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GDC'08 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

Chase Bowen Martin - Indiana University

Before going to Game Developer's Conference, my sense of game development was constructed though the games I played, the interviews I read, the tutorials I learned from, and the reports from people I'd been lucky enough to talk to who were actually out there doing it. After attending GDC, the breadth of my view game development has been expanded exponentially.

First, the conference was massive. Just more people than I could have ever imagined. To be among the throngs of all the passionate and talented people was invigorating. The diversity of the sessions and the quality of the speakers made it near impossible choose one presentation for each time slot. But in retrospect I probably could have chosen anyone of them and been able to take away something valuable.

I found the roundtables to be the most interesting, as they often allowed for more perspectives to be stated in the same period of time as the lectures. I was also able to get into a few great conversations with other attendees more regularly before and after these sessions I was surprised about who willing people actually were to engage in casual conversation, but this was as true as I had read.

The “Quality of Life: 3 years after EASpouse” roundtable that I attended was packed. There were a good variety of interests from many people from many different studios. It was a great session because everyone who spoke was invested in what they were saying. It was refreshing to hear people dedicated to addressing the issue.

The presentation from Pandemic's Josh Resnick was also interesting. He spoke about his role in founding the studio and managing it through to their recent acquisition by EA. Though his talk was primarily about building Pandemic as a business, his explanation of their decisions was enlightening as to how the studio's development is intertwined with the studio's creative goals.

And this may be cheating, but I'd probably consider the IGF booth on the expo floor my favorite “session.” While there were awesome games to play, and each one was mind blowing, it also provided moments to get one on one demonstration from their creators. Which, of course, was pretty cool…

To suggest some lessons I learned from my time at GDC, the first thing I would say is to keep an open mind when starting conversations with new people. It's nice to have goals, but I found that the things that interested me most always arose freeform. As I said earlier, there thousands of people and there were people with jobs and aspirations that I had never even considered before.

Another suggestion would be to come prepared. It's said a million times, but business cards are a must and resumes, websites, and anything else that helps to illustrate your interests and work are all great resources.

Finally, don't be afraid to be a fan. One strategy I had going in was to avoid the larger, more publicized events because I reasoned I could find more distinctive experiences elsewhere and that those other events would be covered in the press anyway. I feel that for the most part this strategy served me well, but I do regret missing some sessions, such as the Game Developers Rant session, that seemed to offer a quality that was only available from being in attendance. Everyone at GDC is a fan of the industry in one way or another, and taking part in those moments to share that appreciation together is important in order to personalize your experience.

 

Overall, attending the GDC was invaluable in allowing me to see and experience first hand many new perspectives and processes of game development. I walked away more inspired and, I'd like to think, more empowered to pursue my own development goals as a direct result of the people I was able to meet and the projects I was able to see. Of course my experience would not have what it was without the IGDA, as the scholarship program was instrumental in making what could have been an overwhelming event more welcoming.

I'd like to take one more moment to thank my paired mentor, Tony Van, for sharing his time, attention, and interest, as well as all the people that took a moment to stop and talk to us. And I'd once again like to thank the IGDA and its members for making such a program possible. The IGDA really has a remarkable presence at the conference. A shout out to all the other IGDA Scholars I was lucky enough to meet, and that will be all from me.

Here's to many more…

Lisa Deanne Brown - Carnegie Mellon University

GDC was an incredible experience, and I'm so grateful to have been given the opportunity to attend! I was bombarded by the wealth of information available to learn and the conference was, if not exhausting, a great chance to network and learn first-hand from game industry professionals.

I enjoyed the scholar activities planned for the Tuesday of GDC, and the unofficial scholar dinner the night before. Meeting such a diverse group of talented people was very interesting, and it was inspiring to learn about each scholar's vision for his or her own future in the game design industry. Touring Three Rings Design as a group was quite engaging, and a great way for all of us to learn about the inner workings of a local studio.


Scholars tour Three Rings studio

For the main days of the conference, my schedule was filled up between sessions, exploring the expo floor, and finding moments to rest! For the most part, I stuck to the Game Design and Production tracks, though several sessions I attended were duel track. I find these sorts of talks to be extremely useful, because I was able to look at the information from multiple viewpoints in order to learn something new.

Building a Successful Production Process – was a talk given by Lesley Mathieson of High Impact Games about the studio's opportunity to build a new production process from the ground-up. She addressed many ways in which they streamlined their process in terms of management structure and the defined roles of the development team. Some of High Impact's choices, such as their “designers don't script anything” policy and their emphasis on putting their most talented engineers on tool development, were surprising and insightful points for me. I think the session had something to offer to everyone in the audience, regardless of what their varying backgrounds may have been.

E Pluribus Unum: Matchmaking in Halo 3 – was a more technical talk by Bungie's Chris Butcher on the design principles behind Halo's matchmaking system through Xbox Live. The talk covered more general matchmaking principles in addition to specific examples, such as how they took advantage of the Xbox Live True Skill system, and gave useful insights for anyone intending to use matchmaking in an online multiplayer context. I was impressed by how Chris was able to address general game design principals on this matter without getting overly-technical on the implementation end.

Entrepreneurship: From Zero to Pandemic – wherein Josh Resnick told the story of Pandemic's growth from a start-up to its recent purchase, giving lessons learned along the way. Although many of Josh's tips seemed very “common sense,” his backing with stories from the company illustrated how such ideas are easier said than done in practice. It was a good session to learn from the successes and mistakes of the Pandemic lifespan.

My biggest piece of advice to next year's scholars, beyond stocking up on business cards and talking to strangers, is to take advantage of the mentor program. In my opinion, the mentor program was the single greatest thing about winning this scholarship. My mentor was Chris Ferriter, a producer at Ubisoft, who made an incredible effort to spend time with me each day, talking and answering questions. It was an amazing opportunity to be able to have a relationship with someone with so much industry experience who was so passionate about helping young people just getting into the game industry. Definitely make an effort to connect with your mentor and take advantage of the time they are giving to you!

I would also encourage you all to check out and play games from the Independent Games Festival. This year there were so many clever and innovative design choices in the games; it was extremely inspiring to see what is being done in the independent market. My personal favorites were AudioSurf and OokiBloks, for their clever use of audio, and then Crayon Physics and World of Goo, for their delightfully responsive physics programming.

Lastly, and on a more practical note, don't burn yourself out. Some of the most interesting things I learned at the conference came from relaxing at the tables between sessions and chatting with other people. I know several people who caught the “GDC Plague” early on in the conference, so get plenty of sleep, drink plenty of juice, and by all means don't feel guilty about returning to the hotel and resting for an evening. No one is going to shun you for not showing up at their party. Most importantly, enjoy yourself at GDC!

Mike Cornford - Great Northern Way Campus (Canada)

Everyday at the GDC is a BIG one! The Moscone Center and San Francisco in general were amazing places to hold the event! The magnitude of the event increases exponentially as the weekend nears. The conference officially kicked off on Wednesday for the general conference pass holder and was the start of the seminars, keynotes, and career fair and expo floors. Networking was at an all time high as many of the booths were looking for future professionals, students and organizations to join forces, enroll or create new partnerships. I started everyday by roaming the floors of the expo and career fair and then proceeded to attend lectures and keynotes. The week was filled with stuff to do and very insightful and entertaining! A must for anyone who is in the industry or who wants in, like every one of us scholarship winners!

So many memories, stories and laughs! There was no better experience for me at this point in my life. My many thanks go to the IGDA for their amazing scholarship award, opportunity and support; Mike McShaffry for being an amazing and very insightful and fun mentor; along with my grad school program the Masters of Digital Media Program (MDM) at the Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver, BC, who without their additional support and endorsement, I would have not had as great of a time as I did at the event.

My favorite session of the GDC was by renowned futurist, scholar and author Ray Kurtzweil. His lecture session was titled: The Next 20 Years of Gaming. People filed into the main ballroom to watch the keynote by the thousand. I arrived at the event about an hour before the session to grab a great seat (advice about showing up very early to attend keynotes has been a real savior). I sat in the 3 rd row of the VIP section, right in the centre of the auditorium only because it appears that the VIP sections open to the general public minutes before the keynotes and I was quick to jump as far forward as possible!

Kurtzweil spoke of the advancements in medicine and technology and in particular how far we have come as a species in our ability to develop and research new technology at incredible rates. Some of the advancements he spoke of were mind-boggling. Information and nanotechnolog ies have created incredible avenues for medicine, the computing sciences and games, virtual worlds and AI among others. The rate at which technologies are advancing is exponential and therefore, it is in his opinion, very possible to predict instances in time when computational speed and power will advance to levels equal to or greater than the human brain. It is only a matter of time, Kurtzweil stated, that we will be able to extend the current life span of human beings using these technologies and of course by sharing the findings. I found this particular session amazing and very insightful into the power that technology and video games will have on shaping our existence.

