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GDC05 Student Scholarship Reports

Each scholarship recipient was asked to compile a report of their adventure to GDC. Here are the submitted reports, which describe their favorite sessions and advice to others heading to GDC for the first time. Enjoy!

 

Student Report Index

 

Student Reports

Aaron Knoll, University of Utah

GDC 2005 was my first trip to the Game Developers Conference, although I'd been at GDC Europe 2002 with a Giga pass and had seen similar talks and tutorials before.

What a difference. GDC is simply enormous, and I truly had the sense I was encountering the entire game industry in the heart of San Francisco. I was particularly surprised at how respectfully I was treated by professionals in the game industry. Around the IGDA booth on the third floor especially, people really seemed interested in talking to students and finding out about academic programs incubating the next generation of game developers. It helped that I was not distributing my resume left and right, and that I came not as a job seeker but a representative of the University of Utah's student IGDA chapter. Still, my overall impression is that serious students were treated seriously - an improvement over the isolationist behavior of the game industry I encountered 3 years ago and a positive sign of maturity.

The IGDA mentor program was indispensable. My mentor was Guillaume Provost of Pseudo Interactive, and although he was quite busy this year at GDC he took time to show me around and introduce me to other engineers. To be fair, I already had contacts with Alison Kelly who is one of the most notorious social networkers in the game industry – and as the founder of the Utah Sigda she was quite happy to introduce me as well. Other IGDA mentors, such as Greg Foertsch from Firaxis, were equally helpful. Thanks to him, I was able to meet professionals and fellow IGDA scholars in non-programming disciplines, which could potentially help the University of Utah connect its body of programming talent with interested art students in other schools.

Compared to GDC Europe 02, I was a bit disappointed by the conference sessions. I loved Sony's with Mark DeLoura and Dominic Mallinson on the CELL architecture and parallel programming models, and enjoyed various IGDA gatherings as they gave me insights into how IGDA works and how to run our Utah chapter. And of course, the game design sessions were thoroughly fun – particularly the competition between Clint Hocking, Peter Molyneux and Will Wright on the “Emily Dickinson license”.

I was really underwhelmed by many of the programming track lectures – not because I doubt the engineering brilliance of the speakers but because they were largely unhelpful to me as a computer science student with 2 years development experience. Perhaps I should have attended more talks on tools, even production topics, as opposed to the hardcore implementation lectures. The talks that come to mind were Christer Ericson's “Numerical robustness for geometric calculations” and Chris Hecker's “Why you should have paid attention in multivariable calculus”. Both talks were aimed at game developers with intermediate backgrounds in mathematics and numerical stable computing methods – and offered good general insights. But they were only marginally helpful to me as a programmer, and 99% useless when applied to my game development experience.

There were excellent talks, such as David Wu's “Physics in Parallel” which will undoubtedly help programmers think about the coming generation of console architectures. But if I were a student looking for an entry-level programming position and insights into how an engine worked, I would benefit far more from a trip inside the Epic demo booth and a few quick questions on how the Unreal engine works. The reality is that students and entry-level programmers will attend GDC, and it is in the best interests of speakers to present the big picture as well as minute details on the programming track. Abstraction seems not to be a problem in the design, art or production tracks… but programmers have a natural tendency towards technical one-up-manship, which is not something GDC should always encourage.

My advice to future IGDA scholars and students is to not restrict yourself to only the most technically advanced talks in your specific area. Even if you can understand them, you will gain much more important knowledge of the industry if you look outside your area of expertise. Game development is a collaborative effort, and it requires a broad understanding of the art/design/programming pipeline as well as low-level understanding of your particular field, be it animation, graphics programming, or even marketing.

Overall, GDC was a fantastic experience, and I hope to attend next year representing the Utah IGDA, as a volunteer or with an Expo pass.

Arjuna Ravikumar, Carnegie Mellon University

GDC. What is it all about? Is it worth all the hype? That's exactly what I wanted to find out. Due to unavoidable circumstances, I missed GDC last year, and this year I was determined to make up for it. I submitted my IGDA scholarship application as soon as I could. I was pleasantly surprised to find out 2 months later that I was selected for a scholarship! This was my first time at GDC, and it was an amazing experience. I realized immediately what an honor it was to be awarded a scholarship. It's more than just a free ticket to GDC… it's the chance of a lifetime.

On the second day of the conference all the scholars were visited Secret Level, a small game development company in San Francisco. This was a fantastic opportunity for all of us, as we got to see firsthand the inner working of a video game company, and got the chance to ask all those questions festering in our heads for so long! The folks at Secret Level were really friendly, and gave us a really nice tour of the studio. An opportunity not to be missed!

I spent my next three days attending many of the seminars and lectures at GDC. Since I'm interested in being a technical artist for the video game industry, I attended many of the sessions in the tech-art field. Still, I also talked to people and found out what the other really interesting sessions were.

One of the first sessions I attended was a talk by my GDC mentor Matthias Worch (Factor 5), titled “Normal and Displacement Mapping, Sitting in a Tree”. He talked about the various methods of art content production for next-generation graphics, and how Factor 5 goes about doing it. He explained normal mapping using a high poly and low poly model. He also explained how they create maquettes, and scan them in to create the 3D content.

Another talk I attended was by Wesley Grandmont of Electronic Arts titled ‘Procedural Modeling for EA Sports NASCAR Thunder', where he explained the ways in which they created 3D content procedurally at their studio using tools he had created in MEL. He also gave us a demo of how they build tracks for NASCAR using proprietary tools from their studio. He then mentioned a lot of useful tips for MEL scripting, and ways to go about writing good tools.

I decided to attend Will Wright's talk “The Future of Content”, because of all the buzz I heard about it. And I wasn't disappointed! The room was packed, and we couldn't even get inside! Luckily for us, they set up an audio-video system outside, so people in the hallways could watch what was going on inside. He gave a demo of his new game called ‘Spore', which was absolutely mind-blowing, and talked about how he came about those ideas while making the game. It was definitely an eye-opener.

My advice to future scholarship winners would be to do as much as possible in those few days you have at the GDC! Talk to as many people as possible, and learn as much as you can. Don't bother hounding people for jobs, because most of time they really aren't in a position to get you one. Once you meet a few people, and get different perspectives on the industry, you'll have a lot of people you can contact later if you're interested in getting a job.

Go to popular sessions even if they aren't in your field of interest. Even if you're not a game designer, definitely go to a talk by some of the all-time great game designers such as Will Wright and Peter Molyneux. They end up exposing you to more of the industry that you might have originally known, which really gets you thinking!

Attend any of the keynotes if possible. Most of them are more hype than actual information, but some of them are really interesting. Definitely go to any keynote by Microsoft… they give away free stuff!!

If you're as lucky as we were, and get to go on a tour of a studio, definitely go for it even if you have other plans for that day. It's extremely valuable to see the inside workings of a game studio (even if you've already been to many).

You can't talk about GDC without hearing the word “party”! There are plenty of parties happening all around the conference after 6pm. However you can't attend most of these if you don't have an invite. If someone from the industry invites you to any of these, make sure you go! It's a good time to unwind and make some very important contacts.

Congratulations to everyone else who gets this amazing opportunity to go to GDC. I hope you get as much and more out of it as I did!

Britney K. Brimhall, Arizona State University

Attending the GDC 2005 as a recipient of the IGDA Scholarship was by far the most awesome experience of my life. The IGDA really went all out this year, not only offering Classic Passes to all scholarship recipients, but also providing an in depth tour of a game development studio in San Francisco. Additionally, we were fed extremely tasty lunches, were paired up with mentors who are veterans in the industry, and I was even given the opportunity of handing out trophies at the Game Developers Choice Awards!

The Classic Pass provided the opportunity to participate in a wide range of lectures, keynote speeches, and roundtables related to a number of subfields in the gaming industry (i.e. business and legal, art, audio, programming). Some personal favorites were the Microsoft keynote speech, Nintendo keynote speech, and a roundtable related to Art Directors and Leads.

Microsoft won my loyalty by providing free 23” HD, flat screen monitors to 1/3 rd of its audience. The VP also discussed where gaming is heading in the near future. He mentioned the idea that gamers want to add their own personal touch to games and the fact that people want to play games together.

Mr. Iwata showed us a round up of some of Nintendo's most anticipated projects for the upcoming year. Two exciting examples included a new Zelda (which garnered cheers from the audience for good reason) and a game in which the player can choose one of twelve dog breeds to raise. The gamer can take the dog for walks, teach it tricks with voice recognition technology, can clean it, or compete in agility competitions.

At the Art Directors/Lead Artists roundtable, we discussed a variety of useful topics including outsourcing artwork. Participants in the discussion came to the conclusion that outsourcing artwork takes a lot of management time. High and low risk artwork should be handled in different ways—high risk preferably should stay in-house, where problems can be noted and solved quickly as they arise. Low risk artwork can be created elsewhere with less concern.

I must admit, my favorite part of the GDC was the people. It felt so inspiring to be part of large group of people who were so similar--I felt like I truly belonged and it solidified my choice to become a game developer professionally. I could not have asked for a better mentor than Brian Robbins; he continually gave me excellent advice, highly delicious breakfasts, his time (very early in the morning when I am certain he would have rather been sleeping!), and aided me in networking. IGDA staff like Rudy, Sora, and Jason, and Jamil Moledina (Director of GDC) were all so friendly, helpful and likeable as well. Darielle, who worked at the awards show to put on a great event, was such a joy to work with--I already miss all these people.

