Boss Rush Diary: GDC 2024, Day One

It’s officially day two and phew! What an adventure it’s been. So busy I didn’t have time to write up a recap before I threw myself onto the comfy bed.

Between having fun chatting with the Chillyroom team about the upcoming North Ameria release of their turn-based RPG game The World of Kungfu: Dragon and Eagle to learning more about Atari’s newest ventures, you could say the week has gone off to an amazing start!

Here’s a recap of my GDC Day One adventures.

Martial Arts and Diversity talks with Chillyroom

I won’t go into too much detail today, but I kicked off my morning at the Marriott Marquis hotel lobby, where I sat down to talk to the CEO and Co-founder Zeyang Li of the Chinese studio ChillyRoom. (Fun fact: It didn’t click that he was the actual co-founder until after our chat!)

As a martial artist and diversity advocate, I knew I had to learn more about the why’s and what’s of bringing their game The World of Kungfu to the North American market. What was supposed to be a 30 minute play-through demo chat turned into an hour-long discussion full of ideas, opinions, and cultural knowledge sharing.

He asked me questions about the media here in the US and shared his perceptions, and we spoke at length about each others opinions on the use of AI in game development. (More on that discussion later!)

Atari’s Lunar Lander, Latino Studios, and Retro Gaming

Now I will wholeheartedly admit, it wasn’t until I learned that Atari would be at GDC that I became aware they were on a mission to continue ensuring their brand continues to live on beyond just simple nostalgia.

As soon as I heard, I knew immediately that I needed to sit down and talk to their team. I was so eager, I waited in the hotel lobby where their meetings had been scheduled almost an hour early.

And boy, was it worth every second. Similar to my conversation with Zeyang, what was supposed to be a 45 minute walk through turned into almost and hour and a half conversation.

After they kindly gave me a much needed mug of coffee and even some biscotti, I was taken through a few hands-on demos. I learned so much about what Atari was up to while talking to that I can’t wait to share in more depth in the coming days.

I was also extremely excited to learn that beyond just Remastering and Reimagining their IPs, they had partnered with a Columbian Game Studio, Dreams Uncorporated, to bring Atari’s 1979 Lunar Lander Arcade game into 2024 with Lunar Landing Beyond.

With a release planned for the end of April, Dreams Uncorporated CEO Carlos Rocha was so happy to speak with me at length about their excitement as a LATAM studio to be working on the IP alongside the Atari team – and in Spanish!

(He definitely had a sigh of relief at being able to speak in his native language – I am sure haha.)

Meeting LinkedIn Top Voices, Developers, and Midwest Games team Founder Ben Kavlo

If you haven’t been on LinkedIn recently and been keeping a close pulse on the games industry studio scene, you’re missing out on some amazing conversations around where games are coming from.

Especially for those individuals looking to break into the industry at a time where there are layoffs announced almost every single day. (It’s both madness and maddening.)

This phrase was coined by Midwest Games Founder, Ben Kavlo – who had left Netflix Games around a year ago to pursue his vision of changing where games come from. This was near the start of the layoff tumult and he has continued to be a champion of studios across not just the Midwest, but of other “unlikely” places. Which I, as a remote part-time producer living in Raleigh, North Carolina, definitely appreciate and 100% support!

So when LinkedIn fellow and Midwest Games Founder share he was putting together an unofficial meetup, I knew I had to go to finally meet some top LinkedIn voices I have been engaging with and following for over a year now.

This was of course after I took a lunch break. Which is where I had the chance to meet up with my games industry mentee who I met through – you guessed it – LinkedIn, and was also attending GDC! After that, we split off and I headed to the Marriot Marquis.

While I was there, I had the amazing opportunity to not just finally give Ben a hug and a hello (no pics, he is a very busy founder and my phone was on battery survival mode), but to meet so many different people from all walks of industry life.

Students working on their own demos, new founders, game developers, people who had been laid off looking to connect with other industry folk. People from Turkey, from France, from Canada, and so many other places around the world.

I spoke with Miss Beloit 2023 scholarship pageant winner Angelica Chapman-Syke about her remarkable community service non-profit called “Game Changers: Diversifying STEAM Through Video Game Development.”

Angelica won the pageant by showcasing her passion for video games and was passionate about leveraging her platform to champion inclusivity and inspire underrepresented communities to pursue careers in STEAM. Not only that, she started her own company called Manifest Media, LLC. We laughed together as it turned out – we were already LinkedIn connected!

I also had a blast talking about the challenges of gaming content marketing and development with Women in Games Türkiye Board Member and Lucene Creative Founder Ayşe Damla Pekgöz.

There were so many more individuals I met and chatted with, and it was amazing to feel so connected and learning about the inner workings and feeling the passion of those who make games. It truly is universal.

Celebrating the Amazing Women in Games

While I ended my night eating at Mel’s diner with some LinkedIn buddies, I will end my recap with one of the best experiences I have had so far. (I have to remember that – it’s only been Day One!)

Women in Games International hosted and event in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) & Amazon Games and sponsored by AMD to celebrate women in games and I was so ecstatic to go show my support.

The women on stage spoke about the challenges of being women in the industry, giving advice to attendees about how to keep pushing forward, on allyship, shared their personal opinions and stories as industry leaders, and talked about milestones they are currently most proud of.

No matter if you work in the industry or not, listening to the raw truth and authenticity of the voices at the roundtable leaves you motivated in wanting to do more.

This comes at the heel of a recent LinkedIn Gamergate 2.0 harrassment campaign backlashing against DEI initiatives within the industry and as layoffs continue to have a disproportionate impact on women due to the roles they commonly tend to be in and pressures continue to mount across the industry in finding ways they (and we) need to do better.

Through it all, there was a message of hope and awareness that there continues to be progress for other women like me in the industry. And as I looked around the room at the hundreds of people packed into the two small room supporting the Celebrating Women in Games event and have been able to chat with so many womxn throughout the day?

I felt pride in knowing that our efforts in highlighting indie studios, elevating non-traditional voices, and being an independent journalist were helping in some way to share this progress with others.

Of course after the talk I had to maneuver my way through the ground to thank Marie Ablaza from Netflix Games personally for all the work she is doing and give her the big hug I told her to prep for in advance.

Even Sydney had to get in on the photo op. (Because who said dogs don’t belong in games too?)

Needless to say? Day One has been one of priceless memories.

That’s it for now! Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn for some near real-time updates on who I meet and what I’m up to next at GDC!

Are you here now or thinking of making the trip for GDC 2025? Tell us what you think! Share your reactions in the comments below or join the conversation on Boss Rush Network’s Discord and Facebook.

Featured Image: GDC

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