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 Game boys Videogame developers cut loose with a wrap party
High Voltage Software has finished its new PlayStation 2 game, Duel
Masters, based on a Japanese cartoon about card players who fight with
demons. Inside one of Red Eye Studio's motion capture studios in
Hoffman
Estates, they're throwing a wrap party to reward their staff and
release
the game.
The invitation said costume party, and for most that means anime:
blue and red hair, Akira leather-patched jackets, Japanese schoolgirls
and nurses, and a few Crazy 88s. Two PS2s are up and running to show
off
the game, and High Voltage has spared no expense--an open bar, two
kegs,
and a full catering table are there for the various programmer types to
consume at will. A video mixer is remixing "Cowboy Bebop" and
"Evangelion" on the wall, while local eclectic hip-hoppers Abstract
Giants custom-make rhymes on a temporary stage. It's just what you'd
imagine an office party sponsored by Atari and Logitech would be:
people
who normally spend their days writing code on computer screens are
partying their brains out.
"We decided that we were going to start throwing bigger wrap
parties," Joe Krusell of Red Eye says in a back room. He recounts
their
history and their hopes for the new game-- "it's getting good
reviews"--just before he's interrupted by a message from the floor
that
"they haven't even gone through forty of the Polaroids yet." He
sends
the messenger back out to make sure they get used up, and, later, a few
of the employees, dressed in wigs and jackets, pose with the game's
promotional standup, smiling at Polaroid flashes.
Also by Mike Schramm Free books
Bringing up Baby
Entrance polling
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