Thank you for riding the Game Developer Carosuel!

To folks who couldn’t join this year: Find some small way to add some whimsey in your life this month. Find your nearest carousel and take a ride. Or find something else out of your ordinary that can bring you joy.

As long as GDC is at Yerba Buena Gardens, I’ll do what I can to make sure there’s a seat for you on the Game Developer Carousel.

The final ridership was 953 rides over the eight hour day. While this is lower than previous years, the carousel had balance issues and ran at half capacity for the majority of the day. It’s no secret GDC’s attendance was down this year, but the carousel’s limited capacity is what effected our ridership.

The conversations I had with a number of folks made all this work worth while. From the returning folks from previous years, to the folks who rode any carousel for the first time in their lives, it was a special day to be apart of these joyous moments.

Future Game Developer Carousels

In a future email, I’ll discuss the future of the Game Developer Carosuel. Nothing to panic about! But I need to start distributing the load from my shoulders. To open up the production of the event while still preserving the soul of this event.

Thank you to…

There’s a number of folks to thank whom without them, would not make this year’s carousel successful.

Yerba Buena Gardens

The Gardens took over the management of the LeRoy King Carousel recently and this event presented new challenges for them. GDCarousel is the one of if not the busiest day for the LeRoy King Carousel, and I’m thankful for the labor the staff puts in to make it happen.

We also worked to add a new soundtrack to the experience. We had some last moment challenges, but overcame them and were rewarded with a vastly improved ride experience.

There is no Game Developer Carousel without a working Carousel, so thank you to our carousel operators for making a safe day of joy for everyone!

Ryan Galiotto, Line Manager

Without Ryan, the experience of the carousel would be laborious to riders and the operators of the carousel.

Ryan is a good friend and a key asset to making the event run smoothly as possible.

Jonny Music

Adding a custom soundtrack this year improved the experience to something unique for the community. I can not thank Jonny enough for allowing his catalog to be played for the day.

From this massive playlist, I took about 45 tracks to make a great playlist for the day. If you found Jonny’s music delightful, feel free to tip them some coffee money!

Game Developer Conference

I am very thankful for GDC’s support in letting folks know about the carousel. Including pushing out notification of the carousel via the GDC app and other social media announcements.

I try to keep things separated between GDC and the Carousel project; this is an “unconference” event after all. Even so, the staff at GDC are very supportive to add whimsey. Not only for attendees, but to the San Francisco community as a whole.

Katelyn Tucker

Most of the photos you’re seeing here were taking by GDC photographer Katelyn Tucker. So good, right?!

Mark DeLoura

We finally gave away the rest of the badge ribbons Mark contributed last year! This year I was much more aggressive in distributing the badges early. With badge ribbon culture on the rise at GDC, knowledge of the carousel increased this year because of the ribbons.

Everyone Who Told Someone About the Carousel

I don’t spend money on advertising, making word of mouth crucial to letting folks know about the Game Developer Carousel. It was a real treat to hear others talk about the carousel before I said something. For everyone who told someone about this whimsy, thank you.

This iPod Nano (6th Gen)

Speaking of the music: This old device was the linchpin. The battery is completely shot (replacement ordered), but when plugged in functioned flawlessly to loop the 2:40+ playlist of Jonny’s organ covers without intervention.

Again, Thank you!

That’s all for now! Stay tuned for one more email this season to discuss how to keep this whimsey going for years to come.