2003 GDC Insider - Attendees Post News Here

#1 Xhadoe,

Man, you get an A+++ for enthusiasm :)

-J

#2 I arrived ok.

The shirt colors this year are neon green, with the Playstation logo and slogan on the back.

News: 3do is working on SRS, a racing title.

Not much to report from last nights orientation meeting.

I'm working the Xbox Open for Unsigned Developers today, which runs from 10am-6pm.

I'll update tonight if I can.

#3 Rumours from a few MS people yesterday, talking among themselves:

They were discussing if they could outbid Sammy for Sega, and whether EA would outbid them. (this was mentioned elsewhere on the net too) Interesting.

What I did yesterday:

The XBOX is THE console to develop on. After attending the XBOX Open for Developers Tutorial yesterday, the tools & debugging tools for what you can check directly on the XBOX in real-time is awesome. The support & technical assistence the MS ATG (Advanced Technology Group) offers is fantastic. I wish I could say more, but ALL attendees had to sign 3 page NDAs just to attend it (seriously). We got some cool schawg though.

The Expo opens tommorrow, I can't wait.

I met some great people yesterday, hopefully I meet some more like-minded developers today.

#4 Rock on Xhadoe!!!

Keep the updates flowing!!!!

:)

-J

#5 Hey kids, today I attended (didn't have to work today) the Strategic Planning for Game Developers by Tobi Saulnier, which she is also doing another session or two the next few days.
Her presentation and interactivity with us was great on getting her points across, and all indies should have attended this tutorial, as it gives you the big picture of running the business side of things and dealing with marketing & targeting issues & much more. Tobi works as a VP at Vicarious Visions. In our team, for our class work we had to do, I met some very smart & cool people, and networked well with them hopefully.

Shadow news(pun intended):

met a press guy from www.massmog.com, check 'em out.

MS has games being developed by developers in other countries, but you'll never know it because the 3rd parties don't get any or very minimal credit, because of their contract.

The MS exclusive party sucked, so say my fellow CAs who attended or worked it. 8:30 tonight. So the fancy "invites" were a waste of paper, but free food & drink.

I've been playing DOAXB Vollyball in the main lobby the past few days, with only about 2 out of 5 that give me a challenge. That game isn't right.

Us CAs watched The Ring movie in room B1 tonight, from about 7:45-it got over.

Tommorrow will be absolute hell. I work breakfast, and two other sessions tommorrow, plus whatever I want to attend, plus the game developers choice awards, so i'll be going from 6am-10:30pm tommorrow.

Goals for Thursday: To meet more great people, network, meet some GGs, check out the booths tommorrow, submit my resume to some companies, finish some deals for AGFRAG, and live through the day.

-xhadoe
www.agfrag.com

#6 sounds like your having a blast! thanks for writing this thread! its great to hear about your adventures at GDC, its definitely very exciting times!

good luck getting your name out! I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya ;)

#7 If anyone is interested I've been posting my thoughts on the GDC over at DIY Games for the last couple days. I usually get three to five quick entries in per day. Check it out if you feel so inclined.. www.diygames.com

#8 Game Theater: great place to relax for about 35 minutes today on giant bean-bag chairs, away from the hustle. Took my boots off and relaxed.

Attended some good sessions today, and worked 2. The one I liked the most today was Andre LaMothe's, for Indies, very vital.

Met Jeff Tunnel, Jay Moore, Tim gift and a bunch of the other crew at the GG booth, which has been constantly packed!

Met some potential new programmers today.

Met and talked briefly with some industry veterans.

Here's my autographs that I have, mostly on one sheet(spelling may be off, i'm TIRED!):
Tim gift, Jeff Tunnel, Andre LaMothe, Yuki Naka, Ernest Adams, Noah Falstein, Louis Castle, Tommy Tallirico, Alan Miller to name some.

Wild Earth won the IGF grand prize, and the Innovation award, by www.superxstudios.com, by a very smart guy, James Thrush.

The lifetime acheivement award went to the creator of Nintendo's game and watch series and the Gameboy. Since he passed away in 1997, his son and family accepted it for him. we all stood up in applause when he approached the stage. kind of emotional.

metroid got game of the year. i can't remember the others right now, too sleepy.

the schawg is kinda light this year.

i gotta work two sessions today, but can do whatever the rest of the time. suite night party is friday night. i think i'll go this year. and i'm off the last day of the GDC! i can do anything that day as well, heck ya!

i've given out about 100 business cards so far, i have around that many left with 2 days left, i better start handin' 'em out like candy.

met a programmer just graduated from full sail. thinks he might be interested in moving to where i live, and our artist will be moving too. met a good amount of programers actually.

i might have a job or 2 with some major companies, but i'll see how that pans out. its a struggle for independence, or be a slave for a few years.

