GDC 2026

Of course I went to GDC. I mean, I am a game developer, I am in the USA, I can reimburse my payment. Everybody is going, and there is no reason for me not to go.

GDC Day 1

Balancing TCGs with Power Sorting

I have to say, the first talk is also my favorite talk among others. Nate Heiss started with an incredible opening, “I made 2000 cards in MTCG, none of them were banned.” Then, he introduced how he balanced the cards, with the method of power sorting. To put it short, you first group the cards by their functions, then sort them by their potential strength, thus being able to decide the parameters based on the order. When new cards are created, it will be easy to just put the card into the group, compare it to others and decide the parameters. He also believes that this can be used in lots of different situations, and I really agree. I am always curious how to balance the card, and in fact, I am going to balance some skills in the current semester project in ETC. This talk was so useful and did literally opened my mind.

GDC Encounters: Speed Networking Day 1

As I was waiting for the next talk, I tried to attend the speed networking event. I was disappointed. Developers will need to pair with each other randomly, and network within 5 minutes. I personally think that 5 minutes are too short, and there wasn’t any useful networking happening for me.

Game UX Mindset Masterclass: Principles and Methods

Celia Hodent came here to introduce some basics of UX. Since I started to get interested in UI/UX, I am really looking forward to attending it. Still, the talk made me realize, game design and UX are something similar with two different perspectives. Some of the knowledge was already told by the Game Design course I attended this semester. For example, the Self-Determination Theory. But still, it is worth refreshing that knowledge.

The MIX + Kinda Funny

At the end of day 1, I went to attend The MIX + Kinda Funny, which is a huge indie game showcase. I saw a lot of different indie games and got a lot of ideas. Here are some of the games I played. One thing that impacted me most is the developers from HYPERBEAT. When I was trying their demo, I was stung by how good the UI is. The developer encouraged me to explore the art of UI, and recommended that I check out more graphic design. I really appreciate him.

GDC Day 2

Supporting Thousands of NPCs in ‘Kingdom Come: Deliverance’ & ‘Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’

Originally, I thought this talk was about the design parts of NPC in the game, but Petr Smrcek was mostly talking about the programming part. Still, it was a valuable lesson, and it was also really interesting to see their approach to improve performance.

Spreadsheets Microtalks

Seeing so many developers sharing how they use Spreadsheets is so crazy. Some are used for prototypes, while others are used for production. There are even developers who use it for localization quality assurance. Since I previously also worked on that as an intern, I was amazed by how effective this pipeline could be. It also made me want to dig down to learn Spreadsheets more in the future.

3rd Annual Game Developer’s Concert

Some of the students are recommended to attend the concert, and it was packed with people. I was so surprised that Troy Baker was on the stage, but sadly he didn’t play anything during the concert. Generally it was a good one, and I will definitely attend next year if possible.

GDC Day 3

Mics in Spaces: The Importance of Field and Foley Recording

Since I pitched a project about Foley recording, I believed this is a must attend for me. The first time I knew about Foley recording, is because of an interview video of one of the speakers, Joanna Fang. While preparing pitching, I have referenced her video several times, not to mention that one of the games I played recently, Death Stranding 2, she also participated in the sound design in the game and the sound design in the game was insane. The talk itself is really awesome, I learned a lot about the actual difference between field and Foley recording, and it gives me a more clear idea on how we are going to execute the project in the future. After the talk, I had a chance to talk with Joanna, and I told her about our project. She seemed to be really interesting and willing to follow up with us in the future. This talk is the most valuable talk for me in the GDC this year.

ALT.CTRL.GDC

I spent the whole afternoon scrolling around the booth hall, and I was amazed by the alt.ctrl. It was crazy that there were so many weird but fun controls. One of my favorites is that you have to sell custom with illegal games. You will wear a giant coat, and when police come, you will have to hide those illegal games. Overall, it was really fun to scroll around in the hall.

ETC @ GDC: 25th Anniversary on the Road

I arrived at the party at 8, and I was able to talk with a lot of different people. I told the Foley recording pitch project idea to some of the alumni, they all really like it and give me a lot of advice. Also, I managed to have a chat with one of the alumnus who just graduated. We all discovered how fun it is to design and make a UI in a way apart from normal UI. Since we are all programmers, we have some deep knowledge and skills to enable us to make unique UI that merge into the game. We shared our perspective and had a wonderful time!

GDC Day 4

‘DEATH STRANDING 2’: Making of Voxel 3D UI Map

Well, Hideo Kojima was originally going to be here, but he didn’t. This talk was the only one related to Death Stranding 2, and I was also really curious about how they make the UI map in game. Although the talk itself is really tech art, so I could only understand 50% of it, it is still so impressive that they try to make every detail in the game to be perfect, although I never noticed those details when playing.

To Each Their Own Hell: The Journey of Writing Complex Characters in ‘Limbus Company’ (Presented by Project Moon)

Project Moon is a famous indie game studio in Korea, and some of the games are really famous because of the plots and characters. Watching how the writers approach the narrative is really cool. She talked about setting up a “hell” for characters, which included their only trauma and value. When these contradicts each other, it can make the characters feel closer to players, and when the characters face their “hell,” it makes them more memorable.

Summary

What an amazing experience the first time attending GDC!

It was a lie.

I could sense the feeling of dread during the conference, and I didn’t feel really comfortable about it. GDC kind of reflects the situation of the industry, and you can sort of notice that there are too many AI talks and too much talks that are also unrelated to how to make your game better. Plus, the lots of layoff just make everyone less engaging, and it was hard for me to network. It is hard to follow up with somebody else, since some of them won’t want to waste time on students. Still, looking at there are still many indie games showcasing during the conference, I did realize something really important.

Act and make games, it will be more important than just networking and doing nothing.