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GDC Europe 05 Student Scholarship Reports

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

 

Student Report Index

 

Student Reports

Jeppe Revall Frisvad - Technical University of Denmark (Denmark)

As a student I have rarely had the chance to chat with people from the game industry. Having now experienced GDC Europe, I can say that attending the Game Developers Conference is a great, if not the best, opportunity for a student to chat with people from the industry (especially if you attend the IGDA party held during the conference :). While the sessions were quite interesting, learning what game developers are like was perhaps the best reason for attending.

My overall impression is that people in the game industry are friendly and talkative, especially if their latest game has just been shipped. Some conference sessions were of course more interesting than others, but, as a whole, I would rate GDC Europe 2005 above the average of those few conferences I have previously attended. The catering looked expensive, but would have been better off with less service and more quality. Aside from that the conference venue was quite nice.

Three conference sessions I enjoyed

Simon Green “GPU Programming Exposed” This talk was very relevant to the research I'm doing as a part of my PhD studies. I may even be able to combine some of the blurring effects Simon described with the method for real-time indirect illumination I'm working on. Therefore, this session was very valuable for me and, besides, NVIDIA makes great demos.

Keita Takahashi “Seeing What Sticks” Because Keita's ideas, as well as his games, are so unusual, you could do nothing but enjoy this session. Unfortunately the microphones weren't sufficiently loud. This took the spark off an otherwise brilliant talk. However, the game demo, the jokes, and rebellious remarks such as "next generation hardware is completely off the point" and "graphics don't have to be spectacular for a game to be successful" made attending the talk worthwhile.

Leigh Davis “Multi-Threading Games for Performance” Since multi-core consoles as well as PCs are the reality of the near future, this session was very interesting and it left you wanting to make all your programs, not to mention your game projects, multi-threaded. The talk provided useful experiences that should be taken into consideration when multi-threading of a game engine is to be done.

Advice to future scholarship winners and student attendees of GDC:

Before you go: Find out which sessions you want to attend. Doing it during the conference is not comfortable. Brainstorm some questions about the industry that you would like to get answers to during the conference. This helped me a lot, since I knew what to look for during the sessions, and what to talk about when meeting people. Even if I didn't get exact answers to most of my questions, it was convenient having them in the back of my mind. An example question is: I've heard that making a 2D version of your game first - to sell the concept - is a good idea. Do you think that is true? This question has had various answers. None of them were alike, but all of them were interesting.

When you are there: Chat with people. Talk to both your fellow scholarship winners and the other attendees. If you can't find a subject, talk about the session you just went to or the session you are going to next. Be relaxed about the networking. If you think about it too much, it may stress you out more than it'll help you. The advice they give you at the scholarship info meeting (if you are a scholarship winner) is really good advice though! Handing out business cards is not necessarily the most important thing. In my opinion, an in-depth technical discussion with a game programmer about how they did shadows in their game is perfectly acceptable - and very educating. For example, Kim Petersen from Deadline Games explained to me how they did "more than just blobs for shadows" in their AAA title Total Overdose and that was really quite interesting.

Last but not least: Enjoy yourself while you're there. Absorb the atmosphere.

 

 

Silje Ganger - Hedmark University College (Norway)

I was actually going to turn down the IGDA scholarship because I was flat broke and really stressed out the weekend I had to make up my mind. But my dad is a really smart man, and he knocked some sense into my head, at the end, I went to London and I'm still grateful for that decision.

GDCE in London was actually my first conference and I was extremely nervous when I was about to meet the other scholarship students on Tuesday afternoon. I felt like drowning, there was so much information at the same time, and I didn't know what to do with it. But Jason Della Rocca and Rudy Geronimo gave us some really good “conference-advice”, and when the big day started on Wednesday, I was prepared.

The first thing I went to was Phil Harrison's “A Keynote Q&A on the future games” . Because I'm a huge fan of Sony Playstation, this was right up my alley. Phil Harrison talked about the next Sony Playstation generation (PS3) and how they are developing games for this console. He talked about the PSP launch in Europe, which was due at midnight the same day. He also mentioned that the consumer is now more open for alternative gaming methods, like Sing Star and Eye Toy , so this is probably something we are going to see more of in the future.