Konami & Codemasters are looking for 3rd parties and developers/projects right NOW! Hint, hint.

ideas ARE a dime a dozen... INNOVATE, DON'T STAGNATE! - Joseph A. Hatcher Jr.

expo isn't too flashy this year either.

i've learned being 5'11" actually makes you taller then 70% of the game industry.

we had a guy a few days ago wanting into a session, didn't have the right pass, wanted the MS XBOX schawg, but didn't want to fill out the NDA, which didn't matter cuz of his badge, told us he so into wanting to make games, he was told no, then tried to sell us cologne, to get money to buy a better pass. then he tried to sell his stuff to the convention center food people. it was weird and funny. i wish him luck ;)

there is a new book on game design by Roger Pedersen (industry veteran), look it up, read it! He's at the GDC too, met him when i was working breakfast this morning, i've talked to him for years. nice guy. hopefully i'll get to meet with him friday.

there also some book publishing people getting their properties put into games, and needing help in that direction. i hope they hire me, its not that far a drive.

later kids,

Xhadoe
www.agfrag.com

btw, there new The Gabriel FACTOR concept art up on the site. (cough,cough... Xylk barely wearing anything...)

#9 All Right! Good for James Thrush! I met that guy when I went to LA in December, he teaches DirectX at the academy of GET http://www.academyofget.com. That's awesome! He's made 3 games, and the 2 of them that were in the IGF have won awards. He's got a good thing going! Hope he doesn't submit something for 05...

#10 The expo is still boring as hell.

Nothing major compared to past years.

The suite night party tonight basicly sucked as well. AMD's room at least tried to get you motivated. It's sad, most of the people on the dance floor were CAs, its not like game developers are anti-social or anything.

In addition to the autographs i got yesterday, i got Will Wright, Eugene Jarvis and a bunch more i'll list once i get back home on sunday or monday.

The GG booth is stil as packed as it was yesterday, drawing alot of interest from the community. Hopefully they'll all go somewhere.

The new Havok demo is pretty sweet for physics. The HALO: Development Evolved was okay, revealing nothing really new or exciting. The Will Wright session was great, based on design dynamics. I swear he's a frickin' superhuman.

My experience here has been fantastic, just wished i wasn't so alone, no friends to share in the game stuff.

Tommorrow i don't have to work, going to attend some sessions, meet a few people, and maybe get to talk with the person from a Texas game developer that has ideas closely resembling one of our projects.

HALO 2 will kick ass. they are gaming freaks, so if they don't like it, we won't. they playtest the hell out of it.

The 3rd programmers challenge was funny as hell. the Mtn. Dews won. perhaps it was the beer & liquor bribe to the judges that helped the vote, hmmmmm.

Well, maybe i'll have a good time.

cya later, and support indies!!!!

xhadoe
www.agfrag.com

#11 end of show, heading home in the morning back to TN.

met some more GG staff, and a cool homelan guy that lives close to me.

i have stevie case, peter molenuex, and many more autogrpahs today.

talked with Peter along with some of other CAs after his session, about B&W2 and Fable.

during the session, it was so full, i sat on the floor, near the left front wall. guess who sat beside me on the floor?

i already have their autograph...

Will Wright!!!!

i'm so happy talking to Will, Peter, and Stevie today, you can imagine!!!! i asked Will his input on my 6 player chess game, and we dicussed some of the sims stuff, aand other stuff i don't wish to divulge, but today kicked ASS!

i'm so glad to be able to ask these people questions about game development anytime i need to.

everyone is leaving now, so i'll write a good article later.

ask me stuff! i'll try to answer.

xhadoe

#12 Thanks a lot for the reports! They're great for us that can't go for different reasons.

#13 i have to work monday, but i'm off tues and wed, so expect a damn good report from the GDC, as i go through my notes and catch up on sleep.

i have so much to share with you guys.

straight from the mouths that ARE the game industry.

xhadoe
www.agfrag.com

#14 www.agfrag.com

Curious about what I look like in full color?
Wanna see me standing with Peter Molynuex?

Visit the AGFRAG Home page please.

Rumours:
Alot of companies may be going under soon.
Intrinsic & Matrox to name 1%.

Tony Hawk 5 might have online audiences in-game.

Game Dev News & Advice:

Strategy games only have a 1-2% market.

