Luis Gutierrez GDC 2014

Reflection of my 2014 GDC experience

This is my second time visiting San Fransisco for the annual GDC so I felt a bit more prepared than my sophomore year in 2012. There was a few differences in my experience however. For one this year I could only afford to purchase the expo pass when my sophomore year I had the main conference pass. So my experience almost felt limited in that aspect but was glad to have had an experience listening to talks from that year. Second this was a much much much smaller GDC this year. Many of the big names were missing from the career floor from what I remember two years ago. Lastly I was a sophomore my first time so I didn't have much to show in terms of artwork so spending the time at the talks was a great for me and I learned a lot. This year seeing as this is my fourth year studying at Ringling I had lots of work to choose from and was able to get solid reviews from professionals in the field so spending all my time on the career floor much more productive and worth it.

First thing I noticed this year was the smaller size of this years GDC. There are some pros and cons to this matter. There were less booths to visit and less talent to get my portfolio reviews from which was kind of a bummer. It goes to show in what state the job market for our skill set is like, much more competitive and less jobs to contend with. It made the whole conference that much more personal however, with less people it was easy to run into people again making it easier to get to know others and establish a network. I remember running into the guys from Cloud Imperium on multiple occasions and the art director remembered who I was! It also made the Ringling student body presence much more noticeable. Going to portfolio reviews many people saw that I was from Ringling and commented how our work was really good quality and he was more eager and attentive to review my work.

Second was how important it was to be more genuine and patient when networking. This is my first experience as a 21 year old at GDC, although I am not drinking anymore I was able to attend more of the after conference parties and bars. This has shown me that all these professionals are just people like everyone else. I watched some people try to be fake and very agenda driven at these parties and from my experience many people do not appreciate that at all. In fact if they see through it they won't like you. By being genuine, social and letting people be people you are more likely to make a connection with someone. After all people want to be able to work with you. If you lie about who you are they will find out sooner or later and It can make a good thing go sour.

Third was my experience on the career floor with portfolio reviews. I talked to many studios which include, Insomniac, Riot, Capcom, Cloud Imperium, Warner Bros., Glu, Machine Zone, Mulitimedia, Imagani, Obsidian among other studios and companies. Many people enjoyed my work because it showed that I did have the skill set to be in production. Obsidian commented on how clean everything was, it was too logical and not natural enough. Capcom wanted me to show a more specific skillset. So to focus on environment OR character. Larger companies want lasers. WB was my most memorable review. I spoke to the art director and he was the only one that pointed out what I was missing. He said my work showed talent however, I didn't have any go all out super high poly models which can showcase just how good I am. Anyone can make efficient and modular assets but only really great modelers can make a super amazing high poly hero assets. The way technology is evolving he was saying it's growing more important to make more highpoly and impressive assets. So what I got from that was I am a good cog in the machine but my portfolio needs to show off my talent more than my efficiency know how.

Overall great experience and I'm hoping to be able to have the opportunity to do it again.