Psychochild's Blog

Another GDC has come and gone. So, after a bit of sleep I'm posting some thoughts.

It was the same-old, same-old for me. I went to talks that didn't say much that I didn't already know. I went to talks that were pretty much crafted to support the speaker's business. I went to talks that had some interesting content.

I went with a few people this year. My better half, one of my employees, and a fan from M59 looking to break into the business. It was interesting to see them all get excited about the conference, as opposed to the bitter jaded attitude I usually have after the conference. I'm not quite so depressed about the industry as I usually am after one of these conferences. Although, I'm not exactly dancing in the streets.

This year seemed more chaotic than previous years. I had something scheduled every night this year, where I usually just hang out. Went to a few parties, had a lot of fun. The newbies I was with did a fair amount of drinking, and I had to keep them organized and heading in the right direction. I didn't get to meet with people as much as I would have liked, but that's life. I should probably send emails to keep in touch with people, assuming the contact information I have isn't out of date.

I'm not fond of the conference being in San Francisco. Much more expensive in general, and people don't know where to go in order to meet other people. It was a bit easier to get around, although I took the train up to the city and that took a while. Next year it's back in San Jose, so the 100 minute train ride will become a 40 minute drive. Plus, we'll have the familiar patterns and know how to find people to chat with.

Anyway, some thoughts about the actual content:

Best non-keynote talk I saw: Game Design Atoms: Can Game Designs be Diagrammed by Raph Koster. I thought Raph's ideas about graphic game design was very interesting even if his initial approaches were flawed. It got me thinking about the issues, and I'll post something up here and send something to Raph after a bit of thinking and research. I think we need to look at more non-linear forms of notation (such as notation from the field of programming like UML or flowcharts) instead of relying on linear notation.

Best non-keynote talk I missed, but read about later: Wonderland has a great summary of Burning Down The House - Game Developers Rant with Warren Spector, Brenda Laurel, Jason Della Rocca, Chris Hecker. I wanted to attend, but it was full; I didn't feel too bad because I figured they were going to say things I've said for a long time; game development is broken, mostly because of the publishers. They said that, and a bit more. A good read but a bit short on the honest discussion of how we can fix it all.

That keynote everyone's talking about: Will Wright talked about his new game, Spore. I didn't get in because I thought the line was too long to actually get a seat. I must say that the GDC staff went above and beyond the call of duty and ran audio and visuals outside the room to the several dozen of us in the hallway. The game looked cool, if a bit wacky. Interesting idea on how to use player-generated content in the game. I'm a bit surprised that the game actually got made; it looks like you could spend countless years playing the game and not yet finding the end. Publishers only get paid for creating new games, but perhaps EA has plans for endless expansion packs as they did for the Sims.

As for me, I got in on a press pass instead of a speaker's pass because the conference treats press better (for example, the lounge is better stocked) and there's less obligation. Interestingly enough, two of the people I wanted to do a panel with last year were speaking this year in their own sessions. They were talking about their games, which is what I wanted to talk about the previous year. Also, even though I've never gotten a proposal accepted at the GDC, I got three separate requests to speak at other conferences while at the GDC. It would have been nice to get any amount of feedback from the reviewers for the previous 4 time I proposed talks.

Ah, well. Until next year.