GDC 2015 - Any Gamer Should Attend
GDC 2015 was amazing for me… even if I only had the Expo pass. I got to share experiences with over 100 people, gave my business card to twice that amount, and meant to visit with 1,000+ more people than I could physically visit in 3 days. Guess I’ll have to go back next year!
Some of my favorite moments on the Expo floor were:
-Meeting with Darroch from DeuXality. He and I will be collaborating on music and hopefully passing some ideas back and forth and new games even. I hope to add some awesome music and innovation to the games where I can! Check DeuXality out here!
-Space Dust Racers by Space Dust Studios. This group of Australians has created a fun fast game that you can play in 20 seconds, or stay and play 60+ games in half an hour to prove you’re the best. This alien racing game touts powerful missiles and fun animated gameplay that holds up very well to other battle-racing games like MarioKart.
-The Flame in the Flood by The Molasses Flood. This game was artsy and interesting. I never got to play it, unfortunately, the booth was always packed with people playing the game and talking to the two owners. It’s kind of like a post-apocalyptic platformer mixed with a bit of Oregon trail and hack ‘n’ slash. Pretty cool!
-Umbra by Solarfall Games. Everyone who played Diablo 2 should go out and get this game once they’re done making it. It is exactly the type of gameplay you would expect from a dungeon crawler game in 2015: great aesthetic, insane graphics, innovative and powerful spells, every type of creature imaginable, and unique gear and loot. I’m excited for it’s debut, and will grab it ASAP!
-Oculus Rift. In general, virtual reality is the future of gaming and the future of experience. You could turn it into an amazing gaming platform, like Omni, or sell it to people that can’t afford to get out of the country. You’ll be able to explore new places and feel like you’re there. It was so cool to put on the Oculus, pick up a lightsaber, and deflect rocks that were being thrown at me, or fighting Darth Maul, or anything else that might happen in the Star Wars universe. It’s going to get huge once the technology catches up with the vision.
Those were my highlights… again I only had the Expo pass, so I wasn’t allowed into the other sections of GDC 2015. I wanted to hear Garry Schyman talk about his post-mortem of composing music for Bioshock Infinite, but alas I couldn’t. I met some amazing people developing some really cool games that I hope I can be a part of by infusing my music, but only time will tell.
It was definitely an experience, being sort of an outsider listening to people discuss rendering engines and coding while I was thinking solely about audio. However, we had everything in common once we began talking about games themselves and the vision for the game. The end goal is to make a fun game that resonates with people, and that is the energy that each developer had and made each conversation unique and amazing. Good experience and I hope all game enthusiasts that are either looking for a career in gaming, or just a little deeper look into the industry itself, should attend every year.
I’ve already got my registration ready to go for next year, so hopefully I will meet everyone there again next year and maybe even get a few of you to come as well!