Another group of people worth mentioning are from the CA program. These volunteers are helpful and extremely personable. If one is having any troubles, or would just like to meet some interesting folks interested in the industry, I would highly recommend stopping by the CA lounge. The coordinators of the CA program also have an amazing knack for remembering people's names. In fact, if one would like to be impressed and entertained, I would recommend visiting these leaders and asking them to recall not only your name, but every one of their 250 volunteers! It is truly an occasion to behold.

Advice I'd like to share to upcoming scholarship recipients, which I learned from my mentor, is to network! Make friends with your fellow scholars as well as industry professionals. Second, get involved—if you have the chance to volunteer within the conference, do so. Volunteering for the Game Developers Choice Awards was one of the high points of my trip. Third, plan ahead—make a tentative schedule of classes you would like to attend, but be willing to change your mind. Finally, if you enjoy the experience as a scholarship recipient, then I would recommend going back the following year as a volunteer in the CA program. It is a great way to allow the wonderful adventure to continue!

Christopher Scott Joyce, University of Baltimore

Attending the GDC was an incredible experience. I was amazed at how approachable developers at the conference were – everyone I talked to was more than willing to give me advice as well as answer any questions I had. The hardest part of attending the GDC, was deciding which lectures to attend– there is so much to see and not enough time. The GDC provided insight into an industry that so many of us want to be a part of, and I thank the IGDA for allowing me the opportunity to attend.

My favorite sessions:

The Heart of a Gamer by Satoru Iwata

This was my favorite session. President Iwata was an excellent and entertaining speaker. His topic The Heart of a Gamer is at the core of every game developer.

Fable: Lessons Learned by Peter Molyneux

It was interesting to hear Peter Molyneux talk about Fable regarding what went right as well as what went wrong. The game was a huge success, but at the same time there were many critics of the game. I thought it was great to hear Mr. Molyneux discuss the issues, problems, and feature creep that happened with Fable. Although I very much enjoyed the game, I also understand the fact that there were problems. I think hearing Mr. Molyneux discuss these issues was great advice regarding design, development, and what to be weary of.

Experimental Gameplay 2005 by Jonathan Blow

This session was amazing. Covering such a wide spectrum of experimental gameplay. From I Love Bees to Ragdoll Kung Fu, this session was highly entertaining and it showed people's passion for creating and playing new games.

Advice for next year's attendees:

Dan Roy, University of Massachusetts Amherst

This was my second GDC, and it was still one of the best experiences I've ever had. It is absolutely the highlight of my year. This is what school should be. You spend the entire week learning every minute of every day, meeting exciting new people, seeing previews of the latest games, having fascinating conversations, seeing a new city/state/country, overcoming social phobias, and envisioning the rewarding career in which you're about to embark.

“A Theory of Fun” by Raph Koster

This was the keynote for the Serious Games Summit on Monday. Raph gave an excellent talk on why people enjoy playing some games but not others. The basic premise is that every game presents patterns which players must recognize and learn to use. The brain can handle several of these patterns at once. Games that present too few patterns seem simple and boring. Games that present too many patterns appear as incomprehensible noise -- also boring. The game designer's challenge is to find the right number of patterns to challenge the player at an appropriate level.

“Business Case for Improved Production Practices” by Steve McConnell

This was the keynote for the Quality of Life Summit on Tuesday. Steve made a compelling case that the software industry has figured out many of the problems that the game industry now faces. Unfortunately, the game industry has failed to learn from many of the software industry's experiences. By reinventing the wheel each step of the way, the game industry is lowering productivity drastically. By implementing better production practices, the game industry could reduce or eliminate many unnecessary crunches, improving the quality of the finished games and the quality of life for developers along the way.

Experimental Gameplay Workshop

This three-hour session showcased dozens of experimental games in quick succession. Each game demonstrated at least one innovative design mechanism that created unique gameplay. The session was especially valuable for designers, because it has become harder to gain inspiration from increasingly derivative commercial games. The experimental games demonstrated in this session largely had no financial expectations tied to their development, and thus embraced high risk ideas. There were too many games to analyze them individually here, but I recommend looking for a summary of this exciting event online.

If you take the time to do a little planning before the conference, you can take full advantage of this experience. Here are some tips:

1. Plan your schedule ahead of time. All of the events will be listed on the conference web site. Go through the entire list, or at least all of the events in the tracks that interest you, and choose your favorites. Don't forget that some events occur more than once, so if there is a conflict you may still be able to attend both. If you wait until the conference arrives to begin planning, you will probably miss out on valuable sessions. Also, show up to popular events like Will Wright's talks at least 20 minutes early.

2. Bring business cards. Everyone at the conference will expect you to have business cards, and they are a vital networking tool. Remember, the GDC is a tremendous opportunity to meet people who are currently working in the industry and form professional relationships or friendships with them. A significant percentage of game industry jobs go to people who know people within a company. This may not be the ideal system, but if you know the rules you can level the playing field.

3. Create a web site to showcase your work. Since you most likely don't already work at a game company, you will probably be looking for a job in the near future. While I don't recommend you ask for jobs directly at the conference, meeting people in this setting is a great opportunity to show off your work. If you list this web site on your business card and hand one to everyone you have a conversation with, you will begin to create an impression of yourself in the minds of people who may one day hire you. Of course, you want this impression to be positive.

4. Follow-up with people you meet at the conference. When the week is over, you will have a stack of business cards from the people you met. Now is the time to continue each of those conversations. Hopefully, during the conference you wrote down some notes on the back of each card to describe where you met the person and what you talked about. Send each person a short e-mail saying nice to meet you and asking a question that continues your previous conversation. It is possible that you won't have enough time to e-mail every person who gave you a card, so, before you start sending e-mails, sort your stack of cards with the most important ones on top. That way, if you run out of time, at least you e-mailed the most important contacts. I'll leave it up to you to decide how to rate the importance of each card.

5. Arrive at sessions early and stay late. Often the best part about a session is the people you meet there. Arriving early and staying late gives you a chance to talk with people who have a similar interest (the topic of the session). Don't be afraid to say hi to the presenters, either; they are usually very approachable.

Derek Ehrman, Full Sail Real World Education

OK, here's the thing. GDC is frickin' massive. I really had no idea of what to expect on my trip to San Francisco. I knew there were a ton of lectures and some keynote speeches by the top dogs, but I really could not fathom the amount of information there was to be garnered from the event on the whole. To those of you who have never attended GDC and are hoping to in the future, a word of advice; expect to miss a lot. This is not a bad thing. In fact I only made it to a handful of lectures, yet my experience on the whole was still amazing. The key to getting the most out of GDC, especially if you are a student trying to get into the industry, is not going to lectures non-stop for three days--it is actually something we all have already. The key, or rather, the keys, are those two orifices on the side of your dome; your ears. Listen. I did my fair share of talking, don't get my wrong, but I definitely got the most out of GDC by simply listening, even if it was about something I wasn't involved with (which was generally the case). You will not be able to go to every lecture and every roundtable that GDC has to offer, it's simply a statistical impossibility. However, you can still have an amazingly fun and educational experience if you go in with an open mind, and a willingness to listen to those that have been around the block once or twice.

I may be ranting a little here, but that conveniently leads into my next point. There were three lectures that stand out in my mind as the main reasons I want to go to GDC so much next year. The first lecture was the Game Developers Rant. This lecture was hosted by Eric Zimmerman (or as I call him, Z-dawg), and had a foursome of fearsome tongue-lashing super heroes set upon the stage. They were, Chris Hecker, Brenda Laurel, Greg Costikyan, and Warren Spector. At first I thought these were just your run-of-the-mill folks. Turns out they're all my idols. They totally ripped some people and the industry itself a new one. I am an aspiring game developer and this lecture really helped give me an insight on the woes of modern day development, as well as inspiration for changing what I can. If you get the chance to see any of these five people speak at next year's GDC, take it. They were all phenomenal.

The next lecture that comes to mind is the Game Design Challenge: The Emily Dickenson License, which seems to be a crowd favorite. The idea is that the world's top designers get an off-the-wall idea that has seemingly no relevance to games, and their job is to make it relevant. This year's theme seemed rather rough, yet Molyneux, Hocking, and Wright made it sound smooth as buttah. I enjoyed this one so much simply because I got to see some of the most talented designers in the world create something so fun and interesting out of something seemingly so bland to one desensitized by years of gaming. Molyneux took the opportunity to show off some new tech demo that Lionhead had been working on (Digital Clay … man that's sweet), and Wright put on a good show as always (Note: if you have to kill to see Will Wright give a talk, take it into consideration; he even makes powerpoints seem amazing).

Last but not least on my list of lectures was the Experimental Gameplay 2005 session. This was indeed a packed house, as it is every year according to some insiders. This session focused on new and innovative games. The highlight of this session for me was Rag Doll Kung-Fu, a new game being made by Mark Healey of Lionhead Studios. He has been working on it in his spare time for over two years, and the results were simply astounding. It was by far my favorite game of the conference, and showed how good games can be, regardless of budget or team size. I highly recommend anyone reading this article to check it out when given the chance (I grant thee thy chance).

As I said earlier, listen to all that you can. Don't be afraid to start up random conversations with people; everyone I met was extremely nice and willing to help a young kid learn something new. Your mentor is your friend. Talk to them as much as possible and try to make a good connection. They are your most consistent and available contact. Contacts are what this industry is about from what I gathered. If you are a brilliant programmer or designer or whatever, but you live in a cave in Iowa, chances are you won't get a job. You need to meet as many people as you can, and make as good of an impression as you can when you do. That being said, go to the bars and the after parties as much as possible. Sneak into some private parties if you can. I did it and it was sweet. I made all of my best contacts while out at the bars around GDC. The point is, have as much fun as you can. If you go in looking for a job and don't get one right off the bat, no sweat, at least you had a good time. If you do get a job, that's even better. I for one still have a lot of school left and therefore was not interested in getting a job. I think that let me have more fun than I would have otherwise. I'm still trying to figure out if that is good or bad.

