GDC 2018

Post date: Apr 05, 2018 10:0:1 PM

GDC: basically a smack in the face to my own preconceived notions of the industry. What occured in this week was a mix of awesome tec, non-stop movement, and my first real experience networking with members of the industry.

Pretty much the first thing I think everyone who went to GDC this year noticed was the huge amount of VR booths and VR oriented tech. Even facebook had a booth, which I thought was Pretty unexpected but then again, Uber also had a booth. As it turns out Uber uses Unreal engine to render its graphics. Unusual but interesting. I think the real interesting tech stuff I got to experience was at the substance booth. At the booth, I got to talk with The CEO of algorithmic who was giving us a demo of the newly released version of substance painter. The thing that I was most interested in was the layout of substance painter had changed to be more user intuitive and it even looked a bit like photoshop.

As the week went on it was hard to tell what had happened which day since it was all going so fast. Often times we spent so much time networking that when we got back to the hostel, we just flat out passed out. I think it was either Tuesday or Wednesday that I attended a conference talk about standing up for your industry or something along those lines. To me that conference was memorable because it showed me how we as an industry are one of the biggest money makers in the economy, but are still treated like a problem by politicians. The talk also reminded me of how we as an industry must come together to fight the ignorances surrounding our industry be it from family or federal government. Sadly that was the only talk I had the pleasure of attending because I wanted to spend more time on the show floor.

Another big observation I noticed was how Ringling advertises its students work vs. other colleges. On my first night in san francisco, I had the pleasure of talking with some people from SCAD and eventually the next day, I stopped by their booth to check out the work. It was to my surprise that SCAD placed its own logo on the majority of the booths real estate and only kept its students and alumi’s work confined to semi large screens. I was a bit taken aback because Ringling has always been good at advertising the work of the students as a selling point, heck even our own booth was plastered in student work and only student work (not a mix of student and alumni work like SCAD). If anything, it kinda reaffirmed to me that we are being taught by teachers who want us to succeed base on our art.

Finally the big takeaway for me is the networking experience. I feel like I need to be better at it. While it’s true that I was able to make a few contacts and swap some business cards in that all too familiar American Psycho fashion. I feel like my own anxiety got the better of me when talking to a few recruiters. I felt like my introductions were awkward and that I tripped over my words a few times. Not to say that all of my interactions with people where bad, but this was a wake up call that I need to work on my networking skills. I suppose that only comes with time and practice. Which is why I look forward to my next GDC when I can go back and give it another crack.