Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #222 - GDC 2015

Episode Date: May 1, 2015

Mark talks about his trip to the 2015 Game Developers Conference.

I'm pulling out of the driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so today's topic is a little different. So today I'm going to talk about the Game Developers Conference, a.k.a. the GDC. So a little history. This is a conference held every year in San Francisco, usually in the winter slash spring. And it is a convention talking all about the design of games. More so, it leans a little bit more toward video games. But games are games, and so it's not just about the design of games, to be fair. It's all about the business of making games.

There's conferences and talks about all sorts of different things. And all the way on the business side, there's lots of different things that go into the conference. I had always wanted to go there. It's something that people from Wizards go to every single year. Wizards has always had a presence. The conference has been going on for 20-plus years. And it's one of those things I always meant to do.

It's one of those things that I always said, one day, I need to go to the GDC. And I just have a lot of other things that I do and now I restrict my travel. I only travel twice a year.

And so normally, I go to the Comic Con where I run a panel and I go to Worlds because I have a, on the street, every World's but one. But this year, the World Championship was being held in Seattle, which I get to go to without having to travel.

So I, it opened up a slot, and you know what, I said, you know what, I've never been to the GDC, I should go to the GDC. And so today's podcast is about my trip to the GDC for the very first time, it was very exciting. Madcast is about my trip to the GDC for the very first time. It was very exciting. So like I said, it is a conference built around... So the way it works is, it's a week long, although three days worth is lectures. I just went for the lecture portion.

So I was there for Wednesday, Thursday, and part of Friday. We actually left on Friday. But Friday would turn out to be very important. We'll get to. Okay, so what happens is, there are a bunch of lectures all day long. And then you get to go and go to whatever lectures you want to and absorb whatever information you can. And there are also some round tables where people sit and talk with each other. I mostly did lectures this year. But there's a whole... And be aware, the lectures start like at 10 a.m. and go all the way through to about 6 p.m.

And so there's just constant lectures going on all the time. Some of the lectures are half an hour. Some of the lectures are an hour. But essentially, you pick and choose what you want. And so R&D sent a whole bunch of people, and they said, just you go to the things you find interesting. And then we come back. we write up our experiences, and we actually share and talk with other

members of R&D about stuff we had learned, and really, it's an opportunity. There's not a lot of chances you have to sort of do education, right? There's not a lot of places out there where people can go and talk about topics that are of value to you, and this is one of the places. So, anyway, I was very excited to go. So what happened was most of R&D all flew down. We got a shuttle bus from work and we all went to the airport and we all flew down on Tuesday. And so bright and early Wednesday morning, so

Tuesday we drafted in the hotel and then we had some visits from some game design friends who drafted with us, and so after doing a normal draft, we did a bunch of people played with some of the designers and did a, what's it called, a cube, a Lorwyn cube made by George Vann, creator of Plants vs. Zombies.

Anyway, so anyway, we went out to dinner that night, chit-chatted. So the next morning, I got up bright and early. Now, I'm used to getting up really, really early because of my daughter, because to get her off to high school in the morning, I get up insanely early. So I wasn't able to sleep quite as late as I hoped to sleep. My body somehow trained itself to get up at the crack of dawn. So I was up insanely early. So I wasn't able to sleep quite as late as I hoped to sleep. My body somehow trained itself to get up at the crack of dawn. So I was up early. So I decided, okay, I'm up, I'm up.

Why don't we wander over there? Because our hotel was a couple blocks away, and I'd never been there before. So I'm like, okay, let me figure out where it is. And my plan was, as I was walking there, is I'd find some place to eat breakfast. Because I knew, having done a lot of conventions, I mean, not necessarily this convention, but a lot of conventions, I know it's really, really important to eat early on, that you want to have a good meal, and that helps you get through the day.

It's actually one of the big tricks of doing conventions and things. Okay, so I look along the way, and there's a lot of stuff closed because they're fixing the roads, and I just don't find anything to eat. And I end up getting there, and I have to go sign it. I go get my badge. I do that. And then I go to the hall. So the very first thing I'm going to go to is a thing called a flash forward. And what a flash forward is, is a lot of the speakers that are going to speak over the next three days

come and present, and they have one minute to present what they're going to do. It's like a little tiny teaser, a little appetizer. And if they go over the minute, there's these giant neon lights that go, wah, wah, they blink red, and you're over. So you have exactly one minute. And a lot of people did a lot of cute little things. How do you encapsulate what you want to talk about in a minute to make it sound exciting? So everybody did a good job.

