GDC 2003 Report

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GDC 2003 Coverage - Introduction

Ok, I'm sure many of you have some questions about this series of articles and why it's being posted on Warcry. You're probably thinking what is the GDC and who the heck is this guy writing about it and why is he doing it?Well, in this introductory article, I'll attempt to answer these questions.

First, who am I? That's easy enough to answer. My (real life) name is Jeremy, and I'm a 3rd Year Digital Design Student at the University of Cincinnati. Also, I'm a gamer, and I've been one for quite some time. I enjoy both traditional Table-top games (D&D, White Wolf, etc), console RPGs (the Final Fantasy series, Dragon Warrior series, or anything else of that genre), and I also play a couple of MMORPGs, Asheron's Call, and Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings. Most of my free time recently has been playing AC1 and AC2, and I've been playing both since their 2nd Phases of Beta. I'm really not active on any of the message boards, and play casually for the most part. In AC1 I play Shouzuka Natara, a Lv 81 Swordsman and member of the Protectors of the Golden Flame, on Leafcull. In AC2 I play Cas Emerjy, A Lv 44 Melee Enchanter, also on Leafcull. (Coincidentally, my primary online persona is Cas Emerjy, so feel free to call me Cas.)

Okay, onto the next question, what is the GDC? The GDC is the Game Developers Conference, a professional conference where game developers (Wow! Who'd have thought?) gather to discuss different aspects of gaming and the game design industry. There are at least 2 each year that I know of, The GDC in the US and GDC Europe (which takes place in Europe, if you didn't figure that one out). Developers from all over the US and even overseas attend to hold roundtables and discussions, as well as set up booths to show off their latest games and ideas. There are lots of other events as well, such as the Game Developers Choice Awards, and various parties and social gatherings. (There's even an open gaming room every night! SCORE!)

This of course brings up another question. If this is a professional conference, how the heck did a lowly college student get to attend? No, it's not because I actually had enough dough to shell out for the registration. There's a group known as the International Game Developers Association (the IGDA), and as the name suggests, it's an organization consisting of game devs from around the world. They also offer student memberships, and one of the perks for it is that you can register for a scholarship to attend the GDC. Well, if you haven't figured it out all ready, I joined the IGDA as a student member and applied for the scholarship. SOMEHOW, I actually managed to secure one of them! That's why I'm here right now and able to do these articles. ^_^

Now, the final question. Why am I reporting on this for Warcry? Well, there are actually a couple of reasons. The primary one has to do with my purpose for coming to the GDC. I'm trying to break into the gaming industry as a game artist (I'm specifically interested in character design). As such, I'm trying to make myself a little better known. For most of my life, I've been one of the quiet guys who sit in the back of the room, does his work, and most people don't know exist. Well, that's not gonna help me out much. As such, I decided to volunteer my time and try to do my best to do a day-by-day write-up of the things I see and do while at the GDC. It seems that not many people know about this conference, and hopefully I'll spread the word about it. Also, I think I'm gonna be able to learn a lot from being here, and it doesn't hurt to try and pass that knowledge onto others. While here's a lot of interesting things that I think a lot of people would like to know about going on there, I'm probably not going to be able to cover all of them. There are some sessions and roundtables I know a lot of people would like to hear about, but unfortunately they overlap with other sessions that I want to go to because I think they'll help me along on my chosen career path. It may sound selfish on my part, but I'm here first and foremost for myself. However, if I can inform the player community about some interesting things along the way, I don't mind doing it (especially since it gets my name out there as well ^_-).

Just fair warning, though, I'm NOT a professional writer. I'll do my very best to keep things interesting and entertaining. If it starts to slide a little bit, please go easy on me. Also, if I make some obscure reference to a game or event you don't know about, I apologize in advance. Writing articles like this is a new gig for me, so I'm still learning. ^ ^; Anyway, I'll do my best to get a write-up of each day I'm out here ready to go on a regular basis. I hope everyone out there will enjoy reading what I have to say as much as I'm going to enjoy going to this conference! ^_^ That's it for now, and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to begin the really good stuff. ^_^

Cas Emerjy
The Magus Knight
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<-Begin Day 1->
GDC 2003 Coverage - Day 1 (March 5)

The trip here was pretty uneventful, so I'll forgo to details of it. However, I did manage to catch a cold over the weekend, much to my annoyance. Today was my first full day in San Jose, CA. My first real event wasn't until 4pm, though, so after I got up, showered, etc, I spent most of the morning just wandering the area around the convention center.

