![]() ![]() But this wasn’t an outlandish number per se – it only matched 2018’s record, despite a post-Covid rebound. Vibes / trendsĪttendance at 28k was high, and more than doubled the 12k of last year. Then I realized I was in the section, and alt.ctrl is literally “alternative controllers”. I also had a funny “duh!” moment on the floor: I was checking out one of the weird peripherals on display, and I commented to the exhibitor that it seemed like an interesting alternative to controllers. In that regard Epic / Unreal Engine certainly seemed to have one of the biggest spaces, and they had a good crowd. It may be a bit of a cliché, but I do believe you can get a sense of the players’ standings in an industry just by measuring the size and production value of their expo booths. I’m guessing that maybe AI will take over the expo floor properly next year for 2023, VR/AR and web3 booths are still around, and paying good sponsorship fees. It’s always a good reminder of how mature the modern video-games industry is: just look at the vast amount of suppliers providing various tools and middleware, and how specialized some of the solutions were – there was a vendor dedicated to motion capture of fingers. I squeezed in a couple of hours to walk the expo floor. The framework shared in this talk felt light enough to be adopted. ![]() In small teams I’ve been on, it’s common to eschew the more rigid dev processes (anyone love playing planning poker?), but far too often teams just end up suffering from a lack of process. I’d be amiss to not also mention “ Prioritizing Roadmaps for Growth: Simplified Framework for Small and Growing Teams“, which was a short, sweet and uber-practical talk for product managers. I also quite liked “ Layered Battles: Generating Multiple Qualitative Tactical Battles for ‘Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope’“, as it directly related to something we’re tackling at work. “ Cards, Dice, and RNGs: Using Randomness Intentionally” paired well with “ ‘Good Numbers’ in Game Design“, and both were educational and practical. ![]() “ Designing ‘Marvel Snap’” was predictably enjoyable, despite Ben Brode on the verge of losing his voice. I also greatly enjoyed a number of the design talks. And their sharp public speaking skills left an impression – at a particularly soul-searching moment in “Tell Me What to Say”, Drew Kugler (a veteran executive coach) stared down the audience and pronounced: “YOU are here (at this talk) for a reason”. But those speakers totally won me over with their timely content which was well tailored to the quirks of the games industry. I was quite surprised by this, as I’m usually a bit on the jaded and cynical side when it comes to “business self-help” types of content. “ The Science of Managing Transitions During Crisis” and “ Tell Me What to Say: Active Feedback Techniques for Teams” were my 2 favorite talks out of those that I attended. (Monday and Tuesday’s agenda was mostly for the Summit Pass.) I tried to sample different types of content, though my natural interests gravitated me towards 3 themes – game design, product management, and leadership soft skills. I attended over a dozen GDC talks Wednesday to Friday, since I got the Core Pass. I didn’t do much networking, though I did catch up with a few friends I haven’t seen in a while. The last time I was at GDC was 2011, as a poor student, so I won’t pretend to be intimately familiar with the conference. ![]()
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