I’m trying to firm up my GDC schedule. (Though, as you will see below, I’m failing miserably in that regard.) For people reading this blog who are going to be there: this is what I look like, please say hi! The only meal I have scheduled right now is dinner on Thursday, if anybody wants to get together.
Wednesday:
- 9:00am: Iwata’s keynote.
- 10:30am: Evolving Game Design: alas, Ueda and Suda51 beat out Clint Hocking.
- 12:00pm: Vaguely leaning towards Threaded AI For The Win!, but Bungie, Media Molecule, and even eating lunch are all possibilities.
- 1:15pm: Massive Software Complexty, I guess. (A 60-minute poster session sounds odd, but what do I know, and he’s from BioWare.) Or lunch.
- 2:30pm: Probably The Game Design Challenge, though I’m a bit curious about what the Level 5 folks are saying.
- 4:00pm: Not sure: Halo in the Laboratory, Moving Targets: How Audience Demographic Shifts & Trends are Changing Gamer Attitudes, or Stop Wasting My Time and Your Money: Why Your Game Doesn’t Need a Story to be a Hit?
Thursday:
- 9:00am: Not sure, there really are a bunch of contenders, but the top two right now are Valve’s Approach to Playtesting: the Application of Empiricism and GDC Microtalks.
- 10:30am: Kojima’s keynote.
- 12:00pm: Lunch, I think.
- 1:30pm: Again, I’m torn: I suspect I’ll end up hearing about Noby Noby Boy (how can I resist a session listing its takeway as “This class will be a refreshing change of pace”?), but BioWare and Valve are strong candidates, too.
- 3:00pm: Tentatively leaning towards Experimental Gameplay Sessions, except I just noticed it’s two hours long. Hmm. Other possibilities: Helping Your Players Feel Smart: Puzzles as User Interface or Master Metrics: The Science Behind the Art of Game Design.
- 4:30pm: Kind of thinking But What I Really Want to Do is Make Games, but the Bloggers Social Gathering is certainly a possibility.
- 7:30pm: Dinner.
Friday:
- 9:00am: My twitter feed suggests I should go to Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: Design Lessons Learned from Rock Band, and who am I to argue?
- 10:30am: I’m torn between two panels, Burned by Friendly Fire: Game Critics Rant and Stretching Beyond Entertainment: The Role of Games in Personal and Social Change.
- 12:00pm: Maybe Producing Fable 2? Or lunch?
- 2:30pm: Probably Lionhead Experiments Revealed, though my programming side is slightly tempted by Zen of Multicore Rendering.
- 4:00pm: I’m leaning towards Mass Effect 2 over Far Cry 2
Any advice? Any sessions I didn’t list that I really should go to?
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I haven’t looked at this year’s schedule much yet, but here are some general GDC tips from a programmer who mostly goes to design talks:
Avoid round tables like the plague.
Be suspicious of panels. The Rant is usually fun though, and everyone will be talking about what was said in it.
If you have any interest in game design, the Experimental Gameplay Sessions are a must. Yes, it is two hours, but that will break down into 1/2 hour boring, 1 hour interesting, 1/2 hour amazing. Get there early. I bet Randy’s talk will be interesting too, though; too bad he got put in a tough slot.
The Game Design Challenge is pretty fun, but mostly for watching industry celebrities. The designs themselves are often kind of cop-outs. Get there way early.
The Game Studies Download session is always one of my favorites of the conference. They trawl through all the academic papers of the year and present 10 of the most interesting finds.
Be careful of Peter Molyneux talks. They tend to just show off what he’s working on rather than have any sort of real content.
3/21/2009 @ 7:09 am
Thanks for the suggestions, I really appreciate it!
I know you said you mostly attend design talks, and I probably will too, but are there any programming talks that you have your eye on? Part of my agenda for the conference is to get a feel for whether or not I would like working in the industry, and, given that I’m a programmer, I figure I should spend a bit of time attending talks in that area…
3/24/2009 @ 7:51 pm