Another very notable lecture I attended (selected particularly based my personal interest and current arena of study or project work) were the session titled: The Sid Meier and Noah Falstein session: Standing the Test of Time: A Q&A with Sid Meier, which had an attendance of at or over capacity of around a thousand people. Sid offered amazing insight into his incredible design career, insight into the industry and many of the games he has developed and designed, notably “Civilization.” The key point of the session, in my opinion, was that he had in his career attempted to create and design games that offer the player the “fun of discovery - like a child plays games.” Also, he stated, “what motivates people to play games is people's desire to learn even though they don't like to be educated. They want the process to be fun and have a sense of progress and achievement in the games that they play. This offers them a sense of validation.” Fundamental points for all designers from a legend and this year's very deserving winner and recipient of the GDC Lifetime Achievement Award!

Another excellent lecture I attended was by my IGDA GDC scholarship mentor Mike McShaffry: Bend Microsoft Project to your Will - Again. This was a production track seminar on the uses, benefits and constraints of managing and tracking projects using Microsoft Project software and some very useful coded add-ons that are available to seminar attendees from the speaker. This seminar in particular was very much in line with my background of project management and as a result, I found it very useful and extremely interesting especially since I had the opportunity to talk further with Mike about the session and key points after it had concluded. Mike also spent a lot of his time introducing me to his friends, attending meetings and having dinner. It was an excellent way to be immersed with interesting and important information that will no doubt help me in my future career and studies.

What is not to miss at the GDC: the keynotes and highly touted session (which are apparent in the line ups that form outside many session lecture halls) in my opinion, along with seeing if you can find invites and RSVP to get to attend some of the excellent parties sponsored by some industry leading companies. Those parties are excellent networking opportunities and very fun because they offer a much lighter opportunity to discuss jobs, careers and partnerships. Aside from that, the schwag (goodies/souvenirs/advertising copy) is always at it's best right at the very early start of the conference, I'm told, and then in the morning of the last day which is Friday. This I was sure to make note of since there was great need to bring some of it back for all the students who missed the opportunity of attending this year.

My experience at the 2008 GDC was incredible and I will no doubt attempt to attend as many more GDC's as possible! My best advice is that you take advantage of your mentor for the invaluable insight they can offer you and that you read up on as many pages of past student scholarship winners documentaries of the event, get prepping for the networking by reading up and do get as much sleeping as you can before the BIG event! Oh and if you haven't applied for the IGDA scholarship, it's worth it!!!

(For even more on my GDC experience check out my blogging at the MDM blog. Also, I posted a bunch of other photos at Flickr.)


Mike and Jason Della Rocca, IGDA executive director


Mike goes to GDC 2008


Sid Meier and Mike


IGDA's 2008 GDC Scholarship Recipients


Scholars tour Three Rings studio


Mike with mentor Mike McShaffry


Ray Kurzweil GDC keynote


Mike at the NASA booth

Tatyana Dyshlova - Brown University

Overall Impressions

GDC was HUGE. There were thousands of people moving between locations, hundreds of busy bees with laptops scattered all through the open areas, and dozens of things were happening at the same time; I felt a bit overwhelmed. Anxiety came off as excitement, and combined with everyone's general eagerness and openness for introduction and interaction, it reminded me a lot of freshman year orientation, only this time everyone had business cards.

My most memorable moments included the scholars' tour of Three Ring Design studio, which looked exactly like what I pictured a game studio to be when I was six. I got an amazing opportunity to work on stage at the Game Choice Awards, allowing me the great experience of meeting one of my heroes: Sid Meier. There was an endless array of afterhours activities that resulting in a foggy remembrance of the morning sessions. The icing on the cake, or perhaps more like the foundation for the great GDC experience, was the close bond I formed with the rest of the scholars, it was a welcomed constant through the whirlwind of the rest of the GDC experience.

Top Three Sessions:

Storytelling in BIOSHOCK: Empowering Players to Care about Your Stupid Story
Kenneth Levine discussed effective techniques for turning the story of the game into an essential element of game play and creating an immersive world by embedding traces of story throughout the world, not just in dialog, but in the environment, characters, and the way the player interacts with the world. He also mentioned how providing small bits of information and keeping the mystery throughout is essential to keeping the player involved with the story – the LOST strategy.

Production: Basics and Beyond
Laura Fryer talked about essential habits for producers to keep in mind. As an aspiring producer, I found that her remarks hit home because I experienced some of the pitfalls she mentioned during my last internship. Some of the best tips were to keep your eye on the goal (shipping) and to keep yourself from immediate reactionary responses to critical situations. She also provided some good resources for further study, like David Allen's Getting Things Done .

Experimental Game Sessions
This session was very inspiring: getting to see what new game play ideas are being explored and the scope of the games that exhibit these ideas really got my mental gears spinning. This session was mostly memorable because I spend about half hour afterward jotting down the dozens of ideas that starting flowing through my head.  

Advice 

Exert yourself socially: it's absolutely necessary for you to come up to people and engage them in conversation. The best social atmospheres were at the afterhours events, when people were done with their daily engagements and were open to longer interactions. Round tables are also very good for meeting people because you automatically have a common ground and you can simply continue the discussion afterwards without an awkward introduction. Finally, I benefitted a lot from my close relationship with the rest of the GDC scholars, we ended up meeting very different cross sections of people, and I got introduced to or pointed toward some very valuable connections through other GDC scholars. It's also good to come together, decompress and reflect on what happened during day .

Some practical advice:

San Francisco was awesome! Try to pad some time for tourism during your trip.

Elizabeth England - Guildhall at SMU

Overall Experience

I attended the Game Developer's Conference last year on an Expo pass, and my previous experience helped me plan my time at the convention and navigate San Francisco . Now armed with a Main Conference pass, I hoped that I could take advantage of all the sessions I missed the previous year.

My overall experience was extremely positive. Having gone on both an Expo pass and a Main Conference pass, I can easily say that the sessions are more than worth the trip. I learned more in a shorter amount of time than I ever had before. As a design student about to graduate, I took from the conference a wealth of information that has since guided me to different avenues to explore when analyzing and designing games. I was able to not only play the IGF finalist games but talk to their creators, discovering what led them on the path to innovative design. On top of that, I had first-hand contact with developers from many different game companies on the floors of the career expo, coming away with invaluable advice on entering the industry and gaining a better understanding of the different roles in game development.

IGDA gave me an unparalleled opportunity, and I took advantage of that as much as I could while I attended GDC.

Experimental Gameplay Session
If any of the sessions I attended at GDC could be considered information overload, it would be the Experimental Gameplay session. Fascinated by all the different game design ideas put out by commercial and indie games alike, this session was more than I bargained for.

This annual session's focus was new and innovative design concepts that have emerged in the past year. The session covered different categories of games, such as games under the theme of “Replay” where the player manipulated time and clones of themselves. Though many of the examples came from amateur flash games, they easily portrayed truly innovative and new game concepts. The closest analogy I have would be how technology shows present prototypes of the newest gadgets that go on to influence the next generation of technology for consumers, much as experimental gameplay eventually influences new genres and trends in mainstream game development. As someone fascinated by design, the Experimental Gameplay session filled me with as many questions as it provided answers.

Game Designer's Challenge
This year's Game Design Challenge was to create an interspecies game. Some of the best minds in game design attempted to address that far-fetched idea with wildly different results. Having read reports of previous challenges, I knew generally what to expect from the session. It was fascinating and incredibly informative to hear from the three designers themselves what thoughts led up to the game design concepts they presented. Each took a unique way of incorporating another species into play, presenting the ideas of a dolphin paintball, an amoeba real-time strategy game, and a dog-oriented alternate-reality game.

There were a variety of ways in which I found the session helpful. It provided a crash course in designing for real-time strategy and alternate reality games. It brought up interesting points on the differences between and meaning of play and a game. Most important, though, was listening to their design process as they originally struggled with the challenge of creating an interspecies game and how they went about solving it.

Developing Super Smash Bros. Brawl
I jumped into the Super Smash Bros. Brawl session to get a sneak peak at some of the design considerations behind the game and was blown away by how much the design of fighting games differs from other games. Instead of balancing resources in strategy games or developing a new system of narrative in role-playing games, the designer's focus in fighting games actually hinged upon character animations – and the time it takes to make those animations. The session was informative, engaging, and left me with an unexpectedly broader understanding of game design.

Advice

There are a ton of sessions available at GDC on every topic imaginable. It's impossible to get to every session you want to attend, so plan wisely. As gamers, it's easy to get sidetracked by all the cool sessions showing off a hotly anticipated game. However, as a student and future developer, it's best to remember that there is a ton of knowledge available at GDC that is not available anywhere else.

If you miss a session and are just dying to know what happened but can't afford the cost of the audio tape, think about contacting the presenters and asking them for a copy of their PowerPoint slides. While not getting the full effect of the session, you can at least get some of the information.

