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Mere days before GDC 2013 begins, organizers offer an extensive overview of the event and remind of conference-navigating tools to maximize attendees' experiences, such as the schedule builder and mobile app, and the availability of onsite pass purchases.
GDC 2013 will run Monday, March 25th through Friday, March 29th at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California.
The event is set to provide a wealth of knowledge, networking and inspiration for game development professionals worldwide, and is centered around more than 500 lectures, panels, tutorials, and roundtable discussions from more than 900 speakers.
Also key to the event are the Independent Games Festival (IGF) and Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCAs) ceremonies, and the most comprehensive Expo floor of its kind, open from Wednesday to Friday and featuring a Career Pavilion, Business Center, and more than 350 exhibitors in total.
The best way to maximize the week of events is to plan ahead for them with online schedule builder, which can be exported or added to the GDC mobile app. Attendees can also plan their expo routes with the detailed expo floor plan.

On the last day of discounted online registration, GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting talks on freemium app CSR Racing getting 30 million downloads, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm's cinematic process, and the 'reinvention' of Tomb Raider and Crystal Dynamics.
These talks are part of the Main Conference for Game Developers Conference 2013, which will take place next week, Wednesday-Friday, March 27-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
Today's highlights begin with Blizzard's Wyatt Cheng, who will explore his company's iterative design process in 'Through the Grinder: Refining Diablo III's Game Systems.' Cheng will focus particularly on what worked and what did not for the game's health recovery, controls, and skills systems.
'The Reinvention of Tomb Raider' called for a reinvention of Crystal Dynamics, studio head Darrell Gallagher and creative director Noah Hughes will share. Along with a studio "reboot," the two will discuss how the game required rebooted creative vision and production techniques to develop a Tomb Raider for a modern audience.
In another Blizzard session, lead writer Brian Kindregan will trace the story development of a difficult StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm cinematic in 'How Hard Could It Be? The Story of a Cinematic.' While showing multiple versions, Kindregan will track "the differing speed of cinematic production vs. game design, the feedback we received, the choices we made, and how they impacted the story."

Just two days before discounted registration ends, GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting notable sponsored sessions for its March event, including automated visibility rendering in Bungie's Destiny, Skulls of the Shogun's development across Microsoft platforms, and a 'Japanese Games & Publishing in Japan' panel.
These sponsor-supported talks are part of the Main Conference for Game Developers Conference 2013, which will take place Wednesday-Friday, March 27-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA, and are open to all relevant passholders.
Some of the highlights from the multitude of vendor sessions at this year's show include:
- In 'Powering up Destiny's Level Creation and Rendering with Umbra 3 (Presented by Umbra Soft)', and Umbra's Otso Makinen will discuss his company's newest automated visibility solution. Bungie's Hao Chen will then share how this solution lead to "a new level of artistic freedom and rapid content iteration times," which is "vital in the creation of Bungie's next universe and its unparalleled gaming experience."
- In '5 things to know: Japanese Games & Publishing in Japan (Presented by JETRO)', attendees will learn how to succeed in the game markets in Japan and overseas, which types of Japanese games will be successful in western markets, how to partner with Japanese gaming companies, and how to source Japanese games or developers.
The growing lineup, in a panel moderated by veteran Jon Kimmich of consulting firm Software Illuminati, will include Alexander Aniel of Land Ho (multiplaform developer in Japan, localized Ubisoft's Just Dance and We Cheer series), Atsushi Ishii of Dango (Magimon, Land of Zombies developer), Masaki Sato of WINLIGHT (mobile game developer, Elemental Knights Online), and Tomonori Sugiyama of Vanguard (Trauma Center 2, Mononoke Fever multiplatform developer).