But anyway, so I get there early. I mean, early, I mean early. So the, the, I think that the, um, the talk started, I think either at nine 30 or 10, I think it started at nine 30. Um, and I got there like eight, I got there super early. Um, just cause like I said, I, I couldn, I couldn't sleep, and I found it much quicker than I thought. I got my badge much quicker than I thought. Everything was done real fast. But they had Wi-Fi. The good thing about technical conference. So I was like, okay, I'll just go get a good seat. I'll sit in the auditorium, and I got to get on my blog. I got to answer questions. I have plenty of stuff I can do to interact while I'm sitting there. I don't want to waste any time.

And so I walk in, and they direct me, and they say, stay along the wall. And then someone says, oh, if you go away to the back, there's some coffee and some bagels. And I'm like, oh, I'm hungry. I hadn't had any breakfast. And I go, oh, I'd never been to, you know, GDC before. And so I was like, oh, that's really nice. Oh, they have a little bit of bagels. Okay, well, I could get a bagel.

Now, be aware, I don't think I had a scope of how big this convention was, because I got there, it was an empty building. Although, when I walked into the room where the speech was going to happen, it was a humongous room, so I should have clued in. So be aware as I tell this story, I really should have figured this out way faster than I did,

but I think I was just, I don't know. So I'm like, oh, okay, there's bagels, that's nice. So I follow the wall, but I think I was just, I don't know. So I'm like, oh, okay, there's, there's bagels. That's nice. So, uh, I follow the wall and I walked in the back and there's not just bagels, there's an entire breakfast spread. And I'm like, oh, wow, that's really nice. It's, I've never been, you know, I guess this is a little high end. This is business convention. I'm like, okay. So I get my little breakfast sandwich and, you know, and then I go to sit down on this bunch of tables. And as I sit down, I can hear the people around me talking.

And I figure out, I mean, I'm like eating my sandwich, my little breakfast sandwich. I listen to people around me and I figure out really quickly that these are all the presenters for the, for the flash forward. That this breakfast isn't for the average person. It's for the people giving the flash forward. And I'm like, uh-oh, I'm not supposed to be here. I just, like, probably should have clued in that they're not going to give breakfast to, like, thousands of people. I just, I, what happened was, because I was

so early, so early, that they assumed I was giving part of the presentations. Oh, which is funny, by the way, a little side note is, before I left to go to the GDC, I posted a tweet saying, hey, I'm going to my very first GDC. Do you have any tips? Do you have any tips for me? And like 90% of the tips were all about presenting

because everyone assumed I was presenting. So I feel like now that I've eaten the food for the presenters that I'm probably, I should at some point present. So one of the things about this year that really got into my head was, what would I do if I was going to present? So it did inspire me.

I came up with an idea for a talk. I don't know whether or not I will get accepted or anything. But anyway, I got an idea for a talk. So I was inspired. I got an idea for a talk, so I was inspired. So anyway, after the accidental eating of breakfast, I eventually, I waited and eventually got the Flash Forward started. I heard from a whole bunch of different people.

It was very interesting. There's a lot, one of the things that's really hard is, there's so many things going on at any one moment in time. There's like 10 speakers speaking, and there's always cool stuff, you know. Now, some of it, be aware, some of it is very business-oriented. Some of it is like, you know, how to maximize your blah, blah, blah, whatever, you know, like, that's pure business stuff. A lot of it's about coding and, like, technical stuff that I would blink. I have no idea what they're talking about, you know.

