Alex Charnes: GDC 2018

Post date: Apr 28, 2018 4:53:54 PM

    I'm very lucky to have been able to have gone to GDC and can't wait to go back. I met so many people and did a lot of fun stuff which was a great distraction from the hectic Ringling lifestyle we all live.

One of the best interactions I had was with a artist named Ed. He works at a company that prints shirts called Printful. I was with fellow Game Art student Nick Dahill and we decided to approach the booth because the booth design was intriguing. We started talking to Ed who we found out had begun working for the company when they were very small. He found that the company was in need of an in-house graphic design department. Now he runs their design studio that takes on client work, designing and printing for them. Right now I'm having somewhat of a problem, I don't know what I really want to do when I graduate. Will I take the traditional game art route and work for an established studio as an 'environment artist'? Given the right company that sounds exciting, but after talking to Ed it opened my eyes to their being more out there. Printful wasn't looking for Ed, but he made himself known to them and convinced them they needed him. I want to have that "I'm a valuable asset that your company needs" mentality. I'm also thinking about what other jobs I could do with the skills I have — just being more open to other opportunities. Even if I really do wanna work in games, I don't want to force it. If something non-games related presents itself and it could be a good time, why say no?

Networking is hard for me because I've always had some difficulty interacting with new people. This is something I worked really hard on at GDC. Each day I had to set my fears aside and go out on the floor with the intention of talking with strangers. Generally every time I did this the conversations went fine, it wasn't challenging to find something to talk about because were all at GDC for the same reason. The most awkward conversations I had were the ones I had to wait in line for, like portfolio reviews. I wait in line for an hour, then when I get to talk to the recruiter it's obvious that they don't really care, they're just doing their job. That's why I found that approaching the smaller booths or the other convention goers was the way to go for me. I especially enjoyed talking to some of the indie booths because they seemed much more about it than the big companies. It makes me want to go down the indie route, or like I said before being open to non-game jobs. Just as a first timer my take away is that the games industry is all about who you're friends with, if you don't know the people at the studio it's gonna be hard to get a job there and its hard to get in on their discussions if they don't know you or know someone that can vouch for you. My take away going forward is that I should put myself out to the bigger places even if it's draining because I think it'll work out in the long run.

The last thing I want to talk about was about was that the best connections I made did not come from the actual event itself. The only interview I secured at GDC was one where I had already been talking to the lead artist weeks before and we planned on meeting in person at GDC. The other really good connections I made we from the parties. The smaller the event the better. I attended a handful of parties, there was one called Goldhive which was the smallest and by far the weirdest party I've been too. It was a traditional San Francisco art party, so I saw some things I had never thought I'd see. I just say the people and the environment were very interesting. It wasn't as big of a shock to the other guys there as it was to me but still putting myself in that situation theirs something to really connect on with the people you meet there. I'm going to remember the guys from that party waaaay more than any of the other places because its like "oh hey remember when we saw those burlesque dancers on stilts? yeah man that was crazy, how you been".