Drew Murray, Southern Methodist University

I was, of course, elated when I found out that I'd received one of the IGDA's scholarships to attend GDC; I couldn't wait to get out to San Francisco and hear talks by some of my favorite game designers, meet with companies with which I'd love to work someday, and be surrounded by people who are as passionate and excited about making games as I am. What I wasn't expecting was to be standing in the second floor lobby of the Moscone Center having an animated discussion about “Katamari Damacy” with Eugene Jarvis and Hal Barwood. These two gentlemen who were the unsung legends of my youth, one the creator of “Defender” and “Robotron,” the other a writer of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Dragonslayer,” were now just fellow game-lovers, interested in talking about the nuances of “Katamari” and its lessons for game development.

I was unabashedly star-struck at this, my first, GDC. I got stupidly excited every time that I met someone who made some video game that had an impact on my life. Mark Cerney and Toru Iwatani may not be as recognizable to the general population as Mick Jagger or Pete Townsend, but I spent a lot more of my “wasted” youth playing “Marble Madness” and “Pac-Man” than I did listening to “Sympathy for the Devil” and “My Generation.” When I realized that I was sitting directly behind Will Wright in a lecture session, the first thought that went through my mind, like some kind of teenage groupie was, “if I just lean forward, I could touch Will Wright.”

This was the first year that scholarship winners were paired with industry mentors, and I was fortunate enough to be paired up with Hal Barwood for a mentor. We had exchanged a couple of emails and checked out each other's websites, but I didn't realize until we first met at the scholarship orientation how much of an impact on my GDC experience Hal and his help and guidance would have. Hal was much more gracious that I ever could have expected - between meeting me for breakfasts, grabbing me between sessions to introduce me to people from companies in which I was especially interested, giving me advice about the video game industry, passing on invitations to parties that I could have never gotten on my own, and having passionate discussions about the pros and cons of Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper, and Jak, Hal was more than just a generous mentor, he was a kindred spirit.

I spent an hour or two listening to the harpy-song of the Expo floor, but spent most of my time attending sessions. Most were in the good-to-very-good range, and a couple were wonderful. I, like pretty much everyone, was bowled over by Will Wright's “The Future of Content” (aka “The Spore Demo”). I left the talk filled with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. It was inspiring to see such an amazing game and also scary to wonder how us mere mortals (especially student-like mortals) are ever going to compete with something like that. I got somewhat of an answer to that last question in Hal Barwood's “Writing Narrative into Play” in which he discussed how stories and games can be happily married. Hal had a formal framework for understanding why stories in games fail so often and examined numerous games and their stories. Bonus points for including both “Sly Cooper” and a Lyle Lovett song in a lecture.

I went to the “International Game Design Panel” mainly because it was being chaired by Mark Cerney and was pleasantly surprised to hear some really thoughtful discussion on game design from the panelists. My favorite observation of GDC came from Alex Rigopulos on this panel, who responded to a question with the statement (paraphrasing here) that, “The way to innovate in games is to find things that people want to do, but that they don't know that they want to do. I didn't know that I wanted to roll around a ball and collect things lying around in the world, but it turns out that I do want to do that.”

I also really enjoyed E. Daniel Arey's “Designing the AAA Title.” Besides featuring the thoughts and opinions of many of my favorite game designers, it was also representative of a theme that ran throughout GDC for me. As students, we're all obsessed with just getting a job in the gaming industry, and it was interesting to hear so much discussion, both in Arey's talk and running as an undercurrent throughout GDC, about issues bigger than mere employment, like “Is our industry broken?”, “We're being worked to death – what can we do about it?”, and “How are we going to survive the increased standards that are going to be expected of next-generation games?” I've read the transcripts and reports of “Burning Down the House: Game Developers Rant” and it's the event that I most regret missing.

The bad and ugly of GDC? The hardest part, for me, was that I would have really liked to have met people from several specific companies – not to ask for a job, but just because I love their games so much and would have liked to talk about their company and the games they make. Unfortunately, there were maybe 10-15 people in the gaming industry that I would recognize by sight (post-GDC, that number is in the low 40's), which made it near-impossible to actively seek out people from specific companies. Lorne Lanning and Ted Price, where were you? Again, Hal came to the rescue and managed to introduce me to people from a couple of “target” companies, but it was maddening to know that I must have been constantly walking by people whom I would have liked to talked to.

It was a blast. A very, very exhausting blast. I came home, said hello to my wife, got into bed and slept for 16 hours straight.

Erin McKinney, University Advanced Technology

I have to say I really got so much more out of GDC after winning the scholarship than I did last year when I simply wandered around the Expo floor. Of course I expected a more meaningful experience than I had had previously when I went on my own, but I was surprised by how much valuable information I walked away with this year. My head is still spinning a bit.

There were over 300 lectures, roundtables, and forums I could have participated in. This in itself is overwhelming. Once I sat down to start planning which ones I wanted to attend, I realized a person can actually only go to 16; the decisions of which to go to and which to skip were near impossible to make. It took me quite awhile to finally make a schedule complete with backups and backups for my backups. I was glad I did though, a few times I sat in on a session and realized after a couple of minutes that either a) I have no clue what they're talking about and I wasn't ready to be in that session, b) I felt like I already had a good grasp of this information and could probably learn more elsewhere, or c) I was in the wrong room. My best piece of advice for future scholarship winners is make a schedule of sessions you wish to attend which is flexible, varied, and has the confirmed room numbers on it.

I sat in on some very interesting sessions while I was at GDC. The roundtables seemed to give me the best feeling for what people within the industry are actually concerned about and how they interact. For example, in the Education of a Game Designer roundtable, it was great to hear from actual people who will be doing the direct hiring of entry level game designers. They seemed to agree that there is a real problem with lack of emphasis on design in game design programs, most seem to skew towards art or programming. Until I went to that session the majority of people I had spoken with had told me that to become a designer you had to work your way up from an art or programming position.

As a girl in gaming I felt compelled to attend some of the sessions geared toward issues that face my gender in this industry. The Women in Gaming Roundtable, which spanned all three days, was an interesting experience. The roundtable brought up the topic of retaining women in the gaming industry, an issue I had never considered. As I looked around the conference I noticed that as far as students and entry level people were concerned, the numbers seemed much more balanced than if you looked at the number of attendees who were currently employed in the games industry. It seemed even among the women that did work in the industry most were part of marketing or HR. The roundtable discussed ways to interest women in games, get them into the industry, and then keep them there. However, it has always been my opinion that the problem is not that most games don't appeal to women, but that most games don't appeal to people of certain personality types. One person touched on this briefly, but the idea seemed to be skimmed over.

My favorite type of lectures at GDC were ones where people basically laid out their own life experience and explained how it would be useful to everybody else. These are the “Learn from the mistakes of others: You can't make them all yourself” lectures. I especially enjoyed Attack of the Design Directors, which was presented by Brian Allgeier. His method of communication was humorous, clear, and his experiences during the growth of the industry were very insightful.

Most of the really good advice I got about GDC came out of the Tuesday meet and greet with the mentors. So for all future scholarship winners, and really any student or person trying to break into the industry, here are a few things to keep in mind. Take business cards, even if they just have your name, email, and school you attend. Never ask someone for a business card, but if they offer it to you write down what day you met them on, where you met, and what you talked about on the back. Wait until you have finished talking to a person to do this!!! Furthermore, if a person you are talking with is fascinating, helpful, or seems genuinely interested in talking to you, don't end the conversation to go to a session of have lunch with your buddies. If you are 21 buy them a drink, a lot of good networking seemed to happen over drinks. Probably the best piece of advice I got at the conference was, don't sit with your friends all the time; you'll never meet new people that way. I met more people because I needed a seat in a crowded room then any other way. Well, that and ConfQuest, but mostly I met other students that way.

Overall, GDC was amazing for me. I met some truly unique people, had some fun and even though I only made it down to the Expo floor for Booth Crawl managed to get some good swag. Most importantly I have a much better sense of the personality of the gaming industry, what issues are relevant right now, and solidified my goal of becoming a part of it all.

Erin Reynolds, University of Southern California

When I discovered that I would be able to attend the GDC as one of the IGDA scholars, I was initially a little unsure of what to expect. Of course I knew that I would be given the opportunity to attend various sessions on a variety of topics of interest to me as a potential game developer, to meet others as passionate about creating games as myself, and to gain an understanding of the industry as a whole. However, beyond that, I was completely unaware of the incredible experience that lay ahead of me.

“Rolling the Dice: The Risks and Rewards of Developing Katamari Damacy” was undoubtedly my favorite session. Keita Takahashi, creator of of Katamari Damacy, spoke about his experiences in creating the wholly unique and fabulous game and his experiences as a game developer in general. His thoughts on the art and science to game development and his philosophy on life were both refreshing and inspirational.

The “Game Design Challenge: The Emily Dickinson License” was another incredible session I attended. Will Wright, Clint Hocking, and Peter Molyneux were given the task of conceptualizing a game based on the writings or life of Emily Dickinson. Game ideas included being Dickinson's muse, interacting in a surreal world of visual poetry, and having Dickinson as a virtual friend. I am still amazed by the ideas all three men developed. In short, I left this session wanting nothing more than a chance to play each pitched proposal.