Jordan Fine - Macquarie University (Australia)

My week at the GDC was an absolutely amazing experience. It gave me a valuable glimpse into the inner workings of the industry and just how lucky we all are to be working in a career with such vast possibilities. Before I start writing about the conference, I'd like to give a huge thanks to my mentor, Jeremy Gibson – he was extremely helpful throughout the conference and even went out of his way to take me sightseeing after the conference had finished! I'd also like to thank the IGDA and Jason Della Rocca for this wonderful opportunity.

One of the first things I noticed at the conference was the sheer breadth of knowledge being shared through lectures, panels and roundtables. Many lectures were highly focused and specific, and with so many at the same time, it was hard to decide what to attend. I ended up completely filling my schedule with very little time for breaks, but it was worth it. Lectures which I enjoyed the most included:

“Storytelling in BioShock : Empowering Players to Care about Your Stupid Story”
This was the very first lecture I attended, and it set a high standard for the rest of the conference. Ken Levine went into depth about the design decisions made during the development of BioShock , suggesting that too much detail in a story is a mess, and that the highly ambient game world itself is the best narrator. Much time was spent discussing how a gameplay space can tell the story without words, yet Ken also broke down the pacing of BioShock 's narrative, comparing the mystery and ambiguity in the game to the TV series Lost , where continually posing questions whilst only answering some can be more intriguing for audiences.

“Defeating Designer's Block, Tools to Boost Creative Output”
There were actually two parts to this lecture, each twenty minutes long. I took a lot from this, since game designers cannot afford to come up with stale ideas. The suggested cause of 'Designer's Block' is thinking similarly to other designers, the result of which is unoriginal ideas. As each new idea is simply a different combination of existing ideas and inspirations, the speaker suggested that the same inputs cause the same thinking which causes the same ideas.

Although it may seem like common sense, different inputs cause different thinking and as a result, different ideas – designers need to have highly varied hobbies and interests to bring something unique into their designs. The second part of the lecture focused on practical design techniques, deconstructing three phases which were:

  1. Define focus (eg. Design a new FPS mechanic)
  2. Generate ideas (eg. List things you take for granted about FPS, and create a provocation such as turning 'enemies typically try to kill you' into 'enemies try to help you')
  3. Harvest and treat ideas (eg. What are some specific ways through which you could force enemies to help you?)

“A Portal Postmortem: Integrating Writing and Design”
This was the final lecture of the conference, and there was so much interest in hearing about the development of Portal that people had to be turned away since the lecture hall was completely full. The two main points I took from this lecture were on the integration of gameplay and story, and the effectiveness of an iterative design process. Portal merges the main story of the game with the player's own personal story, and this resonated with people. Much like the BioShock lecture, it was suggested that exposition be embedded into the environment, but also that the great dialogue added to the emotional effects of the game to make players care about the box. Portal was painstakingly playtested throughout development, and this shows through the well-balanced levels... In this lecture a key point was that you must playtest early and often, watching people react to the game, adjusting gameplay to what it looks like players need, and adjusting story to enhance what players are already feeling.

My advice to future attendees is to plan out what lectures you wish to visit ahead of time, take a lot of notes to look over after the conference, and take every chance to network and meet people during the conference. There are parties and events almost every night that are great opportunities to rub shoulders with industry veterans – just remember to bring plenty of business cards. Also, attending the conference as an IGDA scholar meant that I got to meet and hang out with the other scholars – forging valuable networks with a group of up-and-coming game developers from all backgrounds and walks of life. By the end of the conference I was completely exhausted but I would definitely do it again next year.


Scholars dining on the eve of GDC


Jordan with mentor Jeremy Gibson


Packed in the Portal postmortem session

Matthew Gaydos - University of Wisconsin, Madison

I arrived in San Francisco on Monday afternoon. Multiple meetings with scholars, industry professionals, my mentor (Noah Falstein), and a studio tour later, I was having a blast – and the main conference hadn't even started yet. Walking around the IGDA party with a beer in my left hand so I was ready to greet people with the other, the scope of the conference started to sink in. The GDC, a forum where industry veterans and noobs could bump elbows, where you could hear industry giants like Sid Meier and Noah Falstein having a fireside chat in one room, and meet some of the most innovative game designers who've only started making games less than a year ago in another, had started to unfold. Believe all the rumors, guys and gals, because they're absolutely true, GDC 2k8 was </expletive> awesome.

The first session I attended was by Ken Levine, titled “Bioshock: How to make people care about your stupid story.” He addressed the problem of, obviously, getting people to care about your game's story based on his experience designing Bioshock. A few key points from it are: 1) the notion of push versus pull - sometimes you want to give players information, while other times you want them to reach for it themselves; 2) A game has two parts, wheat and chaff, both of which are important – wheat is the story you're trying to tell, chaff is the environment setup and everything else that needs to support your story; 3) design the game so that it can be played by all the types of players – some people won't care about your narrative, some will eat up every detail, some will fall in between and all of them need to be able to play the game the way they want to. These tips for game narrative are easy to forget when you're excited about the story you're trying to tell and this session did well to provide tips from first hand experience on successful story implementation.

Later that day, in the same room, I attended the Sid Meier interview conducted by Noah Falstein. As an aspiring designer, I knew that this session was one I couldn't miss. Noah ran the gamut as far as questions went, even bringing up Sid's fabled dinosaur game. I was inspired when I heard the repeated theme from Ken Levine's presentation of designing a game for different types of players to enjoy. Additionally, I was impressed to hear that Sid still programs games when he wants to prototype. Because he feels that he the ability to throw together a simple version of a game idea in order to play test it and see if its “fun,” he sees programming as an essential skill for any one wishing to design. Remembering lessons from Will Wright in Brenda Laurel's book Design Research in which play testing was stressed very heavily, this is another recurring theme of “good design.”

Lastly, my favorite session of the conference was the experimental play session, during which a number of games boasting experimental and innovative mechanics are presented. The themes this year were replay, obfuscation, Stars Over Half Moon Bay, User Generated/Controlled Levels, and Two Levels at Once, and the games presented here really spoke (to me) of one future for game design. Mainly created by independent designers, implemented by small teams over fairly short periods of time and on small budgets, many of these games still had all polish and luster in addition to their creativity. As games approach the notion of a serious medium and shed rumors of superficiality, I see design teams like this one as providing significant substance to the field and I can't wait to continue to attend this session in years to come.

Speaking of years to come, for future GDC attendees and scholars, I recommend brushing up on your networking skills as much as possible; wear your +cha hat, get your enchants, do what you have to. The conference is partly about just having attended, but are those bragging rights worth the plane ticket and hotel? The conference is partly about attending interesting sessions, but honestly you can buy most of these online. What the conference is really about is being active in the game development social community. Meeting the developer who made your favorite game, seeing presenters with out-of-the-box ideas and getting the chance to pick their brains afterwards, and shaking hands with the guy/gal that might be in charge of hiring you in just a few years are unique and invaluable experiences for attendees. Be on your best behavior, don't make jokes about people being old, and be as funny/witting/charming/amiable as humanly possible. That way, next year people you meet will remember you for your good ideas and your great one-of-a-kind personality (But bring a stack of business cards, just in case they forget!).

Enrique Saúl González Di Totto - The University of Tokyo (Japan)

If you're a student, GDC is guaranteed to be your greatest career-related experience so far. It is not only the definitive conference on video games, but also in many ways a celebration of the medium and the industry. In GDC you can find from big-name designers to front-line programmers and everyone is more accessible and helpful that you would imagine. And in a huge contrast with the rabid fanboyism of the Internet, there's a “we're all in this boat together” attitude in the air.

Just meeting the other scholars –all with backgrounds very different from mine– and talking about the present and future of video games until the wee hours of the night was a very stimulating experience. We also visited the very interesting development studio of Three Rings Design and had the opportunity to chat with their CEO and lead developers.


Scholars get educated by Three Rings CEO, Daniel James

But for me easily the best part was sharing with my awesome mentor, Ed Byrne, not only for the enlightening conversation and advice, but also for the unique opportunity to receive honest feedback on my views and ideas on game design from a very experienced professional.

I was struck by the large amount of info and resources I received thru the various sessions that are immediately applicable to my current project. I greatly enjoyed almost all sessions, but I had to pick only three to mention here, which are:

“Storytelling in BIOSHOCK: Empowering Players to Care about Your Stupid Story” by Ken Levine
This was a very entertaining presentation full of lessons learned during the development of Bioshock on techniques to craft a story well suited to the medium of videogames. Probably the most broadly applicable advice was that you should make the story simple and easy to understand for players that aren't too engaged by it, yet let the player “opt-in” to more depth and details should they be so inclined. That, and that video game stories need to be iterated and “debugged” just as any other feature.

