We needed a student's perspective for our GDC 2012 Breakfast Club article, so we contacted the Academy of Interactive Entertainment to see if they could get one of the studios from their Incubator program to contribute to our article. Instead, we received a whole bunch of responses, so we've decided compile them for this special Incubator edition of the GDC 2012 introspective!
The AIE games business incubator program was announced last year with the aim of turning games development students into entrepreneurs with the know-how to run their own games studio start-up. And what better way of inspiring these future developers than throwing them straight into the lion's den - The Games Developer Conference in San Francisco!
The GDC 2012 Incubators are:
Chloe Parton, BigSwing Studio - BigSwing Studio website
David Dawson, Floating Man Games - Floating Man Games website
Daniel La Rocca, Evoke Method - Evoke Method website
Gonzalo Araya, Red Knight Games - Red Knight Games website
Alanna Mondon, Pear and Melons - Pear and Melons website
Raymund Serrano, Couch Pixels - Couch Pixels website
Finn Spencer, Evil Aliens - Evil Aliens website
How many times have you been to the GDC?
(Chloe Parton, BigSwing Studio): This was our first time at GDC and it was a great experience. We are looking forward to coming back next year!
(David Dawson, Floating Man Games): Having just graduated from college, this has been the first year we've had the oppurtunity to attend.
(Daniel La Rocca, Evoke Method): This was our very first GDC, but after experiencing this one we are definitely and seriously considering going again for 2013, not even the Mayans will stop us.
(Gonzalo Araya, Red Knight Games): GDC 2012 was Red Knight Games' first GDC experience.
(Alanna Mondon, Pear and Melons): Last week brought our count to 1.
(Raymund Serrano, Couch Pixels): For most of us Couch Pixels, it was the popping of the GDC cherry. Unfortunately we left one Pixel behind, but that was more due to bad timing rather than a fear of anything.
(Finn Spencer, Evil Aliens): This was my first time attending GDC, however I was always aware that GDC existed I just did not have the cash spare to just jump on a plane and attend the conference. However my school AIE is running this programme called “Incubator” in which they help the start up process of new emerging independent games companies and fund the trip for us to go to GDC.
What was your main purpose for going?
(Chloe Parton, BigSwing Studio): We were looking to make some new contacts and introduce ourselves to the gaming industry as a new start-up indie company. Also learning tips and useful advice from the many talks and presentations that were available.
(David Dawson, Floating Man Games): We're a small indie team just starting up so our main goals were to see how the rest of the industry works and try to learn from them, as well as make contacts and get ideas and feedback on the first title we're working on. Looking back on last week, it seems we met our goals.
(Daniel La Rocca, Evoke Method): We initially went to test our game on the people we met, but we quickly ditched that goal because it was just much fun making more contacts.
Our other goal was to learn as much as possible from all the talks, and combined, i think we got about 40-something pages of notes, all of it apocalyptically helpful.
(Gonzalo Araya, Red Knight Games): To get out there and let people know that we exist and what our design goals are, but other than networking like madmen we just really wanted to learn and soak up as much knowledge as we could from all these established industry pros.
Since we had never been to GDC before, we worked off what we were given by the AIE (Academy of Interactive Entertainment). We planned out our days, looking at what summits, tutorials, and talks we wanted to attend, this included just talking to game developers around the event and at after drinks.
(Alanna Mondon, Pear and Melons): Getting the most out of the experience by collecting as many contacts and having as many drinks with potential business partners as possible. As well as consuming lots of information from all of the interesting sessions.
(Raymund Serrano, Couch Pixels): Our main aim, seeing as this was our first time, was to drum up interest for our start up. We wanted to show a face(s) to the name and also get involved in the whole GDC scene which seemed to be something like ‘progressing by sharing’. It also didnt hurt to get drunk with developers and pick up a few helpful contacts here and there.
(Finn Spencer, Evil Aliens): Gaining contacts, gaining industry knowledge and promoting our debut game ORBITOR.
Overall impressions of this years GDC?
(Chloe Parton, BigSwing Studio): GDC was a lot of fun, the sheer number of the talks and the quality at which most were presented was outstanding. There were a few however to failed to gain the attention of the audience. Even though the content was important, some talks were difficult to pay attention to. We did however learn a lot at GDC and will be applying the advice we picked up to our upcoming project.
