Here’s a summary of some GDC 2018 parties and events based on my experience, hope it’s useful for someone planning their next GDC journey!

For each one, I tried to categorize it under a type and rated how interesting it was FOR ME. I also marked the parties where I think you should still have a good time even if you go alone (this is important if you don’t have friends 😦 )

Kongregate Party

• Type: Corporate, Academic
• “Hmm… Interesting!” rating: 4/5
• Lonewolf OK: Yes

After an initial networking time (lots of good food and drinks), there were three talks: one about the current status and plans for Kongregate (nice one), a pretty weird one about ideation in games which was fun, and another one (pretty good and practical) about taking the right amount of risks while developing a game.

Pocket Gamer Party

• Type: Club Party
• “Hmm… Interesting!” rating: 1/5
• Lonewolf OK: No

This year, as far as I could see, it was a fairly standard club party. Drinks were a bit expensive. It’s loud so it’s hard to network except on the line to enter the club. Also since it’s on Monday it may be a bit out of place to get crazy when you are on GDC for business.

IGDA Serious Games @ Google San Francisco

• Type: Academic
• “Hmm… Interesting!” rating: 2/5
• Lonewolf OK: Yes

I’m not sure how I ended up in this one. It was interesting tho I didn’t do any networking since I just didn’t feel this was my target community. There was a talk about applying serious games to youth audiences and then a short ceremony to deliver community contribution awards. Still nice to check out Google San Francisco building with a great view of the Bay Bridge.

There was good food too.

Github Party

• Type: Game Showcase
• “Hmm… Interesting!” rating: 4/5
• Lonewolf OK: Yes

Some games (not many) put together in the awesome Github HQ at SF. The main conference area was occupied by a versus game where you competed in different obscure games for about 10 seconds. There was also a multiplayer coop game where you had to navigate in a ship-like thing with your friends, and another one you controlled with a telegraph-like device.

The cafeteria was open for you to bring your laptop and display your game, I saw a couple interesting games there. This one was the one I liked the most for networking (with other developers) due to the nice ambient (great chiptunes!) and everybody being a geek there.

It was supposed to be a celebration of the Global Game Jam but I didn’t really see anything related to it.

The Other Party (GameJolt Party)

• Type: Game Showcase Party
• “Hmm… Interesting!” rating: 4/5
• Lonewolf OK: Yes

Lots of games put together in a club. Music was a bit loud but you could still interact with the game developers, play cool games and network. Pretty cool if you’d like to check and play some games.

Roguelike Developers Meetup

• Type: Networking
• “Hmm… Interesting” rating: 5/5
• Lonewolf OK: Yes

We met together and talked about our games and projects, around 20-25 people showed up which was nice. Planning to do something cooler for next year (hope I can gather enough people again!)

GDC XPerience Networking Mixer

• Type: Networking
• “Hmm… Interesting” rating: 1/5
• Lonewolf OK: Yes

This one was a bit of a let-down, but maybe I was expecting too much. Basically, the entry fee (around 20 USD) gives you access to a hotel rooftop bar to chat with other developers. Met a couple interesting people there tho, but I think they hyped the event and failed to give it more spice.

Nice view of the city tho.

that.party

• Type: Game Showcase + Club Party
• “Hmm… Interesting” rating: 4/5
• Lonewolf OK: No

One of the most popular “public” parties at GDC time. Some interesting indie games were being displayed too, and I met some roguelike developers too.

Drinks were a bit expensive, but the electronic music was super cool. Gather some Friends and go if you like electronic music and video games!

Zynga party

• Type: Arcade party
• “Hmm… Interesting” rating: 4/5
• Lonewolf OK: No

Zynga opened their offices for people to go in, interact with their employees and get a glimpse of what it’s like to work with Zynga. Arcade machines, slot car racing, shuffleboards, three type of hamburgers, beer and drinks. Great to have a fun time with friends! They also provided shuttle service from and to the Moscone.

5th Latin American Gathering at GDC

• Type: Networking?
• “Hmm… Interesting” rating: 1/5
• Lonewolf OK: Yes

This one had the potential to be good but I think the venue choice was not very good for the event: it was too loud, too dark and the space reserved for the event was far too tight to fit that many people!

A real shame since I was really interested in meeting other devs from Latin America. I hope next year it’s better!

Marioke

• Type: Karaoke Party
• “Hmm… Interesting” rating: 4/5
• Lonewolf OK: No

Same venue as that.party (smaller space tho). Nerd people yelling popular karaoke songs with their lyrics changed to be related to games and gamedev. Nice time if you like karaoke and you bring your nerdy friends.

I’m told some famous indie devs can be found around but since I don’t know any that didn’t appeal much to me. This year they also had Botnik displaying cool predictive text stuff including Pokedex entries, sentences that Cloud would say to Tifa on FF7 and more cool stuff.

It was also open tab so cheap/free drinks, yay!

Pow x 7 Bonus Round

• Type: Chiptune Party
• “Hmm… Interesting” rating: 4/5
• Lonewolf OK: No

This one had two ambients, one more chill with video game music and the other crazier with stronger chiptune music and people dancing around. Nice way to close GDC, just for fun!