GDC Tips and Tricks

edited in Events
I would call this “How to GDC” but people go to GDC for different reasons. Going from this a brief introduction, even though I’m fairly sure everyone going knows me already.

Hi I’m Julian, I’m an independent videogame developer. I’ve been going to GDC for the past three years with this being my fourth. It’s slightly hard to explain why I go. Initially it was to try and absorb vast quantities of knowledge by going to talks and being inspired to go out and create things. These days it’s more of going and hanging out with really cool devs from other places and learning new things.

If what I’ve described sounds kinda like why you are going, or want to, then I hope you can find some useful info below.

Meet your new best friend

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(I know it's a giant picture, but twitter is THAT important!)

Twitter is you new best friend and number one tool for GDC. It’s how you’ll find where to get lunch, what is going on at night and just about anything else that is happening. Have you ever heard that twitter is the most useful tool for outreach as a dev? It is, and it’s four times more useful than normal while at GDC. Be prepared to follow a lot of new people.

Most people prefer to use their face at their twitter avatar come GDC to make themselves easier to identify from the internet. Personally I don't change my twitter avatar and use my Biz-card with my logo on to help people make the connection between internet me and RL me.

Twitter uses internet, not carrier pigeons

It’s all well and good saying that you need twitter, but you need some way to get onto it. Personally I suggest grabbing a T-Mobile 1 month plan for $50, it’s a bit more on the upside, but it comes with unlimited calls, sms, and internet (you get 1GB or so of 4G, and then unlimited 2G,) there is some SIM card costs and taxes, so overall it’s going to run you around $60, but it’s a good investment.

Share your info

The cell number is temp, so throw it out there, tweet it! You want people to be able to get hold of you if they need to. It’s really useful being able to get hold of people when you’re a bit lost and looking for a place you’ve never been to.

Public transport is great! BARTing about!

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(Not that Bart)

f there is one thing I always miss when I come home, (aside from hanging out with a massive amount of devs) it’s public transport! SF has trains, trams, and busses, and if you really need to get somewhere there are cabs but they cost quite a bit more.

You’re quite likely going to be coming into SF by plane. Across the road from the main terminal of SFO is a BART (SF municipal train/underground) station. You can get to it by going up a level or two in the terminal and walking across a sky bridge.

The fair last year was about $7.50 to Powell street (the closest stop if you are staying at the Hostel.) The price is determined by where you got on and off the train. By comparison a taxi from the airport into the city is going to around $50.

For getting into into SF you’ll be taking the yellow line, and as I said above most likely stopping at Powell street, lines for the BART are announced by their endpoints, the trains themselves are colour coded to their lines, the yellow line has the call of Milbrae / SF International Airport - Pittsburg / Bay Point.

One flaw of the BART is that it’s not clear which station is which. There is no electronic sign on the train, and the PA system is rather muffled. I tend to count the number of stops until I reach the station I need.

In general if you need to go anywhere just use Google Maps. Google lives in SF so things are very accurate.

Basic security

Ever heard of the tenderloins? It’s basically the San Francisco version of Hillbrow. The Indie Hostel is right on the edge of it. You generally don’t want to be wandering around in there by yourself or even with just a small group of people. If it’s between taking a taxi, uber, or walking through the tenderloin, pay the fair: it’s cheaper than getting mugged.

Julie! Do the conference!

(But first a note on business cards)
If you're meeting people and shaking hands you are quite likely to find a business card in your hand. That's kinda because at GDC exchanging business cards is as common a practice as shaking the hands of those you meet. I have 3 bits of info on my business card: 1. My twitter handle 2. My email address 3. my SA cellphone number. 1 & 2 are essential for GDC and 3 is to make it feel rounded off and also lets me use it as a kinda normal card in SA. Also remember to use +27 82 123 4567 instead of 082 123 4567, you're giving your card to people from foreign countries.

(And now back to your scheduled programming)
You’re flying halfway around the planet to go to the conference. So you should probably do some planning? Well if you have and IGS pass then not really: you go to the summit and that’s pretty much it. Do keep in mind the IGS pass does allow you to go to the Advocacy Track talks, which have been really great and had things like the #1ReasonToBe!

After the summits you have 3 days that the conference is happening. You can also go to the expo and see the IGF games and chat to the people at the stands. It’s a cool way to meet devs who make interesting games.

Wednesday evening is the IGF and Game Developer Choice Award ceremonies, which are rather fun to go and watch. After that people generally head out to Wild Rumpus.

If you have a pass that lets you go to more talks then you want to look at the schedule and make a plan to go to talks. I tried fulling up my schedule and going to as much talks as I could, but GDC is more about being with the people than going to talks, and you either have vault access or know someone who does.

