gdc 2026 first impressions
I've known about GDC for a very long time, but I never went because I always believed that it would not be worth it. The ticket prices always seemed so goddamn expensive and the only reason I would go to something like this would be to make more friends.
As far as I can tell, GDC doesn't really have any good spaces meant for meeting people. No one is really trying to make new friends on the expo floor, in the obscure GDC app meeting scheduler, or in the room for a talk, all of which require a ticket. But everyone is trying to make new friends in the free public park or at the free parties and meetups which do not. It seemed unnecessary to buy a ticket.
But a very nice friend reached out and gave me a free ticket. So, my initial plan to do as much friend-finding as possible was replaced by the desire to experience GDC as much as possible. I might as well, because I've never been before.
clout
So, I'm hoping that the talks would at least be useful and informative. Unfortunately, I found that many of the talks lacked useful information that could justify the cost of the ticket for me. However, something bigger than that kept bothering me; it felt like many talks were extremely transparent in their pursuit of clout. Not that I can really blame any of the speakers -- if I were to have the opportunity to give a talk at GDC, I would make up something and give one for the clout as well.
Everyone who was giving a talk was typically giving it from the perspective of their own anecdotal lived experience, so it's hard for me to say that any of the talks contained information that I can say is reliable. Of course, it's nice to share experiences and stories and I think they can be useful in their own way, but I don't want all of the talks to be like this. At what is supposedly the most prestigious and expensive game developer convention, I would expect there to be at least some that had more research or academic rigor put into them instead of, well, none of them. It often felt that the information I received from the talks was relatively basic information, insider information specific to one company, or "well, this worked for me this one time". While there were some talks that were better than the average, many could still be reduced to a brief article outlining their points.
There's also apparently a game that the speakers are playing, too. At the end of every talk, speakers will tell you to remember to complete the feedback form used for all talks where they are rated out of 5 stars, so that they can return to give a talk next year. Some say that they want the highest rating, so they can get the coveted ace card in the card deck handed out to people with high talk ratings. It feels so desperate to me, and I think it causes people to focus more on making the talks entertaining and palatable than necessarily making them useful.
That said, my favorite talks were in the Indie Soapbox. Perhaps I'm biased, as an indie myself, but the talks given there felt more self-aware and emotionally reflective in a way that many other talks were not.
free is better
So, it should be pretty clear why I thought that the best part of GDC for me, by far, was a free unaffiliated event called Slugworld: 1
The old indie scene is dead. Our mission is to create a place outside GDC without the desperation and clout chasing, where women and minorities can feel comfortable, and people from all layers of the industry can hang out and make friends.
This description for the Slugworld event really connected with me, especially after my first day at GDC, so I made sure I could go. It was the only event I went to where I felt I could actually hear people and also avoid the overstimulation of raucous noise. If it was too loud, stepping a few feet away reduced the overall noise, and the large park meant that it was always easy to move somewhere where the noise level was comfortable for me.
Everyone there was interested in making friends and it helped that the food was an effort everyone could pitch into. I and a few others freely brought food and drink for everyone to enjoy at the event, and that felt nice to do.
Apparently, in years past Yerba Buena Gardens used to be the quiet place to make friends, but this year they had loud music playing courtesy of MAGFest with food stalls. Admittedly, this is pretty cool, but a large area of the garden was also reserved for it, reducing the area that people could be in. Coupled with the large crowds, it meant that the gardens were actually quite noisy. In fact, even the pedestrian street Yerba Buena lane was more comfortably quiet.
That said, even making friends with people for free outside of the convention at Yerba Buena Gardens often felt more useful and better than the convention itself. It's so nice to meet everyone from around the world as well as see many old game development friends you haven't been able to see in a long time.
ecosystem
Compared to the record breaking attendance numbers of the previous two years, the attendance of GDC dropped by 30% to 20,000 visitors, a low not seen since 2011. I've heard a lot of suggested reasons for this, both from news outlets and from others I met, including: 1
- High attendance costs
- Lack of value from the event
- Concerns about safety because of ICE
- Desperation and clout-chasing attitudes associated with the event
- Large companies no longer attending
For me, GDC just doesn't provide the value that me and many of my peers are looking for. It's telling that many will say to me that you should never bother paying for a pass yourself; the free events are much better than the paid thing.
But, I'm a little worried of what may happen if GDC ends. I don't want to attend the event as-is, but I still want the ecosystem around it to still exist. It's so nice to meet and befriend people from all over the world in an in-person setting, and I'm worried that if GDC is no longer useful or relevant to anyone like it is for me, then the parties I enjoy where I can connect with old and new friends alike will also go away...
conclusion
I don't really regret being able to experience GDC, but I feel like I spent way too much of my energy attending talks, instead of attending more parties. I might not have made as many connections as I could have... I did take some sick notes though. If someone offered me a free ticket for next year, I would probably just turn it down.
Between all of the distractions, I did make a few new connections that I'm looking forward to getting to know better. Hopefully, next year GDC will still be around, maybe with less desperation and clout-chasing, and I can focus on making more friends.