Game Developer Conference 2022 Recap

When the Phantasma team learned that the Game Developer Conference was coming back in 2022, it didn’t take long before the booth space was reserved and the team got to work forging a plan.

The GDC took a couple year hiatus during the global COVID-19 pandemic, meanwhile Phantasma continued to build a Layer 1 blockchain with the intent to serve the games industry.

The fall of 2019, Phantasma mainnet was born, and since then Phantasma has proven itself as a leader in gaming blockchain technology with the evolution of the Smart NFT.  With dozens of dApps & games now running on the chain and dozens being built, it was time Phantasma opened its doors to the gaming world.

Right from the first call to the event organizers the team knew the gaming industry was about to change. We learned that day that Phantasma wasn’t the only blockchain project introducing themselves to the games industry for the first time.

The three-day event was far more than the Phantasma team could have ever expected or hoped for.  We walked in as Cinderella at the ball and left with hundreds of new friends and opportunities.

The GDC Expo was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from March 23^rd through 25^th.  The team arrived in full force in the days leading up to the event, with the last arriving the day before the show floor opened.

The energy was over-the-top electric.  To really understand the energy in the room you need to know that we had a group of extremely passionate co-workers in attendance who have spent countless hours on zoom meetings, yet not a soul had ever met one another in person.  Yet, within minutes of meeting, the team banded together to get the work done, set up the booth and then cap the day off with the first team dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Union Square.

With a lineup of Phantasma partners sitting around that table the team knew at that dinner that something big was happening, the electricity in the air was unmatched by anyone’s previous experiences.

The gaming industry is about to get disrupted.

The team arrived at the event an hour early to cover the day’s plan. The goal was awareness & adoption.  The team wanted to make as many meaningful connections as possible, introduce the power of blockchain & Smart NFTs to gaming and earn the right to have these passionate game developers in attendance build on our chain.

At 10:00am, the conference doors opened, and the bell rang…well it was more of an announcement, but it felt like the opening bell. Cheering and applause broke out on the show floor. GDC was back and ready to enter the metaverse.

With over 15,000 guests expected and over 300 vendors, and the Phantasma team’s dozens of years of collective business-to-business experience, the confidence level was high, and the first day didn’t disappoint.

Matt stands at 6’3 and it was easy to spot him buzzing around the booth floor, Gary, who is a bit shorter, was the Phantasma partner superstar shaking hands and making new connections.  Dylan, who is Phantasma’s in-house video editor, took care of everything tech, Scott proudly hit his ‘conference lead ATH’, Graydon, catching up from a hop over the pond, was non-stop on his feet talking crypto.  Justin was buzzing around the expo hitting up all the indie game devs, in the GDC gaming pavilion next to the Phantasma booth.

It didn’t take long for the Phantasma team to grasp the position Phantasma was in.  The surveys asked people their thoughts behind a screen where they were quick to proclaim NFTs as pure evil, but once they were face to face with another human being hearing all of the very real benefits, they were all open to blockchain, very open.

It was around noon and Matt figured it would be a good idea for Phantasma to host a Blockchain Kegger the following day and give away free beer.  Within a couple of hours, he rallied the team’s vote, negotiated a bartender and the Phantasma kegger was planned for 4:30 the following day.

While Dylan was designing kegger cards and networking, he arranged with Hustlepedia to invite Phantasma to Twitch HQ as a guests on his Twitter Spaces the following day.  Scott and 1-Up Partner Doktor Funk were all set to represent SOULdiers.

Between the NFT opt-ins, the giveaways, lanyards scanned and business cards collected, the team had over 200 conversations in the first day!

As the first day winded down, the 6:00pm announcement came on that it was time to leave the floor, yet it wasn’t until nearly 7:00pm the team was finished conversing and ready for a much earned meal and networking at the hotel bar.

Standby for Day Two!  Coming April 8th.