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GDC 2014 adds new QA Summit talks from Google, 5th Planet and more

Game Developers Conference 2014 organizers have revealed a few new QA Summit talks for its March conference, including sessions explaining how to launch your own QA department, how to test mobile apps the Google way, and much more.
These talks are part of the QA Summit, one of eight that will take place Monday, March 17 and Tuesday, March 18 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA during the first two days of GDC 2014.

Don Daglow shares tips on going indie at GDC 2014

Passes for the Game Developers Conference 2014 are still going fast, and today we're announcing a few more sessions for the Main Conference that you'll want to check out.

Today's highlights include a guide to helping players find your games, a talk from industry veteran Don Daglow about how you can tell whether it's time to finally go indie, and more.

Now in its 28th year, GDC is the world's largest and longest-running professionals-only game industry event, and will once again take place at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California during March 17-21, 2014.

GDC 2014 donates Indie Games Summit tickets to Indie Giving charity

Organizers of the 2014 Game Developers Conference are announcing a partnership with the Indie Giving charity effort for the second year running, donating 30 GDC Indie Games Summit tickets to the 2014 Indie Giving event.
As part of the agreement with Indie Giving, which is run by FGL head and indie community veteran Chris Hughes, generous indie game makers will get an exclusive opportunity to buy the now sold-out IGS pass.
By doing so they agree to volunteer on an onsite project just before GDC 2014, with 100 percent of their Indie Giving package price going directly to the Hands On Bay Area nonprofit and its partners.

Fresh batch of Advocacy track sessions revealed for GDC 2014

Today Game Developers Conference 2014 organizers are highlighting another great set of sessions in the Advocacy track that you'll want to check out, along with a reminder that just a scant few hours remain before you can no longer qualify for the Game Developers Conference early registration discount.
Session highlights today include a roundtable discussion about how to hire more women in games, an examination of the results in a thorough academic study into the nature of discrimination in the games industry, and more. You can also find the full lineup of awesome advocacy-centric talks at GDC 2014 via the Advocacy track session list.

GDC 2014's AI Summit adds Bioshock Infinite, Sims 4, Hearthstone

Game Developers Conference 2014 organizers are highlighting a few new AI Summit talks for the March conference, including sessions explaining how to program a companion character like Bioshock Infinite's Elizabeth to act believably, a deeper look at the AI design of The Sims 4 and Hearthstone, plus much more.
These talks are part of the AI Summit, one of eight that will take place Monday, March 17 and Tuesday, March 18 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA during the first two days of GDC 2014.
Quick reminder: just a scant few hours remain before you can no longer qualify for the Game Developers Conference early registration discount.

Popular #1ReasonToBe panel returns to GDC 2014

GDC 2014 is fast approaching; there's less than 24 hours left to register in time to qualify for the Early Bird discount, and the show itself -- which takes place March 17-21 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco -- is just weeks away.
With that in mind, GDC organizers would like to highlight the return of one of the conference's most popular sessions: the #1ReasonToBe panel.
Inspired by the #1ReasonWhy and #1ReasonToBe hashtagged discussions that erupted across social media in 2013, this panel is a rapid, fun microtalk-style celebration and exploration of what it means to be a woman in games.

Reminder: 24 hours left to early register for GDC 2014

With just over a day left until early registration for Game Developers Conference 2014 ends on January 31, conference organizers are encouraging anyone interested in attending to register now at the discounted rate.
Register now for access to a wide variety of talks, roundtable discussions, postmortems and workshops. All passholders also have access to the GDC Expo Floor, located within the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, which will once again showcase cutting-edge technology from some of the industry's biggest and most influential companies.
Crytek, Havok, Unity Technologies, and Epic Games are but a few of the notable exhibitors at the show this year -- you can visit the official GDC website for a dynamic list of the show's hundreds of exhibitors.

GDC 2014 adds Nintendo history exhibits, iam8bit trivia challenges

Just two days before discounted Early Bird registration ends, Game Developers Conference 2014 organizers are unveiling several interactive events for the March conference - including playable board games from video game designers, plus a 5-minute game trivia competition hosted by iam8bit and a bevy of video game history exhibits.
These events will be free to all GDC passholders (from Expo to All-Access) at various points during the week of the 2014 Game Developers Conference, March 17-21, and can be found in the 'common areas' across the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. The full line-up of exhibits is as follows:

Dave Lebling revisits Zork in GDC 2014 Classic Game Postmortem

For March's Game Developers Conference 2014, we're announcing another one of our most exciting classic game postmortems yet.
Dave Lebling, an industry veteran who co-founded Infocom, will be giving a postmortem talk on the classic text adventure Zork at GDC 2014.
Lebling, who currently works as a Senior Principal Engineer at BAE Systems, created the "grue" and co-authored Zork I-III, as well as several other classic text adventures.

GDC 2014 unveils new Summit talks on mobile game design

Game Developers Conference 2014 organizers have revealed a few new Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit talks for its March conference, including sessions explaining how to find success in China with a foreign game, a guide to making a great companion app for AAA titles, and more.
These talks are part of the Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit, one of eight that will take place Monday, March 17 and Tuesday, March 18 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA during the first two days of GDC 2014.

Ken Kutaragi to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at the 14th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards

The 14th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards will honor Ken Kutaragi -- former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment and the "Father of the PlayStation" -- with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the world of gaming.
The Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony takes place on Wednesday, March 19 at 6:30pm at the Moscone Convention Center during the 2014 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, and will be streamed online and open to all GDC passholders.
PlayStation 4 lead architect Mark Cerny will be presenting Kutaragi with his award, bringing two of the most important minds in PlayStation together on stage.

GDC Spotlight Interviews: Tencent Games, ARM and Unity Technologies

| January 2014

In This Issue:

  • Tencent Games - Steve Gray, executive in charge of production at Tencent Games, gives tips for developers who want to pitch apps to Chinese operators, and a sneak peek at what to expect from the upcoming Developer Day event at GDC 2014.

'Best of GDC': Watch some of the best GDC sessions of all time

This post is cross-published with permission from our sister site Gamasutra.
A couple weeks ago, we reached out via Twitter, asking people what past GDC sessions they consider the #BestOfGDC.
The responses we received included sessions ranging from the highly technical (HDR Lighting in Uncharted 2) to the emotionally moving (Brian Moriarty's The Secret of Psalm 46).
There were a lot of suggestions that we did not include in this list, and you can see them at #BestOfGDC -- some of the Best Ofs unfortunately do not exist anywhere but in peoples' memories. Fortunately, these days we record the large majority of the GDC sessions and store them on the GDC Vault.

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