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Somehow, between USC's announcement of an eight-million-dollar grant from Electronic Arts to bolster the cinema school's MFA in game design program and the beginning of the Game Developers Conference, the school's colors changed from burgundy-and-gold to green-and-white. Of course the school's colors didn't really change, but you wouldn't know that from the T-shirts sported by cinema school students at the GDC on Wednesday. They were green. And not a deep forest green, or a pleasant light green: it was neon electric In-Your-Face With EA-ATTITUDE green, and I, being the kind and helpful soul that I am (to the video game program at the university), was wearing one.
It really wasn't a bad shirt. It could have been decent, even, with its rather-catchy circular logo with clockwise-pointing tangential rays. It just happened that I could be seen in that shirt from two miles away... which, in this case, was supposed to be a good thing. My job was to pass out special clue cards that convention attendees could gather; gather enough, and the secret is revealed. Know the secret and you might win super-cool prizes at a USC party on Thursday night (held at one of the many bars in the area). I was startled by how tenacious the showgoers were in throttling the green-shirted helpers and commandeering their stacks of clue cards. They likely weren't invited to the Microsoft party (which took place at the same time). Or the Nokia one. Or any of the other parties, in any of the other bars and restaurants in town. I really shouldn't say anything; I'm going the USC party myself, at least for a bit.
In any case, these people, in these shirts, tended to spur conversation. Granted, most began with people asking: "Which clue do you have?" and ending with: "Thanks." Still, they were conversations... and anything to break the ice was better than nothing at all, especially when you are as starved for a job as I. It certainly isn't as good, however, as talking to the various recruiters at the job fair. For most students and wannabe-developers, this nook of the exhibit hall is the place to be. At least if you're a programmer, artist, or even... oh... a game designer. (GASP!)
Me? I'm an audio designer... which immediately makes me the most undesired wetware in a three block radius. Between the posturing of Tommy and his GANG to get audio content developers what they "truly deserve", and the flood of unemployed or under-employed fresh audio blood bursting down the walls of conference rooms, developers can be forgiven for a reluctant ear to audio personnel. I went to that job fair fully expecting only one party (Sony in Bend, Oregon) to accept my resumé and demo reel. In fact, only one company tried to discourage me from giving them my demo reel. (That was Semi Logic; while they were initially reluctant, they accepted my demo reel once I assured them that it is far from my only copy.) Not only was Red Storm happy to take my reel, they were explicitly searching for a new audio designer for their North Carolina studio; the recruiters at Relic seemed intrigued with my past industry experience, and annotated my resume with all sorts of figures and indecipherable scrawl before handing it to a fellow who disappeared behind closed doors with his newfound treasure; even Nintendo was actively accepting audio reels.
All this adds up to more than a glimmer of hope for this not-quite-graduated me, on my first day at the GDC... which makes sense. After all, isn't that what GDC is about? If not about hope in the face of increasingly precarious situations in the game industry -- either with large trends or the experiences of a specific company -- then what is it about? S2 Games, the winner of the IGF Open Category this year, stated in their award acceptance speech that they hope to give hope to small developers with the success of their game, Savage. While only one game can win a Game Developers Choice award in a given category, any number of innovative titles are cited each year, lending hope to the power of innovation over budget, team strength, and even skill.
Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic, but I somehow doubt I will get any serious employment from those helpful company HR people who so-cheerfully accepted my resume. They will look at my offering, file it away, and then respond to me in about a month explaining how I currently don't fit their ever-changing development needs. I can't blame them too much. It's not all that different from how the game industry moves from the "hope" of GDC to the "reality" of E3 in a span of weeks.
Well, maybe being a game developer just isn't for me. If not, then at least I'll have some keen shirts.
Vincent Diamante
needs job badly
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