“Experimental Gameplay Sessions” by Jonathan Blow
A mainstay of the GDC by now, this year all games where independent or student projects with highly innovative game mechanics, in many cases demoed by their own creators. Most of them looked amazing, but my personal favorite was a game that had an invisible player character and remained playable. I recommend that you try to look up the games presented and play them yourself. This session (along with the IGF) proved to me that there remains much more to be explored in the expressive potential of videogames.

“Little Hands, Foul Moods, and Runny Noses: Researching Games with Kids” by Carla Engelbretch
This session was full of interesting anecdotes on what you need to keep in mind if you're developing a game for pre-school or elementary school children, but what drives me to choose it was the large wealth of useful resources (websites, archives, discussion groups, etc.) that were presented, and the jovial attitude of the speaker, who seemed very willing to discuss and share with all the attendants during and after the conference.

As for advice to future newcomers and scholars, here is some of my own along with some more that I'm stealing from my mentor:

As you can tell, GDC was a career-defining experience for me, and I'd like to thank Jason Della Rocca and the IGDA, and my advisor Akira Baba and everyone in the laboratory at Tokyo University for making it possible for me to attend.

Haris Halvatzis - University of Macedonia (Greece)

I would like to thank the IGDA people for making my dream come true. GDC 08 is by far the best experience I ever had and un doubtfully is a must-see conference. Not only did I have the opportunity to meet people that share the same passion as I do, but also I had the chance to learn and expand my field of knowledge. Since my interest lies in game programming, I attended mostly sessions that were related to programming and especially AI and graphics.

Three sessions that were really good and worth mentioning are the following:

  1. The Art and Technology behind BIOSHOCK'S Special Effects is the first one. One of the graphics programmers and artists of the BIOSHOCK'S developing team described the process of making those beautiful special effects being observed in the game. They described the whole process with both reference images and code examples. They mentioned and focused the areas where they most faced problems and explained how they solved them.
  2. Chills and Thrills: Undefined Behavior in C++ was really a surprise for me. I did not expect to learn so many things through a single session. Throughout the session, the speaker, Pete Insensee, described the situations that are most likely to end-up as undefined behavior when coding in C++. Since C++ is one of the most widely used programming languages is good to know and helpful when our code is not going to work.
  3. Building a Better Battle : HALO 3 AI Objectives. I saved the best for last. This was the best session I attended. The speakers described the problems they faced in HALO 2 and how they are going to overcome them in HALO 3 by developing the new AI Battle system. Especially, they mentioned how difficult was to manage and code the different teams and their behaviors. Apart from images and code examples, they showed a simulation within the environment, used for the AI battle system development.

To future scholars, listen to your mentor! It is really important to listen to what your mentor is going to say. Network as much as you can. Eat regularly and drink a lot of water in order to not to collapse. Of course, try to have as much fun as you can!

Sean Hathaway - FullSail

GDC was Amazing with a capital A!!! That is the only way I can think to start this report. My head is still spinning. First of all I want to thank the IGDA for giving me the opportunity to be a part of GDC 08. When I look back and recap my experience I see memories flying by so fast I can't keep track of them, then I realize that GDC was like a video game and now that it is over I want to play it again. I did more in one week than most people do in a year; it was a definite non-stop thrill ride.

The most important thing I take with me from GDC is the contacts that I have made and the knowledge I have obtained from conversations with them. My first experience was at the IGDA Scholars dinner gathering the night before the actual morning of orientation. We met for dinner, introduced ourselves, had conversations and got to know each other. I was impressed that there were scholars from all over the world and everyone seemed to have his or her own interests and plans of where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do. Over the course of the week many of us formed great friendships and now stay in touch.

I went to as many lectures as possible. Some were not what I was expecting, but interestingly enough those were the ones that I think I learned the most at. One of these lectures was about the procedural music of Spore, I had not planned on going to this one but afterwards I was glad that I had. I had learned about an open source program that solved many issues I was having with music, and then of course added many more.

Find the keynote lecture that is right for you. I am sure there is no question that the Ray Kurzweil keynote was the best, at least in my opinion. Everyone was talking about it afterwards, you could feel the buzz in the air and I heard people say they were sorry they had missed it. I was personally impressed with the grandeur of it.

I got to see the Star Wars Force Unleashed lecture where they talked about how they hired people for the team, how they got the game and film studios to communicate more effectively and of course they showed really cool action clips and game art from the game. They also gave away cool free stuff after the lecture.

Another cool lecture was the Fable2 session with Peter Molyneux where he gave a walkthrough of the game to show off new features. He spoke about where he thought the future of gaming was going and had interesting insight on the topic of human interactions with games.

Along with juggling all the lectures comes the fact that the career expo in one building and the expo floor in the other are pulling you away to see all the new fantastic toys, games and technology. Don't worry about looking like a kid in a candy store because everyone there is one. Also, make sure you enter as many drawings and contests as possible, who knows what kind of great stuff you could win. If you are looking for a job definitely go by the career expo and check out as many booths as possible. If you aren't looking then go by anyway, it is good to see what employers are looking for.

Remember that there is no time for sleep! As soon as the daily activity ends the nightly activity begins. The parties are where the elbow rubbing happens, this is where you make the most contacts and talk to the most people. Remember, some of the drinks may be free, but make sure you keep a cool head on your shoulders because you never know who you might be standing next to or who you will be talking to next. You could be talking to a student from another school or the Dean of that school. You could even be talking to the President and CEO of the next biggest game company. Have your business cards ready and try to leave a good impression.

As I said before GDC is like a video game with an open ended environment that is so big that it would take too much time to see it all. My suggestion is that you pick a path, head down it and hang on. The best thing you can do is make a schedule before you get to GDC and expect it to totally change when you are there. You can keep the schedule close and use it as a reference marker but don't expect to follow it religiously.

GDC 08 was my first conference and was one of the most exciting experiences in my life. I look forward to attending many more game conferences in the future, each with new people, new experiences and new opportunities. I would like to once again thank the IGDA for allowing me the experience of this life changing event.

Yuichi Hiruta - Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (Japan)

Attending GDC will absolutely benefit all students wanting to be the game industry. I'm sure that I got a broader point of view by attending GDC. The best was to meet many people who are game developers.

My experience and thinking are written as follows. Please refer.


View from outside the Moscone Center

< Got scholarship during GDC >

Describing the next. There are a part of my experience.

1) met scholars who has same dream.

Meeting scholars encourages it very much.

I would like to meet their in future GDC or other game conventions, again and again.

2) met nice mentor who is nice game developer.

IGDA mentorship program is excellent. The mentorship program is one scholarship a mentor. My mentor was Gaurav Mathur who is working for Factor 5 Inc. He is nice person. My English is poor, but he talked me English with too gently.


Yuichi with mentor Gaurav Mathur

3) met nice other developers

Attending GDC can meet many professional developers. Being able to discuss best is Greg Johnson who is working for HUMANATURE STUDIOS as CEO, that was able to meet on the introduction of my mentor. After GDC finished, we had eaten meal, we had discuss more hardly. It's valuable time that cannot be bought by money (priceless).

< Sessions I remarked and enjoyed >

The session of the game design was mainly attended.

1) Wii FIT: Creating a Brand New Interface for the Home Console

Even Mr. Miyamoto known as Mario-series game designer felt that it made it to the project by evolving the idea like no the first idea it fast. The idea is as very weak as the baby. It was felt that there was how it was raised depending on parents.

2) Development – SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL

The character not only was allowed to appear but also I only thought that putting the outlook on the world of the character together devised it very much. How do I create its game? It was made feeling the importance of the meta acknowledgment by this session strongly.

3) Playing to Lose AI and “CIVILIZATION”

It looks like the research done at university days. It is a research of the artificial intelligence pleasantly defeated in Japanese chess that I did. The artificial intelligence of Japanese chess is stronger than that of a lot of players of man. However, interest is low because it doesn't make a mistake. The computer that did a human mistake was researched. There was something that ran to it. I thought that it was future tasks how to do a pleasant way to be defeated to man now since the specification of the computer went up.

In conclusion, absolutely I recommend you that if you can go to GDC, you should join GDC sessions and many parties for meeting many people.

David Larsson - Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden)

The conference was great, it really exceeded the really high expectations I had before attending. The people you meet, the lectures you attend and the exciting parties was all great. It's an experience that I'm sure I'll remember forever!

I think that the best of the sessions was that each of them gave me a little bit better insight of the industry, as well as the understanding that game developers are ordinary people (well, almost ;), working with the things they're really passionate about and love doing. It really made me realize that this is what I want to work with in the future.

Some of the lectures that I liked most:

Creating a Character in Drake's Fortune, lecture
In a very good and understandable way, Christian Gyrling from Naughty Dogs talked about their animation/AI system that they developed for their game, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I learned what worked/didn't work for them and got some advantages/disadvantages of different animation algorithms that they tested to implement for their game. I got a bit better understanding about animations, and how to make it work with the AI. Great lecture!

