GDC 2008
GDC 2008 Overview
This year's GDC was pretty chaotic. A lot of my time was spent on IGDA stuff (I'm on the board of directors, as well as the chair of the credits committee) and I'm finding it increasingly hard to get anywhere without getting sucked into a conversation with an old friend or coworker, which, admittedly, is usually much more informational than many lectures.
Things I went to this year, and a short review:
Tutorial: Staging Workshop: Visual Storytelling Masterclass
This tutorial dealt with how Lionhead Studios had a professional director bring in a group of actors to act out the most important storypoints from the upcoming Fable 2. They claim that the process saved on animation design time, as well as helping the lead designer better visualize the scenes. While they claimed the process was cheaper than the time that would have been wasted prototyping animating and reworking the scene, I don't think it was much of a cost savings. During the tutorial, the speaker, Mark Travis, brought in some actors to demonstrate the process. While interesting, the scene they chose to work on was so horribly bad that I eventually had to leave or else chance a sudden outburst about polishing offal.
Game Development Deals 2008:
This was a panel talk that concentrated on legal issues in the game industry. A large portion of the talk concentrated on IP issues and what constituted "Fair Use". The big point they wanted to make was that more publishers doing Due Diligence are starting to make sure your company is being well run, and that you have an employee handbook, etc. guaranteeing that you are treating your business like a business and not a loose conglomeration of talented 20-somethings.
Security and Privacy in Games
This roundtable had some good conversation about the privacy of credit card information. Apparently, there are several companies who you can pay to handle the security of your customers and guard against fraud. Much to my surprise those companies had a presence on the expo floor.
How To Break All The Rules and Yet Make a 90+ Game
This talk concentrated on how a Swedish Studio used a combination of Agile and classic waterfall management techniques to create the game "World In Conflict", which, at the time that the speaker had submitted his talk, had a 90+ rating on Gamerankings. Unfortunately, no real epiphanies here.
Raising Venture Financing for your Startup
This was a panel talking about how to go about gathering funds for your startup. Lots of interesting tidbits and pretty useful stuff that pretty much boiled down to "reaeadrch your VC before you accept their money" and "If you get to a third meeting, and you don't feel like they are dragging you around, it's likely that the VC is highly interested in you."
Game Designer's Rant
As usual, an entertaining panel with one very powerful talk from Clint Hocking about how games need to grow in their depth.
10 Keys to Designing for IPs
My friend Tim Longo spoke for 20 minutes on how to design for existing IPs. Basically, his message was to know your IP inside and out, remember that your audience is buying your game because they like the original IP and not your "unique spin" on it, and try to aim your game more toward the greater audience while still giving nods to the hardcore fanboys.
How to Create the Greatest Boss Battles and Why Not to do it.
This 20 minute talk concentrated on Boss Design. Some good tips on this, such as keeping the camera in places where you can see everyone while not making everything look small and unthreatening. Due to time, the speaker had to rush through why not to put Boss Battles in your game, but I didn't feel he really believed in any of his presented reasons.
How to Pick a Lock: Immersive Minigames
This speaker took a look at 5 different unlocking mechanics in games and judged them. Basically, the lesson is that your minigames should be immersive, have some aspect that challenges the player's level of skill, is presented in such a way that the user can instantly grasp what they are supposed to be doing, and has a good level of responsiveness so the player feels like he is actually accomplishing something. A pretty good talk.
Startup Horror Stories:
Because the Portal Talk had a line about a mile long, I ended up in this panel talk consisting of CEOs of a couple companies like Cryptic, Go Pets, Gaia Online and one other company talking about the lessons they've learned as CEOs. Pretty informative, though, on a seperate note, I noticed that only one had a wedding ring. Over the past couple years, I've noticed the divorce rate amongst executives is pretty startling.
-----
Usually, I try to glean an underlying theme of GDC. One year, it was Will Wright. His name was mentioned in almost every conversation. This year, the big theme I noticed were children's MMO's and Social Sites. The success of Habbo Hotel and Club Penguin has urged many an entrepreneur to seek funding for one of these things. It's pretty crazy. I've noticed that, whenever a new vector for making profit opens up in the game industry, an overabundance of goldseekers jump in that direction. With the success of certain Facebook apps, a lot of eyes and ears were pointed in that direction.
Another ubiquitous thing were Iphones. I've never seen so many in one place. The AT&T cell towers must have been overloaded in the Convention area of San Francisco, with all the constant checking of email and cell phoning and such. The biggest use for Iphones? Showing off pictures of your kids. I guess the industry is growing up...
------
All in all, a decent GDC. I'm still exhausted.
