So, GDC was essentially everything I expected it to be. A lot less noisy and more developer-centred than E3, and therefore better. In my extremely subjective view, anyway.

I went to the awards show, and saw Tim Schafer make a lot of obviously rehearsed jokes on stage while attempting to MC, as well as a bunch of indie games (some even made by students) that put my present work to shame. I saw Shigeru Miyamoto’s keynote speech, in which he spent most of his time talking about his wife. I went to a bunch of lectures, most of which discussed stuff I essentially already knew through reading about it over the internet, but were interesting to watch regardless. Ernest Adams’s lecture on interactive storytelling was my personal favourite, particularly since he talked a lot about games without challenges, an area I seem to have been exploring as of late. Another favourite of mine was a panel summarizing ten academic papers written about games, which gave me a sudden urge to start considering graduate school (albeit definitely not in the immediate future).

And of course, I reunited with many of my buddies from Telltale, and got to meet Marek Bronstring and Dave Gilbert in person, the latter of whom I ended up talking to for quite a long time and finding a lot of common ground with. (Now all I need to do is, uh, actually play his games.) It was definitely fun times. Don’t you just wish you were there?