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Stay up to date on everything happening with the Game Developers Conference, the Independent Games Festival, the Game Developers Choice Awards, and more through our online blog. To get GDC updates sent straight to your mailbox, subscribe to our GDC Newsletter.

GDC 2009 Attendance Exceeds 17,000, Dates For 2010 Confirmed

March 30, 2009

The 2009 Game Developers Conference, held last week at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, saw attendance of more than 17,000.
That figure was released by conference organizer Think Services, which pointed to the results as indicative of the overall industry's fundamental strength.
"The success of this past week in San Francisco proves the resilience of the games industry," said event director Meggan Scavio. "It is a testament to the spirit of our more than 20 year old conference and community, and evidence of video games' continued evolution into a mainstream form of entertainment, that the various constituents of the industry were able come together at GDC as they did [last] year."

Fallout 3, LittleBigPlanet Reign Supreme At Choice Awards

March 26, 2009

Bethesda Softworks' epic post-apocalyptic open-world adventure, Fallout 3, received the Game of the Year Award at the 9th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, presented at a ceremony this evening the 2009 Game Developers Conference. Bethesda also received the Best Writing award for the game.
Media Molecule's imaginative user creation-centric platform game LittleBigPlanet, which was first unveiled at GDC 2007, was the recipient of the most awards of the evening, taking four awards for Best Game Design, Best Technology, Best Debut Game and Innovation Award.
Other winners at the Tim Schafer-hosted event included Ubisoft's hauntingly beautiful update of the Prince of Persia franchise, which won the prize for Best Visual Arts, and Ready at Dawn's portable action-adventure, God of War: Chains of Olympus, winner of the Best Handheld Game award. EA Redwood Shores' shocking horror title, Dead Space, won the prize for Best Audio award.

11th Independent Games Festival Awards Topped By Blueberry Garden

March 26, 2009

Erik Svedang's Blueberry Garden, a charming exploration game set in an ever-changing ecosystem, received top honors - the $30,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game - at the 2009 Independent Games Festival Awards.
The winners were announced this evening at the eleventh Annual IGF Awards ceremony, hosted by the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.
The IGF awards are often referred to as the Sundance Festival of the video game industry, and offer both global exposure and over $50,000 in cash prizes to each year's winners.
Previous breakout IGF award-winners include titles such as Braid, Audiosurf, Castle Crashers, and World Of Goo, and this year's awards saw 226 Main Competition entries from all over the world - and over 450 entries in total.

G4 To Broadcast 2009 Game Developers Choice Awards

March 19, 2009

Gaming-oriented television network G4 will exclusively broadcast the 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards on U.S. television, G4 and conference organizer Think Services announced today.
The awards take place Wednesday, March 25 during Game Developers Conference 2009 in San Francisco. G4's program X-Play, featuring host Adam Sessler -- billed as "the most watched video game series on television" -- will air the proceedings on Friday, April 10 at 6:30 PM.
As recently revealed by Think Services, this year Double Fine Productions founder and veteran game designer Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango, Psychonauts) will once again preside over the evening. Schafer previously hosted the 2007 Choice Awards.

GDC 2009 Additions Include Ono, Journo-To-Designer Panel, Interaction Innovations

March 14, 2009

Organizers of this month's Game Developers Conference have revealed notable, late-breaking new talks from Capcom' Yoshinori Ono on Street Fighter IV, MIT's David Merrill on new forms of interaction, and a panel of journalists-turned-developers on crossing over to another side of the industry.
Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono will present a talk called "IV Style: Returning to the Roots of a Fighting Game Classic," discussing how the Capcom team approached the design and development process of the anticipating fighting game -- and promising "a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into the inner workings of Japanese development."

Think Services Game Group Founds German Office For GDC Europe

March 13, 2009

Game Developers Conference organizer Think Services (also parent of Gamasutra) has established a new office in Germany to handle GDC Europe.
Think Services Game Group European business development VP Frank Sliwka will head the new office, and serve as conference director for GDC Europe and the International eSports Conference.

Game Developers Conference Director Clarifies GDC China Confusion

March 9, 2009

Following recent confusion, Game Developers Conference organizer Think Services has clarified that its conference in Shanghai this October is the only official GDC event scheduled for China -- despite an unrelated upcoming event going by "ChinaGDC."
Think Services (which publishes Gamasutra) has scheduled its GDC China for October 11 through 13 in Shanghai.
The unlicensed naming overlap has roots in a 2007 deal that saw Think Services work with IDG China for the first GDC China event, GDC executive director Meggan Scavio said in a statement:

GDC 2009's Game Design Challenge Tackles 'My First Time'

March 4, 2009

2009 Game Developers Conference organizers have revealed that 'My First Time' is the theme for this year's Game Design Challenge, with Infocom veteran Steve Meretzky, Portal co-creator Kim Swift and Habbo lead designer Sulka Haro twinning 'sex and autobiography' in their game concepts.
The longrunning event, organized and MC-ed by Gamelab chief design officer Eric Zimmerman, is taking place on Wednesday, March 25 from 2:30 to 3:30pm at this year's GDC, held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