(David Dawson, Floating Man Games): It was very much an all encompasing experience. So much to learn and so many people to talk to. They could have organised the sessions better, timed them so they were staggered so that there was not 3 talks that everyone wants to go to at the same time, and then have not much else interesting for the rest of the day.
(Daniel La Rocca, Evoke Method): Initial impressions were that GDC this year was epic, it was just a completely new experience, never have we been in the same place with so many other developers and it was just great to be part of this huge gathering.
Towards the end of GDC however we slowed down a bit and skipped a few sessions in favour of meeting people at the expos and playing the AMD/Recaro racing chair DIRT 3 setup.
(Gonzalo Araya, Red Knight Games): An extremely awesome and hectic experience, between all the parties and events not to mention all the awesome stuff at the expo and all the information we had to try to soak up over the course of the week, we ended up completely spent but wouldn't have traded the experience for anything.
(Alanna Mondon, Pear and Melons): Overall great experience. Meeting lots of other people that weren’t that far away as where we are starting out from. There were a few small groups similar to our size and were already showing off potential from what they had to offer. This is what we hope to soon show off/prove to the public as well.
(Raymund Serrano, Couch Pixels): It was like going to Disneyland (which we did) but for developers and anyone else involved in the game dev scene.
Seriously, though, for the most part - GDC was an amazing learning experience. It was also a great eye-opener to different aspects of the scene. Some of the talks were a little on the bore side (just a little) - although Evan Skolnic’s “Game Writing in a Day”, which sounds like your typical English period session in highschool, was actually the most engaging of the talks. Literally engaging.
(Finn Spencer, Evil Aliens): It was great, there was always something interesting going on. “If only we could clone ourselves and go to all the talks” multiple people have said to me throughout the week. But thankfully GDC records nearly all the summits/sessions and they are available online depending on what pass you have purchased to get into GDC.
It was also apparent that there are a lot of independent game developers now who are doing really well for them selves, making great games on shoe string budgets.
From your time at this year's GDC, what seems to be the current trend or popular thing for developers at the moment?
(Chloe Parton, BigSwing Studio): The current trend seems to be the migration from making AAA games to the development of casual indie game companies. Along with that, there was a definite trend in moving away from the reliance on publishers and moving towards digital distribution and self publication.
(David Dawson, Floating Man Games): Despite the recent financial crisis, all the big studios are still very positive about making AAA games although there is a shift towards f2p and freemium games with high production values. There is also a growing trend of smaller teams poping up and making games they are passionate about, not endless sequels or working off established IP.
(Daniel La Rocca, Evoke Method): It was hard to determine the current trend from just GDC alone since most of the talks appeared to be about AAA titles.
The truth though is that indie games are starting to take over AAA titles and the majority of the talks were from or intended for AAA titles and developers.
We would've preferred to hear a game concept/design talk or post mortem from Playdead who made Limbo, or Edmund McMillen who made Super Meat Boy, than talks about hopw Unchartered water worked.
I'm sure it was a fantastic and interesting talk, but the majority of developers were like us at the moment pretty unhelpful or irrelevant for most of them.
(Gonzalo Araya, Red Knight Games): Social games seem to be gaining a lot of traction since people like the idea of working together towards a common goal. Mobile platforms are also really popular and really pull down the barriers of having to sit down at home to play, which may not be for everyone, leading onto the rise of casual gamers.
(Alanna Mondon, Pear and Melons): Indie development is definitely becoming an apparent trend among developers. I think the ability to make games for yourself and to your own scope is very appealing to people, and also the fact that going through a publisher is no longer needed has boosted that desire much more than expected.
(Raymund Serrano, Couch Pixels): For the most part, mobile and social gaming was huge. The expo side of things still had the huge AAA development titles, but for the most part, it was nudging on the movement towards social development, or at least smaller independent titles.
(Finn Spencer, Evil Aliens): A giant push for portable gaming platforms. Mobiles, Tablets you name it. and publishing games independently with out the assistance of the big end of town.
What was the standout session or party you attended (and if it's a session, can you give us a brief summary of it)?
(Chloe Parton, BigSwing Studio): We all attended several different talks at GDC which we all benefited from. The ones we particularly enjoyed where :
- Better Game Writing In A Day - Learning methods of incorporating narrative storytelling in an interactive space and the power of the Hero’s Journey.
