GDC (Game Developers Conference)
The Purpose?
What is the purpose of this page you may be asking? Well, the answer is that I attended my first GDC in 2024. This was an opportunity to meet game devs from far and wide in person, build relationships, and learn from others in the industry. So during my time in San Francisco, I planned on making the most of the time I was there, and every night, documented my experience from travel to people talked to and more.
This is so that in the future others and myself can look back at my experience here and use it as a point of reference for future events I may attend including future GDCs. I also hope this can help any others who may want to attend GDC, know what to expect should they choose to attend GDC. So feel free to look at my recommendations below and/or check out my GDC 2024 adventure!
GDC is a chance to put yourself out there and meet people from the game industry in-person, whether your a student, recent grad, or industry professional.
GDC Takeaways/Advice
Have fun - Whether you have a busy schedule with a ton of meetings or a more laid-back schedule, GDC should be a fun event, there is no other time you are going to see thousands of devs from around the world gathered in one place.
Talk to people - This ties in with a point in having fun and it’s that you are all in one place in person, and you can finally talk face to face vs over a text, zoom call, or voice chat. So go up to people and talk to them in person while you can. With this also do mind your manners and be polite, a lot of times I’d hang around an area for a minute or two and find a group of people and ask if I can join them, and If so I’d introduce myself.
Business cards - These are by no means a requirement. Almost everyone that you’ll meet will have LinkedIn or Twitter and if they have LinkedIn there is a QR code you can generate for your profile and just have people scan that and connect with you or follow each other on Twitter. That being said, they are a neat thing to hand out and can be fun if you want to take the time to design your own. You don’t need to order a bajillion though 100 I feel is a safe bet, as you won’t hand them to every single person you meet but rather people that you feel you were able to really connect with, or if someone hands you their card first you can exchange.
Be Safe/Travel with Friends - There are a lot of afterparties that happen at night. These are a great chance to network with even more people, but there are bad actors in this industry still and to be 100% safe I’d say either travel with a trusted friend to these events or only drink out of a reusable bottle or sealed drinks. There have unfortunately been incidents of people being roofied at these events, so a trusted friend or a sealed drink can be the safest bet when out. Also when traveling at night the buddy system can be a good idea when possible as the nights in a lot of cities can be a bit shady. I’m regularly in Philly and NYC and even there I haven’t seen toothpaste locked behind cases.
Be Yourself - With all these people here, this is the only time some of them are going to get to see you. So relax a bit and be yourself, we are all a bit nerdy out here and love talking about our favorite games, shows, movies, books, where we are from, etc. when not talking about other game stuff. These are a few ways to start a natural conversation and introduce yourself to people while talking about some of the things you like, what they like, and talk about what makes you, you.
Sleep - You may get sleep, you may not. This can be a little brutal at times if you are out late or have other work to do while attending GDC. Try and get as much sleep as you can though so you are well-rested for the next day of meeting people as you may be out and about for 12-14 hours a day depending on how early or late you are out.
Sickness - There are thousands of people in one area. You may get sick while out there. You can wear a mask to try and prevent getting sick or spreading sickness. Take COVID tests to make sure you don’t spread COVID to anyone and use good hygiene to help keep yourself clean and prevent spreading sickness while out. I caught some sort of sickness on the last day as Saturday morning I started feeling sick, but thankfully it was a mild cold that went away in a day.
GDC 2024!
Preparation (03/16/2024)
It’s the day before I leave for GDC, and there are a few things that people can do for preparation. Make sure to call your flight and hotel for confirmation of your stay and flight departures. Take a look at maps for your surrounding area and see what is nearby. You’ll be there for a week so make sure you have clothes for each day and check the weather in advance. For my stay, its going to be rather warm and sunny all week and a bit of rain on the last day. These are small things that preparing for, will help greatly, knowing the nearby shops and weather to pack for.
Next what have I prepared specifically for the conference?
When you register for GDC you will get access to an app just for the conference about a month before GDC. With this app, you can see all the booths that will be on the expo floor, find other registered attendees, and see events being hosted. With this, you can add desired events to a schedule and reach out to other attendees to set up an in-person meeting at a specific time.
You are going to see a lot of people, so business cards are a small thing that you can make and hand out to people. I decided to design my business card in Adobe Illustrator and upload my designs to VistaPrint to get them made. However, you can also use templates from a variety of sites including VistaPrint, and have them made. Handing these out is a way for someone to look back at who they met that day and keep in touch.
