Chilling in Leeuwarden

I'm kicking back tonight in my hotel in Leeuwarden, Holland.  Out here for 10 days of work at NHL, a local polytechnic here in the Northern edge of the country.  Today I did a brainstorming lecture for a bunch of game design students. 

In general I've found that we game designers are a tribe unto ourselves, and I've been able to connect pretty instantly.  But of course that's not necessarily the case with students - this is just a minor subject here and when I got the sense that not everyone was a game player there, I knew they weren't all going to end up as professional designers. 

Nothing wrong with that, I'm glad to help pass on game design knowledge even to people who will mostly not need it in their careers, but it did disappoint me a bit.  On some level I enjoy designing games so much I can't understand why anyone would do something else, at least given the chance at a school like this.  But it takes all types! 

I did get the sense that many of them would have liked to contribute more but were feeling a bit shy - I am used to American students who are often more forward than the Europeans I've met, so I'm looking forward to getting to work with the project teams here indvidually and try and spot -and encourage- some fellow budding game designers.

It's pretty cold here, by my wimpy California standards.  I have a brand new alpaca scarf, sent to me by a great Peruvian client of mine, and I was excited to try it out here in Europe - and managed to leave it at home. 

I grew up in much colder weather, but it's amazing how quickly your body adapts to warmer climates.  Perhaps by the end of the week my metabolism will start putting out a little more heat.