GDC 2012: The Trip Report

As I said in my first post, I managed to score a trip out to GDC in San Francisco this year. This makes it the second in a row and my third time total.  It's an exhausting week filled with interesting technical or thought-provoking sessions during the days and drinks on the town at night. At the end one should find that their ability to focus utterly spent while paradoxically being inspired and ready to start a project immediately. If not, you may be doing it wrong.

If you're only interested in what I thought were the session highlights, skip straight to the bottom of this post.  Otherwise, I'd like to discuss my two big takeaways this year.

First—Indies rule.  Keynotes were conspicuously absent from the GDC schedule so I did a quick search and ran across this article in Develop magazine.  I can’t say if it altered or reinforced latent thinking, but after reading it I certainly felt like the big three (Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony) and the other big publishers (EA, Ubi, etc) were no longer as important nor missed.  They are platforms, a few among many.

Last year had a single Keynote from Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo Co., wherein he railed (in his polite way) against a race-to-the-bottom prices.  The pitch to developers could be paraphrased as “take yourself seriously and sell premium priced games” (read: >$30).  That same week, not even a block away from GDC, Apple unveiled the iPad 2 and touted the number of (inexpensive) apps in their store.  This year? There are no keynotes and Apple again unveiled its latest iPad during GDC.

I remember agreeing with Iwata to an extent.  However, I feel the key isn’t that it’s a choice for one or the other. Rather, it’s a result of the investment and scope the developer chooses to make.

Second—Unity is HUUUGE.  This is also a bit of a follow-on from the first because Unity is in many ways an enabler of the indie power described above.  They had a footprint on the Expo floor right up there with the big guys.  They had their very own Unity Developer Track on Tuesday and several other companies had a few dedicated sessions (Qualcomm and NVIDIA, possibly others but I don't recall). 

The reason for their dominance is simple.  They are the only solution that allows developers to write their game once and ship on all of the major platforms: PC, Mac, iOS, Android, and Web (via broswer plugin).  I know RIM is doing some work to port Android games to their platform, but I don't know if Unity supports it naively.  They also have support for Samsung TVs (although who in their right mind would seriously game via TV app store?).

In any case, they are everywhere.  They were big in 2010 but I guess I didn't recognize it.  And just in case you didn't notice like me, they've gone ad made Unity3D free for iOS and Android until April!

That said, onto the GDC 2012 session highlights!

Sessions I attended:

• Advanced Visual Effects with DirectX 11 [link] - Fairly thorough case studies on modern DX techniques
• Data Oriented Design for Math by Mike Acton [link] - My first opportunity to see Mike Acton rant! Quite thought provoking (for programmers)
• The Indie Soapbox Session [link] - Also thought provoking, but for designers
• Rapid, Iterative Prototyping Best Practices [link] - A great framework for prototyping games that I plan to try myself
• Android on Everything [link] - Although presented by Intel, it was a good introductory cross-section of ARM vs x86 as it pertains to Android
• AI-driven Dynamic Dialog through Fuzzy Pattern Matching [link] - Elan Ruskin had a great GDC2011 talk so I attended this on those grounds alone.  Very entertaining, KISS approach to dialog systems.

Sessions I wished I could have attended:

• When the Consoles Die, What Comes Next? [link] [watch] - I heard good things about this session.  Luckily a version of it is already online!
• Creating a Sequel to a Game That Doesn't Need One [link] - This stood out in the program, but I don't how good it was
• Burn This Motherfather! Game Parents Rant [link] - The rant sessions are always fun, albeit not necessarily filled with actionable material (for me)
• Experimental Gameplay Sessions [link] - I probably shouldn't admit in public that I've never attended this.  It was video recorded so I'll have to check that out.

I know those synopses aren't really useful to people who didn't go to GDC or don't have access to the GDC Vault.  However, I would like to write a few posts on the topics some of the sessions dealt with.

There are a few more things I'd like to say on some of the sideshow aspects of this year's GDC.  I'll have to save that for a follow-up post.

It's a Start

I've spent much time thinking about the question of when and how to start blogging.  I've figured out the answer:

Now and on anything.

I'm currently 23500 feet above the Earth on my way to the 2012 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.  Even though I'm traveling 447 miles per hour I still have 6.5 hours to go another 2670 miles.

This will be my third GDC with the first in '05 and the second last year in 2011.  By all accounts I'm lucky to go to one, let alone several.  I got tapped last minute and it was a mad rush to get a flight and a hotel, but outside of that I won't complain.

There are a few things I plan to accomplish.

One. I'd like to attend all of the highlight sessions.  These include the keynotes, the developer rants, several vendor presentations from AMD, Intel, Qualcomm or NV (not just adverts, usually pretty useful), and be present for some of the Unreal Engine 4 details.  Unreal Engine 3 and the PlayStation 3 were the new hotness when I first went to GDC.  Now there are serious rumors of an AMD-powered PlayStation 4/Xbox 720 and Unreal Engine 4 is right around the corner.

I saw Mark DeLoura talk about how OpenGL ES would allow developers leverage the power of the PS3. Now I work on OpenGL ES 2.x and the next version is not too far off.   Although in retrospect it may have been the CELL itself that was the powerhouse and not the GPU...

Two. I always peruse the exhibits in the Expo when I'm between sessions or waiting for people before lunch.  I haven't really tried many of the demos or spent much time at the IGF booths.  I think this is a mistake.  The expo is an interesting cross section of the industry.  Not every demo is great but a lot may be msised by only each exhibit a cursory look.

Three. Parties! This is more of a joke.  I'm not a big party-er but I do like to have a beer and talk shop.  I do both too much as it is, but GDC is really where alcohol and development collide in the best ways.

Yeah, I know that isn't exactly going out on a limb.  It's just a long way of saying I'm going to learn a ton and have a blast while doing it. The real prize every trip has been the inspiration I get from seeing so many crazy talented folks showing off the best the world has to offer in interactive entertainment.  

The real challenge I'm putting to myself is to focus that inspiration into action. We'll see what tangible form that action takes, but the answer to when is the same as above: Now.