Izel Moctezuma's take on... GDC 2018

Post date: Apr 05, 2018 3:23:7 AM

Personally, the thought of going to GDC filled me with anxiety. The thought of networking, of putting my work out there and being judged not only by my peers and professors but by industry professionals, kept me up at night. Despite this, I pushed myself to go, and it was a great decision. Going to GDC snapped my increasingly jaded outlook back into perspective and rekindled my passion for my work. The following are my three main takeaways:

First of all, the game industry is so much more than triple A companies. Being in the Ringling bubble, where the curriculum is primarily designed to train realistic environment artists fit for a triple A company and the faculty is mostly from the triple A side of things, really skews your view on the makeup of the industry itself. Subconsciously, success is defined as who can get the highest-paying, highest-profile job, but GDC changed that. The indie scene was thriving and even smaller double A game companies were represented and doing really cool things. It kind of made me realize that triple A games are only a tiny subsection of the whole games industry (albeit the most vocal because they have the most marketing money.) Success isn’t about how well known the titles you work on are, but about doing what you love and making cool, entertaining games.

Second of all, the games industry is immensely diverse. Games in general have a reputation for being straight, white, male dominated and my experiences in the community have been both good and not that great. I was concerned that there would be a lot of toxicity to put up with in my career, and although I’m sure there’s always some of it present, the vibe at GDC was overwhelmingly positive and welcoming. I don’t think I could be put as at ease as I was if I hadn’t gone and stood there amidst the crowds and met all these incredible people. Now I’m certain that there is a space for me in the industry, which takes a nice load off my shoulders.

Lastly, I learned that most of the advice given to me prior to GDC didn’t apply to me at all. It was helpful in a meta sort of way, but in my opinion your strategy really depends on what you’re good at and how you function in social situations. Although I was told the expo floor was the place to be to meet people, what I found to be much more effective was going to roundtables where you can have actual, real conversations with people who already have a basic interest in common with you. Approaching them after the talks and keeping the conversation going one-on-one was a good way to establish relationships that later naturally segued into interest in each others’ work. On the expo floor, the people at the booths are on the clock trying to share/sell you their product so they aren’t that interested in seeing what you have to give unless it’s extremely relevant to their immediate work. At parties, the atmosphere tends to be too loud and rowdy to have any memorable conversations of decent length. Roundtables provide the perfect environment to make connections, at least for my style of networking. Going forward my advice would be: don’t stress about doing the “right” thing, do whatever works best for you.