- Bootstrapping 101 - Learning the ups and downs of Bootstrapping a startup company
- Are you a Manager or Leader? - Highlighted various approaches to leadership and how some approaches were more productive then others.
- GDC Microtalks - 10 speakers with 5 minutes each to portray their ideas on a range of game design topics and philosophies. So many great little tidbits of knowledge and insight packed in to 1 hour.
(David Dawson, Floating Man Games): The talks by Naughty Dog and Dice about the way they overcame issues and make Uncharted 3 and Battlefield 3 were excellent. Also the "Perfect Pitchable Prototypes" talk by Nathan Martz and the "Giant Toads and Zombie Bears: Technical Art Re-envisioned for Diablo 3" were fantastic, giving the audience a view into the process of making a pitchable prototype, and showing how a small group within the Diablo 3 team managed to make the game more awesome by working between the artists, designers and programmers.
The Gay Gamers Party(GGP) was fabulous and the Wargaming.net party was awesome.
(Daniel La Rocca, Evoke Method):
Matt: DirectX 11 Procedural Generation- "I found this talk inspirational, to see all of the cool procedural generation, fluid that deforms onto the environment, creating amazingly detailed objects out of a cube, however at the moment it is nothing more than a hobby."
Andrew: Hitman Absolution Crowds- "I loved this talk because it had different ways of doing things that I had not thought of before for a crowd simulation."
Tolga: Art of Diablo 3-"It was the art of Diablo 3, what more do i have to say, the troubles they went through to make the characters read well in all the hecticness, the actual progression of the concepts. Too Good."
Mus: Attention not Immersion- "This session was awesome because I learnt about how to get a players attention in games and also how to keep it using through art, story and gameplay."
Daniel: IGDA Party- "The standout thing for me was the IGDA party, it was brilliant to get together with other Aussie developers in a 'straaange, foriegn land' and it was just an awesome mix of both local developers and Aussie developers. Made me miss home a lot haha."
(Gonzalo Araya, Red Knight Games): We didn't all attend the same sessions or parties, so opinions within our team will vary depending on who you ask. From our programmers perspective, what they enjoyed was the squad based AI session as well as the postmortem of the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, talking about its AI and game design.
Our artists loved the “Learn better game writing in a day” as well as the “1 Hour, 10 People, Countless Ideas” microtalk session. The story writing session talked about the nuances of good story telling and how to convey your story for games that's compelling and believable but we also found a way to repurpose what we learnt in terms of story pacing and apply it to game pacing which extends to everything from gameplay mechanics to power ups and overall scope “Only tell the player what they need to know to complete the next task, nothing more”.
The microtalks involved 10 developers throwing out their ideas/opinions on a given subject in a short span of 5 minutes, it was an intense session filled with many different ideas and lots of fast talking with some pretty big heavy weights from within their own respective fields so it was a great source of insight as well as a bit of a mind explosion.
On a whole one of the best sessions was the “making of Atom zombie smasher” talk. It was amazing to see just how the makers of the game put themselves through hell to make such a fun game. Typically any game post-mortems provided such a massive amount of valuable insight into their processes of making the game that they turn into instant treasure-troves of insight, information and tips. Party wise the most stand out one was the wargaming.net party, which one of our team managed to suck up to the right people to get VIP entry into it!
We didn’t see him for most of the next day.....
(Alanna Mondon, Pear and Melons):
Alanna: The most interesting talk for me was the talk from the guy that designed and created the audio for Bastion. He explained how he made it all on a budget of $0 and all in his closet. He asked his roommate to do a sample of narration and it worked out that he did over 3000 lines in total for the narration of the whole game. And he didn’t go into over the top detail in his talk which helped with my attention span, and this helped me understand a whole lot more. This also makes me want to learn about how sound can lift a game off its pedestal.
Mark: The standout session for me would have to be Naughty Dog’s talk on how they did the VFX for Uncharted 3, which detailed a lot of their techniques for how they did some of the seemingly technologically impossible effects for their game. These effects ranged from a fire burning down a chateau, sand dynamically reacting to the character’s footsteps and even a huge oil fire particle system that looked close to real.
