GDC 08

Another year, another GDC.  This year was a bit unique for me, as I wasn't a speaker.  It's the first time in four years that I haven't had a presentation, so I got to take the show as a consumer, a developer, just enjoying the talks and the atmosphere without having to spend hours in my hotel room practicing a talk I would give.  Kinda cool.

My take this year is that the quality of the talks was better than last year...I was happy to rarely hear (except from recruiters) the term "next-gen".  The term I heard too much was "democratization."  I saw great talks from Clint Hocking, and a predictably crappy talk from a certain writer who should NOT be at the talk again next year.

Networking was good.  I saw folks that I see every year, I got drunk with RSE folks and the crew I usually get drunk with.   The one thing that got to me this year was the number of students.

Specifically, the number of students about to graduate.  There seemed to be a huge amount of students
the were about to graduate from X school of games.  This included when I was working the (out of the way) Bungie booth, and in general when I was hanging out; there was a human wave of students looking to get jobs.  Now, I think school is great.  If you have a choice between attending a game program and not going to school, game programs are great.  Hell, if you know anything about me, you know that I attended the Art Institutes (although I dropped out to join RSE, and went back and finished after I was already an established game designer).

What worries me is the pure number of students graduating from these game programs (or technical programs) that seems to expect to go straight into game dev jobs.  If you are one of those folks that are in college game programs and your instructors have told you you will walk into a game design job; I have something to tell you.  Chances are, you have been screwed. 

There are tons of people competing for your job.  Yes, you may happen upon an entry level job at one of the "big" publishers (who held a wonderful talk at GDC sponsored by gamecareerguide.com that happened to cut off comments before I got to the mike); but those chances are slim.  And if you expect to walk into a job at an established studio, you better kick some major ass, and do something to stand out from the mass of grads who's resume's look EXACTLY like yours.

When I decided to get into the industry it was 2000.  I got hired in late 2002.  That's almost three years of networking and work, even after I had become established as a mod maker for the company I eventually got hired for.

I'm not trying to discourage students.  If you have the will, passion, fire, and talent; you can and will get in.  But don't expect it to be handed to you.

Rant over.  Frag Dolls are cool.

Oh, and GRAW2 won a GANG award.  Rock on to the audio team, you kicked ass!