Program Overview
The Future of Games Starts Here.
Sessions, workshops, Summits, portfolio reviews, and fireside chats built for the entire games ecosystem—from indie developers to AAA studios, students to industry veterans.
Organized Around the Way Games Are Made:
DESIGN
Shape the player experience.
Creativity, storytelling, world-building, and playable concepts that define great games.
- Design
- Narrative & Performance
- Visual Art
BUILD
Turn ideas into reality.
Explore the tools, workflows, technologies, and production practices powering today’s game development.
- Audio
- Programming
- Production & Team Leadership
LAUNCH
Bring games to players.
Learn how to publish, market, monetize, pitch, and grow successful games in today’s competitive landscape.
- Business Strategy
- Marketing
LEAD
Shape the future of the industry.
Build stronger teams, develop your career, and guide the next generation of game developers.
- Career
- Culture & Sustainability
- Luminaries
What’s Defining This Year’s Program
GDC’s program reflects the challenges, opportunities, and innovations impacting the game industry right now.
These themes guide the conversations that will define what’s next.
Building Resilient Careers & Studios
How teams are adapting to industry change without compromising their craft.
Funding Games & Bringing New Ideas to Market
New investment models, publishing strategies, and pathways to get games made.
Creating More with Smarter Tools & Workflows
Leveraging AI, production strategies, and modern workflows to do more with less.
Growing Communities in Competitive Landscape
Strategies for player discovery, retention, and live-service success in a crowded market.
Creating Memorable Games at Every Scale
Across UGC, indie, and AAA, experiences, design, storytelling, and creativity drive unforgettable player experience.
The Global Game Industry
Impact of worldwide expansion, international collaboration, and new audiences are reshaping our industry.
Explore the Tracks
Audio
Music composition, sound design, implementation, spatial audio, and programming.
Business Strategy
Monetization models, IP management, market trends, negotiation, and the global economy.
Career
Paths and progression, mentorship and coaching, upskilling, portfolios, resumes, and interviews, and navigating today’s hiring market.
Culture & Sustainability
Workplace culture, accessibility, DEI, mental health, ethics, and game preservation.
Design
Gameplay systems, mechanics, economies, UX, level design, UGC, accessibility, and postmortems.
Luminaries
Leaders from the most influential studios, platforms, and adjacent industries discuss the business of games.
Marketing
Community building, influencer relations, brand identity, campaigns, trailers, and user acquisition.
Narrative & Performance
Story, character, VO, performance, cinematic direction, and creative leadership.
Production & Team Leadership
Pipelines, localization, QA, AR/VR/XR, studio management, and external development.
Programming
Learn the latest techniques to develop games across platforms, including consoles, mobile, PCs, virtual reality, and more.
Visual Arts
Art direction, technical art, VFX, rendering, shaders, concepting, and pipelines.
Learn Your Way
Inspiring keynotes, technical deep dives, interactive workshops, and community meetups. Explore new ideas and sharpen your skills. Build your GDC experience your way.
Talks
Panels
Roundtables
Workshops
Portfolio Review
Keynotes
Fireside Chats
Summits
The Evolution of Summits
GDC Summits are built from accepted talks and with greater community input—delivering one discipline, one room, focused on the skills, topics, and conversations shaping the future of games.
Ready to Build Your GDC Experience?
Sharpen your craft. Meet future collaborators. Discover emerging technology. Explore what's next. Your program is waiting.