The game industry is gathering itself for GDC 2016 later this month, and today show organizers would like to quickly give you the rundown on a very special event that's taking place at the conference this year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Game Developers Conference.

"Flash Backward: 30 Years of Making Games" is a very special event where game industry luminaries will gather to look back on the last three decades of game development. The series of five-minute microtalks kicks off with GDC's founder, Chris Crawford, speaking about the state of the industry when GDC was born (in 1988!) and progresses through to present day.

The idea is to offer attendees a look back at significant trends through the eyes of the people who helped shape them, from the age of adventure games through to the heyday of MMORPGs, the rise of smartphones and tablets and the advent of virtual reality.

Heads up, coders: GDC 2016 organizers would like to give you a preview of the cutting-edge discussions taking place during the day-long Math for Game Programmers tutorial which will help kick off the conference next month.

And of course if this isn't quite up your alley, remember that it's just one of many excellent Bootcamps and Tutorials scheduled during the first two days of GDC (Monday and Tuesday, March 14th and 15th this year.)

But shucks, if the Math for Game Programmers tutorial sounds at all intriguing to you then you're in for a treat. Because as games and gaming platforms continue to evolve and diversify, so has the complexity and variety of problems facing the modern game programmer.

After all, creating the latest code for graphics, gameplay, animation, physical simulation, and artificial intelligence requires thorough knowledge of the necessary mathematical underpinnings.

Going to GDC 2016? You could qualify for on-site job interviews with major companies attending the show!

As everyone gears up for the 2016 Game Developers Conference next month, organizers would like to quickly shine a light on one of the many great VR-focused programming talks taking place at the March conference.

Valve's Alex Vlachos is returning to GDC to deliver an expert session about "Advanced VR Rendering Performance." Reliably hitting 90 fps in VR is a significant challenge for contemporary developers. In his talk, Vlachos will present a method developed by Valve for adaptively scaling fidelity to consistently maintain VR framerate without using reprojection techniques, even on very low-end GPUs, while also having the ability to increase fidelity for high-end GPUs and multi-GPU installations.

The Aperture Robot Repair VR experience Valve brought to GDC last year required an NVIDIA 980 to maintain framerate, but this talk will use that same experience as an example of how Valve can now adaptively scale fidelity to maintain 90 fps on an NVIDIA 680 -- a 4-year-old GPU.

Game Developers Conference organizers are excited to highlight a great Production talk from a Supercell designer and artist that will be taking place at GDC 2016 next month.

In "Quality Is Worth Killing For" Jonathan Dower will discuss the inner workings of Supercell, how the games are made and the importance of the small, truly independent teams making huge decisions.

Dower worked on soft-launched Supercell hit Clash Royale (pictured), but he also worked on Smash Land -- a promising Supercell project that was eventually killed. During his talk, he'll provide practical examples of why it's important to kill your darlings, and what important lessons teams can learn from killing a project.

It's a great session, part of the GDC 2016 Production track of talks, so check it out to get new perspective on how a team's independence and the ability to kill a game is crucial to quality, learning and longevity.

Technical artists, take note: GDC 2016 organizers would like to give you a quick highlight preview of the informative, intensive sessions taking place during the day-long Technical Artist Bootcamp that helps kick off the conference next month.

Iit's just one of many Bootcamps and Tutorials scheduled during the first two days of GDC (Monday and Tuesday, March 14th and 15th this year) which offer attendees the chance to spend time focusing intently on a core discipline of game development.

GDC 2016 attendees are invited to attend the Technical Artist Bootcamp on Tuesday and join experts who will discuss how technical art continues to march forward and at a faster pace than most disciplines, as it is both wide-reaching and wide open.

Rigging, Python, pipelines, shaders and unit tests are all known and understood, but bootcamp organizers believe it's time to push forward and stretch our legs a bit. Large studios need more powerful tool-chains with more professional development environments, and small teams need each and every member to be very technically capable.