The 23rd annual Game Developers Conference® returns to San Francisco’s Moscone Center March 23-27, 2009. Get ready for a week of learning, networking, and inspiration as over 18,000 developers convene to further the digital entertainment industry. The GDC hosts top sessions, panels, roundtables and keynotes from select speakers worldwide. Evening events include the 11th annual Independent Games Festival and the 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. Now available for viewing are the latest sessions for Audio, Business Management, Game Design, Production, Programming and Visual Arts tracks as well as our full and half day Tutorials and our nine Summits. Visit www.gdconf.com for more information.

Report article GDC: Day 0

With GDC just hours away, I talk abou- wait, why am I not sleeping yet?!

Posted by stenchy on Mar 23rd, 2009 digg this super bookmark


Well, here I am again in San Francisco yet again for my second GDC. Another year wiser and this time I'll know what to expect. Last year's conference had my head spinning in wonderment – just two months after my initial employment with ModDB, I was plopped into a building full of the best and brightest (and most hopeful) in the games industry. It was an experience that was both exciting and exhausting. This year, I have a better handle on the things to come over the next week and quite a few things I am looking forward to:


Indie Games Summit

The first two days of GDC are comprised of various summits specializing in different areas. The independent games summit has speakers from all the breakout indie hits that you may or may not have experienced this year. From Flower to World of Goo, the developers behind these projects share their tragedies and triumphs, their rants and raves. These sessions hold more importance to me not only because of their relevance to the site but the passion on display when watching these speakers. Everything seems just a little bit more unfiltered and raw, like they can tell you anything they want because they're their own boss.


IGF Finalist Booths

The Independent Game Festival finalists will all have their own booths on the exhibition floor space. I haven't had time to check out the full lineup of indie games this year, so this is a great way to catch up. It's also great to chat with the developers firsthand and let them know about ModDB!


GDC Awards

This event feels like the Oscars of the games industry – without the black tie. Developers awarded at the Game Developers Choice Awards are chosen through the voting of their peers. This year's show is hosted by funny-man Tim Schafer, the designer behind Grim Fandango, Psychonauts and the upcoming Brutal Legend. Should be a hoot.

Watching Mark's head spin in wonderment

(image coming soon)
Mark Chandler (lodle), our lead developer, is attending GDC for his first time. He doesn't know what he's in for.

Comments
MrMister
MrMister Mar 23 2009, 4:27am says:

Damn it's like 2am where I'm at, I better get to sleep soon but I'm still excited for GDC. Can't wait to here what developers have to say in this shaky economy.

Looking forward to it.

+1 vote     reply to comment
lodle
lodle Mar 23 2009, 4:44am replied:

Its 2 am here as well. Im also blogging about gdc here: Forums.goldeneyesource.net

+1 vote     reply to comment
Sigma
Sigma Mar 23 2009, 4:35am says:

damn i wish i could go =< but its just to far :'(

+1 vote     reply to comment
SinKing
SinKing Mar 23 2009, 7:13am says:

the question is: will good ideas count again? The last years it seemed like teams were just getting bigger and bigger and production of games got more and more expensive.
Apart from blowing it on the storytelling side, these past years games are getting really generic now and can be summarized under "Zombie-Shooter". Eventhough sometimes they were spirits,sometimes they were in outer space or under water - always remained Zombie-shooting to me.

So hopefully developers will be forced to cut down on the generic titles, because they are too expensive. I think there are some great games developed by Indie-companies and I hope the success of e.g. IsoTX and others will be permanent.

+2 votes     reply to comment
Mr_Cyberpunk
Mr_Cyberpunk Mar 23 2009, 11:30pm says:

Would someone at GDC mind punching Will Wright in the back of the head for me thanks ;) Spore honestly pissed me off big time.

Good luck to Zeno Clash and The Maw teams at this year's IGF ;) I already have Zeno on pre-order, I might get the Maw later on- when I played the demo it reminded me of Banjo Kazooie.

I think this year is going to present a lot of important discussion on the crisis of the industry at the moment. Many of us are now out of jobs, if they don't discuss this then I'll be pissed. Too many have lost their jobs and something needs to be done about it to get us making games again!

+1 vote     reply to comment
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