Peyton Varney's GDC EXPERIENCE

Post date: Mar 17, 2017 2:3:47 AM

Attending GDC for the first time was an amazing opportunity and experience that has helped my understanding of what the Industry is really like. Between seeing all the new stuff coming out or meeting and making friends, I would say that my time at GDC was well spent. I wanted to go in just intending to make connections and talk about the work and programs that we share our love for. When I first got to the conference, I found it to be quite overwhelming. People tell you what to expect but the energy and excitement that is there can not be described. 

    Arriving on Tuesday afternoon, I was able to make it to the GitHub mixer that night. I would say it was a good choice to go because it was like a warm up for what I would experience the next day. I was able to catch up with Ringling alumni there and also meet a couple of other people. The casual atmosphere allowed for easy mingling and networking. 

    Wednesday morning we woke up early and got to the conference to get our badges before it opened. I would say one of the things I especially noticed this morning that continued to happen all through the week was the frequency of running into developers all through the city. Every morning you would be getting breakfast and the tables around you are full of big name companies and developers that are doing the same thing as you. The casualness of the entire event was intriguing. Once the doors opened to the convention halls the initial impact of walking in of course was overwhelming. I figured the best thing to do would be to walk around and figure out where everything was so I wouldn't miss any opportunities. Of course VR was once again one of the main subjects of GDC so I tried out Epic's Robo Recall at the Oculus booth. This experience was where I realized that a lot of networking actually occurred in line waiting for things because everyone is waiting for the same thing and typically are bored. I ended up meeting Nassim Ait-Kaci whom is one of the Sound Designers at Sony Santa Monica. I found out that there studio does sound for a multitude of their divisions like Naughty Dog and Guerrilla games. It was interesting meeting with someone not on the art side because we talked about the importance of sound design in games and how he creates those experiences and tones for the player that impact you unknowingly and also help lead the character on the path. I was able to meet quite a few people on the first day an was happy with how casual the industry was and then end it with joining Ringling Alumni at the Ringling Mixer which was great being able to meet people that graduated previously.

    Thursday was another fun and plan filled day. Started it off in the main floor again attending multiple Allegorithmic and Epic games talks. Was able to meet almost everyone working at the Substance booth which was a mixture between people from Allegorithmic and Epic. Bradford Smith (Ringling Alumni) previously worked on Uncharted 4 and now is with the texture team at Epic Games. He had some really good talks on creating materials and the thinking process of how he makes them. Josh Lynch, Wes McDermott, and Harrison Moore also gave some really good feedback on the material process. Harrison actually was able to give me a portfolio review for a little bit and was very helpful in understanding what they would like to see. I was supposed to have a phone interview about an internship but instead Wednesday afternoon I had an in person interview with Jason Hickey which is the Lead Environment Artist at Insomniac. Being able to actually meet with him was a very nice experience and have an hour or so interview where he asked questions and reviewed my work was an awesome opportunity. I was able to ask questions about Insomniac and also the industry which was really good insight on what kind of community that we are entering. His backgrounds included Ryse, Sony Entertainment Europe, and Frontier, so his knowledge and advice on the industry was very helpful. He explained the workflows and process at each company and how they went about doing things and how someone like me may go about their daily activities. The collaboration that he continually went back and talked about at each place is the core to every great company. I think that is something great that we have here at Ringling, which is the amount of talent that we are surrounded with and the fact we are all so eager to help each other succeed is one of my favorite parts. The night also went really well as I and a group of friends were able to somehow get into the Xbox mixer for Xbox partners only. This mixer was interesting because everything was so casual and everyone was super friendly. Instantly you were able to network with people and make friends. I was able to meet a couple of Indie game founders and plenty of developers from the industry that I have now followed up with through Linkedin or email to keep the connection. 

    Friday was a day of wrapping up any demos or talks that I missed throughout the week and also going to the Killer Portfolio Review. Some of the notable things that I got out of the last day was I visited the Amazon Lumberyard booth. They were pitching hard and had all kinds of tech that they were pushing people with. They seemed to have invested a lot of money into the engine and continue to back it so I suggest looking for them on the horizon. Although Unreal is far superior I would say that they are going to be pushing Epic soon with competition. It is basically CryEngine but with a simple interface and improved capabilities. At the Killer Portfolio review I was able to get a review from Ringling Alumni Shawn Robertson, which was an Art Director at Irrational games with Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite. He talked about his roles and how he looks at a portfolio now if he were to be hiring. He gave really good feedback on my environments and stressed that research was one of the most important things when going into a project. A really surprising thing that I didn't even think about but he said the most useful asset in all of Bioshock Infinite and what really helped sell the environment and mood was the fog and clouds. That was the most important thing that they used over and over to perfect the environments. It made me think about how I may be missing opportunities with my environments because I know modeling and materials and all but I am not super experienced with post process settings and some of the atmospheric settings.

    In conclusion GDC 2017 was an amazing opportunity and experience for me and I have been able to meet a lot of new friends and connections for the future. Knowing more about the industry has gotten me excited about what all we are doing here and has made me appreciate what I have learned the past two years.