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48-539: The Game Developers Conference ( GDC ) is an annual conference for video game developers . The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival , and a variety of tutorials , lectures, and roundtables by industry professionals on game-related topics covering programming , design , audio, production, business and management, and visual arts. Originally called

96-677: A conference call or video conference . Conferences can have various formats, topics and intentions. Game Developers Choice Awards The Game Developers Choice Awards are awards annually presented at the Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and games . Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards , which were presented from 1997 to 1999. Since then,

144-599: A breakthrough technology, game concept or gameplay design. GDC had announced their intention to award Nolan Bushnell (co-founder of Atari ) the 2017 Pioneer Award. However, after several people asked the GDC to reconsider this in light of documented sexist activities in Bushnell's past in light of the current #MeToo movement , GDC opted to not award the Pioneer Award and instead "will dedicate this year's award to honor

192-576: A different focus. Best Downloadable Game Award recognizes the overall best game released on console or PC platforms specifically and solely for digital download - with an emphasis on smaller, more 'casual'-friendly titles. The Character Design award recognizes the overall excellence of non-licensed character design in a game, including originality, character arc and emotional depth. The IGDA Award for Community Contribution recognized developers for significant efforts "building community, sharing knowledge, speaking on behalf of developers and/or contributing to

240-706: A game. The goal of the 4th annual Game Design Challenge was to create a game which was a religion , or which could become one. It was won by Jason Rohrer who designed a one-player at a time multiplayer game named Chain World contained entirely on a USB flash drive . The Experimental Gameplay Workshop is an influential 2-hour game presentation session held annually at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco . The event showcases experimental video games and game prototypes. The workshop

288-405: A variety of topics, from politics, to science or sport. Many conferences are held on a regular periodic basis, such as annually, biannually (twice per year), or biennially (every other year). With the development of communications technology , conference holders have the choice of replacing the physical meeting space with a telephonic or virtual form of meeting. This has resulted in terms such as

336-459: A whole." The 2011 awards ceremony took place on October 12, 2011. All the awards from the previous year returned, and a new award for Online Innovation was introduced. Minecraft and Rift by Mojang and Trion Worlds respectively took home the most awards, with two each. Kelton Flinn and John Taylor received the special Online Game Legend award as founders of Kesmai and creators of Island of Kesmai and Air Warrior . Additionally,

384-432: Is a section of panels dedicated to a sub-segment of the game industry, also usually held on the first two days of the conference. Past and current summit topics include mobile games, independent games, game education (for students aspiring to join the industry), serious games , social games , artificial intelligence , and online games. Regularly, Sony Computer Entertainment , Microsoft and Nintendo deliver keynotes at

432-626: The Game Developers Conference , which is typically held in March of the calendar year. GDC related properties are owned by the UBM technology group . In 2007, gamasutra.com took over management of the awards from the IGDA . An advisory board selected by the editors of gamasutra.com and Game Developer magazine oversees the selection process. In the past, nominations are accepted from registered gamasutra.com users, confirmed to be game developers, and from

480-842: The Seumas McNally Grand Prize . The ceremony is typically held as the lead-in to the GDCA award ceremony. alt.ctrl.GDC is an exhibit taking place in the GDC Expo. Visitors can play games using alternative controllers and meet the developers behind the projects. One of these games win the alt.ctrl.GDC Award, which includes a $ 2,000 prize plus a special trophy, at the IGF ceremony during GDC, with judging taking place on-site. Conference The first known use of "conference" appears in 1527, meaning "a meeting of two or more persons for discussing matters of common concern". It came from

528-704: The Spotlight 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 Association (IGDA). The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is the first and largest competition for independent games, and highlights the innovative achievements of developers ranging in size from individuals building PC titles to studio teams creating console downloadable titles. A pool of judges from

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576-419: The "rant" panel has been one of the most popular sessions at the conference. Moderated by Eric Zimmerman and Jason Della Rocca , a selection of notable industry figures are invited to speak on industry-related subjects they are passionate about. According to Zimmerman, the idea of the panel "is to really take those grumblings and mutterings and bring them out into the light, speak truth to power, cut through to

