Game developers come together at GDC for a 'GDScream' to vent rage at the state of the industry: 'It feels hard to be here and pretend like everything is fine'

pcgamer.com:

Developers at GDC gathered today to express their feelings about the state of the game industry, in what under the circumstances is really the only reasonable way to react: with a scream.

«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,» the GDScream event announcement states. «Let's take a minute where we all stop pretending, and express just how it feels to be a game developer in 2024.

»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 public scream, organized by former Epic Games producer Caryl Shaw and Fortnite Festival designer Scott Jon Siegel, took place at 12 pm PT/3 pm ET and was exactly what it sounds like: A raw expression of outrage over an industry that has laid off thousands of developers over the past year, throwing countless lives into turmoil in pursuit of shareholder value.

Speaking to PC Gamer at the event, Siegel said he was prompted to organize the event by the frustration he's felt over widespread layoffs and the recent «Gamergate 2.0» controversy over narrative consultancy firm Sweet Baby Inc.

«When you have this many people coming together in the game industry, going to all these events, having all these people attend presentations and awards ceremonies where not necessarily everyone is even mentioning the layoffs, even mentioning where the culture is currently, it all feels absurd,» Siegel said. «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.

»So all I really wanted to do… 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