Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual gathering of video game developers. The conference is comprised of an expo and a variety of tutorials, lectures and roundtables by industry professionals on game-related topics covering programming, design, audio, production, business, legal issues, and art.
History
Originally called the Computer Game Developers Conference, the first conference was organized in 1987 by Chris Crawford in his San Jose, California-area living room. About twenty designers attended, including Tim Brengle, Don Daglow, Brenda Laurel, Dave Menconi, Brian Moriarty and Gordon Walton. The second conference, held that same year at a Holiday Inn at Milpitas, attracted about 150 developers. Later conferences moved between facilities in Santa Clara, San Jose and Long Beach, growing steadily in popularity. In 2005, GDC moved to the new Moscone Center West, in the heart of San Francisco's SOMA district, and reported over 12,000 attendees. GDC returned to San Jose in 2006, but will again be in San Francisco in 2007.
Crawford continued to give the conference keynote address for the first several years of the conference, including the famous "whip" speech in the early 1990s where he punctuated a point about game tuning and player involvement by cracking a bullwhip perilously close to the front row of the audience.
Crawford also founded The Journal of Computer Game Design in 1987 in parallel to beginning the GDC, and served as publisher and editor of the academic-style journal through 1996.
The CGDC changed its name to "Game Developers Conference" in 1999. The GDC has also hosted the Spotlight Awards from 1997 to 1999, the Independent Games Festival since 1999 and the Game Developers Choice Awards since 2001. GDC is also used for the annual meeting of the International Game Developers Association.
CMP, the organizer of GDC, has added several other events in recent years. At the GDC Expo, developers display the latest techniques useful in game development. "GDC Mobile," first held in 2002, focuses on developing games for mobile phones and other handheld devices. The first "GDC Europe" (GDCE) was featured at the European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) in London between August 31 and September 1, 2001. In addition, GDC has hosted a number of conference-wide game experiments designed by GameLab.
GDC-related events also include the Serious Games Summit, first held in 2004, focusing on developing games for practical purposes, such as education, corporate training, military, and health care applications, and more recently the GDC Outsourcing Summit, first held in Los Angeles in August 2006.
Personnel
Many people work on planning the Game Developers Conference. The current director is Jamil Moledina, while the content chairs of GDC Mobile and Serious Games Summit are Rob Tercek and Ben Sawyer, respectively. The event is produced by a team within the CMP Game Group, and draws support from an advisory board and several specialized boards, as well as an army of volunteers called conference associates. Notable contributors over GDC's long history include former directors Jennifer Pahlka and Alan Yu who are credited with transforming the GDC from a grassroots gathering to an international brand by expanding GDC's reach into Asia, founding the Game Developers Choice Awards, GDC Europe, Game Executive, GDC Hardcore, Serious Games Summit, Game Marketing and Distribution Conference, GDC Mobile, and the Independent Games Festival. Other notable staff include Alex Dunne (founder of the Independent Game Festival), Jennifer Olsen, Susan Marshall, Greg Kerwin, Afton Thatcher, Tim Brengle, Meggan Scavio, Simon Carless, and Chris Crawford.
Members of the GDC board (at one time or another) included Jason Rubin, Peter Molyneux, David Perry, Masaya Matsuura, Jez San, Ian Baverstock, Mark Cerny, Chris Hecker, Louis Castle, Doug Church, Ron Gilbert, Alan Yu, Mark DeLoura, Hal Barwood, Testuya Mizuguchi, Bob Rafei, Elain Hodgson, Laura Fryer, Tommy Tallarico, Cyrus Lum, Dave Menconi, Sara Reeder, Stephen Friedman, Jeff Johannigman, Nicky Robinson, Tim Brengle, Ernest Adams, Susan Lee-Merrow and Anne Westfall.