The Game Developers Conference here at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center isn’t just a conference where bespectacled geeks gather and talk about video games. It’s a festival and celebration of technology, the visual arts, story telling, sound and music – just about every other creative element that goes into an interactive multimedia experience.
My participation in gaming conferences in the last 6 years have been centered on academic conferences on critical game studies. The GDC has hundreds of summits, lectures, seminars, round table discussions and keynote addresses occurring simultaneously at any hour during the five day event, and they cover different aspects of development as opposed to understanding games as a cultural and social phenomenon.
A small sampling of photos from the first day of the Main Conference (the 3 day event was preceded by two days of summits):
The massive crowds. Last year’s event saw 18,000 attendees, speakers, exhibitors, and participants. No idea how many this year:
Conference Event Director Meggan Scavio opening address:
One of the many breakout sessions: this one was on technical, design and social ramifications centered on online multiplayer games. Speakers were two developers from Insomniac Games, an American-based game studio who recently published Resistance 2 which I wrote an entry here about recently.
Hideo Kojima, producer and director of the Metal Gear Solid series presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards.
There’s also the Expo where all the game studios, technology providers, and higher learning institutions in the industry all gather under one roof as a sales showcase exhibiting their newest gadgets as used in game development.
This game uses your eyes to control movement in a game:
This one uses your brain waves to control your character – no kidding.:)
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