But there's a bunch of stuff on different elements of game design, so I don't get off and hear people talk about game design. So I was very excited. Um, so one of the people, by the way, in the flash forward, a little, a little, uh, a little flash forwarding here, um, is there was a guy who came up, talked to a man named Jesse Shell. So Jesse Shell, for those who don't know, um, wrote a book called The Art of Game Design. Um, many, many years ago, uh, back when Brian Tinsman was still

the company, Brian had an initiative to just help design get better at design. That's one of Brian's big things. And we had designer talks, and Brian led a whole bunch of stuff that was just self-improvement for design. So one of the things he did is he got us all Jesse Schell's book. And then

we would read a couple chapters and then discuss it. Like, I don't know, once a month we'd come together and discuss the latest three chapters or whatever. And then talk about what we thought of it and how it applied to what we were doing. Anyway, it was very fascinating. So Jesse Schell's book is an awesome if you've never read it. It's designed through a series of lenses is the flavor. You have to sort of keep looking at your design through different lenses is the flavor of the book. It's keep looking at your design through different lenses is the flavor of the book. It's a very big book.

If you're into game design, though, well worth reading. But anyway, at the Flash Forward, Jesse Schell is one of the people giving the minute talk. And so the GDC had this little app for your phone, which was actually very, very good. And on it, it had all the agenda, all the schedules. And you could click anything that you were interested in and save it so it showed you the stuff you were interested in. So I had it out. As people were talking, I clicked things I thought were interesting.

And when Jesse Schell came up, I said, oh, Jesse Schell. I got to listen to Jesse Schell. Now, the funny thing is his talk was on game studio management. It was called Game Studio Management, Making It Great. Now, I'm not a manager anymore. Once upon a time, I have managed. But I do have a team I oversee. But the way it works is I oversee the technical aspect of it.

And then I'm a manager. And Mark Gottlieb oversees the people, if you will. And we work together on our team. So, I mean, I don't manage as much as I used to. But still, I mean, okay, there's things about, hey, making a studio great. That's the kind of thing I want to understand is how can we make our group better. So I'm like, the topic was fine, but I really, really was interested in hearing Jesse Schell. It is quite possible if that topic had been somebody who I didn't know who they were,

maybe I wouldn't have gone to it. But I was excited to go to it because Jesse Shell was talking. And that will be on Friday, so we'll get there. So anyway, I go the flash forward, I listen to all the things, I find out what the exciting well, I mean, what talks I think will resonate with me.

And once again, I should stress that there's all sorts of amazing talks. All of R&D was all going off and doing different things and listening to different talks. And it was fun because you would go to talk and then you would run into other people from Wizards. And, you know, and then you would chat about stuff, you know, the talks you had gone to. So anyway, so on Wednesday, I went to a bunch of different talks. I didn't write everything down just because I went to a lot of different talks, but there were all sorts of different things. I remember I went to a talk on, I didn't write the names down, Gazillion is a company that put out an MMORPG for Marvel.

And when they first put it out, it wasn't very successful. And then they had put it out, they had revamped it a year later and had a lot more success with it. And that talk was all about sort of how do you revamp a game? How do you learn from your audience and adapt to what they've said to make things better? And I'm like, oh, wow, that's like my very first talk. And I'm like, very relevant. I get feedback all the time from the audience. And sometimes we do things they like and sometimes we don't.

And we have to learn from our mistakes now one of the things about magic that has is we're an evolving game so by the nature of what we do we constantly change if we do something you don't like we'll learn from it because we're going to make something new three months later

and so one of the things is magic has, for good or for bad it is something in which it's constantly changing. So we have an impetus to constantly be improving and constantly sort of be learning what we've learned. But it was very neat to see somebody else go through the process of understanding what changes they need to make and why things were successful and why they weren't successful. weren't successful. So, then I also talked, I went to a talk, someone was talking about reacquisition, talking about how important it is to get back players who used to play to get them back. Once again, very important for Magic. One of the things we know about

Magic is the majority of players have a gap in their play. Now, a lot of magic players play for a long time, but it's very, very common for some period of time for players to take time off. In fact, it's really common. I'll meet somebody and they'll say, when did you start playing? And they'll, long, long ago I started playing. And then they go, and then from blink to blink, I took some time off and then I came back during such and such. And so retention, once again, a very interesting topic. And one of the neat things is, as I was going to these topics, I was taking very careful notes. Because one of the things I needed to do when I come back is I'm going to write up and give a speech and stuff, and sort of talk about what we've learned from it.