After the Keynote with Phil Harrison I went to a session with Paulina Bozek, the producer of the Sing Star title. The speech was more or less about how they ended up with the product we can buy in the shops today. The original idea for Sing Star was something completely different, and it was really interesting to hear about the developing process from the early idea to final product. This was also one of the few sessions that I felt was related to girls and gaming, which is my field of interest when it comes to the gaming industry.

But the most remarkable session was the one with Keita Takahashi, the man behind Katamari Damacy . He was there to talk about the sequel to Katamari Damacy , but to be honest; he giggled more than he talked. And if I'm to sum up the session, Keita Takahashi made Katamari Damacy because Namco didn't have any projects going on at that time that he wanted to work on, so he made his own project. And he was happy, until Namco wanted him to make a sequel, and then he got annoyed because he realized he had made something commercial, and that was not his intention at all. But it was a GREAT session, and it was nice to realize that there is room for different thinkers and developers in the industry. Keita Takahashi is unique, he is one of a kind, and he makes great games, different games. I really hope this is not the last time I'll be able to attend a session with someone this unique.

So here are my suggestions for future scholarship winners. First of all, sit in the back of the sessions, close to the door. If turns out to be a complete waste of your time, you can sneak out and go to another session, something more interesting. I did that a couple of times, and it was a really smart thing to do. Second: Talk to so many people you can, and lunchtime is an excellent time to do that. Don't be pushy, and don't ask for a job. Be polite, and if it is appropriate, hand out your business card at the end. Attend parties and lunches if you have the chance, as you will meet a lot of nice people, and they will probably remember your face later. Don't take water above your head--nobody expects you to go to sessions every hour, there are always people hanging around, taking a break and chatting, so this is a great time to talk to people and make connections. If you can't afford the conference pass and you didn't win the IGDA scholarship, you can always work as volunteer. This is a great way to get into the conference for free, attend sessions and meet people from the industry. Lastly, read badges; you never know who might have been involved in your favourite game.

Now that I've been home for some weeks, and all of my impressions have finally sunken in, I'm so grateful that I got the opportunity to go to GDCE and that I actually came to my senses and went. I've learned so much during the days in London, and I have met so many interesting people whom I hope will help me get to my final goal. The only sad thing now is that I can never again win an IGDA scholarship.

 

 

Per Hugoson - Linköping University (Sweden)

I had a great time at GDC Europe 2005 and I'm grateful for getting the opportunity to attend. It's a great place for a student like me to get an idea of how the game industry works. You pick up stuff you can't really read about, like gossip about certain publishers, how much a license for a game engine costs and much more. Together with the sessions, it forms a great learning experience, topped off with great networking opportunities.

My favorite session was “ Multi-threading in Games” with Leigh Davies from Intel. He discussed how games can benefit from a multi-threaded CPU, showing examples of how multi-threaded techniques have been implemented in recent games. Going from a single-threaded world to a multi-threaded one will be a big adjustment for game programmers, and it was very valuable to me to get an idea of how to make use of the power of multi-threading.

The graphical aspects of games are improving at impressive speeds, but does this make games better and more fun to play? Marko Hein from Nintendo of Europe talked about this in his session, “ Gaming Power and Horse Power: A Faithful Partnership?” He raised some very interesting questions about the ongoing hardware race. He also showed a little of the game Nintedogs . It looked like a very innovative and fun game.

Ben Cousins held an interesting session called “ Low-Level Game Design, Atoms, Measurement and Hierachies” . He talked about a method for analyzing games, using video editing software. By using this method, he divided the player actions into small bits that he called atoms. He claimed that by identifying these atoms, it would by easier to assure the quality of the game design. It seemed like a lot of work though, chopping up the video file into all those tiny pieces.

Some advice for future scholarship winners and other students:

And finally I would like to thank IGDA for giving me the scholarship, Jason and Rudy for taking care of us, Simon Smith, Andrew Oliver and Mark Baker for taking the time to come and talk to us at the orientation, and the other scholars for a great time. I hope we meet again at the next GDC!

 

 

Mark Korthals - Columbia University (USA)

As the only scholarship recipient from the US, I have to mention that London is incredible, and there is an overwhelming amount of things to do when not at the conference. GDCE is enough incentive to travel across the Atlantic, but with the added bonus of seeing London, there is no reason not to go. Just give yourself extra time before and after the conference.

