Hey,
Today was the day where I could actually go to sessions with my expo pass. Gamecareerguide had set up a game career seminar with sessions that covered several different aspects of getting into the industry. The keynote was done by Fallout 3's Lead designer who talked about his path into the game industry. The session was interesting but as always telling how they borke in never perfectly fits what your skillset or situation. I would have rather heard 10 panelists quickly state how they broke into he industry than one famous person but the information was good and it was interesting.
The next session was my favorite session that I went to. It was given by a woman who has been teaching/working in the industry for a long time and was basically her giving you her insights from what she has learned so far. At the end of the session she had gone through 300 slides answering 100 questions. It was extremely informative and kept you paying attention the entire time.
The next session was canceled that day and so I was left with several hours to burn again. I went back to the career pavillion but basically just wandered around. The only interesting moment was when several blizzard members went and played guitar hero at the Activision booth. They kind of made a spectacle of themselves and several other Blizzard employees came to watch. As the song went on everyone, audience included, was bobbing their heads in tune and having a good time. To me it encompassed why I want to make video games, to have fun with friends and get a little escape into a different universe.
The last session I attended was a panel that talked about interviews. The session was also highly informative but never really covered how a production interview would go. I went up and asked one of the panelists and ended up talking to someone else at his studio. He gave me a general overview which was really useful.
Thus ended my first GDC experience....
Cyaz
Friday, March 27, 2009
GDC: Day 2
Hey,
Today I spent the day in the career pavilion. I brought my resumes today and went to all the booths that would collect them and others that were just giving advice. I did my only real fanboy move and started at the Blizzard booth even though I knew they didn't have a position open for me. After that I went to several more booths and either gave my resume or got feedback. All of the feedback was positive and usually mentioning that it was good that I'd gotten an internship last summer. The one thing I can really appreciate from being a business student is that I know how to make a good resume.
A lot of the companies didn't have a position open for me but still seemed enthusiastic about taking my resume or meeting me. I'm not sure I made much of an impression on anyone but I think I tried my best. I never went up and said here's my resume, please hire me but I also never managed to start a long conversation with anyone. I would generally go up and ask about open positions then ask if they'd give me advice on my resume. This seemed to work but there are probably other ways to go about it.
For lunch I went to the annual IGDA meeting where they supplied free lunch (I knew my IGDA membership was worth more than a ribbon!). The meeting was really intereseting for someone not currently in the industry. I am up to date on all the public news released by developers but a lot of the more private/industry insider was what was discussed. The IGDA seems to be in a state of change and is working on becoming more effective at protecting people already in the industry, providing more information to everyone, and helping people break into the industry. In the next few years I see IGDA becoming even more powerful or losing a significant member base.
Afterwards I went back to the career pavillion where I basically ended up wandering around since I'd been to almost every booth. While wandering I ran into my old internship boss who I got to talk to for a while. I finally learned when the game I worked on is being released and what parts I worked on are actually going into the game. It will definitely be an exciting moment when I get to see my name in the credits.
At the end of the day I went to a session with several former video game writers who now have jobs in the industry. The session was not really informative in a specific way but I did find it interesting. The panelists were also for the most part funny and they kept the session very light and entertaining.
At night I went out with my friend from EA and met one of his bosses. His boss was very cool and really amsuing to talk to and also extremely important. While waiting for him to finish up a conversation Phil Harrison walked up to him to say hi. That night I also got to have my first "oh, you made that game moment". In class our teacher showed us a flash game to demonstrate how powerful flash is and what you can do with it. I met the dev of the game my teacher demonstrated and talked to him for a big part of the night (he made Fancy Pants). After meeting up with his boss we went to another bar for a bit, got dinner, and went to party that'd ran out of beer.
Cyaz
Today I spent the day in the career pavilion. I brought my resumes today and went to all the booths that would collect them and others that were just giving advice. I did my only real fanboy move and started at the Blizzard booth even though I knew they didn't have a position open for me. After that I went to several more booths and either gave my resume or got feedback. All of the feedback was positive and usually mentioning that it was good that I'd gotten an internship last summer. The one thing I can really appreciate from being a business student is that I know how to make a good resume.