Another session that affected me was Satoru Iwata's “Heart of the Gamer.” As the president of Nintendo, a game developer, and as a gamer, Iwata spoke of his vision of the future of games and game development. The passion he had for creating solid, innovative games excited me about the immense potential that the games of the future truly have. In addition, attendees were shown some footage of the upcoming new Zelda game. While this is not where the merit of the session wholly lied, it was still a fun goodie.

While I have listed three conference sessions above that I particularly enjoyed, that is not to say that these were the only good sessions I attend. I could easily add three more to the list, such as Will Wright's “The Future of Content,” or a panel on “Sexuality in Games: When is it Appropriate,” that were equally as fantastic as those described above.

I would advise all future scholarship winners and attendees to go into the conference with an open mind. You never know whom you are going to meet, what you will learn, and where you will end up at any given moment. Also, one should attend with the understanding that it is not humanly possible to see all of the conference. By attending one event, 10 others are inevitably missed. Therefore, it is important to prioritize but also be flexible, as unexpected opportunities may arise and thus necessitate can a change in any original plans. Lastly, scholarship students should take full advantage of the mentorship program. It provides for a unique opportunity to ask any questions related to getting a job in the industry, how the industry works, how the GDC works, and so forth. Your mentor is not just a teacher or future contact, but also a friend.

My last piece of advice is if you can go to the GDC, then go. As I have said, it is a unique and invaluable experience for anyone who has a passion for creating games in any capacity.

Galip Kartoglu, Yildiz Technical University (Turkey)

GDC is a great event to learn about the industry and improve yourself (or to learn what to do to improve yourself.). That's really what happened to me after the conference: I leveled up! I felt the heat and the chaos of game development when I listened to the lecturers and talked to people from the industry. Then I made my decision: my place would be here; it would be somewhere on the industry scene. Now I want it much more than before.

My Mentor Bob Zasio was really caring and tried to help me as much as he could. I know it was challenging for him to advise an aspiring game developer from overseas. Having a mentor for each student was really a good idea and worked!


Bob and I

I couldn't attend too many sessions. I just attended the lectures due to my lack of English conversation skills and I was unprepared for what was coming. Even with just the lectures, I got more then I'd expected. Sessions I enjoyed the most were Get In The Game! How To Obtain a Game Industry Job by Marc Mencher , Game Design Challenge: The Emily Dickinson License and Gripping Game Design: The Mood and Ambience of Silent Hill by Akira Yamaoka.

Marc Mencher's advice about obtaining an industry job was very informative if you're really close to beginning a job hunt. His points were so strong and the facts about the job finding process he mentioned were pretty striking. Finding a suitable job is not an easy one, especially if you're not living close to hiring companies and/or don't have the connections. Networking and making connections are key.

Game Design Challenge was a really hilarious and impressive session. I was amazed by the fact that a really good game designer can design a game out of anything! Just name it, and it gets produced. Designing a game of poetry was a really good choice here. The three designers showed up with really amazing ideas, and they spiced them up with pretty good jokes and humor. The idea of making a game set in a surrealistic world that shows the craziness in a poet's mind was the most incredible idea I heard here.

Before his session, the only thing that I know about Akira Yamaoka was he was the music composer of the Silent Hill series, for which he'd produced outstanding sound tracks, but that day I learned he was also the producer for the game series as well! So the panel was not about the mood of the music, it was about the themes in a game design. Akira Yamaoka's point of view in his panel was really interesting. He talked about the things that make us fear and feel uneasy in certain circumstances and tried to open the doors to humanity's inner mechanism for feeling fear. Mentioning the differences between horror approaches of Hollywood and Japanese cinema, he tried to the mood of the game, why they have implemented some features, why they didn't use others. It was good to know that developers of Silent Hill series are aware of what they are doing and that they are very sophisticated about making a horror game. I admired their professionalism.

I have some advice for future scholarship winners and other student attendees. Since my condition here is a bit different (I was one of the few people that was attending outside of U.S.), my advice would be for other non-US students. If your first language is not English, be sure that it's good and you have enough communication skills. Otherwise you'll end up going only to the lectures and panels, and miss the chance of attending roundtables and discussions. This may also prevent you from entering conversations between developers and you may fail in making connections. Another advice is to not do job-hunting, as this is not really the time and the place for this. You may do it when you are really ready and in other ways. If you are considering living and working in U.S., be sure to be in a condition of staying long enough there. No developer will likely get you under their roof, if you are too far or not likely to live in the U.S. Or you may consider finding the closest game development house to you (I'm sure most people think this way.)

And lastly, make a schedule! Don't hang around randomly. Try to pick the sessions out of your usual context. That really makes it easier to see the big picture. Don't go to the sessions which you can learn from a book unless the speaker is very famous about his/her area. And don't miss the challenge sessions!

Havard Christensen, Hedmark University College (Norway)

GDC, San Francisco: Sometimes in your life, you are offered certain opportunities, some you simply would end up regretting if you dismissed. Let me tell you first hand, you would have been regretting saying no to the IGDA GDC Scholarship your whole life if you ever did such a foolish thing. How do I know? Well, it's not because I did dismiss the chance given to me, but quite the opposite. I welcomed it with my whole heart, and to all other foreign, and future, scholarship winners, so should you, even if it does involve using all your savings for the plane ticket.

The People: The most important part of GDC is the thing it contains most of, and no, that is not games. For each game being done, there are tons of people involved; at GDC you have them next to you. Take a good look at people's badge; they might have been involved in your most favorite game ever! Of course, people are not the essence of GDC, but the essence is a subset of peoples; people who love and create games! The variety of them is astonishing, male, female, programmers, artists, game designers, producers, composers, writers, the whole lot is there, and if you are too, then go talk to the essence of GDC!

The Sessions: Sessions are there to educate you, enlighten you in a new subject, or perhaps change your perspective a bit. We were advised to not only go to the sessions that were in our field. My field is programming, and I did as every programmer would have done; I almost went exclusively to programming sessions. That I regret, because after the few non-programming sessions I went to, I had things to say, things to discuss with others, whereas after a programming lecture, I just knew I had to wait to get home and get the technical slides, before I could use what I'd learned.

The Learning: That being said about the sessions, I did of course learn something. I had a better idea on how I could harness the power of the GPU to get it do display scalar fields through a technique called ray marching. I learned about a new parallax mapping technique that could eliminate all the artifacts and I saw a talk on COLLADA, an open 3d format, that people can use, and is under heavy support from Sony.

The Mentors: Every IGDA scholarship winner was set up with a mentor. You mentor was someone within the industry who could show you around, perhaps introduce you to some people and tell you a bit or two about the game industry. I had one big problem with my mentor. The problem was finding him, and the reason it was a problem was because of some mistake I made, that no one else should make: I didn't bring an operative mobile phone! My Norwegian mobile phone did not work in the US, and the phone number I got from my mentor was pretty useless. If there's something I'm regretting, it's the lack of contact with my mentor, due to my incapability to bring with me, or rent, an operative mobile phone.

Parties: If you have the chance to go to a party, then do it. It's a good way to meet people, and as stupid as it may sound, a tender drop of alcohol loosens up the mood.

Jennifer Estaris, Columbia University

Game Developers Conference 2005: a tremendous opportunity, with an air of excitement that palpably and viscerally pervades every speaker and attendee. I highly doubt there are many other conferences where the following happens at a session:

How many people are here just because developing games is a job, and you need a paycheck, and don't really care?[one man raises his hand] [laughter]

And how many are here because you love games? [majority of audience raises hands]

Greg Costikyan asked these questions at GDC's “Burning Down The House - Game Developers Rant”—during a rant ! It's ridiculous for me to overemphasize the love required to create games, especially since most are familiar with the difficulties of breaking into this industry. Concise strategies on getting the most out of GDC, as though it were a massive multiplayer real-life game, are peripheral to recreating my experience in the next few paragraphs—personal contextualization/narratives versus rules. After all, exploration of narrative is the hip wave in the philosophy of decision-making processes, in A.I., and in games, particularly those open-ended games where the satisfaction is short-lived since we're mostly beating our own imaginative challenges rather than someone else's (i.e. the game designer).

OVERALL IMPRESSION

One thing is clear: these are exhilarating times to be involved in the video game industry, containing calls for revolution, with everyone involved in intellectual discourse over money, art, violence, sex, innovation, sequels, gaming feminism (for lack of a better term), and the most compelling question: what is a game? This year definitely heralded the Advent of the Meta-Games, or the player-as-artist game, or the let's-break-the-rules-of-what's-a-game game. Semantics traps aside, is the idea of gameplay no longer firmly associated with designer-driven rules and goals? When a game designer gives a player a “fun” tool for creating “fun”, the tool no longer fits under the strict definition of the word game, but rather under the realm of video toys for all ages. This is not to say that traditional games are on the outs; in fact, the accessibility of tools for players to generate their own games and share with the masses will result in stronger games, whether AAA or indie, as the benchmark will be raised—in the same way that Will Wright's “The Future of Content” lecture and demo excited and simultaneously vexed the attendees, as what he promises to deliver will set player expectations higher.

CONFERENCE SESSION

The following conference sessions definitely expanded my vision and understanding of game development, but hardly encompass all of my favorites.

Rolling the Dice—The Risks and Rewards of Developing Katamari Damacy

Keita Takahashi

Many highly recommended seeing speakers from Japan since the opportunity to see them is rare. Of course, due to my Katamari addiction I would have attended this session regardless. Not only is Takahashi an inspiring speaker (and based on his speeches during the Awards ceremony, the inspiration for the Katamari King), but he gave listeners insight into the intangible, nebulous, serendipitous, artistic process of game design. He refused to compromise on his fixation on the analog sticks, thus leading to gameplay innovation. His background in sculpture and memories of Field Day are his influences, not years in a game corporation or academia. Game design is an art.