I will admit, however, that the enormity of London was a drawback. I was at GDC in San Jose several times, and it had that sense of community, that feeling of belonging that IGDA promotes. Anyone you bumped into on the street was a game developer, and in any bar you entered, you would overhear talk of video games. For a single week in March, game developers take over a city.

The venue at the US GDC is a massive building with its façade covered by a “Game Developer's Conference” sign. At GDCE, without a map and the address of the conference, you would never find it, even standing right across the street. Its expo had around five exhibitors, as opposed to the hundreds at GDC, and turnout was unfortunately smaller, as well. Only a couple sessions filled to capacity.

Why was that? There seems to be more game development going on in England per square mile than in the US, and the impression I got is that game development is more in the mainstream (Answering, “What do you do?” with “I develop games,” will more likely result in “What have you done?” rather than “What does that mean?”). Having never lived in California, my point of view may be a bit skewed, but I think I was justified in expecting a little more of everything, especially since this event was for more than one country.

Still, quantity does not equal quality. GDCE has a much more relaxed feel with more opportunities for interaction. Approaching and talking with people is simpler, especially if you do not have a famous studio name on your badge. On top of this, the scholarship recipients get personal guidance: IGDA's Executive Director, Jason Della Rocca, and Community Manager Rudy Geronimo prepped us the day before the conference start. A few kind experts from the industry also spent the evening with us, answering questions and giving advice.

Since my main interest is computer graphics, the sessions from ATi (“Precomputed Radiance Transfer and Spherical Harmonic Lighting Techniques” by Richard Huddy, “Richer Worlds for Next-generation Games: Data Amplification Techniques Survey” by Natalya Tatarchuk) and NVIDIA (“GPU Programming Exposed: The Naked Truth behind NVIDIA's Demos” by Simon Green) fascinated me. They covered the practical side of graphics that is often difficult to get in school. At industry events like GDCE, you see exactly what is possible with your education. The presenters at these sessions were all engineers, not professional speakers or marketing representatives, but that does not mean they were not clear and engaging. Actually, it was a lecture by NVIDIA's Simon Green at GDC 2003 that originally motivated me into graphics.

“Computer Vision in Games,” given by Diarmid Campbell, head of EyeToy R&D at Sony in England, was my last session and a perfect ending to the conference. He delivered his lecture with excitement and a sort of wide-eyed wonder only seen in children. Diarmid presented demos of a real-time range-scanner that will replace the 2D EyeToy in some future generation of Playstation; my fingers are crossed for its release on the PS3. Attending this session gave me the impression that the Sony team is really having fun over in their Soho studio.

I have a feeling that the other scholarship recipients will mention this, but I have to cover it just because the moment has stayed with me. Allow me to engage in some gossip: when asked what games he plays, Katamari Damcy 's creator Keita Takahashi stated that he did not like any games that were out right now. I have to stress that he said this to about 200 game developers. At that moment, I think everyone stopped breathing for a second. Well, it was probably just me, but you could definitely feel a shock spread through the crowd.

I had to wait until the end of the conference for the best part of GDCE: the IGDA party. This leads to my piece of advice for students and upcoming scholarship winners. The most important part is not the lectures; it is not getting schwag or pictures with booth babes; the most important and enjoyable aspect of these conferences is meeting the people who share the same passion as you. Honestly, how often will you be able to “talk shop” in the field of game development?

Do not be offended if the person you are talking with leaves to network with others. Similarly, he or she will understand if you have to steal away for the same reason. Also, bring an excessive amount of business cards. I know there is some debate on this issue among scholarship winners (see Ben Bradley's article on GDCE 2003), but I was actually given a lesson for not having any at the party. I am not joking; someone gave me a lesson in the middle of the party on always having cards with you. Luckily, he was extremely forgiving and let me write down my information; I definitely will not count on another chance like that.

Meeting all these people, it is apparent that the passion that started this industry still exists. Even with massive barriers to entry (100 person teams, 30 million dollar budgets, two-year development cycles), there is still a place for those who only have some love and a desire to make games. I met some of the coolest, most encouraging people, with whom I hope to work one day. Sometimes, I lose sight of why I first became interested in what I do, but events like GDCE serve as a welcome reminder.

 

 

Tom Law - Surrey Institute of Art and Design (England)

I WAS armed and dangerous. I'd prepared myself mentally for this moment. I'd worked out a plan of action and it was now time to launch the attack. With 100 freshly printed business cards bulging in my pocket and Sergio Leone spinning through my head I swaggered into that room full of industry movers and shakers and…stood in the corner fiddling with my mobile phone.

