Katelyn Johnson : GDC 2018

Post date: Apr 06, 2018 3:16:25 AM

Arriving in San Francisco late Tuesday night I completely passed out. Woke up the next day to get to the convention center early for GDC. If I had to describe GDC in one word it would be overwhelming. I walked in having a list in my mind of what I wanted to see and look into but I went completely blank. Taking a few laps around the conference center honestly was the best thing to get a overall view of what was going on and I found myself meeting more people that way. Instead of going around just handing out cards simply talking to people was fulling. Learning about what everyone else was doing was more important to me because I have felt behind in games or disconnected.

Day one at the conference after walking around and playing a few games I had one must do, had to make my way over to the Insomniac booth. Prior to GDC accepting a internship with Insomniac Games made GDC less stressful. I was asked to meet up with Kerri from HR and meet some of my future co-workers. Sat down had a coffee and just chatted up about GDC, North Carolina, and Insomniac. It was great to finally put a face to a name and broke that nervous wall I had after getting the internship. I knew at least now I would know a few people now along with alumni who currently work there now.

Even with the Expo Plus pass I found myself able to attend plenty of talks. However I would like to attend ones that require a higher pass but maybe next year. Regardless the talk that I felt the most impact from was presented by Oculus “Embodying Identity through Immersive Design.” The panel had 4 speakers, Ruth Bram (Producer, Oculus studios), Jenny Huang (Sr. Deve. Director, Sanzaru), Jessa Brezinski (Product Manager, Harmonix), and Chloe Skew (Producer, Turtle Rock Studios). Walking in I was excited to hear from a panel of all women because even though the industry is evolving the diversity is limited. Covering the creation of an awareness of information quality and inclusive design in games. These women have all made major moves in influencing games making them better not only for the company but the players experience. For example in the game “Marvel Powers United VR” it’s important the player feels powerful and comfortable player any character from Captain Marvel to the Hulk. No matter the type of player you are being able to player any character without a fear you are not good enough to take on the challenge is important. You don’t want players to avoid characters, paths, and new challenges they should be encouraged. Overall it was inspiring to hear them all talk and bounce off each others experiences and how they would tackle them.

Another talk that had a impact was the Breaking Through: Psychosis and the Making of 'Hellblade'. Which I have to say after attending that talk the game itself was undersold. It is a very in depth piece of art. Must I say I attended this talk randomly due the fact I tried to attend another but completely missed the fact I needed different passes to enter. Dominic Matthews, and Tameem Antoniades were the speakers coming from Ninja Theory, here to explain the mental health themes in Hellblade along with the sacrifices made as a small creative team. The talk also reflected on using tools to the best of the ability that you can with limited resources. If certain cases to capture the audio of voices in your head they had a special mic that would record the closest thing to that. Along with only using one camera for all cinematic shots because it was cheaper. Not to mention that the motion capture studio they created in a empty workroom with IKEA furniture supporting the lights and extra microphones. Aside from all the tricks they pulled off the passion behind the project was incredible. Yes many companies have passion but Ninja Theory had a mission to express mental health issues in a very creative way. Hiring a expert on the conditions people have with metal health to fully create a true experience was above and beyond. They even donated over $62,000 to a mental health organization after release. Overall fascinated techniques like using live action….I repeat live action in a modern day game. Not making any joke because that used to be what we had but nobody could even tell it was live action. Using some serious material tricks along with post process they were able to create that effect. Overall I took away from that talk was that yes you do need money but not a AAA value to make something great. Using tricks and like we all do fake the reality we want to create is can have a lot of power.

Aside from all the talks I found myself in a place where I felt inspired but also completely out of the what's going on around me in the game industry. When I ventured by the substance booth I was able to attend some of the demos seeing the new painter look which has been mentioned by a few students. But I was happy to see the program to be developing further. Also with Unreal and all of the demos, we have been told many times by teachers why Unreal 4 is great for our school to use. I was reminded of that because Epic is so open compared to other engines. If you have a issue chances are many others have too and you can search it. This is a rare thing you can’t just find anywhere and they proved how much more sharing they are at GDC. With all of the tech demos and talks explaining in depth process to how they do what they do. What freaked me out beyond belief was the character talk capturing real time of a person and putting her in 3D using motion capture.

Overall at the end of GDC I was out of cards and completely exhausted. Definitely got a solid reminder I need to push my work and how excited I am to work in such a ever changing industry. Meeting everyone that did lead to some future possibilities that I hope to work with. If anything I learned to be more open to future ideas because there is so much going on in games it’s easy to get lost in your own little bubble. I can’t wait to attend next year with the lessons that I have learned from this one and would encourage future juniors to attend to get that first experience out of the way with because most things is better the second time around when it comes to experience.