And so I wanted to make sure I absorbed all the information and got it down so that I could reference it. One of the things that was very impressive, by the way, is all the talks, very professional. They all, usually what they would do is whatever game they worked on, so for example, the retention was, I didn't write this down, RuneQuest, I believe, was the game. And so the idea was, like like here's an example where it wasn't just someone giving ideas in a vacuum it's like here's the game i work on here's the lessons we had you know there's a lot of people were showing data it was fascinating just the just

the things you could learn you know and just real tangible stuff of like we did something and here's what happened when we did it um and that's one of the neat things about the Genie scene in general, is, like, these are all people dedicated to doing the same thing, which is making awesome games, sharing kind of with one another tips and tricks of what they did, you know. And that was, it was fun, it was really neat. It was neat to be surrounded by other people who make games. Oh, another side effect of being there, something that was very touching,

was very touching to me, was I got recognized everywhere. People were just constantly stopping me because I'm a pretty visible spokesperson. And one of the things I learned is people who make games really like a game that lets you make itself, which is magic.

That magic is really, really popular with the crowd I was talking about. That one of the things I've learned is whenever we sort of talk to different studios who make games, you know, the chance of them playing magic at their studios is really high. Magic, you know, it's portable and fun, and the kind of person who likes to make games also kind of likes to make decks and design, you know, formats. And, you know, there's a lot of fun ways to play Magic, and there's a lot of ability to take your game design skills. Like, one of the things I always used to say

is that Magic on some level is training wheels for game designers. You know, that it's, it is a game that kind of teaches you, hey, hey, hey, you have a lot of ability to adjust and shift this game. That this, you dictate a lot of what happens in this game and magic teaches that. So there's a lot of crossover between people who enjoy game making and people who play magic. So here I was at a convention of people who enjoy game making and people who play Magic. So here I was at a convention of people who make games for a living and a lot of them played Magic.

And a lot of them were very excited to see me and I was stopped all the time. By the way, it was awesome. So anybody who stopped me at GDC, thank you, it was great. It is always fun to see fans in person excited. That is always fun. I've been doing this for 20 years. It has never lost its luster. It is always fun to see fans in person excited. That is always fun.

I've been doing this for 20 years. It has never lost its luster. It is always awesome. And people were so earnest. It was very sweet. And people were stopping me, literally, constantly. There's one period where I had left a talk, and I was going to the next talk. And I think the next talk was in the same hallway.

I was going from one end of the hallway to the other end of the hallway, and literally I must have been stopped, I don't know, five or six times during this, like, several hundred foot stretch that I was trying to go to the next meeting. And once again, I was excited. I was happy, happy that everyone stopped me. There was no way we not. It was touching. It was really way me not. It was touching. It was really, really sweet.

It was nice. I love hearing from fans. I love hearing from game designer fans. One of the things that was also real sweet was not only did I get feedback on the game of Magic, which people like, but I got a lot of feedback on this podcast, a lot of feedback on my blog, on my column. Because one of the things is I write weekly and talk weekly about game design. Not a lot of people do that. In fact, it's a rarity.

I mean, there's a few other people that do, but there is very little content online about game design, especially lower-level game design. There's just not a lot of people talking about it. And I want people to do. And so I had a lot of people that, I mean, and this is insanely touching, who were like,

a lot of the stuff I learned about game design early on, before I was even a game designer, was reading your articles, listening to your podcast. And anyway, I had a lot of people saying super sweet things. So thank you everybody. Energizing me to keep on doing this.

I'm, I enjoy it so much. And I enjoy the feedback I get. So it is, I'm glad people are actually listening to keep on doing this. I enjoy it so much, and I enjoy the feedback I get, so it is, I'm glad people are actually listening to what I'm doing, and I'm not talking to myself on the drive to work

with nobody listening. Apparently a lot of people are listening, so that's very touching. Anyway, so Wednesday night, I went to a whole bunch of talks, and Wednesday night, oh, on Tuesday night,

I met with George Phan, who he's a fan of magic, for those that don't know. He's visited Wizard on a couple occasions. And we happen to know that he's a big fan of magic. If you ever play Plants vs. Zombies, there's a lot of magic influence in the design. You can see it. And George is very open about that he was very influenced by magic. So on Wednesday night,

there was a man named Ed McMillan who is a game designer, Super Meat Boy and other games, and he was very excited to meet me because he too is a magic player. And I learned a fan of

the show Roseanne. So I had plenty of stories for him. And he and his wife Danielle and George, we met for dinner. And I had a wonderful time. Once again, it was fun talking game design with someone who that's what they do. I shared a lot of stories. And once again, yet another game designer that was very into magic. So both George and Ed had made magic cards for the promotion through Magic 2015. In fact, I met a bunch of designers at GDC who had made a card.