Ah well. Best laid plans and all that. I never really did get my head around the whole networking thing. I was lucky, however, to get a first hand demo of exactly how it should be done. The way the bloke managed to stifle his disappointed groan as he discovered I was just a student was text book.

Despite this personal failing, however, I found GDC Europe to be an enriching, sobering and inspiring experience.

The first thing that struck me was just how normal it was. Having read about the games industry in the media I was obviously expecting roomfuls of pasty faced men with ponytails, talking about goblins and their favourite serial killers. I was a little disappointed, therefore, to find a diverse mix of creative and intelligent people--even some ladies.

I found the scale of the event to be just about right. Plenty of things going on without ever feeling overwhelmed. If it was any bigger, like the American GDC, I'd have felt frustrated that something better was always happening elsewhere.

I found it useful to do a bit of hopping around between sessions (not literally) just as the talks were getting underway, to get a feel for which would be most useful. I also found it better to just sit and absorb what was being said rather than try to frantically scribble down notes; most of the speakers provided a link at the end of the talk to download the Powerpoint presentations.

The sessions I got most out of were:

LOW LEVEL GAME DESIGN: ATOMS, MEASUREMENT AND HIERARCHIES: I was a bit put off by the technical sounding name of this session, but decided to give it a go--and was glad I did. It was a talk by SCEE designer Ben Cousins on what he calls low level design.

He talked about how game design should focus more attention on the elements of a game which the player experiences the most--simple things such as the way a character turns or jumps. The kinds of interactions which will take place tens of thousands of times during the game experience.

This is something which, once he'd explained it, seemed bleeding obvious but I'd never actually considered it. He also spoke of the need for game design to develop its own language in the same way that you can talk about the language of film. Top man.

GETTING A DEAL- WHAT REALLY MATTERS TO PUBLISHERS: This was a talk by the very smooth and slick Lee Jacobson, Vice President of Business Development at Midway. He gave an honest view of the industry from a publisher's perspective.

As an aspiring games designer who has just finished a year of beard stroking on an academic course, I found this session to be a healthy poke in the eye with the reality stick.

It emphasized the stark truth that a game is essentially a commodity; a product whose value is judged on unit sales. Games which attempt to innovate or appeal to non-gamers will only emerge if their perceived ability to make money outweighs the perceived risks.

Until the developer/publisher relationship changes, these are the parameters within which game designers have to operate. You can only change the industry from within.

SEEING WHAT STICKS- DEVELOPING A KATAMARI SEQUEL: I was a bit skeptical about Keita Takahashi. I'd seen him earlier in the day at the games mash-up session where his amusing but inane mutterings were greeted with adulation. I felt he was in danger of becoming a bit of a caricature--that he was trying too hard to live up to his esoteric reputation.

This speech, however, was my personal highlight of GDC Europe. It was a gently meandering talk which managed to be provocative, self-effacing, depressing and uplifting. Keita Takahashi represents hope that creativity and innovation can survive in such a harsh commercial climate.

It was sad that he seems to be so at odds with the industry in general, even to the point of saying he had little interest in playing games. But I was left with a sense of optimism; if only for the fact that his voice is clearly being heard by the industry. He also had a great translator who looked like an overgrown schoolboy.

My advice for future scholarship students would be to not get too hung up on the need to network. It depends what you want out of the event, I suppose, but I found I talked to more people once I abandoned trying to talk to people.

I left tired and emotional with 92 business cards still jabbing in my thigh.

 

 

Alger Lee - Uiversity of Manchester (England)

As a scholarship winner and industrial researcher, attending GDCE 2005 was a wonderful experience, because people joining the conference were far more open-minded and friendly than I expected, which enabled me to tap into the industry, and gather a lot of valuable insights and knowledge for my research. During the conference, I had several chances to talk to quite few game developers who were very willing to share their experiences in game development and tell me their difficulties in weathering the turbulent business cycles. Due to their kindness, my pilot research yielded a productive result.

