FPG at GDC & ECGC 2016

Or: Sipping the Conference Alphabet Soup

This talk was given at a Charlotte Game Dev Meetup (http://www.meetup.com/Charlotte-Game-Dev/events/229951479/) as a recap of our experiences at GDC and our plans for the upcoming ECGC conferences.

Transcript

1. FPG at GDC & ECGC 2016 Or: Sipping the Conference Alphabet Soup Melissa Avery-Weir @averymd @PlayFutureProof
2. Conferences, Shmonferences • GDC Overview • GDC 2016’s Focuses • Our GDC Takeaways • ECGC Overview • Our ECGC Prep Work Get these slides online: http://fpgam.es/gdc-ecgc-2016
3. Game Developers Conference (GDC) March 14-18, 2016
4. What is GDC? • 27,000 game professionals all gathering to geek • Monday-Tuesday: Summits in narrative, audio, mobile, eSports, etc. • Wednesday-Friday: Main conference with core tracks: • Advocacy (accessibility, diversity, multiculturalism, translation, etc.) • Audio • Business/Marketing • Design • Production (project management, quality management, team management) • Programming • Art
5. How much does it cost? • GDC Pass (early): • $1,600 (full), • $800 (summits), • $200 (expo) • Flight: $525/person • Hotel: $150+/night = ~$1,000 • Food: varies widely ($20+/day is easy to do) • GDC Store (books, t-shirts, bags, etc.): ?
6. Why do we go? • Meet cool people! • Learn cool stuff! Our weak areas + Our backlog of games + Our individual esoteric interests = Our matrix of sessions to attend and games to play
7. “We create games that demand audacious compassion from players and bring about social change.”
8. What was big at GDC? • Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC) • Production in mobile/F2P space • Proactive Audio • Multiculturalism and diversity • Accessibility
9. Other FPG takeaways? • A new approach to game trailers • Finji’s approach to greenlighting projects • Ways to manage expectations around community presence Result: 3 pages of notes from a 2-hour “debriefing”, many of which became tasks or documents.
10. East Coast Game Conference (ECGC) April 19-21, 2016
11. What is ECGC? • 1,500 game professionals in 2015 • Tuesday-Thurday: Main conference with core tracks: • Audio • Community • Design • Narrative • Programming • Art • Analytics • Virtual Reality • Friday: Summits and tutorials (no expo)
12. What does exhibiting cost? • Expo fee: $300 • Second expo pass (early): $25 • Electricity: $90 • Hotel: ~$150/night for a very close hotel • Printed materials • Vertical banner: $68 • Double-sided postcards: $40 • Buttons (FPG & EZD): $112 • Sign-up sheets: free (home-printed) • Food: $?
13. What are our goals? • Increase awareness of Exploit: Zero Day • Get monthly newsletter signups for: • Game access • Potential purchases • Increase awareness of Future Proof Games • Informal playtesting, exchange of ideas, etc.
14. How are we prepping? • Designing buttons, post cards, banner, sign-in sheet • Excellent resource: http://indieboothcraft.com/ • Refining our game description • Creating special game content for expo signups • Releasing new features with enough time for alpha folks to test
15. Questions and thoughts? • This talk: http://fpgam.es/gdc-ecgc-2016 • Future Proof Games: • @PlayFutureProof • http://fpgam.es/FPGFacebook • http://fpgam.es/FPGGooglePlus • http://futureproofgames.com • Our games: • Ossuary: dark underworld adventure where sins are your inventory items: http://fpgam.es/Ossuary • Exploit: Zero Day: cyberthriller with a living story: https://exploitzeroday.com