The Game Developers Conference is celebrating the 25th GDC. GDC’s first show was in 1988, when two events were held. GDC is celebrating this milestone in various ways--including attendee gifts and an anniversary lecture--during the 2011 event in San Francisco.
The first took place in the living room of its founder, Chris Crawford, near San Jose, Calif., and was called the Computer Game Developers Conference. It was such a hit that a second event was scheduled later that year in a proper convention center.
There are a number of ways in which we're celebrating GDC 25:
- First and foremost, GDC is bringing back GDC founder and Balance Of Power designer Chris Crawford to present a special anniversary lecture titled 'In Days of Yore'.
- A special gift. GDC announces a special two-part gift. GDC and I Am 8-Bit will provide each GDC 2011 conference attendee a random selection of two posters out of a complete set of four that creatively reflect the last 25+ years of game development. I Am 8-Bit also created for GDC Paint by Pixels. At registration, conference attendees will be given one 'pixel', and they can participate by attaching it to an initially blank canvas, to construct a 20-by-8-foot pixel portrait by designer Jude Buffum. 5,760 pixels are needed to complete the image.
- Also look for the Classic Game Postmortem series.
- With this being GDC 25, the company wanted the keynote to reflect that long history. GDC welcomes Nintendo's CEO Satoru Iwata as the opening keynote.
- 2011 marks the first year that GDC takes over all 3 buildings of the Moscone Center -- North, South, and West.
GDC staff recommends: Wear comfortable shoes, plan your schedule carefully, check out lecture recommendations, bring your business cards, and prepare for a week of learning, networking, inspiration, and total awesomeness. See you there!