GDC Observations 2015

Post date: Mar 20, 2015 12:48:6 PM

            On Tuesday, I managed to get into a talk about the level design of Firewatch. The devs talked a lot about their process, how they got started, and how they realized they messed up in the end. What I really took away from that in the end was that it’s good to have a base (e.g. a Metroidvania play style) for your work, but if you force yourself to stick to the formula, your idea won’t have time to breathe.

            Wednesday I went to a talk on the UE4 tech demo from this recent year. In about 4 months, a team of 13 people managed to build a 100sqmi environment entirely out of mesh. The presentation was mostly geared around their process and techniques for getting it done across international lines, wifi connections, and inventing new techniques. A lot of the photogrammetry they showed was neat, and the fact that Epic wants to eliminate the low-poly step entirely makes me realize that tech is growing more powerful in this industry by the second, and we need to step up to learn how to deal with it.

            On a portfolio level, between Wednesday and Thursday I managed to get quite a lot of advice on that level. One major point of feedback I got was that I need to match the style of whomever I’m applying to. That may seem obvious, but they weren’t just talking about stylized vs. realistic—an environment artist from Sony Santa Monica told me that if I want to work for them, I have to figure out how to sculpt my own textures.

            Another piece of feedback I received had to do with my portfolio itself. The recruiter at High Voltage seemed to think I was a stronger character artist than environment artist. A lot of my 2D visual development work from DFA was simply overlooked. I realized I need to gear my portfolio more towards environments to make it abundantly clear what I want to do for a living.

            Finally, one of my biggest revelations came from talking to a man named Travis, an executive producer at Digital Domain games. A few Ringling students and I had a 45 minute conversation with him, in which he was incredibly kind to spend the entire time giving us advice. This is what he said:

-gameplay: action = intent –

Game people move in flocks because they know each other so well

-we're asked to do the impossible on a project-to-project basis so might as well do it with someone you know well and whose workflow you understand. unknowns are unwelcome.

 -always talk and share advice with everyone, you never know who is going to end up doing what -for example he gave advice to the founders of Infinity Ward/Bioware -basically pay it forward –

Game artists understand low poly -cinematics do good for what they need, but don't understand game needs--he ran into that a lot in his management positions so that's why he likes game artists in VR

 -don't fool yourself into thinking you won't fall into the same pitfalls as everyone else -YOU WILL -failure is A-OK which you already know

 -Difference between FPS and VR is that you take the environment for granted in an FPS -when placed in VR environment, you're forced to examine it, while FPS focuses on gameplay

-Why is VR important? -For the first time you can go places you've never been before in impossible ways -EG superman through the grand canyon

-in an interview, if you can't answer "why is ____ game fun" then u no have job bye bye -same with 'why is it pretty'