Don’t be afraid to miss a talk and enjoy your time with the people around you!

Your health is my only concern

Since you'll be shaking hand a lot be sure to have some hand sanatizer on you germs spread quite well at conferences, and the last thing you want is con flu.

Unfortunately air travel also has quite a bit of germ spreading going on. Make sure to pump up the vitamin C, and some other multi-vitamins for the trip.

Lastly make sure to take care of yourself and don't push yourself too hard. Eat, relax, and stay healthy.

Cook Serve Delicious

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(Managing a resteraunt is hard. Cheap food in San Francisco, almost.)

You need to eat. If you’re at the hostel breakfast is included. If you’re at a restaurant a full meal is going to be around $10 if you're cheap and a bit lucky, $15 is more normal and $20 is quite common. The closer you are the conference center the more expensive things tend to be. If you wonder off to Chinatown you can get some good food on the cheap, but that’s about a half hours walk if you do it at a good pace and don’t mind going up some steep hills.

You can also buy so ingredients and such at a shop, and make your own sammiches and such. Walgreens is pretty much the standard go to place, it’s like Spar or Checkers.

One of the most likely place you are to get food the Metreon. It’s right next to the conference center and Yerba Buena park where most people tend to hang out. But the queues can be ridiculously long. So it’s often better to to into a nearby shopping center pick something up and then head to the park.

Food trucks used to be one of the cheapest and best food sources around SF, they've gone up in price but be sure to try one they're good food and always tend to be rather interesting.

A note on American finance

The first thing to note is that basically everything is VAT exclusive. This is really annoying.

Secondly their credit cards system works differently so instead of taking money from your account they reserve a certain amount and then deduct it later. This could mean you hit your limit without actually being near it.

Thirdly come with some cash. Not all the ATMs are going to like you, and if you arrive at an odd hour you might not be able to get to a bank to exchange for dollars. Cash is mostly used for transport, but food is common as most foodtrucks don't take cards, and some restaurants can only split a bill onto 5-7 cards. And kinda redundantly if you're going to a club the entrance is cash and drinks are cash.

And on that note of credit cards: Please call your bank ahead of time and let them know when and where you will be using it so they don't think it's fraud and not let any money through.

Nana, nanana nanananana Katamari Damacy

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(Is that Keita? What is he doing? OMG!!! *Silence* followed by wonderfulness)

Have you ever heard of an Indie Katamari? No. Well and Indie Katamari is what happens when Indies go to get food. You start with a small group and as you go along you pick up more devs, and then more devs, and then even more devs, and then someone tweets it, and by the time you reach the venue its basically a DOS attack.

Wait isn’t this like getting food? Yes, yes it is. But Katamari applies to just about anything that can be a social event. It is most commonly food, but is also quite likely to happen if you are going out at night or doing anything.

It’s probably one of the most integral things to the GDC experience. So if you are socializing at GDC. Ask yourself, are most of the people you are with right now people you can normally see without traveling across the planet to see? If yes go and find some Polish devs: Polish devs are cool.

Most of the cool times you are going to have at GDC are probably going to have little to do with the conference itself. It’s going to be with the people who have come from across the world to be there!

Things that aren’t at the conference but you should go to / PART-A

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(Say what you about Notch, but the man knows how to throw a party!)

First some general stuff about going out and parties and going out. Just about anywhere you can get alcohol is going to ask for some ID. My SA drivers license has been enough for ID, the only trouble I ever had was one person thought I looked different then I did 4 years ago.

Second some of the parties are for devs so if you take your GDC badge, or even just the RFID card, you can end up paying less for entrance.

Unfortunately I haven’t heard much in the way of the regular parties, or other events being confirmed yet, but I’ll keep it up to date with what I know when it becomes available.

Ok, I haven't found anything yet, and I looked: people just haven't announced stuff yet. So I'm going on historical trends.

Parties:
Tuesday: Chiptune Party (DNA Lounge), IGDA Party,
Wednesday: Wild Rumpus (Public Worx),
Thursday:

Events:
Thursday: Lost Level (Yerba Beuna Park)

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Last year was the first year — to my knowledge — that Humble and Valve had parties. So I don't really know if they will be happening on the same day.

But the Chiptune party and Wild Rumpus are pretty much stables and the venues aren't showing anything else on the prospective dates so there is nothing to say that they aren't happening. These are also the two most fun.

Lost Levels is what is termed as an 'unconference' one of the lead orgs isn't going to GDC this year, but it was always intended to be handed off to other people. It's pretty fun.

