Second Time Around at GDC

Post date: Mar 27, 2014 10:51:40 PM

Similar to GDC last year, I purchased a main conference pass because I felt the knowledge you gain from the talks is incredibly valuable; every year I have been wowed by what the people working in the game industry have to share with us.  This year was a lot more successful for me though because I didn't let my shyness get in the way.  It was terrifying to be the only sophomore at GDC last year, but it was so worth it!  I still pushed myself to stay strong, and as a result, was very confident and talkative this time around.  I made so many connections!  I approached fellow attendees, speakers after they finished their presentation, did as many portfolio reviews as possible, and made connections at the Blizzard Mixer!  I couldn't be happier about my GDC experience this year!

The three things I want to talk about are Taro Yoko's Making Weird Games for Weird People talk, Arnold Tsang's Character Design Across Multiple Game Genres talk/demo, and Luis Antonio's Art of the Witness talk.

Taro's talk really touched me because it ultimately ended up becoming a very personal talk about why he went into games, what he wanted to accomplish, what he didn't get to accomplish, and what he hopes we can accomplish in his stead.  He said he wanted to make games that touched people- games that made the player sympathize, feel pain, or happiness for the characters.  That was the same exact reason I went into games, so it was a really touching experience.

Arnold's character demo was amazing!  I loved how energetic and interactive the experience was.  I drew characters ever since I was little, but since coming to school environments became the new focus.  This past year I started to realize I still really wanted to do characters, so seeing Arnold's demo confirmed to me that that was what I desired to do with my life.  Yes, I'll still be realistic about my odds of getting a job like that... However, I'm going to continue working towards that dream because nothing could make me happier than designing characters for a living.

Last is the Art of Witness talk!  Ever since the game was announced, I've been  eagerly awaiting its release.  The art style is GORGEOUS!  Beauty factor aside though, it was also a very helpful talk.  Getting a stylized environment to look %100 cohesive can be very hard, different objects often have to be handled in various ways.  A good point he made was about his struggle with the shrubbery in the game.  It's easier to take away unimportant detail from larger things, but plants are so small that it's hard to know what to keep and get rid of.  Luis spoke about the iterations he went through and in the end, the most simple result was the most beautiful of them all.  Iteration and reference (especially Miyazaki) were what helped him get to such a gorgeous result!