The 2009 Game Developers Conference, held last week at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, saw attendance of more than 17,000.

That figure was released by conference organizer Think Services, which pointed to the results as indicative of the overall industry's fundamental strength.

"The success of this past week in San Francisco proves the resilience of the games industry," said event director Meggan Scavio. "It is a testament to the spirit of our more than 20 year old conference and community, and evidence of video games' continued evolution into a mainstream form of entertainment, that the various constituents of the industry were able come together at GDC as they did [last] year."

Those 17,000-plus industry professionals attended more than 500 sessions lectures, summits, tutorials, and panels, saw keynotes from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, and witnessed the 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards and 11th Annual Independent Games Festival.

Despite the cost-cutting going on in many parts of the industry, attendance exceeded its 2007 total and was only slightly shy of 2008's record attendance of 18,000.

Also confirmed were the dates for next year's show, once again slated to take place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Game Developers Conference 2010 will be held from Tuesday, March 9 to Saturday, March 13, 2010 -- marking a change from the typical GDC Monday to Friday schedule. In an interview in February, Scavio explained that the change is due to booking-related issues. The Moscone Center venue itself is booked for GDC through at least 2015.

Posted by Staff at 7:33 AM | Permalink

Bethesda Softworks' epic post-apocalyptic open-world adventure, Fallout 3, received the Game of the Year Award at the 9th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, presented at a ceremony this evening the 2009 Game Developers Conference. Bethesda also received the Best Writing award for the game.

Media Molecule's imaginative user creation-centric platform game LittleBigPlanet, which was first unveiled at GDC 2007, was the recipient of the most awards of the evening, taking four awards for Best Game Design, Best Technology, Best Debut Game and Innovation Award.

Other winners at the Tim Schafer-hosted event included Ubisoft's hauntingly beautiful update of the Prince of Persia franchise, which won the prize for Best Visual Arts, and Ready at Dawn's portable action-adventure, God of War: Chains of Olympus, winner of the Best Handheld Game award. EA Redwood Shores' shocking horror title, Dead Space, won the prize for Best Audio award.

Additionally, successful independent developer 2D Boy, winner of the 2008 Independent Games Festival's Design Innovation award and Technical Experience award, snagged this year's Game Developers Choice award for Best Downloadable game for World of Goo.

The Game Developers Choice Awards, which honor the very best games of the year, are voted on by developers and created for developers.

They are produced and hosted by the GDC and presented by Gamasutra.com and Game Developer Magazine, with the aid of a distinguished Advisory Committee that includes many of the world's top game creators, and each award is decided by thousands of votes from game professionals worldwide.

This year, Hideo Kojima, the Corporate Officer, Executive Producer and Director of Kojima Productions and creator of the seminal Metal Gear series was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his influence on the craft of game development and his twenty years of work on Metal Gear and other notable franchises.

In addition, Harmonix co-founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, co-developers of a groundbreaking decade-plus long line of music games culminating in the Rock Band franchise, received the Pioneer Award for their work; and Tommy Tallarico, co-founder of the Video Games Live concert series and founder of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), received the Ambassador Award for helping to advance the game audio community.

The recipients of the 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards are:

Game of the Year
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)

Best Game Design:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Writing:
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)

Best Technology:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Visual Arts:
Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)

Best Debut Game:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Handheld Game:
God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready at Dawn)

Innovation Award:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Audio:
Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)

Best Downloadable Game:
World Of Goo (2D Boy)

Recipients for the evening's special awards were:

Lifetime Achievement Award
Hideo Kojima

Pioneer Award
Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy

Ambassador Award
Tommy Tallarico

"Over the past nine years, the Game Developers Conference has become the premiere video game award show because it gives voice to those who understand games better than anyone; the people who make them," said Meggan Scavio, content director of the Game Developers Conference.

"The games being recognized here are virtuoso efforts that have truly advanced the state of video games. Our congratulations to all the talented and hardworking teams that put so much of themselves into their art."