So that was really cool. And then Thursday, we had more talks. My favorite talk on Thursday was a guy named Stone LeBron Day, who is the lead designer at Riot Games, who also made a card for 2015. In fact, funny story is, Tom LaPille, who used to work at Wizards, who was left to go work at another game studio, I ran into him Thursday morning,

because of course, of course, or no, not today, it was around lunchtime, and I ran into him in the hall, and I, we were talking, because I hadn't seen him for a little bit and Stone LeBron heard us talking about magic and came up and said, hey you guys are talking about magic. And then I recognized who he was and I said, I'm going to see your talk later today which was a very good talk.

And I introduced myself and we had a great time talking about magic. It's just amazing how all these great game designers and there's this overlap talking about Magic. And Stone told this awesome story, but he and George Fan had decided that they were going to both build decks in which the restriction was they had to have four copies of the cards they designed,

and then all the cards had to be from Magic 2015. The problem was George's card, which was Genesis Hydra, is a win condition, where Stone's card, which is Goblin Kaboomist, was not. And so, or not really. And so George was just wiping them back and forth and winning all the games because George just, the card he had to have four of was the kind of card that once you get out, you win the game with. So anyway, it was funny. And Stone was very nice.

I'd never met him before. Like I said, I met so many people. This was really cool. Oh, the other thing I did on Thursday was there is an expo where you can go and you can... I thought that... I've never been there before. I thought the expo was more going to be about studios who make games, but in fact it wasn't. It was about companies that support games.

And the interesting thing about it, it wasn't super relevant for me, but it was kind of fascinating seeing how much support... The gaming industry is a giant industry. It rivals the movie industry. It's a huge industry. And I... Somehow, you don't get the scope of that.

In my own little world, doing my own little thing, it's hard sometimes to get the scope. But you just go there and you're just walking rows upon rows upon rows of businesses that just exist to help game companies and help find

gamers or support gamers or whatever. Every possible thing you can imagine connected to gaming. And it was rows upon rows upon rows of people doing that and doing different support and game systems and virtual reality and all sorts of stuff. It was very interesting to see. And there also were different groups around.

There were indie groups showing off games. And there was a thing I did not get to go to that I heard was really exciting, but I left before I think it happened, was there was a showcase of experimental games. left before I think it happened, was there was a showcase of experimental games. And from what I understand is, the experimental games are experimental.

Like, just really out there, is this a game? Almost sort of quite, you know, like, just really stretching the boundaries of what a game is. I didn't have a chance to go there. It was really cool. So, oh, so still in the boundaries. Here was my favorite talk on Thursday. His talk was game

less than design. Game less than design. And really what he talked about is how much we focus on the game part of game designer and not as much on the design part of game designer. And he said, hey, let's pull back on what it means to be a designer. And he talked about how

there's lots of kind of designers in the world. There's industrial designers and furniture designers let's pull back on what it means to be a designer. And he talked about how, you know, there's lots of kinds of designers in the world. There's industrial designers and furniture designers and clothes designers and, you know, you name it. Architecture, you know, everything has to be built by somebody. Somebody has to design it. Somebody has to make what it does. And that one of the things he talked about was how, you know,

there's a lot of through-line in design and a lot of that game design can learn a lot by looking at other things in design. Which is funny because I had written a column a couple years back. In fact, it's tied back to Brian. Brian Tinsman had started this thing where he got all the designers

together, not just from Magic, but within Wizards, and we had a weekly meeting, and the idea is every week someone would present some topic of their choosing, design-related, and we would rotate so everybody had a chance to present. So the first time I presented, there's a guy named, I don't remember his name, he worked for Braun. His name was Dieter Roms, and he was an industrial designer