Dave: The standout party was the War Gaming event. The amount of money and effort they put in to make sure all the developers had a perfect environment to talk and mingle was amazing. It was simple to approach anyone and start up a conversation, and I’m pretty sure the open bar didn’t help. They really went out of their way to make everyone happy.
(Raymund Serrano, Couch Pixels): Adam was fortunate enough to go missing and end up partying with Wolfire Games held at the Humble Indie Bundle studio. They ate pizza, drank beers, played games and talked games. The SuperGiant talks on audio and game design of Bastion were really good.
They weren’t just about the studio’s work practices and ethics and was also really inspirational to hear that a couple of people could make an amazing game driven by passion and whatever skills they could bring to the table. As far as presentations go, the one given by Evan Skolnic was really engaging. It wasn't just about creative writing for games, but for almost all genres, and it kept the audience involved in the presentation with group activities and forum discussions. It also involved the Terminator.
(Finn Spencer, Evil Aliens): The standout session I attended was “Depth in simplicity: the making of Jetpack joyride” by Luke Muscat the lead designer / Executive Producer at Halfbrick Studios. In his speech he explained to the crowd that he was under a lot of pressure to make a game that will stand up against its predecessor success of fruit ninja.
He presented the crowd with highly detailed process in all the problems he faced during the development process, and showed off a lot of interesting solutions to these problems. His talk on Jetpack joyride keep the audience tightly glued to their notepads as it seemed that nearly every word he had to say was gold to them.
As for Parties be aware if under 21, that going to most of the parties was not legal as they where mostly in pubs and bars, this was a problem for some people we were traveling with because they were turned away at the door.
The most impressive thing you saw at the GDC?
(Chloe Parton, BigSwing Studio): The expo floor itself was pretty amazing, had never seen anything quite like it. The sheer scope of it was massive. There were so many great stalls and demos on display. The conference hall was also quite impressive in itself, it took 2 long escalator rides to reach the top floor. Just the scope of the conference and the buzz of being there with game developers from all over the world was a great thing to experience.
(David Dawson, Floating Man Games): The community. The boundless energy and enthusiasm that almost every person there had. The willingness to be open and communicate and share. I don't think any of us had a single negative experience with another developer.
(Daniel La Rocca, Evoke Method): It's hard to choose what was most impressive, one of the things we saw was a working dynamic cloth simulation demo, on a tablet, how the? Its astounding how powerful these devices are getting.
One of the standouts though was as the expo, the AMD/Recaro racing chair simulator for DIRT 3, we saw it once and when we played the first time it blew our minds, personally it was most immersive thing i've ever played, i didn't want to leave
(Gonzalo Araya, Red Knight Games): For our programmers, seeing Tri-Ace's physics based rendering(emulating photons hitting your eye to render objects)running smoothly in real time, both as a demo and as a video showing off a in-game cut-scene was very impressive and may have caused us to drool a little.
The artists were most impressed by seeing the Diablo III panels, explaining the decisions behind their art direction. They went through character silhouette, look and feel, UI, concept, and cinematic design. As a game that the team has been looking forward to playing, they were very excited to see some of the cool things the Diablo III team had come up with.
(Alanna Mondon, Pear and Melons): The art of Diablo 3 session was simply amazing. We were shown a lot of the stages of their art and their struggles on how to make it all fit into one game and how to make their art give the “Diablo” feel to the game.
(Raymund Serrano, Couch Pixels): The real-time mo-cap was pretty cool. Seeing an actor in a black and orange one-piece suit - no ping pong balls required - playing out a video game cut scene was pretty awesome. The tech demo of KARA by Quantic Dream was pretty amazing - not only was the tech (running in real-time on the PS3) visually impressive but the presentation and story was well written and quite compelling.
Something very notable was a large presence of independent games at the expo - in a large variety of genres. But by far, the most impressive part of GDC was the caliber of people sharing their knowledge to the masses. High profile developers sharing their processes and findings from their time with their projects.
(Finn Spencer, Evil Aliens): I attended a session called “Level Design in a Day: Best Practices from the Best in the Business“ which consist an entire day listening to lead designers and level designers showing the tips of the trade of making environments.
