GDC Review 2010 Part 3

So, after day 2 of GDC, things had turned around, and I was really beginning to enjoy the convention. Day 3 set my hopes back a little into a state of "meh".

GDC Day 3

Talk 0.5: Five Ways a Video Game Can Make You Cry
This talk was only a half hour as opposed to an hour, so I'm dubbing it Talk 0.5. Anyway, the speaker discussed five ways games make us cry such as nostalgia. I liked this talk. It was to the point and fitting. Also, I will never see Grave of the Fireflies because of this talk because it looks way too sad.

Talk 1.0: Paint-by-Gender ~How To Add Pink Gameplay To Your 'Blue' Title (And Still Keep All The Boys Happy)
This talk was interesting. The speaker gave nine ways to make a game more attractive to female players like sprinkling in non-violent gameplay and having non-stereotypical female characters. It was a short talk and was mostly just the speaker talking about the results of her mod; also, some of her slides were messed up -- sometimes girls would be represented with a blue bar instead of a pink one but were always on the left. Again, I found it useful and enjoyed it.

Talk 2: Make 'Em Laugh ~Comedy in Games~
Now I love comedy, but I have a strange sense of humor. This talk which was a panel with three designers (or writers or something), one of which was Tim Schafer, who people deem as some comedic, gaming god. THIS TALK BLEW! I was so bored; I literally fell asleep twice and had to fight not to. I should have went to the talk about implementing the rewind effect in Braid. I didn't learn anything special; it was just the three giving their insights to comedy in games. Part of the problem was that one of the driest speaker, Rhianna Pratchett, spoke a lot more it seemed. True, I was tired, but I survived those first two talks with no problem. Anyway, I was disappointed with this talk a lot.

Talk 3: Getting Noticed ~Why You Need an Online Portfolio and How to Make One~
This talk was about getting a nice portfolio out there. I think mine right now is a bit below average, and I need some things to make it better. The only thing I disagreed with Jacob Minkoff was his notion that you should have no Flash elements on your site. I think the Flash elements in mine are acceptable, subtle things that can show off some of your skills. This talk also helped me decide that I think I want to be a gameplay programmer who can do a few other things, like design and 3D modeling. This was a good inspirational talk too, discussing that failures aren't always a game over.

This was my last talk of GDC. The rest of the day I spent exploring San Francisco's downtown. It reminded me a lot of Pittsburgh except with angrier drivers and more homeless, crazy people. I liked S.F., but would never want to live there.

I learned a lot about GDC and would like to go again. As to when, I'm not 100% sure. The first day sucked, the second day was great, and the third day was just okay, giving me an overall feeling of satisfaction but not complete, invigorating, delight. One thing I definitely will remember for next year: always sit in the middle of a row, because if you don't, you'll probably be asked to eventually anyway...