GDC moves away from big announcements
San Francisco event to focus less on "making news", more on developer learning and inspiration
This year's Game Developer Conference, taking place next week in San Francisco, is deliberately moving away from headline reveals and big-name news stories in an attempt to refocus on the core elements of learning, networking and inspiration - specifically related to the development community.
That's according to conference director Meggan Scavio, in an interview to be published on GamesIndustry.biz later this week following the publication of the event schedule that's headlined by 2K Games legend Sid Meier - but doesn't feature any other overall keynotes.
"I've taken a bit of a shift when it comes to programming keynotes - I really want to focus on developers, and I want to have a developer onstage at GDC every year as a way of showcasing what the conference is about," she explained.
"It's not about making news, it's not about announcing things - it's about making better games, and I kind of want to... not really turn them into icons, but I want to recognise the talent of the developers out there.
She went on to underline the three main elements that GDC is designed around - "Those are the three things that everyone gets out of GDC" - and stated her belief that with E3 emerging once more the LA trade show was the right place for headlines to be made.
"I do, and absolutely. There's a core to GDC that's developer-friendly, and I want it to be a place that's a community," she said. "People think of it as that place they go once a year, they see old friends - and when it becomes so enormous, people lose that community feel. They get lost and alone at GDC, and it's not meant to be that way - so I don't mind that E3 is taking off as a trade show again."
The full interview with Meggan Scavio will be published later this week, and GamesIndustry.biz will be on hand at GDC to bring as much learning and inspiration from the plethora of events as possible.