At lunch they offered to the people who stayed in the hall that they would review portfolios and give free feedback into improving them or pointing out the flaws. It was about halfway through lunch and a good 25 people have come up to the stand and get their portfolio reviewed and sat back down, when Coray Seifert the Director of Product Development at Slingo was looking at some random persons portfolio and playing a game and blurted out “Dude you want a job, this is awesome!” the owner of the portfolio was shocked for words and squeaked “re.. really?”. and Coray said “Yeah man this is sweet!”.
And that to me was the most impressive thing that I saw at GDC. The fact that he could have just went to lunch and never attempted to let them review his portfolio and he would have never gotten a job.
And what was the oddest thing you saw?
(Chloe Parton, BigSwing Studio): Nothing we saw at GDC was particularly odd, in fact everybody seemed considerably human. However outside of GDC we encountered a homeless man who asked for $900 to pay for 3 hookers!
(David Dawson, Floating Man Games): A man holding a sign saying "God Hates Game Developers" and "Thou Shalt Not Monetize Thy Neighbour", it was obviously a joke of some sort, but not exactly sure what they were trying to achieve.
(Daniel La Rocca, Evoke Method): The most odd thing we saw were these 2 people standing outside the convention centre, holding up signs saying "God Hates Game Designers" and "Thou Shalt not Monetize Thy Neighbour".
It was actually pretty hilarious, we managed to get a few pictures and snapped one with Tolga and them stamping on his GDC pass.
(Gonzalo Araya, Red Knight Games): There wasn’t really anything that struck us as odd, though there were some interesting things that happened during our time at San Fran. For example, one of our programmers Sam, who never danced in his life, actually broke out and danced, not only that but with one of the Yeti girls at the Yetizen party. Also, hearing a man on the street asking for $900 for three hookers was an interesting experience...
(Alanna Mondon, Pear and Melons): Definitely the 2 guys outside the convention asking us to repent for our sins for being game developers.
(Raymund Serrano, Couch Pixels): There was this guy, dressed as yellow Magicka wizard handing out free game keys. Later that day we walked past him again, this time his robe was tucked into his jeans. There was also a couple of guys dressed up as little skin coloured bulb mushroom type thingies - in a crowd, they looked like a walking pair of...well....
(Finn Spencer, Evil Aliens): Some of the sessions we attended were themed seemed like they where using an old outdated model on starting up an indie games business. There attitude was build up a company and IP then sell it off to gain profit. A lot of people can say otherwise and it may be better to keep a hold of your IP and continue making games as over the last couple of years indie company's are staying afloat.
What's your take on the overall state of the global games industry from the conference?
(Chloe Parton, BigSwing Studio): The gaming industry is definitely thriving. With many Indie Developers coming into the spot light. Although AAA Games are holding their place, they don't seem to be growing as rapidly as the Indie Game Scene. Which is a shame for the hard core gamers, as more content is being made for the casual iPhone gamer rather than those dedicated players that have spent many hours playing the large scale, immersive games. It would be nice to see more of a balance in the industry.
(David Dawson, Floating Man Games): The industry has gained alot of the energy it lost during the global financial crisis, alot of the developers there were very passionate and very excited about making games. Combined with other industries and forms of media taking an interest in games, its seems that the industry may be on the rise.
(Daniel La Rocca, Evoke Method): Our take on the industry was that it's a huge, friendly community, everyone wants to be friends with everyone and there is always someone who can or wants to help. This is a huge contrast to any other industry where its really a "dog eat dog world".
This is really an industry we are truly proud of, plus it beats accounting hands down.
(Gonzalo Araya, Red Knight Games): The games industry is still going strong, the triple AAA developers are closing up shop just because the costs are too high for such large teams and the customers are going elsewhere. Essentially whats happening is that developers are tired of getting screwed over and have to work for “the man” so they are disappearing and heading back to working out of garages and apartments working in small teams and most importantly making the games that THEY want to create and see people play.
The games industry is in a very exciting place at the moment where things have never been so “tense” for lack of a better word but the passionate developer has never had more freedom to create what ever he wants and never had more ways to reach his customers for a personal 1 on 1 relationship. The emergence of social gaming is also a pretty massive thing. It’s not just zynga out there!
(Alanna Mondon, Pear and Melons): It’s bigger than we thought! Just getting out and amongst it was a great feeling, and being able to talk one on one with the big guys was great. I thought AAA were in decline, but now I realise they’re as strong as ever. That said, indie games/companies are coming up in the world, so we’ll have to see how all pans out down the track.
