Memories from my first Game Developers Conference | Kaser Focus

2024 marks the first year when I — someone who has been in the games industry off-and-on for about ten years — attended the Game Developers Conference. I’ve heard the stories and seen the pictures, and now it was finally time to go for myself. I lost five pounds from the walking alone, ate the most garlicky noodles on this green Earth and finally met a lot of people in person whom I’ve known as names on a computer for years. In short, it was amazing! The part for which no one really prepared me for, though, was how passionate everyone was about the business.

And it wasn’t simply a case of being passionate about the finer aspects of game design. There was also an undercurrent (and, during the awards, a very vocal overcurrent) of interest in games as representation or drivers of social change. I managed to briefly speak with the developers of Venba, the winner of the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game about their game’s success and indie games’ opportunities: “I think games are unique in the sense that you only need a computer to make a game. Unlike music or movies which are much more gatekept, it’s possible for the next big indie game to come from very limited resources. So I think indie devs will always be healthy, even if the environment they’re in is not health.”