The Craziest GDC Ever
Wow, that was a pretty intense GDC. Maybe I'm just getting slower as I age, but by all counts this year's GDC was bursting at the seams: largest attendence ever (about 2000 more than in SF last year!), so many great sessions, a full expo floor, the most parties/receptions in a long while, etc. Also, I'd say there was a more upbeat vibe than last year. Perhaps I was too stuck in the quality of life sucks corner of the room while in SF, but generally, I felt there was more enthusiasm and less an attitude of doom/gloom than in years past... Not sure if others would agree.
The IGDA had a good overall showing, too. We almost broke the 10k members mark while at the show (due in no small part to the funky t-shirt design by Secret Level art director Chris Bretz). Our curriculum workshop had over 350 folks pre-registered, we packed the house for our annual meeting, the rant session was another huge success (there's even a bootleg style highlights vid up already) and the censorship debate with Assemblymember Leland Yee was a landmark for GDC (despite personal frustrations in forcing myself to remain civilized ;)
The Game Developers Choice Awards were particularly satisfying - arguably the best ceremony we've run to date. Kudos to the GDC/CMP folks to addressing concerns raised from last year's less-than-stellar showing... Also, I thought that the complete domination of Shadow of the Colossus was interesting - especially when you consider that the IGDA has almost no members from Sony... Indeed, it was the choice of developers.
For those wanting more complete coverage of GDC, check out the following:
- Gamasutra - Game Developers Conference 2006 Live Coverage
- GameDev.Net - Inside the GDC 2006
- GameSpot - GDC:06 - The Game Developers Conference 2006
Anyway, onto the pics!
Lasse Seppänen (Remedy Entertainment) chats with George Georgeadis (Dreamgazers Interactive) during the IGDA chapter coordinators dinner.
Board member Tom Buscaglia chats with board hopeful Rodney Gibbs (Amaze Entertainment) during the chapter dinner.
Justin Hall sporting his new doo in the Fairmont lobby.
Mother Would Be Proud: Scylla Costa (Jynx Playware) and Mike Sweeney (Slingo) prove that "spring break" isn't the only place to have fun in March. Drinks/party courtesy of Infospace.
Over the shoulder of Warren Spector (Junction Point), before the opening of the very well attended curriculum workshop.
Aaron Walker (Retro Studios) with old school buddy Kyle Machulis (Nonpolynomial Labs).
Members milling about before the start of the IGDA's Annual Meeting and Member Reception.
Accessibility SIG chairperson Michelle Hinn mentored IGDA scholarship recipient Robert Florio (a blurry Mrs. Florio got caught in the middle).
At the East Meets West reception: Hiroshi Yamaguchi (Japan Center for International Finance), Itoh Masatoshi and Kiyoshi Shin (IGDA Japan Chapter) enjoy a drink and make funny faces...
The gameLab crew is in the house!
Ubisoft Montreal's Yannis Mallat, Charles Jacobs and Ben Mattes lining up for drinks.
GDC oldtimers Bob Bates and Noah Falstein :)
Seamus Blackley (CAA) checking into to the Fairmont with his ever so cute son Max.
...a jealous CliffyB (Epic Games) showing off his baby, ahem, puppy dog...
Will Wright (Maxis) and Eric Zimmerman (gameLab) certainly chatting about game design.
Jamil Moledina (CMP) and Tommy Tallarico rock out with Guitar Hero!
Brenda's sex lecture was informative and entertaining. I snapped this shot right after Brenda said "no one is going to believe I showed these slides at GDC" ;)
IGDA volunteers and various other VIPs enjoying good lunch/conversation during the IGDA's "VIP Luncheon".
Long-tim VIP-ers Robin Hunicke (Maxis) and Alison Kelly (ATI).
Heather Kelley (Ubisoft), Damian Isla (Bungie) and Clint Hocking (Ubisoft) also part of the VIP crowd.
Chris Bateman (International Hobo) leads the writers group gathering at the IGDA booth.
Steve Meretzky (Floodgate Entertainment) and Bob Bates practice their lines during the Choice Awards dress rehearsal.
An ever so dapper Richard Garriott during the pre-ceremony reception. Not pictured: matching cowboy boots.
The Sony Japan crew before their avalanche of awards...
Erik Robson and Tim Schafer of Double Fine settle in before the show.
Louis Castle (EA), Alan Yu (EA) and Marty O'Donnell (Bungie) get comfortable for the (actually not so) long ceremony.
The Dave and Tommy Show: Dave Perry (Shiny) and Tommy Tallarico were quite entertaining and kept the show moving at a nice brisk pace :)
The Double Fine crew up to collect their New Studio award. Kudos!
Chris Hecker (Maxis) recieves his well deserved award for Community Contribution, and uses it as an opportnuity to rant and rave about the games industry...
Kenji Kaido accepts the award for Best Game along with other Shadow of the Collosus team members. (I was actually waiting in the wings back stage as I was up next to close the show.)
Shuhei Yoshida (SCEA), Phil Harrison (Sony Europe), Shannon Studstill (Sony Santa Monica) and David Jaffe (Sony Santa Monica) at the end of the ceremony. Jaffe gave a very diplomatic "I really enjoyed the show" response...
The goofy Mega64 guys pleased with the response to their vids.
Some of the Introversion Software guys chilling after the big IGF wins for Darwinia.
The RobotWars action during the Sony party was an unexpected treat!
Douglas Tronsgard (Next Level Games) and Dylan Miklashek (Pandemic Studios Australia) discussing the quality of their lives...
The IGF pavillion is always a popular destination.
Longest line I've ever seen: The queue for questions during the censorship debate with Leland Yee nearly went out the door at the back of the room. Sadly, we only got to the third person.
Chris Crawford at the podium during the rant session, gesturing for his now infamous "food goes in, shit comes out" line...
LOL, I couldn't resist. Ironically, this was an invite someone handed to a developer from Microsoft!
Academic at large: David Thomas (CU Denvery) and Dmitri Williams (U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) at the speakers' party.
100 Hot Developers my ass! These ladies should be on any top list: Tracy Rosenthal-Newsom (Harmonix Music Systems), Kristine Coco (Midway Austin) and Heather Kelley (Ubisoft).
Joseph Saulter (Entertainment Arts Research) talks during the workforce diversity panel.
Nice... assets. The heavy pin-up influence of the Graphic Impact gallery elicited quite a response from some (eg, Robin's "what's next? Hot chics" rant...)
John Bird (CRI) flips the bird to an unsespecting Ernest Adams.
Sony was showing off lots of PS3 stuff on the expo floor and during Phil's keynote...
Cool flatpanel/table style game playing device thing.
The job fair area was jammed throughout the conference. Much more so than in years past.
An unexpected full house for the game studies download session. Very encouraging!
Tommy welcomes the crowd to the Video Games Live show. It was very cool/fun.
After Chris Melissinos (Sun) was done mobbing CliffyB during the intermission, it was fun to watch fanboys line up to take photos with their Unreal idol.
Video game pianist Martin Leung in action as a special guest performer during Video Games Live.
Can't wait until next year!
Posted on March 28, 2006 02:26 PM