Digital Dave

Musings on projects, business and life.

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Nov 16, 2007

game developers conference

I’m pretty dead set on heading out to California next February for the  annual Game Developers Conference, which is in San Francisco this year.  I’ve got to say that I’m pretty excited about it. I was stationed in southern California, but I’ve always wanted to check out the Silicon Valley/Bay area since I always thought I would enjoy living up there a lot more than the southern part. I’m not incredibly picky on where I live, though California has the best opportunities for development, other than Texas, so it has to be somewhere in that state.

I had a chance to meet with somebody here on campus that has gone to the previous two GDC and he had some great things to say about it.  He didn’t really have anything great to say about the food… But luckily I don’t eat a lot, so that shouldn’t matter.  He said there are plenty of carbonated beverages, and that is alllllll I need right there!

I’m currently in the process of determining if I want to spend an entire week there, or just three days.  He did mention that the final few days are absolutely chaotic, as that is when most people tend to show up.  Though, he did mention that being there for the first couple of days awarded a great opportunity to network in a relatively calm environment.  He never did any of the tutorials, so he couldn’t tell me about that.  I’d be interested to hear about them, but from what I’ve seen, a lot of them look way above my head.  It still may be a great experience though.

He mentioned that they have a week long XNA development contest where teams gather to develop a game in the week.  That really sounds fun.  I don’t know much about XNA, but I might be able to school up on it over the holiday break.  If all else, at least I can watch how other people code, which would be interesting.

He also noted to bring lots of business cards and some resumes.  Well, I already have a fellow gamedev.net contributer working on a business card for me, and my resume has been pretty polished since I started college.  I’ll be sure to bring that stuff just in case somebody finds me interesting enough.   I really want an internship next summer, so this is a prime opportunity to get a leg up on that process.  Though, I’ll probably start sending out resumes a lot earlier than Feb.

In an effort to avoid an extremely large hotel bill, I’m going to try to find a cheap way to live out there.  First, I’m scouring the website couchsurfing.com.  Essentially, this is where people offer their couch to you for those that travel.   This could be a good thing in many ways.  Most of all, the networking (if I can find a local game developer) opportunity.  Local developer.  Knows the area, and likely knows more people… Yeah, sounds like a great idea.  What turned me onto this website is that I have a friend that has couch surfed, and has hosted her couch to others.  She said it was great.

Other than that, If I can’t find somebody to stay with, i’ll turn to my bootcamp days and sleep in a Hostel.

Anyway, I plan to document my adventure to the GDC.  I’m a picture whore, so expect a lot of pictures.

If you’ve got anything to add, in regard to the GDC, please feel free to comment.

Category: Career

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  • Brian

    Hi, I study under Brenda Brathwaite, and have seen you comment on a few people’s blogs I read now and then so I decided to check yours out.

    As for finding a place to stay for GDC, it seems to me like with the volume of people coming in for the conference that week that the couch surfing site might not work out. Who knows how many other GDC-attenders will have the same idea? I couldn’t tell you.

    You could try to find someone to split a room with perhaps. At my school we have a message board set up already for people to set up this sort of thing for this year’s GDC. Don’t know if you know anyone locally you could split a room with. Of course, it doesn’t have to be someone local either. I split a hotel room for Austin GDC this summer with a guy I knew and worked with who lived in Texas.
    Know of any of, as Darius calls them, “strong ties” you could crash with?

    Finally, it might not be an option if you said you weren’t considering spending the whole week there, but you could try for getting in as a volunteer. It certainly helps with the whole payment and hotel situation, and a fantastic networking opportunity from what I hear. So, that’s what I’m shooting for myself.

    Good luck!

  • Brian

    Hi, I study under Brenda Brathwaite, and have seen you comment on a few people’s blogs I read now and then so I decided to check yours out.

    As for finding a place to stay for GDC, it seems to me like with the volume of people coming in for the conference that week that the couch surfing site might not work out. Who knows how many other GDC-attenders will have the same idea? I couldn’t tell you.

    You could try to find someone to split a room with perhaps. At my school we have a message board set up already for people to set up this sort of thing for this year’s GDC. Don’t know if you know anyone locally you could split a room with. Of course, it doesn’t have to be someone local either. I split a hotel room for Austin GDC this summer with a guy I knew and worked with who lived in Texas.
    Know of any of, as Darius calls them, “strong ties” you could crash with?

    Finally, it might not be an option if you said you weren’t considering spending the whole week there, but you could try for getting in as a volunteer. It certainly helps with the whole payment and hotel situation, and a fantastic networking opportunity from what I hear. So, that’s what I’m shooting for myself.

    Good luck!

  • http://www.david-mcgraw.com david.mcgraw

    Hi Brian! Thanks for visiting and spending some time writing a post.

    Yeah, the couch surfing is a risk, in terms of finding somebody to stay with. That is partly the reason why I am already contacting people and planing on staying in touch with them up until February. I should also add, some people on CS actually lends room for more than 1 guest at a time.

    If that falls through, I plan on just staying at a hostel. They normally range from $20 – $30 a night, and I can part with that.

    I don’t know anybody locally that is going this year. But, I will definitely be keeping my options open. If I can find a few people to go into a hotel with, I’d much rather do that than stay at a hostel.

    And, finally. The strong ties that I know in California, unfortunately, don’t live in northern California. :(

    We’ll see, though. Take Care and have fun!

  • http://www.david-mcgraw.com david.mcgraw

    Hi Brian! Thanks for visiting and spending some time writing a post.

    Yeah, the couch surfing is a risk, in terms of finding somebody to stay with. That is partly the reason why I am already contacting people and planing on staying in touch with them up until February. I should also add, some people on CS actually lends room for more than 1 guest at a time.

    If that falls through, I plan on just staying at a hostel. They normally range from $20 – $30 a night, and I can part with that.

    I don’t know anybody locally that is going this year. But, I will definitely be keeping my options open. If I can find a few people to go into a hotel with, I’d much rather do that than stay at a hostel.

    And, finally. The strong ties that I know in California, unfortunately, don’t live in northern California. :(

    We’ll see, though. Take Care and have fun!

David McGraw

Founder of iGotIt Games. Trader. Runner. Warrior. Motivator.