A lot of the companies didn't have a position open for me but still seemed enthusiastic about taking my resume or meeting me. I'm not sure I made much of an impression on anyone but I think I tried my best. I never went up and said here's my resume, please hire me but I also never managed to start a long conversation with anyone. I would generally go up and ask about open positions then ask if they'd give me advice on my resume. This seemed to work but there are probably other ways to go about it.
For lunch I went to the annual IGDA meeting where they supplied free lunch (I knew my IGDA membership was worth more than a ribbon!). The meeting was really intereseting for someone not currently in the industry. I am up to date on all the public news released by developers but a lot of the more private/industry insider was what was discussed. The IGDA seems to be in a state of change and is working on becoming more effective at protecting people already in the industry, providing more information to everyone, and helping people break into the industry. In the next few years I see IGDA becoming even more powerful or losing a significant member base.
Afterwards I went back to the career pavillion where I basically ended up wandering around since I'd been to almost every booth. While wandering I ran into my old internship boss who I got to talk to for a while. I finally learned when the game I worked on is being released and what parts I worked on are actually going into the game. It will definitely be an exciting moment when I get to see my name in the credits.
At the end of the day I went to a session with several former video game writers who now have jobs in the industry. The session was not really informative in a specific way but I did find it interesting. The panelists were also for the most part funny and they kept the session very light and entertaining.
At night I went out with my friend from EA and met one of his bosses. His boss was very cool and really amsuing to talk to and also extremely important. While waiting for him to finish up a conversation Phil Harrison walked up to him to say hi. That night I also got to have my first "oh, you made that game moment". In class our teacher showed us a flash game to demonstrate how powerful flash is and what you can do with it. I met the dev of the game my teacher demonstrated and talked to him for a big part of the night (he made Fancy Pants). After meeting up with his boss we went to another bar for a bit, got dinner, and went to party that'd ran out of beer.
Cyaz
Thursday, March 26, 2009
GDC: Day 1
Hey,
Since I only purchased an Expo pass I could not attend the majority of the sessions at GDC. They did allow us to attend 1 session each in each discipline and one of them was a session on using Microsoft Project. I have very little experience with Microsoft Project but I wanted to go to the session anyways to at least get a small introduction to it. The session was very informative and well put together. The speaker clearly knew what he was talking about and had come up with proven techniques that helped make using Microsoft Project easier and more efficient. At the session I met an engineer who works at a small development house that makes games for the iPhone. He got his start in the industry right after he graduated college and has been making games ever since. He talked about how he really likes working at a small developer because he gets to fill many different roles since they have such a small staff.
The next session I attended was about running a development house with as little money as possible. The session was proposed/written over 6 months ago and acknowledged that fact that many things have changed since then. They explained how to keep costs low and that growing your company might not always be the safest route to take. They also emphasized seeing the code of a game they might work on before taking a new contract. During this session I only met some students who were exhausted after having driven all night to make it to the conference.
In between the sessions I went to the career pavilion to start getting acclimated and look to see which companies were there. I spent most of the day observing but I did talk to several graduate schools who had booths. I'm still not sure whether graduate school is the right choice for me but I looked anyways. Finding a graduate school that teaches video games and has a production track is very rare and in the end I only found 2 that had them. The companies I did talk to were not taking resumes so I felt that it didn't matter if I talked to them then or the next day when I had my resumes. I was not really good at starting up a conversation when I went up and would basically just ask about the job then move on to the next booth. I need to practice and come up with some questions that I can ask just to get a conversation started.
