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So, this is my second year going to GDC and I brought back quite a swag haul. For those who don’t know, GDC stands for the Game Developers Conference. It isn’t a consumer expo like Gamescom or PAX is. There are games there, but they are either mostly indie games focused on trying to find publisher funding or there are booths for specific countries and US states trying to convince publishers to invest in game development in those areas.
Instead, most of the booths are focused on various middleware solutions. Things like UI libraries, version control, IDEs, leaderboard tracking software, game engines, mo-cap, and much more. The mo-cap ones are particularly fun as they have live demonstrations of people in the suits play fighting with swords or other activities. Last year they had a whole half-pipe they brought in and there were people skateboarding and doing tricks in it.
The other major part of the show is the talks and panels. There are a lot of talks about different aspects of game creation: art, writing, AI, indie games, etc. I mostly went to the AI talks with a few deviations to go to a talk on why to consider using your own game engine for an indie game rather than Unity or Unreal Engine and another on Game Ethics, given by a close friend of one of the people I was attending with.
Now, my expectations were that Generative AI was going to be the thing this year. Last year’s convention hall was covered to the brim in Web3 stuff (blockchain, NFTs, crypto, etc.). This year there was almost none of that. Also, despite the huge amount of AI talk in the tech industry, there was pretty much none of that on the show floor either. There were a lot of talks about using it. In fact, they actually split the generative/machine learning AI talks away from the traditional game AI talks (I went to the latter) although generative AI still invaded the game AI space quite heavily.
In this realm, they were talking about trying to use generative AI to perform the tasks that traditional game AI would try and solve. Things like level generation, story generation, or using the AI to generate behavior trees. Overall, it did not seem to work well and that was the point of the talks. Last year, Roblox came in showing off their generative AI tools and how they’ve been able to use them to create textures. They were talking about their lofty goals of having it be able to create entire levels or entire games in the near future. This year, I feel that reality came crashing down as the limits of these tools became more known. While they might be able to create artwork, they struggled to create a level. I am curious what the strictly machine learning talks discussed but I didn’t pay for the vault access so I can’t actually see them (that’s like another $700 or something crazy).
Anyways, I collected a bunch of cool swag from the event and remembered to not wear a tunic shirt this year, so I didn’t get any unwanted attention.
Instead, most of the booths are focused on various middleware solutions. Things like UI libraries, version control, IDEs, leaderboard tracking software, game engines, mo-cap, and much more. The mo-cap ones are particularly fun as they have live demonstrations of people in the suits play fighting with swords or other activities. Last year they had a whole half-pipe they brought in and there were people skateboarding and doing tricks in it.
The other major part of the show is the talks and panels. There are a lot of talks about different aspects of game creation: art, writing, AI, indie games, etc. I mostly went to the AI talks with a few deviations to go to a talk on why to consider using your own game engine for an indie game rather than Unity or Unreal Engine and another on Game Ethics, given by a close friend of one of the people I was attending with.
Now, my expectations were that Generative AI was going to be the thing this year. Last year’s convention hall was covered to the brim in Web3 stuff (blockchain, NFTs, crypto, etc.). This year there was almost none of that. Also, despite the huge amount of AI talk in the tech industry, there was pretty much none of that on the show floor either. There were a lot of talks about using it. In fact, they actually split the generative/machine learning AI talks away from the traditional game AI talks (I went to the latter) although generative AI still invaded the game AI space quite heavily.
In this realm, they were talking about trying to use generative AI to perform the tasks that traditional game AI would try and solve. Things like level generation, story generation, or using the AI to generate behavior trees. Overall, it did not seem to work well and that was the point of the talks. Last year, Roblox came in showing off their generative AI tools and how they’ve been able to use them to create textures. They were talking about their lofty goals of having it be able to create entire levels or entire games in the near future. This year, I feel that reality came crashing down as the limits of these tools became more known. While they might be able to create artwork, they struggled to create a level. I am curious what the strictly machine learning talks discussed but I didn’t pay for the vault access so I can’t actually see them (that’s like another $700 or something crazy).
Anyways, I collected a bunch of cool swag from the event and remembered to not wear a tunic shirt this year, so I didn’t get any unwanted attention.
Category All / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 2741 x 1344px
File Size 1.11 MB
It was a good haul. Not as my as my friend’s though. I could at least contain it in a single backpack. She had like four bags by the end and I had to help her carry them.
What were your favourite or most intriguing talks this year? And interesting that people are settling down after freaking out about AI...unless of course the really good stuff was in the limited access panels!
And what was in the arcade mystery mini-bag?!?
btw you really should wear a t-shirt with your own art on it to these things, especially of the game you've been wanting to make, might catch someone's attention.
bttw who won the raffle?!? I've been on the edge of my seat ;)
And what was in the arcade mystery mini-bag?!?
btw you really should wear a t-shirt with your own art on it to these things, especially of the game you've been wanting to make, might catch someone's attention.
bttw who won the raffle?!? I've been on the edge of my seat ;)
"What were your favourite or most intriguing talks this year?"
Probably the ones on HGN planning systems, Utility AI, why to consider building your own game engine. teaching game ethics, using neural nets to create AI for digital board and card games, attempting to use LLMs (Chat-GPT stuff) to do level generation to poor results. There were a lot that were good ones. A lot of these are rather technical though so it'd be a lot to explain.
"And interesting that people are settling down after freaking out about AI...unless of course the really good stuff was in the limited access panels!"
