GDC Sessions

While I wrote about my reflections upon GDC as a whole this year, I didn't really comment on any particular sessions. Truth be told, no session really stuck out this year like Creating a Character in DRAKE'S FORTUNE; instead, a collection of speakers sparked my interest and motivation to create games. So, which were they?

Clint Hocking's Fault Tolerance: From Intentionality to Improvisation showed a new flow to have in games, one in which designers stop punishing the player. This flow results from the user creating a plan of action, and then acting upon it over short periods of time, from one to the other. Most games break this flow by forcing intentional gameplay - the player dies and then goes back to some checkpoint. Improvisation suggests the user reflects upon what happen, how it changed the gameworld, etc (creating a new plan), and then acting upon it. While Clint suggested Bioshock accomplished this, I disagree in that the transitions could be smoother.

From CS to L4D: Creating Replayable Coop Experiences was interesting, well, for creating replayable coop experiences. This was likely a full sessions since it's a Valve design session, and rightfully so. The core idea behind the talk was simply force cooperation by punishing those who refuse to work as a team (using mechanics, not some force field, etc), while also creating randomness to break down the group on occasion. Fairly obvious, but I suppose the limited number of good co-op games establish how non-trivial this is (that, or companies are too lazy to change the status quo...).

I recall being disappointed with The Tech Behind the Tools of Insomniac Games, but in retrospective, hearing them discuss how their build system is pretty interesting for someone who has never worked in such large environments.

The GDC Microtalks had the highest idea/time value (not surprising since 10 talks in 1 hour). Jane McGonical's talk was, as always, inspiring and gave me some game design concepts. The topic(s) was/were CZADOF: Confucious Zombie Apocalypse Dance Off Fraction. To sum up, people have fun when doing good, which happens a lot when there's a zombie apocalypse, and enjoy themselves when embarrassing themselves with others. Clint Hocking attacked game review inflation, John Sharp reminded everyone that video games are nothing truly new given the history of games and play, and Eric Zimmerman presented an impromptu game questioning fun. One of my takeaways on Zimmerman's talk: impromptu games + a requirement to cooperate = willingness to open up with strangers.

The Beauty of Destruction was an interesting talk on some pitfalls and lesser known facts about C++ destructors. I found it enjoyable, but would have had a more rewarding experience if I was currently using C++ (obviously). Still, nothing like someone forcing you to question how your memory is managed!

Experimental Gameplay Sessions made me realize I sincerely need to stop criticizing current game mechanics and start prototyping my own. Big motivator, as I now have a goal to present something of my own next year.

State-Based Scipting in Uncharted 2, had a few gems. I was surprised to hear a decorator pattern was used instead of inheritance, although given the cost on the stack, function lookups, and the purpose of the pattern, I suppose it makes sense. Also nice to hear about the message passage system for "threading" events across multiple objects, where dependencies might occur. Really wish I could mod their games, if just to see how Lisp fits in.

And that was my quick explanation of what sessions I attended and thought were notable at this year's GDC. Unfortunately, I missed quite of few very interesting talks due to conflicts with other sessions (such as On the War Path: Tactical AI in Dawn of War 2) and had to order the recorded sessions on DVD.

GDC Reflections

Upon reflection, it seems like this may have been the most productive GDC for me since I started attending several years ago. Ironically, up until Thursday I was quite confident that attending was a dumb idea. The cause for both the success and the doubt is the same: I already have a job!

Up until this year I have attended every GDC with the hope of scoring an internship or a full-time job. As a result, I spent too much time exploring the job fair (whether skipping talks or running in between sessions). Although I do recognize that I've made some good connections while exploring, I think the calmness and focus that resulted from removing the rushing and nervousness truly let me absorb more, both in the sessions and while just chatting with people.

On a similar note, I've truly stopped giving a damn about swag and didn't bother looking for any while scoping out the expo. Instead I checked out some amazing games by the IGF booth, and also had some interesting conversations regarding some tools (although the OnLive guy had me really questioning the service).

Another cause for this year being a success is just the experience I've gained since last year, primarily from work on Inversionand at Amazon. I'm sure the host of books I've read since then have helped as well.

I sort of surprised myself by attending so many design talks this year. While at first I felt disappointed in myself for not focusing on programming, a friend of mine got it right when pointing out those talks are generally worthless if there is no immediate application. Nevertheless, Star Ocean 4: Flexible Shader Management and Post-Processing was very impressive, even though it was the last session on a Friday (after everyone is completely exhausted), and also fairly over my head.

The focus on game design certainly had an interesting consequence though. Now, more than ever, I feel inspired to just start doing. I plan on blogging more, networking more, and really start talking to other developers and gamers. But most importantly, I came away with a few game ideas that I plan to start on development before the week is done. My big takeaway this year? To stop worrying if I can get a job somewhere working on games I criticize for failing as art; instead start making games I want to make NOW.

Moving the rss feed to feedburner.

Just a heads up that I'll be tinkering around with the blog this Thursday and will move it to my new domain, tombennett.me. As such, expect to find the blog on http://blog.tombennett.me. If you subscribe via rss, I highly recommend switching to my feedburner feed.

Of course I'm sure any readers would notice a lack of updates. You might want to check out my twitter account, as I update that much more frequently.