Don’t let the title fool you, folks, Season 3 got off to a rousing start at last Thursday’s GameCityNights launch party. Some might even say they had a smashing (ahem) time*. Let’s recap the Night then, shall we?

You flocked to the venue in droves and were immediately greeted by the frankly awesome beats of Owain Davies, our very new, very talented, and now very permanent, House Band. Pulse quickened, ear drums attuned, we then moved on……

To lay down the gauntlet. Bar manager Dan Bull dared those souls brave** enough to challenge him at his own game to………..something secret which would be revealed later in the night.

Jerry Game Toilet Carpenter then took to the stage. If you don’t know Jerry’s work, it’s a collection of ‘unique’ game ideas inspired by the daily commute to work, then posted at the end of every day. Presenting his very greatest hits, surely the foundation for “Now That’s What I Call Gaming”, (which GameCity will trademark), games included,

Hand Puppet Kaiju Cocktail Part – You Are All Invited

Anagrun! – Shift Five To Survive – “Scribblenauts For Idiots”

Twapeworm

Necro The Narwhale

The Elephant In The Room

Jerry then invited you all to create your own ‘mad-ideas-hastily-scribbled-in-an-against-the-time-situation’ game, before presenting the best and declaring winners. Our highly talented winners then dug deep into the A Winner Is You prize fund to claim the spoils of war. Well, not so much war, as rapid pen scribbling. Thanks to our prize contributors, Codemasters, Rising Star Games, Sega, Broadway Cinema and Kuoda.

From the Desk of! Possibly our favouritest part of any GameCityNights, these golden nuggets are always a delight, filled with insanely brilliant people saying insanely brilliant things, without the cost of an international flight. Brandon Boyer, IGF judge and creator of the soon-to-be-released Venus Patrol (destined to become our homepage on its launch) was our guest this month, taking us through the very best of indie gaming, the perils of being a judge and introducing Venus Patrol mascot, Oliver.

Beat the Bull. A rather brilliant creation, bar manager Dan Bull*** has become a regular feature of the GameCityNights and will challenge/be challenged by the audience in a bid for eternal glory. This month’s skill? Bottle flipping – easy to fail, impossible to master, our challengers didn’t even manage one full flip, while The Bull beat a personal best of 37 flips in 60 seconds. We did smash a lot of stuff, so that made up for it. Sort of. Next month – you decide the challenge!

Seeing out the Night, Paul Butler presented his Augmented Vision, with a titular (buttular?) talk, entitled Ass Effect. We’ll leave you to ponder that one.

So, there we go. The season began. Fun was had. Roll on next month! We’ll announce the headliner soon, but keep February 23rd free

*In future instances of Beat the Bull, GameCity promises to avoid using any items not clearly labelled “Indestructible” after we destroyed…….well, pretty much everything. Good fun though!

**Some would say stupid, but we’re all about games culture, not semantics

***GameCity accepts no liability if you receive any awesomeness related injuries from this most pun-tastic game