Game Developers Conference 2011 lasted from February 28 to March 4th 2011 in San Francisco, CA. It’s an annual opportunity for people in the games industry, or just who want to be in the games industry to get together and network, as well as check out various tutorial, sessions, and roundtables by industry professionals, for [hopeful, soon-to-be] industry professionals. It also features a major expo showing off upcoming technology and talent, as well as many major developers having recruiters and artists on hand to scout for talent.
I went with a Summits and Tutorials Pass, which got me into a couple daylong sessions on Monday and Tuesday, as well as the Expo on Wednesday through Friday and Friday afternoon’s Game Career Seminar. It was one of the cheaper passes, but I’d question its immediate usefulness for a hopeful Game Artist. This year, at least, the Summits and Tutorials options were clearly geared more towards working professionals, or at least people better equipped to try and work as level or game designers. It also didn’t let me into a lot of the cool artist talks happening during the Main Conference.
The next couple posts will be my long-winded summaries of GDC 2011. For more information, check out gdconf.com.