For more information about the awards and all the recipients, please visit the official Game Developers Choice website.

Posted by Staff at 7:48 AM | Permalink

Erik Svedang's Blueberry Garden, a charming exploration game set in an ever-changing ecosystem, received top honors - the $30,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game - at the 2009 Independent Games Festival Awards.

The winners were announced this evening at the eleventh Annual IGF Awards ceremony, hosted by the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

The IGF awards are often referred to as the Sundance Festival of the video game industry, and offer both global exposure and over $50,000 in cash prizes to each year's winners.

Previous breakout IGF award-winners include titles such as Braid, Audiosurf, Castle Crashers, and World Of Goo, and this year's awards saw 226 Main Competition entries from all over the world - and over 450 entries in total.

Other IGF award recipients for 2009 include Amanita Design's evocative adventure game Machinarium, which took the Excellence in Visual Art Award, and KranX Productions' Musaic Box, which won the Excellence in Design Award thanks to its cunning combination of music game and block puzzler.

The first ever Innovation (Nuovo) Award, honoring a title that advances the art of gaming, went to Jason Rohrer's two-player collaborative title Between, while Digital Eel's BrainPipe received the award for Excellence in Audio, and Data Realms' Cortex Command was recognized for Technical Excellence, also picking up the Audience Award, after receiving the largest share of thousands of public votes cast at IGF.com in recent weeks.

Finally, the award for the Best Student Game went to DigiPen Institute of Technology's paint-splattering action title Tag: The Power of Paint, and download sponsor Direct2Drive's $10,000 D2D Vision Award was won by Hemisphere Games' Osmos.

The IGF judges are made up of over 50 industry game creators and journalists, including the makers of previous IGF honorees World Of Goo, Braid, Aquaria and N+; industry veterans from studios including Maxis and SuperVillain Studios; and noted writers from Wired, Kotaku, Newsweek, Joystiq and MTV.

"Yet again, we've been blown away by the quality and diversity of entries in this year's Independent Games Festival," said Simon Carless, IGF chairman. "Every year, indie games seem to get more and more vital, and we're pleased to be able to help honor the very best."

The IGF awarded the following games in each category of the main competition - each received a cash prize of $2,500 as well as sponsor-related prizes, apart from the Grand Prize of $20,000:

Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($30,000)
Blueberry Garden, by Erik Svedang

Innovation (Nuovo) Award ($2,500)
Between, by Jason Rohrer

Excellence in Visual Art ($2,500)
Machinarium, by Amanita Design

Excellence in Audio ($2,500)
BrainPipe, by Digital Eel

Technical Excellence ($2,500)
Cortex Command, by Data Realms

Excellence in Design ($2,500)
Musaic Box, by KranX Productions

Best Student Game ($2,500)
Tag: The Power of Paint, by DigiPen Institute of Technology

Audience Award ($2,500)
Cortex Command, by Data Realms

D2D Vision Award ($10,000)
Osmos, by Hemisphere Games

The eleventh annual Independent Games Festival is supported by Platinum Sponsor Mountain Dew's Green Label Gaming which contributed $10,000 to this year's record-breaking Grand Prize amount, official download partner Direct2Drive, Gold Sponsor Microsoft's XNA, Silver Sponsor Sony, and Student Showcase Platinum Sponsor DigiPen Institute of Technology.

For more information about the IGF, the finalists and the winners, please visit the official Independent Games Festival website.

Posted by Staff at 12:47 AM | Permalink

Gaming-oriented television network G4 will exclusively broadcast the 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards on U.S. television, G4 and conference organizer Think Services announced today.

The awards take place Wednesday, March 25 during Game Developers Conference 2009 in San Francisco. G4's program X-Play, featuring host Adam Sessler -- billed as "the most watched video game series on television" -- will air the proceedings on Friday, April 10 at 6:30 PM.

