From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Game Developers Conference
Game Developers Conference
Game Developers Conference Originally called the Computer Game Developers Confer-
ence, the first conference was organized in 1988 by Chris
Crawford in his San Jose, California-area living room.
About twenty-seven designers attended, including Don
Daglow, Brenda Laurel, Brian Moriarty, Gordon Walton,
Tim Brengle, Cliff Johnson, Dave Menconi, and Carol and
Ivan Manley. The second conference, held that same year
Official Logo of the Game Developers Conference at a Holiday Inn at Milpitas, attracted about 125 devel-
opers. Early conference directors included Brenda Laurel,
Status Active
Dave Menconi, Stephen Friedman, Chris Crawford, and
Genre Video Game Development Stephanie Barrett. Later directors include John Powers,
Nicky Robinson, Anne Westfall, Susan Lee-Merrow, and
Venue Varies
Ernest W. Adams. In the early years the conference
Location Varies changed venue each year to accommodate its increases
in size. Attendance in this period grew from 525 to 2387.
Country Varies
By 1994 the CGDC could afford to sponsor the creation of
First held 1988 the Computer Game Developers Association with Adams
Organizer UBM TechWeb as its founding director. In 2005, the GDC moved to the
new Moscone Center West, in the heart of San Francisco’s
Official website http://www.gdconf.com/ SOMA district, and reported over 12,000 attendees. The
GDC returned to San Jose in 2006, reporting over 12,500
GDC)
The Game Developers Conference (GDC is the largest an- attendees, and returned to San Francisco in 2007 – where
nual gathering of professional video game developers, the organizers expect it will stay for the foreseeable fu-
focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking. The ture. Attendance figures continued to rise in following
event comprises an expo, networking events, awards years with 18,000 people attending the 2008 event.[1] The
shows such as the Independent Games Festival and the 2009 Game Developers Conference was held in San Fran-
Game Developers Choice Awards, and a variety of tuto- cisco, on March 23–27, 2009.[2] The IGDA awarded 25
rials, lectures, and roundtables by industry professionals scholarships to send qualified students to attend the 2009
on game-related topics covering programming, design, GDC.
audio, production, business and management, and visual Crawford continued to give the conference keynote
arts. address for the first several years of the conference, in-
cluding the famous "whip" speech in the early 1990s
History where he punctuated a point about game tuning and
player involvement by cracking a bullwhip perilously
close to the front row of the audience.
Crawford also founded The Journal of Computer
Game Design in 1987 in parallel to beginning the GDC,
and served as publisher and editor of the academic-style
journal through 1996.
The CGDC changed its name to "Game Developers
Conference" in 1999. The GDC has also hosted the Spot-
light Awards from 1997 to 1999, the Independent Games
Festival since 1999 and the Game Developers Choice
Awards since 2001. The GDC is also used for the annual
meeting of the International Game Developers Associa-
tion (IGDA).
The Independent Games Festival is the first and
Outside the San Jose Convention Center during GDC 2004. largest competition for independent games, and high-
lights the innovative achievements of developers rang-
ing in size from individuals building PC titles to studio
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Game Developers Conference
teams creating console downloadable titles. A pool of training, military, and health care applications; and the
judges from the game industry selects the finalists and Hollywood and Games Summit in conjunction with The
winners, and the individual creators are named as the re- Hollywood Reporter first held in June 2006. Additional
cipients of the awards. The IGF is managed and developed events include the Game Advertising Summit, the Game
by UBM TechWeb, the organizer of the GDC. Outsourcing Summit, the Game Career Seminar, GDC Rus-
sia, the China Game Summit, GDC London, the London
Games Summit, the London Game Career Fair, and many
others. In late 2006, UBM TechWeb acquired The Game
Initiative, and now produces the Austin Game Developers
Conference.
Recurring Highlights
Tutorials
About half of the time during the first two days of GDC
are given over to tutorials, one or two-day long sessions
on a given topic. Tutorials take the form of hands-on
workshops and cover a variety of technical subjects such
The entrance to Game Developers Conference 2005 as game design, audio, topics in computer programing
(such as physics, graphics programing or web technolo-
The Game Developers Choice Awards is the game in- gies), production and business management.
dustry’s only open, peer-based awards show. Any mem-
ber of the IGDA may nominate games, and then the mem- Summits
bership votes on the finalists. As with the IGF, the indi- A summit is a section of panels dedicated to a sub-seg-
vidual creators are named as the recipients of the awards. ment of the game industry, also usually held on the first
Specialty awards such as Lifetime Achievement and First two days of the conference. Past and current summit top-
Penguin are determined by the GDCA committee, and all ics include mobile games, independent games, game edu-
are revealed at the Game Developers Choice Awards cer- cation (of students aspiring to join the industry), serious
emony at the GDC. The IGF and the GDCA are present- games, social games and online games.
ed back to back, in an awards show produced by UBM
TechWeb, typically on the Wednesday of the GDC. Console Maker’s Keynotes
UBM TechWeb has added several other events to the
Regularly, Sony Computer Entertainment, Microsoft and
GDC in recent years. At the GDC Expo, developers display
Nintendo deliver keynotes at the conference showcasing
the latest techniques useful in game development. "GDC
upcoming products and technologies. Next to the Elec-
Mobile," first held in 2002, focuses on developing games
tronic Entertainment Expo, GDC keynotes are one of the
for mobile phones. Starting in 2004, the GDC partnered
more significant sources of news about upcoming con-
with Game Connection to present Game Connection @
sole hardware and platforms, but with a focus on the de-
GDC, a live matchmaking service for developers and pub-
veloper audience instead of the wider press. A number
lishers, which in 2007 expanded to include Game Connec-
of games in development or upcoming releases are also
tion Services for outsourcing and other services. Starting
showcased, but generally far fewer than at E3.
