Post GDC!
Kia Ora all!
I’m back in Auckland now after an amazing time in San Francisco for my first GDC. I wasn’t showing desolate there, but was meeting amazing people and learning as much as I could from all the talks and tutorials. This was also my first time in San Francisco, so I got to explore the city and get my tourist on. Thanks again to the NZGDA for giving me the chance to go and have this wonderful experience.
What was my GDC experience like? Well most of my time was spent meeting as many people as I could and catching up with friends from Japan and Korea. Going to a lot of parties was the best chance to meet a lot of great people. Also just finding people on the show floor that I have always wanted to meet. I attended the Game Design Workshop on the first day to learn about failing fast and iterating on ideas to make a great game. I think it was a worthwhile Workshop, but don’t think their ideologies can be applied to all games, especially in this era where we have so many unique games coming out that break the mold for what a game should be. Some of the best talks I went to were Writing’Nothing’:Storytelling with Unsaid Words and Unreliable Narrators, Building Firewatch in Unity, Graphic Design is Key, Everyone Can Do PR, The Current State of Muslim Representation in Video Games,, and the Experimental Gameplay Workshop. But there were so many other great talks that I’ll have to check out in the GDC Vault later. What are my biggest take aways? Mainly PR and design related, stuff which I was already looking at before going. But this helped give me new ideas and think differently about it. For example the importance of branding. I’m already working on a new website for InkBit Collective and desolate, so it’s good to know I’m heading down the right path already. Game wise it was so inspirational to see. Especially the Day of the Devs booth and the Experimental Gameplay workshop. I’m always interested in pushing the boundaries of what games can do, and there were so many awesome games that really take it to the next level. Whats next? Back to work on finishing desolate! I need to get the new demo finished so I can start getting feedback on it again. There is a lot more new animations to do, so I’ll be posting a lot of that here. And letting people know when the new websites are finished.
Also I had an awesome idea for a VR game so I’ll be playing with my new google cardboard to prototype that as fast as I can. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to attend the next GDC.
Until next time enjoy some photos from GDC!