As recently revealed by Think Services, this year Double Fine Productions founder and veteran game designer Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango, Psychonauts) will once again preside over the evening. Schafer previously hosted the 2007 Choice Awards.

The evening of GDC-related awards are starting at 6.30pm next Wednesday, and all GDC 2009 attendees are welcome to attend. The festivities will kick off with the 2009 Independent Games Festival Awards, not to be shown on G4, but also taking place during the event.

Additionally, from March 25 to March 27, X-Play will feature nightly reporting on Game Developers Conference itself, with "around-the-clock" coverage on the network's online wing, G4TV.com.

Posted by Staff at 7:44 AM | Permalink

Organizers of this month's Game Developers Conference have revealed notable, late-breaking new talks from Capcom' Yoshinori Ono on Street Fighter IV, MIT's David Merrill on new forms of interaction, and a panel of journalists-turned-developers on crossing over to another side of the industry.

Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono will present a talk called "IV Style: Returning to the Roots of a Fighting Game Classic," discussing how the Capcom team approached the design and development process of the anticipating fighting game -- and promising "a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into the inner workings of Japanese development."

Also confirmed is "Physical Play: Siftables and Other New Forms and Formats for Interaction, Collaboration and Creativity" from David Merrill of the MIT Media Lab, who will be showcasing his innovative 'Siftables' technology, "cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands."

Over his entire lecture, Merrill will give an overview of his work "building new systems for physical, collaborative and multimodal interaction with digital content," asking the question, "What opportunities will arise from systems that make digital interaction more physical and less screen-based?"

Finally, a panel of one game journalist and five journalists-turned-game-developers, including Insomniac's Bryan Intihar, Bungie's Luke Smith, 2K Games' Jason Bergman and Capcom's Kraig Kujawa will present "But What I Really Want to Do is Make Games," relating their experiences in radically changing their job descriptions within the industry.

Game Developers Conference 2009 takes place at the Moscone Center from March 23rd to 27th, and more information on the event and registration is available at the official GDC website.

Posted by Staff at 11:44 AM | Permalink

Game Developers Conference organizer Think Services (also parent of Gamasutra) has established a new office in Germany to handle GDC Europe.

Think Services Game Group European business development VP Frank Sliwka will head the new office, and serve as conference director for GDC Europe and the International eSports Conference.

Together with Carsten Kohlenbeck, who also worked with Frank Sliwka at Global Games Media, the Think Services Game Group Germany will work with a team of international industry experts from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Cologne to drive business growth.

One of the major partners of the Think Services Game Group Germany includes GamesCom organizers Koelnmesse, the trade fair business based in Cologne, since this year's GDC Europe will be held alongside August's major European consumer and trade video game show GamesCom.

"This new opportunity is both exciting and challenging", said Sliwka. "With this great team, I am confident that our upcoming projects such as GDC Europe will be a great success. We are enthusiastic to expand the Think Services Game Group brand and services to Europe".

GDC Europe will take place from August 17-19, 2009 at the Cologne Congress East Center in Cologne, Germany, and expects 1,500 attendees from 48 countries. Interested parties can find more information at GDC Europe's official site.

Posted by Staff at 7:54 AM | Permalink

Following recent confusion, Game Developers Conference organizer Think Services has clarified that its conference in Shanghai this October is the only official GDC event scheduled for China -- despite an unrelated upcoming event going by "ChinaGDC."

Think Services (which publishes Gamasutra) has scheduled its GDC China for October 11 through 13 in Shanghai.

The unlicensed naming overlap has roots in a 2007 deal that saw Think Services work with IDG China for the first GDC China event, GDC executive director Meggan Scavio said in a statement:

"In 2007, Think Services partnered with IDG China and produced the first ever GDC China in Shanghai. The event was very successful, and received well by the local and international game community," she explained.

Howell International Trade Fair, which organizes the ChinaJoy trade expo where the unofficial ChinaGDC is to be held, became involved as well.