Regarding the conference itself, a lot of sessions interested me, but with limited time it was quite impossible to attend them all. Most of the sessions I attended were in the Production and Management track:

Toby Barnes' Cutting the Red Tape: Barnes pointed out the increasing significance of the videogame industry and then addressed the “recognition and communication gaps” among the public sectors, industry and academia, mainly due to different perspectives, interests and time-frames. After that, he talked about the options for supporting the game development industry. I learned most from this part because I came to realise the roles that Regional Development Agencies play in supporting local videogame companies. In addition, R&D tax credit is very important to game companies, because in some cases companies may claim back 150% of their R&D expenditure. Exploring things like what kind of expenses can be regarded as R&D were quite interesting to me.

Marko Hein's Gaming Power and Horse Power: This was a very impressive presentation despite Nintendo's uphill battle against Sony and Microsoft. Hein used a lot of graphics and examples illustrating that gaming experiences matter most to consumers in the long run. The soaring development budget in both software and hardware are not necessarily entertaining to players. Aside from the content of videogames, Hein also emphasized that game interfaces are the real value to consumers, and this area is what Nintendo is really good at. From this session, he indicated the importance of striking a delicate balance between hardware speeds and gaming experience, and I believe this is a critical issue to all game developers in the long run.

Ian Baverstock and Fred Hasson's TIGA Session: This session was particularly important to my research, because, amid introducing what TIGA is, it depicted a broad picture of the British game industry status-quo and outlined the major challenges the industry might confront. For instance, in the publishing sector, European is quite weak primarily because of companies moving to Hollywood, the exchange rate fluctuation and the complexity of project management. In addition, fragmented local markets and lack of funding make the business environment even tougher.

However, it also gave us some hope by addressing the strength of BritSoft. In general, there are several big publishers still heavily relying on Britain's independent development community. In the forthcoming cycle transition time, there will be a lot of business opportunities opening up, and the UK's independent developers are in good position to catch these chances because, in comparison with in-house developers, they can control development budget and manage complicated projects more efficiently.

To most young students, attending a business conference is an intimidating thing to do because inexperienced students normally do not know exactly what they want or who they should approach. To make the most of limited time and money, before going to the conference, know your primary motive for attending the conference. In my case, because I am working on my doctoral research of the UK's videogame industry, establishing contacts and carrying out pilot studies were the most important things to me. Therefore, checking attendee lists and reviewing the backgrounds of people and companies I wanted to interview in the near future was something I had to do before attending the conference. At the conference, I attend the sessions most relevant to my topics and exchanged business cards not only with the speaker but also with the people showing up in the same room.

It is quite important to bring a lot of business cards with, if you are truly an ambitious person and want to know as many people as you could. If you have a very short memory like me, do not hesitate to take notes on the business card of the person whom you had just chatted with. Otherwise, you would easily forget what s/he said and who s/he is a few days later.

Finally, after two days' hard work, you must not miss the party on the last night, not only because it's free but it's also great fun!

 

 

John-Patrick Molloy - Ballfermot College of Further Education (Ireland)

GDCE was an amazing experience. I can't thank the IGDA enough for the opportunities I have received as a result of their support in sending me to the conference. If it wasn't for them I would never have made the acquaintance of some Icelandic Vikings, the collection of monkeys, and some magic beans--and that was just the IGDA party!

I attended with the hope of learning a lot about the industry for myself, and gaining support and opportunities for my fellow students back in Ballyfermot College of Further Education. I am glad to report that I achieved both, and also expanded my understanding of the industry in general. I went to the conference thinking only of video games, but since have been exposed to serious games, the educational aspects of the industry, and further possibilities within interactive media.

"Killzone 's AI: Dynamic procedural combat tactics”
Arjen Beij & Remco Straatman

Even now, looking back over the slides, I get an immediate gut reaction that this was too complicated for words. But looks can be deceiving; both speakers guided us through every detail of their AI system in simple straightforward steps. I didn't have this game before, but I intend to buy it soon. To put it simply: we were shown how a well thought out, and carefully applied, series of simple rules could give outstanding results in this area. More importantly, they spoke about how a procedural AI system saves time and money by allowing you to conduct system-wide updates.

"Low-level game design: Atoms, measurement and hierarchies”
Ben Cousins

This was the first track session I attended, and probably the singularly most useful session for me. Cousins detailed a few simple techniques that he has used to chart player activity within video games. Using these techniques, he could show how many times a player would give inputs for each action, enabling a designer to see which inputs deserve the most attention. A few trends within games were also discussed, such as standard level size (by time), and duration of jump. The techniques also work well for the comparison of games within a genre, and perhaps giving insight into the differences of play experience a user would have.

