The 2009 Game Developers Conference came to a close Friday night (or Saturday morning, for more than a few business folk reluctant to return to the displeasure of their respective cities, states, and countries). NowGamer was there to take in as much we humanly could, and while we’ve already reported on a few key panels, there were also a number of other integral aspects that make GDC what it is.
Independent Games Festival Awards
Ceremony The Independent Game Awards are easily the highlight of each GDC. Although the production values and venue are on par with any other black tie ceremony, the IGFAs are anything but the usual lifeless, self-congratulatory events (like the one directly following it). Hosted by the always likable Andy Schatz, founder of Pocketwatch Games, the awards are fast-paced and energetic, thanks in particular to the winners. We’re hard-pressed to think of any other awards ceremony where an honoree can take to the stage with a trophy in one hand and a beer in the other. Although there were unfortunately no wedding proposals this year, the Mega64 segments really outdid themselves. We’re still laughing about them, even now.
Game Developers Choice Awards
Focusing on “AAA” titles rather than indies, this is the mainstream gaming industry’s opportunity to pat itself on the back. Replacing the snooze-inducing Jason “Cracktime” Rubin of GDCAs past, Brutal Legend and Psychonauts creator Tim Schafer filled the role of host this year. His involvement and off-cuff humor were an extremely welcome change, to say the least. However, LittleBigPlanet’s near sweep of the awards was both boring and predictable. Unlike the humble indie devs, mainstream developers often give acceptance speeches infused with entitlement and arrogance. Hideo Kojima was given the Lifetime Achievement award, while video game music veteran Tommy Tallarico was honored with the Ambassador award.
Showroom Floor
Officially a non-press event, the showroom floor is not all booth babes and boxing rings as you might imagine a game expo to be. Instead, the exhibit hall is primarily a technology showcase, with an extremely scant amount of actual games scattered throughout. The IGF finalists are the most concentrated and unsurprisingly popular kiosks, and the chance to speak with the actual indie game developers is a great opportunity. There’s a definite difference between the passion they have for game development and the sort of robotic, caged animal feel of mainstream developers.
Career Hall
The career hall is an overwhelmingly sterile environment, even more so than the showroom floor. The majority of developers have painfully plain, identical booths; melded together like the rows of cubicles most attendees likely thought they were temporarily escaping from. The purpose of the career hall is for GDC attendees to find new job opportunities by making contacts and showing off their portfolios from companies as large as Blizzard to a group whose booth simply read “Singapore”. We’ll let you guess which one was full and which one was empty.
Panels & Keynotes
From audio and storytelling to marketing and mobile games, there is a cavernous amount of knowledge to be gained from attending GDC. Planning your schedule ahead of time is important to getting the most out of the experience (and the extremely pricey admission), but luckily the GDC website comes equipped with a number of tools to help achieve this. In order to sell more of their overpriced audio/visual DVDs which record all of the hundreds of panels, similar panels often occur at the same exact time as each other. It’s a rather discourteous and greedy practice that will hopefully be corrected for future GDCs.
If you are a developer serious about learning how to improve your craft directly from the biggest names in the industry, or wanna-be developer hoping to break into the industry and make contacts, GDC is an indescribably useful place to start.