Vijay, Raj and Nathan – we three were chosen to attend GDC 2010. This post will run you through our experience.
The overall trip was a great success in terms of the activities that we did. Our aim was to attend the key sessions and we luckily did manage to attend. The next intent was to meet our clients, and yes, we did meet some of the key guys, mostly technology providers. We came across several game engines this year and some of them were stunning. We checked out Unity’s latest version of engine for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii and PSP. Infernal engine is as good and offers a lot of cool features across all the platforms. We spent some time with the Sony research team and checked the Phyre engine, which is a complete free technology for the PS3. In fact we have taken a plunge into it and have our hands on it now. And yes, Cryengine 3 for the X360,PS3 was simply the best and awed everyone.

The hotel we stayed at was nice and comfortable. The best part about the stay was the proximity it shared with the Moscone center where the GDC happened. We could just walk to that place when ever we wanted.

We learned that Phyre is still sort of half cooked and is shaping up. But it looked great and is appropriate for a lot of studios stepping into PS3 development including us. We now have Phyre at our studio and are gearing up to develop a game called ‘Eklavya’ on it. How cool is that?.
We checked the ‘PS3 Move’ and it sounds promising. To put it crudely, it has all the features of the HD Wii plus more. It offers unprecedented control and immersion that the Wii could not offer. In other words,this is the Wii for the hardcore gamers. PS3 Move also offers a lot to the casual gamers. In fact most of Sony’s demo was family gaming centric and we think they should catch up on that front. We are also planning to take a plunge into the PS3 Move development and should announce a title soon.

The Expo floor was abuzz with a plethora of players. Goodies were distributed and we managed to get T-shirts from various studios The only think that lacked was posters. The major attraction this time was the enormous technology showcase from different studios. We noticed a lot of Germany based companies demonstrating their engines and tools. The other key attraction this year was the 3D stereoscopic gaming, which quite a few companies showcased including Crytek. They had demonstrated an underwater sequence of Crysis in 3D and it was mind blowing. This indeed will push the envelope on how games are made and will form the core of the next-generation gaming experience. The expo floor had a section called the carrier pavilion where most of the top studios were hiring talent with and without work experience.

Lets talk something about the city of SFO. The city is very beautiful. The climate was mostly pleasant except the chilly breeze all the time It took us a while to adapt to that and we were fine. Raj did manage to stay without a jacket for an entire day. The city was walk friendly and we walked most times while exploring the city.

We went for a nice scenic coastal ride along the coast of San Francisco, visited the Golden gate, China Town, Fisher Man’s Wharf  and few other places. Thanks to Prakash for spending his time and taking us on a beautiful drive.

To buy stuff, we went all the way to Freemont and did all the shopping at Walmart and Bestbuy. We managed to buy a PS3 which surprisingly was not available with Gamestop anywhere, and picked up an Ipod touch.

Thanks to Starbucks for all the wonderful cafe latte, cheese danish, hot panini etc and yes the free internet. Thanks to Lufthansa for flying us back and forth safely. We were accompanied by our VP of Business Development, Mr Dan Kitchen and he was a wonderful companion and guide. He was very patient and took us to the nicest restaurants in the city.
Thanks to the admin team for making the communication arrangements and a big thanks to finance team for financing the trip. Thanks to the HR team for all support they gave. And a big thanks to each one you for making this possible. We must also thank Mr Uthsav for giving us an idea about the city of SFO before we left India. It helped us all through.

Overall, it’s certainly a dream come true for all of us and we must thank the company for giving us this opportunity. The level of exposure, confidence, maturity it has given us is tremendous and something we would preserve for the rest of our career. We got to learn not only technical knowledge, but also the techniques and the approach that is to be taken during the production. The clarity, plan and the amount of research that needs to go before starting to work on an actual feature was also made clear. This is what we believe, differentiates us from the top tier game studios in the west and this is a quality which we all need to badly adapt. While leaving GDC, we firmly decided to implement certain techniques and approaches we learned there in our production, especially with the larger titles that we currently do. We are hopefully implementing a lot of those now and will be evident with our oncoming titles which will enforce quality in every content we develop.

One thing which is quite evident now is that we have, way to go with the Indian gaming industry which is still at its childhood. This is just the right time to shell out quality content to the market and capture million of gamer just right here. It is well proven and established in the west and now its our turn to make the same here. So get it going people!

Vijay, Raj and Nathan