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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.

Speaker Q&A: Julia Keren-Detar on the intersection of history and game design throughout the years

March 14, 2018

Alongside the many technical and artistic talks you'll find at GDC 2018, we're also lucky to be joined by developers interested in talking about the impact video games have on culture at large. For years, game designer Julia Keren-Detar has been discussing the ways that historical events have influenced game design across the years, and this year she's back with a session on inequality and player behavior that should be especially worth your time!

To get you ready for Keren-Detar's talk, we've reached out to her for a brief Q&A about her work and philosophy on working in games. You can check it out below!

Don't miss out! The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next March is going to be full of interesting and informative sessions like Keren-Detar's. For more visit the show’s official website.

Learn to better fight toxicity from the new Fair Play Alliance at GDC 2018

March 14, 2018

Heads up, game makers: the 2018 Game Developers Conference starts Monday, and this year organizers are excited to welcome a lineup of great talks from the folks at the Fair Play Alliance!

Formally unveiled this week, the Fair Play Alliance is intended to be a cross-industry initiative whose mission is to foster fair play in online games, raise awareness of player-behavior-related issues, and share research and best practices that drive lasting change.

Over 30 stakeholders in the game industry are part of the FPA, including Unity, Blizzard, Riot Games, Supercell, Epic Games, Discord, Twitch, and more. Together, they aim to support game developers and foster open collaboration, research, and sharing of best practices for encouraging healthy gaming communities and fair play.

Supercell, Pixar, and top devs share insights at the GDC 2018 Vision track!

March 13, 2018

As you gear up for the 2018 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next week, remember that this year marks the return of the Vision Track - a series of mini-keynotes featuring great speakers and forward-thinking companies discussing the future of the game industry!

These talks will give you new opportunities to learn from companies or individuals who are doing amazing work outside game dev that then feeds back into game innovation. You'll also see talks from leaders in video games that will give you vibrant insight into how to take your work forward in the years ahead.

For example, NYU Game Center director Frank Lantz will deliver "This Is Your Brain On Games", a session devoted to interrogating whether there's any evidence that games are having this effect on us. Lantz will look at examples from specific games and extrapolate to a broad vision of how games might have the capacity to increase our collective intelligence.

Speaker Q&A: Žilvinas & Šarūnas Ledas discuss the possibilities of AR storytelling

March 12, 2018

As the success of Pokemon Go inspires more and more developers to experiment with augmented reality, there's opportunity for multiple new genres of gameplay to emerge, including ones that take advantage of narrative design.

But if you're a game developer working in the narrative space, how can you get started on working with geolocation design? At GDC 2018, developers Šarūnas & Žilvinas Ledas will be presenting a talk on this very subject. To get you ready for their session, we've reached out to the duo for a discussion about their work at game studio Tag of Joy.

Don't miss out! The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next March is going to be full of interesting and informative sessions like the Ledas'. For more visit the show’s official website.

Learn more about the state of Steam from SteamSpy's creator at GDC 2018!

March 12, 2018

A week from today San Francisco plays host to the 2018 Game Developers Conference, and organizers want to be sure you know about a very cool talk taking place at the show about the state of the Steam marketplace from the creator of SteamSpy.

As part of the GDC 2018 Business & Marketing track of talks, Epic's Sergey Galyonkin will be delivering an important talk on "Steam in 2017: State of the Marketplace". Galyonkin created and maintains the popular SteamSpy tool, and as such he has a unique perspective on the all-important PC game platform.

In his talk Galyonkin will walk you through the significant changes that happened to Steam in 2017 and their effect on new games sales. He'll also dig into the rise of China, the death of discoverability, the influx of low-quality titles, devs trying to outplay the algorithms, review bombing and other pleasant surprises.

Diamond Partner Q&A: Facebook's Leo Olebe explains the power of Instant Games

March 9, 2018

At GDC 2018, attendees will have the opportunity to interact with an array of sponsors who help fuel the games industry, including our Diamond Partners, whose support plays an integral role to the success of GDC.

To introduce you to our Diamond Partner Facebook, and what they'll be showcasing at GDC 2018, we've reached out to Leo Olebe, Global Director of Games Partnerships who's ready to get developers working on Instant Games!

Don't miss out! The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next March will be a hub for many more great industry titans. For more visit the show’s official website.

Check out the winners of GDC Play 2018!

March 9, 2018

With weeks to go until the 2018 Game Developers Conference, organizers are pleased to announce the eight winners of the Best in Play award program for exhibitors in the three-day GDC Play 2018 event, which helps emerging developers to show their games at GDC.

Being honored as a winner is kind of a big deal, because -- as part of the Best in Play award program -- all GDC Play exhibitors were judged on their in-development or complete games by a panel of veteran GDC organizers.

