GDC Europe and Gamescom - which is more useful?

    In 2013, we attended a major European conference - GDC Europe and the Gamescom exhibition . There were so many impressions that we were able to collect them into a record just now. If you want to know what it is and determine whether participation in these events can be useful to you, we present this article to your attention.

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    Exhibition Area GDC Europe

    Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an international conference for developers and publishers of computer games, as well as for other companies, one way or another connected with the gaming industry. This conference was originally held in America, but with the development of the gaming industry and a further increase in interest in games, GDC began to be held in other countries. Since 2009, this event came to Europe and became known as GDC Europe. Now the European Conference of Game Developers is held in Cologne, Germany, in parallel with the annual international exhibition of computer games Gamescom.

    Demid Tishin, Natalya Novikova and Julia Pavlova had the pleasure of representing All Correct at GDC and attending Gamescom. Now eyewitnesses of these large-scale actions of the gaming industry are happy to share their impressions and opinions. Demid Tishin , CEO:

     

    “The conference simultaneously involved several rooms in which round tables and reports are held. In parallel with this, a small exhibition is held, where publishers and game developers are looking for staff, and companies working in the gaming industry offer their services. This includes development, and programming, and design, and localization, and testing of games, as well as their promotion, startups. There, each company can place its own stand, to which visitors can come to meet and exchange contacts. Of course, the conference may be useful for game developers not only to meet suitable publishers, many of whom arrived at the conference in search of talented developers. It is worth remembering that, first of all, this conference is aimed at advanced training and the exchange of experience with colleagues.

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    Report at GDC Europe

    And Gamescom is an event that takes place directly for players. During it, users can try out new gaming products, take part in championships. In addition, there you can buy fan paraphernalia and meet people in costumes of characters from your favorite games. In a word, it’s not boring. However, this event is not only entertaining in nature - Gamescom has a business area with stands, and it is even larger than at GDC. Also, during the days of these two events, parties are held during which people have the opportunity to meet and socialize in an informal setting. I think that it does not make sense for a beginning developer to spend money on a stand - it is quite enough to exchange business cards with potential business partners at parties and go around GDC and Gamescom exhibitions. True, when we went there, there was one uncomfortable moment: party information was not specially organized. There was no bulletin board with announcements about this, so party information might just not be available. But some people came up and handed out flyers. In any case, if you fail to get to all the parties of interest, at least you will not miss GDC-night, information about which is in the program.

    If the novice developer decided to put up his stand, then its attractive design and the use of fun handouts, such as badges, for example, will be extremely important. You can arrange some competitions, give the opportunity to play games, in general, try to ensure that the stand does not go unnoticed. Although it very much depends on the place. The stand located in the corner is likely to lose, even if it is very interesting.

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    If you ask about the advisability of attending these events by the developer, you can say that to get new contacts it’s enough to get to Gamescom. After all, all publishers come there, because users are important to them, which means that you can make friends there. Well, a visit to the GDC will be useful for continuing education. ”

    Natalya Novikova, Director for the production of localization services:

    “If we talk about the specifics of these two events, it should be noted that the GDC is more of a b2b conference, and Gamescom is something like a show. At the GDC conference, they are looking for business partners, there are publishers, developers and other people from the gaming sphere. Gamescom also has a business section, but the event is mainly organized for end users of games, so it is more focused on entertainment. In general, it’s cool, bright, colorful and cool.

    The GDC conference and Gamescom exhibition can be of help to a novice game developer to meet the right people, especially if the developer already has some product or something that can be demonstrated. In the ideal case, you can meet a publisher who is interested in your game. In a less successful case, you can make some useful contacts that will help in the future. If you are a person who just wants to gain experience in the gaming industry, then at these events there is every opportunity to become an employee of one of the major gaming companies. “At the Gamescom exhibition, designers were invited and invited to show their work, and then those who impressed were offered an internship with subsequent employment in the company.”

    Julia Pavlova , Head of Sales:

    “I believe that a developer living in Russia should start by attending Russian conferences. In my opinion, publishers and other necessary people are easier to find in Russia, it is easier to negotiate with them. Russian conferences are not as large as international ones, so it is easier to make an appointment here. There are usually fewer participants, however, there is the opportunity to meet world famous publishers. And at large international conferences and exhibitions, such as GDC and Gamescom, it is very difficult to find someone.

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    It seems to me that all conferences in the gaming industry have such a feature that people are not configured for live communication and networking. They sit, burying themselves in their devices, and communicate mainly within the network. And I believe that the key to success in building partnerships is live communication. Therefore, I want to advise novice developers to communicate more and rehearse the presentation of their product in Russia before attending international conferences.

    As for the establishment of useful contacts, I’m not sure that a large publisher will immediately approach the developer standing at his own booth and begin to tell something. I think that the developer should be ready to talk about his product, despite the fact that the latter is not yet complete. I was struck by the developers who took a business card and were in a hurry to leave, having heard questions about their products. ”

    As can be seen from the above, the impressions of visiting our employees at GDC and Gamescom are slightly different. We hope that these differences most objectively reflect the picture of what is happening at the events in question and allow you to form your own opinion on the advisability of attending the GDC conference and the Gamescom exhibition. We also hope that the material of the article will be useful if the reader decides to participate in the next conference.

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