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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.

At GDC 2017, see how Capcom took Resident Evil 7 forward by looking back

February 2, 2017

As the 2017 Game Developers Conference draws nigh, organizers want to make sure you don't miss out on a fantastic talk from the developers of Resident Evil 7 Biohazard that's taking place at the show!

In their talk on "Reliving the Horror: Taking 'Resident Evil 7' Forward by Looking Back," game director Koshi Nakanishi and Capcom Global R&D senior manager Peter Fabiano will explain how Capcom took the Resident Evil franchise somewhere new and different, while keeping true to its original concepts.

Plus, they will walk through and discuss various facets of Resident Evil 7's conceptualization, production and postmortem phases. Game makers who hail from all walks of development are welcome, as is anyone interested in the design and development of the Resident Evil games; attendees will learn about Capcom's approach on how to revitalize a long running franchise and the results of said approach.

Google and Autodesk sponsor cutting-edge dev sessions at GDC 2017

February 1, 2017

Heads up, game makers: Game Developers Conference organizers would like to briefly let you know about some of the great day-long sponsored developer days taking place at GDC 2017 next month!

These developer day sessions take place during the first two days of GDC (Monday and Tuesday, February 27th and 28th) and offer cutting-edge insight and learnings from some of the top players in the industry.

For example, Google is back this year to host a full day of fresh discussion, announcements and learnings, starting at 10 AM sharp on Monday.

Make time to check out Google's dev day talks and you'll learn about how the company is ramping up efforts to help game developers grow their businesses and make Android a great platform for games. From Play store updates optimized for discovery and engagement, to performance upgrades making high fidelity gaming come to life on Android devices, Google will lay out its roadmap for games in 2017.

If you're attending GDC 2017, don't miss the Nite to Unite charity gala

February 1, 2017

The game industry will gather in San Francisco next month for the Game Developers Conference, and organizers are encouraging GDC 2017 to make time in their schedules for the smorgasbord of events happening at and around the big show.

The 19th annual Nite to Unite gala is among them, and since its a charity event GDC organizers want to make sure everyone knows about it. This time around the event is being held on the evening of Tuesday, February 28th alongside GDC in San Francisco by the Entertainment Software Assocation Foundation.

This year the charity gala will honor two notable members of the game industry: Sid Meier and Jeromy Adams. Meier is of course the man behind games like Civilization and Pirates!, a game industry luminary and prior GDC speaker/honoree.

At GDC 2017, learn how to design games so servers don't die on launch day

February 1, 2017

As the 2017 Game Developers Conference approaches, conference organizers are proud to highlight a great talk taking place at the show that tackles a very common, thorny problem: launching server-dependent games without having the servers go down on the first day.

In their GDC 2017 talk on "Stop Killing Our Servers!" Riot Games' Jennie Lees and VREAL's Sela Davis -- two engineers who have worked on scalable systems large and small -- will walk through how client decisions can have impact on the server side and provide key takeaways on how to reduce or prevent issues.

War stories from shipped games and platforms will be liberally sprinkled throughout the talk, of course, and anyone who attends will A) have a good time and B) walk away with a set of principles to guide their client development process for a successful launch of client and server.

Use the GDC 2017 Session Scheduler to get the most out of your trip

January 31, 2017

The 2017 Game Developers Conference is roughly one month away, which means now is the perfect time for attendees to hammer out their schedules in order to ensure they get the most from the conference.

For an easier planning process, onference officials encourage you to take advantage of the free GDC 2017 Session Scheduler to plan out which talks you'd like to attend and ensure you don't miss anything the show has to offer.

(And if you're not attending, don't worry -- there's still time to register for a pass!)

If you've never used the Session Scheduler before, don't worry -- it's pretty easy to get started. Simply select "Create Account" from the Session Scheduler page and provide a valid email address, then start adding talks to your personal GDC 2017 schedule.

Here's a preview of GDC 2017 -- direct from the speakers themselves!

January 31, 2017

It's almost time for GDC 2017! As everyone is scrambling to sort out their plans for the big show, organizers want to quickly remind you that a bumper crop of GDC 2017 speakers have put together 60-second (ish) "Flash Forward" pitch videos for their talks!

They're funny, informative and packed with personality -- in short, perfect summations of what makes GDC sessions so great. And they're easy to watch, too -- just head over to the official GDC YouTube channel, which is now filled with brief videos submitted by a broad array of GDC 2017 speakers.

Each one is a very fun, personal pitch for why you should make time to check out that person's talk while you're attending GDC.

This is the second year we've done this, and this time around we've organized these GDC 2017 Flash Forward pitches into a playlist (embedded below) and added more information about each speaker and a link to their talk in the description of their video. Have a look!

Come to GDC 2017 and learn to design great reward systems for games

January 31, 2017

Have you ever heard someone say a game gave them a "shot of dopamine"? What does that mean, really? That's exactly what Epic Games' Ben-Lewis Evans aims to explore in his talk at the 2017 Game Developers Conference, which is just weeks away.

In his talk on "Throwing out the Dopamine Shots: Reward Psychology Without the Neurotrash", Evans aims to dispel the neuromyths around dopamine and focus on the psychology behind reward systems in game design.