Well I could have gone in, I just didn't chose to and paying to have access to the videos is like $700 on top of my $1k ticket so I don't care that much. I think the main thing with the AI stuff is that in the art sphere it's ok if it isn't perfect. Even actual artists aren't perfect. When it comes to trying to create levels or generate code, you actually need more control than the generative AI gives you. This is especially true because the AI will always give and answer even if it made it up. So, as an example, they were trying to use chat-GPT to create behavior trees (those are one way of defining decision making for game AIs) and the json (basically a machine readable format that the game actually reads) it would spit out would often be malformed and so they were just asking it to continuously keep trying until it spit out something that worked. Very annoying.
I think in general it's shown its use for things like concept art or flat repeating textures but the more specified and with specific requirements your end needs are, the more it seems to fall apart. So create a single image, no problem. Create a 3d model with proper rigging, skeletal structures, etc. that then can have mocap data used on it... not so much.
"And what was in the arcade mystery mini-bag?!?"
I haven't actually opened it. XD I'm sure it's just some junk. It was just some small swag giveaway from an indie game that got featured at Unity's booth. Quite frankly I'm not sure why I even took it... (it was a VR game and I kind of hated trying to play it).
"btw you really should wear a t-shirt with your own art on it to these things, especially of the game you've been wanting to make, might catch someone's attention."
I should one of these days. I actually didn't even have a t-shirt for my current game so I was wearing an old Sims one.
"bttw who won the raffle?!? I've been on the edge of my seat ;)"
Sorry, I drew it and then immediately had to drive to LA for our ship party (driving another six hours home today). Nex won it.
Probably the ones on HGN planning systems, Utility AI, why to consider building your own game engine. teaching game ethics, using neural nets to create AI for digital board and card games, attempting to use LLMs (Chat-GPT stuff) to do level generation to poor results. There were a lot that were good ones. A lot of these are rather technical though so it'd be a lot to explain.
"And interesting that people are settling down after freaking out about AI...unless of course the really good stuff was in the limited access panels!"
Well I could have gone in, I just didn't chose to and paying to have access to the videos is like $700 on top of my $1k ticket so I don't care that much. I think the main thing with the AI stuff is that in the art sphere it's ok if it isn't perfect. Even actual artists aren't perfect. When it comes to trying to create levels or generate code, you actually need more control than the generative AI gives you. This is especially true because the AI will always give and answer even if it made it up. So, as an example, they were trying to use chat-GPT to create behavior trees (those are one way of defining decision making for game AIs) and the json (basically a machine readable format that the game actually reads) it would spit out would often be malformed and so they were just asking it to continuously keep trying until it spit out something that worked. Very annoying.
I think in general it's shown its use for things like concept art or flat repeating textures but the more specified and with specific requirements your end needs are, the more it seems to fall apart. So create a single image, no problem. Create a 3d model with proper rigging, skeletal structures, etc. that then can have mocap data used on it... not so much.
"And what was in the arcade mystery mini-bag?!?"
I haven't actually opened it. XD I'm sure it's just some junk. It was just some small swag giveaway from an indie game that got featured at Unity's booth. Quite frankly I'm not sure why I even took it... (it was a VR game and I kind of hated trying to play it).
"btw you really should wear a t-shirt with your own art on it to these things, especially of the game you've been wanting to make, might catch someone's attention."
I should one of these days. I actually didn't even have a t-shirt for my current game so I was wearing an old Sims one.
"bttw who won the raffle?!? I've been on the edge of my seat ;)"
Sorry, I drew it and then immediately had to drive to LA for our ship party (driving another six hours home today). Nex won it.
Ah I see, thanks, that does sound interesting but admittedly not subjects I know much about! And yes AI like ChatGPT definitely needs some upgrades and improvement before it can do all the things people seem to believe it can do, but then in ten years time who knows how much it will have advanced?*
*fingers crossed for the Singularity! ;)
"I haven't actually opened it. XD I'm sure it's just some junk. It was just some small swag giveaway from an indie game that got featured at Unity's booth. Quite frankly I'm not sure why I even took it... (it was a VR game and I kind of hated trying to play it)."
Heh now you definitely have to open it, I'm guessing it contains a small model of a classic arcade cabinet. Of course don't do that if you want to keep it as a keepsake!
"I should one of these days. I actually didn't even have a t-shirt for my current game so I was wearing an old Sims one."
This is how these things happen in stories so you need to give it a go, trust me ;)
"Sorry, I drew it and then immediately had to drive to LA for our ship party (driving another six hours home today). Nex won it."
Ah, well phooh! Congratulations to Nex though! ;)
*fingers crossed for the Singularity! ;)
"I haven't actually opened it. XD I'm sure it's just some junk. It was just some small swag giveaway from an indie game that got featured at Unity's booth. Quite frankly I'm not sure why I even took it... (it was a VR game and I kind of hated trying to play it)."
Heh now you definitely have to open it, I'm guessing it contains a small model of a classic arcade cabinet. Of course don't do that if you want to keep it as a keepsake!
"I should one of these days. I actually didn't even have a t-shirt for my current game so I was wearing an old Sims one."
This is how these things happen in stories so you need to give it a go, trust me ;)
"Sorry, I drew it and then immediately had to drive to LA for our ship party (driving another six hours home today). Nex won it."
Ah, well phooh! Congratulations to Nex though! ;)
I think I'd rather not have the Singularity, tbh.
Anyways, I opened it. It just had some stickers, a temporary tattoo, and a little mini arcade cabinet for a fake game that they invented for their game.
Anyways, I opened it. It just had some stickers, a temporary tattoo, and a little mini arcade cabinet for a fake game that they invented for their game.
Well I'm kind of kidding about that, I did once read a book which featured a sort of technological singularity and it was really freaky and weird, actually make that three books now I consider it...huh...'Blood Music' by Greg Bear, 'Permutation City' by Greg Egan, and another one I can't recall the title of.
Oooohhhh I was close about the mini arcade cabinet!
Oooohhhh I was close about the mini arcade cabinet!
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