Notch isn't going to GDC this year so no .party() and I can't remember what else happened on Thursday evenings.
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Comments

  • I haven't finished reading this yet but I'm already loving it. Amazing stuff, thanks so much!!! :D
  • It sounds awesome! I'll start saving up for next year :)
  • edited
    @Tuism if my procrastinating from doing work today has helped someone then I am most glad :3

    @KleinM now would probably be a good time to start saving ;)
  • Just a note, the Humble and Valve things weren't "parties" per-se. They were invite-only dinners. There are LOTS of those, some are big AAA money sponsored random events, others are very intimate and group-of-friends-esque. I would advise against trying to crash parties, that's just a bad vibe and there's more than enough going on already.

    If you get invited to something, go. It will most-always be useful and interesting if you can get there.

    Buses are cool. Google maps will always be right. About everything.

    And the Tenderloin isn't *that* scary. It's pretty much Braamfontein, but with more shouting hobos and more streetlights.
  • @dislekcia edited out the valve and humble parties, only heard about them in passing and didn't pay much attention to them since I already had plans for those evening.

    Also I'm way more comfortable in braam than the tenderloins, we ran into some particularly weird and nasty hobos when we were wondering through.

    Also can't believe I forgot about Google Maps >.>
  • edited
    [deleted[
  • @bischonator the LA party was for his new house that he just bought. I saw him answering someone asking what was up with .party() this year on twitter a day or so ago, and he said that it wasn't happening and he wasn't going to be at GDC.
  • That was an awesome guide. Thanks!
  • Thank you for this!

    I'd like to add some things:

    Vitamin C and hand sanitizer. You're going to meet a lot of people, after a really long set of flights in recycled air. Do not underestimate how important these things are. You don't want to be fighting a travel cold while doing meet and greets or listening to talks.

    It's worth going through the effort of getting some dollars beforehand. Yes, your credit card SHOULD work, but different banks and atms react differently to a foreign card. Having currency is particularly useful for the small transactions around public transport. This is particularly true if you arrive outside of banking hours.

    Speaking of credit cards, it's pretty common practice in states to not charge your card immediately, many transactions will only be deducted from your account days or weeks after the transaction occurred, but they will 'reserve' the amount. This is entirely different to the way our banks in SA expect the card to be used and can result in reaching a daily limit on a day you haven't used your card, or a declined transaction because all the money available is already reserved, or the appearance of money suddenly disappearing.There's not much you can do about this other than try to have backup options, but it helps to be aware of it.
    Thanked by 1dislekcia
  • @TheFuntastic welcome :)

    @damousey thanks for the extra stuff, added it to the list. (So much stuff to try and remember for all this >.<)
  • Money wise a virgin money credit card is a great thing to have with overseas travelling. It's a credit card that's free except for credit interest and only costs R12 for an atm withdrawal any where in the world. Between that (Mastercard) and my regular FNB cheque card (Visa) I've always managed to find money. They're a bit snottier about who they give them to these days, but I swear by mine!
  • I can't quite figure out what the Wild Rumpus is doing this year. There seems to be some kind of week long sofa gathering: http://www.gdconf.com/events/
  • Don't forget to call your bank and tell them that you'll be travelling overseas with locations and dates so they don't automatically assume that yourdebit/credit card has been stolen and freeze it, leaving you in a whole heap of trouble.
    Thanked by 1Tuism
  • @BlackShipsFilltheSky they had Mild Rumpus at GDC last year while still having the Wild Rumpus party on the Wednesday evening. There being a Mild Rumpus this year does raise my belief in the occurrence of a Wild Rumpus this year.

    @AngryMoose Haha, bit of an oversight from us, but yeah that's a very important one *goes off to add to list*

    @TheFuntastic oooOOOoooh! Should look into one of those!

    ---

    And for some reason this post has been sitting in my drafts for days even though I'd added the info to the OP.
  • Here's the GDC party calendar that Brandon Boyer curates every year: https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=qbi1va78rtqpqlok3jblush6u0@group.calendar.google.com

    Subscribe, it's always better to know what's going on.
  • Er, just to clarify, if one shouldn't wander around the Tenderloins (I thought it was a nickname but it actually is marked as such on Google maps, wow), would you suggest that one not walk from Powell station to the hostel?

    (Asking from my transfer at Hong Kong airport)
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    @Tuism: You'll be fine, that's like 3 blocks. You'll walk that way every day to the convention centre and back... Provided you're staying in the the Hostel International on Mason street.

    The Tenderloin only really starts if you east on Ellis or Eddy street from the hostel itself, you're well away from it near Powell. Also, don't worry too much about it - it's less scary than Braamfontein, you'll see.

    Hope your transfer isn't too long!
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    Thanks!! Oh this one isn't insanely long. I'll be out in 4 hours or so. The return one is the mad one at 13 hours!

    See you guys at the Hostel on Mason, yes I'm there :)
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