(Raymund Serrano, Couch Pixels): From what we saw at GDC its in a great expanding shape, like after a huge christmas dinner where you have to undo a notch on your belt. Seeing a mass of people from all around the world - from indie groups, small companies to huge studios and publishers, converging for a conference, gave as quite a bit of confidence that there are idiots like us with the same dream, and taking the steps to make it happen.
(Finn Spencer, Evil Aliens): The independent scene is innovating on every level of game development and is doing well as a result. The ground has moved under the Publishers and it is apparent not all of them are fully aware of all of the changes.
For those of us thinking about attending a GDC for the first time, could you tell us: how much would it cost overall to attend a GDC's? (travel, hotel, prices & expenses etc)
(Chloe Parton, BigSwing Studio): Well we were fortunate enough to be able to attend GDC through the AIE Incubator Program which covered our costs for us. Though we would think the total cost of attending GDC would be roughly $5000 including cost of food.
(David Dawson, Floating Man Games): It was roughly $2000-$3000 for airfares (travelling economy, which SUCKS), $700 for accomodation (1 week), $1500 for the GDC itself (all access pass), luckily enough we had the AIE Incubator to help cover the airfares, accomodation and conference pass.
All up it was between $4500 and $6000 depending on how much spending money you want over there (find the parties that have a tab, free drinks are the best drinks).
(Daniel La Rocca, Evoke Method): The costs were paid together with our course fees so its pretty hard to determine the cost, i personally can't tell for sure.
(Gonzalo Araya, Red Knight Games): We’re not sure about the overall cost as we were fortunate to have all this covered through the AIE Incubator program. Though we’d imagine that it would be in the $5000 to $7000 range, depending on how you plan out your trip. Staying at the $5000 point means that you’d be living on the minimum so somewhere approaching the $7000 budget will allow you to live comfortably for the week.
It really comes down to who you travel with, where you stay, how you get around, and how much you’re willing to spend on booze and food. Food will probably be the biggest expense on the trip, since we had to look for breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day, easily spending up to $70 a day. You should really try out a place called “Sushirrito”, they make sushi... but SUPER CHARGGGEDDDDD. It’s essentially a burrito, but made with sushi ingredients, plus a few other non-sushi-conventional things thrown in that really compliments it. Lori’s 50’s Diner is also the best diner restaurant you can go for big hearty meals for a cheap price.
(Alanna Mondon, Pear and Melons): Going to GDC for us Australians is a very expensive endeavour. Flights alone cost $1,200 return from Sydney to San Fransisco, more if you’re from elsewhere. GDC passes ranged from $2,000 for a all access pass to $75 for a student expo hall pass, though going to more things than just the expo is generally recommended. A main conference pass costs $950. Our 7 day hotel cost us around $700-800 and that was a fairly simple hotel. I’d suggest bringing $400-1000 depending on how much of a spend thrift you are.
(Raymund Serrano, Couch Pixels): Between travel, accommodation, the price for an all access pass, and some spending money, the cost of the conference would be close to AU$4000. If you want to have a bit of freedom with what you spend, we’d say to take about AU$5000, depending on the state of the $AU compared to $US.
(Finn Spencer, Evil Aliens): Not much, I received a scholarship as part of the AIE’s Incubator Program so I don’t see any of the cost. The same applies for the other 60 AIE Incubator students who attended. The All Access Pass that we had generally costs US$1,500 if you get in early but can be up to US$2,100 if you sign up at the last minute. After you add flights and accommodation the total cost is over $4,500.
The only money I spent was around about $50 a day through out the week on food at the diners that are located around the conference complex.
What preparations and advice would you suggest for first timers wanting to attend a GDC?
(Chloe Parton, BigSwing Studio):
- Sleep! Try and sleep on the plane or give yourself a few days before GDC to adjust to the timezone difference.
- Research the surrounding area your staying in so you know what areas to avoid and where certain shops are.
- Bring good walking shoes if you plan to do some sightseeing around San Fran!
- Since there are WiFi hotspots everywhere, be sure to stay in contact with IM or Facebook if you don’t opt for getting a US mobile.
- As for GDC, emailing potential contacts beforehand is a useful tip when trying to meet new contacts.
