I have been to several gaming gatherings, such as the Classic Gaming Expo, Philly Classic, and the East Coast Gamers Expo. However, this year for the first time, I attended the Game Developers Conference. This year’s conference was held in San Francisco, California at the Moscone Convention Center on March 7^th-11^th, 2005. On these five days, over 300 sessions were held, which included workshops, keynotes, roundtable discussions and lectures touching on every topic in the industry, including game design, programming, art, audio and business.

Overall, the conference is exciting, and is extremely beneficial for those already in the industry, or for persons wanting to break into the industry. This is the place where you can meet the designer of your favorite game, learn about upcoming industry trends, or make contacts with professionals in the industry.

The main part of the conference is the sessions, but the biggest and most publicized press events are the keynotes. This year’s keynotes were delivered by representatives from Microsoft and Nintendo. Each presented differing opinions and direction for the upcoming future.

J Allard from Microsoft delivered a keynote entitled “The Future of Games: Unlocking the Opportunity”. He describes the future as being rich in high definition content (which will be unlocked by Microsoft’s XBOX2 platform). Key to the new platform will be a set of APIs that will provide a standardized interface amongst games. Also, new games for the system will allow sets of “micro transactions”, that allow the player to purchase “mods” or extras within the game. It appears that Microsoft has recognized the business model of “ringtones” on cell phones, and is attempting to apply it to games. So to sum it up, they are betting on better graphics and customization.

Nintendo’s presentation, on the other hand, focused on the innovation that is needed in the industry, and came from a more personal note. Nintendo President, Satoru, Iwata, delivered a keynote entitled “The Heart of a Gamer”. He began by describing his history within the gaming industry. Then he went on to describe what has and hasn’t changed. Among what has changed: “bigger” – bigger games, bigger budgets, bigger business, but smaller risk taking. And what has not changed: the level of emotional attachment needed in gaming, the pride of accomplishment when playing a game, and the notion that software sells the hardware (not vice-versa).  Continuing in this vein, he defined the standard of successful software business as being innovative, intuitive, inviting, and having a friendly interface (of course noting the Nintendo DS matches all of these.) He showed some demos of upcoming Nintendo DS titles, and an impressive demonstration of 8 player wireless Mario Kart. To wrap up, he announced some details on the upcoming Nintendo Revolution: it will support WiFi out of the box, and will be backward compatible. Overall, the presentation was upbeat, and showed that while Nintendo is still relying on the tried-and-true franchises, they are willing to take risks in new innovations.

Aside from the keynotes, the other big events at GDC are the Independent Games Festival and the Game Developers Choice awards. The independent games festival offers exposure to some lesser known titles. During the conference, booths were set up displaying all the entries, where anyone could try out the games, and even start up a conversation with the developers. It was exciting to see that many of these are 2D titles, such as Gish (by Chronic Logic), N (by MetaNet Software), or Alien Hominid (by The Behemoth). Also, there were 3D titles that would appeal to a casual gamer, such as Rocket Bowl (by Large Animal Games). A list of all the entries and winners can be found at www.igf.com.

The Game Developer’s choice awards hosted recipients for more well known titles, such as Halo 2, Half Life 2, World of Warcraft, and Katamari Damacy. Also presented, was the lifetime achievement award to Eugene Jarvis (creator of Defender and Robotron 2084). Other industry legends, Nolan Bushnell (founder of Atari) and Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Donkey Kong, Mario Brothers, etc.) were also honored for lifetime achievement, by given permanent floor plaques at the Walk of Game in the nearby Metreon Center.

The rest of the conference consisted of workshops, keynotes, roundtable discussions and lectures. Many of these were held simultaneously, so the attendance is much lower per session than the keynotes. One of the sessions included a full day “summit” on the state of the growing casual games market. It started with a history of games in the 70’s and 80’s to demonstrate the connection between the simplicity of the gameplay of today’s casual games. The market for the casual games industry not only covers PC web games, but also downloadable, mobile and even coin-op games. Casual games are defined by their simplicity, and “pick up and play” gameplay. Many of the development teams are extremely small, often only one or two people, harking back to the similar days of Atari and Activision. This market perhaps will interest the aspiring game developer, who’s influenced by classic games. 

An interesting lecture was given by Keita Takahashi, on the development of Katamari Damacy.  What words of wisdom did the creator of one of the most innovative modern games have to say? Basically, he said that video games are not important! If video games were to disappear, the world would continue, and that developers would suffer the most. He went on to describe the motivations that brought him to design Katamari Damacy, and gave a sneak preview of the upcoming sequel. He declared that the shooting and killing in most modern games is nothing new, and that he wanted to make something that would be easily understood. His presentation was one of those where the audience was packed with many people who were saying “I played that game – wow this is the guy who created it!”

Another of the most anticipated, and highly attended lectures was given by Will Wright (designer of the Sims), on the Future of Content. The line to enter went half-way around the conference center, so unfortunately I missed it. However, information on his upcoming game, Spore, can be readily found on-line.

One of the speakers I was most excited to see, as most classic gamers, was Toru Iwatani, the creator of Pac-Man. Now, a big difference: at the Classic Gamers Expo, he would have received a standing ovation, but at GDC, before he was introduced, I’m not sure if many people knew who he was. He participated on the International Game Designer’s panel, along with Clint Hocking (Splinter Cell), Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Space Channel Five, Rez), and Alex Rigopulos (Frequency), and discussed such things as what to do to overcome writer’s block, and the process of iterative game design. (I was ecstatic as I could have listened to him speak a full day on Pac-man alone.)

The Experimental Game Design workshop was a three-hour jam session of all kinds of crazy ideas. This session detailed and demonstrated insight into projects that don’t fit into established genres, to see if the aspects of gameplay could hold. This included the Indie Game Jam, where contestants were given art from “The Sims”, and designed a game themed around people interacting. The games were mostly very simple prototypes, like short stories. Overall, the workshop gave a refreshing offering of new and bizarre game ideas. This reminded me back to the old days, before every other game was a first-person shooter, and you’d frequently see new innovation. More information can be found at http://www.experimental-gameplay.org

Another innovative session was the Emily Dickinson Design Challenge. Designers Clint Hocking, Peter Molyneux, and Will Wright took up this challenge to design a game around the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson, a far cry from the usual themes in modern games. Chris Hocking’s design utilized the touch screen of the Nintendo DS to simulate poetry writing. Peter Molyneux used a more visual approach, where in a 3D environment, one could manipulate virtual clay, that when formed into a recognizable shape, transforms into an object in the environment. Will Wright presented a hybrid of Tamagotchi and the annoying “paper clip”, where for example, Emily would interrupt your e-mails to discuss her latest poetry, and harass the user if she’s ignored. Seeing all of these presentations was humorous, entertaining, and inspiring in the sense of asking the question, “Can you really make a game out of anything?”

Classic gamers often complain that the industry has gone stagnant, and that modern games are just repetitions of the same ideas. That’s one of the biggest reasons for playing games that are over twenty years old. However, it’s clear that from attending GDC, that there are others that agree and that there is an energy out there being used to create original ideas, despite the marketing and business pressures.

Overall, GDC has something for everyone already involved in the industry, or interested in getting involved. It gives an opportunity to learn, meet accomplished industry veterans, and network with other professionals. If you are interested in more information, be sure to check out the coverage at the GamaSutra, GameDev.net, and Gamespot. Also, the proceedings for all the sessions will be available shortly online at the GDC website, www.gdconf.com.