GDC - 2014 Observations

Post date: Mar 28, 2014 3:53:5 AM

My first day at GDC was extremely fast paced. Between getting off the plane late the night before to waking up early to enter an incredibly packed San Francisco, filled with thousands of people all filing towards the Moscone Center. Being at Ringling with such a small community, it was so amazing to get to see so many people interested in games, from programmers to animators to modelers, literally everyone was there. When I first got my pass, I tried to just get comfortable with where everything was and to first stake out things to go back to (and to go find common ground at the Ringling booth). I found this way, I could calmly organize which companies really interested me that also left me time to go to some of the talks. So the first day, after taking a couple of laps and seeing the Ringling booth, I headed towards the companies for portfolio reviews that I knew would fill up fast. I hit up WB, Insomniac, and Capcom. It was nice to talk to the artists themselves and though some glazed over, some were definitely interested in what Ringling kids had to offer. I ended up finding that the recruiters gave the harsher reviews while the artists just wanted to see what you offered without giving too much opinion unless they were interested. After my first day at GDC, I was starting to understand how to stand out and get around to see more people faster.

By the second day, I spent most of my time in the career area, trying to hit up all the rest of the companies I had missed on the first day, however, I found it quite hard for some reason. I felt like I waited in lines longer on thursday than the previous day. I think it was because student day was the next day and people wanted to try and get as much done (like me) without being overwhelmed by other students competing for their spots in line. Even though I spent lots of time in lines, I found connections almost easier. I kept seeing people from all over pass by, people from PopCap, Disney Interactive, EA etc. I ended up finding more contacts in lines than in actual booths. 

On friday, the last day of the conference, I tried to split up my time. I had spent probably 85% of my time in the career center, and I had not seen hardly any talks even though I had paid for a main conference pass. I managed to get to 5 talks by the end of the week, and even that was smaller than I had hoped. So in the morning of Friday, I got to 2 talks, one called Building Customizable Character by Bungie, and the other a Blizzard demo by Arnold Tsang. The bungie talk was really great about explaining their process on how they design their characters and the break down they used (I shall post my notes below). and the Blizzard demo, though I have little notes as it was just a drawing demo of a character (as a group we chose the character to be in a fighting game that was a pirate with stealth!) I found it interesting how he started with lines when creating a new character (similar to what I do) and that he keeps it loose, then with another layer goes over it with a cleaner line quality. He constantly goes back and forth flipping the image horizontal to make sure it reads correctly. Near the end of friday, I made it back to the career floor and decided to stop by some of the portfolio reviews that were only going on Friday (such as storm 8). I found it lucky that I ran into some artists who worked for Double Fine! They were really awesome who were students like me that I could easily connect with.

Conclusions

1.) Always be positive and talk to people! EVERYWHERE

    - I found most of my connections with people in lines. I found that I was able to stop people from companies I was interested in, find fellow artists from all ages that gave me lots of advice (especially as a student about to get out into the real world) and artists who were like me but worked at big companies. Being happy and smiling helped a lot as well because the reviewers have to sit there and look at art ALL DAY. Making them laugh helped the whole situation. :)

2.) ASK QUESTIONS

    - Lots of times I found when I asked the reviewers how I could improve or what they meant when they said something, helped them become more engaged in my work that also lead to more insightful feedback. They can see all your problems so if you point out that you are aware of them and tell them how you plan on attacking them, it helps them realize that you can problem solve and that as an artist, you see your faults and are willing to work on them. As a student, you really just have to kick some of your pride to the side 

3.) Visit as many companies as you can

    - The more companies I visited, the more of an understanding I had of where I would fit in, and what logical options I had of getting an internship. Sometimes, the smaller companies were much more interested in taking on interns than companies like Riot, or Microsoft.

4.) PARTIES are important!

    - Though I didn't go to many of the bigger parties, I did find that meeting anyone at any party was definitely special. I got to meet someone who worked on Chivalry and some artists from Moonbot at the Ringling party as well as someone from EA. I managed to snag lots more contacts meeting people face to face outside of GDC.

5.) BE PREPARED

    - SO many kids came to GDC without the proper presentation or it looked sloppy. As Ringling kids, we were much better off presentation wise but also I found making sure to pack things like food, hand sanitizer, and a cleaner for your tablet screen was SUPER helpful. I cleaned a lot of screens, even for strangers :D . 

All in all, great experience and if I were to go again, though the talks were SUPER helpful, the money was too much and I went to so few of them it wasn't worth it. I wouldn't get a main conference pass again and opt for an expo pass instead.

TALKS

Negative Space and Level Design (EPIC GAMES)

"The importance of nothing"

- Facing Worlds most popular map - using what isn't there.

- eiffel tower / pantheon structures use negative space which is used as a ref. to create Facing Worlds

- Simple shapes help you make decisions in game - split second, that's all it takes

- Decision is key and you want to make sure the gamers will see your design

- Simplicity and clarity are key

- When objects are similar our brain will not be able to tell the difference

- How much information is lost with an overflow of "things"

Plants VS Zombies talk - Mark Barrett

"The designing of PLV 2"

-Plants VZ 2 started out in concept on a farm - wanted to create seasons

- Designed out zombie tractors

- Wasn't working as good so wanted to break down basic design to discover the core design - what stands out!

- re-designed sunflower, pea-shooter, and walnut (they really create the game)

- Time travel concept explored

- Started with a farm, that lead to world destinations, that lead to time travel

- Time travel worked really well

- Zombie design stayed the same (the core design worked perfectly fine) just gave him a bigger head and brightened up the colors

- Less is more! Kept the original just themed it!

Key Elements

- Figure out core elements of game

-Optimize for platform working on

- Choose the right theme - don't get attached!