GDC 2016 - Teddy Mundy

Post date: Mar 22, 2016 6:11:6 AM

This was my first year at GDC and it was an awesome experience! I had the Main Conference pass and I really got a lot of use out of it. A lot of the talks I went to were really good, and some others led to awesome contacts being made!

On the first day, I registered early in the morning and went to the Expo floor to see the sights. I tried stopping by Oculus and PSVR, but both were full to capacity, so I wandered elsewhere, occasionally stopping to ask different booths about their products. The first talk I went to was for how Simplygon can make optimization really easy and efficient, even reoptiminzing things as they get checked in to source control. Very cool! After that, I had a conversation with Gunfire Games exhibitioners, one of the companies I cold called for internships. Their game has an interesting use of VR, in that the user is a third person static camera on a level where they control a character! After that, I went to a talk by Jane Ng about the art of Firewatch, which was really interesting to see, especially understanding how they went from initial concept to final design, and understanding how they drop ‘fun breadcrumbs’ to keep the player interested while walking around. After that was a talk from devs of Fallout 4, who talked about their modular level design. The solutions they use to make their kits more versatile is very interesting, and I’m glad to have learned the concepts from it!

LESSON LEARNED FROM DAY ONE: BE MORE BOLD WHEN SEEING PEOPLE WHO WORK AT PLACES YOU LIKE.

I saw a lot of people throughout the convention who worked at places I had applied to, or places that I really liked in general. However, my nerves got to me, and I probably missed several good networking opportunities on my first day, and some on the following days. I'll try and do it better next year.

Day two was one part more talks, and one part awesome networking. The first talk I went to went over the choices developers behind the new Mirror’s Edge made when illuminating their world. It was very interesting to see the choices they made, although it wasn’t through UE4’s lens. After that, I went to the Art Leadership Roundtable, which was really cool, for a couple of reasons. Namely, I met the art director for Firaxis, the developers behind XCOM and Civilization. It was great to have a really lengthy conversation with him and get to know him well, and the talk was really informative and fun! After that, I went to the Boss Key talk, about standing up to AAA companies as a startup. The Boss Key presenters were energetic and funny to listen to, and also very informative, especially with how they place a lot of their strength in agile decision making. Finally, Cyan (the developers behind Myst) explained a lot of the tools they used to make their development easier. Later on, I went to the Boss Key mixer (thanks for letting me know about it, Zaq!) where I met some of the devs from Psyonix, and it was awesome hanging out with them!

LESSON LEARNED FROM DAY TWO: NETWORKING DOES NOT HAPPEN AT TALKS. IT HAPPENS IN LINES, AT ROUNDTABLES, AND AT MIXERS.

Almost every significant contact I made at GDC was made at either a mixer / party or at one of the roundtables I went to. However, nobody really talks ( or networks! ) at talks, and so while they're useful, they're not the best for expanding your network. Luckily, though, I made the right choice by luck!

Last day was portfolio extravaganza. Before that, though, I went to the third day of the Art Leadership talks. I talked to the art director of Firaxis again, and met one of the directors below him. The talk was really enjoyable, and even had a portion at the end where I could meet some of the people who were at the talk. After that, though, I went to the career floor, and got my portfolio review by a couple different groups, namely Tripwire, Wild Card, and High Voltage. Each provided their own insights, and were very helpful in their own regard. I need more prop work in my portfolio!

LESSON LEARNED FROM DAY 3: KNOW YOUR SCHEDULE

I thought that the last day of GDC ran all day, as in all the way to 6- I was very wrong in this regard. As soon as 3 hit, the workers piled in and started literally tearing down the career floor, where I was trying to get portfolio reviews. I barely was able to get one with High Voltage, and was not able to get one with Avalanche at all. I should tackle important tasks like these earlier on, definitely.

All in all, it was an incredible experience. I had many other small, cool experiences at GDC than written here, and I hope to go there again next year and experience more!