This year the GDC is setting up ALL the tutorial, lecture, and panel classrooms with super fancy HD projectors. These projectors will provide more detailed and brighter images. We want the visual presentations that speakers deliver at the GDC to be as good as the verbal content they provide.

And, as usual, the classrooms in the Audio Track with have Dolby 5.1 surround sound.

Posted by GDC Operations at 04:35 PM | Permalink

Good morning everyone! One of the traditions we work hard to present at GDC is the tremendous wealth of Japanese developers on site. We've already talked about developers from Nintendo and Square Enix, but we've got a few more luminary folks to share with you. I'll go through them quickly, as there's a lot to cover.

As Ask a Ninja would say, it's time for everyone get on the omnibus! Composer Masafumi Takada has kindly agreed to deliver a retrospective on his work, titled The Music of Killer 7, God Hand, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, and No More Heroes.

Plus, our good friend Ray Nakazato, president of FeelPlus, is going to tell us what worked and didn't work on his latest project, in a session titled Looking Back at Lost Odyssey: The Challenges of Cross-Cultural Development.

In what's shaping up as an embarrassment of riches, we are also very pleased to feature Time Pilot and Street Fighter II creator Yoshiki Okamoto, now President of Game Republic. Okamoto-san has had a dramatic impact on the style of gameplay today, and he's prepared to delve deeply into the subtely of his process in his session titled Creativity in the Form of Improvement.

Finally, we have a couple of talks dealing with Final Fantasy XIII. While most high profile Japanese sessions at GDC fall into the game design track, we are pleased to present advanced sessions for other key disciplines at this year's GDC. Technical Research GM Taku Murata is back this year to give a detailed talk about Square Enix's switchover to a common development platform, their creation of a new engine, and their decision-making process in not going third party. This programming session is titled The Technology of Final Fantasy.

Also, we get a lot of requests regarding the art style of Final Fantasy games, and so we are delighted to feature a companion session, The Art of Final Fantasy (link pending). Final Fantasy art director Isamu Kamikokuryo will talk about the art style of the series, his inspirations, and the flow from concept art to pixels in an interview with Bungie's Steve Theodore.

One more note on Japanese participation at GDC this year: we're going to two rooms with dual simultaneous wireless translation in both Japanese and English, so we've got an open door for Japanese attendees too! Feel free to forward this link to any Japanese developers you know who may be interested in coming to GDC.

Cheers,

Jamil Moledina
Executive Director
Game Developers Conference

Posted by Jamil at 09:33 AM | Permalink

Hello everyone! A rare Thursday update from me, largely because we're going to push the schedule live early next week (yes, it's true), and we have a handful of interesting talks that need to go live beforehand. I know a lot of folks out there like these updates to have a theme, and so it strikes me that the common theme on these late arrivals is, well, brains.

First up, people have been talking for a while about using game engines to produce linear animation for film, TV, and commercial work. We're very pleased to present a couple of teams using their brains to make this happen. Kim Libreri of the leading LA special effects house Digital Domain and Jerry O'Flaherty from engine and game developer Epic Games will present a session titled Challenges of Creating Linear Content in a Game Engine. They'll explore the issues arising on Digital Domain's output for shorts, cinematics, and feature films and feature examples. Also, the bright people at Blockade are working on TV shows using game engines, and will present a talk on one of them, The Sacred Road, addressing the next stage of selling it to the network and distribution. The talk titled The Future of Animation is Games is presented by Blockade writer/director Bill Kroyer and Voom Networks HD Vice President of Programming, Mark DeAngelis. If you follow transmedia, game engines, or feature animation, you'll not want to miss this pair of talks.

The next talk has as much to do with guts as it does brains, since it's about Puzzle Quest. Infinite Interactive's CEO and Lead Designer Steve Fawkner will present a postmortem of the game, is his session Conquering Bane's Citadel: The Collision of Casual and Hardcore Gaming in Puzzle Quest. Blending hard core RPG elements with casual mechanics was huge leap of faith, and Fawker will describe the design process, lessons learned, and lessons applied moving forward.