and so he had done I probably should do a podcast on this I did this article, it was a two part article and he had the ten rules for design and be aware, this was a guy writing about making lamps and radios he was an industrial designer

by the way, he's super super famous for being a huge influence on Jonathan Ive, who is the main guy at Apple, who does all the design for Apple. In fact, I will, will do a podcast on that. I should. This is a fine, meaty topic. But anyway, Stone's talk reminded me of that article, because one of the things about the article was kind of saying,

here's somebody who designs lamps for a living, and his ten pieces of advice on design were all, all 10, spot on. Exactly the kind of thing that actually has an impact on what... Design is kind of universal, and that's what Stone's talk was about, is that it's very neat to watch different processes,

how people do things, and he spent a lot of time talking about what is the process, and how do different people work, and he really was big on trying to learn, like, how do we become better designers by seeing what other designers do. And he did a lot of case study. I didn't write down, I mean, I wrote my notes with me. But, I mean, he did a lot of studies of a lot of different kinds of designs and how they design and what the rules are and what their process is.

And anyway, it was very fascinating. It was definitely, it was very fascinating. It was definitely... It was my third favorite talk. I'll talk about the two that are coming up, because they happen on Friday. But I really liked it. Stone's talk was awesome. It was a very good talk. It was my favorite talk leading into Friday.

Oh, so let me get into... Well, one of the things, by the way, there were a lot of fun talks that went on on Wednesday and Thursday. A couple of my highlights, just to hit real quick. There was Rules of the Game, Five Tricks of Highly Effective Designers, where five people got up for ten minutes and talked about one particular trick in design that they like. I thought that was really neat and really very hands-on. There's one called Game Design Case Studies, One Designer, One Game, One Session, where three different people each had about 20 minutes or 15 minutes, and they would take a game

they made and take a particular problem they had and walk through the technical thing of how they solved that one problem, and very technically, but say, hey, how did I solve this problem? There was a talk on the history, shape, and design, tales told by early American board games, where somebody, Julia Kerner-Tatar, she talked all about early Monopoly and Game of Life and shoots ladders, and just talked about a lot of early games and sort of where they came from and what kind of thing formed them.

Anyway, I thought it was very interesting. But anyway, my two favorite talks happened on Friday. So we were leaving. We actually left Friday afternoon, so I only was able to go to two morning talks. But I'm glad I did, because they were my favorite two talks of the session. So the first one was Game Studio Management,

Making Great by Jesse Schell. And really what it was about, which was a very interesting talk, was he was talking about how do you get a studio working cleanly? How do you get everybody working together? And it was really neat. He started by showing off like beehives and ant colonies and saying, look at these amazing things these animals do all working together. Well, how are they doing it? And so his hypothesis, which is very interesting, was about information and the importance of information flow. And he then went through every aspect of design

from how you organize people to how you organize process to how you organize office space to how you, office space, to how you, I mean, just taking every aspect that you need to care about and putting together a game design studio and saying, how do you maximize information flow? That was his talk. And like I say, it's, it's, it's, my goal here really isn't to encapsulate what the talks were.

I'm more trying to talk about the impact it had on me. But I was so energized when I went on that talk. In fact, I ran to Sean Main, who was in my next talk. And so we sat there waiting for the next talk to start. And I was just like running through, explaining all the stuff I had just learned. Meanwhile, the guy behind me was doing the exact same thing as his friend. But his friend had also missed it, and he was just running through all the stuff he had learned. Anyway, it was energizing, and it was cool,

and it was not a talk that I... I mean, I was really excited to see Jesse Schell. If you had told me that the talk that would have been the most energizing for me had been something on game studio management, I would have gone, really? But it was, and it was really amazing. So hats off to Jesse.