"Howell came aboard at the end of 2007 GDC China event and their participation was limited at best," said Scavio. "This partnership was dissolved in 2008 due to irreconcilable differences regarding the content model and operation processes. As per the written agreement, Think Services (a division of United Business Media) retains sole ownership of Game Developers Conference China (GDC China) trademark and related intellectual properties."

Think Services' GDC China will be the sixth and final Game Developers Conference event of 2009; the GDC calendar kicks off with the main GDC 2009 event in San Francisco this month.

Posted by Staff at 8:03 AM | Permalink

2009 Game Developers Conference organizers have revealed that 'My First Time' is the theme for this year's Game Design Challenge, with Infocom veteran Steve Meretzky, Portal co-creator Kim Swift and Habbo lead designer Sulka Haro twinning 'sex and autobiography' in their game concepts.

The longrunning event, organized and MC-ed by Gamelab chief design officer Eric Zimmerman, is taking place on Wednesday, March 25 from 2:30 to 3:30pm at this year's GDC, held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

There's a rich heritage of odd, fulfilling Challenges in previous years, with last year's Challenge seeing Brenda Brathwaite (Wizardry) and Meretzky take on 2007 champion Alexey Pajitnov (Tetris) in designing an “inter-species game”. Other previous highlights have included 2006's 'Nobel Peace Prize' challenge, won by SimCity and Spore creator Will Wright. among many others.

The official description for this year's Challenge reads as follows:

"Welcome back for another year and another Game Design Challenge, where three amazing game design greats create original concepts around a very unusual game design problem. Join us as returning champ Steve Meretzky squares off against two new challengers.

At the session, each panelist presents a unique solution to this game design enigma. And the audience plays an important role as well - by voting in the winner of the Game Design Challenge 2009. Expect a free-wheeling session of brave new game design ideas, along with unpredictable debate and dialog."

More information on the lecture, and Game Developers Conference 2009 in general, is available at the official GDC website.

Posted by Staff at 9:32 AM | Permalink

Organizers of the 2009 Independent Games Festival (IGF) have launched the IGF Audience Award voting website, allowing game fans everywhere to download, play, and choose a favorite all of the eligible Main Competition finalist indie games which submitted a publicly playable demo.

Online voting is open now and continues through Friday, March 20th, with the award given out at the IGF Awards taking place alongside the Game Developers Choice Awards at the 2009 Game Developers Conference on March 25th.

The games with eligible demos or full versions on PC, XBLA, XNA Community Games or PSN are: Retro/Grade, Dyson, Brainpipe, The Maw, IncrediBots, Osmos, Musaic Box, Cortex Command, CarneyVale Showtime, Coil, The Graveyard, PixelJunk Eden, Mightier, You Have To Burn The Rope, and Between.

The winner of the Audience Award will be awarded a $2,500 prize, part of the $50,000 total in prizes being given as part of the IGF Main and Student Competitions.

Downloads and web-playable versions of eligible Audience Award games -- or information about how to access them -- are available at the official IGF Audience Award website; the full list of IGF finalists is available at the Independent Games Festival website.

In addition to those available to play via digital download, all finalist games will be playable at the IGF Pavilion, March 25-27, on the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Expo floor.

Finalists were chosen from a record 226 entries and represent the growth of the independent games movement with innovative games of excellent quality, across various platforms. GDC, Think Services' annual conference dedicated to the art, science and business of games, takes place March 23-27, 2009 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

The IGF was established in 1998 by the CMP Game Group (now Think Services) to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers, in the way that the Sundance Film Festival honors the independent film community.

Mountain Dew's Green Label Gaming is the 2009 Platinum Sponsor, alongside Microsoft’s XNA division and Sony as the Gold and Silver Sponsors respectively, and DigiPen Institute Of Technology as the Platinum Student Showcase Sponsor.

For more information on the Independent Games Festival and to register for GDC, please visit the IGF website and the the 2009 Game Developers Conference website respectively.

Posted by Staff at 9:40 AM | Permalink