GDC2010: A Wonderful Blur, Part 1.

8:17 pm Game Development

The Game Developer Conference is like college. If you’re not going to awesome parties or meeting great people, you’re learning something that should stay with you the rest of your life.

GDC is hard to hate. I make a point to go every year. I love catching up with my buddies, seeing how things are going in the rest of the industry and so on.

I get in early the day before so I can take in the day and not feel rushed. Any GDC veteran will tell you, there’s a lot that will be happening in your life in a short amount a time, so it’s best to take it easy while you can. People start rolling in3-5pm the day before GDC, after a trip on Virgin and a pleasant conversation with a cabbie who is having problems with the police. The best thing to do upon arrival is chill out for a sec, get your stuff in order at the hotel then go grab some cheap beers. My new favorite spot this year was The Chieftain, a little Irish pub with a surfboard shaped counter, perfect for a pitcher of some local San Fransisco beer and catching up on the good old days. Also, they put eggs on the burger so you know it’s good.

Keep in mind, this ends around 5-7pm.  You’re a pitcher or two in in and the night is young. Best to grab a few more drinks before the real night begins. In a tiring but feel-good buzz, it’s time to hit up a few hotel bars. The Westin this year is pretty good, but the layout essentially forces you to drink outside.

So, you get an over priced beer or two which slows your roll a bit ($7.50 for a champagne glass full of beer? Drinking beer from this type of glass actually pisses me off)  and makes you start wondering why you came to the Westin in the first place. Well, it’s convenient because your buddies are staying at the here, and the Westin is close to the restaurants and other great hangouts in the area.

At some point you’ll have to go meet your co-workers. This isn’t bad; usually dinner is on the company and you find out what everyone who you work with is up to. A different type of beer is ordered and you realize you’re ordering the biggest beer on the table. You eat light because you’re filled with mostly beer and a giant egg burger. More shop is talked and you try to drag a few co-workers along for the rest of the night.

A few do end up going, but you lose them later. Not on purpose, this type of thing happens. It’s hard to maintain a strong group of 20 people, all drinking and moving in squad formation.

You find your friends again, some are still at the Westin. After a few more drinks (and drinking your friends drinks) you find you’re not nearly as drunk as them and the most coherent of the group. This is where the night could go horribly, horribly wrong.

But it doesn’t. You end up at the Thirsty Bear, ordering oysters and more beer and warning the waitress about the creepy guy that started hanging out with you for no reason. She’s appreciative, because she’s already identified the guy as being in fact, creepy, and because she understands you’re actually looking out for her best interests with no immoral intentions, even though you’re pretty far along at this point.

The oysters are delicious because you’ve grilled them before at home, but you’ve never had them like this. Some people are eating them on a dare, but you order an entire plate of them for yourself because damn, they are awesome. Then the guy who is trying to be the ballingest guy at the bar decides he’s going to buy your entire table dinner and drinks for the night. You feign trying to stop him until you suddenly realize you’re out the door, down the block and yelling at your friend’s sister to stay away from game developers and meet someone her age and stay the hell away from the W.

Because you see, the W is there the crazy happens and the night goes off the rails. The lobby of the W is usually very open and airy. A sense of modern awe sweeps over you if come during the day. At night though, the W seedy and attractive, sad and wonderful. Above all elese, it is crowded and loud. The night before GDC, if you end up at the W, may God have mercy on your soul.

For that is the night where certain activities shall not be spoken of again. It’s also the night where you make some great connections with people. The Alpha and the Omega, all roads lead to the W. So say The Rules of Rulesmanship.

Everyone is so far gone by this point, and so many crazy things are said that night at the W becomes that guy or girl you took home that night that you regret the next day. No, you didn’t sleep with anyone because, man, your wife would be pissed. But your liver and future well being is definitely pissed at you.

Luckily, you’re an expert drinker and have been prepping the week before. The W is child’s play to someone who makes their own alcohol and drinks it regularly. Evenings at fancy pants city bars where sissy men sip Jack and Cokes are remembered clearly. And skillfully, you managed to avoid danger at all costs, even if you can’t remember how many drinks you’ve had.

You even got to meet some awesome devlebrities and made some great connections, even though you might not remember them all the next day. Nor will they remember you,  because you didn’t throw up on anyone or say something horrible. Unfortunately, not all of your crew has had the same fortunes as you. However, you’re pretty sure you’ve committed to designing like 30 indie games by this point and all of them of course will be amazing and ground breaking. You did create Nazi Zombies after all, as many people have pointed out, or maybe you’ve pointed out yourself more than once.

2:30am rolls around and drinks are no longer being poured. The bar and waitstaff disappear in a flash, the lights come on, the curtain of the evening is pulled away and reality rolls over you in waves. You have to wake up from in 5-6 hours if you want to go to a GDC session (the reason you came here in the first place, right?) and even less if you plan on eating or taking a shower. Of course, you’ll be taking a shower in the morning though. You’re civilized.

You walk back in the general direction of the hotel the best you can with the 3-4 friends that managed to survive this far into the night, until you split up to go your different ways. For the first time, you realize you’re alone in a city you’re not very familiar with, you’re drunk as hell, and you need to sleep but you’re not tired.

One buddy walks all the way down Market , 30+ blocks through some of the worst parts of San Fran (you know this because you’ve made this mistake in the past, twice) and you’re amazed the next day when he tells you he made it alive, back to his sisters pad.

After returning to home base yourself, you send out a few inebriated twitters, check your email, get out of your nasty bar clothes and fall asleep, completely unaware of how much the next 6-8 hours of your awake life are going to be some of the roughest you’ve been ever through.

Yep, its about to get worse than the time you got lost at sea in a tiny boat and had to be rescued by the Coast Guard back when you were 16.

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