The Art and Technology Behind Bioshock's Special Effects, lecture
Stephen Alexander, effects artist, and Jesse Johnson, graphics programmer, working for 2K Boston, gave a very interesting lecture. They described the methods they had used for making the great-looking special effects in Bioshock. I learned a lot from this lecture, they showed one effect at a time, and talked how they in very straight-forward ways made the game look better. I got a better understanding of those effects and the cooperation between the artists and the programmers.

Getting It into the Game, roundtable
This session was great, it was about the problems that game companies face to get the art from a graphics software to their own engine. Adam Pino from Pandemic Studios held this roundtable, and he was good at keeping up the discussions. I learned several different solutions that game developers had come up, and I gained another bit of puzzle on my way of understanding professional game development.

Tips to future scholars and first time attendees:

If you are serious about getting into the industry, go to GDC! I really recommend it, you will not regret it, but try your hardest to get as much as possible out of it!

Thank you IGDA for everything, I really appreciate what you have done for me, thank you Mark Seminatore(my mentor) for your guidance and industry insights. Thank you Three Rings for showing us scholars around in your studio, and the interesting things you had to say about your company, etc.

You all really made my first GDC a great experience! Hope to see you all again in future GDCs!

James Leonis - FullSail

Trying to fit my impression of GDC in the next paragraph will be like shoving a two by four through a wood chipper. Only bits and pieces will come out. Oh well. Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

GDC, for the lack of a better descriptor, is big. To put this in perspective, if you talked to every participant for thirty seconds, you would possibly be talking nonstop for the next five days. Because of the staggeringly large number of people, every discipline within the gaming industry has a large representation. I was able to talk to people in fields ranging from AI to music to 3 rd party venders to publishers. The sheer variety meant that every conversation was something new and different, and it allowed me to walk away learning something new.

Some of the conferences I went to were Valve's talk about cross platform development, Ray Kurzweil's keynote, and Maxis' presentation on procedural music.

Valve's presentation was likely my most technical. It dealt with the technical difficulties of porting the Source engine to the 360 and PS3. They also talked about the common pitfalls of console development. I won't go into the technical details here, but it enlightened me as a programmer on several problems that I will likely run into while developing for a console. This was also the one time when my pen ran out of ink while taking notes, so I would like to thank Valve profusely for posting the slides on their website.

Ray Kurzweil's keynote on the future of the gaming industry was a bit of a misnomer. What he really talked about was how information technology will eventually be a part of everything we do. He explained this by showing the exponential rise of processing power, information storage, and how this is making inroads into subjects that aren't usually associated with information technology. His talk was also largely positive in its message. He noted that most predictions made by the media, government, and people in general are based on linear interpolation, but that the data shows it's on an exponential rise. I realize this is getting very technical, but I wanted to show how his message was largely positive, which sticks out in sharp contrast to the general messages we get from many other places.

I've saved the best for last. Maxis' presentation on procedural music was definitely a highlight of my trip. Both a friend and fellow GDC scholar Sean and I initially attended this conference because procedural music sounded interesting and it had SPORE in the name. Yeah, the latter reason is pretty shallow, but that was a good enough reason for me! The talk started out talking about Maxis' initial reactions to procedural music and its development in the company. After the fifteen minute history lesson, they started to show us the actual nuts and bolts of its development gave demonstrations of the program they used, PD. At that point, Sean and I stopped taking notes and were engrossed in learning everything we could about this program. Probably the best descriptor I can give for the program is it's an open source visual programming language initially developed for controlling MIDI and other musical applications. It has since branched and became more general, but that's a different tangent. Regardless, both Sean and I were enraptured in how they used it to create pseudo-random music that still adhered to the fundamentals of music theory. I never wished as badly that I had a more comprehensive knowledge of music theory then I did at that moment, and this is coming from a hardcore programmer! Needless to say, when the conference was over, I immediately downloaded the programmer and began learning how to wield it.

Since most students will be inundated with advice about how to maximize their experience at GDC, I will take a different tract and share some unconventional knowledge that I learned as a result of the conference.

  1. Get plenty of sleep. I cannot stress this enough. You will likely be up from 8am to well after midnight. In order to be fully prepared, get plenty of sleep in the days leading up to the conference, and reserve time to catch up afterwards.
  2. Learn to be social. I'm not talking about with your friends or family, but with anybody anywhere at any time. There are literally thousands of industry professionals from every discipline, and they will be at the conference, the social parties, on the subway, and hundreds of other places. If you are one of those people that has a hard time breaking the ice in group gatherings, practice, practice, practice! The best place to practice is at the bar (or, for those under the legal age, at the mall). Just practice walking up to random people or groups and engaging them in conversation. It isn't as hard as it sounds, and you will really appreciate the practice when the conference comes around.
  3. Get used to standing up, and pack some Advil. While seating in conference rooms are generally adequate, you will still spend a large amount of time walking to the various conferences, expo booths, social gatherings, bars, etc.
  4. Expand your horizons. Go to some conferences that are outside your field of expertise. My favorite session was about music. If you're a programmer, join a conference on art. Designer? Go to an AI social gathering. You never know what gems of interest a conference might have.
  5. Carry a notepad and several pens. Do this not only for the conferences, but in general. You never know when you need to write something down. I took notes on every conference that I went to, and kept them within reach for when others wanted information on my conference's topics. One day, you might have to write a paper detailing your experiences at the GDC, and you don't want to be caught with your pants down!

Ken Leung - University of Southern California

I have to say that this year's GDC has been one of the bests ever for me. I made many new friends who share the same passion. I picked up many insights that will help me develop better games and guide my career. And most of all I had fun.

One of the best things about coming to GDC as scholarship recipient has been meeting the other scholars. Having the chance to connect with other scholars and make friends made the experience all the more enjoyable. I always found someone to hang out with at the lectures, parties, and dinners. I always found someone who could introduce me to others I didn't know. I always found someone who was passionate about what they were doing and willing to share their experiences and aspirations. And I always found someone willing to help me out as I would for them.

Another great thing about the scholarship was having Don DaGlow as my mentor. It was a real honor to be able to sit down with him and ask about his vast experience within the industry. When I met him in person he was very charming and down to earth. And I enjoyed his animated and thought-provoking lectures. After I met him, I kinda wish I had prepared better questions to ask. His insight and perspective runs deep.

Another highlight of the GDC Scholarship experience was touring Three Rings Design, checking out their nautically themed workspace, and seeing their latest project, “Whirled.” I have to thank Daniel James, for that exceptional tour and his hospitality.

This year I didn't stick to one track of sessions. I wanted to get some sense of what was going on in various areas of the industry. Here are three interesting sessions I went to:

Production Basics and Beyond
This session was given by Laura Fryer, executive producer of Microsoft Games Studio. She first started off talking about the basic traits and responsibilities that a producer had to have and the role they played on the team. She also made some great points about the realities of production, such as managing the “cost/schedule/quality” triangle, how team members need rest, and how all projects become schedule driven at some point. Towards the end she wrapped up the lecture with tips on how to be a better producer, such as praising freely, be forgiving, and using GTD methods to keep tasks organized.

Raising Venture Financing for Your Start Up
 I took an interest in this session because I wanted to know what was the culture, process and nuances of finding funding for a startup. In this session I got to peer into the minds of angel investors and what they look for in start ups. I also had a chance to learn from the experience of the founders of some notable start-ups such as Kongregate and Conduit Labs. Thus I got to see the process of seeking funds from both sides of the table. They covered the initial process of finding credible investors, how to get venture capitalist interested, the type of relationship formed with VCs, and how everyone is in the same market but coming different perspectives.

What original IP can learn from movie games?
This last session was held by my mentor, Don DaGlow. Don specifically intended this title to be controversial to spur debate and discussion about movie games. Some of his points included how games that have established IP in movies have also established the story and the universe of the game before players have even bought the game, making it more accessible. He made a comparison between a movie game and a baseball game, and how both tell a great story in similar ways. In this session I also felt he was presenting great advice and tips about development and design in general. One of the best points I took away was to treat your career like a “cup of tea.” By focusing on the work you are doing and the fun you provide to others through your work, your career will naturally follow. Just as one who walks with a cup of tea might spill if too focused on not spilling, but will not spill, if he just walks where he wants to go.

Here are some tips, I can give future GDC scholars:

I hope that future IGDA scholars will have as great a time as I did, if not better. I want to thank the IGDA for this unique experience. And I encourage anyone interested in breaking in the games industry to go to GDC by applying to this scholarship, volunteering as a conference associate, or both.

