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Post date: Mar 19, 2015 4:14:37 AM
GDC Garbage
(This is just some of the stuff. I collected a pile of business cards so big, and got my portfolio reviewed so much that I could not possibly write down it all. A good thing to do to is to carry your loaded portfolio and keep the front page up. People would glance the image and offer a review, I got one from almost every booth I went to. At this one Korean Game booth, he looked at it, got to my character concept art, stopped and took out his business card and handed it to me… I couldn’t understand him at all though… so… yeah...)
Monday March 2end
On Airports
The whole day was spent flying. It was my first flight where they gave out snacks and I really like those airplane cookies
People I Met
We went for dinner, after settling in our hotel, to a little japanese restaurant. There were two FX guys there. Walker initiated the conversation with them, and then all of us got to listen and ask questions. I specifically didn’t have any FX related talk for him since I’m not super interested in that. But it was cool to meet them and hear what they had to say. They only gave us one card to share with each other, so I didn’t take it, but as I said, not interest in FX.
Tuesday March 3erd
Ubisoft- Grow Home
After arriving at GDC and picking up our badges, we went right to the Ubisoft lounge. They happened to be giving a demo on a game they were working on called ‘Grow Home’. My notes on it are below:
Used Procedural Animation- main character is puppet-like (robot) and non human so the animation doesn’t look weird-- very floppy
Open world- gave player a bunch of ‘toys’--
Good Community Connection- Paid attention to YouTuber’s doing ‘Let’s Plays’ of the game--One YouTuber named the sheep Terrance and took it everywhere, so they literally named the sheep Terrace in Game.
Personalization of planet- you have free reign in deciding where the plant shoots connect to so you can go crazy.
All Audiences- Nonviolent Discovery Game.
Only One Artist- One texture with color swatches-- Low poly--- 0-1 UVs---- Complex, Pixar like lighting to give the low Poly, simple textured models visual complexity.
How We Made Games Unfun (Amazon-- Last 15 mins)
I didn’t catch a lot of it, but here are the notes I got from the last 15 minutes:
Measuring how fun your game is- Measuring the abandon rate, score delta, replays, and new games--- measuring Proxy data
A|B testing distributing games with slight variation to see which is more pleasurable.
Wednesday March 4th
Career Center
It was just really cool. I spent hours in here collecting card. A lot of the indie game guys were from Northern Europe though, so no internship opportunities there...
Wargaming
I got my portfolio reviewed by Andrew Reinhardt, a recruiter. He said that my stuff was cool and gave pretty general feedback but said my style was to fantasy based and would not be a good fit for their company. He told me that even though my art was nice they would be cautious with a person whose portfolio was like mine because they would wonder if they were really passionate about the work they would be doing with the company.
High Five Games
These guys actually had internship opportunities. They seemed to really like my work, gave me their art directors card, and strangely remembered my face really well (I saw them throughout the convention at different places and they would wave). Unfortunately their work is with slot machine games, which I wouldn’t mind doing, but it’s in New York City and they said they don’t put up their interns…
Nexon-- Vindictus
They are looking for hire for a costume designer for the characters in their game Vindictus. Being super familiar with their games I found this really exciting. They looked over my portfolio and really like the concept for my character (thats how I found out about their position).
LGBTQ Panel
This meeting was round table talk. They discussed how individuals of the LGBTQ community need to help influence the market, types of games being made, and portrayal of the community in games.
Admittedly this was the least organized panel I went to, and not a whole lot that I understood was discussed. However it was good to see everyone. We met Joseph Cochran, a Senior Software Designer at Blizzard. It was cool to see someone in the community so well off (due to the amount of fear of discrimination there is). Unfortunately there was no other openly Trans people in there...
Epic Party
I’m not a party person, mainly because I hate loud places… But I went.
I met Avery Wong, Co-Founder of Critical Bacon where he currently works. He was the only artist on his game, and showed me their most recent version which is soon to be released in Asia. He critiqued my portfolio, most notably commenting that I have good pieces but I should expand the styles I do. He said that a broader range of themes and style will make my portfolio more appealing to more companies.
I also met a man who was the CEO of a small Sound Design company. We did not exchange business cards but we did talk for a while. He looked at my portfolio, thought he didn’t have much critique and just complimented me on it. We ended our conversation went Avery Wong came over, which was a relief because I felt like he was trying to pick me up…
Thursday March 5th
Diversity/ Perspective In Games
This panel dealt with how games portrayed people of color in games. It was by far my favorite panel do to the speakers who were incredibly knowledgeable about media portrayal of minorities. This was the second of three panels (I didn’t get to the others) and took a look at specific characters, and then discussed what changes to the character would make them better. Some Characters mentioned were:
Sam B (Dead Island)-- Negative character for his overused stereotypes: Ex-rapper (becomes a joke), stereotypical background with a bad upbringing and drug addicted mother. His point for being on the island is to rejuvenate his rap career.
Crackdown (a game with great character customization for people of color)
Barret Wallis (FF)- Over stereotyped Mr. T like Muscle Man
Daisy Fitzroy (Bioshock Infinite) -- used to prop up other characters
Jackson Majack (Heavy Rain)
Blade
Spawn
Crados
Cold Train
Louis, Coach, Rochelle--- good variety
Drebboen
Singular characters (when there is only one person in a minority group) cause you to analyze. Having a cast allows more room since the extremes are balanced.
Namco was praised for is great example in researching stereotypes, and reaching out to communities to look at the characters they create before releasing them.
Portrayal of Obesity in Games
They covered cultural attitudes, mistakes/problems, solutions
Obese characters are often portrayed as: Gluttons, lazy, delusional, gross, disabled, slow, stupid, and ugly
Fat= Villain, punchline, goal to become thin,
Bob and Rufus-- Street Fighter and Tekkon
Rufus: Delusional
Bob: Got fat on purpose to have a handicap-- his moves are food names
Fat Women-- Get the worst of the hate
Reduced to their need to be thin-- due to the over sxulization of women, their bodies are objectified thus the image of an obese women is bashed the worst.
They are portrayed as: comic relief,ugly, often fat shamed, linked to eating disorders, Are made fun of if men are attracted to her (the man is seen as less of a man or delusional), condones self harm.
She is literally the ball
On the other extreme, they are often masculinized as well
The only exception is in mothers who are often seen as fat since they are no longer sexually desirable.
Sony Party
I literally went to this party for the food. Nothing great happened until we left. I had, up until this point, been very disappointed at the lack of Square Enix at GDC (I hadn’t seen any sign of them). They are my favorite company, and produce my favorite games, working there as a janitor would be an honor. As we left we were walking next this tall bald guy. At a crosswalk he happened to ask if we were Game Art Students. We confirmed, and then he said that he worked at Square Enix… Literally all of us flipped shit (at least I was flipping enough shit that it seemed like everyone was).
Friday March 6th
Killer Portfolio or Portfolio Killer
“Werk Yo Ass Off”
Need process work-- bakes, UVs, textures in addition to the final
Never show images with color issues (I did that with my hard copy-- but I only had that on me for emergencies)
Only show demo for animation, or FX
Quality over quantity-- it’s okay to only have a few
Look at polycount to see the competition
Don’t show tool icons
communicate process
On an art test ask for feedback-- go above and beyond
No IP in concept art, or character-- IP is risky
Passionate art blogs are good-- Not passionate ones are bad
Saturday March 7th
San Fran Airport
I learned that regardless of how big the airport is, in San Fran it is not necessary to get to check out three hours early… I suppose only New York airports have crazy lines that require that...
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