Observation of GDC -TJ Mullins

Post date: Mar 24, 2016 8:44:24 AM

3 Unique Observations:

DO NOT BUY AN ALL ACCESS PASS!

    In my humble opinion it is not worth it. The are many industry talks. but these mostly apply to people who are already in the industry. I was expecting when I bout the ticket that the pitch words such as "BootCamp" and "WorkShop" were indicative of hands on learning. They were not. I enrolled in a Visual Development BootCamp with what looked like a superstar lineup of keynote speakers. One of which was Adam Morgia a Senior Art Director at Riot Games. His talk was about "What I Think I've learned." Most of this talk was just about his life experience, although intriguing, it was ultimately of little use for me. The day went on and on much the same as this, There was one talk from Maarten Van der Gaag about asset creation pipeline that did have some useful carry-over for the future. 

    Overall I spent money on the pass and hotel for two extra nights that I do not think really benefited me in any way, I should have listened to everyone who told me not to do it.

PLAY LOTS OF GAMES

    I played quite a few newer and emerging VR games. One of which caught my attention, and that was Damaged Core, a new Occulus VR game. I stood in line for an hour and a half to experience the majesty of Occulus for the first time and it was very cool! The game damaged Core had a great mechanic of what amounts basically to mind control. The player was a piece of free floating software that could just take over whatever was available, be it a camera or a soldier and use that body to fight. 

    This made me think of the feedback that I got from my first crit on my second idea pith in that it looked to sourced to ratchet and clank and I needed better mechanics. I was inspired to make a huge change in my idea to what it is now, which is that you play as a "space slug" that gives hugs to the backs of enemy heads and takes over their nervous system control to use them as their host. 

    I am thankful that I got to play so many new and emerging games. I think that this portion of the experience of GDC will stick with me for quite awhile.

HAVE A GREAT PORTFOLIO!

    The more that I presented what I put together for a portfolio, the more discouraged I got. There was a time that I was standing in line for a review and was just watching the interactions of the people who went before me. I saw business cards being passed and reviewers motioning someone for an iPad for people to put their information into. I was excited to get my turn. When I sat down it was a very different experience than what I witnessed. There were some good tips on how to improve and overall quality of work, I offered a card but it was not reciprocated. There was no iPad for me to input my information. This all sucked at the the time, but the more I thought about it the more I came to appreciate it for what it was, a "dry run" which pretty much sums up this whole first time GDC event for me. 

    I got to see a lot and learn even more. I am going to take all of the little critique pointers I got and apply them to the portfolio that I take next year where the stakes will be a bit higher in that I will be looking for a job instead of just an internship.