This year's GDC was pretty chaotic. A lot of my time was spent on IGDA stuff (I'm on the board of directors, as well as the chair of the credits committee) and I'm finding it increasingly hard to get anywhere without getting sucked into a conversation with an old friend or coworker, which, admittedly, is usually much more informational than many lectures.
Things I went to this year, and a short review:
Tutorial: Staging Workshop: Visual Storytelling Masterclass
This tutorial dealt with how Lionhead Studios had a professional director bring in a group of actors to act out the most important storypoints from the upcoming Fable 2. They claim that the process saved on animation design time, as well as helping the lead designer better visualize the scenes. While they claimed the process was cheaper than the time that would have been wasted prototyping animating and reworking the scene, I don't think it was much of a cost savings. During the tutorial, the speaker, Mark Travis, brought in some actors to demonstrate the process. While interesting, the scene they chose to work on was so horribly bad that I eventually had to leave or else chance a sudden outburst about polishing offal.
Game Development Deals 2008:
This was a panel talk that concentrated on legal issues in the game industry. A large portion of the talk concentrated on IP issues and what constituted "Fair Use". The big point they wanted to make was that more publishers doing Due Diligence are starting to make sure your company is being well run, and that you have an employee handbook, etc. guaranteeing that you are treating your business like a business and not a loose conglomeration of talented 20-somethings.
Security and Privacy in Games
This roundtable had some good conversation about the privacy of credit card information. Apparently, there are several companies who you can pay to handle the security of your customers and guard against fraud. Much to my surprise those companies had a presence on the expo floor.
How To Break All The Rules and Yet Make a 90+ Game
This talk concentrated on how a Swedish Studio used a combination of Agile and classic waterfall management techniques to create the game "World In Conflict", which, at the time that the speaker had submitted his talk, had a 90+ rating on Gamerankings. Unfortunately, no real epiphanies here.
Raising Venture Financing for your Startup
This was a panel talking about how to go about gathering funds for your startup. Lots of interesting tidbits and pretty useful stuff that pretty much boiled down to "reaeadrch your VC before you accept their money" and "If you get to a third meeting, and you don't feel like they are dragging you around, it's likely that the VC is highly interested in you."
Game Designer's Rant
As usual, an entertaining panel with one very powerful talk from Clint Hocking about how games need to grow in their depth.
10 Keys to Designing for IPs
My friend Tim Longo spoke for 20 minutes on how to design for existing IPs. Basically, his message was to know your IP inside and out, remember that your audience is buying your game because they like the original IP and not your "unique spin" on it, and try to aim your game more toward the greater audience while still giving nods to the hardcore fanboys.
How to Create the Greatest Boss Battles and Why Not to do it.
This 20 minute talk concentrated on Boss Design. Some good tips on this, such as keeping the camera in places where you can see everyone while not making everything look small and unthreatening. Due to time, the speaker had to rush through why not to put Boss Battles in your game, but I didn't feel he really believed in any of his presented reasons.
How to Pick a Lock: Immersive Minigames
This speaker took a look at 5 different unlocking mechanics in games and judged them. Basically, the lesson is that your minigames should be immersive, have some aspect that challenges the player's level of skill, is presented in such a way that the user can instantly grasp what they are supposed to be doing, and has a good level of responsiveness so the player feels like he is actually accomplishing something. A pretty good talk.
Startup Horror Stories:
Because the Portal Talk had a line about a mile long, I ended up in this panel talk consisting of CEOs of a couple companies like Cryptic, Go Pets, Gaia Online and one other company talking about the lessons they've learned as CEOs. Pretty informative, though, on a seperate note, I noticed that only one had a wedding ring. Over the past couple years, I've noticed the divorce rate amongst executives is pretty startling.
-----
Usually, I try to glean an underlying theme of GDC. One year, it was Will Wright. His name was mentioned in almost every conversation. This year, the big theme I noticed were children's MMO's and Social Sites. The success of Habbo Hotel and Club Penguin has urged many an entrepreneur to seek funding for one of these things. It's pretty crazy. I've noticed that, whenever a new vector for making profit opens up in the game industry, an overabundance of goldseekers jump in that direction. With the success of certain Facebook apps, a lot of eyes and ears were pointed in that direction.
Another ubiquitous thing were Iphones. I've never seen so many in one place. The AT&T cell towers must have been overloaded in the Convention area of San Francisco, with all the constant checking of email and cell phoning and such. The biggest use for Iphones? Showing off pictures of your kids. I guess the industry is growing up...
------
All in all, a decent GDC. I'm still exhausted.
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