Tours and Insightful Notes

Post date: Apr 26, 2013 2:54:32 PM

I went with Dahye, Caitlin, and Erin to visit Sifteo and Fingerprint Play.

Sifteo was an interesting studio. It was in a brick warehouse looking building. The first floor looked completely industrial, but as we walked up stairs and into the hallway, it started to look more like a studio. Their actual office had a industrial shell, but the studio looked very homey. Everyone's table were laid out in the center of the room. Computers, tablets, books, games, and machine parts everywhere! They constructed their own sifteo cubes right in the office.

We were able to play with a few cubes, and it was very surprising to hear what they had accomplished on their own! They rigged up speakers to work with the cubes. They had little memory to work with, but were still able to produce innovative game mechanics. What I really liked was the game that play like Zelda. It was called "Sandwich Kingdom".

Depending on where and when you place a cube next to the currently active cube, it would determine where your hero would move to next. Or sometimes it was part of the puzzle to figure out where the soldier SHOULD go next. It was a very cute game.

They had another game called, "Tower No Tumble".

And this one was very interesting, because it was a completely interactive game. Your whole body was involved in this game. Since the cubes are reasonably durable, you can throw, push, and crash the cubes at each other to play this game. I thought that was amazing, because a game that has a monitor and an actually game playing on it was a very different thing than what I've seen before. You had bop-it and simon says for your interactive physical gaming, but it was all external. This sifteo game provided the physical interaction and a internal gaming/feedback that enhances the reason for playing. Their style may be limited due the amount of memory these things can handle, but it was still appealing and had fun gameplay. 

They said that they have plans for bigger games, and with the success they have been having, maybe a bigger memory storage. I am excited for this. I foresee a pokemon battle. Since the cubes interact with each other through Bluetooth I think. What is very proactive of them was that they have already provided a SDK for their cubes, so it has brought alot of curious developers to make interesting games for them.

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Next up was FingerPrint Play, and they had the cutest office. It was very clean, neat, and full of cute posters of all the games they have made. What was a huge shocker for all of us what that they all used laptops ONLY. There were no computers. Only the programmer had a monitor. But the rest of the studio worked on laptops. CRAZY! We got to speak to their game designer & programmer. Carlos, the game designers, showed us his game design docs that he created. I forgot what program he used, but he was very meticulous and thorough with his design. Everything not only described what was suppose to happen in the game, but it also LOOKED good. He used this to present to the clients, and it had to look appealing aswell as sound fun. He said he liked to keep all the designs on one page. It was a LARGE page, but it was just ONE page. It was easier to find out what affected what, and what would happen next if it was all on one page. And it helped the artists and programmers of the studio to know how their part contributed to the next person when they saw the entire thing on one page.

He was very interested in us, and ask us alot of questions. It was nice and scary to meet somebody that seemed "genuinely" interested in us as people. hahaha. The goal of the studio seemed to be very focused on pleasing their child audience, while pleasing the parents with their online child safety features. They seem to have made a social network for children, while keeping it completely safe and fun. A child can download the game, create an account, but they can't use their real name. They would have to choose a name from the selection.

What I found interesting about BOTH the studios was that they agreed that a multi-skilled artist is the most useful. I suppose it is because they are both small studios. They said that you are bound to be more successful if you learned how to do more than thing. Like learning animation, programming, 2D, etc. I felt that they both wanted somebody who was more of an artist & programmer than anything else. Which was the general feeling I got from GDC. Maybe programming is the future for an artist.

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I also participated as a booth helper for Ringling's GDC booth. And I'll just list what I learned while being a helper and as a expo pass attendee:

It is a great idea to leave business cards at the table of Ringling's Booth! I was able to promote any of the artists that people were interested in after watching the GDC Reel.

People really like "Tech Artists" or Artists with programming knowledge. Not only are they extremely useful to small studios, but it helps them be able to work with the programmers better.

When people say they are going to send you and art test......they might be lying. :(

The important thing about GDC is not to give out YOUR card, but to GET THEIR CARD. The likelihood of them getting in contact with you is slim. It is pretty much your job to get in contact with them after GDC. So get their card. 

Visit as many booths as possible. You never know what kind of great advice or contacts you'll make that way. 

GDC doesn't like expo pass people. They didn't want to give me a booklet on the events, we aren't allowed to get the swag bag, and they didn't let me get a free tshirt at first.

Don't buy food at the conference. It is expensive.

Don't trust an asian man who is supposedly the head chef and the owner of the restuarant. ESPECIALLY when he tells you "Trust Me."

Eat lots of vitamin C. You have a high chance of getting sick after being in San Fran.

The portfolio review on students day is USEFUL! I got lots of good feedback, and that is where I meet my Firaxis contact. He was my portfolio reviewer.

Visiting studio while in San Francisco is a great opportunity.

Thats all...for now...

- Esther Love