Silvia Lindtner - University of California, Irvine

It was my first GDC and so I didn't quite know what to expect when I arrived in San Francisco Sunday evening. For us GDC scholars, the conference started informally with a dinner in downtown SF. Ken Leung, a previous scholar, organized the casual get together, which was a fantastic opportunity to meet most of the other scholars prior to the conference, exchange background info and expectations from the conference. We were quite a diverse group of people from different cultural backgrounds and associated with a wide range of professional fields. It was exciting to spend time with so many engaged and motivated students and many of them became valuable personal contacts for the future.


Arrival...

Coming from a field related to games, but that doesn't frame game design and development as its core endeavor, I am used to smaller conferences and venues. So, during my first day at the conference, I was astonished by the crowds of visitors floating through the hallways and between the three conference buildings. Deciding which session to attend was a challenge, since many sessions I wanted to attend overlapped and often I had to decide between 3-5 interesting topics. The Expo hall demonstrated a fun relaxation time after lunch and between sessions. Many exhibitors invited us to play and experiment with new interfaces and tools.

What I valued most was the casual atmosphere and informal interaction with people. It was a unique experience to meet so many people who truly care about a domain that usually remains a fringe topic in my own area. I learned a lot about game designers' perspectives, latest trends in the game industry, played some really amazing independent games and learned my lesson about what the future might hold for MMOs, mobile games and reality-based games.


Ray Kurzweil GDC keynote


Wii Fit in action


Immersive dome display

My favorite conference panels were “Game Studies Download 3.0” with Ian Bogost, Mia Consalvo and Jane McGonigal, “Preserving Games” with Henry Lowood and “the future of MMOs” with Jack Emmert, Mark Jacobs, Min Kim, Ray Muzyka and Rob Pardo.

Bogost, Consalvo and McGonigal did a fantastic job tying together research topics and outcomes and their possible uses for future game design. I was impressed with the material presented, such as research on reality-based games in China, seamful immersion to engage players in innovative ways and the special experience of exiting a game. After each one of the 10 findings was briefly introduced, the three researchers explained take-aways for the GDC audience. The topic of the panel was of particular interest and importance to me personally: how can we tie research in and around games, game design and development closer together? Academia still misses legitimate degrees in Game Research and theoretical underpinnings and whereas degrees can be gained in game design and development, game studies still fight for legitimacy. Bogost, Consalvo and McGonigal embody an approach that moves beyond these dichotomies. I hope to see more hybrids of the research and design world at future GDCs and that future panelists follow these footsteps. The slides and top 10 research downloads can be found here: http://avantgame.com/top10.htm

Henry Lowood's round table on preservation of games dealt with the fascinating issue of how to preserve game platforms and thus how to allow replay of game experiences and modes of interaction. Compared to the more passive medium film, games are tied to players' experiences and their interaction with the software and hardware. If either hardware or software is removed, the play experience might change significantly. I think the issue of game preservation is even exacerbated with more recent game platforms such as mobile devices and sensor technology. Interactions and collaboration these games afford are very often deeply entrenched in messy social settings and urban contexts. The boundary between the game platform, a variety of other digital and non-digital artifacts becomes blurry and the experience can not be reduced to one single device, a piece of software or a hardware component. How will we preserve ubiquitous playful systems, the data they are collecting, and the particular meanings these systems have in different spatial, social and cultural contexts? What techniques do these spaces afford to record experiences for reminiscent use?

During, the panel on future of MMOs the panelists got into a heated argument on the most valuable economic system of online games. Whereas one side (Asia) advocated the payment-for-equipment model, the other side (mainly US) argued for monthly subscription fees. Mostly, I agree with Ray Muzyka who took a balancing stance in the middle. Muzyka pointed out that both approaches are valuable dependent on the particular cultural, social and economic context of the game. I believe that a game should not be built and delivered with an inherent philosophy on the economic value system. On the contrary, I think much can be gained from an approach that allows players define their own value system in and through the game.

Overall, I really enjoyed this conference visit. I met many extraordinary people and built important relationships for the future. I also learned a lot for my own research and hope that I will be able to introduce some of the interesting findings on online and mixed reality games from my own research at a future GDC.

I have one request for future scholars: while it was fantastic to be admitted to the General Conference track, I personally would have profited a lot if I had been able to attend the symposia and sessions during the “pre-conference” days.

Sarah McGee - Rice University

While this is my second GDC, this is the first time I went with a Main Conference Pass , and boy does that make a difference. For one, I had the opportunity to go to the Career Pavilion on Wednesday meet with all the companies while they were still fresh. Second of all, I got to go to the lectures. These were my top three:

STARWARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED: How LucasArts is Building a Game, a Development Team and a Technology Pipeline… At the Same Time by Haden Blackman

I originally had nothing planned for early Thursday morning, so when I walked into this session, I was pleasantly surprised. Mr. Haden Blackman said that he had to build the “Unleashed” team from the ground up, filling senior level positions with people from around the world as well as finding specialists in the PS3. I hadn't realized that LucasArts had not been making games internally for a while, so I was surprised that so many people had to be hired. Later, Mr. Blackman showed off NaturalMotion's euphoria in which stormtroopers try to save themselves by grabbing onto ledges and other stormtroopers. Mr. Blackman also said that while euphoria created the behavior they wanted, it was very difficult to integrate into the Xbox 360 and PS3.

WiiWare Project Lifecycle: FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES, THE LITTLE KING by Fumiaki Shiraishi and Toshiro Tsuchida

This was one of the sessions I was looking forward to and it did not disappoint. First, Mr. Toshiro Tsuchida began the session in Japanese by describing how they usually make games: a team of over 100 people working on specialized tasks for 2 to 4 years with in-house tools on a very art driven, content heavy project. Then, Mr. Fumiaki Shiraishi presented in English that their WiiWare title was completed in 17 months with 18 people that was driven by the game concept and had very few art assets. In addition to using WiiWare itself, his team also had the opportunity to experiment with and incorporate new technologies into the game, such as NintendoWare and the scripting language Squirrel. It is very unusual for Japanese companies to drastically change their business practices if they are doing well, so I was very surprised to hear this.

A PORTAL Postmortem: Integrating Writing and Design by Erik Wolpaw and Kim Swift

Despite being the last session of the conference, it was absolutely packed. Ms. Kim Swift described how important play testing was in shaping the overall gaming experience. For example, there is a particular level in Portal in which the player must use a cube throughout the level to solve puzzles, but play testers kept forgetting to bring the cube with them. Therefore, Ms. Swift and Mr. Erik Wolpaw came up with the idea of a companion cube and had GlaDOS egg you on about it so you wouldn't forget. Play testing also evolved the Portal boss battle from a very challenging and frustrating puzzle to a much more enjoyable and easier puzzle with the added tension of a time limit.

Important Tips

I know that just about everyone else mentions it, but bring business cards. Not only is it good for networking, but at the Career Pavilion, some companies wanted business cards in addition to resumes.

Try to plan for the sessions that you really want to go to, but also set aside time to go to the Career Pavilion and the Expo. You never know what good swag you might find.

It may sound boring, but volunteering for the IGF/GDC Awards was a lot of fun. After helping everyone to their tables, you get to sit in the first and second row of chairs. I even had the opportunity of walking the guy who made Crayon Physics to his table.

And once again, thank you so much Ken, for setting up that dinner for all the IGDA scholars on Monday. Without that, I don't think we could have gotten to know each other so well since Tuesday onwards was so busy.

 

Jeff McNab - Savannah College of Art and Design

I attend college at the Savannah College of Art and Design in historic Savannah, GA where I study game design. I grew up about two hours from here in Charleston, SC, another historic southern city. I've never visited the west coast until about two weeks ago when I took a five hour flight across the continental United States to San Francisco, CA. I spent a week there, and not once did I ever see the Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf or any of the multitude of historic sites in the city. How can someone that grew up in a historic town and current lives in a historic town not go see the history and culture of San Francisco? Four words: The Game Developer's Conference.

It was my honor to be awarded the IGDA scholarship and be able to attend this monumental yearly conference. To be able to go listen to key figures in gaming talk not only about what they are doing and the methods they use, but also the future of the industry as a whole...I think I'm still trying to process it all.

Following you will find my impression from three sessions I attended. This isn't to say, however, that the other sessions I attended didn't have a large influence on me; I'm just trying to make sure that I stay within the limitations of this report.

