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Post date: Mar 16, 2015 2:14:21 AM
This was my very first time attending GDC. I went with a basic Expo pass so I could attend the expo and career floors. Overall I kept open expectations and prepared myself for what I knew would be an amazing experience. At the beginning of the first day I was extremely nervous, and I felt very out of place on the career floor. However after standing in lines, meeting people in lines, and getting some amazing portfolio feedback I felt confident in my ability to network and get the most out of GDC. By the end of the week everything felt natural and I didn’t want to leave, but overall 3 things stood out to me.
Networking
Nowhere else can you find so many devs and cool industry people to meet. Being from way over here in florida this was really my first opportunity to see what the people in this industry are like.
Being able to strike up a conversation with literally anyone around you was a lot like playing the lottery. You could meet anyone, from a fellow student or artist to leading professionals in big name companies. Either way, presenting yourself professionally and finding the courage to just walk around and say hi to people will open doors for you at GDC.
Another thing everyone at GDC will tell you and turns out to be 100% true is that no matter how much you do in the actual convention, the parties afterwards are the best opportunities to meet people. I attended several of the larger hosted parties, and met some really talented artists, and some big names in the industry. At the unreal party I found asking a friend to walk around with you when approaching people makes things alot easier. Finding a “wingman” is a very successful method if you are not brave enough to say hi to a group of strangers, or able to keep a casual conversation moving. I spent time with Both Lizzie and Hugo during the unreal party doing this, and we were able to exchange a lot of Business cards to stay in touch with people.
Lastly it doesn't matter where you are, chances are high that someone near you is also somehow affiliated with GDC. Whether I was walking around San Francisco, or even on my flights home, I would say hi to people and sure enough they were game Dev’s or game company representatives and so on. So I would say to anyone else that Just because you are traveling to or back from GDC doesn't mean networking is over! And even if you’re exploring the city while at the conference, stay sharp and say hi to people!
Talks
With an expo pass I was unable to attend many of the talks I wanted to, But I thoroughly enjoyed several smaller ones. Including the “killer portfolio and Portfolio killers part 1 and 2”
and Greatness Awaits the Play Station University Internship Program.
Presented by Anita Stokes, Leesa dreo, Shayla Villa the Sony talk was all about their internship programs at the 3 major american studios, Santa Monica, San diego and San Mateo. It was very informative to hear about the programs they offer. From the hundreds of students that apply they accept only a handful. with this internship program students are placed in with teams of devs and work on whatever that team has been tackling. So for 12 weeks you help build an existing game.
This discussion also talked about how to apply. Applications should be tailored to the studio you want to work for and for the position you want. They also talked about several things I have already heard here at ringling/ from career services. like tailoring my cover letter, they also placed an emphasis on saying something unique about why you want to work for sony. \
Before the talk i did not know about the Sony internship programs, But now that I have the information I will definitely be applying for a Santa monica internship next summer!
portfolio review
I learned the most about improving my portfolio at GDC by far. Here is a list of some of the people I spoke with for portfolio review and what feedback I was able to take away from them.
Creative Assembly - Spoke with HR rep and Lead artist
Seemed to like that I included a character even though I want to focus on environments
Wanted to see my Modular kit fleshed out into a fully polished environment
Expressed how much they liked to see my DFA work. and showing illustrations of functionality/ articulation of my hero prop
Nick Reynolds - lead Environment artist at Sony
Gave me very good feedback on other/better ways to display my modkit in my portfolio. How to better display the materials and texture treatment. (using texture spheres instead of flat images of material treatment)
Feed back that my boss character needed another pass on foliage.
Stated he liked my modkit the most
Maggie bohlen - High Voltage
Commented on how much she liked to see my DFA work/ process into finished 3d pieces
positive feedback on my workshop looking exactly like my DFA isometric map.
Spoke with her about internships, High voltage unfortunately doesn't offer any.
David Lam - Bioware External Art Director
I met Mr. Lam in passing while I was standing in line to get a portfolio review from Wargames.
gave honest critique and didn’t hold back
commented boss looked top heavy, I suggested more foliage and vines to make his middle look thicker, he agreed.
suggested changing boss pose to look like he is dragging his weight
expressed seeing mod kit as full polished environment
pointed out some hard edges in mod kit, discussed more wear and tear to hide it. wants more rubble to show age
Commented on how much he liked my biome. and complemented lighting choice/ colors.
Then suggested addressing direction of focus, lighting and color should be more intense in areas players should be focused the most
Greg Killion - creative Director Nexon
was enthusiastic about my work
commented on how nice it was to see DFA work
made a great suggestion of taking one small area or alley of modkit and fully fleshing it out as an environment
Liked boss, but kept wanting to see closeups and really fine detail
stated he like my workshop the best. discussed navigable space and said the scale felt natural and the composition was appealing.
had a very positive and lengthy discussion about refining workshop. talked about functionality and how like a submarine every inch of space is used for something.
Wyeth Johnson - Epic Games
commented in a talk before portfolio review that he did not want to see characters in environment artists portfolios. So i scrambled to take mine out before speaking 1 on 1 with him.
Received positive feedback and a lot of notes about overall attention to detail with my compositions and set dressing.
Commented that my modkit felt halfway between Stylized and realism. We discussed several ways to make it more visually sophisticated.
Discussed working on lighting for mod kit
Some other stuff:
Alot of the smaller studio/ indie dev booths were very interesting. Like the big companies it was really cool to play game demo’s and be able to talk to the creators right next to you. I don’t normally play sports games but Super Slam Dunk touchdown caught my eye.
Intuos’ booth was showing off a lot of really cool tech. Including the newest cintiq models, Which everyone was clearly drooling over. It was a lot of fun to test out, and I really like to moveable remote on the side with all of the short key buttons. They even had a guest artist doing a speed sculpt in Zbrush while I was there, So I watched him sculpt for a while before I had to move on.
Some amazing 3d printed characters at the Sandboxr booth. Seeing a lot of tech companies like Sandboxr and even SpaceX was a very unique aspect of GDC. If you talked to the right people you could also get a free 3d printed model of Smite characters!
A big piece of advice I would stress is saving a local company of your portfolio to whatever device you are carrying around. I saw several people run into WiFi problems right before portfolio reviews. . .
I’m gonna start working to save up money because I cant wait to go back next year!!
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