GDC 2014 - Ignacio G.

Post date: Mar 28, 2014 5:12:2 PM

One takeaway from GDC that was incredibly useful to me above all else was the city expenses in California as well as lifestyle.  It may be a bit off topic but very important. I am personally looking to live in the west coast, so knowing about details such as cost of living such as these are important: How much does your apartment cost? Transportation? Do I need a car? What’s the food like? Will I be content living here?

To me part of GDC was a sort of test run on the whole San Francisco experience (and somehow assume some of the rest of California will be at least somewhat similar). I stayed the last couple of days with my cousin and his super interesting roommates. One worked for a startup game company, another was a financial analyst (if I heard right) for Valve, my cousin for Yahoo. They were all doing very well financially, but living in modest kind of small apartment. How expensive is housing in San Francisco I asked? Very. Living in a decent neighborhood, one bedroom apartment is a whooping 2.5k average minimum. Three bedroom apartment in a decent neighborhood, like where I stayed? 4,500k average. To get further feedback on the subject, sometime by the end of GDC I took a cab and in talking with the taxi driver, the subject came up and I asked what a cheaper option of living in San Francisco would be. It's cheaper to take a risk and live in a more dangerous area of the city and not mess with the tough guys. 

To me however, this was the only drawback. There are some more expensive things such as food but for the most part, San Francisco seemed like a great place to live, you’d just have to pay for it.

Another topic that may or may not be slightly off topic is the value of actually going to GDC.  I personally have mixed feelings about it with it being my third time. Right off the bat in terms of money I’d say: If you’re worried whatsoever about money, don’t go.  If you have the funds, go for 3 days tops.

I went from Tuesday to Sunday. By Wednesday I already wanted to go back and finish my art test. Ideally I would have gone Wednesday early morning, gone around the career pavilion, shown my portfolio around, go to a GDC party later. Wake up talk to a few people that may seem interested or want to meet up with the next day. Leave Thursday and get back to work. The rest of the time is best spent on keep going on your portfolio, art test, applications, or thesis. I guess there’s two ends to it. If you don’t think your art is quite up there, why go, it’s going to get torn apart while spending a lot of money to get there. You can get that critique here. On the other end if you already have good response from recruiters or better yet an art test, why go? Finish the art test up, keep making that portfolio even more awesome, or finish applying to places. Somewhere in the middle I guess it might be worth going.

Additionally, less and less companies are showing up on the GDC career floor. GDC is shrinking.  You don’t need too much time at GDC.

Something I saw rising in the game industry is independent games. It’s exploding! Getting into more in-depth talks, since I love talking about money (I was tempted to major in finance) I explored how lucrative this side of the industry could be.

Low production costs, shorter productions cycles, and big earnings= incredibly high profit. I feel it’s an industry I’d like to tackle eventually, maybe with some people I know once I get a lot of experience under my belt. Things have been made easier with the introduction of kickstarter. Things that look good are more likely to get noticed and funded. Less marketing of your product involved in order to get the funds that you need. Additionally, living in a city such as San Francisco, it’s easier to network your product up the ladder and gain some spotlight for your product to come to shelves (or hard drives).

I see a few big companies sticking around, no middle ground, and then a lot of smaller companies occupying the gaming space.