Dana Lee - GDC 2018

Post date: Apr 05, 2018 11:46:20 PM

GDC was an interesting experience that I don't think I was truly prepared for. It was my first real encounter with networking and getting a feel for the general atmosphere surrounding the gaming industry, and despite missing out on a day, I felt as if I learned a lot just by being there and interacting with other game enthusiasts. While I am fairly shy by nature, I had assumed that I would be able to manage conversations with people nonetheless, due to shared interests. I was somewhat mistaken. Upon arriving at the main expo floor, I found it very hard to interact with people at booths. I walked around and got a nice look at everything, saw a lot of VR, and was approached by a lot of people not looking to get to know me, but rather to sell me a product instead. If anything, I found that experience a little off-putting and ended up navigating towards the North Hall instead, where most of the Indie Games were. I found it much easier to talk to people in a smaller, less crowded atmosphere, and as a result was able to strike up a conversation with Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry, two of the three designers for the game Night in the Woods. They shared with me some of their experiences with creating the game, ranging from design considerations to different narrative approaches. I found what they had to say to be extremely insightful, and will definitely be using some of the narrative tips for my upcoming thesis project.

Overall, I was pretty blown away by how large and friendly the indie section of the North Hall was, and was definitely grateful to see a lot more than just Triple A companies at such big events. If anything, seeing and talking to multiple indie game developers has been hugely inspirational to me after coming back, and I am more determined now than ever before to try out new things and see where that takes me. 

Another thing I did while at GDC was go to a lot of the Round Table talks. I found this to be the most interesting and memorable part of GDC for me, as I was able to connect with people at a closer level, and learn a lot more about the industry as a whole. I realized by going to the round table talks that there was a lot more diversity in the gaming industry than I initially realized, which made me pretty happy and soothed some of my initial worries. Some of the talks were oriented around the idea of bringing in even more awareness towards how a lot of minorities are portrayed in games, which was insightful because the talks approached topics I hadn't even realized were issues in the first place. Through these round table talks, I was able to meet and have lunch with Brian McDonald, Lead Game Design Specialist for Rock Band. He gave me his personal insight towards designing and improving rhythm games, something I have a large passion for, and also gave additional recommendations towards applying for internships. Overall, I found the round table talks to be much more beneficial than walking around the actual expo floor, which was definitely unexpected. In the future, I will definitely try to balance out my experience better by spending time in the regular expo hall(because I will admit that I stayed away as often as I could), but will be sure to also attend as many round table talks as possible. 

In hindsight, I could have networked a bit better, but now that I have a better feel for the environment, I am sure that I will be able to use what I have learned to my benefit when I go to GDC again next year. While it was definitely easier to strike up conversation with smaller developers and people who attended the round table talks, I personally believe that I missed out by avoiding the main expo hall and missing possible opportunities to talk to other people, as well.