AI and Games: April 2023 Newsletter

GDC, WASD, and much more to discuss!

Hey everyone,

It's the start of the month, and time for an update on all things surrounding AI and Games. I've got to talk about this month, so let's dive straight in...

Tommy Update

So yeah, let's start with what I have been up to. March was, for lack of a better definition, demanding. March, of course, was all about the Game Developers Conference (GDC) which ran for the first time in its fully complete physical form since 2019. Based out in San Francisco, it's a huge event for developers across the world to attend. It was my first time attending GDC, and it was a bit of a stressful build-up given personal stuff (see below), helping companies prep for GDC, final prep for the AI Summit at GDC (for which I am an advisor) and of course the subsequent travel to San Francisco (and all the issues I had along the way).

All that said, GDC was a fantastic experience and it was great to not only see many an exciting talk but reconnect with many game developer friends, have conversations with people I have only known virtually over the last few years and even make some new acquaintances along the way too! This ranged from developers who I know of and whose work I respect to complete strangers who just wanted to chat about the work I do on YouTube. I am grateful to find so many of our community who attend GDC are in fact fans of the YouTube channel. It really caught me off guard, especially when chatting with developers who have followed me ever since I made a video about a game they worked on. But also, it was just nice to get to chat with so many people about our mutual passion.

Does all of this mean we might have some stuff that could appear in later episodes? Perhaps. Right now I’m still in the post-GDC ‘glow’ of follow-up emails and LinkedIn connections. But I’m confident we can get some new projects to emerge off the back of this trip. At minimum from some of the very interesting talks but we could have some other opportunities down the line. In the meantime, there will be a summary of sorts in video form of my time at GDC.