Experimental Gameplay Workshop 2005.

Jon Blow

There is no excuse to forfeit seeing the multiple futures of gameplay.

Game Design Challenge: The Emily Dickinson Challenge

Eric Zimmerman, Peter Molyneux, Will Wright, Clint Hocking

See the game design rock ‘n roll stars, in action. This time around, three elite game designers stumbled through Dickinson's poetry to create a game. Like the Experimental Gameplay Workshop, this event allowed creators to shine at their craft without having to consider financial success.

Burning Down The House - Game Developers Rant

Eric Zimmerman, Chris Hecker, Brenda Laurel, Greg Costikyan, Warren Spector

Who can forget Brenda Laurel's rousing rant, with such mind-blowing morsels like “ The commercial game business is a non-consensual relationship between middle-aged men and young boys. ” and “ I talked to 22 little boys in Los Angeles, interviewed them all extensively. All of them wanted to see that game [Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]. They were waiting for it to come out. And with only one exception--the thing that they wanted to see was to be able to drive by their house. They weren't interested in the revenge or the bad story of crime and punishment, and violence. They weren't even interested in stealing cars. They're interested in the simulation.... We model the male ethos in the games that we design. ”

ADVICE

Rest up, make business cards, be thankful for your mentor (thank you Robin!), hit up the evening events, don't drool too much over Warren Spector and other diamonds, bring your résumé to the expo's career pavilion and work the booths with the “I'm an IGDA scholar” intro, network by talking about your love (hint: games), hang out at the members-only IGDA lounge with amazing people like Rudy Geronimo and Sora Bai, and optimize your time as though there were no restart function (which there is not). An example: I arrived at Will Wright's lecture an hour early, so I hit the Sony Metreon to view Miyamoto's Walk of Game star just one more time, became distracted shopping for items to match the HDTV I won during Microsoft's keynote speech (yes, rubbing it in), and came back just in time to be rejected from entering the sardinely-packed space. Instead, I cursed the unavailability of a load-from-save function and sat outside the room, watching the mesmerizing lecture on a paltry television screen. Yet another case of live performance again beating technology to a mechanical pulp.

It was extremely gratifying to hear speakers talk about topics that I've attempted exploring on my own, in my gratuitously pricey New York apartment, surrounded by writers who don't play games because they find computers intimidating and the hardware and software interfaces frustrating, women who don't consider themselves gamers because they consider video games to be those action-packed stories requiring unnecessary blood, although they themselves will happily spend hours playing games like scrabble both online and off, and children who are not interested in being force fed games that do not appeal to them. I am lucky for being a part of this grand event. Perhaps lucky is the wrong word, all too related to the element of randomness. Wait. Uh-oh. Jennifer falls into a semantics trap. There are no exits around her. [S]ave, [R]eload, or [A]bort?

Melanie Lam, Carnegie Mellon University

Overview

My account of the GDC comes from the perspective of a production/game design track attendee with some previous industry exposure. The best thing about the conference this year is that I came away with a job. The worst thing about the conference this year was that I spent a significant portion of my time in San Francisco interviewing for that job and had to miss Will Wright's Future of Content session which is rumored to have left many a jaw hanging.

Conference Sessions

Game Design Challenge: The Emily Dickinson License

Eric Zimmerman, Clint Hocking, Peter Molyneux, Will Wright

A great lesson from GDC 2004 was to show up early for any session with such big names on the panel and get a good spot at the front of the room. The challenge was to design a game around an Emily Dickinson license. Having three distinguished game designers divulging their thought processes is one of the best reasons to attend the GDC if you have an interest in game design. Being able to contrast the various ways that each designer confronted the problem was really valuable. Clint Hocking came up with the most thorough design using symbols to represent elements of Dickinson's poetry. Will Wright was the most entertaining of the three and his very novel yet light approach with USB Emily (Unstable Synthetic Brain) won the crowd over. Peter Molyneux approached the problem as a visualization of the poems and created a really cool ambience with his demo. Big takeaway: the uncluttered and logical steps involved in a creative design process.

Experimental Gameplay Workshop

This was a rapid three hour session with presentations by several different companies, schools and individuals. The company that ran the Halo 2 marketing game presented the very cool location based immersive game/advertising campaign “I love bees”. The Indie Game Jam presented games that top developers had built in four days around the theme of “People Interacting”. It was full of fresh ideas and showcased the spirit of innovation without concern for large budgets, polish or licenses!

Why Isn't the Game Industry Making Interactive Stories?

Andrew Stern, Michael Mateas, Tim Schafer, Neil Young, Warren Spector

The main takeaway from this session was that video games just may not be the right medium for interactive storytelling. Warren Spector compared storytelling in games to trying to make a musical in a silent movie. There was some discussion that centered on the technical limitations such as how hard it is to emulate nuances of human behavior in games. On the business end, making interactive stories is a big risk and Neil Young suggested that perhaps publishers should not be expected to take this risk. There was some discussion about elements of narrative and storytelling found in games today such as Ico. Within the industry, Ico is highly regarded for incorporating story and gameplay but commercially it didn't do that well. This led the panel to conclude that people may not want interactive stories in games.

Recommendations

Know what you want to get out of the conference and prioritize accordingly.

    1. Do you want a job or internship?
    2. Do you want to learn about a particular area such as game design or production
    3. Do you want to develop a whole bunch of industry contacts?

As a student graduating this May, my top priority was to find the right place to work. The conference helped in two ways: one, I was particularly interested in how the industry was coming to terms with quality of life issues and I had the opportunity to attend this summit by volunteering to take notes and write up the proceedings. Activision had recently held interviews at my school. I was able to connect with them again at the GDC booths and visited their San Francisco studio for a tour as well as an informal party on Wednesday night.

If you want to make lots of contacts just to get your name out there, then parties are a great place to do it. I attended a party hosted by my school as well as the Electronic Arts Godfather party. My mentor, Erin Hoffman, told me about the Celebrating Women in Games gathering as well.

If you're looking to become a producer or designer, look specifically for talks in these tracks by reputed designers or producers who have worked on AAA titles. At GDC 2004, David Perry's talk on “What does a Video Game Producer Do?” really stuck with me. This year, I leaned toward the Game Design Track, attending the Working Game Designer tutorial session by Noah Falstein and other game design talks. It was good to see the industry realize that they cannot keep churning out the same types of games over and over again. This was a theme across many of the sessions I attended. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata challenged the audience in his keynote speech: “Have you thought of making a game that you would not want to play?” This means there is going to be greater receptivity to unique gameplay like Nintendo's Nintendogs or Katamari Damacy – and more opportunities for female designers!

Conclusion

Attending a conference is tiring. Be sure to wear comfortable shoes, I made the mistake of not doing this on Thursday, the longest day of the conference. Lining up sessions back to back is not always the best way to go. If you're tired from compulsively attending sessions at every possible time slot, you lose focus even in the best talks and then you don't get as much out of it. Be selective in choosing the ones you think you will be most interested in. This year, I didn't walk out of any talks after they had started whereas last year, I was constantly in and out of talks once I discovered they were not exactly what I thought they would be. Another reason I stayed put this year was because I realized that to be a successful producer in the game industry means understanding every aspect of what goes into developing a game. With this mindset, every topic was relevant in preparation for my career.

Nick Schrag, University of Cincinnati

My GDC experience was nothing short of amazing. This was my first time going and I wasn't sure quite what to expect. My first day there was for the Secret Level visit and student orientation. That was a nice way to ease into the conference experience on a smaller scale. It made me more comfortable about meeting people, and game developers at that. I got to know a few of the other students and met some of the Secret Level folks. I ran into one of the programmers I met from Secret Level during the conference, and again at the Sony party, where I was introduced to some more guys from Secret Level. I ended up going to a party of theirs later in the week. By the way, the Sony party was awesome. I stayed until they kicked everyone out, and then spent the night in my uncle's car since I was commuting an hour and a half from his apartment.

Before the Sony party though, I attended the IGF and Game Developers Choice Awards. It was an entertaining, though somewhat long, ceremony. I think my favorite award recipient was Keita Takahashi (creator of Katamari Damacy). For his first award he said (in Japanese) “I just flew in from Japan, so I am still very tired. Thank you.” His second award a little while later he said, “I am still tired, but I think this is waking me up.” I attended his talk the following day. He is likable and humorous and takes a lighthearted approach to games. I wish I could speak Japanese. I would have liked to have met him personally.

Having a mentor for the conference was a definite plus. My mentor was Robb Mills, audio lead and composer from Stormfront Studios. He was one of the first people I met at the conference. He gave me some good advice and introduced me to a lead designer from Stormfront. He also gave me a pass to the Sony party.

One other thing that I nearly forgot. I was one of the lucky 1,000 people to win an HD TV at Microsoft's keynote. That was the best part of the conference…until I went to some very cool talks (Microsoft's talk was dull until they handed out TVs). After the conference was over, I felt inspired and encouraged. Inspired to start working on a game project, and encouraged that game development is what I want to be doing as a career.

