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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 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.

2009 Game Developers Choice Awards Honor Kojima For Lifetime Achievement

February 17, 2009

The 2009 Game Developers Choice Awards, the highest honors in game development acknowledging excellence in game creation, will honor Hideo Kojima with a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s ceremony taking place at the Game Developers Conference next month.
Kojima is Corporate Officer, Executive Producer and Director of Kojima Productions and creator of the seminal Metal Gear series, and the Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of developers who have made an indelible impact on the craft of game development.
Renowned as one of the world’s most influential contemporary game developers, Hideo Kojima first decided to get involved in the game development business while studying economics.

Previewing GDC 2009: Inside The Business & Management Track

February 15, 2009

[In the sixth of a series picking out the most notable Game Developers Conference 2009 lectures, sister site Gamasutra examines the Business & Management Track, featuring talks about starting up an independent studio, learning from Flagship's demise, Age Of Booty creator Certain Affinity's rise, negotiating rights for future games, and much more.]
Game Developers Conference 2009 (organized by Gamasutra parent company Think Services) is set to take place in San Francisco's Moscone Center from March 23 to 27, 2009.
With nearly 390 sessions now confirmed for GDC 2009, we'll be taking a track by track look at the conference's line-up over the next few weeks.
Sixth on the list is GDC's Business & Management Track, which will "looks at the game development process from the standpoint of running the business and offers proven strategies for the developer who needs to understand complex business issues."
Notable highlights thus far announced for this track are as follows:

GDC 2009 Early Registration Ends February 12th

February 11, 2009

Organizers of the 2009 Game Developers Conference are reminding potential attendees that early registration for the March 23rd-27th San Francisco conference ends on Thursday, February 12th, with 30% discounts only available until that date.

Metal Gear Solid Creator Kojima To Keynote GDC 2009

February 10, 2009

Organizers have revealed that Hideo Kojima, Corporate Officer, Executive Producer and Director of Kojima Productions, will deliver a keynote address at next months 2009 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.
Known for giving rise to the stealth action game genre with his creation of the acclaimed Metal Gear series more than two decades ago, Kojima’s keynote will focus on conquering various development obstacles with creative game design, using the driving game design philosophies behind the Metal Gear series as reference.
The address, “Solid Game Design: Making the ‘Impossible’ Possible,” marks Kojima’s debut appearance at the GDC. The Game Developers Conference takes place March 23-27 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.
Kojima joins a host of notable speakers at this year's GDC, including Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, LittleBigPlanet creators Mark Healey and Alex Evans, Epic's Rod Fergusson, and a host of others.

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