A report claims that over 50 game developers attending the Game Developers Conference took part in an organized, public scream.
Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (2023), Insomniac Games
According to IGN’s Rebekah Valentine, this organized, public scream was called GDScream. It was organized by Scott John Siegal and Caryl Shaw and took place in the middle of the Yerba Buena Gardens.
Siegal informed Valentine that the purpose of the scream was to “have a moment of feeling good, a moment of comradery, and moment of just fully acknowledging how messed up everything is and acknowledging that we’re all here at this event pretending everything is fine…it can’t be a constant topic of conversation, but it feels like there needs to be just one moment of just letting it out.”
Valentine also noted that it was done in reaction to Sweet Baby Inc. and its employees attempting to cancel Brazilian gamer KabrutusRambo. She wrote, “The scream was organized by Scott Jon Siegal and Caryl Shaw in response to growing discontent among game developers in the face of ongoing industry mass layoffs, as well as coordinated harassment campaigns against marginalized individuals and overall fears of worsening industry conditions.”
Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2024), Rocksteady
X user MangaLawyer shared video of the scream.
Western game developers screaming at GDC 2024 against Gamer Gate, patriarchy, and the industry 💀
Totally Sane behavior. No wonder they end up making female characters look like vegan gremlins 😆
The west has fallen pic.twitter.com/NDcfBWhrFj
— LearningTheLaw (@Mangalawyer) March 21, 2024
As for why he chose to scream, Siegal stated, “I’m always slightly screaming inside for a lot of personal reasons, but this is an industry that is built on passion.”
“I entered the games industry in my early 20s because I loved games so much and I found that I had this passion for building them and building experiences that brought delight to other people. It’s an industry that really feeds on that passion and takes advantage of that passion, and that’s broken my heart over and over again…and I just wanted to scream about it,” he said.
The Last of Us Part I (2022), Naughty Dog
Another developer informed Valentine, “I’m screaming because I was just in a really good, valuable, much-appreciated [GDC] session that I absolutely hated.”
This developer added, “Because we talked about diversity in games and we were all marginalized people, and we’re all looking at each other going ‘Yeah it sucks, for some reason we have to do this, and we cannot not do this and I don’t know how to deal with the obligation of having to do this just because I’m the person that I am.'”
A screenshot from Unknown 9: Awakening (2024), Reflector Entertainment
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An alleged business-side employee said, “the industry is in an interesting spot where our fiscal needs and our creative needs are not matching up, and it’s causing a lot of damage which I think will have long-term effects on the pipeline.”
The individual added, “Also, obviously a lot of people came together for something that isn’t the usual GDC vibe. We all have a lot of tension that needs to be released.”
A screenshot from Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (2024), A44 Games
Tender Claws gamplay programmer Robin LoBuglio also informed IGN, “The layoffs in the past couple of years have been absolutely horrible. My partner was actually laid off almost 18 months ago. It’s nuts. We screamed because we’re angry. But we’re also here because we really want people to know that you don’t just have to be angry. ”
LoBuglio, who is also a member of the CODE-CWA union added, “You don’t just have to feel hopeless…I think it’s really really urgent in this time that people use the leverage that we have, that we unionize…because while you have a job, you have that leverage, there’s still time. And I think the last year has shown us that if we don’t stand up for ourselves, they will treat us like trash.”
Dara Insixiengmay, a 3D artist at Tender Claws and also a member of the CODE-CWA union added, “The state of the industry has been at such, such a low point. And screaming out our frustrations, our anger, but also channeling that into something where we together, working together, as a community, we can empower ourselves to fight back and to stand up for our rights, our jobs, our livelihoods.”
Screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (2022), Ubisoft Montreal
What do you make of over 50 developers at the Game Developer Conference participating in a public scream?
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