Preview: GDC 2010

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.

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.

And inspiration - we have the tag line "Learning, Networking, Inspiration" - but it's so true. Those are the three things that everyone gets out of GDC.

But that went away for a while.

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. 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.

It grows with the industry, but we started helping that a couple of years ago by adding summits - which are really specialised communities where you're in one room for one or two days, so it's a really nice place to meet the people that are doing what you're doing.

This year we added we're doing a producer boot camp, so that's going to be a way for producers to site around together all day and have some hands-on experience that they never had before. I spoke to a producer at DICE from Sony San Diego and he's been doing it for 18 years, but never been to a GDC - he's coming for the first time this year.

So every year we try to create that community - we do it with the IGDA, they have their SIG meetings, there are receptions... but it is hard to find ways for people to meet each other.

Honestly, I think it's all about social networks - that's what's on everybody's mind. Facebook took everybody by surprise - no one would have predicted that, while Sony's been doing the motion control stuff for a while. So it's not as new as some of the social elements we've been seeing.

There'll be some talks at GDC - Zynga will be doing a talk, and Facebook is doing a talk too. That seems like the buzz, although there's a lot of stuff going on in mobile too - Palm will be there, Blackberry, and also Google, who's never been there before.

Well it's really a five-day event, with summits and tutorials on the first two days - Tuesday and Wednesday this year. Then the last three days are the main tracks - the one keynote with Sid Meier, and then the six tracks focusing on programming, production, game design, visual arts, audio and business.

So there's something for everyone.

It's strictly a building thing. The Moscone Center was already booked, so they were the only dates we could fit in. We really try to stay in March - it's what everybody is used to. We used to be Tuesday through Saturday in San Jose... but it'll be back to normal next year.

The fact of the matter is that GDC is programmed by the advisory board and - I'm not just saying this - these people are incredibly dedicated to making this an incredible event. They take the submissions and mentor people. They demand slides, send stuff back asking for certain changes, maybe four or five times until they feel the speaker has gotten it right - and they do that for everybody.

[smiles] It is a lot of work - but they find it rewarding. They're contributing to their community, and these men and women aren't paid to do it.

I see it as complete. I get a message a week from somebody who wants a GDC here, or a GDC there - they want it in Boston, England, Korea, Italy, South America... frankly there are these pocket communities, but I'm not sure it's beneficial to follow them everywhere.

Yes - but we have to wait for those communities to grow before we go there. But GDC Europe and GDC in San Francisco are very similar in format and track set-up. GDC Online and GDC China are truly separate - maybe there'll be some other segment that pops up, maybe GDC Social some day, but we really follow what the industry dictates.

Right now it represents the industry, and it needs to represent the industry. It started as CGDC, which was the Computer Game Developers Conference, and at some point around 1998-99 the Computer part was dropped, because there were all these consoles...

So the role is to follow the trends, and you can even see that in our advisory board. They're not all working for giant publishers or studios any more, they're all going independent, social, online... it should always stay true to what's happening.