Taking a step back from the direct nuts and bolts of making games, the next session we have to talk about is one that is literally about the brain and the human computer interface (HCI). As you may know, Emotiv systems is working on a technology to control in-game objects using only the mind. Yes, I know it sounds like flying cars. However, getting to the product required a significant degree of understanding about the brain and research into how we think about objects in a virtual space that could be relevant to everyone looking to close the gap between gamer and virtual world. With that in mind, Allen Snyder, PhD, Director for the Centre of the Mind and Co-Founder of Emotiv Systems will present with Randy Breen, Chief Product Officer also from Emotiv, are doing a session titled Semantic Interactivity - Virtual Coherence Using Next Generation Human Computer Interface.

Finally, we are presenting a chance for developers to give game journalists a piece of their mind. Newsweek editor N'Gai Croal has put together an all-star panel of game journalists including Kotaku's Brian Crecente, Spike TV's Geoff Keighley, 1Up Yours's Garnett Lee, Game Informer's Andy McNamara, and MTV News' Stephen Totilo to address the issues and conflicts in game journalism today in a session titled Up Against the Wall: Game Makers Take on the Press. This issue has largely been filtered by marketing, public relations, game publishing, and media publishing executives, but we felt it was appropriate to bring the media to our stage, so that actual developers can cut through the red tape and get the straight story.

At this point, there's only a couple more sessions coming in, but we know you're anxious to plan your GDC. We're working feverishly to get the schedule live for you, and a couple more surprises too!

Cheers,

Jamil Moledina
Executive Director
Game Developers Conference

Posted by Jamil at 08:25 AM | Permalink

I'm sure you're all scrambling to get your registrations in before the early registration deadline (tonight) - thought it might help to provide a few tutorial suggestions. Just in case you can't decide on what to pick to associate with your pass...here are few of the top rated tutorials:

Audio Boot Camp
Audio for games and other interactive entertainment has grown far beyond simple mash-ups of technical concepts with linear audio design techniques. Today's games require responsive and dynamic musical scores; ambiences, sound effects, and dialog that respond to player actions; immersive and accurate player-surrounding soundscapes; not to mention AI driven dynamic control of the overall mix.

Microsoft Game Developer Day
Topics include: Games for Windows - LIVE – Just the Facts, Getting More from Multicore, Xbox 360 XDK Update, Performance Tools Update, The Evolving Windows Gaming Platform, DirectX Futures.

XNA Game Studio Developer Day
Topics include: Advanced Debugging with XNA Game Studio 2.0, CLR Performance on Windows and Xbox 360, Understanding XNA Framework Performance, Networking with XNA Game Studio 2.0, Extending the Content Pipeline in XNA Game Studio 2.0, Xbox LIVE Arcade Extensions for XNA Game Studio 2.0.

Physics for Game Programmers
This lecture continues the tradition of the "Math For Game Programmers" and "Essential Math" tutorials and deepens it, by focusing in on the topic of physical simulation. Particular attention will be given to dynamics, numerical robustness, collision, and destruction.

Core Techniques and Algorithms in Shader Programming
This tutorial presents techniques that are used in leading games. It covers the currently most important global illumination models, probability-based shadow mapping methods that will ship soon in several games, a real-time grass approach that has proven to be useful on multi-core CPU/SPUs, a new data structure to store texture maps and a flexible material system.

View all Tutorials here.

Posted by GDC Staff at 06:09 PM | Permalink

Download a GDC desktop theme and be the envy of your office. Our themes serve as both event reminders and snazzy wallpaper for your computer. Or, have a cool idea for a desktop theme? Show your enthusiasm and support for the GDC by creating your own theme. Click here to download one of the already submitted designs or to find out how to submit your own.

Posted by GDC Staff at 05:17 PM | Permalink

Hello everyone! So two very important bits of information are going out today. One is the Wednesday keynote announcement, which I'm not going to talk about here because that actually goes live later this morning. The other is a trio of Nintendo talks going live today, which we're very excited to host at GDC.

While the company usually lets their products speak for themselves at most other venues, we've enjoyed a strong editorial relationship with Nintendo for a few years now. We're particularly proud that we've earned their trust in sharing real development experience and knowledge in our professional forum. Now that all eyes are on this company's successful gamble on the broader market, we are pleased to present their latest example, the development of Wii Fit, Nintendo's new balance-sensing peripheral and game. The session, Wii Fit Creating a Brand New Interface for the Home Console, is presented by project lead Takao Sawano, and the presents the philosophical and cultural ideas as well as the practical challenges behind bringing this title to life.