2009 Independent Games Festival Opens Audience Award

March 2, 2009

Organizers of the 2009 Independent Games Festival (IGF) have launched the IGF Audience Award voting website, allowing game fans everywhere to download, play, and choose a favorite all of the eligible Main Competition finalist indie games which submitted a publicly playable demo.
Online voting is open now and continues through Friday, March 20th, with the award given out at the IGF Awards taking place alongside the Game Developers Choice Awards at the 2009 Game Developers Conference on March 25th.
The games with eligible demos or full versions on PC, XBLA, XNA Community Games or PSN are: Retro/Grade, Dyson, Brainpipe, The Maw, IncrediBots, Osmos, Musaic Box, Cortex Command, CarneyVale Showtime, Coil, The Graveyard, PixelJunk Eden, Mightier, You Have To Burn The Rope, and Between.

GDC 2009 Announces Outsourcing Summit Line-Up

February 26, 2009

As sister website Gamasutra noted a few weeks ago, one of the top trends of 2008 and the foreseeable future will continue to be outsourcing.
The organizers of the Game Outsourcing Summit at the 2009 Game Developers Conference have announced the full lineup of speakers and sessions intended to eliminate the trial and error of this seemingly daunting task.
Notables from Pandemic, Activision, Eidos Shanghai, Lakshya Digital and more will offer their hard earned lessons learned on how to successfully outsource your operation.
The top scheduled sessions follow:

GDC 2009 Reveals New Suda, Ueda, Nintendo DSi Talks

February 25, 2009

Organizers of next month's Game Developers Conference are continuing to add major talks, this time revealing a panel featuring ICO creator Fumito Ueda alongside Suda51 and Fallout 3's Emil Pagliarulo, plus DSi hardware lead Masato Kuwahara on making Nintendo's new handheld.
Firstly, in a newly revealed panel called 'Evolving Game Design: Today and Tomorrow, Eastern and Western Game Design', Sony's Fumito Ueda, creator of ICO and Shadow Of The Colossus, will be making a rare Western appearance to discuss the state of Western and Eastern game design.

Microsoft's Mattrick To Keynote GDC Canada 2009

February 24, 2009

Don Mattrick, Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business SVP, will deliver a keynote at the inaugural Game Developers Conference Canada taking place May 12-13th in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The keynote will be presented in the form of an extensive on-stage interview, with games journalist Victor Lucas, creator and co-host of “The Electric Playground,” asking Mattrick a series of questions exploring the changing landscape of Canadian game development and Mattrick’s own role in expanding Canada’s role in the industry.
Previous to his work at Microsoft, Mattrick helped bring to life such successful game franchises as Need for Speed, Harry Potter, and The Sims during his tenure at Distinctive Software and Electronic Arts.

Fallout 3's Pagliarulo To Keynote 2009 Game Career Seminar

February 19, 2009

Emil Pagliarulo, writer and lead designer for Bethesda's Fallout 3, will deliver a special interview-style keynote with Spike TV's Geoff Keighley keynote for the Game Career Seminar at the 2009 Game Developers Conference, taking place in San Francisco's Moscone Center from March 23 to 27, 2009.
Titled "Unlikely Beginnings: Fallout 3's Lead Designer on His Path into the Game Industry," the keynote will guide attendees through Pagliarulo's career path, from nearly becoming an elementary school teacher, to working as a game journalist and eventually to designing one of 2008's most critically-acclaimed games.
Discussing how professional networking, corporate ladder-climbing, and luck played in the designer's success, the special interview format will facilitate an engaging conversation on the trials and tribulations of a career in game development.

GDC 2009 Adds Noby Noby, Level 5, Left 4 Dead Talks

February 18, 2009

Organizers of next month's Game Developers Conference have revealed major new talks from Keita Takahashi on Noby Noby Boy, Valve's Michael Booth on Left 4 Dead, and Level-5's Akihiro Hino, on Professor Layton and his firm's other titles.
A high-profile late addition to the program for the San Francisco-based developer event, Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi will present a talk called 'All About Noby Noby Boy', discussing his supremely quirky new PlayStation Network title. Attendees are promised that "This class will be a refreshing change of pace."

Final Reminder: GDC 2009 Early Registration Extended Until Feb 17th

February 17, 2009

Organizers of the 2009 Game Developers Conference have extended early registration for the March 23rd-27th San Francisco-based event to Tuesday, February 17th due to public demand, with 30 percent discounts now only available until that date.
The extension gives interested attendees more time to sign up for the 2009 edition of the world's leading game industry conference, which includes a multitude of discipline-specific lecture tracks, focused sub-market summits, major keynotes, award shows, and more to attend this year.

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