Peter Stein's GDC Experience

Post date: Mar 17, 2017 1:12:14 AM

This year’s GDC was the first that I have ever been to. I left Tuesday morning and arrived on the expo floor around 2:00pm in order to help set up the Ringling booth. Having that early-bird exhibitor-pass-chance to skulk around the expo floor without a crowd, I was able to suss out which companies were and were not hiring or looking for interns. A list was made to hit these booths as early as possible to avoid the lines. Doing this, I was able to notice just how many booths were on the virtual reality bandwagon. To be honest I was a little disappointed by this as I was hoping for a larger focus on plain pc/console gaming; even though I happen to work for a VR developer. Perhaps that’s why, I was looking to see what I wasn’t currently doing, even though it is encouraging to see that my work and the company I work for’s work will possibly have a future. This is important because it means that I am making the correct life choices and working towards the right kind of future.

Next is the Ringling booth. When I arrived there was still plenty of things in cardboard boxes and storage, yet Teddy and Jim were there setting up as fast as they could. There I noticed a comforting thing. Even though we are constantly told this, people in the industry really do have snafus happen often. There was no internet, and the tower that was brought had no wireless card. The computer needed an internet connection to download some drivers so that it could run something off of steam that Teddy needed in order to correctly run the Vive and therefore display his project. Jim was searching for solutions, when Teddy had the idea of tethering the computer to one of our phones. After about 15 more minutes of figuring out how we could do that without installing other drivers, we borrowed the special HTC to USB cable that my girlfriend happened to have in her purse and boom, we were connected. First crisis averted! The next problem was the TV needed to be tested to play .mp4 videos, and to make sure the speakers that were brought worked. Thankfully I had my external hard drive on me, so we hooked it up, me acting as a stand, while we troubleshooted the second speaker that just would not work. This last problem stumped us, as it was a bad amp cable. Anyway, so what? Why is this important? In this experience, I was an equal to everyone there. We were working as a team to solve problems as quickly, intelligently, and cheaply as we could. It reaffirms that I should be prepared and willing to help as much as possible in the future. (the image with my hand behind the TV is me holding the external drive hooked up to the TV while we play-test video footage)

The expo was not nearly as crowded as I would have expected. Based on pictures that I have seen online from GDC and other conferences like it (PAX/etc), I would have expected to have close to zero room to move. That being said there was still a large number of people there. What makes this interesting is that for the majority of my life I’ve been told that my piercings/hair are unprofessional and make me unapproachable, though even on Tuesday when people were setting up their booths they all seemed to remember who I was thanks to my unique appearance and style. Remembering who I was, the ice was already broken for a good handful of recruiters and industry folk that I would be talking with again later. To me this was an important observation because it means that I stand out, and if my work isn’t memorable at least my face is.

Still being Tuesday, I actually was able to get some face time with the remnants of one of my favorite developers of all time, Rare. ( known as Playtonic Games and Team17). I was able to talk to Andy Robinson (writer and comms director) and one of the other Team17 members for quite a bit while they were setting up the rest of their booth. (which was awesome!) We discussed what developing Yooka-Laylee in the Unity engine was like, and how the response has been from Banjo-Kazooie fans. Technical talk was minimal, as they weren’t the technical guys there, but they just mentioned getting it to “feel” right. What made this experience important to me was that I was surprised that they took the time out of their busy setup time to talk to a student like myself just because I was eyeing up their booth and nosed my way in. I was blown away with how friendly they all were, and because of this encouraging early interaction, it gave me the needed extra confidence to be able to expose my art and personality to those companies that would be reviewing portfolios in the following days. It showed me that not everyone in the industry smells of b.s, figuratively of course.

Then come the portfolio reviews and talks with recruiters. I applied to every booth that had an opening in a job that I would be interested in. Adia Entertainment, Rebellion, Wildcard, Hardsuit Labs, High Voltage, and I even found someone from Obsidian that was strolling around the floor that I at least gave my card to. Overall the reaction to my work was very positive. Most of the recruiters would ask questions as to how I made something, what tools, how long it took, etc. They all seemed very impressed by my knowledge of current tools, and the timetables in which I have been cranking certain works out. Of all of these, the companies that I would want to work for the most in order of yay to nay, would be Obsidian, Wildcard, and then Hardsuit Labs. The folks at Adia Entertainment, an outsourcing studio were the most excited about my work, but I really do not think moving to China would be a beneficial experience for myself. This whole experience was a complete eye opener to me. The first few reviews and talks I had I was nervous, more closed off, and cold/professional. Once I had been through a few I was very relaxed, almost as if I had been talking to these people for years and was just showing them another thing that I had made. What I got out of it was that I may be receiving some art tests, and that I should keep improving my art! Many recruiters are also in dire need of tech artists and programmers, as always.

A very unique experience that I had was with the main designer of one of the VR experiences at GDC called DinoTrek. Up to 2 people could sit in a roller-coaster style car, wear HMDs, and ride through experiences in virtual reality; being thrown around and moved through the environments as if they were really on a coaster. While I was in the restroom and my girlfriend was in the line for this ride, she had mentioned to the main designer that I was also a designer. When I arrived back in line, he approached me and asked for a harsh critique about the experience in order to make it feel better. Anything to make the game feel better overall. After being nauseous yet entertained, I gave my feedback about side to side unmotivated movement in VR, to over-exaggerate the animations of the dinosaurs more in order to feel more alive, and to implement more pause-at-the-cliff’s-edge events in order to instill more immersion. Upon finishing our discussion, he handed me his card and offered me a freelance job on the spot.

I would say the most impactful talk that I went to was from the Houdini booth. There, an entire demo of going from a simple cube tool in Houdini led to a completely controlled, yet procedurally generated level from pre-made modkit assets inside of Unreal Engine 4. The most impressive part about this was that he was placing pipes and cables into the world dynamically. The cables could then have a gravity force applied to them and have that information baked directly into the mesh so that it was no longer calculating that force. Better still, one could go back, alter the tool inside of Houdini and then update it in Unreal and the change would work on the previously baked asset. Better STILL, one could then grab an end of the cable or pipe and continue to alt-drag out the length to create more pipe/cable with procedural nodes and bits being created at controlled intervals along the way. What makes this important? The recently released Horizon for PS4 uses procedural technology in its environments, and it is already being heralded as one of the most artistic and beautiful games out there. Where do I go with this information? I want to attempt to create something soon with houdini or other procedural tech-art tools and see how believable of a space I can create with it. (maybe even find ways to expand upon it, layering it with Speedtree’s tools and/or instanced meshes inside of unreal for crazy optimization.)

Another designer I talked to were the fine folks at the 3dRudder controller booth. These people designed a disc shaped controller that one uses with their feet in order to move around in VR. This solves the movement conundrum in VR, at least for sitting applications, by giving motivated movement as opposed to control sticks...also known as nausea. This was a great interaction and observation for me because it is something that I was able to pass on to my boss, and we may pick up one for testing our own projects with. Many other products like this were at GDC this year, including many mocap solutions and face-grabbing camera tech. This is important because it shows how on top of things a person must stay in order to keep up with the cutting edge of what is going on in the industry.

Overall this experience was very educational and exciting. I cannot wait to return next year with, hopefully, a stronger portfolio and even more knowledge in order to impress recruiters again. Thank you for this opportunity!