Worlds in Motion Summit Keynote
Raph Koster's keynote at the Worlds in Motion Summit was the first session I attended at GDC and I carried what he said around with me for the rest of the conference. I felt that Mr. Koster was commenting on the limited scope of the original metaverse concept that many virtual world proponents are holding onto. The metaverse isn't something that is going to be contained inside of a packaged delivery system that people connect to; it is going to be flung out at us at full force and we won't be able to escape from it. “Virtual Reality” and “Reality” are merging into a single existence where your clothing has built in RFID transmitters that allow you to interact with virtual spaces. I couldn't help but think of the work of Elan Lee and Jordan Weisman while Mr. Koster was talking; we've already seen the “magic circle” of gaming broken. It's just a matter of time before virtual worlds catch up and that time is a lot sooner than most of us think.

i-fi: Immersive Fidelity in Games
Clint Hocking's session about creating immersive game play was another session that I remember sitting and listening to and just being inspired. Mr. Hocking's session presented the idea that immersion can be divided into two aspects: the sensual and the formal. The sensual side of immersion involves, you guessed it, the senses. By reducing the signal-to-noise ratio of the medium you are using, your piece becomes more immersive. Movie theaters exist in enclosed, sound proof rooms with the chairs all pointing towards the screen; this is all done to increase the immersion of the audience with the movie. (I wonder if this is why drive-in theaters are so rare.) The formal side of immersion involves keeping the human mind interested in what is going on through pattern matching, something that games excel at in comparison to other mediums. Not just excel, but supersede every other form of art to ever exist on the face of the earth. (Take that interpretive dance!) Mr. Hocking tackled an extremely difficult subject in such a short amount of time, considering the breadth of information that is involved when discussing something as complex as immersion. He even commented about this issue on his blog.

The Game Designers Rant
This session made the designer in me want to burst from my chest and go running into the night on a mad rampage of artistic creativity. Clint Hocking, Daniel James, Jane McGonigal, Jenova Chen and Jonathan Mak (with special appearance by Chris Hecker) all gave fantastic rants this year. I can't even begin to describe everything that was said in the short amount of space I have, so I'll just put in some of the memorable quotes: “fucking cube” “reality is broken” “duct-tape award” “sad robot” “the little prince” “that's awesome” “very, very drunk”. I want to thank Eric Zimmerman for putting this on as it was definitely one of the highlights for me of GDC. It is something so revitalizing to me that I don't even want to share it with anyone.

Advice for students/future scholarship winners

For any students that are planning on attending GDC sometime in the future, I have two simple suggestions. You can find plenty of other advice on various websites of IGDA members.

I want to thank all of the people that helped to put together the Game Developer's Conference, with a special thanks to Jason Della Rocca, my fellow scholarship winners, Tim Longo and Brenda Brathwaite for making this conference such an invaluable experience for me.

Alice Rendell - University of Wales (UK)

During my time at the Game Developers Conference, I encountered a diverse intersection of attitudes, creativity and approaches to game development. The opportunity provided accessibility to adjudge the current climate within the industry and how I feel I could contribute to it. As well as these observations there were a number of elements of the conference that I found profusely interesting. The contributing speakers provided a variety of interesting topics, unfortunately due to the huge quantity of events on offer I couldn't attend nearly as much as I would have liked to. Out of the lectures I did attend there were a few I found particularly informative.

The Experimental Gameplay session demonstrated the latest creativity in Independent game development. Each game was presented with a description of the process, from the intention of the idea to the communication. From what I saw there were some inspiring ides which seemed to display familiar game mechanics approached in innovative ways. For example Static was a simple platformer, but the interest was rooted in the execution of the aesthetic, which in my opinion gave a extra dimension to the game structure. Crayon Physics, another game presented in the Experimental Gameplay Session, provided a similar approach to Static in that it took a simple game structure and presented it in a new creative way. The whole session was vibrant with these ideas, and it was evident that the participating speakers were keen to challenge and inspire, which I felt was communicated effectively.

The second session I would like to talk about was Treat Me like a Lover, by Margaret Robertson. Margaret is a very engaging speaker, fluent and funny, which resulted in an entertaining session. This was all rooted firmly with some valid points and thought provoking references to how games should interact and engage with their consumers. Margaret spoke about the relationship between the game and the player, and how carefully thought out this needs to be if consumers are to not just buy the game, but continue to play to completion once it has been bought. Margaret Robertson suggested that this could be implanted with more rewards in games to allow the player to feel like they have made an impact. I found this session very topical as the emphasis on the players, rather than on the content of the games themselves, is a currently explored area and it was interesting to hear Margaret's views on this.

The third session I would like to talk about is Censorship of Game Content, by Lawrence Walters. Lawrence spoke about the press and media's attention and attitude to games. I found this interesting because it was not directed at design of games, or the appeal for the players, but of the reception of the media and how this affects the content in games. From a designers point of view this is interesting information to take into account when creating games for a market and as censorship laws vary from country to country it is a vital thing to take into consideration for creating a successful game.

Lastly I would like to say that the not only was the experience informative and inspiring but was also immensely enjoyable and I am grateful for the opportunity to develop my knowledge and experience, and meet some interesting people whilst doing it.

Andrew Sorkin - Berklee School of Music

Winning an IGDA scholarship to GDC was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Not only did it provide an excellent opportunity to learn more about the industry and make important connections for my career, but I made a lot of friends as well. Perhaps most importantly, I had a lot fun.

The most exiting lecture was definitely Ray Kurzweil's keynote about the next 20 years of gaming. I knew about Kurzweil's many inventions, and had heard his theories about AI and the singularity, which involve the not so distant future. However I was particularly blown away some current technology… particularly nanorobots that live alongside the blood cells of people suffering from diabetes. These nanorobots detect the level of insulin in the host's blood, and whenever needed, release more. Pretty crazy for sure, but according to Kurweil, in the next twenty years, nanorobots will be able to bypass our sensory input with a synthetic stream of sensory information. The implications are that the user would be able to enter a completely synthetic world, with all five senses. It was obvious to everyone in the room that the video game industry would be and already is creating that “virtual” world.

Being interested in game audio as a career, I attended a lot of sessions relevant only to my field. I actually recommend NOT doing this, attending a variety of sessions is a great idea. Having said that, the session about the audio for Spore was amazing. Being into interactive audio and graphical programming languages like Max/MSP, I was really interested to learn that Spore's probability based adaptive music score was programmed entirely in Pd (pure data, an open source variant of Max/MSP). Music has traditionally been a linear experience with a definitive start and end. But games aren't linear, so why should their music be? The user can create almost endless outcomes, therefore the music should adapt to the players choices, creating a novel experience. Very cool.

The most useful opportunity for me was definitely the G.A.N.G. Demo Derby. This event gave participants a chance to play a 1 minute demo of their music (or sound design on a different day) to a panel of the top composers, music supervisors, and sound designers in the field. While the feedback I got from playing my work was invaluable, hooking up with a bunch of potential employers was really the peak of my experience at GDC. I strongly recommend this event to anyone looking into game audio as a career.

There's a lot of great info and blogs about how to prepare for GDC. However, some advice that I found to be very misleading was to NOT bring a resume. I ignored this and brought several resumes, and was glad I did. Sounding pushy will never get you far, but being prepared and straightforward is also important. If I hadn't brought a demo and resumes, I would've missed out.

Life can be overwhelming, and being in a new situation can be scary. I approached GDC with the mentality “If I play my cards right, I could make my dreams come true.” That's a lot of pressure. At first I didn't know what to do with myself surrounded by so many people who were so much higher up in the industry. I was standing around on the first day, feeling lost, wearing a frown, and a stranger said, “Its too early in the week to feel down.” I was visibly upset, and nobody wants to interact with someone giving off bad vibes. The thing to remember is that it's all a game… everyone starts off at level 1, just like you. Don't think about it, just listen to the little voice inside (your intuition) and you'll have a good time and get achieve what you're supposed to achieve. It may not be the outcome you expected, but if you can relax, roll with the moment, and keep a smile on your face, you'll be fine. In the wise words of Hunter S. Thompson, “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”

Tynan Sylvester - Concordia University (Canada)

I think it was around the time that I staggered out of the Portal postmortem, exhausted, sick, after surviving on a meager ration of burgers and pizza for a week, that I realized that GDC was the best thing ever.

The conference wore me out. Every minute of every day presented another unmissable opportunity. I got to meet famous designers, or old friends I had never actually seen before. There was always another presentation or roundtable. Every night there were several parties full of industry folks, which were genuinely fun. Unfortunately for my health, I consistently decided to spend my time taking opportunities instead of eating properly or sleeping. It was totally worth it.

There are two main parts to the GDC: The presentations, and the networking. I'll start with the presentations. Namely, three of my favourites:

Conflict Resolution Without Combat was a roundtable discussion focusing on creating games wherein a player can resolve conflicts using methods besides blowing people apart with large guns. I have a strong interest in this subject. Most games seem meaningless to us because they deal with subject matter - war and ruthless violence - which is so narrow and outside a normal person's experience. The people at the roundtable brought up a variety of examples of games which have done conflict resolution in the past, possible methods of moving forward, and how people in real life resolve conflicts without murdering each other. It was great to see how much interest there was in this area.

The Portal postmortem, subtitled Integrating Writing and Design was interesting, and not just because it was hilarious. I came away with a variety of ideas and principles to explore relating to achieving tighter integration between story and gameplay, designing carefully mediated experiences which don't leave players stuck, and achieving a high happiness-to-production-cost ratio using creative design methods. It was also interesting to see how the creators of Portal achieved so much by really putting a personal touch into the game.

