It’s official, GDC is now less than two weeks away which means that pretty soon game developers from around the world will descend on San Francisco for what I personally think might just be my favorite conference on the planet. There is so much to do at GDC that I’ve compared it with the Louvre in the past, in short – there’s no way you can do everything so you have to pick and choose wisely.
One of my favorite things to do at GDC is to head over to the Indie Game section and check out all the incredible new Indie Games hitting the market. What I really like about this whole experience is that you’re playing a game while the creator watches. It’s a great opportunity for a game developer to see how a new user experiences their game, what works, what doesn’t and for me as a gamer…it’s awesome to play a game and have the developer right by my side.
Here’s a few pictures I took at the Indie Game section at GDC last year:
Last year my favorite Indie Game was No Heroes Here and it looks like I’m not alone as the game has been kicking ass and taking names on Steam as well and was ported to Nintendo and PS4, yowza!
Of courses there’s a whole other side to the convention center and that’s where you’ll find all the big companies like Unreal, Epic Games, Oculus, and really just about any major gaming studio you can think of. Last year Fornite wasn’t even close to the level of popularity of where it is today so it will be interesting to see how the focus shifts this year, I’m expecting Fornite and APEX to be head-to-head fighting for attention at GDC 2019.
Here’s a few shots of the amazing booths the big studios put together last year:
The big booths typically do fun things like give out beer, food, and swag, and of course you get to play their hit games, often while sitting on a comfy couch.
But wait there’s more, a lot more. I haven’t even covered the talks, of which there are a TON of and honestly, you’ll be struggling to pick between talks since so many good ones happen at the same time. Here’s a few of the talks that caught my eye this year:
ANIMATION BOOTCAMP: ‘GOD OF WAR’: BREATHING NEW LIFE INTO A HARDENED SPARTAN
BUILDING BUY-IN: CREATING DESIGN TOOLS FOR BETTER PLAYER EXPERIENCES AT EA
STORYTELLING FUNDAMENTALS IN A DAY
BOARD GAME DESIGN DAY: “KING ME”: A DEFENSE OF KING-MAKING IN BOARD GAME DESIGN
EVOLVING MIXED REALITY: DESIGNING ON THE REAL WORLD
Stay-tuned – I’ll be sharing more pre-GDC coverage here on my blog and then I’ll be there sharing some exciting updates live from the show!