Will Wright's Talk

I was one of the lucky people to get in line early enough to see his talk. I'm glad I did. During the talk, he demoed Spore , which is perhaps one of the grandest game designs ever. The scope of the game is gigantic, ranging from microscopic to galactic. The atmosphere in the room during his talk was electric. Each time he zoomed out to a new layer, the crowd was amazed and applause broke out. One of the coolest things about the game is that it is completely procedurally generated. Each texture, model, animation, and even sound is generated by a tiny mathematical formula as opposed to a large art asset. This allows for a lot of emergent gameplay and involves the player to a new level. This talk piqued my interest in procedural graphics, so I plan on looking into them and playing around with them.

Nintendo Keynote

The Nintendo keynote was far better than Microsoft's. It had a personal touch to it as Iwata-san shared his experiences as a gamer and game developer. Overall, it renewed my confidence in Nintendo's ability to be an industry leader. And not a power crazy corporate juggernaut either. Nintendo also took some time to demo some DS games, including Nintendogs, Electroplankton, and MarioKart. The games (if you want to call the former two games) were interesting, but not all that exciting.

Wiring Narrative into Play

It is common to see stories in games, but many of the stories are not well told and make for an awkward experience. Hal Barwood proposed a blueprint for game stories which consist of premise, setting, character, action, and dialogue. Throughout his talk, he used various games to exemplify both good and bad uses of these five points.

The premise explains the player's role and motivations in the game. It is important that there is a reason for the player to behave as the game asks. The setting is closely tied to the premise. The premise must explain the setting, especially if it is on the absurd side of things. Characters must fit into the setting and the premise. It is important that the character has a background that explains why he is the hero of this particular story. Without this background information, the character winds up being “the Chosen One.” This is something that should be avoided. Barwood had to condense the last two points due to time. In summary, a story must be cohesive and each element must support the other elements.

Advice

Ronald Andaya, Cogswell Polytechnical College

The first year I went to a GDC was in 2004 with a cheap Expo Pass that allowed me to walk the floor for hours. From that experience, I became excited and realized that there is nothing more I would want than to become a game developer. Receiving a scholarship for GDC 2005 from IGDA provided me with a Classic Pass, which allowed me to attend lectures and keynotes. Being an IGDA Scholarship recipient provided an experience of the GDC that you do not feel on the Expo floor. It was a lot more exciting and educational, created friendships, and left me happy that I will be working in an industry full of good people.

Instead of walking around the floor and watching companies showcase their technology, I was able to meet other students and developers from all over the world. The key thing to the GDC is ‘networking.' I was able to meet other students from across the country and spent the week getting to know them, sharing ideas, and trying to get into all the after parties although we didn't have invitations. Besides meeting students, the opportunity to meet developers was the most rewarding. Wherever you were, someone in the industry was willing to talk to you, answer your questions and hand out their business card.

With a Classic Pass, I was able to attend keynotes and lectures. Out of those I attended, I thought the Nintendo keynote, the Tom Sweetney lecture on Game Technology and the Experimental GamePlay were the best. I tried to attend as many as I could. I learned that the best lectures always attracted the crowds, so for future attendees, ask as many people what lectures they are attending and go to those. I wished that I attended the Microsoft keynote because they gave out a thousand HDTVs. Instead, I attended a lecture on MaxScript that was dull. After that mistake, I started to follow the crowd and go to the more popular sessions which were good.

The Nintendo keynote given by Iwata was really good. Iwata is a really good speaker. He was very comedic and inspirational. He talked of the direction that Nintendo is headed and how we as developers should take games to a different level. He introduced games that were not the same as the games we are all used to playing. One was about having a pet dog, training it to obey voice commands and keeping him happy. The other will help non-musicians unlock their musical talent in this game called Electroplankton . He also introduced the Nintendo Revolution which is the project code name for the next-gen console and how it will implement wireless technology to its full capacity. There is one thing he talked about that left me inspired: keeping our hearts as gamers--in other words, before we become developers, we should love playing video games.

Since I am a programmer, I found the Tom Sweetney lecture on Game Technology amazing. It showcased what the Unreal Engine 3 is capable of and how easy it will make game development for artists. I was blown away by some of the models he displayed, the real time lighting/shadowing, the texture map, and the ease of visual scripting. The thing I liked the most and can't wait to use is the visual scripting. They made the use of certain scripts easy to implement on game development by simply dragging, dropping and connecting nodes.

The Experimental Gameplay was a great lecture. It showcased different types of games that we are not normally used to seeing. One was the I Love Bees campaign that had people from across the country answering pay phones and checking blogs. This game was used to hype the arrival of Halo 2 and made players feel as if they were at fault for the attack on Earth in the future. There was another game based on socializing skills similar to The Sims . The one game that caught my full attention and that I'm willing to purchase once it comes out is Ragdoll Kungfu . It was so different yet entertaining. I loved how the creators turned a movie into a game. I was amazed by the use of physics that simulated puppets and karate. I am looking forward to actually playing this game.

My overall impression of the GDC is that it is a rewarding experience for students. I learned a lot from talking to other students and developers, especially about what students have to do to get in the industry. Game developers are very friendly and open to questions. At the same time, they all have the same complaints like not enough sleep and no time for family. But talking to most of them, they are very happy and passionate about what they do. My advice to future attendees is plan out your schedule of lectures with backups, attend the keynotes because you might walk away with a television, wear comfortable shoes, bring business cards, go to the parties, and rest up before you arrive because you're going to be tired by the last day. I'm glad I had a great mentor (Dustin Clingman) who gave me great advice on meeting other people and was open to questions I had. The only complaint I have is that we couldn't get into some of the ‘cool' parties because we didn't have invitations. At various bars located close to the GDC, there were mini after parties and it was a more relaxed environment and I was able to meet a lot of developers. It was funny because a couple of us who wanted to get into the Sony party stood outside watching the party and felt left out. Hopefully, future students will be able to get into these types of parties.

Sebastian Schmidt, Bauhaus University Weimar (Germany)

I arrived at San Francisco Airport around 6 pm after a 14 hour flight from Frankfurt via Dallas,TX. Being in the US for the first time, San Francisco is overwhelming but since I was really tired I went to my hotel on 8th street - I just wanted to go to bed. However, that would not be that easy. The friendly woman at the reception told me that my reservation was cancelled 2 weeks ago. I was upset because I knew that most hotels in the city were booked. After 20 minutes of arguing, I got a key card for a room for my first night. The next day I had to cancel my trip to Secret Level to get a place to sleep for the upcoming nights.To get rid of my stress, I decided to take a look at the Golden Gate Bridge from the Lime Vista Point for a deep breath of fresh air.

Later that day the introductional meeting was interesting, except that i was too nervous to find the right words to describe myself and what I expected from the GDC. To select the most valuable lectures, it was very helpful for me to create a schedule and analyze it with my mentor. His advice was not to choose only 1 lecture per timeslot but to bear in mind 2 or 3 and give them with different priorities - if one is not as expected you have other options.

On Wednesday my mentor introduced me to some very interesting people, and there was my biggest mistake - I had got no business cards so far (in Germany business cards are very unusual for a student). Ok, so my goal for the first day was to organize some of these cards. Two hours - 1 missed the Microsoft giveaway - and one paper jammed printer later I got my business cards. Never ever forget your business cards, you need them!

The most interesting lecture on Wednesday was "Dynamic Waypoints, Object Grouping and Optimal Cover Positions" from Michael Delp. This lecture focused on finding out how to set the player under constant pressure, finding out how the player could leave its half/full covered position and firing at that spots, and finding the optimal way through the play ground with maximum cover.

For Thursday, I had marked some interesting sessions from the program, such as the COLLADA lecture and the lecture of Dave Weinstein, "A Case for Message Passing Architecture" covering different messaging architectures, efficient ways of managing message communication, and ways of analyzing messages.

Another interesting lecture was "Facial Animation with Muscle Simulation“ from Chriss McEvoy. He presented an interesting muscle approach—building muscles as bone chains. This involves animating the face with different setups (lesser bones) but the same animation controls. The weakness of this system is that too many bones has to be used to rebuild a face for really hifi animation and facial expressions. The one thing that really regret is that I missed the Will Wright talk about Spore, and that his talk wasn't repeated at the GDC-Cinema.

The most impressive Lecture on Friday was the Entertaining AI from the Entertainment Technology Center people. Their interdisciplinary approach draws knowledge from the field of acting, psychology and games.

Overall, the GDC was a really cool event to get impressions of what's going on and meeting people from different parts of the industry. Beside the interesting lectures and talks, the GDC is a good opportunity to get impressions for my future development. It provided me with an overview of what's cooking in other pots and what will be served next in the game industry.

Stephen Erin Dinehart, University of Southern California

The GDC is always a place of new ideas, reinvigoration, and inspiration; the 2005 GDC in San Francisco was no different. After much luck and my surprise, I was selected as a recipient of the IGDA GDC Scholarship for 2005. At last I could sit through all of my favorite sessions and panels, which I was not allowed into with my student pass the year previous in San Jose.

I arrived after a 5-hour bus ride from Los Angeles, to my surprise the hostel I had chosen to stay at, the Green Tortoise, was a choice location only about a mile from Mascone West. I had a day to wait until the Conference began, so I explored the treasure that is San Fran. Somehow I found myself wandering through Chinatown in a hurried pace to see the convention center. It was then I made my first acquaintance with my IGDA appointed GDC Mentor, Coray Seifert. We hit it off and soon enough he had me introduced to most of the Large Animal crew. The IGDA GDC Scholars Mentor program was great; Corey helped me to stay connected, and understand the happenings in and around the conference. The IGDA members lounge was a key spot for meeting others. I also managed to run into some of the other scholarship winners.