624-477: The 2021 event, the organizers dropped the in-person portion in February 2021 due to continued concerns from COVID-19, maintaining the virtual events. UBM TechWeb brought its flagship event to Shanghai in 2007, where GDC China was held annually until 2015. GDC China hosted the annual Independent Games Festival China (IGF China) from 2009, calling for entries developed by independent game studios and individuals in

672-887: The Asia-Pacific region. IGF China includes the Independent Games Summit, the Independent Games Festival Pavilion, and the Independent Games Festival Awards Ceremony. 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 as game design, audio, topics in computer programming (such as physics, graphics programming or web technologies), production and business management. A summit

720-621: The Austin Game Developers Conference. The 2020 GDC notably was the first to be fully postponed from its planned March 2020 dates, as a result of several companies having pulled out due to fears from the COVID-19 pandemic . Organizers ran the 2020 GDC as a virtual conference and announced GDC Summer as the next live event to take place in August. While initially planning on a mixed in-person and virtual conference for

768-880: The Computer Game Developers Conference, the first conference was organized in April 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 at a Holiday Inn at Milpitas , attracted about 125 developers. Early conference directors included Brenda Laurel , Tim Brengle, Sara Reeder, Dave Menconi, Jeff Johannigman, Stephen Friedman, Chris Crawford, and Stephanie Barrett. Later directors include John Powers, Nicky Robinson , Anne Westfall , Susan Lee-Merrow, and Ernest W. Adams . In

816-641: The Education Summit, or rants during the Indie Game Summit). Eric Zimmerman created the Game Design Challenge. "The idea of the challenge, he said, was to give everyone a sense of the process behind game design, and to attempt to get everyone thinking about new kinds of games." No actual game needs to be built, just designed. The goal of the 2nd annual Game Design Challenge was to create a game based on Emily Dickinson . It

864-455: The GDC in recent years. At the GDC Expo, developers display the latest techniques useful in game development. "GDC Mobile", first held in 2002, focuses on developing games for mobile phones . Starting in 2004, the GDC partnered with Game Connection to present Game Connection @ GDC, a live matchmaking service for developers and publishers, which in 2007 expanded to include Game Connection Services for outsourcing and other services. Starting in 2006,

912-445: The GDC moved to the new Moscone Center West , in the heart of San Francisco 's SOMA district, and reported over 12,000 attendees. The GDC returned to San Jose in 2006, reporting over 12,500 attendees, and moved to San Francisco in 2007 – where the organizers expect it will stay for the foreseeable future. Attendance figures continued to rise in following years, with 18,000 attendees in the 2008 event. The 2009 Game Developers Conference

960-435: The GDC partnered with Video Games Live to feature their symphonic performance of videogame music as the closing night event. In addition, the GDC has hosted a number of conference-wide game experiments designed by GameLab. The 2017 GDC included a Board Game Design Day, featuring talks from developers and publishers of tabletop games on their design processes. UBM TechWeb has also produced several spinoff events. For example,

1008-946: The Hollywood and Games Summit in conjunction with The Hollywood Reporter first held in June 2006. Additional events include the Game Advertising Summit, the Game Outsourcing Summit, the Game Career Seminar, GDC Russia, 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

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1056-644: The MMORPG EverQuest was inducted into the GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame. The 2011 awards ceremony took place on October 10, 2012. Star Wars: The Old Republic , developed by BioWare Austin , became the top winner at four awards, with League of Legends by Riot Games trailing slightly behind at three awards. The Online Game Legend award was given to Raph Koster , developer of previous Hall of Fame inductee Ultima Online as well as Star Wars: Galaxies . MMORPG World of Warcraft

1104-541: The advisory board. Once the nomination process is complete, the advisory board identifies five finalists for each regular category. The recipients of the Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer (formerly known as First Penguin) and Maverick awards are selected by the advisory board. For the other awards, a vote open to all those who participated in the nomination process chooses a recipient from each category's finalists. Note: Events held for awards are held early in

1152-559: The art form of game development". The Ambassador Award replaced it after 2007. The Maverick Award recognizes the current achievements of a developer who exhibits independence in thought and action while experimenting with alternate/emerging forms of digital games. For its eight iteration in 2010, GDC Austin was rebranded as GDC Online, with a greater focus on MMOs , and social and casual games . The Game Developers Choice Online Awards were also introduced to recognize technical excellence and innovation in online games . In addition to

1200-436: 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. During the late 1990s, the conference expanded from its original strict focus on game design to include topics such as marketing and legal issues. The CGDC changed its name to "Game Developers Conference" in 1999. The GDC has also hosted

1248-478: The awards of the competitive categories, special awards were given out to pioneering online games and creators. In 2012 it was announced that GDC Online would be replaced by GDC Next in Los Angeles in 2013, and the awards were subsequently discontinued. The 2010 awards ceremony took place on October 7, 2010. League of Legends by Riot Games led the winners with five awards from six nominations, including

1296-583: The best game from any development studio which released its first publicly available title during the calendar year. This was formerly known as the New Studio of the Year Award. In years prior to 2008, the award was awarded to the studio name, as opposed to the game title. Best Design award recognizes the overall excellence of design in a game, including gameplay, mechanics, puzzles, play balancing, and scenarios. Best Mobile/Handheld Game Award recognizes

1344-576: The ceremony for the Independent Games Festival is held just prior to the Choice Awards ceremony. Nominations for games are made by International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), a group of leading game creators. Votes are then additionally made by editors of Game Developer . Any video game released in the preceding calendar year, regardless of medium, is eligible to be nominated, though upgrades, expansions, and mission packs are not eligible to be nominated. The top nominated games are assembled into

1392-437: The computer. The latter occurrence allowed for the simulation to delete itself. The 3rd time, the task was to create a game worthy of a Nobel Prize . Harvey Smith won with his PeaceBomb game. It would utilize wireless devices to organize flash mobs to engage in random acts of charity. For the first 3 challenges, Eric Zimmerman has always ended the challenge by indicating that all the contestants' ideas could really be made into

1440-520: The conference showcasing upcoming products and technologies. Next to the Electronic Entertainment Expo , GDC keynotes are one of the more significant sources of news about upcoming console hardware and platforms, but with a focus on the developer audience instead of the wider press. A number of games in development or upcoming releases are also showcased, but generally far fewer than at traditional gaming conventions. Since 2005,

1488-548: The early years the conference changed venue each year to accommodate its increases in size. Attendance in this period grew from 525 to 2,387. By 1994 the CGDC could afford to sponsor the creation of the Computer Game Developers Association with Adams as its founding director. Miller Freeman, Inc. took on the running of the conference in 1996, nearly doubling attendance to 4,000 that year. In 2005,

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1536-623: The first GDC Europe (GDCE) was featured at the European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) in London between August 31 and September 1, 2001. Other GDC-related events include the Serious Games Summit, first held in 2004 as a GDC tutorial, and spun off as a standalone event in 2005, focusing on developing games for practical purposes, such as education, corporate training, military, and health care applications; and

1584-428: The following year. Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold . The Game of the Year Award recognizes the overall best game released during the previous calendar year, as interpreted by the members of the Game Developers Conference. Best Audio award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in a game, including sound effects, musical composition, sound design and orchestration. The Best Debut Award recognizes

1632-504: The game development community. The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an event held during the main GDC in the early part of the year, open to games from small independent studios and from students at universities. The IGF culminates with the presentation of several awards to games which have been nominated and voted on in the months prior, and which are given space at the IGF to showcase their game. These awards have cash prizes associated with them, ranging from US$ 1,000 to US$ 30,000 for

1680-455: The game industry selects the finalists and winners, and the individual creators are named as the recipients of the awards. The IGF is managed and developed by UBM TechWeb , the organizer of the GDC. The Game Developers Choice Awards is the game industry's only open, peer-based awards show. Any member of the IGDA may nominate games, and then the membership votes on the finalists. As with the IGF,

1728-472: The game released in the US. In a 2009 interview, he however expressed some criticism of the format, saying the games chosen felt gimick-y and the presentations being uninteresting. Held at the main GDC event in the first part of the year, the presentation for the Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) is held. The GDCAs are available for any game made in the previous calendar year, nominated and voted on by members of

1776-483: The individual creators are named as the recipients of the awards. Specialty awards such as Lifetime Achievement and First Penguin are determined by the GDCA committee, and all are revealed at the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony at the GDC. The IGF and the GDCA are presented back to back, in an awards show produced by UBM TechWeb, typically on the Wednesday of the GDC. UBM TechWeb has added several other events to

1824-552: The list of nominees, typically presented in December, are then voted on by final voting body, made up of ICANs, and editors of Game Developer. In this final stage of voting, games with the highest votes in a category are the winners. Winners for Special Awards (Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer, Ambassador) are decided by a "Special Awards Jury", which appears to consist of a variety of 5 people. This group may consider recommendations from ICAN members. The winners are announced during

1872-558: The organisation of tribal celebrations". Since the 1960s, conferences have become a lucrative sector of the tourism industry and have evolved into hundred billion Pound per year industry on a global scale. The growth around the world, including in Great Britain, Germany, Philippines, United States and Australia, has led to conferences themselves becoming an industry with buyers, suppliers, marketing , branding and conference facilities. Modern conferences can be held to discuss

1920-419: The overall best game commercially released on any handheld platform. The Innovation Award recognizes games that demonstrate innovation and push the boundaries of games as an expressive medium. Multiple awards per year were given before 2007. Best Narrative award recognizes the quality of writing in a game, including story, plot construction, dialogue, and branching narratives. Best Technology award recognizes

1968-506: The overall excellence of technology in a game, including graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, and physics. Best Visual Art award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in a game, including animation, modeling, art direction, and textures. These awards are voted by the audience for best game of that year. Known as the First Penguin award until 2007, the Pioneer Award celebrates individuals who developed

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2016-495: The pioneering and unheard voices of the past". The Ambassador Award is given to individuals within or outside the industry who helped video games "advance to a better place." It replaced the IGDA Award for Community Contribution after 2008. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the achievements of a developer who has impacted games and game development. The following award categories have been retired or replaced with

2064-532: The publicly voted Audience Award. Richard Bartle received the Online Game Legend award for his work on the first MUD and the 2003 book Designing Virtual Worlds . The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Ultima Online was inducted into the GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame for being "a specific online game that has resulted in the long-term advancement of the medium, pioneering major shifts in online game development and games as

2112-425: The real s***, and talk about what is going on in our industry—what's wrong and what we can do to change it." Many rants inspire controversy, discussion and a good deal of media coverage in industry press. Most rant sessions focus on a particular segment of the industry to draw their speakers from: The Rant panel has inspired similarly structured sessions, with more specialized topics (e.g., "Game Educators Rant" during

2160-446: The word confer , which means "to compare views or take counsel". However the idea of a conference far predates the word. Arguably, as long as there have been people, there have been meetings and discussions between people. Evidence of ancient forms of conference can be seen in archaeological ruins of common areas where people would gather to discuss shared interests such as "hunting plans, wartime activities, negotiations for peace or

2208-459: Was founded by Jonathan Blow , the developer behind the game Braid . As of 2021, it was headed by Robin Hunicke and Daniel Benmergui . The session generally showcases 20 titles from over 250 submissions each year. Keita Takahashi showcased his title Katamari Damacy before it was released in the US at the workshop in 2004. At lecture at the GDC in 2005, Keita credited the session for helping get

2256-468: Was held in San Francisco, on March 23–27, 2009. The IGDA awarded 25 scholarships to send qualified students to attend the 2009 GDC. Crawford continued to give the conference keynote address for the first several years of the conference, including one in the early 1990s where he punctuated a point about game tuning and player involvement by cracking a bullwhip perilously close to the front row of

2304-406: Was won by Will Wright who designed an Emily Dickinson personality simulator contained entirely on a USB flash drive . The personality would interact with the player by sending Instant Messages and email . The goal was to maintain a stable relationship and avoid the two extremes: romantic obsession with the player or suicidal depression. The first occurrence meant constant interruptions when using

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