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[deathtotheweird]

you failed because your games suck. you need to be well connected + have good games. you only had one part of the equation.

[MMVFM]

Matthew, don't you think the judging system is a problem? Do you think it's perfectly fine that people will alternate between being judges and nominees, sometimes the very same year even?

[Evan Balster]

You don't have to be nominated to get a lot out of GDC.

I'm going to tell my story, here.


I've been making games as a hobby since I was 12 or so, in Game Maker and C++ starting around 18.  I'm 21, now.  Used to be most of my contact with other game developers was through forums.

My family is not rich.  My mother lost most of what she owned to a flood in 2008, leaved her mired in debt, and my father died of brain cancer the next year.  At the time of my first GDC I was doing a $10 per hour research job, though I had the blessing of meal center food so I was able to save up.  As of today I don't know how I'll be paying the rent at the end of this month, and I'm STILL going to GDC.

What convinced me to go to my first one was a friend, Ted Martens, who I met through a fellow researcher at the university.  He and a few friends (I later befriended the two others who remained in Ames) were IGF student winners waaaay back in the day.

I saved up my pennies and tried (and failed to get some financial aid from my university.  I ended up managing to afford the $1100-or-so for airfare, lodging and a ticket.

I went to GDC, and immediately started meeting people.  At the time my favorite game was Aquaria; when I made my way to Moscone on the first day of the conference, I saw Alec Holowka standing among a small circle of people, walked up to him, and said hello!  (This blew my mind)  As the week progressed I met tons and tons of people simply by being social.


A little over a year later I made a game called Infinite Blank -- inspired in part by a game by Farbs, who I'd met at that first GDC and who encouraged me to pursue the idea -- and Ted recommended I enter it into an event called 'sense of wonder night'.  I did so and ended up being invited to the event.

At the Tokyo game show I ended up meeting and catching dinner with some of the other SOWN people, and additionally one Tyrone Rodriguez, who would later offer me the work of porting Cave Story, which I accepted.


Please tell me if I've done anything wrong or meriting disapproval here, short of leaving a few Cave Story bugs unaddressed longer than I should have.  :\



A general strategy:

1. Mak gam.  Pursue interesting ideas, and show your work to lots of people.  Work hard, if possible on small and polished things.  Be humble, but don't deprecate yourself either.  This is supposed to be a meritocracy, to try to prove yourself.

2. Try very hard to go to GDC, ticket or no.  Take a job if you have to.  Failing that, look for more local events.  Get help from family.  This should be manageable for the vast, vast majority of people over 18 years of age.  Compromise with school or work may be necessary.  (You can hotel in San Francisco as cheap as $30 per night.)

3. When you DO get to GDC (or some other gathering) overcome any shyness issues you have.  These people think like you!  You will be amazed how much you can mind-meld with the people around you.  If you have a hard time, try to make one solid acquaintance; you'll meet many more people through them.

4. Don't burn bridges or choose enemies.  Anger and bile achieve nothing.  Conversely don't feel obligated to make friends with anyone you don't like.  It DOES help you but it is NOT necessary and signifies a lack of self-respect.


Worked well enough for me.




...and a final concession:  The IGF judging process isn't great.  It's not unheard of for some games to never actually get played by judges; this happened to someone I know, though he's very much "1%" or whatever you care to call it.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

@mattheww - i don't think i ever said that connections were all you need to be successful -- i seem to recall saying something else:

@mattheww - yeah i don't think it's all *that* important; as phubans implied, it's possible to succeed without being an insider; look at notch for instance; he succeeded largely without external help. it varies from case to case

there are people who would not have succeeded without connections, and people who succeed without them, and people whose games can't succeed even with all the best connections because they aren't very good at making games, etc. etc.

*

Matthew, don't you think the judging system is a problem? Do you think it's perfectly fine that people will alternate between being judges and nominees, sometimes the very same year even?

i'm not sure this happened; the closest i can think of was adam atomic being a judge and also an entrant with cave story wii/+ (he did some of the art for it), but i doubt he was allowed to vote for his own game

[phubans]

A general strategy:

1. Mak gam.  Pursue interesting ideas, and show your work to lots of people.  Work hard, if possible on small and polished things.  Be humble, but don't deprecate yourself either.  This is supposed to be a meritocracy, to try to prove yourself.

Check.

2. Try very hard to go to GDC, ticket or no.  Take a job if you have to.  Failing that, look for more local events.  Get help from family.  This should be manageable for the vast, vast majority of people over 18 years of age.  Compromise with school or work may be necessary.  (You can hotel in San Francisco as cheap as $30 per night.)

Check.

3. When you DO get to GDC (or some other gathering) overcome any shyness issues you have.  These people think like you!  You will be amazed how much you can mind-meld with the people around you.  If you have a hard time, try to make one solid acquaintance; you'll meet many more people through them.

Check.

4. Don't burn bridges or choose enemies.  Anger and bile achieve nothing.  Conversely don't feel obligated to make friends with anyone you don't like.  It DOES help you but it is NOT necessary and signifies a lack of self-respect.

Oops...

[Matthew]

you failed because your games suck. you need to be well connected + have good games. you only had one part of the equation.

Exactly!

And the best way to make connections is by having a good game (and then excitedly talking about it and showing it wherever you can).  It's almost like the path to success is simply to try as hard as you can, as long as you can, to make the best you can...

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

and live in california

[Glaiel-Gamer]

It's almost like the path to success is simply to try as hard as you can, as long as you can, to make the best you can...