Another unique element that Nintendo has successfully experimented with is the development of the Wii Menu, all those channels and interactive online elements besides games that exist in the Wii interface. Takashi Aoyama, team leader for Nintendo's Network Group, gives us the inside scoop on the development of this project, in his session Planning the Wii Menu: From Pre-Launch to WiiWare. WiiWare is of course Nintendo's original downloadable game service, and Aoyama is preparing to outline the challenges they experienced in building the portal. On the subject of WiiWare games, you may also want to check out Square-Enix producer Toshiro Tsuchida's session WiiWare Project Lifecycle: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Little King.

Finally, we are very pleased to present the first postmortem of a major 2008 title, Development - Super Smash Bros. Brawl by Kirby and Smash Bros. veteran developer Masahiro Sakurai. With an eye to fine-tuned balancing, Sakurai shares what worked and didn't work integrating a variety of different characters as well as online play in adapting this modern classic to the Wii. Definiitely mark this featured talk on your schedule.

Okay folks, that does it for today's installment. Although I should mention that GDC's early bird pricing expires tomorrow, so I'd highly recommend that you register today!

Cheers,

Jamil Moledina
Executive Director
Game Developers Conference

Posted by Jamil at 07:00 AM | Permalink

GDC Mobile, taking place February 18-19, 2008, is the leading forum for mobile game developers from around the globe. Attendees will debate the future of this medium with executives from leading mobile network operators, advanced technology providers, handset manufacturers, and major console game publishers.

This year's show has an amazing lineup of mobile game industry visionaries including, Gameloft's Michel Guillemot and Nokia's Anssi Vanjoki. Additional speakers include: Dave Bell (PlayPhone), Mitch Rotter (Thumbplay), Thomas Richter (Jamba GmbH), Scott M. Jensen (Zingy, Inc), Kristian Segerstrale (Chief Executive Officer, Playfish), Dave Astle (ISV Engineer, AMD), Jonathan Feldstein (Engineer, AMD) and more.

Monday, February 18, 2008 Keynote: Michel Guillemot CEO & President, Gameloft

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 Keynote: Anssi Vanjoki Executive Vice President, Markets, Nokia

Posted by GDC Staff at 04:42 PM | Permalink

Have a cool idea for a GDC lolcat?  

Submit your design to feedback@gdconf.com. GDC Lolcats submissions will be posted on gdconf.com and will be voted on by a team of judges. The person with the best GDC Lolcats design submission will receive a free GDC 2008 Expo Pass.DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS FEBRUARY 4, 2008

Rules? Simple, follow the directions below:

1. Design your own lolcat picture as a .gif or .jpeg file not to exceed 100kb.


2. All Designs must contain a reference to the GDC or a GDC related message or activity.  
   
   Kudos if you can find a way to fit in the GDC trademark logo or the date and location for for GDC08: February 18-22, 2008; Moscone Center, San Francisco


3. Please make sure your submission contains: your name, job title (if desired), title of your design piece, your inspiration or blurb regarding the piece, as well as a link to your myGDC profile if you have one.


4. Please submit all files and questions to feedback@gdconf.com with "GDC LOLCATS" in the subject line.


5. All images are subject for review before posting. Additional questions and/or requests for adjustments may be requested before posting. You will be notified if your piece qualifies and will be posted to gdconf.com.

Posted by GDC Staff at 03:52 PM | Permalink

This week's GDC Geek of the Week is Scott Campbell of WhiteMoon Dreams...

Continue reading "GDC Geek of the Week - Scott Campbell" »

Posted by GDC Staff at 01:50 PM | Permalink

The Game Developers Choice Awards, the highest honors in game development acknowledging excellence in game creation, will honor computer strategy game luminary Sid Meier with a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s ceremony taking place at the Game Developers Conference (GDC). The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of developers such as Meier who have made an indelible impact on the craft of game development, as he has with the creation of a number of genre-defining titles including Civilization and Pirates! This year's show, presented by GDC and Webby-award winning Gamasutra.com, is held in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival and will be hosted on Wednesday, February 20, in the Esplanade Room in the South Hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Center. For complete details, please visit www.gamechoiceawards.com

Posted by GDC Staff at 04:21 PM | Permalink