Game artist/developer conference suggestions

kosco

Hello! This is my first time posting so I'm sorry in advance for any mistakes with this thread/topic.

As a student who is pretty much a newcomer to the game industry, I am wondering what conferences are best to try to attend for those interested in the game art and development industry. As someone who lives in the mid-western United States, there isn't much industry in my area. I have been encouraged by my teachers at my college to try to attend game conferences because they can provide great networking opportunities and give good insight on how the industry actually functions. 

My college was planning on taking a student group this year to GDC 2020, but the conference is in such turmoil now and the trip seems up in the air at this point. For future reference, what other conferences would be beneficial to go to?

Any advice on this subject would be greatly appreciated!

Eric Chadwick

GDC is the most well known, however SIGGRAPH is an excellent conference that many in CG attend including game developers. 

There are often also local events on Meetup for people of like minds to get together. Here in the Boston area we don't have a large game dev scene, but we still manage to get a lot of Meetups and other events.

kosco

Eric Chadwick said:

GDC is the most well known, however SIGGRAPH is an excellent conference that many in CG attend including game developers. 

There are often also local events on Meetup for people of like minds to get together. Here in the Boston area we don't have a large game dev scene, but we still manage to get a lot of Meetups and other events.

I will definitely have to look into SIGGRAPH for the future. My friends and I have begun to look into local meetups where we're located in the Detroit area as well.

Since you said you are located in the Boston area, would a conference like PAX East be of use? Or perhaps a PAX in a different location around the country? 

Eric Chadwick

Very much so. Lots of game developers at PAX.

I would expect the Detroit metropolitan area to have a decent amount of gatherings around CG topics. VR/AR/etc.

I know Chicago is more than 4 hours from Detroit by car, but that's also worth looking into, being the next biggest metro area nearby-ish. Also Toronto is about the same distance the other direction.

sacboi

Yeah, penny arcade is much like a grass roots, startup kinda mad 'village' type vibe. Usually there's a ton of new content to get your mitts on and the dev panels are insightful, too - IMHO well worth the gas or plane/train ticket and the best thing is that they're global. We've got them here on the other side of the planet in AUS every year, although haven't been in ages but might drag my lazy ass to the next one though.   

Eric Chadwick

Saw this again, might help you

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Game_Industry#Going_to_Conferences