After being in the career pavilion for a few hours I went over to the expo/booth crawl. This is where all the game engines/new technology/anyone who wants a booth go to show off their products/give presentationts/answer questions. The highlights for me were this giant touch screen that had floating windows on it. You could throw them across the screen or resize them similar to an iPhone. It was just really cool to play with but had no real purpose. The other interesting thing was when I was walking around I saw a game I had played before on addictinggames.com called Castle Defender. I stood and watched the preview on the tv for a few minutes before being asked if I needed anything. I responded that I simply recognized the game and before I knew it I was talking to the developers. I was so in shock that I was talking to the developers that I completely failed to talk about myself and only asked a few questions about the game and moved on. I wish I had talked to the developers more and at the very least asked a few questions about breaking in.
After the expo were the Game Developer Choice awards. My friend was going out for his birthday with his girlfriend so I was alone for the night again. I found a group of what looked like students and sat down and started up a conversation with them. They ended up going to being in a video game program in Minnesota and were interesting to talk to. They had a very different view of college and seemed rather limited because of their very specific majors. They are probably more knowledgeable in the technical areas of game creation but they had no knowledge of anything else. I think you want a mix of both specific knowledge and general knowledge in order to be able to succeed in anything besides an entry level position. It'll be interesting to see the dispersion of video game majors and other majors once I get my first job in the industry.
The award ceremonies were very entertaining and exciting to be at. It was a cool experience to actually be there when they announced the winners rather than sitting at home reading gamasutra the next day. I'm not sure if I would necessarilly go again unless I had something in the running or someone I knew did. It was a good experience though and am happy I went.
Cyaz
Since I only purchased an Expo pass I could not attend the majority of the sessions at GDC. They did allow us to attend 1 session each in each discipline and one of them was a session on using Microsoft Project. I have very little experience with Microsoft Project but I wanted to go to the session anyways to at least get a small introduction to it. The session was very informative and well put together. The speaker clearly knew what he was talking about and had come up with proven techniques that helped make using Microsoft Project easier and more efficient. At the session I met an engineer who works at a small development house that makes games for the iPhone. He got his start in the industry right after he graduated college and has been making games ever since. He talked about how he really likes working at a small developer because he gets to fill many different roles since they have such a small staff.
The next session I attended was about running a development house with as little money as possible. The session was proposed/written over 6 months ago and acknowledged that fact that many things have changed since then. They explained how to keep costs low and that growing your company might not always be the safest route to take. They also emphasized seeing the code of a game they might work on before taking a new contract. During this session I only met some students who were exhausted after having driven all night to make it to the conference.
In between the sessions I went to the career pavilion to start getting acclimated and look to see which companies were there. I spent most of the day observing but I did talk to several graduate schools who had booths. I'm still not sure whether graduate school is the right choice for me but I looked anyways. Finding a graduate school that teaches video games and has a production track is very rare and in the end I only found 2 that had them. The companies I did talk to were not taking resumes so I felt that it didn't matter if I talked to them then or the next day when I had my resumes. I was not really good at starting up a conversation when I went up and would basically just ask about the job then move on to the next booth. I need to practice and come up with some questions that I can ask just to get a conversation started.
After being in the career pavilion for a few hours I went over to the expo/booth crawl. This is where all the game engines/new technology/anyone who wants a booth go to show off their products/give presentationts/answer questions. The highlights for me were this giant touch screen that had floating windows on it. You could throw them across the screen or resize them similar to an iPhone. It was just really cool to play with but had no real purpose. The other interesting thing was when I was walking around I saw a game I had played before on addictinggames.com called Castle Defender. I stood and watched the preview on the tv for a few minutes before being asked if I needed anything. I responded that I simply recognized the game and before I knew it I was talking to the developers. I was so in shock that I was talking to the developers that I completely failed to talk about myself and only asked a few questions about the game and moved on. I wish I had talked to the developers more and at the very least asked a few questions about breaking in.
After the expo were the Game Developer Choice awards. My friend was going out for his birthday with his girlfriend so I was alone for the night again. I found a group of what looked like students and sat down and started up a conversation with them. They ended up going to being in a video game program in Minnesota and were interesting to talk to. They had a very different view of college and seemed rather limited because of their very specific majors. They are probably more knowledgeable in the technical areas of game creation but they had no knowledge of anything else. I think you want a mix of both specific knowledge and general knowledge in order to be able to succeed in anything besides an entry level position. It'll be interesting to see the dispersion of video game majors and other majors once I get my first job in the industry.