"Multi-threading in games”
Leigh Davies

I went to this talk more than a little worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up, but my fears proved unfounded. The format of the session mostly made use of case studies, and did so to great affect. Davies walked us through each problem and its solution, step by step. His visual aids for each case made the greatest impact on me, breaking each scenario down into manageable bites. Many practical examples were provided where, by readdressing where the workload fell, significant processing power could be freed up for use by other features. The Q&A section at the end was more technical than the main presentation, addressing more specific problems. I left with a far firmer grasp on multi threading than I previously had.

Advice for future scholarship winners:

In conclusion, this is an event well worth attending. In fact, it's even worth paying to get into, if you have no other choice, and may well be the catalyst that makes all the difference to your future career.

Thanks once again to the IGDA, Rudy and Jason in particular, and also to the mentors for this fantastic opportunity, and all their work and enthusiasm.

 

 

Magali Stretton - Surrey Institute of Art & Design (England)

Getting the IGDA scholarship for GDC Europe was a great opportunity for me to meet industry people and learn about game development.

I was anxious about how to approach the conference before it started, but by the end I had a fantastic experience. I not only heard risk-averting, trend-following publishers talk about the rising cost and development time of games, but I also met and listened to some creative people who inspired me to dream of better games to make.

Out of the all the sessions, I found the following three particularly instructive and inspiring:

"Wipe Out Pure : A Post-mortem” by David Burrows (SCEE Studio Liverpool).

Wipe Out Pure is one of the key titles accompanying the European launch of the PSP. Though this was a technical session, this post-mortem was very instructive in terms of the game development process and the potentialities for PSP.

Burrows looked at what they had accomplished and learned from developing for a new console:

- No Hardware: They had to start production without a development kit. It turned out they were able to develop for PSP on PC. This was interesting in relation to the Microsoft keynote where Chris Satchell admitted that "Microsoft was there to take care of the unsexy part of the development to leave the sexy stuff to developers." Could this be an omen of things to come, using Microsoft tools to create for Sony as the Wipe Out developer did?

- Track Design: As a programmer, the main concern for this version of the game was for him to work with a system that could offer an efficient and rapid way of designing and testing tracks. This resulted in developing a track editor for Maya. A demonstration of the editor gave us a track designed from scratch and ready to play within 10 minutes, which was quite impressive.

- Downloadable Content: The most interesting aspect of Burrows' session was the angle on downloadable content. As a launch-title for the PSP, it was important that Wipe Out made good use of the downloadable and network facilities of the console. Burrows explained how they approached this aspect by thinking of a race-track downloadable system. This system will have implications on UI and other aspects of game development. In order to solve these issues, he explained how the whole system has been developed with the use of XML. This was very interesting because it meant that most of the downloadable work and management would be based around text-strings that could be parsed and interpreted in visuals and interactive layout.

"Low-level Game Design: Atoms, Measurement and Hierarchies” by Ben Cousins (SCEE)

This session was looked at design methodology and work process. Through his talk, Cousins proposed a classification and measuring tool to use for game design. For him, there are different areas of game design:

His talk concentrated on the lower level, what he refers to as the atomic level of game design. This level is made of the most basic design components of the game--the elements players spend the most of time on (eg, walk cycle, jump, shoot etc.).

For Cousins, measuring these basic elements is important in order to design better and more fluid experiences. It was interesting how his measuring process worked: he used video recordings of gaming sessions (on successful titles such as Mario Sunshine ) that he transferred to Premiere to analyze and identify these basic atoms of gameplay. He used different measuring parameters such as the duration of these actions (eg, length of a jump), the distance on the screen, or the density of actions. Cousins found that these parameters and atomic attributes were the most successful when they closely mimicked real human actions.

Though his approach seems time consuming, I found it so interesting and inspiring. The design process can be quite an abstract and qualitative process, and hearing people attempt to measure and quantify gameplay elements was very helpful.

"Seeing what Sticks – Developing a Katamari Sequel” by Keita Takahashi (Namco)

And last but not least… this was probably the most anticipated keynote of the conference and it delivered. Whatever anyone else said about how uninspired and market-driven this industry must become to survive, we had a man with an incredible vision, a great sense of humour and a successful, mind-blowing game.

