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[As Game Developers Conference approaches its 25th anniversary next February, a series of posts will give insight into the process and history behind the show. This time, organizers take a look at the Main Conference submission process, as first-round acceptances are sent out.]

Although there's still plenty going on around other GDC shows -- with GDC Online taking place in a couple of weeks and GDC China still on the agenda for December, organizers are well into the process of picking talks for GDC 2011.

The 25th annual Game Developers Conference -- celebrating a quarter-century of existence giving inspiration and practical take-away by developers for developers, is being held in San Francisco's Moscone Center next February 28 through March 4, 2011.

Last year, then-board member Simon Carless discussed the background of how talks get picked for GDC, explaining at the time:

"One initial point that is worth making strongly. I know that in some conferences (both outside the game industry and in), the Advisory Board can take a much smaller role in actually directly picking the content.

But one of the reasons that Game Developers Conference is so well respected, I believe, is that all of the talks are either empirically chosen from submissions, or carefully and specifically invited by the official GDC Advisory Board. The GDC organizers don't pick your talk -- key members of your own peer group pick your talk.

So rather than being hands-off 'advisors', multiple Advisory Board members grade every single submitted talk. They also discuss submitted and invited talk specifics via email, phone, and during the course of multiple in-person meetings. Finally, they coach and mold conditionally accepted GDC talks into a better end product."

We're doing the same this year, and after submissions that ended in August, GDC 2011 lecture selection has again been extremely competitive -- with more than 800 submitters vying for the opportunity to present at the next Game Developers Conference.

GDC Online has debuted partner content for next month's Austin show, including LocoRoco creator Tsutomu Kouno on PlayStation Home, plus Turbine's Kate Paiz on moving to free-to-play and subject-specific mixers from the Writers Guild, Epic, Crytek, hi5 and more.
The Austin, Texas based conference -- formerly known as GDC Austin -- is sharply focused on the development of online games, and there are now more than 120 panels, lectures and tutorials currently scheduled for the October 5th-8th event.
Following the confirmation of a keynote from Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds (FrontierVille), and track keynotes from Blizzard's Greg Canessa (on Battle.net), Playdom's Raph Koster (on social mechanics), and Bigpoint's Heiko Hubertz (on the rise of Europe in online gaming), organizers are revealing vendor-supported talks and receptions of relevance to attendees.
Some of the key new vendor-specific sessions and supported mixers, receptions and parties of relevance to all GDC Online attendees are as follows:
- As part of the recently confirmed GDC Online tutorials, Sony's full PlayStation Home day will include a keynote from LocoRoco creator Tsutomu Kouno on bringing the LocoIsland and Mui Mui Ship add-ons into Sony's PS3 online world.

GDC Online organizers have debuted the line-up for the Game Career Seminar at next month's Austin event, including staffers from Obsidian, Big Huge Games, Foundation 9 and more at the career-building one-day event.

There are now more than 120 panels, lectures and tutorials in total currently scheduled for the October 5th-8th Austin, Texas based conference. The event -- formerly known as GDC Austin -- is sharply focused on the development of online games, including free-to-play titles, social network games, and traditional MMOs, in addition to having Summits on diverse other subjects.

But it also includes a one-day Game Career Seminar event on Friday, October 8th, designed for students and individuals interested in learning how to build a career in the video game industry.

Attendees for the specially priced Summit will experience interactive sessions, network with industry professionals, and hear HR representatives, top game developers and industry experts share their perspective and insights.

The freshly debuted lectures for GDC Online's Game Career Seminar include the following newly announced and publicized highlights:

- In 'Don't Be Stopped at the Gate!', hiring managers such as Jim Rivers from Obsidian Entertainment, Lindsey McQueeney from 38 Studios and Big Huge Games and Dino McGraw from Foundation 9 discuss "how to prepare yourself with tips, tools and straight advice" in an interactive session for those wanting to enter the game business.

- Game education veteran Jen Sward presents 'Show Me, Don't Tell Me: Portfolios and Resumes in the Game Industry', explaining of her lecture: "In this discussion, we'll look at various ways for both entry level and experienced developers to create an accurate and compelling resume and portfolio that hiring managers will notice."

The Independent Games Festival China, which runs in conjunction with Shanghai's GDC China this December, is reminding that September 15th is the final entry date for the pan-Pacific indie games festival -- which allows entries from any Asian or Australasian independent game.

Following on from its 2009 success, the Game Developers Conference China -- part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network -- will continue to host the three main elements of IGF China, including the Independent Games Summit, which provides valuable conference sessions specializing in the challenges of independent game development.

These include the Independent Games Festival China Pavilion, an onsite exhibition of the very best in local indie games, and the Independent Games Festival China Awards, which honors the work of the talented pool of local independent game developers.

The 2010 IGF Main Competition will give out awards in five categories, including Best Game, Mobile Best Game, Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Technology, and Excellence in Visual Arts. Finalists in all categories will receive VIP and expo passes to attend GDC China and the IGF awards ceremony on December 5, 2010.