The award ceremonies were very entertaining and exciting to be at. It was a cool experience to actually be there when they announced the winners rather than sitting at home reading gamasutra the next day. I'm not sure if I would necessarilly go again unless I had something in the running or someone I knew did. It was a good experience though and am happy I went.
Cyaz
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
GDC: The First Night
Hey,
I haven't written in a while but I'm at GDC and feel like what I'm learning/doing should be recorded somewhere. In the past I've kept my posts mainly to what I've read but I'm going to do several entries about each of my days at GDC. At first they will be in outline form as notes for myself. Once I get back to school I will go back and add more detail, descriptions, etc.
Once I got to San Francisco I dropped my stuff off and went a casual games party hosted by Zynga. My friend who I was staying with was at another party so I had to go alone which was pretty intimidating. I did finally start talking to people and received some interesting insights. The first person I talked to was a designer at a start up who I asked what advice he could give an aspiring producer. He told me that being able to talk to each part of development (art, programmers, design, etc) and then translate to other departments is one of the most important skills for a producer. He introduced me to a senior level employee at Microsoft who repeated much of the same thing to me.
I started wandering again at this point and met an artist at EA. He told me about how when he applied to EA he didn't have a college education and his portfolio was nowhere near today's standards. The times have clearly changed a lot and breaking into the industry is much more competitive. He also talked about the structure of the production department at EA. The production department is split between project managers and producers. The producers work with the development team and help with game play etc. The project managers work on the schedules and budgets for the games. He said that because of the split it creates a lot of "discussion" between each side but in the end having the powers seperated is beneficial. I can see how it can work effectively but I think that in certain situations it can cause large rifts between each of the sides. My friend finally arrived and i followed him around the room as he said Hi to everyone that he knew. I met a few flash developers bujt didn't get a chance to have a full conversation with them.
At the end of the event I was satisfied even though I didn't meet as many people as I would have liked. It is really hard going to an event like that without knowing anyone and in the future I'm going to try to always have someone there I know.
Cyaz
I haven't written in a while but I'm at GDC and feel like what I'm learning/doing should be recorded somewhere. In the past I've kept my posts mainly to what I've read but I'm going to do several entries about each of my days at GDC. At first they will be in outline form as notes for myself. Once I get back to school I will go back and add more detail, descriptions, etc.
Once I got to San Francisco I dropped my stuff off and went a casual games party hosted by Zynga. My friend who I was staying with was at another party so I had to go alone which was pretty intimidating. I did finally start talking to people and received some interesting insights. The first person I talked to was a designer at a start up who I asked what advice he could give an aspiring producer. He told me that being able to talk to each part of development (art, programmers, design, etc) and then translate to other departments is one of the most important skills for a producer. He introduced me to a senior level employee at Microsoft who repeated much of the same thing to me.
I started wandering again at this point and met an artist at EA. He told me about how when he applied to EA he didn't have a college education and his portfolio was nowhere near today's standards. The times have clearly changed a lot and breaking into the industry is much more competitive. He also talked about the structure of the production department at EA. The production department is split between project managers and producers. The producers work with the development team and help with game play etc. The project managers work on the schedules and budgets for the games. He said that because of the split it creates a lot of "discussion" between each side but in the end having the powers seperated is beneficial. I can see how it can work effectively but I think that in certain situations it can cause large rifts between each of the sides. My friend finally arrived and i followed him around the room as he said Hi to everyone that he knew. I met a few flash developers bujt didn't get a chance to have a full conversation with them.
At the end of the event I was satisfied even though I didn't meet as many people as I would have liked. It is really hard going to an event like that without knowing anyone and in the future I'm going to try to always have someone there I know.
Cyaz
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