Now, each of these eight Best in Play award winners (listed below) will receive 2 All Access Passes to the 2019 Game Developers Conference. Winners will also receive special 'Best In Play' designations they can attach to their table at GDC 2018, where their games will be playable by all GDC attendees.

Attend GDC 2018 and get an Epic look at the art design of Fortnite

March 9, 2018

The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is nearly here, and with it comes a fantastic presentation from the team at Epic Games about how they found the right look for their breakout success Fortnite!

As part of the Visual Arts track of talks, Epic art director Peter Ellis will be delivering a deep dive on the topic in his session on "Developing the Art of 'Fortnite'."

You want to see this talk because Ellis plans to cover not just the evolution of art style used in Fornite, but also general best practices used to create a triple-A quality free-to-play game with a small art team. It's especially worthwhile if you work in (or are thinking of working in) Unreal Engine, since Ellis aims to give you fresh insight into how to best create stylized art inside UE4.

Diamond Partner Q&A: Microsoft execs pitch you their products and services you'll see at GDC 2018

March 8, 2018

At GDC 2018, attendees will have the opportunity to interact with an array of sponsors who help fuel the games industry, including our Diamond Partners, whose support plays an integral role to the success of GDC.

To introduce you to our Diamond Partner at Microsoft, we've reached out to 3 key executives who are leading products, services, and initiatives that you'll see on the expo floor at GDC 2018.

Don't miss out! The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next March will be a hub for many more great industry titans. For more visit the show’s official website.

Come out to GDC 2018 and learn to better tell stories in VR!

March 8, 2018

If you're coming to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this month and you have any interest in how devs are learning to tell compelling stories in virtual reality, we have a talk you won't want to miss!

As part of VRDC @ GDC, Baobab Studios cofounder Eric Darnell will be presenting "'INVASION!': Crafting a VR Story".  Boabob creates animated VR experiences, and in his talk Darnell will break down the challenges of telling a narrative VR story where the user has control, as well as techniques Baobab has developed to tackle them.

Don't overlook these helpful discoverability talks at GDC 2018!

March 8, 2018

Getting your game in front of the right people is tricky business, more so now than ever, so today organizers of the 2018 Game Developers Conference want to highlight a few great talks at the show that will help you do just that!

Each of these sessions is aimed at giving you techniques and tips on ensuring your game doesn't get lost in the shuffle, and instead finds its way to the people who will appreciate it most.

For example, in "Marketing Judo: How to Sell Your Indie Game" Butterscotch Shenanigans' Sam Coster will share some unintuitive lessons about the attention marketplace for games that will help you pare down your marketing activities to focus on what really moves the needle.

Attend GDC 101 at GDC this year to get the most out of your show!

March 7, 2018

Two weeks from today we'll be smack dab in the middle of the 2018 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, and organizers are preparing a special session that will help you get the most out of your time at the show.

It's a special event called GDC 101, and it's taking place on Tuesday, March 20th (two weeks from today!) at 5 PM Pacific on the third floor of the Moscone Convention Center's West Hall.

If it’s your first time attending GDC, or if you just want to get a quick overview of what to see and do at the show, you want to attend this crash course on getting the most out of your time at GDC 2018. Covering everything from GDC program specifics to general best practices for networking, GDC 101 will give you tips and tricks to choose the right sessions, meet more people, and achieve your goals. Don't miss it!

Brush up on advanced game graphics techniques at GDC 2018

March 7, 2018

Heads up, GDC attendees: The GDC 2018 Advanced Graphics Techniques Tutorial on Monday, March 19th, 2018 is going to be a fantastic opportunity for you to take a day-long deep dive into the nuts and bolts of rendering gorgeous graphics in games.

Brought to you as a collaboration of the industry's leading hardware and software vendors, this day-long tutorial provides professional insight on how to create cutting-edge game graphics on the PC platform.

Special emphasis is placed on advanced graphics techniques that use modern low-level APIs to produce stunning visuals and achieve speed-of-light performance on contemporary GPUs. These will be delivered by NVIDIA's and AMD's demo and developer technology teams as well as some of the top game developers who ship major games into the marketplace.

In addition to illustrating the details of rendering advanced real-time visual effects, this tutorial will cover a series of vendor-neutral optimizations that developers need to keep in mind when designing their engines and shaders.

Don't miss all the cool machine learning talks at GDC this year!

March 6, 2018

Amid all the hustle and bustle of the 2018 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this month, make sure you don't overlook one of the most intriguing tech topics being discussed at the show: how top devs are applying machine learning techniques to make better games.

For example, Naughty Dog technical art director Andrew Maximov is hosting a multi-day roundtable dedicated entirely to the art and business of machine learning in game dev.

Come by to engage with (or listen in on) the lively discussion about how deep learning based artificial intelligence is going to affect video game production in the years to come. A wide swathe of topics wll be covered, including the use of neural networks in game content generation, their value at runtime, and how you can integrate this technology into your creative process.

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