He'll break down lots of cool stuff, including basic reward principles, cognitive biases that impact reward perception, as well as the importance of progression, control, social interaction, expectation, and the vital role of feedback and UX when designing effective rewards.

Watch Tim Schafer's triumphant return to host the 2017 GDC Awards!

January 30, 2017

Game makers, take heart: Game Developers Conference organizers are happy to confirm that Double Fine Productions chief Tim Schafer is once again preparing to take the stage during GDC 2017 to host the 17th annual Game Developers Choice Awards!

This will be Schafer's sixth time hosting the award show, and we're hoping all that practice finally pays off. To mark the occasion, he and his crack team have put together a short video (embedded below) celebrating his cutting-edge preparation.

You won't want to miss this award show, which kicks off at 6:30 PM on the evening of Wednesday, March 1st in the Moscone Convention Center of San Francisco. The ceremonies are available to attend for all GDC 2017 pass-holders and will be livestreamed on the GDC’s official Twitch channel!

Come to GDC 2017 and learn what it took to make an RTS without guns

January 30, 2017

As the 2017 Game Developers Conference draws nigh, organizers want to make sure you don't miss out on a neat talk from longtime game designer Soren Johnson about the unique challenges of creating a real-time strategy game without guns.

In his GDC 2017 Design track talk on "Offworld Trading Company: An RTS Without Guns", Johnson will explain how he and his studio (Mohawk Games) set out to make a new type of real-time strategy game, one that focused on economics instead of combat.

According to Johnson,  following this initial vision led Mohawk Games to shed other standard tropes of the genre, such as unit selection, on the way to creating a unique gameplay experience, one that de-emphasized micro dexterity challenges in favor of macro high-level strategy while still hewing to the standard half-hour RTS format. This postmortem details the twist and turns of Offworld's design process, from conception to prototyping to Early Access to final release.

Jordan Mechner and Mark DeLoura to receive top honors at the GDC Awards!

January 30, 2017

The 17th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, the premier accolades for peer recognition celebrating the industry’s top games, studios and developers, will award this year’s Pioneer Award, which honors breakthrough tech and game design milestones, to Jordan Mechner, the acclaimed video game designer, author and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the pioneering action-adventure series, Prince of Persia.

The Ambassador Award, honoring someone who is helping video games advance to a better place through advocacy or action, will be given to Mark DeLoura, who has had a strong history of helping the video game community, and advocated for video games and digital entertainment as the Senior Advisor for Digital Media during the Obama administration.

The Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony takes place on Wednesday, March 1 at 6:30pm PT at the San Francisco Moscone Center during the 2017 Game Developers Conference, and in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival. The ceremonies are available to attend for all GDC 2017 pass-holders and will be livestreamed on the GDC’s official Twitch channel.

Download your copy of the GDC 2017 State of the Industry report!

January 27, 2017

Game Developers Conference officials have released the full results from the fifth annual Game Developers Conference State of the Industry Survey, revealing trends in the games industry based on the feedback of more than 4,500 game developers ahead of GDC 2017 in February and March.

Highlights of this year's survey results suggest game developers are feeling optimistic about Nintendo’s upcoming Switch console, and feel unsure about the prospects of mid-cycle console refreshes like the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox’s “Project Scorpio.”

Download the 2017 State of the Industry Survey here

Also, the survey shows that for the first time ever, mobile game devs favor Android over iOS. Moreover, it reveals why game devs in general have rising confidence in eSports as a long-term, sustainable business and why many have faith that mobile AR/VR is the future.

GDC Spotlight Interviews: Unreal, Autodesk and Unity

January 27, 2017

| JANUARY 2017

In This Issue:

  • Unreal - In this interview, Unreal’s Tim Sweeney talks about the future of using virtual reality to make games, and what the company’s big plans are for GDC 2017.

Attend GDC 2017 and spend a whole day honing your level design skills

January 27, 2017

If you have any interest at all in video game level design, listen up: GDC 2017 organizers would like to give you a preview of the great sessions taking place during the day-long Level Design Workshop that helps kick off the conference next month.

This is just one of the many Bootcamps and Tutorials scheduled during the first two days of GDC (Monday and Tuesday, February 27th and 28th this year) which are designed to offer attendees the chance to focus on the critical components of a game's art direction, and its creators' broader artistic vision.

GDC 2017 attendees are invited to attend the Tuesday tutorial and join the leading design minds of our industry as they share their experiences and discuss some of the most important issues of the day.

Attend GDC 2017 and learn the value of 'less is more' from a Mini Metro dev

January 27, 2017

The 2017 Game Developers Conference is coming up fast, so today we want to quickly highlight one of the many great talks taking place at the show: a design session from a designer and artist on Dinosaur Polo Club's striking Mini Metro!

In his GDC 2017 Design track talk on "'Mini Metro': When Less Is More", Dinosaur Polo Club's Jamie Churchman will take a look at the successes and failures of visual design in 'Mini Metro'.

This talk is notable because it will examine how user interface and visual design decisions play a role in creating a rewarding experience for the player. It will also share how you can support this by building a robust design language, design beauty through a process of elimination, and produce a captivating experience for your players.

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