Sebastian Mundo

Post date: Apr 06, 2018 4:19:33 AM

What

I went to GDC this year mostly to get portfolio reviews to see how my direction as a lighting artist has been going as well

So What

The GDC Expo this year felt incredibly underwhelming compared to last year. The Expo felt more like a consumer showcase for upcoming games and tech as opposed to last years more recruitment focused expo. Sony Epic games dominated the floor with 2 giant setups, one to showcase the popularity of their games, primarily Fortnite alongside the other games in their engine in a hedonist arena filled with all the major recently released and upcoming Unreal Engine games and another to showcase their new engine features alongside a VR showcase. Sony and microsoft both had their own section, Microsoft focusing on their new indie Azure service and Sony just showcasing their upcoming games and PSVR games. Unity had no presence in the expo floor this year, which was surprising as last year they had a spot right at the very entrance competing against Unreal next door. VR was a lot less gimmicky this year though, with a strong presence of new VR tech and peripherals that enhance existing experiences such as haptic vests that work on existing games.

The most beneficial experiences came from the few portfolio review events such as the Crystal Dynamics junior day event, which is potentially leading to a job opportunity as they were very interested in my work. The only places offering any form of recruitment or portfolio reviews were both Insomniac and Warner Brothers, but they were both fully booked since day 1. Aside from that I relied on getting portfolio reviews from people I met with a notable example being environment artists from Bluepoint Games.

What now

All of the impressions from my portfolio were very positive, with both environment and lighting artists telling me to pretty much continue with what i’m doing and try diversifying my environments a bit more while I continue to build up a lighting portfolio. I'm currently waiting for Crystal Dynamics recruitment to get back to me, as based on their impressions from the GDC Junior Day event they were very interested in my work. I'm also applying to new places based ont he feedback I received

Overall, if not for the many small developers I met at the Epic game lounge section of the main expo and those I got portfolio reviews from, I feel like this GDC would have been very underwhelming and a waste of time.