in 2006, the GDC partnered with Video Games Live to fea-
ture their symphonic performance of videogame music
as the closing night event. In addition, the GDC has host-
Developer’s Rant
ed a number of conference-wide game experiments de- Since 2005, the "rant" panel has been one of the most
signed by GameLab. popular sessions at the conference. Moderated by Eric
The Archives of the 2000-2007 GDC Conference are Zimmerman and Jason Della Roca, a selection of notable
available from UBM’s website Archives page. industry figures are invited to speak on industry-related
UBM TechWeb has also produced several spinoff subjects they are passionate about. According to Zim-
events. For example, the first GDC Europe (GDCE) was fea- merman, the idea of the panel "is to really take those
tured at the European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) in grumblings and mutterings and bring them out into the
London between August 31 and September 1, 2001. Other light, speak truth to power, cut through to the real s***,
GDC-related events include the Serious Games Summit, and talk about what is going on in our industry--what’s
first held in 2004 as a GDC tutorial, and spun off as a wrong and what we can do to change it."[3] Many rants
standalone event in 2005, focusing on developing games inspire controversy, discussion and a good deal of media
for practical purposes, such as education, corporate coverage in industry press.
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Game Developers Conference
Most rant sessions on a particular segment of the in- GDC 2010 San Francisco, Cali- March 9-13
dustry to draw their speakers from: fornia
• 2005: "Burning Down The House: Game Developers
GDC Canada Vancouver, BC May 6-7
Rant"
2010
• 2006: "Burn Baby, Burn: Game Developers Rant"
• 2007: "Game Publishers Rant" GDC Europe Cologne, Germany August 16-18
• 2008: "Pouring Gas on the Flames: Game Designers 2010
Rant" GDC Online Austin, Texas October 5-8
• 2009: "Burned by Friendly Fire: Game Critics Rant" 2010
• 2010: "Indie Gamemaker Rant!" and "AI Developers
GDC China 2010 Shanghai, China December 5-7
Rant!"
• 2011: "No Freaking Respect! Social Game Developers 2011
Rant Back" GDC 2011 San Francisco, Cali- February 28 -
fornia March 4
Game Design Challenge
GDC Europe Cologne, Germany August 15-17
Eric Zimmerman came up with the Game Design Chal-
2011
lenge.[4] "The idea of the challenge, he said, was to give
everyone a sense of the process behind game design, and GDC Online Austin, Texas October 10-13
to attempt to get everyone thinking about new kinds of 2011
games." No actual game needs to be built, just designed. GDC China 2011 Shanghai, China November
The goal of 2nd annual Game Design Challenge was to 14-16
create a game based on Emily Dickinson. It was won by
Upcoming
Will Wright who designed an Emily Dickinson personali-
ty simulator contained entirely on a USB flash drive. The 2012
personality would interact with the player by sending In- GDC 2012 San Francisco, Cali- March 5-9
stant Messages and email. The goal was to maintain a sta- fornia
ble relationship and avoid the two extremes of romantic
GDC Europe Cologne, Germany August 13-15
obsession with the player or suicidal depression. The first
2012
occurrence meant constant interruptions when using the
computer. The latter occurrence allowed for the simula-
tion to delete itself. The 3rd time, the task was to create References
a game worthy of a Nobel Prize. Harvey Smith won with
[1] GDC 2008 Breaks Attendance Record with Over 18K,
his PeaceBomb game. It would utilize wireless devices to
GameDaily, February 28, 2008
organize flash mobs to engage in random acts of chari-
[2] "Game Developers Conference Summary"
ty. For the first 3 challenges, Eric Zimmerman has always
Kidzworld.com. Retrieved on 2009-04-08.
ended the challenge by indicating that all the contestants
[3] http://www.gamespot.com/news/6120449.html
ideas could really be made into a game.
[4] Vincent Diamante (24 March 2006). "GDC: The
The goal of 4th annual Game Design Challenge was
Game Design Challenge: The Nobel Peace Prize".
to create a game which was a religion, or which could
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060324/
become one. It was won by Jason Rohrer who designed
diamante_01.shtml. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
a one-player at a time multiplayer game named Chain
[5] Gamasutra Staff (22 July 2011). "GDC: The Game
World contained entirely on a USB flash drive.[5]
Design Challenge: Bigger Than Jesus".
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/36021/
Dates GDC_Vault_Debuts_2011s_Game_Design_Challenge_Session_Vide
Retrieved 2011-07-25.
Conference Location Dates
2009 External links
GDC Europe Cologne, Germany August 17-19 • Game Developers Conference official site
2009 • Hollywood and Games Summit official site
GDC Austin Austin, Texas September • Austin Game Developers Conference official site
2009 15-28 • Hints and Tips for San Francisco Convention Travel
• Austin GDC Video Interview Series
GDC China 2009 Shanghai, China October 11-13
• Collective repository and news source for game
2010 events including GDC
3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Game Developers Conference
• UBM TechWeb corporate site
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Game_Developers_Conference&oldid=472067310"
Categories:
• Video game development
• Video game trade shows
• Recurring events established in 1988
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