I did learn, by the way, I met him very briefly before and I talked to him. And when I brought up that I work for Magic, he let me know that although he doesn't play, his studio, Magic, is really, really big in his studio. Once again, game designers love playing Magic. Okay, the last talk I went to,

which in some ways might be the most influential. I love Jesse's talk. Jesse's was my favorite talk. But this next talk, I think, might have more relevant information to what I do. So it was called

Precision of Emotion, A New Kind of Fun Approach by Aaron Hoffman. And what it was is, it was a talk talking all about what is fun exactly. And her hypothesis,

which is a very neat hypothesis, was that fun was not a singular, was not a singular thing. That fun's not about one emotion, but she feels it's a sequence of emotions. That it is, it is something in which it's multiple,

it's transitioning from and through certain emotions. And that fun is... Anyway, she explained it in a very different way. And like I said, I don't want to go into details of individual panels. But I more want to talk about the impact on me. But the thing that was very fascinating for me is my job as a game designer is understanding, my job is making a product that people love. And a big part of doing that is making something that is fun for people. And so I'm fascinated

by the idea of fun. What is fun? You know, and like, it's very, very funny that different people, you know, like Jesse Schell, for example, in his book defines fun, but he also has said, you know, that, you said that don't get trapped by fun. I don't remember the exact details of that. A lot of people look at fun. I went to a micro talk where this person's like, forget about fun. Fun doesn't matter. That's not the thing.

So there's all sorts of different people talking in different ways about what fun is and how you can apply. And I'm fascinated by sort of the idea. Now, I'm an intuitive person, so a lot of my thing is I want to understand how to make a game so that I elicit the reaction I want. In some ways, like I used to do stand-up. And there's a lot of stand-up comedians spend an enormous amount of time trying to understand comedy. You know, why is something funny? And the reason is, your goal as a comedian is to make people laugh. Well, if you want to make people laugh, you have to understand why they laugh.

And so a lot of time is spent. The amount of time I spent talking with comedians about what comedy is, it's a comedian's number one topic. And so the same is true, I think, for game designers, which is, what is fun? You know, if you're trying to make people have fun, if you're trying to make enjoyment, you have to understand why. Why do people enjoy things? Why are things fun? And so this talk was really illuminating to me because it was a very different way to think about it. She did a great example of bringing a lot of examples of games

and walking through. And it was a very dense presentation. It was only half an hour, and it was dense. I had a few other people who were from Wizards there. One of the other people who was there, I remember afterwards he goes, that was over my head. I understand pieces of that,

but I don't think I got the whole thing. And it's been taking, in fact, I don't even think I've completely absorbed it. I mean, I got a lot, walking away from it, I instantly got some stuff from it. The more I think about it, it's one of those talks that really has been sitting with me,

and I feel like it is re-establishing some concepts that I maybe believe are slightly different than they are. I'm like, oh, maybe I'm thinking about it a little differently. And so it was really, really neat and opening up my mind to sort of thinking about, to think about it a little bit differently. So anyway, I'd wrap up. I'm not super far from work. So anyway, this is my first GDC.

It was, uh, it was everything I'd hoped it would be. It was, um, like I said, it's something that I'd wanted to do for a long, long time. I'm a game designer. It's a game designer convention, or a game convention, I guess, for people making games. And it is really neat. I, uh, I do not get to interact. And it is really neat. I do not get to interact.

One of the things about being where I'm at is, one of the things that's very common in the game industry is people move around a lot. Is that, you know, people work at one company, they work at another company, and, like, when people would do their presentations, they would talk about, they'd give their little, you know, job, I don't know, what do we call it, history.

And most people are like, I've been in the industry for X long, and I worked here, and I worked here, and I worked here. And I'm in a really weird case where I wasn't

in the game industry, I got in the game industry, and I've worked at the same place for 20 years. Like, I've never, I've only ever worked in one place.

Although, the interesting thing is, I actually know a lot of people in the game industry only because a lot of people have worked at Wizards. Although, the interesting thing is, I actually know a lot of people in the game industry only because a lot of people have worked at Wizards. Like, this was an interesting experience once at Gen Con SoCal. It doesn't exist anymore,

but Gen Con used to have a California version. And I went there for the Unhinged pre-release, so it was years ago. And I remember walking around all the different booths, and I knew someone in almost every booth because somebody had formerly worked at Wizards. So I know a lot of people in the industry, although I've not had the opportunity to work at a lot of different places.