Lastly, something I made an effort to do is reach out to people who have been to GDC before. In the game and tech industry, there are plenty of people who are willing to take some time to work as a mentor or just talk to you in general. The idea of going to GDC was brought to me by a mentor during a call and after talking with some more people from the industry I decided to give it a go. You never know who you may meet in the conference halls or on the streets in the area as the area around the center will be full of attendees.
Cant wait to land in San Francisco and update you all with each day!
Day 0 (03/17/2024)
Having four hours of sleep I got up and went out to the airport at 5AM to catch my flight. Getting an earlier flight let me get into San Francisco and it was still morning. This let me check into my hotel early and pick up my badge early. Badge pick-up starts as early as Sunday before GDC officially kicks off. Upon receiving my badge I was given a warning by staff to keep it tucked into my shirt when not at GDC, presumably so people don’t steal my badge from me.
After getting settled into my hotel and getting my badge it was time to get food. GDC is at the Moscone Center and there’s a beautiful little park just across the road called Yueba Buena Park. Here I got food and met some other devs. During GDC game devs are everywhere, I got a pizza and got to sit down and talk with Hrachia Stepanyan while we both got lunch.
After food, I decided to explore the area around my hotel and get to know my surroundings. This way when going around the area I don’t keep using Google Maps to get to every little thing. After exploring for a few hours I know where local stores are, where the center is, and a few places to grab food. Not needing to look everything up with Google Maps will make it just a smidge quicker to get around and make the area a bit less intimidating. This area of San Francisco is a dense city just like Philly or NYC, most things are within walking distance and you don’t need to make a ton of turns like Google Maps may lead you to believe I make two turns to get to GDC now when Google Maps zig-zagged me down roads.
In conclusion, getting here early let me take advantage of the early check-in for my hotel, get my badge a day early, meet some devs, and get a good lay of the land to help make traveling the city just a tad bit easier.
Day 1 (03/18/2024)
Today was the first day of GDC. The pass I got is the expo pass so there are a few events that are unavailable and on Monday and Tuesday is where this is most prevalent. There are a ton of speaking events you can attend with any pass, but there are a good few that are only for summit or core passes.
Starting my morning I was planning on attending an event where people from Unity were talking about Unity 6. However, while waiting in line the rest of the line was told that the venue was full and they cant take anyone else. However, this is an adventure and there are going to be twists and turns. So I turned around and went through the few booths that were set up in this hall. There are not many as the expo hall with all the booths doesn’t open up until Wednesday.
Having spent time at all the booths that are in the hall I decided to go get some breakfast and browse the area as there are people everywhere with badges so my goal was to just start introducing myself to people. After breakfast, I set out to meet people and ended up running into Liana Ruppert and just chilled for a while and got to meet people as I joined in the middle of a group conversation.
This decision to go up and introduce myself ended up as the adventure for the day. I joined into a group of already 4 people talking which became 3 of us total and ended the day as a group of 7 of us having dinner. All the while getting to meet quite a few people and have longer conversations through the day in compared to the quicker meetings I normally run into.
In conclusion, today started with a detour that led to an incredible adventure meeting incredible people.
Day 2 (03/19/2024)
Today I started my day off with finally finding a place that has breakfast sandwiches. A huge win with a tasty snack and cappuccino acquired. Once I finished my tasty snack I had a bit of time until a meeting so I sat in the park for a bit and checked up on all I had to do in the coming week.
After that, I made my way to the west hall where I got to meet and talk with Andreas Fredriksson. The meeting with Andreas I was able to learn more about the role of being a Lead Programmer. This was a very insightful meeting where I got to learn from the perspective of someone in the industry and see how they handle the responsibilities and learn about tasks that need to be performed that are harder than just programming such as the responsibility of taking care of your team, and the time you may have to make hard decisions with your team. Thank you for the time Andreas, hope we can chat again sometime!
After this, I went exploring the park and ran into Liana again. Having no crazy plans for Monday And Tuesday I asked if I could join and was accepted. Whilst in the park I got to meet more amazing people such as Hanako Lambert. Upon day 2 it has become prevalent to me that people just sort of group up and a group of 3 can quickly become a group of 9 or more lovely people. Today from here was just mostly meeting new people in the park. To every person I don’t mention I do apologize but I promise I enjoyed every minute of our interaction, I have yet to have a bad interaction at GDC
Day 3 (03/20/2024)
Today the expo hall opens and I plan on tackling this expo hall in two days by getting one half each day and then half of my day in the park. When I first came out here I planned on meeting as many people as possible and zooming around like a bat out of hell. However, from my first interaction having lunch with Hrachia to now I’ve grown to like the more natural interactions that have come out of the park, and getting to meet people for longer than 5-10 minutes allows for more natural conversation and a better friendship and understanding of each other.
