Rise and shine: It's game time! The 2025 Game Developers Conference has returned to the Moscone Center. We're kicking things off with an exhilarating first day packed with summits, talks, sponsored sessions, and our first official after-hours event, GDC Nights!
You can pick up your badge between 7:30am and 8:00pm at registration, located in South Hall, Street Level. Be sure to complete your registration and log into the GDC Event App so you can build your schedule and connect with attendees and exhibitors.
Check Out Monday's GDC 2025 Sessions
Monday is the first of our two Summits days at GDC 2025, along with the Game Design Workshop, Storytelling Fundamentals Workshop, and the Economic Policy and Ecosystem Workshop. Sessions start at 9:30am. Here are the Summits you can attend (click the links for sessions):
- Advanced Graphics Summit: Uncover the cutting-edge techniques driving the future of real-time graphics. This summit offers in-depth sessions on rendering, ray tracing, and GPU optimizations to help you deliver visually stunning games.
- Animation Summit: Discover the art and science behind creating captivating game animations. From motion capture to procedural animation, this summit provides deep insights into bringing characters and worlds to life.
- Community Management Summit: Master the art of engaging and growing your game’s community. Learn practical solutions and strategies for handling feedback, fostering loyalty, and building long-term player engagement.
- Future Realities Summit: VR, AR, and human spatial computing are unlocking new possibilities to design immersive experiences. This summit focuses on the technologies shaping the next generation of interactive experiences.
- Game AI Summit: Explore the latest advancements in game AI, from physics and animation to creating adaptive, player-focused systems. This summit will equip you with the tools to design smarter, more dynamic games.
- Game Narrative Summit: Level up your storytelling skills at this summit dedicated to interactive narrative. Explore cutting-edge techniques, ethical challenges, and the role of writers in franchise development.
- Independent Games Summit: Celebrate the creativity and challenges of indie game development. Whether you’re learning from case studies or exploring innovative design techniques, this summit will help you thrive in the indie space.
- Live Service Games Summit: Explore the business and design strategies behind successful live service games. From monetization models to community-driven content updates, this summit offers valuable insights for developers running long-term, evolving games.
- Machine Learning Summit: From improving artificial intelligence (AI), behavior trees, and machine learning techniques, you’ll discover revolutionary applications that are shaping the future of games.
- Tabletop Summit: Bridge the worlds of tabletop and digital games. Whether you're designing for board games or integrating tabletop mechanics into video games, this summit provides a unique perspective on game design.
- UX Summit: Discover the principles of user experience design that help create seamless, engaging gameplay. This summit covers best practices for designing intuitive interfaces and crafting engaging experiences.
- Visual Effects Summit: Special effects are what make games visually thrilling. This summit explores techniques and technologies that elevate the visual effects in games, from real-time simulations to advanced lighting and particle systems.
Plus, don't miss our innovative sponsored summits!
The fun doesn't end when the lights go down. Join us for GDC Nights, an after-hours experience designed to bring the game development community together for two unforgettable evenings. Taking over all three floors of Moscone’s West Hall (6:30-10:00 PM), we’re bringing you a festival of fun, connection, and creativity. Tonight's special events include a screening of The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (courtesy of Netflix), the Endgames Improv Theater, and a live performance from Asadi & Xye. Plus, we've got live speed runs, playtesting, karaoke, exclusive GDC Nights merch, and more!
Haven't secured your GDC or GDC Nights passes yet (GDC Nights admission is included with an All-Access pass)? No worries! You can still register for GDC 2025 at on-site registration prices.
Get ready to dive into the future of game development. Let's make GDC 2025 the most innovative and inspiring conference yet!
GDC 2025 is happening now in San Francisco, come join us! Check out our Passes & Prices, and follow the #GDC2025 hashtag on Bluesky and LinkedIn.
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