GDC is much more than just a professional industry event to me personally. Here's why.

GDC is much more than just a professional industry event to me personally. Here’s why.

I’m coming into writing this feeling inspired after a long insightful and inspiring GDC this year. I’d love to take this moment to share a bit into my journey into the games industry by way of GDC, and why taking a big risk to make the effort show up when I had very limited means at the beginning of my career in game audio to make the pilgrimage to GDC was worth it for me.

Everything around me inspires what I do and what I create. I always eager to express myself creatively through music and sound. I’m motivated by using my creativity to inspire others. This is what I believe it means to me to be an artist.

At the start of my career, being a creative for a living in a professional manner felt isolating from those I was collaborating with. This may have been because the nature of my work meant I had to mainly work in treated audio isolation spaces, and work mostly in my home studio.

Eventually I got tired of feeling socially disconnected from it all, and took a pretty huge risk to move out from the East Coast to the SF Bay Area from the East Coast to be closer to where some of those game studios that contracted me were.?

I underestimated how hard it was going to be to make ends meet around the area, it was a struggle to say the least. If I hadn’t made the move, I wouldn’t have attended my first GDC, and I wouldn’t have realized that at the end of the day, games are really about people, community and pushing the envelope to enrich the human spirit in new and creative ways.

Nearly 10 years ago, I went into my first GDC hoping to break into the game industry as a music composer by running around handing out and collecting business cards cards, which was basically a physical form of cold contacting studios for work opportunities, and basically nothing came of it.

I was exhausted, a bit discouraged and felt pretty uninspired by the whole thing. I quickly realized this was not the path to making meaningful industry connections. I kept my head up and continued to work towards bringing a better version of myself to the next conference and quickly learned that it was more about making personable connections with awesome people that may result in great opportunities, and great friendships, (like the kind of friends that you’d crash all the after-parties with). I made one of the best connections waiting in line for a hilariously overpriced burger. After a long conversation about the current state of the game industry and what kind of games people were into he revealed to me that he was the VP of Blizzard Entertainment, and extended an invitation to their 2016 mixer party! At the event he introduced me to many Overwatch and Hearthstone developers.

The connections I made there were key in helping me find new game audio opportunities that would lead to even bigger and better ones...

Networking at this event is a learned skill that most of us had to figure out on our own, but I found a great guide from another GDC vet Angela Erfos with a few tips that will help you make the most out of GDC week in San Francisco.

The next year, one of the games I had done music and sound for won awards, got worldwide attention, and had millions of concurrent players. The developers and parent company hosted their own huge mixer party to celebrate their success.

At GDC 2018 I attended mainly for the festival that showcased a film I did music for; (Touching Sound: The Technika Documentary) and to catch up with current game dev team members and industry friends.

It wasn’t until my 3rd GDC that I understood what it really meant when industry vets say that great people who make up great teams will more often than not, end up making great games. So what is it exactly that makes a great team for this industry this day and age? I think we’re still collectively figuring that out but it always starts with amazing people.

People say that those who are successful in reaching their goals like eventually breaking into that first AAA gig are lucky, but I believe that we make our own luck. The turning point in your career that led you to your first big job in gaming happened because of all of the hard work you put in to get to the right place and the right time.

If you’re someone still building your portfolio or working through non-gaming jobs, and if this is speaking to you, you’re on the right track because you’re a few clicks away to the many insightful people within my network here on LinkedIn. Feel free to make new connections or reach out to me personally - I’m always happy to help people find the path to get to where they want to be to the best of my ability.

I still think there’s a lot of room for me to grow, to learn, and I never think it’s too early to share your insights from your experiences no matter how where you are in your career. I did my first industry talk in 2010 at MAGFest in my hometown while I was still in college, but I was super jazzed about sharing my passion for game music even at such an early stage of my career. I also ended up doing a talk at PAX East 2013, and at this point I was still working on improving my portfolio and building new hard-skills in game engine proficiency.

Breaking out of my shell by going out finding game conventions, dev meetups, mixers and events really played a significant role in moving forward, and making strides in reaching my goals in game audio.

Fast forward to GDC 2023, and it’s the complete opposite; I’m the one handing out the cards to new game audio prospects looking for work, and being the one random connection that helps a new game dev find their way into their next big role in the industry. The people who I met over the previous GDC’s and throughout my career in gaming all still met up with me for a good time in town. Those small connections I made blossomed into career changing friendships that are supportive, challenging in a positive way, and enriches who you are as a creator.

GDC is one of the few industry events throughout the year event that fuels my passion to inspire creativity through the medium of games, music, audio, and technology. I can't find the words for how I'm still humbled to be surrounded by so many insightful creatives that continually help me to realize that there is always something new to learn, and that we're always just scratching the surface. I'm excited to see what's next in the industry and I'm here to experience it with people I’m proud to call friends, especially those whom I just met this year!

I recognize that making it to GDC as a newcomer and/or those who may not have the means to travel and attend is something that raises the barrier of entry to the convention. I was happy to hear about and see a lot more scholarship and sponsorship programs sending people over to be part of the event. We need more of this! I made an extra effort to meet some audio students, host ad-hoc meetups outside the area instead of only meeting people inside areas where a badge was required. I saw other events and coordinators do the same, the audio community was really awesome about that this year!

In the last few years the pandemic brought on the rise of remote work. This has really opened up doors for people all around the world, which I really benefited developers and studios alike after finding a good home studio workflow.

Part of me believes people working together from anywhere brought on a new wave positive energy going into celebrating all forms of diversity and culture within the community. There’s even more to be done, but I’m hopeful and I welcome the positive shifts we’re going through together. Well, if you’ve made it this far into my post, I guess it’s time to start a blog now huh? Let me know if that’s something you’d be interested in following!

Thanks for taking the time to read and learn about my experiences through GDC journey and I hope it was insightful to newcomers or vets of the game industry. I don’t usually write posts like this but I truly felt inspired to do so this time around. I hope I can find the time and energy to start writing a lot more as I grow in my career in game audio.

I know I didn’t touch on some of the specifics on what events and the focuses were at GDC this year, or how to best approach networking at these types of events, so I urge you scope out some of the posts and articles around here to dive into. It’s a really great time for that since everyone is super pumped to share their experiences and expertise!

That’s it for now, I hope to see you all at the next event or at a local meetup!

TL;DR, and I mean this unironically; In the end, GDC 2023 really was about the friends we made along the way!