Another bucket list ticked off on my game development journey. This one was a pinch-me moment because it was exactly 10 years after the very first time I visited GDC – which you can read about here (Attending the 2013 Game Developers Conference). It’s crazy to read my blog back then and see a girl who was just starting to break into the industry and experience GDC for the first time. I really had no idea how the next 10 years would propel me into the most amazing AAA career and I’m incredibly grateful for all of it. The one thing I absolutely do remember, is how critical that first GDC was in fostering my very first connections that truly helped me generate job opportunities and build a strong gamedev network. Going to that first GDC was 100000% worth the investment.

My GDC talk was part of the Animation Summit – Tricks of the Trade. I joined a number of other speakers who spoke about a wide variety of animation topics. Mine was production focused of course. I spoke about building a strong animation team, and fostering it through the game development cycle to get the best out of them and achieve high quality animation content, using God of War Ragnarok cinematics, and our narrative animation team, as the example for that success. I broke down how myself and the Narrative Animation Lead Erica Pinto would divvy up the work amongst each animator and play to their strengths, and then how I would task them out and keep them on track using the roadmap as the guide.

Thank you so much to GDC for the opportunity, and for allowing me to come full circle on this crazy ride!