ALPHA | EVENTS
25 YEARS OF GDC Game Developers Conference director Meggan Scavio talks about the long and winding road to creating an industry behemoth “GDC session content influences the attendance of qualified, experienced developers which in turn fuels the exhibit floor and sponsors. That content needs to be relevant and unbiased. It needs to be valuable to our audience. “If developers see no value in it, GDC becomes irrelevant. ‘content is king’ is our not-so-secret secret.” Of course, that does not mean that the event hasn’t undergone significant changes over the years. “I think the first big shift we saw in both the games industry and the GDC was the proliferation of the consoles. The latter half of the 90s saw them take off, and that was reflected in the name of the conference. “When it launched in 1988 it was called the Computer Game
GDC DIRECTOR Meggan Scavio is philosophical about the upcoming 25th Game Developers Conference, taking place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from Febuary 28th to March 4th 2011. “I’ve been with the GDC for a very long time,” she says. “Not quite half of its lifetime, but close. There is a binding principle that has existed for as long as I can remember. I truly believe that the fact we still adhere to it is the very reason the event continues to thrive today. “That principle is that ‘content is king’.” And it is this principle that she believes has driven turnout to the event over the years.
THE MONTH AHEAD A look at what January has in store for the industry and beyond… JANUARY 11TH:
JANUARY 20TH:
JANUARY 26TH:
Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded is released on DS. It’s as good a chance as any to see Disney characters wielding medieval weaponry.
GameON: Finance, the two-day business forum for the interactive entertainment industry, kicks-off in Toronto.
The two-day Mobile Games Forum 2011 will be bringing fine mobile gaming folk together in London to discuss the industry’s future.
JANUARY 1ST:
New Year’s Day, 2011. Seriously, it’s 2011. Where are the flying cars already?
JANUARY 25TH:
Burns Night Eat haggis, drink whisky and read poetry. The big three!
JANUARY 4TH:
A partial solar eclipse will be visable arcoss most of Europe, giving developers across the continent a chance to look up from their christmas games haul. For a second.
Australia Day, time to reinforce outdated Antipodean stereotypes and compare the size of knives.
JANUARY 25TH:
JANUARY 15TH:
Eden games’ Test Drive Unlimited 2 will come doughnuting onto a console near you.
JANUARY 6TH:
JANUARY 18TH:
Day one of the four-day International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, USA. What will be revealed? Ladies and Gentlemen, place your bets.
Media Molecule’s only-slightlydelayed LittleBigPlanet 2 will have you dressing sackboy in drag all over again.
20 | DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011
JANUARY 26TH:
Dead Space 2 scuttles onto consoles around the world, and international cases of insomnia skyrocket. JANUARY 28TH:
The Global Game Jam begins. You’ll have 48 hours, people. Make a game.