GDC Coverage Day 4

[Begin Day 4]
2003 GDC Coverage - Day 4

Well, today was the last day of the Conference, and I must say that I really did enjoy my time here. There wasn't much in the way of events today, just more sessions.

I started off the day by attending the Newbie Artist Gathering at the IGDA booth. It seems is was intended more for professional people who were looking for entry level jobs as game artists, but it was still quite informative. This session was being run by Mark Menchy, who works for GameRecruiter.com, a recruiting agency dealing specifically in the gaming industry. Also, he's written a book called "Getting Into the Game" about how to obtain a job in the industry. Again, this book is geared more towards people looking for full-time jobs, and doesn't deal much with students or how they can get internships. However, I did talk to Menchy after the session and he's a really nice guy. He even offered to give me a copy of his book, which I would have gratefully accepted if I didn't already have a copy. Apparently, he even lives in Cincinnati as well, so he could prove to be a big help to me in the future.

The next session I attended was called "Great Game Graphics... Who Cares?" This was a lecture by Jason Rubin, one of the Co-Founders of Naughty Dog, creators of the Crash Bandicoot games and, more recently, Jack and Daxter. This lecture was on how video game graphics have evolved to a point where graphics are no longer a big factor in selling a game. It was really interesting how, up until about the Playstation, each new advance in graphics seemed like such a big leap, at least visually. Now, graphic engines have evolved to the point where we can't really see much of a difference in increased graphical capacity. Rubin's main point was that, from now on games need to rely on other selling points besides better graphics. It was a very interesting talk, and it made a lot of sense.

I had intended to go to a roundtable after that session on Game Design Methods, but I got distracted by a few other things. After wandering around for a bit, I went to the expo hall and grabbed some free lunch and then explored the booths a bit more. Over at the ATI booth there were a bunch of game demos. I tried out a few, and then I noticed a SquareSoft rep playing Final Fantasy XI on one of the PCs. I watched him for a while and talked to him for a bit. That was fun. It was really interesting seeing the difference between FFXI as seen on a PS2 and on a PC. It may have just been the flat panel TV that they were using at the Sony booth, but FFXI looked MUCH nicer on the PC at the ATI display. While I didn't get to see a lot of the game, it was still visually very nice. I'd say about on par with Asheron's Call 2. The style are a bit different between AC2 and FFXI, though, so a full comparison is hard with just the little bit I saw while at the Conference.

Anyway, around 2:30pm I went to another session called "20/20 Design Vision". This session was about design process for games, and some rules that can be followed to help the processes. It mainly focused on thinking ideas through and trying to fix problems in small steps to make them easier to handle. Also, it was suggested that when implementing a new feature to implement it in a way that was way overblown. That way, it could be seen in its extreme, and may even prove more fun in that way then in its original intention. This was a relatively interesting session, although it was a bit hard for me to put it in context sense I haven't had much experience in the industry yet.

The last session I went to was "Exploring the Fringes: Interactive Entertainment in the 21st Century", presented by Ernest W. Adams. This was great session, and it ended the conference for me on a good note. Basically, it was about many different "fringe" or unusual and unique uses for the digital interactive medium. It covered many different areas, ranging from games as social commentary to MMOGs. Apparently, there's an online "game" for retired airline pilots. It seems that there are some jetliner pilots that wanted to continue flying plains after they retired. Using Microsoft Flight Simulator and some special network packages, there's a "game" that simulates the flying of domestic airline piloting across the US. To top it off, it's in REAL TIME. That means if you're flying from New York to Chicago, it takes as much time as it would if you were flying a REAL plane... Seems kind of a crazy idea to me, but hey, as long as the people who are doing it enjoy it, who am I to judge?

The last session ended at 5pm, and with that, the Conference was over. I went a grabbed some dinner at a little Italian place called Ravioli's (they had GREAT breadsticks!) and the hopped a bus back to the hotel. All that's left for me now is to pack up for tomorrow morning and head home. I almost might as well not even sleep tonight, seeing has how my flight is at 6:35am and I need to try and get there a couple of hours early to get through security...

Anyway, I've had a real blast at this Conference and am really glad I got the opportunity to come. The only bad part is I'm going to have to go back to Cincinnati now and deal with the cold weather again... That's really going to suck... I've also got about 2 weeks left of classes, and then a week off, before Spring Quarter starts up and I'm back into my normal routine of a full days of classes... *sigh* I just hope the weather there warms up soon. Once I get back to Cincinnati tomorrow, I should have had a little more time to think about my experience here as a whole. I'll try and write up a full conclusion article once I do so. Anyway, it's been a blast being here at the GDC and it's also been an interesting experience writing these articles. I just hope everyone out there has been enjoying them as well! ^_-

Cas Emerjy
The Magus Knight
<End Day 4>