Berzirk, Your GDC guy on the ground

Going to be at the Game Developer's Conference for the 8th year in a row now, so figured I would start a discussion thread, see if I can give any news on things CAGs are interested about. Never tried it before, since I'm usually tied close to our company's booth, but what the hell. Maybe it will give me a good reason to escape for a little bit.

Things I want to see:

Oculus' new LED face, supposed updated resolution. -I've hated it every other time I've used it, but uh...maybe this one will rock? They have a huge booth.

Sony's HMD competitor. People seem excited about it...but it's still an HMD. What could be so great about it?

Sony and Microsoft's respective booths. Historically MS has been all about Indie showcases, while Sony is all about playable demos and hardware. But the past couple of years Sony has tried to make it appear more indie friendly.

Things I don't want to see:

The million and one data storage, art asset management, and international pavilions that litter the show floor. Government subsidies so you can blow 100k to remind people that Scandinavia or Korea exist...seems lame.

The invasion of neckbeards. It's not hard to tell when the GDC crowd starts to arrive. Nerd BO and bearded necks should work as a free pass into the show, in lieu of official badges.

Anyway, we start to set up the booth tomorrow, then the expo starts Wednesday. I won't be making it to any of the keynotes or console manufacturer talks, so other outlets will be way better at passing info than me.

Enjoy!

Any panels where people complain about the lack of non-white and female developers at these things? That's what's going to push visuals and gameplay to the next level, I hear.

I'd say nobody gives a crap about GDC. Haha. Good to know.

Alrighty folks. Next year

berzirk said:

I'd say nobody gives a crap about GDC. Haha. Good to know.

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I give a crap! Please post whatever impressions you have and news you hear!

Scheduling didn't work out for me this year, but I'm hoping to attend in 2015. I'm mainly interested to hear about the various engines and toolsets, it's what I work with the most. The art tools are also nice, but tend to be pricey and I can never justify the cost. I would also love to hear a first-hand account of all the indie games. I love getting accounts of the small-time development teams who show up for the IGDA competition.

Richard Kain said:

I give a crap! Please post whatever impressions you have and news you hear!

Scheduling didn't work out for me this year, but I'm hoping to attend in 2015. I'm mainly interested to hear about the various engines and toolsets, it's what I work with the most. The art tools are also nice, but tend to be pricey and I can never justify the cost. I would also love to hear a first-hand account of all the indie games. I love getting accounts of the small-time development teams who show up for the IGDA competition.

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Fair enough, I'll get some updates out there then. I'm in the animation biz, so that's where my focus tends to be, but beyond hearing Goat Simulator is on the show floor, I'm not sure what else is out there. I'll report back!

It's definitely looking middleware heavy, and Crytek has a big booth, along with a huge Unity logo on the back of Nintendo's booth which is intriguing.

Wow, the Sony HMD is HORRIBLE! Jittery, clunky, lousy demo app.

As expected, Sony's booth is all about supporting indies though.

The engine companies are out in full force too, pushing the notion of monthly subscription plans for the engine access. Interesting.

Show is kind of tiny, but there are some interesting dudes here. If I can put modesty aside, our company probably has the most compelling demo on the floor.

Richard Kain said:

I give a crap! Please post whatever impressions you have and news you hear!

Scheduling didn't work out for me this year, but I'm hoping to attend in 2015. I'm mainly interested to hear about the various engines and toolsets, it's what I work with the most. The art tools are also nice, but tend to be pricey and I can never justify the cost. I would also love to hear a first-hand account of all the indie games. I love getting accounts of the small-time development teams who show up for the IGDA competition.

Click to expand...

Havoc looked cool, neat booth and they had some smart guys on the ground. Walked through the Crytek booth kind of fast, and it was OK. Unity was buzzing and had about a dozen different content partners all over the place. It was interesting, but also kind of cramped and overwhelming. Didn't get much out of it. Unreal 4's subscription model was either announced, or is being well promoted now.