Dave’s already mentioned the delights of Denki at Develop, but I thought I’d chip in and tell you a little more about the  sessions and events I saw, when Dave was either deep in meetings, or finishing off his own presentation.

First though, I have to mention the breakfasts.  Nom.  More than made up for the weird lunches and suspicious deserts…

Day one was a whole new event, called Evolve, which looked at ‘emerging game technologies’.  So, mobile, online, casual, social networking – basically any sort of game which did not involve selling a console title in a box, on a shelf, in a shop.

It was very refreshing to see such broad and exciting new areas taken seriously enough to have a whole day devoted to them.

There were several decent sessions across the whole day. Dave Perry (the tall one from Shiny, not the games animal one) gave the keynote and managed to emphasise the need for looking outside the mainstream games sector and console platforms, to get a sense of what’s coming next.

His GaiKai system still looks fascinating, but ‘scaling to meet demand’ isn’t a sustainable business model if you need one mega-PC per customer (which it sort of looks like right now…)

20 Great Innovations In Casual, Social & Mobile Games That You Should Steal was up next, from Pocket Gamer’s Stuart Dredge.  This was a quick-fire round-up of new ideas that Stuart’s spotted in many different games he’s come across.  From mining your Facebook data, to plundering the album art in your iPhone and telling you exactly how much better you are doing than your friends, there’s a fantastic range of new ways to engage and interest players who are competing on these new non-dedicated games devices.

Following a disappointing lunch (no cheesecake), it was straight into Dave ‘Dave’ Thomson’s ‘A Game Is A Game Is A Game’.  Dave’s already mentioned the gist of this, but it’s worth mentioning that there were a lot of journalists and influential people there – all asking questions.  Dave didn’t call for a ban – or get particularly ‘impassioned’ as I recall – but he did point out that the use of ‘casual’ and ‘hardcore’ to describe games is more or less pointless.  A good game is a good game, no matter what platform or audience it’s aimed at.  He also ended on one of the best slides ever and received a healthy dollop of applause.

Panels on Social networking and the iPhone rounded off the afternoon.  Basically they’re exciting and new and nobody’s quite sure just how they’ll evolve as games platforms – but we should keep an open mind and look for new business models.

Then it was David Edery’s closing keynote.  As Dave has already said, this was pretty much right on the money.  The long tail isn’t a huge audience for every niche.  You have to work HARD to try and achieve anything – even with the biggest hits.  It confirmed a lot of things Denki has been thinking and brought the day to a satisfying close.

Day 2 began with a keynote from Dundee’s other well known gaming Dave.  Mr Jones of DMA and Realtime Worlds fame spoke about making your game 100% online – turning other players into content and allowing every player to become a celebrity within the game.  It was another incredibly interesting keynote.  Nice to see what Realtime is planning and APB looks like it could do exactly what Dave advocated in his presentation, ‘Create a new genre’.

The next panel, from NESTA, included fellow Dundee developers Tag and Dynamo, as part of a panel looking at ‘Mentoring’ from industry veterans like Charles Cecil and Dave Wightman.  With all of the hard-won experience within the UK industry, it’s good to see initiatives like this actually looking at how younger companies can find help to grow.

Another weird lunch with things on sticks was followed by one of my favourite sessions of the week: Designer Mash-Up – David Braben and Dave Jones play Elite and GTA…

Which was exactly as it sounds.  While Dave J tried his hand at Elite (my lips are sealed on how he did), Mr Braben took us through the conception and creation of Elite on the BBC.  They then swapped places and Dave B played GTA, while Mr Jones spoke about the games development process.

One awesome moment (that I know will please @DenkiColin) was when Mr Jones mentioned that all of the music in GTA was done in-house.   Dave Braben expressed surprise, saying he’d always thought it was licensed.  WIN!

A quick explore through the exhibition space in the hotel turned into an extended trip as I met more and more friends, colleagues, journalists and fascinating industry types.  While the exhibition itself was no great shakes, the sheer number of people – and the quality of the people there – meant that by the time I managed to escape, the last two sessions were over.

A tasteful curtain will be drawn over the Develop awards, Eurogamer party and the rest of the evening.  Rest assured your Denki correspondents were there, networking away and putting in ‘face time’ like the professionals we are.

Thursday’s highlight was definitely the LEGO design session.  LEGO Universe is the company’s much anticipated MMO title and as Dave said, the balance being sought between the physical product, the wildly popular existing LEGO games, the brand’s long-term value and the goal of ‘playability’ made for a very strong presentation.  Even though we didn’t get to see the game in action…

Then it was off to the train station and Ho! for Gatwick and the north.  Via the LEGO shop…

Overall then, Develop is shaping up to be one of the most useful and diverse events in the UK gaming calendar.

Lessons learned – digital distribution offers a viable new model for the industry.  The terms ‘casual’ and ‘hard core’ are meaningless to consumers.  In Elite the spacebar does not fire the lasers.  Long Tail does not mean, what I think you think it means.  White suits are not for everybody.  Do not let the adventurous chap order from the special menu (intenstines – ORLY?)  Ill-fitting windows lead to Scooby Doo noises in hotel bedrooms.  Lego shops have an awesome augmented reality system for the ‘City’ set.  And a death star.

Bagsy me next year again!