The days that followed were full of inspiring moments from winning a HDTV @ J Allard's Keynote, or seeing Will Wright present Spore for the first time, to just schmoozing in the lounge. For me the best part of the GDC is the feeling of actually being a part of the industry, seeing so many familiar faces and coming away with a mission to make the world a better place with great games.

I made a firm schedule and kept myself flexible for acting in the moment, and it all played out well. Twice a day I would think “my god games are great, they can change the world, and I can be a contributor to an amazing global community of passionate people that through their love of game, inspire each other to do great things”.

The whole experience just reinforced my love for the IGDA; I would like to thank Sora, Jason, Rudy, for all of their help and time; and the rest of the GDC community for making it such an inspiring place to be.

My advice to student attendee's:

  1. Make a schedule
  2. Stay flexible
  3. Have a back-up plan (in case the session puts u to sleep)
  4. Eat well, you need your energy (pastries and coffee = bad)
  5. Take chances; really, take chances.
  6. Remember, we are all geeks; your lack of social skills is normal.
  7. Talk to everyone.
  8. Milk your mentor 4 knowledge.
  9. Rest well
  10. Smile

Ting-Wei Liu, Digipen Institute of Technology

I have been thinking about how to write my GDC report ever since I came back from the trip. There is no word that can truly describe how excited and happy I am. As an IGDA scholarship recipient this year, I got to visit the Secret Level game studio in San Francisco with all other recipients. I was also paired with a mentor, Clarinda Merripen, Director of Operations at Cyberlore Studios, during the three day conference period to guide me and provide me with very useful advice. I can't thank her enough for being my mentor. She had provide me with so much advice and information, and she also introduced me to many wonderful people in the industry. Without her, I might have only gotten half of what I have got from the GDC this year!


Ting-Wei Liu & Clarinda Merripen at the last day of GDC

Another important impact on me after the GDC is that I have made my decision to go back to my home country, Taiwan, to open a game studio. That means I am not going to finish my study in the US, because I realized that even though the education from school is important, being able to stand up and really apply what I have learned toward my dream is even more critical. From the GDC and my mentor, I identified my opportunities in Taiwan's game industry, and finally decided to go for it. I will work as hard as I can in Taiwan because I hope one day Taiwan's game industry can have the same, if not more energy, as what I have experienced in GDC.

The three sessions in GDC that I have enjoyed the most:

Rolling the Dice – The risks & rewards of developing Katamari Damacy, from Keita Takahashi

Katamari Damacy is my favorite game ever since I put my hands on the controller and started to roll that ball, and after this session, Mr. Takahashi has also become one of my idols. He said that he thinks videogames are ultimately unnecessary for people, so in order to give their existence meaning, the games need to be stimulating - they need to be a bit punk. And the very true origin for where the idea of Katamari Damacy came from was his desire to create a game that delivered in four areas - something new, easily understood, enjoyable and funny, and can only be expressed in a videogame. These four concepts aren't new ideas, but he was tired of seeing so many similar-looking games on the market. He wanted something different. "I would like to do something that makes people happy," Mr. Takahashi said, and I am sure, this is also what I am going to do in my future game industry adventure!


Ting-Wei Liu & Keita Takahashi

The Future of Content, from Will Wright

I really enjoyed this session, although I only got to sit on the floor for this whole hour. GDC should make this session to be another keynote; instead just a session in a small room packed with hundreds of people, more people are outside the room couldn't get in. So I should say I am already lucky enough to be in that room to wittiness Mr. Wright revealed the next version of Sims . I am not a fan of Sims , but I am really impressed by how they came out with the new idea and system to let players create and exchange game contents in the game. The game ideas are nothing new but being able to integrate everything together and make it a very nice big version of Sims is what shocked me. In addition, Mr. Wright really knows how to use PowerPoint as an aid along with his speech to entertain his audiences!


Really a lot of people in such a small room!


Mr. Wright is the hero here

Lessons from Viewtiful Joe: Making a creatively & financially successful new game, from Atsushi Inaba

In this session, Mr. Inaba, the President and CEO of Clover Studio, talked about the process of designing a creatively and financially successful original game, utilizing three of his projects as examples: "Steel Battalion," "Viewtiful Joe," and the upcoming "Okami." Mr. Inaba pointed out three factors when developing an original game: the Gamble, the Risk, and the Thrill. He also gave some compelling reasons to make creative or unusual projects. He discussed three of these: Staff-focused, Product-focused, Brand-focused projects. At the end of his speech, he reminded the audience that by continuing to develop sequels and rehashes, the market will shrink as consumers grow tired of the same old thing, and the sex and violence alone cannot keep the game market afloat forever.


Ting-Wei Liu & Atsushi Inaba

From what I have learned from GDC and my mentor, I would advise any student who is going to future GDCs or similar events:

•  Make business cards with your name, contact info and related work experiences on it. You need to learn to exchange your cards with other people, and try to make them remember you.

•  When choosing the sessions, choose the speakers instead of the session titles. The contents in those sessions are good, but being able to meet and talk to your heroes in the industry is even cooler!

•  Talk to people and go to as many parties as you can. Don't be shy!

•  If you really want to get into the industry, you have to be in the GDC no matter what it takes, because you need to have that hunger!

Lastly, I have to say that I am really glad that I got the IGDA scholarship, the trip to game studio, have a mentor on my side, meet with lots of great industry people, etc. I appreciate IGDA for all of these, and if my new business is going well next year, I will come back to the US for next year's GDC for sure. I welcome everyone to email me if you need any other advice from my experience to GDC, or you are going to visiting Taiwan in the future, or for any other reason. I will do my best to help!

Travis Draper, Queensland University of Technology (Australia)

Attending the 2005 Game Developers Conference was a daunting experience, especially after traveling halfway around the world to be there. Knowing that game developers whose work I'd enjoyed for years would be conducting seminars on their craft, and knowing that I'd be there to watch and learn, made it both exciting and somewhat overwhelming at the same time. It took a while for me to realize how big an impact the GDC would have on my knowledge and understanding of the industry, the craft and the people involved, but I immediately knew that this would be a life-changing opportunity.

Every seminar I went to opened my eyes to many new techniques and ideas, both theoretical and practical. But one of the highlights for me was the talk by Akira Yamaoka entitled “Gripping Game Design: The Mood & Ambience of Silent Hill” in which he expounded on techniques used in the Silent Hill series to create fear, tension and unease in the player, and how visuals, audio and gameplay tied together in a way unique to the series. Not only was this a fascinating topic, but also extremely helpful and relevant to several projects of my own.

Another seminar that I attended was “Dissecting Interactive Design” by one of the designers I've respected for years, Cliff Bleszinski. This discussion was not only enormously relevant and interesting, but hilarious in parts. He spoke about effective gameplay elements and incorporating them into the larger design, common myths regarding game design and other topics such as gameplay mechanic loops and how to maintain the player's interest throughout a game (a useful thing to know!)

On the technical side of things, the “Art Content Creation for the Next Generation Unreal Engine” by Jerry O'Flaherty and Pete Hayes was very inspiring. As a user of current-generation Unreal software, seeing the construction workflow of new assets for the next Unreal Engine games was amazing. I already knew that the engine used normal mapping, HDR lighting, and so forth. However, seeing the actual step-by-step construction for these things was not only educational but just plain captivating. I'm such a geek.

We've been asked to offer advice to future scholarship winners and student attendees at the GDC, but there's really so much there that any advice I offer would be subjective. The best thing to do when you go to the GDC is to see what seminars benefit you, and don't be shy. When you're sitting at a table for lunch, you might be sitting next to someone who has nothing to do at all with your goals in the games industry, or they may be a potential future employer. Either way, it's a conversation you wouldn't have otherwise had and a friend you wouldn't have otherwise made.

The expo is probably the most visible part of any conference, but honestly, it's almost all middleware and nothing a student would really care about. The career pavilion is great, but apart from that, unless you're a game developer looking for software and hardware tools, just focus on your seminars and taking as many pages of notes as you possibly can.

Ultimately, enjoy the conference and see what you want to see. Talk to people around you, take notes and just have fun.

Vancito Wallace, Carnegie Mellon University

There were quite a few events that I attended that ranged from informative and enlightening, educational and pragmatic, inspirational and introspective to fun and fun. Some managed to be all of the above. Outside of the conference building itself: I attended the Final Fantasy concert at the Nob Hill Masonic Center, socialized with other game developers and had more than a few in-depth conversations about game design and the industry with my scholarship mentor Ed Bryne. All of these things were important to stimulate my personal growth and citizenship in the game development community. 3 specific sessions I found particularly engaging:

My introduction to GDC 2005 began with my attendance of the two-day game design workshop. This was my first opportunity to learn game design from an outside source that was not a book. I was excited to be in a room full of my peers—individuals who live to be a part of the world's youngest art form: interactive entertainment. More specifically, I was thrilled to interact with the sub-group of people who were interested in game design. There were many basic topics in the session that I have been exposed to by the books I have read on my own on game design. However, the first thing I wrote furiously in my notebook was the different ‘kinds of fun' a game can provide for the participant. I was familiar with most of these ideas explicitly or at the least implicitly, except for one that I felt was one of the most obvious: submission. I guess I was most oblivious to this type of fun because it is the kind that one seeks most unconsciously. When you think about games critically you put them into categories. ‘Myst' is a game about discovery and challenge. ‘Final Fantasy' games are truly about sensation (the look, and feel), fantasy, and narrative. Massively multiplayer games are largely about fellowship and expression (when you customize the look of your character). Of course games must appeal to most if not all the kinds of fun to be memorable. But the ‘submission' aspect or the simple feeling that “I am not worried about anything but the problems and rules of this game.” ‘Submission' may be the most important kind of fun games provided by the immersive models.