Finally, Chris Hecker's Structure vs Style was a very interesting look at attempting to apply similar method to solving what look like very different problems. Chris wants to find a way to apply the philosophy that drives triangle-based 3D rendering to artificial intelligence design. The ideas he presented demand a lot more thought and touch on almost every part of the design process.

The socializing part of the conference is easy to miss but is actually more important. My advice for future scholarship winners is: connect with people. GDC is not about the presentations - you can get that sort of thing on Gamasutra if you really need to. It is about the benefits of being in close physical proximity with everyone in the games industry. If you have a choice between hanging out with some developers and going to see a presentation, always choose to hang out. The most fun and networking-fruitful parties tend to be exclusive. Try to get into them. Network with people who can get you in. Be creative - I met a girl who got into the exclusive Steam party by singing "Still Alive" at the Valve booth on the show floor.

Have fun with the people you meet. Don't be afraid to talk about something random, possibly unrelated to games at all. Form a strong relationship with your mentor. I would never have gotten as far as I did without my mentor's advice, introductions to professional designers, and invitations to various night events. Be fun and professional. Your mentor can be your best resource.

If you meet a famous person, don't dally. Get in, have some fun, and make an exit. Don't try to say something profound or fascinating. Especially if you are at a party, remember that these are just people, the same as you and me, and will respond much better to you if you don't put them on a pedestal. Leave on a high note. This applies for non-famous people as well.

Have some cool business cards, but don't just throw them around like candy. You need to form an intellectual and emotional connection with a person. Then the business card trade might actually lead to something.

And, always: have fun!

Ryan Timoney - University of Southern California

Be excited. GDC is an absolute must for people in or interested in this industry. Its scale, pace and quality make it formidable in the best possible way. Everywhere you turn the leaders and innovators in the industry are conveying a wealth of information, advice and ideas. The only negative is that you can't see it all.

Being paired with a mentor was quite valuable. I met with Brandon Morris, Business Manager with Microsoft. We had a pretty intense conversation about where the industry is and where it's headed, particularly with regard to the viability of different business models. I look forward to staying in touch with him.

I had the great pleasure of seeing Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, the lead economist behind EVE Online, give a presentation about his work on EVE. As a business major with a love for math, I have a special place in my heart for economic theory, but I wasn't alone – the room was packed. Prior to this I'd not had any real knowledge of EVE. I learned that it's a very different kind of MMO. Essentially it's one big economic engine, with 225,000 players on one server powering a 95% NPC-less, free market economy. He offered excellent advice on how to design and manage a game economy. For example, the number of players it took for their market to start to work efficiently was about 40,000. He discussed designing metrics to track the health of your economy and how to manage the economic expectations of players. Traditional economics works the majority of the time, though there are some discrepancies. It was fascinating. I installed EVE promptly upon my return.

Another excellent presentation was done by Rob Pardo about how Blizzard approaches the design of multiplayer games. They spend a great deal of time hammering out the multiplayer dimension exclusively and leave the construction of single player campaigns until after all the units and dynamics have been decided upon and balanced. For WarCraft III, they spent three years working on multiplayer and then, afterward, about another year working on the single player campaigns. He discussed design considerations such as creating niches for player skill differentials and setting criteria for balancing the multiplayer experience. Additionally he offered advice on how to maintain a multiplayer game.

One of the most memorable presentations I've ever seen was Ray Kurzweil's keynote on the future of games. He's one of those guys that is so blindingly brilliant you feel like a cave man when you're in the same room. His aim was to open our eyes. The following is a snapshot of what he sees on the horizon: Computers will cease being separate boxes and will become integrated with our bodies, clothing and everyday objects; Flawless digital replication of human intelligence by 2029; “Virtual Reality” will be fully competitive with the real world; Most education will occur within an MMO environment; After 2023 our life expectancy will increase by one year each year. Needless to say, he was quite stirring. Our industry is uniquely poised to participate in fundamental societal developments over the next several decades. That's a lot of opportunities. Three weeks later, my mind is still spinning from this one presentation.

I would like to thank the IGDA for organizing this scholarship program, and Jason Della Rocca for his hard work and leadership. I couldn't have attended otherwise and the experience was phenomenal, concretely enhancing my understanding of the industry and furthering my career. If you're a student, I heartily encourage you to apply. Having attended, I can tell you that GDC really is everything it's cracked up to be. It's up to you to get there and make the most of it.

Advice

TAKE NOTES! The amount of information that gets thrown at you is overwhelming and you've got no hope of remembering it all. I came back with sixteen pages of notes and my friends have found even these so valuable and inspiring they've had me make copies for them. Don't plan on recording the sessions electronically, however, as you'll be asked to stop.

Don't sleep in, and don't drink too much. Your time at GDC is too valuable.

Finding a hotel within walking distance is really important. The streets in downtown San Francisco are pretty convoluted and parking prices are obscene. A legitimate alternative is finding a hotel within walking distance of one of the Metro Muni rail line stations. There is a station one block from the Moscone. I crashed with a friend who lives by San Francisco State University within a stone's throw of a station. It took about an hour to get from his place to a seat in Moscone.

If you're looking for a job, GDC is the best place on the planet. Bring tons of business cards and a dozen resumes/reels. But remember, your resume is worth a whole lot less than hitting it off with a team lead and impressing him with your competence.

Beware of sponsored sessions. These tend to have more of a marketing agenda than an educational one.

Invest time in meeting the other scholars. We're all quality people, and those of us that stuck together became a bit of a family. Cheers!

Barret Trickey - Kyoto Computer Gakuin (Japan)

The 2008 Game Developers Conference was a truly educational experience. I'll go as far to say that the week spent meeting and picking the brains of professionals, educators, and other students rivaled that of studying an entire semester at school. Even if I can only afford the lowest level pass, I'll definitely be in San Francisco in March 2009. Jason Della Rocca did an outstanding job getting the scholars prepped and organized for the events. Greg Foertsch of Firaxis was an invaluable mentor, giving insightful feedback on my artwork, introducing me to a small army of professional artists, and in general just being a great person to talk to about video games and art.

The sessions that I enjoyed the most were the Art Directors' Roundtable, Practical Light and Color, and The Making of the Starcraft II Cinematic Teaser.

Although I didn't really know what to expect going into the first day of the Roundtables, I ended up attending all three days of discussions - and would definitely do it again. Seth Spaulding of Firaxis did a wonderful job keeping the discussions focused and giving everyone the opportunity to speak up. I basically sat there taking notes and soaking up information. The main reasons I recommend the Roundtables are that A) The art directors/lead artists are potentially your future bosses. I learned a lot about what they expect out of their artists, and what they expect in a good resume/portfolio. B) It gave a lot of insight into the daily realities of an art department. C) It's probably the fastest way to meet over 20 artists from different companies and get their take on the state of the industry, the state of their own company, and digital art in general. If you want to attend a roundtable, be sure to get there early, as they tend to be held in smaller conference rooms that fill up quickly.

Practical Light and Color was just as the title sounds. Jeremy Vickery, a former lighting specialist at Pixar, covered some important phenomena of light and how they apply to (or how they can be faked in) digital painting and 3d animation. He also wowed the crowd with some color based optical illusions I hadn't seen before. It definitely changed how I perceive light and color and thus how I approach my artwork! Apparently his Gnomon DVD covers most of the same topics, so it may be worth a look.

Simply put, The Making of the Starcraft II Cinematic Teaser was a crowd pleaser. Although there were some technical difficulties, Nick Carpenter revealed amazing concept art, story boards, and extremely detailed models used in the making. The amount of time and energy Blizzard poured into that four minute trailer is astonishing. The production value was so high, I felt like I was watching the making of an FX laden Hollywood Sci-Fi movie. Of course, with the games industry now generating as much or more money than Hollywood , expect more and more of this. I highly recommend going to at least one session like this – just because, well, it's cool!

The GDC will begin before you know it. I had already started up conversations with several random developers the day before the convention even opened. Have your business cards and self introduction ready, and just as important, have lots of questions prepped. Now's the time to ask about that AI algorithm you've been having trouble with. Now's the time to show your artwork and get that pinpoint feedback that will boost you to the next level. Not only will it show that you're dedicated to your field, but you'll also get valuable information from professionals in an instant.

Unless you're looking for a job right away, spend minimal time in the career pavilion. Unless you're really short on pens or t-shirts, spend minimal time on the expo floor. You should definitely go see them, but you may not always have the cash flow to buy a main conference pass, so attend the sessions while you have the scholarship. Go to a roundtable discussion where you can meet more interesting people and won't have to fight the crowds.

Good luck to all the future scholarship recipients and any students applying for the scholarship! The GDC can be a defining event where all your hard work, creativity, and bravery will be rewarded.