First of all, I must say that I'm REALLY enjoying the weather! It's so nice to be able to walk outside without freezing to death and to actually see sunshine... As most of you on the East Coast know, the weather really sucks right now. Today in San Jose it was pleasantly cool, but not actually cold. Also, the sky was completely a totally clear and a brilliant shade of blue, something which I haven't seen in a while... It almost makes me not want to go back to Cincinnati at the end of the week...

Anyway, I got up this morning around 7am (technically about 10am for me because of jetlag). After making a fool of myself in front of the hotel maintenance worker by not being able to figure out the shower (I apparently wasn't pulling the knob hard enough), I got ready to head out. I caught a bus downtown and went to the San Jose Convention Center.

My first event today was at 4pm, and that was the IGDA Scholarship Orientation, but I wanted to make sure I could find the convention center and find the room I needed to go to ahead of time. I talked with a woman who was apparently organizing the shuttle buses to the various hotels outside the convention center, looking for some directions and suggestions on places to eat. She recommended a few places and told me I could get a map inside. I went in and talked with another woman at the information desk, got a map and a few other things, and went out to begin exploring the area.

I first stopped at a place called Peggy Sue's for some breakfast. I got some pancakes and bacon, which were quite good (although the hot tea and the orange juice I got with them were a bit small). Right across from the Convention Center was The Tech Museum of Innovation. Thinking it sounded interesting, I decided to go take a look. After paying the $9 admission charge, I went in and took a look around. Even though it was during the week, there seemed to be quite a few kids around. However, it was still a very cool place. There were two floors of exhibits, with a lot of interactive stuff. I spent several hours looking around in there and really enjoyed it. If you're ever in the area, I suggest checking it out, especially if you've got kids.

By the time I was done in The Tech Museum, it was about lunchtime, so I went down the street a little bit and had lunch at the Café 1850. It was a small sandwich and bagel shop. After having a sandwich there, I decided to check out the art museum which was right next to it. Normally I'm not too big on art museums, but admission was free, so I thought I might as well, since I still had quite a bit of time left to kill.

Like I said, I'm not big on art museums, and I not really into "fine arts" type of stuff. Had I known what was exhibited there, I probably wouldn't have gone in there... While some of the work was kind of interesting, I thought a lot of the stuff was, well, not very good... However, if you're into that metaphorical artsy type of thing, you might like it. *shrugs*

I wandered around a little more and the finally headed back over to the convention center. Unfortunately, it was only a little after 1pm, so I still had about 3 hours to kill. For the most part I just sat around and waited, since I was a little tired from walking around earlier. I wanted to give my shoulder a break, also, since I had been hauling around my shoulder bag and camera this entire time as well. Around 3:30 or so, I saw Mark Wirt, one of the guys I knew from Butterfly.net (http://www.butterfly.net) where I had interned last summer. I talked with him for a while, then headed back down to the room for the orientation.

The IGDA Scholarship Orientation was really great. It consisted of all of the Scholarship recipients, Liz Wakefield (the IGDA Membership coordinator), Graeme Divine (id Software), Kathy Schoback (SEGA), and Dave Weinstein (Red Storm Entertainment). It was really great to be able to talk to Divine, Schoback, and Weinstein, where were professionals from the gaming industry, as well as board members for the IGDA. They were very willing to answer our questions and tell us about the industry. We went over a lot there, so I won't be able to cover it all. It made me really glad I was chosen as one of the recipients for one of the scholarships. In all, there were about 20 of us, including a guy from Australia, one from Brazil, and one or two from Canada. There were apparently 250-some people that applied from around the world, so it makes you feel good when you're part of such a select group.

We got our registration badge and a GDC "swag bag" during the meeting, and afterwards most of us got together to go to a Chinese place that Dave Weinstein had suggested for dinner. This was a lot of fun as well. I got to talk to the other scholarship recipients and learn a little about them. There were a lot of different areas of interest, ranging from game graphics (which is my interest) to programming and marketing. I also found out that one of them was staying at the same hotel as me, so after dinner we caught the bus back together. It's a pretty diverse and cool group, and I'm sure I'll probably see them again sometime during the rest of the week.

Anyway, that's about it for today. Tomorrow the Expo Hall will be open, with exhibits from a lot of different companies, and the sessions will be starting. I'm looking forward to heading out there again, and I'll be sure to let everyone know about what I see and do while there!

Cas Emerjy
The Magus Knight
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Convention Center	Scholarship Group	Swag