game developers conference game developers conferenceofficial logo of the game developers conference status active genre video game development venue varies locations varies country varies inaugurated april 1988 30 years ago as computer game developers conferenceorganized byinformawebsitegdconfcom the game developers conference gdc is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers focusing on learning inspiration and networking the event includes 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 gamerelated topics covering programming design audio production business and management and visual arts history outside the san jose convention center during gdc 2004 originally called the computer game developers conference the first conference was organized in april 1988 by chris crawford in his san jose californiaarea living room 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 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 academicstyle 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 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 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 2005 game developers conference entrance the game developers choice awards is the game industrys only open peerbased 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 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 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 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 conferencewide 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 the first gdc europe gdce was featured at the european computer trade show ects in london between august 31 and september 1 2001 other gdcrelated 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 ubm techweb acquired the game initiative and now produces the austin game developers conference gdc china recognizing the burgeoning games market in china ubm techweb brought its flagship event to shanghai in 2007 with the continued support of ministry of culture of the peoples republic of china gdc china is held in shanghai annually and approached its fifth year in november 2012 gdc china has since been cancelled igf china gdc china hosted the annual independent games festival china igf china from 2009 calling for entries developed by the independent game studios and individuals in the asiapacific region igf china includes the independent games summit the independent games festival pavilion and the independent games festival awards ceremony recurring highlights tutorials about half of the time during the first two days of gdc are given over to tutorials one or twodaylong sessions on a given topic tutorials take the form of handson workshops and cover a variety of technical subjects such as game design audio topics in computer programming such as physics graphics programing or web technologies production and business management summits a summit is a section of panels dedicated to a subsegment 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 of students aspiring to join the industry serious games social games artificial intelligence and online games console makers keynotes regularly sony computer entertainment microsoft and nintendo deliver keynotes at 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 e3 developers rant since 2005 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 industryrelated 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 the real s and talk about what is going on in our industrywhats 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 2005 burning down the house game developers rant 2006 burn baby burn game developers rant 2007 burning mad game publishers rant 2008 pouring gas on the flames game designers rant 2009 burned by friendly fire game critics rant 2010 fired and firedup jobless developers rant 2011 no freaking respect social game developers rant back 2012 burn this motherfather game dev parents rant 2013 mad as hell hothead developers rant back 2014 rant apocalypse the 10th anniversary mega session the rant panel has inspired similarly structured sessions with more specialized topics eg game educators rant during the education summit or rants during the indie game summit game design challenge 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 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 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 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 oneplayer at a time multiplayer game named chain world contained entirely on a usb flash drive experimental gameplay workshop the experimental gameplay workshop is a twohour workshop that showcases experimental video games and game prototypes dates from 2009 conference location dates 2009 gdc 2009 san francisco california march 2327 gdc europe 2009 cologne germany august 1719 gdc austin 2009 austin texas september 1528 gdc china 2009 shanghai china october 1113 2010 gdc 2010 san francisco california march 913 gdc canada 2010 vancouver canada may 67 gdc europe 2010 cologne germany august 1618 gdc online 2010 austin texas october 58 gdc china 2010 shanghai china december 57 2011 gdc 2011 san francisco california february 28 march 4 gdc europe 2011 cologne germany august 1517 gdc online 2011 austin texas october 1013 gdc china 2011 shanghai china november 1214 2012 gdc 2012 san francisco california march 59 gdc europe 2012 cologne germany august 1315 gdc online 2012 austin texas october 911 gdc china 2012 shanghai china november 1719 2013 gdc 2013 san francisco california march 2529 gdc europe 2013 cologne germany august 1921 gdc china 2013 shanghai china september 1517 gdc next 2013 los angeles california november 57 2014 gdc 2014 san francisco california march 1721 gdc europe 2014 cologne germany august 1113 gdc china 2014 shanghai china october 1921 gdc next 2014 los angeles california november 34 2015 gdc 2015 san francisco california march 26 gdc europe 2015 cologne germany august 34 gdc china 2015 shanghai china october 2527 2016 gdc 2016 san francisco california march 1418 gdc europe 2016 cologne germany august 1516 2017 gdc 2017 san 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