[Dragonmaw]

Matthew, don't you think the judging system is a problem? Do you think it's perfectly fine that people will alternate between being judges and nominees, sometimes the very same year even?

If your game is entered in the IGF, you are not allowed to be a judge.

As for all this talk about money: it's true that people could drop everything to go to GDC. I could probably save up for three months before GDC (I might go next year, assuming ym job pans out and/or I have a game to show). I don't think somebody not putting their life on hold or prioritizing things like friends and family over GDC means they don't care or don't want to go, though. Sometimes it's just unfeasible, especially in this rocky political and economic climate.

[jonschubbe]

It's almost like the path to success is simply to try as hard as you can, as long as you can, to make the best you can...

[Chris Bell]

 

Not necessarily in the most unbiased position having been nominated myself, but in an official thread about the finalists, it would be helpful to all (critics, players, and creators) to see discussion about the individual games nominated/honored and our reasoning why one is more deserving than another...

Y'know, some thoughtful discussion regarding the artistic, aesthetic, or technical merits of each and how those might be weighted when comparing the finalists. To quote Stephen's initial post... "keep it constructive.".

Perhaps a second thread should be created to separate the two worthy yet orthagonal points of discussion?

[MMVFM]

Matthew, don't you think the judging system is a problem? Do you think it's perfectly fine that people will alternate between being judges and nominees, sometimes the very same year even?

i'm not sure this happened; the closest i can think of was adam atomic being a judge and also an entrant with cave story wii/+ (he did some of the art for it), but i doubt he was allowed to vote for his own game

I didn't mean to imply he was allowed to vote for his own game, that's not what I think is the problem, it's just a good indicator of how incestuous the judging system is. I don't get why so many active indie devs get to be on the panels just because they didn't submit something that particular year (and then that's not even really enforced). How could cronyism NOT be a factor in these circumstances?

[Evan Balster]

and live in california

Helps, but jesus christ the rent here is expensive.  D:  I'm living on rice and eggs and need to sell some stuff if I'm gonna pay rent this month.  I've half a mind to move back to Iowa until the illuminati teach me the 'summon cash' spell.  But I'll give it a bit longer and do some more contract work.  :\

[Dragonmaw]

Let me be a juror I'm real samart

[Glaiel-Gamer]

I've half a mind to move back to Iowa until the illuminati teach me the 'summon cash' spell.

It's hunnaktaka aaooaa hunakkmakta mana a maktana

[Evan Balster]

I've half a mind to move back to Iowa until the illuminati teach me the 'summon cash' spell.

It's hunnaktaka aaooaa hunakkmakta mana a maktana

Guys, don't try this, it summons bees.

Glaiel, you're a bastard.

[Glaiel-Gamer]

I've half a mind to move back to Iowa until the illuminati teach me the 'summon cash' spell.

It's hunnaktaka aaooaa hunakkmakta mana a maktana

Guys, don't try this, it summons bees.

Glaiel, you're a bastard.

you put the wrong inflection on maktana

[Danrul]

I'm just going to throw down an observation here...

Every time people say that 'successful' indie developers seem to be very insular and familiar in their interactions, you guys chuck around this stupid 'indie elite friends club' thing.  What that does is 2 things; it tries to make this idea sound laughable, you're trying to make it sound like a subject of ridicule, and by extension, make a fool out of whoever suggested it.  The second, you are the ones throwing this phrase around, oftentimes defensively.  If it's really not an issue, why do you feel the need to defend yourself against something so riduculous to you time and time again.

And, everytime someone raises the idea its a giant 'friends club', it seems a number of you all say "walk up to someone and say hello, we're all human; we're all just like you.".

Whether it's intentional or not, what you're saying enforces a few things and leaves a few things unsaid.  You people aren't instigating social interaction, you're not talking to new people, and you're sure as fuck not the ones looking for new people to talk to.   You don't go to a tigjam or a GDC event and then try and find new people to talk to, you just sit in your existing social circles and wait for people to talk to you.

Now, my take:

A group of people who met eachother as a result of their moderate financial success, have become a group of friends and, like any group of friends, they're not really friendly outside their circle.  Also, as much as you want to think you are friendly, human, and just like 'the rest of us', you don't act like you are.

THIS ISN'T THE RESULT OF SOME CONSPIRACY TO KEEP THE LITTLE MAN DOWN.  I DON'T THINK ANYBODY THINKS YOU'RE CONSPIRING TO HOARD ALL THE SUCCESS. What it is is a bunch of dudes who smoked a bag of Montreal weed together and now they think they're chill bros.

You guys are a circle of friends, who primarily meet up at events (like GDC, IGF) which have high costs involved in attending.  Not everyone can afford to do that, and not everyone is interested enough to spend the money they do have on going.  I'm sure this really helps everyone "just walk up and talk" to you.

I'm beginning to ramble; i've already said more than I wanted to.  But i'll try once more to give the TL;DR version.

1) Stop thinking that everyone's just jealous of your money and success.  Demruth, Michael Phelps is successful cuz he smoked a bong surely all you GDC guys can sympathise.

2) Realise that people aren't going to have the chance to talk to you, and it shouldn't be other people to instigate conversation.  Say what you will about being busy, if you've all got the time to comment here to save face and defend yourselves against what you seem to think are ridiculous claims, surely you've got the time to give feedback and critique around the community.  

ADDENDUM: Take the fact that the only time you're active around the community is when people have criticism of you.  You also defend eachother as a group, and respond to the criticism AS A GROUP.  You can't say there's not a level of insularity there when your actions make it US and THEM by nature.  

[fish]

me and my friends are better than you.

there, i said it.

[Chris Pavia]