- And remember your business cards!
(David Dawson, Floating Man Games): Don't drink too much at parties, you want to be able to stay awake during the following days talks. The point is to meet people. Have buisness cards!!!! Have a website. If you have something you want to show people, make sure you can show it off easily.
(Daniel La Rocca, Evoke Method): For first timers, GET BUSINESS CARDS and a helpful thing is to design the card well. Our team got many compliments from just the card alone and it helped so much in our card standing out from the piles of cards people collected.
Secondly, DON'T PANIC, everyone is there for the exact same reason you are, to network and learn, don't be afraid to talk to people. We found this website helps immensely on how to effectively network with people.
http://tinysubversions.com/effective-networking/
Thirdly, prepare to be tired, you will be learning so much and talking to so many people during the day, and then there will be all these parties at night every night.
Eat well, pace yourself and don't go too hard, but don't slow down so much that you miss out.
(Gonzalo Araya, Red Knight Games): The most important thing for your safety is to make sure that you understand the area that surrounds your hotel - places to avoid, what time certain areas become more dangerous. Additionally, on the flight over, try to time your sleep so that you can adjust to the time zone differences much more easily. Make sure you also pack some medication, antibiotics are a solid all purpose choice, travel medication for motion sickness, stomach regulators for those aching, bloating stomachs, and cold and flu medicine as this is the most common illness you can contract over there. Our PR guy highly recommends a medicine called “emergen-C” for colds.
San Francisco is a very hilly area, so make sure you have comfortable shoes as you will be doing a lot of walking (unless you decide to catch public transport i.e. taxi, tram, buses). You can keep in contact with everyone if you invest in an American SIM card, though this may not be feasible since this requires your phone to be unlocked. However, this can be worked around as America is laden with free WiFi hotspots, you can keep connected via Internet with IM or Facebook.
Don’t be afraid to initiate conversation with people, as being afraid or nervous will only be detrimental to you. Talk casually, make the conversation comfortable by asking more about themselves. Remember to take business cards with you so you can exchange at later point in the conversation and keep in contact afterwards by emailing them about it.
(Alanna Mondon, Pear and Melons):
- Make sure you have something to write notes down onto. You will forget somethings if you don’t!
- Having an iPad or a tablet is great for checking twitter and seeing what people are posting about #GDC during all the various talks. A lot of the time people tweet a single quote such as: “Discovery beats distribution” - Trip Hawkins.
- Do things you wouldn’t normally do. Go out to parties if you’re invited to, start conversations with people.
- Getting enough sleep and eating properly definitely makes a huge difference on your ability to learn/stay awake at the conference. Especially when you’re surrounded by “medium” drinks.
(Raymund Serrano, Couch Pixels): GDC is based in San Francisco, so find out about the areas that will get you knee deep in donkey waste. Having said that, San Fran has lots of areas worth walking around in so dont be too scared.
Be prepared to talk a lot, even if you’re not a talker. A nice “hello there” can go a long way - and generally, its not so bad. It could even lead the start of a beautiful friendship. Or at least a useful contact in the industry. I dunno. Some people go for that sort of stuff.
Be prepared to show something. Whether its your portfolio, your personal projects, or your team/studio’s IP. Theres a massive variety of people in the conference - and you’ll never know what’ll come out of it.
(Finn Spencer, Evil Aliens):
Print Business Cards
The amount of people I met and missed out of exchanging business cards was quite high. Even if its your name & contact details scribbled onto a scrap piece of paper, its all about PR.
Check if your name/company is printed correctly on your GDC pass
This one sounds obvious to most people but I, myself came to the issue that my pass was accidentally printed with the word “student” if you are representing yourself or your company its kind of hard to explain why your tag says student and they probably wont take you seriously.
Have your game or artwork on you
It all comes down to time, you might only have 2 minutes with the person you want to pitch yourself too. If you don’t come prepared and don’t have your stuff in a physical form you can be easily over looked. Show, don’t tell, get the product into their hands and they are already 50% more likely to take it.
Pack Food or have a Big Breakfast
There where sessions where they decided to do cool stuff during lunch and I was unprepared and I should have packed lunch or ate a big breakfast. but there are restaurants everywhere but expect long queue because everyone goes to lunch at the same time.
Set up meetings