Ludonium Gamite, GDC 2010 Wrap-up

1 year ago

GDC 2010 Wrap-up

It’s been a week since I returned from GDC, and I think I’m finally de-jetlagged, rested, and fully recovered from the underslept mayhem that it always is. Despite how exhausting I make it sound, though, it was a great time and incredibly inspiring.

This year I attended GDC as a conference associate. I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to talk about my experience as an associate without permission from the heads of the program, so I’ll just keep it to saying that it was an amazing experience and is full of tons of awesome people. Met a bunch of a new friends I hope to stay in contact with and got to see a whole different side of the conference. Totally worth the unpaid labor- er, volunteer work.

I went in this year largely more interested in attending the various indie developer events. It’s what I do right now and the community is welcoming, interesting, and inspiring. In past years I was in a mad-scramble to network with whatever bigwigs I could find and desperately grasp at getting a job. I found that my frantic flailing didn’t in fact get me a job, but it certainly caused plenty of anxiety and generally made my experience at GDC less than fantastic. So I went in promising myself to relax and just meet people as the opportunity arose.

But yes, indie things. I attended many of the indie summit sessions, from Ron Carmel talking about the hopefully sweet indie fund to Thatgamecompany’s group therapy session about developing in an experimental environment. I got to witness the lovely indie developer rant that resulted in Tommy Refenes getting his iphone game pulled from the apple marketplace (ya jerks!). It was all great and made me want to run home and start making games right away. But there was still a whole week to go.

Unfortunately, for most of the rest of that week, I caught a bad virus that left me sleeping in my hotel half the time. But still! I made it out to the Gamma IV party, which was a great time. Additionally, it was a big reunion with all of my college mates who have dispersed to various places since we graduated, plus we added several new friends to our posse. I attended the IGF and Developer’s Choice award, where everyone was way too scripted and I kept getting distracted by the giant teleprompter in the back.

Despite missing most of the second half of the conference, I’d say it was a pretty successful week. However, next year, I’m unhesitatingly slaying anyone who so much as sniffles in my direction.

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GDC 2010 Wrap-up

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