Surviving GDC
Posted On: Mar 31, 2015Hey all,
Wow its been a few months before I last posted, I've been busy. Welp early this month (the 4th through the 6th) I was in San Francisco attending the wonderful Game Developer's Conference 2015! I learned a lot and met some very cool people. But I found that everything wasn't always coins and mushrooms! So here is a few thoughts to help you survive GDC.
If you are a small studio or going by your self (which is what I did) then you may be saving money on most anything you do. One way I saved some money was to walk everywhere. I got a hotel 0.5 miles away from the conference and thought "It won't be that bad", and I was right the first walk wasn't that bad. But the walk back to the hotel to drop stuff off, then to whatever bar or restaurant I was going to wore me out after a while. I found that stretching your legs in the morning was a big help (for me at least). And things like Lyft and Uber or Wingz can be used for the long distance travels.
Speaking of walking. Stay hydrated! Drink water with a meal or two! Even if you are not walking everywhere you are most likely drinking in the evenings, drink plenty of water to replenish what you have lost!
Segue master incoming in 3.. 2.. 1.. Speaking of drinking, don't be afraid to talk to people at bars or other social events! No seriously! I am an introvert, an introverted programmer!? you don't say, and I was definitely underutilized in the communication department. I would like to take this time to contradict myself and say that if this is your first time don't worry too much about getting a job and communicating. If you talk to people naturally, that's great! keep it up if the opportunity presents itself. If you have troubles walking up to complete strangers or conversation isn't naturally happening don't force it. Just enjoy the actual conference, plan your day with what talks sound good and focus on that. This is my second year going and I was a lot more organized with my talk scheduling than last year. Also something I have found is to avoid the "Presented by ___" talks, they are usually trying to sell something to you or they don't actually go into detail about what they are presenting (again because they want you to buy their product). This is just my experience, if you see one of those talks that look interesting you should at least check it out.
Well that wraps up this post, soon I will be streaming game development stuff on Twitch so check back soon for that ~_^