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All Articles: GDC 2011
2011 Game Developers Conference breaks records, next year detailed
The results are in, and a record 19,000 professionals made the pilgrimage to San Francisco for the 2011 Game Developers Conference. The world’s largest and longest running developer event hosted five packed days of over 450 lectures, panels, summits, tutorials and roundtable discussions. Event director Meggan Scavio said, “the past week of GDC truly embodied the passion and spirit of the video game community. From seasoned game veterans to aspiring game professionals in areas spanning social and online games through major console titles and beyond, we are honored to continue to serve the industry – and hope to see you all next year.”
If you decide to take her up on that offer, the event will return to the same venue, the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, when the madness begins again on Monday, March 5 to Friday, March 9, 2012. The festivities aren’t quite over yet, as a lot of the trailers and details are now trickling down to the press, so stay tuned to Warp Zoned to catch all the happenings you may have missed last week.
Minecraft wins IGF Best Game, hipsters rejoice
The International Coalition of Trendy Gamers have taken to the streets of pretension as Minecraft has won the 13th Annual Independent Games Festival’s Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game (wow that was long), in addition to the Audience Award, voted by the community. The winners were announed at the IGF Pavillion at the Game Developers Conference today, and you’ll be able to play the winners at their expo booths until the conference ends tomorrow.
Other notable winners include Amnesia: The Dark Descent, winning the award for Technical Excellence and Excellence in Audio. Gaijin Games’ BIT.TRIP.RUNNER took home the Excellence in Visual Art and Desktop Dungeons locked up the award for Excellence in Design. Nidhogg‘s developer Messhof received the $5,000 Nuovo Award, “which honors abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which ‘advances the medium and the way we think about games.'”
GDC’s producers created the IGF to encourage innovation in the medium and recognize the best independent minds in gaming.
USC is the top school for Video Game Design
For its April 2011 issue, GamePro teamed up with The Princeton Review to determine the best Video Game Design Study programs in North America. The University of Southern California (USC) took the top spot in both the undergraduate and graduate school rankings. The University of Utah, the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Drexel University also appear on both lists.
The rankings were compiled through a survey that covered a wide range of topics, from academics and faculty credentials to graduates’ employment and career achievements. The quality of the curriculum, faculty, facilities and infrastructure was also examined as well as scholarship, financial aid and career opportunities. In total, more than 150 schools offer some kind of Video Game Design coursework.
The complete top ten for both undergraduate and graduate programs can be found after the break. More information on the schools selected can be found at the GamePro article or at The Princeton Review report. (more…)
Announcement announcement: Valve to show off Steam’s Big Picture Mode at GDC this week
As we like to say in our Weekly Warp Up, “no, that’s not a typo.” Valve has circulated a press release teasing Steam Big Picture Mode, a way to enjoy Steam’s ever-increasing features from any TV or computer display in the house via your PC or Mac. “Controller support” and “navigation designed for television interaction” have been vaguely mentioned, but the company has promised more info to be released at GDC throughout the week. Stay tuned in to Warp Zoned for whatever the heck this thing ends up being.
GDC schedule finalized, explores NGP details and Gears of War success
The conference schedule for GDC is set, and attendees can start planning their day with the Schedule Builder online or from their mobile device. Newly confirmed is the Sony lecture “Next Generation Portable Platform,” where David Coombes will detail the variety of inputs and connectivity of the successor to the PSP and explain what they mean for developers.
Also confirmed is Executive Producer Rod Fergusson’s lecture on the Gears of War trilogy, titled “Scoping Success.” The talk will focus on how managing the game’s scope can overcome pitfalls such as “shipping dates, fierce competition or lack of marketing.” Hopefully he’ll be able to explain why his company failed to make Unreal Tournament III the smashing success their once-flagship franchise should have been.
GDC 2011 will take place from February 28 to March 4 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Stay tuned at Warp Zoned for all the announcements, talks, and juicy details.
Posted in News
Tagged GDC 2011, Gears of War, Unreal Tournament III