I was especially looking forward to the “Game Design Challenge” and I was not disappointed. This session gave me the ability to see some of the industry's top designers and witness how they think. The premise of the session was also intriguing. (Of course the large part of the video game audience was not remotely interested in a license like ‘ Emily Dickinson ' but that is the subject for another essay) how would one create a title based on the intellectual property of a dead poet?? From this session I learned that it is important to approach licensed titles with your own goals. It is from the tension between the goals of the designer and the content to be presented that an engaging experience can emerge. Clint Hocking obviously had the idea to give the player the experience of ‘creating poetry', and combining this idea with the license led to the concept that the player would act as Emily Dickinson's inspiration. This gameplay dynamic led to a lot of interesting questions, particularly, what aspects of one's life does ‘inspiration' affect? As an aspiring game designer I know that what I seek out and expose myself to are heavily affected by my career goals.

One of the final sessions I attended at the conference was: “ Why Isn't the Game Industry Making Interactive Stories? ” This was an insightful conversation looking into the evolution of narrative in the interactive medium. This session wasn't as informative as much as it presented questions which I have been contemplating since the conference. This kind of introspection can lead to the kind of intellectual growth beyond a simple lesson. Why does the interactive medium feel the need to provide the player with a ‘victory condition'? Can we give players real choices? Can we create consequences that the player will truly ‘feel'? My question coming away from this session was: although we can skip ‘cut scenes' will we ever be able to skip ‘gameplay'? If our industry is ever to truly embrace the importance of story in the medium they must be able to cater to the players (some of which I know personally) who don't want to play any more tonight but desperately want to know what happens next in the story.

This session also made me question how I focus my exposure to other mediums of fiction based on my desire to be a game designer. Are action movies the best model for the future of video games? During the session I heard one of the industry professionals proclaim: “We are still like films when they were just sticking a camera at the end of the stage,” noting the relative infancy of video games as a form of expression. This single statement has led me to study innovations in film and theorize as to how these theories may be applied to video games. I have subsequently researched the life of D.W. Griffith, whom many film scholars would call the first modern ‘film director'.

Overall GDC was an inspiration to me because of the feeling of community between game developers which I was able to observe. It was powerful to see the group dynamic that we all feel over the span of numerous websites, chatrooms and other on-line mediums in person. I will remember what Neil Young said at one of the sessions I attended: “It is not the job of the publisher to innovate, it is my job to trick the publisher into thinking that the innovative direction I am taking the game to is a safe one.” However, it was enthralling to see publishers (especially Nintendo and Microsoft) cater to game developers with free T-shirts, smoothies, and HD-TV's. Although I must advise future scholarship recipients as I was advised: ‘Do not go to the expo floor, you aren't going to learn anything on the expo floor (that's what E3 is for).'

READ THIS PART OF THE ESSAY. As I sat in the park near the convention with a group of scholarship recipients and their mentors, eating our color coded bag lunches, I saw a group of children playing football. I was deeply struck by their activity. I had been attending a conference about ‘games' all day and I had not once encountered anything that spoke to a level of pure ‘play' close to what I was witnessing at that moment. As a professional actor and improviser, I recognize that play can be quite ‘serious' and that serious play—uninhibited physical or mental exertion at the limits of our being for its own sake - is an impetus for PERSONAL EVOLUTION. This particular kind of growth is only possible within the realm of what we deem to be ‘games'. While watching these children play their game of football, I realized that undertaking the role of a game creator within our society, can be a noble calling by which we may enlighten as well as entertain our fellow human beings. If our medium allows the player to experience a life which was previously inaccessible or to question their own humanity or if through their play the conscious is set aside long enough for the sub-conscious, the soul, to bubble up, we have truly left our mark on society, our culture, and the world. We may (but are likely not to) see the sunny, sweaty children in the park from our cubicle, but if we recognize what they do as the goal for the things we create we will ‘become more powerful than we could possibly imagine'.

Victoria Webb, Carnegie Mellon University

There is much more to the GDC then seeing the talks or exploring the expo floor. It is an excuse for the industry to take a week off and socialize with all of their peers. That's not to dismiss the value of the Classic Pass the IGDA was kind enough to give us scholarship winners. The talks are valuable, both in content and in the opportunity to meet people in the chairs around us.

The people at the conference were amazingly open and friendly. I've lost count of the number of times people told me to contact them with questions or other offers of aid. Even if they can't offer a job or an internship, they really want to help students. They listen to you as deeply as they would a colleague. They ask serious questions. It was an amazing experience for me.

I had a lot of fun at the conference. I had to push myself outside my comfort zone. Many thanks must go to my mentor, Chris Oltyan, for helping me grow. I was poorly prepared for the conference. My advice grows from all the things I didn't do well, and is the result of me learning from my own mistakes.

If you wish to read more about my scholarship experience, check out the IGDA scholars blog Jeff set up on fuzzybinary.com.

Sessions of Note:

Katamari Damacy

Keita Takahashi was refreshing in his humbleness and his humor. As he talked he doodled little princes and kings of the cosmos around his videos and slides. He expressed a desire to make the world a better place by making people happy. His designs are simple and elegant—something to remember as the industry goes crazy about graphical quality and complex AIs.

Why Isn't the Game Industry Making Interactive Stories?

This panel was particularly interesting to me. Two main points rose out of the discussion. One is that there are very few people trained to create good interactive stories. Knowledge of writing for film or novels doesn't transfer over well into the creation of game narratives. The other point was that procedural narrative may become the way of things. The current river and lake structure of narrative is clunky and rarely works well. A procedural narrative will support the player in whatever choices he makes, but the challenge of making it satisfying is a bit of a technical hurdle (unless you count on the player's imagination to do most of the work).

Educating a Game Designer

I sat in on this panel when I should have been in Will Wright's talk hearing about Spore. It was interesting hearing about the concerns of the academic world trying to train people to enter the game industry and how it differed from the needs of the industry itself. The round table consisted of students, professors and industry professionals. Right now, there are too many schools handing out degrees for the industry to absorb them all. The main question is, how can we develop a curriculum that gives the industry what it needs but also leaves students with a broader understanding so they can enter any related industry.

Advice:

Wesley Beary, Grinnell College

Impressions:

The Game Developer's Conference was most certainly a must-attend event. Having wanted to go for a number of years I was very excited to have been chosen as a scholar and finally have an opportunity to attend. It was everything I had hoped for. To be surrounded by such a large number of like-minded individuals was more than refreshing, it was inspirational. As I finish my time as a student I am thrilled to have been given such inspiration to succeed.

Sessions:

Will Wright's The Future of Content. Amazing. Pretty much everyone in the room was blown away by his presentation of Spore, his next game. It goes way beyond that though. I saw Will Wright speak twice, even shook his hand, and it is not the fact that he is successful that makes him worth seeing. For one thing, his presentations are incredibly entertaining (and you are bound to learn something). I think most importantly though, I get the distinct impression that he does not really think like many of us. He takes the notion of 'outside the box' to new heights and it's rather awe-inspiring to behold. If you get a chance to hear him speak you should definitely listen.

Daniel James and Michael Bayne's Puzzle Pirates: Lesson From an Indie MMOG. This talk was very insightful, especially to an aspiring indie developer. The guys themselves are very nice and down to earth. They chatted through their trials and tribulations, and perhaps more importantly provided numbers. Seeing actual accounting information from someone who managed to make it through was incredibly insightful. The life of an indie is not easy or straightforward, but this provided some insight into making a go of it. Having never played the game, it was also interesting to see this rather refreshing take on the MMO with an amusing theme to boot. Having returned to the real world, I must say that I am now thoroughly addicted.

Jonathan Blow, et al.'s Experimental Gameplay Workshop. First, I must admit that I ducked out of this early to go see the Puzzle Pirates talk. That said, the first hour was really amazing. This talk is interesting specifically because these people very purposefully do the kinds of things that are too risky to fit into traditional game development. First was "I Love Bees". They did some really interesting viral marketing that grew into an enormous movement of people. The other thing I saw there concerned the Indie Games Jam. They tend to get really amazing code bases to start from, and then see what they can put together in four days. In this case, they got large portions of the Sims to toy with, and tried their hands at making games about human interaction. From a Lord of the Flies game to one about high school girls, these games pushed the boundaries of what can be done--boundaries which you will not find being pushed else where.

Advice:

Ask people about what sessions to attend, especially people that are returning to GDC for their umpteenth time. They will often know much more about the presenters than you could, and this will often shed more light on the topic than the title and the summary blurb. The sessions are great, just remember the phrase "Is anyone sitting here?" as it will serve you well and you can meet some interesting folks. That said, do not feel so pressured to be in sessions that you avoid meeting people. If you are in an interesting conversation with someone and a session is about to start, feel free to just continue the conversation. To help get your foot into the conversational door, let people know you are an IGDA scholar, as this is prestigious. Also, when attempting to meet people, the IGDA lounge can be a really good place to start. They will know more about the scholarship program and you will at least have the organization to talk about with them. The sessions will teach you a lot, but ultimately the contacts will be much more valuable to you. That said, to facilitate meeting people, you NEED business cards. Carry a pile and when you meet someone or have a nice conversation with them, ask them to exchange cards. When you receive cards, write down somewhere (even on the back) who the person is and why you should remember them because these details are apt to escape you in a week when you get home. When you do get home, send emails to these people. Whether it be to thank them or continue the conversation, you really cannot go wrong from there.


IGDA's Rudy Geronimo and me!