The game industry seems to be such a small circle for an industry that reaches people around the world, and while I could go try and meet everyone briefly I’d rather meet a bit less people but with a greater impact.
With that said, I set off to grab a tasty snack from the same shop again. After my breakfast, I made my way to the expo hall and wow, there is a lot. The first thing I see is a giant Unreal booth and a crowd around it. I decide to just wander for a minute and scan the area, when I lay my eyes on the Niantic booth, they had a table in the west hall and I wanted to follow up my Wednesday conversation so I make my way over.
I accomplish my goal of seeing half the hall, and in doing so gathered up a group of 3 on the way that we all explored the expo hall together. Today I also decided to wear my kufiya, which previously I wasn’t sure about actually wearing out. This turned out to be what attracted the friends in the expo hall and also did not deter anyone to my knowledge. I got to meet Osama Dorias in passing who is so wholesome and kind.
Around 5:15 a group of us made our way down to the west hall to get seats for the Game Awards that night. The awards were amazing and while I haven’t played Venba yet this awards show has convinced me to play it as this game appeared everywhere and took home 3 awards last night. This game is getting played shortly after my return home. After the awards shows (there were 2 shows) our group all went out to get dinner and chill a bit then we went back to our hotels.
Day 4 (03/21/2024)
I’m not gonna lie… this day felt like it went fast. The first 3 days felt like they took a week’s worth of time and today zoomed by, so let’s get into it.
Today started off with getting a bit of work done while in the hotel for about an hour and then we set off. I got a breakfast sandwich and then made my way to Yerba Park to eat my sandwich and enjoy the sun. While eating my breakfast bagel I saw Osama, this time in a nice green outfit. There was a primarily Puerto Rican Scholars and Devs meeting right there that they were all gathering for. Here I got to meet many more friendly faces and encountered some friends from last night.
During my time I set out a goal to acquire as many pins as possible and tack them onto my lanyard and badge. So while walking through the hall I went around and met some people and acquired a few more pins. I caught word of an AI talk with Keywords Studios that was happening shortly so I made my way to the talk as I wanted to follow up with them about a school event happening. After this, I roamed the park for a bit and met some more fantastic people
The people I was roaming with later set off for the free carousel ride that was that day and we managed to get on the last ride of the day! After this was the IGDA mizer event, which I had not registered for, however, there was a waitlist line for the people who did not register in advance. I waited about 15 minutes and was let in, where I caught up with the others and started meeting new people, including people from IGDA and the studio for the first time in person. This mixer went until 10 and went by really fast even though we were there for nearly 3.5 hours
Day 5 (03/22/2024)
The final day, and now that it’s passed it feels like it came so soon. I went to the expo hall for a quick run as I was informed of a few pins from booths I was already at but completely missed and the game I’m working on was being displayed at the IGDA booth on the expo floor so I had to stop by and see it. This was honestly surreal to see something we’re working on be shown off to the world, without gameplay available this time we showed off some concept art and still images captured from in-engine.
After this, I stopped by to say hi again at some booths to grab pins I missed and after, meet people in the park on the last day while I could because we had rain in the forecast that would hinder chilling in the park at 6 pm like days prior.
I reconnected with a lot of the people I met throughout the week to chat a bit before we had to say goodbye. Today was the most laid-back day for me as I mainly set out to just see the good people I met one last time before I head back to PA. It was surreal getting to meet everyone that I did. I did not have a single bad interaction with any of the GDC attendees and everyone I met was super friendly, good company, and knowledgeable.
Having this be my first GDC I can’t say how I managed to run into so many amazing people other than there are just so many amazing people out there and to just go where the wind takes you. My first day started off with a slight change of plans due to not being able to attend a Unity 6 talk, which altered the whole day for the better and was a huge part of what I feel shaped and enhanced my GDC experience this year.
GDC was an adventure with so many branches and an infinite number of outcomes, and I think I got one of the good endings to GDC 2024. Thank you to everyone that I got to meet. You all made me feel truly welcomed into this industry as I just took my first steps into the industry!
Special Thanks!
GDC 2024 was a blast and I can’t wait to do it again next year and see as many of you again as possible! A special thanks to Alvin Yue who was one of the first mentors I got to talk to who advised me that I should go on this trip, and Erick Barnes for all of the helpful advice he learned from his previous GDC that helped me prepare for this GDC, and Liana for “kidnapping” me and introducing me to so many amazing people throughout the week!
