Article and Photos by Marcus Siu
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Mar 3, 2017 – The Game Developers Conference®, or commonly known as “GDC”, the world’s largest professional game industry event just ended it’s five day stint at San Francisco’s Moscone Center last week. There was plenty of activity at the event with all the participants flying from all around the globe to show their wares and to be discovered by scouts, as well as the main sponsors of the Gaming community, including major players, such as Sony, Xbox, Nvidia, Facebook Oculus, Autodesk, Google, Amazon, Lumberyard, and Unity Technologies, just to name just a few.
Much of tomorrow’s young talent showed up at other off-site places close to the Moscone Center, such as CBS Interactive, who hosted the European Game Showcase. The developers that attended this event are based in countries far away, such as Vienna, Poland, Barcelona, and Holland. Many of these same designers were participating at Moscone West’s Indie Lounge Megabooth during the conference. They are hoping to get funding or to be scouted by the Big Leagues. From what I saw, I think many will be discovered.
A wide assortment of games were being demoed throughout the floor at the European Game Showcase. Though, I didn’t see all of them, I noticed that they were not violent. For example, I walked through a country hillside in a quaint neighborhood, I played keyboard sports games, I was an actual pinball trying control myself by racking up points by bumping into bumpers and chutes, and I attended a Monster Prom. I also went through an interactive VR space station. They were all quite enjoyable, even with my passion for “Call of Duty” games.
Though, much VR was being demoed on the Expo floor by the major players, I’m wondering if it has died down compared to a year ago.
This years conference marks the 31st edition of GDC, making it the longest-running event of its kind. Presented every spring in San Francisco, it is the essential forum for learning, inspiration, and networking for the creators of computer, console, handheld, smartphone, tablet, mobile, and online games and creators of virtual and augmented reality for games and entertainment.
GDC attracts over 27,000 attendees, and is the primary forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games and virtual reality gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry. GDC is produced by UBM Game Network, a division of UBM Americas.
There is nothing more exciting then the multitude of ideas flowing from so many great young thinkers who are so enthusiastic about their projects. It becomes infectious and encourages great networking opportunities for all of those involved.
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