I made my decision to attend the Game Developer Conference long before the I attended my first lecture at the ETC. I came into the program with the game design fairy whispering into my ear. The fairy pushed me to explore the industry for a slot that I can comfortably fit. Now with GDC 2019 behind me, I still don’t have a specific role other than “game designer,” but I feel like I’m finally looking in the right place.
Initially, I planned to attend talks all day, but over the course of the week, I discovered that is not sustainable. By treating GDC as a strictly educational retreat, I was ignoring what ended up being my favorite aspect of the conference: the community and the people that make it-but I’ll get to that later.
Among the talks I did attend, I can easily name my top two. Early in the week, Ken Wong, the creative director and founder of Mountains, gave a talk titled “Letting Go: A ‘Florence’ Postmortem.” Wong discussed the journey of designing Florence from the project’s inception, through its turbulent design evolution, and how the game achieved its emotional power. On Friday, Cory Barlog, Creative Director at Sony Santa Monica, gave a twofold presentation on 1) his experience pitching the reimagined God of War and 2) his experience struggling with doubt through the development process. Both talks examined the wild ride that is the creative process and the unique problems that arose for each team. Ken Wong struggled with over-attachment to ideas while Cory Barlog struggled with the inverse, doubts. I too struggle with both sides of this coin every day, and I’m positive everyone in the Moscone Center that week does as well. I found profound comfort by acknowledging how similar Wong, Barlog, and every creator at GDC are. Though the challenges will always be there, at least we are all attempting to conquer them together.
Other talks of note include: Bryan Intihar’s talk on Insomniac’s Spider-man game, a game design workshop exploring the MDA method of design, a workshop on designing ethical dilemmas, and level design talks from Santa Monica Studios and Insomniac.
The Blacks in Gaming event took place on Wednesday evening. Before the event started, I was a ball of insecurity and excitement. I had never met a black game developer before and I feared that the community would keep me on the fringes. I have historically struggled with this form of imposter syndrome due to my light tone effectively camouflaging my true mixed race nature. Thankfully, my anxieties were unsubstantiated, as they often are. I was welcomed with open arms. It may have been the Solange playing through the speakers or all the free beer (Thanks Microsoft!), but around these wonderful people of color, I finally felt comfortable, inspired, and self-actualized.
By the time Thursday came around, I had developed talk fatigue. I decided to take it easy the last two days and thoroughly comb the expo floor. I visited all the big name booths like, Epic Games, Sony, Google, Amazon. Off my head, my favorite experiences on the expo floor took place in the alt.ctrl section. I’m a sucker for nontraditional interactions.
At the risk of spinning hyperbole, attending GDC changed me. I would absolutely recommend attending GDC to anyone interested in the industry. I gained heaps of knowledge in the talks and workshops. I met diverse and passionate people. I played plenty of mind-expanding games. I found a community, a home.
-Derrick
Cory Barlog: “Pitching and Doubting”
Ken Wong: “Letting Go: A ‘Florence’ Postmortem”
https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1025694/Letting-Go-A-Florence