With less than two weeks remaining before the Game Developers Conference 2013, show organizers are detailing its special workshop dubbed "Experimental Gameplay Sessions," which returns to GDC for its 11th year.
This jam-packed, two-hour session -- which takes place Friday, March 29 at 2:30pm in Room 2014 of the San Francisco Moscone Center's West Hall -- will showcase an eclectic mix of unusual game prototypes that defy convention and explore new ideas and genres.
With this year's EGS curated and organized by leading creators Robin Hunicke (Journey), Richard Lemarchand (Uncharted franchise) & Daniel Benmergui (Storyteller), it's an exciting opportunity for presenters and attendees alike to explore some brand new territory in game design.
In fact, a number of 'experimental' titles that debuted in previous years have gone on to become some of the most well regarded in the industry. Some of these standout games include flOw, Braid, Portal, World of Goo and Today I Die.
This year, the session aims to recapture that innovative spirit, with over 20 titles from some of the industry's most creative developers.

GDC and the Game Narrative Summit are proud to announce the winners of the 2013 edition of the annual Student Narrative Analysis Competition, who all receive passes to this year's March conference in San Francisco, CA.
Every year, leading game design programs at universities across the country integrate the competition into their academic curricula. Each participating student conducts a detailed structured analysis of the narrative elements of a game title of their choice.
The resulting papers are submitted to the GDC Game Narrative Summit advisors for review, and the submitters with the most promising entries are then invited to present poster sessions of their work to their future professional peers at the Game Narrative Summit.
Past winners, available for viewing on GDC Vault, have explored both the biggest of AAA games and highly praised indies, games renowned for their storytelling and games that theoretically had no formal narrative at all.
But with ingenuity and a keen analytical eye, the competitors have consistently produced incisive, bold analysis that foreshadows the contributions they will someday make to the field of game narrative.
2013 featured an exceptionally strong group of entrants from schools across the country and around the world. For the first time, the competition had an international student among its winners, as well as representation from colleges and universities across the US.
We're proud to announce that this year's winners are:

GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting more notable talks for its March conference, including topics on Tearaway's tangibility, Tomb Raider and DmC reboots, the aftermath of the 'EA: The Human Story' open letter, and an international ratings system.
All of these lectures take place during the Main Conference to be held March 27-29 during the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
Lead Designer Rex Crowle from LittleBigPlanet creator Media Molecule will speak about the challenges of creating a digital papercraft adventure for PS Vita in 'Building the Touchy-Feely World of Tearaway.' The developer seeks to expand creative gameplay with a new tangible craft aesthetic and by encouraging a creativity-loop outside of the game.
Ninja Theory's visual art director Alessandro Taini will explore the re-imagining and rebooting of Capcom's famous franchise in 'The Art Direction of DmC Devil May Cry.' Taini will present work "from concept and inspiration, through to the 3D realization of the game's bright and bold art style."
Elsewhere, Crystal Dynamics' Jonathan Hamel will share how Tomb Raider was rebooted in 'One with Lara: The Croft of Systems Design.' Hamel will share the specific strategy used to assess the game dynamics, which ensured that it added up to "an emotionally moving gameplay experience."

GDC 2013 organizers spotlight special sessions, including Warren Spector on narrative in games, a 10-speaker microtalk on the state of play, and the Game Design Challenge Final Championships.
These talks are part of the Design Track and Game Narrative Summit for Game Developers Conference 2013, which will take place Monday-Friday, March 25-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
In the main conference's Design Track, the 10th and final Game Design Challenge will bring together winners from the past to design 'Humanity's Last Game.' Speakers will present what should be the last game humanity ever plays, with moderator Eric Zimmerman again polling the audience for the winner.
Returning champions will include Playdom's Steve Meretzky (Leather Goddesses of Phobos), thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen (Journey), University of Southern California visiting associate professor (and former Uncharted lead) Richard Lemarchand, Ivy Games' Erin Robinson (Puzzlebots), independent designer Jason Rohrer (Between), Arkane Studios' Harvey Smith (Dishonored), and Stupid Fun Club's Will Wright (The Sims).
Elsewhere, in 'GDC Microtalks: One Hour, Ten Talks, A Bazillion Design Ideas,' presenters will have 20 slides and 5 minutes each to share their ideas about the past, present and future of play.