Finalists -- who will compete for RMB 20,000 ($3,000) will be chosen
by a panel of expert jurors including Kevin Li (CEO, TipCat
Interactive); Monte Singman (Main Coordinator, IGDA Shanghai Chapter);
Xubo Yang (Director of Digital Art Lab and Assistant Professor; Shanghai
Jiaotong University's School of Software), and jury chairman Simon
Carless, IGF Chairman Emeritus and Global Brand Director of the UBM
TechWeb Game Network.

Last year's event saw more than 200 entries for the Main Competition
and the Student Competition, including entries from China, Hong Kong,
Taiwan, the Philippines, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Pakistan, Australia,
South Korea, India and more. Winners from last year include titles like
acclaimed Best Game winner Captain Forever (Farbs - Australia), Donovo (Magic Day Studio - China) for Excellence in Art Direction, HurricaneX2 (You Yun Tech - China) for Technical Excellence and Armor Valley (Protege Production - Singapore) for Excellence in Audio.

Key dates for IGF China include:

GDC Vault has debuted both free and subscriber-only videos from August's GDC Europe event in Cologne. Free-to-watch talks feature ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2 and notables from the ESA, Remedy and Crytek on building grassroots political support for games.

Following the successful Europe-wide developer event that ran alongside Gamescom last month, organizers of the Game Developers Conference series of events are making specially recorded versions of the talks available -- while also archiving all of the GDC Europe content in video form for future use and study.

These new free talks debut alongside an update making available over 65 lecture videos from GDC Europe for subscribers at the GDC Vault website. The site features video technology that allows users to simultaneously view a presenter's slides alongside video and audio of their presentation.

The two free GDC Europe-related videos currently debuting on the site are as follows:

- In 'Designing Guild Wars 2's Dynamic Events', ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2 lead designer Eric Flannum and lead content designer Colin Johanson outline how the industry's attitude to content in games in the MMORPG genre has evolved over time.

The duo discuss the inspiration for -- and the implementation challenges of -- their Dynamic Events system in the much-awaited PC MMO, "with the goal of creating an exciting, living, breathing online world that encourages social interaction between players."

GDC Online organizers are reminding potential attendees that today is the last day to save up to 40% on passes to the October 5th-8th event in Austin, TX, fully detailing the comprehensive exhibit floor, Summits, keynotes, a PlayStation Home developer day and more.

The Austin, Texas based GDC Online conference -- formerly known as GDC Austin -- is mainly focused on the development of online games, including free-to-play titles, social network games, and traditional MMOs, with a veteran online game industry advisory board evaluating and selecting the lectures.

There are now more than 120 panels, lectures and tutorials currently scheduled for the event -- including the recently announced keynote from Civilization II designer and now Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds (FrontierVille), and just-debuted track keynotes from Blizzard on Battle.net, Raph Koster on social design trends, and European browser game giant BigPoint on its rise to success.

These lectures join a full set of highlighted lectures including Main Conference talks on October 6th-8th from Relic, Sony Online, Carbine, KingsIsle, IMVU, Disney, Playdom, BioWare Austin, Hangout Industries, Broken Bulb Studios, CCP, Gaia Online, Playfish, InstantAction, Ubisoft and a host of other notable companies at the leading worldwide online game-specific conference.

One of the other major advantages of attending GDC Online is the comprehensive list of nearly 90 exhibitors with whom attendees are able to get product demonstrations, meet, and interact on the vibrant GDC Online Expo Floor. These include major firms like Epic, Rackspace, Gaikai, Offerpal, Vindicia, Trinigy, ARIN, Versant, Rixty, Softlayer, and many other notable companies in the space.

Organizers of this October's GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin) are rolling out more major new talks, including ex-Realtime Worlds exec Joshua Howard on 'self-inflicted wounds' in game creation, Sulka Haro on the $500 million Habbo Hotel economy, and Ian Bogost on his satirical Facebook title Cow Clicker.

The Austin, Texas based GDC Online conference is focused on the development of online games, including free-to-play titles, social network games, and traditional MMOs, with a veteran online game industry advisory board evaluating and selecting the lectures.

There are already more than 80 panels, lectures and tutorials currently scheduled for the October 5th-8th event -- and following the announcement of a keynote from Civilization II designer and now Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds (FrontierVille), a number of other notable talks are debuting:

Some of the newly announced highlights from notable sessions across the GDC Online Main Conference, which takes place from Wednesday October 6th to Friday October 8th, and for which 'early registration' passes are only available until Wednesday, are:

- In 'Self-Inflicted Wounds: When We Are Our Own Worst Enemy', U.S.-based ex-Realtime Worlds executive producer Joshua Howard (APB) will discuss "common management and organizational failures that leaders talk themselves into accepting, which almost always end up impacting a game's success." Along the way, the former Carbonated Games exec "will provide techniques that anyone can use if they find themselves on a project that has already made one of these mistakes."