Value & simple online games are bought by mostly women, by 50-60%, age 30-45. The market can easily have your games sell 200,000-600,000 copies. www.popcap.com is a good example, as well as Stevie Case's & John Romero's www.monkeystone.com. If you make these kinds of games, keep the interface clean and idiot proof, include a tutorial that takes no longer then 2-4 minutes to complete or make it go along with each level, & make sure the compressed file size before the game is installed is under 2-4MBs for better success.

REALarcade is having a game creation contest for $100,000. You know how to get there...

Auran is having a contest as well, but you must use Auran Jet on the game.

If you're trying to run a business & create a project(s) at the same time, or just the business part, get a legal advisor or lawyer, and get an office/business manager, so you can focus on your project(s). Get hard copy signed NDAs & employment contracts with your teams & anyone else that relates to your situation.

YOU WILL NEED: A lawyer or legal advisor for contracts,etc; insurance against being sued, an office manager, marketing person to always be working on deals for you, and a business manager.

Don't get emotionally attached to your game. No one cares. The publishers care only about money, not how you feel about such & such a feature should or shouldn't be implemented. If you are truly creative & smart, don't ever put all your eggs in one basket. Like in chess, always think 5-30 moves ahead.

Don't be afraid to try something new. Whether the risk pays off or not, its at least worth the learning experience.

Remember to analyze your market. SWOT=strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.

On your team, have it down in writing what everyone is suppose to do, to keep down confusion. Write down whos doing what & when each week.

Managers/Leads are responsible for the caring for the passion of the project & people.

Don't be overly prideful.

Don't let your passion be taken away in your job, or anything you do.

Think positive, always look to whats good about today.

Don't promote someone just to promote them, or to fill a position just because they're there.

When you have a bigger team, more people thinks the project is their baby. If the team members stop believing its their baby, you're screwed.

Give credits(s) where credit(s) are due.

Build trust.
No surprises.
Fewer surprises.

www.quazal.com/devzone/ Go here for some excellent network coding solutions. For those learning & with no $$$, you can use the Personal Edition to tinker with your projects, such as for multiplayer games. After the set time, you'll have to get another key. I spoke with the guy for 4 and half hours back from San Jose, I highly recommend it.

As teams grow, specialization is good.

You need to think, "how am I going to grow this year?" You must always desire to learn.

Compliment each other.

Remember to include penalties to the publisher on late milestone payments.

For your compensation to your team, some options are: ownership, equity, salary, bonuses, roaylties, immediate needs of employees (such as maybe they need help with their electric bill this month).

Crunch time is normal and happens more at smaller companies/teams.

Try not to kill your employees.

Larger companies are more standardized for better schedules.

You should practice good reporting on a weekly basis. This includes management, your team(s), etc.

10% of your customers will usually be message board "fans".

For demos, tutorials are almost critical.

Try not to use investors. If you have to, set yourself up for them exiting within 2-3 years, or 1-2 projects.

Be prepared to babysit grown men & women. Have an office manager to help buffer you from this.

You can't afford to make a single mistake.

Make contracts IRON CLAD.

Put a good team together, especially a seasoned advisory board.

Agree on the business plan with your team.

Keep it simple.

Don't talk, DO! Stop wasting your time.

Surround yourself with smart people.

For the value/casual gamer market, develop games that can be developed in short cycles (30-60 days as an example).

There are 10,000 games better then yours.

Write SOLID code.

99% of game startups fail.

Your income from your game being in a bundle amounts to just $500-2,500 as the norm.

Make an employee handbook, update it regurlarly, have them sign it and read it.

Don't pretend employees are independent contractors (ICs).

Keep a worker agreement.

ICs & employees must have written agreements addressing: status- at will (employee), IC, IP protections (NDA, non-compete).

Every employee should have an exit agreement, covering departing workers, exit interview, affirmation of NDA & non-compte.

Protect your trade secrets.

Mark all materials that you feel are critical to your company with trade secret legends (such as a stamp).

Register your copyrights & trademarks. COPYRIGHTS IS NOTHING ELSE.

Here's things publishers can charge you, the developer on them selling your game: credits, return reserve allowance (20% is the norm), promo units/rebates, lost/damaged goods, goods sold below cost, co-op advertising & MDF, COGS (cost of goods), platform royalties, shipping charges.

Get audit rights: review period, frequency, who pays audit costs?, penalties.

Don't delay onwer's agreements. No one likes discussing comparative worth. Establish ASAP - ownership amounts, titles & reporting structure & dispute resolution.

Don't do it all yourself.

When creating audio for your games, listen to it all with your eyes closed. How does it make you feel?

Thats some of the stuff I learned at the 2003 GDC, hope it helps someone.

Xhadoe
www.agfrag.com