Week 7: What I learned at GDC

I spent this entire week working as a Conference Associate at GDC. It was a valuable experience, both as a networking opportunity and in terms of helping me pick a direction for my portfolio. Here are the core things that I learned:

• The Game Industry wants you to be specialized.
• I should have a separate resume for Artist positions and another for Game Design
• Even Game Desigers have specalizations. There are Combat Designers, Encounter Designers, and Systems Engineers. These are all subsets of Game Design. 
• A Systems Designer focuses on mechanics and manipulation of data for game balance and interesting user experience. This 
• There are no Game Designer/Artists outside of the Indy Game sector, and even within it, someone who is so generalized in their skillset is rare, and so their value is not implicitly understood.
• I need to choose a focus, and I'm a little further along on the Concept Art front.
• If I'm going to show Game Design work, something small and polished is way better than something grandiose and unfinished.
• The above probably goes for Concept Art as well.
• I need to learn Unity.
• I need to do more coding.
• There are more Artist positions available than Game Designer positions.

...So that's a lot of to-do list type stuff. The bottom line is that I should focus on concept art. I need to spend the rest of the semester producing 5 or 6 polished art pieces that show the best of what I can do. If I complete one every other week for the rest of the semester, I will achieve that goal. Here goes nothing!