middle of some emotional impressions sharing with Mokona. Having seen this pic my mum and I had a great laugh. XD
Notice the Angry Bird on the background!

Enough of that, time for more lectures.

Guys from Papaya Mobile suggested an interesting classification of gamers. They define 4 types:

• 
  
• Explorers who like discovering new things in a game;
• Sociable ones who try to impress other players;
• Challengers are aimed on showing themselves off by defeating others in a game;
• Collectors who enjoy having completed something. 

And what kind are you?
I can say I'm mostly an Explorer. Probably that's why I get so happy when "Something has happened!" appears in Neopets. *blushes*

My notes :D

Lolita + iPad = <3

 Our next destination was the "round table" discussion on the arising rivalry between PC and mobile gaming platforms. The experts stated that the "post-PC era" is here, and people are more into playing on mobile devices than being wired to PCs.

The idea of the discussion was controverting the main myths about mobile games. Like, for example, the belief that mobile games are kinda addition to PC ones, and that it's cool for companies to stick to "the more games - the better" principle.

Day 2 was different than Day 1. While the 1st one was more of working, the 2nd turned into hanging out all the time. I didn't feel I'm doing what a journalist should do. But Vlad killed my feeling of guilt by telling that events like this ARE partly meant for informal communication. :) 

Mokona and I collected our things and sneaked into the girls' room. It was time for me to turn into a glamorous goth for the upcoming iParty by the G5 company.