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Independent Games Festival

Game Developers Choice Awards

2009 Conference Highlights

Ways to Succeed in an Unstable Economy

  • Sessions at GDCCreating, Maintaining and Realizing Value for a Videogame Business
    Speaker: Mitch Lasky (Benchmark Capital)
    This session will examine how video game companies generate value as enterprises. We will examine the fundamentals of value in a creative business, and talk about specific ways to improve your chances of realizing value in a sale, merger, or financing, using specific examples and anecdotes from the speaker’s 15 year career buying, selling and financing video game businesses.
  • Early Stage Funding for Video Game Start Ups
    Speaker: Matthew Le Merle (Gameplay Holdings and Keiretsu Forum)
    This session focuses on how independent developers and gaming start-ups should go about the challenge of acquiring early stage funding. It involves a discussion of what works, what does not, and how companies can bridge the gap to VC funding.
  • Stability in Stormy Weather
    Speaker: Albert Reed & Bill Reed (Demiurge Studios)
    Small and mid-sized game development studios are notoriously forced to rapidly shrink and expand. The speakers will share proven strategies that can
  • Sessions at GDCRaising Capital In A Recession
    Speaker:     Chris Kauza (Soltus Group)
    Raising capital in good times is hard enough, but what can you do when you find yourself in the middle of a recession? We will show you how to creatively apply a disciplined approach for funding your company, and also show you how to be more strategic when approaching potential investors.
  • My Lessons Learned from Flagship Studios
    Speaker: Stephen Goldstein (Flagship Studios)
    The spectacular rise and fall of Flagship Studios, developers of HELLGATE: LONDON, acts as a cautionary tale for all independent developers. Join this hour-long talk that focuses on lessons learned as well as recommended strategies to help developers avoid an untimely demise.
  • From Bungie to Bootstrapping – Starting an Independent Developer
    Speaker:     Max Hoberman (Certain Affinity, Inc.)
    Find out what's involved in starting a development studio, what some of the less obvious challenges are, and how Certain Affinity has managed to overcome them while learning a few lessons along the way.
  • Sessions at GDCProfitable Development via Creative Accounting (And by Creative, we Mean Financially Sound!)
    Speaker: Chris Charla (Foundation 9)
    This session focuses on how and why independent developers waste money while making games - specifically focusing on financial versus production mistakes - and how to rectify the situation to increase profit through proper planning, specific account methods, and strong management.
  • Have You Got Perfect Pitch?
    Speaker: John Cook (Bad Management), Lee Jacobson (Midway Home Entertainment Inc.), Sebastien Motte (Microsoft Game Studios), Michael Denny (SCEE), Dan Winters (Activision)
    This panel aims to give solid practical advice to developers on the hunt for a game deal. How do you get a meeting with The Powers That Be in a publishing company? Then how do you impress the hell out of them if you get that golden opportunity to give them your, hopefully, Perfect Pitch? Four grizzled A&R veterans with decades of industry experience will tell you how it really is on the front line and give you their top dos and don'ts for the developer hoping to impress.
  • Sessions at GDCRiding the Waves of Change: How Video Game Companies Can Flourish in an Environment of Relentless Volatility and Flux
    Speaker: Gerri Sinclair (Great Northern Way Campus), Tarnie Williams (Relic Entertainment), Howard Donaldson (Disney Interactive), Dave Fracchia (Radical/Activision), Bradley Crooks (Headstrong Games)
    The Game Industry is in constant flux and flow: to be successful in this industry one must learn to contend not just with a changing market, but technology, educational demographics, workers´ skill-sets, but even changes within companies through mergers, acquisitions, and all-out take-overs.

Sessions at the GDC are divided into tracks, generally according to the subject discipline such as programming or art. This year's GDC Tracks include the following:

Game Design Game Design Track Highlighted Sessions:

View Advisory Board recommended sessions here.
Learn more about the Game Design Track here.

Production Production Track Highlighted Sessions:

View Advisory Board recommended sessions here.
Learn more about the Production Track here.

Business Business & Management Track Highlighted Sessions:

View Advisory Board recommended sessions here.
Learn more about the Business & Management Track here.

Programming Track Programming Track Highlighted Sessions:

View Advisory Board recommended sessions here.
Learn more about the Programming Track here.

Visual Arts Track Visual Arts Track Highlighed Sessions:

View Advisory Board recommended sessions here.
Learn more about the Visual Arts Track here.

Audio Track Audio Track Highlighted Sessions:

View Advisory Board recommended sessions here.
Learn more about the Audio Track here.

Advisory Board Session Picks

Mark CernyMark Cerny recommends the following sessions:

Laura FryerLaura Fryer recommends the following sessions:

Julien MerceronJulien Merceron recommends the following sessions:

Bob RafeiBob Rafei recommends the following sessions:

For more information about speaking at GDC, click here.

To view all GDC09 sessions, click here.

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