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GDScream is a moment of "catharsis, camaraderie, and caterwauling."
Image credit: Jimmy Chi
Some say one of the ways to alleviate stress and express anger is screaming, and a group of developers who joined GDScream yesterday seems to agree. At 12 PM PT, they gathered at GDC to release a mighty shout over the state of the game industry with its widespread layoffs and other issues, treating it as a cathartic experience, and I'm sure it was.
"The game industry is falling apart around us, and we're all flocking to San Francisco for a week to pretend like this is fine. Let's take a minute where we all stop pretending, and express just how it feels to be a game developer in 2024," states the event's description. "Join us for a collective moment of catharsis, camaraderie, and caterwauling. Let's descend upon Yerba Buena and when the clock strikes noon, have ourselves a nice big GDScream."
The event was organized by former Epic Games producer Caryl Shaw and Fortnite Festival designer Scott Jon Siegel. Speaking with PC Gamer, Siegel said that all the awards and ceremonies failing to mention the layoffs happening inside feels "absurd": "At the end of the day, it feels hard to be here and pretend like everything is fine in our industry, to say nothing of the world, when things very much aren't."
"Can we just get people together for just a moment of catharsis – a single minute, smack in the middle of this entire GDC, can we just have some cathartic caterwauling together, even if we can say nothing else, even if there's nothing else we feel like there's nothing else we can say at this moment, don't let GDC go by without acknowledging that collectively, we feel like things are not okay and we want things to be different."
One of the participants, developer Jimmy Chi also mentioned how many of his friends lost their jobs, houses, and visas, but "record profits, all the time. The number goes up, and then the number isn't good enough." Higher-ups don't believe in organic growth "whereas everyone knows at the bottom, organic growth makes more money over time."
Game writer Anne Toole noted that the situation makes people take drastic measures: some people are "afraid to join companies if they have not yet had a layoff because now they're worried that as soon as they come, they're going to be the first to be kicked to the curb." I have to say I see the point, and it's depressing.
Image credit: Future
Hopefully, this collective scream helped the developers, at least somewhat. Even if it can't fix the industry, the event might draw more attention to the issue.
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