LonelyBond #44 - First GDC Impressions
Hello everyone! How was your week?
Because mine was CRAZY.
Basically, this convention is way waaayy bigger than I thought.
After checking, it seems like the convention had about 30,000 attendees (WHAT?!) which is bananas. The biggest convention hall I've been to was a bit smaller than one of the three buildings in this convention hall.
So naturally, I was overwhelmed at the beginning.
But after taking a deep breath, I began going through the halls, getting to know what was hidden where, and started talking with people randomly - which was the key to the success of my journey.
Basically, if I can give one advice to someone planning to go to GDC is 'talk with people at every possible opportunity'. I met a lot of cool people by doing it, either by starting a conversation in a line, spamming discord chats with 'food anyone?' or just joining in a group of people talking and introducing yourself to join their conversation.
I know I met a lot of great people thanks to all of that, and I hope I will be able to keep in touch with all (or at least most) of them.
Other than talking with people (which, for me, was the main attraction of GDC to begin with) I went through all the booths I could get through.
One of the coolest exhibitions was the Alt Ctrl booths space, which showcased all kind of weird videogames featuring unique controllers made by super talented people.
Another activity worth spending time on is going through all the major booths on the expo floor.
Not only are they giving a lot of free stuff (which is cool), they also have all sort of opportunities (depending on your business) that might be relevant for you.
Thanks to that, I got some relevant business cards that hopefully will be used soon for some cool stuff ;)
The convention was really fun, but one of the perks of being in San Francisco during the convention was the parties. I signed up to every free party I could find, and ended up going to a party every day of the week -which is an awesome way to meet even more people!
In some cool parties I even ended up showcasing my game demo for a while (I'm looking at you Indiepocalypse!). Showcasing my game to strangers in a crowd is something that I've never done before (at least... in that manner) and it went great.
Almost everyone that played the game enjoyed it and found it interesting, but some of the people playing it LOVED IT, and that just made my week into an unforgettable one.
I could probably go on and on talking about this amazing experience, but I think I will end it with that.
If you are reading this and we met in GDC - thank you so so much, and please stay in touch! I really look forward seeing all of your faces again in the future!
And now... PAX East is coming.
See you next week (: