Game Developers Conference
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking. The event is comprised of an expo, networking events, awards shows such as the Independent Games Festival and the Game Developers Choice Awards, 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.
[edit] History
Originally called the Computer Game Developers Conference, the first conference was organized in 1987 by Chris Crawford in his San Jose, California-area living room. About twenty designers attended, including Don Daglow, Brenda Laurel, Brian Moriarty, Gordon Walton, Tim Brengle, Cliff Johnson, and Dave Menconi. The second conference, held that same year at a Holiday Inn at Milpitas, attracted about 150 developers. Later conferences moved between facilities in Santa Clara, San Jose and Long Beach, growing steadily in popularity. In 2005, GDC moved to the new Moscone Center West, in the heart of San Francisco's SOMA district, and reported over 12,000 attendees. GDC returned to San Jose in 2006, reporting over 12,500 attendees, and returned to San Francisco in 2007 -- where the organizers expect it will stay for the foreseeable future.
Crawford continued to give the conference keynote address for the first several years of the conference, including the famous "whip" speech 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 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 Spotlight Awards from 1997 to 1999, the Independent Games Festival since 1999 and the Game Developers Choice Awards since 2001. GDC is also used for the annual meeting of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).
The Independent Games Festival, 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 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 the CMP Game Group, the organizer of 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, 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 GDC. The IGF and the GDCA are presented back to back, in an awards show produced by the CMP Game Group, typically on the Wednesday of GDC.
The CMP Game Group has added several other events to 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, 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, GDC partnered with Video Games Live to feature their symphonic performance of videogame music as the closing night event. In addition, GDC has hosted a number of conference-wide game experiments designed by GameLab.
The CMP Game Group has also produced several spinoff events. For example, 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 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, the CMP Game Group acquired The Game Initiative, and now produces the Austin Game Developers Conference.
[edit] Personnel
Many people work on planning the Game Developers Conference. The executive director since GDC 2005 has been Jamil Moledina, who manages the content, production, and business of the event. He is credited with broadening GDC's leadership position, and introducing the East Meets West reception, the China Game Summit, the Hollywood and Games Summit, the Game Career Seminar, and GDC Prime. The senior conference manager is Meggan Scavio, who manages the speakers, session development, and the GDC advisory board. The content chairs of GDC Mobile, Serious Games Summit, and the Independent Games Festival are Rob Tercek, Ben Sawyer, and Simon Carless respectively. The event is produced by a team within the CMP Game Group, and draws support from an advisory board and several specialized boards, as well as an army of volunteers called conference associates. Notable contributors over GDC's long history include former directors Jennifer Pahlka and Alan Yu who are credited with transforming the GDC from a grassroots gathering to an international brand by expanding GDC's reach into Asia, founding the Game Developers Choice Awards, GDC Europe, Game Executive, GDC Hardcore, Serious Games Summit, Game Marketing and Distribution Conference, GDC Mobile, and introducing the Independent Games Festival, and Game Connection. Other notable former staff include Alex Dunne (founder of the Independent Game Festival), Jennifer Olsen (editor-in-chief of Game Developer Magazine), Susan Marshall, Yukiko Miyajima Grové (designer of the East Meets West initiative), Greg Kerwin, Afton Thatcher, Tim Brengle, and Chris Crawford (founder of the CGDC/GDC).
Members of the GDC advisory board (at one time or another) included Jason Rubin, Peter Molyneux, David Perry, Masaya Matsuura, Jez San, Ian Baverstock, Mark Cerny, Chris Hecker, Louis Castle, Doug Church, Ron Gilbert, Alan Yu, Mark DeLoura, Hal Barwood, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Bob Rafei, Elain Hodgson, Laura Fryer, Tommy Tallarico, Cyrus Lum, Dave Menconi, Sara Reeder, Stephen Friedman, Jeff Johannigman, Nicky Robinson, Tim Brengle, Ernest Adams, Susan Lee-Merrow and Anne Westfall.