So I really, like, I know one place very, very well. I mean, Wizards has gone through a lot of changes, but still. I mean, Wizards is Wizards. As much as it's changed, it's not other companies. It's Wizards. But in all that time, I'd never gone to GDC. So I was,

it was great. It was really, I had a great time. And, probably more fun than that, not that me having a great time isn't good. I learned a lot. I really,

like, that it wasn't a talk I went to where I wasn't able to walk out of it going, wow, here's something new to think about that I hadn't thought about. I even went to a talk which I misunderstood what the talk was about.

And I went in, I realized a couple minutes in that I just misunderstood what the topic was. It wasn't a topic super relevant to me. But I said, okay, you know, I'm here, let me listen. And even that talk, even the talk in which I went and it was the wrong talk, I had takeaways of things to think about.

The presenters were all very interesting. Like I said, there's lots of data, an amazing amount of data. And the other thing which is awesome is I only went to some of the talks. One of the things we do is when we get back is we all write up our experiences, talk about where we went, what we saw, what we learned, and then we share it with each other. So the people go, okay, you didn't see this talk, but here's a cool thing we learned from this talk. And so there's a lot of sharing of information. So the funny thing is, like, although I've never been to GDC, on some level, I kind of feel like I've been to GDC before because I've had downloads of a lot of GDC talks. And so, finally this year,

in fact, later this, or next week, I will be the one doing the downloading, or one of the people doing the downloading. So it was, anyway, it was hats off GDC. I don't know if I will be back right away. Maybe I will. I

will admit I'm a little inspired to do a talk at GDC. I was sitting in the audience listening to one of the talks and I don't want to say what it is, but I got an idea for a talk and during the whole GDC I was taking notes of ideas that I have, so it's funny. Maybe one day one of the things, I guess, I'm becoming more fond of talking, of doing public talking and stuff. I had a chance last year to actually go down to Walt Disney.

Walt Disney. I'm blanking on it. Oh, sorry. Imagineering. I'm getting it wrong. It's DWI? WDI? I'm blanking on that. See, when I drive in the car, one of the things that's horrible about doing my

live podcast is my memory. Like, when I get to write things, I can always look things up. And when I'm on the car, on the spot, like, I know I have to come up with it. But I went down to Disney Imagineering. They were awesome. It was a great trip. I wrote an article about it. I wrote an article about the speech I'd given.

I talked about story and how we interweave it with games. But anyway, really, I had a fun time doing the presentation, and I've done a lot of presentations within Wizards, but I haven't done a lot of presentations outside of Wizards, and so I'm definitely inspired to do more of that. I think I'm really... I have a lot to say for those that haven't listened to, you know, read my 700 columns and over 200 podcasts.

So the idea of going and talking to other people, it's very fun to me. So I definitely am inspired. And so maybe one day, maybe one day, I will speak at a future GDC. But anyway, that, my friends, is my trip to the Great Design, not Great Design, my trip to the

Game Developers Conference 2015. I got my little shirt from it, and it is a fond memory. I had fun talking to you guys about it, and in fact, I think I had a slightly longer than normal travel today. I did.

A little traffic. Which was good for you, because this is a topic that I had a slightly longer than normal travel today. I did. I had a little traffic, which was good for you because this is a topic that I had plenty to talk about. So anyway, I want to thank all the people that gave talks at the GDC. They were fascinating and fun. All the people that came up to me and said kind, kind words. It was really sweet and thank you so much.

It truly, truly was kind to you all and I when I say I appreciate it I hope you I'm not being facetious in the slightest it meant a lot to me and thank you for everybody

as a general rule of thumb if you ever see me if you ever see me I'm never upset with people coming and saying that you love what I do that will never bother me

I'm always happy to sign an autograph or take a picture or answer questions you know I mean obviously this is my family keep it short but you know I'm always happy to sign an autograph or take a picture or answer questions. Obviously, this is my family. Keep it short. I'm always excited for people who spot me and come up with me. It's never a bad thing for me to be able to talk to people and hear people's love of the game.

I will never grow tired of that. I was very excited for all the people that came up to me at the convention. There was not a single person that was unhappy did that. So thank you very much. And thank you, GDC, for a truly wonderful time. So anyway, I have now parked my car, so we know what that means. It means this is the end of my drive to work.

So instead of making magic, it's time for me to... How about let's try that again. Instead of me talking magic, it's time for me to... How about I try that again? Instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. Thanks for joining me, guys.