No writeup from yesterday since I didn’t actually go to the show. Stayed in to do some school work.

But today! Today, was the last day of GDC, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. My day was filled with panels designed for students to help them break into the industry. And boy did it ever help.

The first talk I attended was advice on building a good portfolio for visual arts. There was a lot of good tips and good advice that could be applied to job interviews in general. The sample work they showed from various students’ portfolios was all really impressive. Too impressive. By the end of the panel, I had lost all hope of ever becoming a visual artist. These guys are just way too good at what they do, and they’ve been drawing their entire lives. I don’t have the raw experience to compete with them. So it was all a very intimidating and belittling experience. But it also proved to guide me towards the light.

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Today was the first day that the Expo Floor opened up at GDC. It was way more crowded than it had been on Monday or Tuesday. But when I finally stepped through the doors and into the light, I saw why.

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Decidedly less lectures today. Lots more hands on type activities and a little more faffing about on my part. Spent the entire day at part two of the game design workshop. But before I talk about that, I wanna show and tell some of the neat little things I’e experienced at GDC so far.

After I signed in on Sunday, I received a bag full of what I’ll generously call “swag.” Most of it was garbage trash, but inside it was a single blue square. On the back of the square was a note informing me that it was a pixel, and I needed to put the pixel in its designated place on a mural at GDC. Everyone attending GDC got a pixel, and we’re all going to put them together to create on giant mural. It’s actually a fun and neat idea, I thought.

The work-in-progress mural

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