Through his session, Takahashi explained why he wanted to make this game and how he had to struggle with the idea of a sequel. After all, Katamari was made in response to this industry's habits of delivering complicated, hyper-realistic serialised games.

It was also inspirational and refreshing to hear a developer talk about the importance of having fun creating good and simple things rather than counting a number of polygons or talking AI.

As this game hasn't been release in Europe, it was fantastic to discover it and be amazed by not only its funny gameplay of rolling a sticky ball, but also its beautiful animated gameworld.

In one hour, Takahashi had mesmerised every one of us to the point where there were no questions asked. This guy had made us dream, reminding us why we were there, and that “making games should be like playing games—fun.”

Going to GDCE was fantastic and I am now planning on going to GDC in San Jose, 2006. As a student it was great to be under the sponsorship scheme because I felt we were given the right level of support before and during the conference. I also really enjoyed meeting other students and I hope we can keep in touch.

In terms of advice for future scholarship students:

 

 

Lance Winter - University of Salford (England)

Arriving in London, it was fair to say that I was a little apprehensive. Looking at the list of speakers, I knew that I would be in the company of real game developers from a range of backgrounds and disciplines. They were already in the games industry, and had real games to talk up, break down, and analyse. I was merely a student with a lot of questions, and little knowledge about the realities of the game industry.

Although my nerves and naivete did ride with me throughout the conference, I had a lot of support and encouragement from the start - thanks to Jason & Rudy from the IGDA, Simon & Andrew from Blitz and Mark from Climax, all of whom hosted an orientation session for the scholarship recipients.

From there, it was on to the conference proper. The range of events covered every angle of game development. Being a designer, the talks that I attended were skewed towards game design, but I was surprised to find a great deal of useful information and insights on topics that I would not normally be interested in.

Three sessions that I particularly enjoyed were:

"Precomputed Radiance Transfer and Spherical Harmonic Lighting Techniques for Games” Natalya Tatarchuck

The session discussed techniques as used by ATI researchers in their latest technology demonstration. Despite the rather arcane-sounding title, I was able to grasp much of the talk. What I found most interesting about this lecture was being able to see how graphics rendering techniques developed from computer science theory, to become workable code within game engines. I would certainly have gained more from this session had I been a programmer; when they started throwing Greek formulae up on screen, my brain switched to befuddled.

" Singstar : That's Entertainment” Paulina Bozek

The main reason that I wanted to attend this session was that Singstar was one of the few recent games that I've found to be genuinely different, both in the way that it is played, and by the rather wide appeal that this game has. The lecture itself touched on how the game started as a spin-off from a research & development project, and how the various design and marketing decisions shaped the game that made it to store shelves. It was good to see that even large companies such as SCEE were still trying to invent new gaming experiences, and get them to a broader audience.

"Game Design Mashup” Demis Hassabis, Robin Hunicke, Nick James, Keita Takahashi

Certainly my favourite session of the conference, this session was a panel of game design luminaries in a freestyle game design challenge to devise a “Game for Granny”. Each member of the panel relayed the details for their theoretical title, each panellist providing a more surreal design than the last. The 'cat' design by Keita Takahashi (designer of Katamari Damacy ) was certainly the most surreal, and also the most interesting, winning the audience over by a fair margin. Seeing the process actual game designers go through to develop a game concept was enlightening, and the very topic of making a game for such a non-traditional audience was a pleasure to see in a developer event, especially as from the outside can seem that these ideas are rarely considered.

As for advice to future student attendees, the most important thing I would recommend is to talk to people. Find people who interest you, and talk to them about their latest game, what they thought of a certain lecture, or even ask what they're playing at the moment. You may find it difficult to talk to people but it's certainly worth it. The people that attend the conference are the real highlight of the event. They can provide you with a great deal of insight and guidance, and better still, when you meet people at GDCE, you'll then know more faces at your next conference.

Other advice echoes advice from past scholarship recipients, but still remains the same for this year:

GDCE 2005 was my first real foray in to the game's industry, and while I did feel a little overwhelmed at times, the experience was incredibly valuable and I would recommend anyone who aims to create games to attend.

 

 

Bonus Photos: Scholars (and Rudy) at the IGDA party


Jeppe, Annalise, Lance, John-Patrick, Magali, Rudy, Silje, Alger, Mark


Jeppe, Rudy, Annelise, Mark


Tore Urke, Magali, Jeppe, Rudy, Annelise, Silje