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GDC 2016: Amazon & Unity show you how to better use their game engines

Today Game Developers Conference organizers would like to quickly give you a heads-up about some of the great day-long sponsored developer days from game engine makers Unity and Amazon at GDC 2016 next month. 

These developer daysessions take place during the first two days of GDC: Monday and Tuesday, March 14th and 15th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

On Tuesday, perenially popular developer day sponsor Amazon is hosting a full day of developer-oriented presentations about its new game engine Lumberyard, which is aimed specifically at game makers who want to make games that tie into complementary Amazon services like Twitch and Amazon Web Services.

Catch Valve sharing expert VR game programming tips at GDC 2016

As everyone gears up for the 2016 Game Developers Conference next month, organizers would like to quickly shine a light on one of the many great VR-focused programming talks taking place at the March conference.

Valve's Alex Vlachos is returning to GDC to deliver an expert session about "Advanced VR Rendering Performance." Reliably hitting 90 fps in VR is a significant challenge for contemporary developers. In his talk, Vlachos will present a method developed by Valve for adaptively scaling fidelity to consistently maintain VR framerate without using reprojection techniques, even on very low-end GPUs, while also having the ability to increase fidelity for high-end GPUs and multi-GPU installations.

The Aperture Robot Repair VR experience Valve brought to GDC last year required an NVIDIA 980 to maintain framerate, but this talk will use that same experience as an example of how Valve can now adaptively scale fidelity to maintain 90 fps on an NVIDIA 680 -- a 4-year-old GPU.

GDC: Learn why Supercell thinks quality is worth killing (games) for

Game Developers Conference organizers are excited to highlight a great Production talk from a Supercell designer and artist that will be taking place at GDC 2016 next month.

In "Quality Is Worth Killing For" Jonathan Dower will discuss the inner workings of Supercell, how the games are made and the importance of the small, truly independent teams making huge decisions.

Dower worked on soft-launched Supercell hit Clash Royale (pictured), but he also worked on Smash Land -- a promising Supercell project that was eventually killed. During his talk, he'll provide practical examples of why it's important to kill your darlings, and what important lessons teams can learn from killing a project.

It's a great session, part of the GDC 2016 Production track of talks, so check it out to get new perspective on how a team's independence and the ability to kill a game is crucial to quality, learning and longevity.

Check out these can't-miss expert VR talks during VRDC at GDC 2016

With GDC 2016 right around the corner, organizers are proud to quickly highlight some of many great talks taking place at the inaugural Virtual Reality Developers Conference in March.

Think of VRDC like a sister conference to GDC proper, one divided into Game VR/AR and Entertainment VR/AR tracks to help attendees find the talks most interesting to them.

On the former track you'll find forward-looking, thought-provoking VR game design talks like "This Is Your Brain on VR: A Look at the Psychology of Doing VR Right" from Riot Games senior technical designer Kimberly Voll (who has worked on a variety of game projects, including VR game Fantastic Contraption.) This talk will focus on what game developers absolutely need to know about the brain to design truly immersive experiences in VR, while avoiding pitfalls, nausea, and common misinformation.

Plus, there are plenty of other great VR game design-centric talks at VRDC, including "Going Off the Rails: The Making of 'Bullet Train'" from Epic Games' Nick Whiting and Nick Donaldson, Crytek designer Riho Kroll's talk on "Building 3-Dimensional UI for VR" and "Rebel Rebel: Challenging the Rules of VR" by Three One Zero (Adrift) founder Adam Orth.

GDC 2016: Spend a day sharpening your skills at the Technical Artist Bootcamp

Technical artists, take note: GDC 2016 organizers would like to give you a quick highlight preview of the informative, intensive sessions taking place during the day-long Technical Artist Bootcamp that helps kick off the conference next month.

Iit's just one of many Bootcamps and Tutorials scheduled during the first two days of GDC (Monday and Tuesday, March 14th and 15th this year) which offer attendees the chance to spend time focusing intently on a core discipline of game development.

GDC 2016 attendees are invited to attend the Technical Artist Bootcamp on Tuesday and join experts who will discuss how technical art continues to march forward and at a faster pace than most disciplines, as it is both wide-reaching and wide open.

Rigging, Python, pipelines, shaders and unit tests are all known and understood, but bootcamp organizers believe it's time to push forward and stretch our legs a bit. Large studios need more powerful tool-chains with more professional development environments, and small teams need each and every member to be very technically capable.

Stop by Mild Rumpus at GDC 2016 and play some charming indie games

With the Game Developers Conference is coming up fast, and we're excited to announce that indie video game showcase collective Wild Rumpus will once again make an appearance at GDC 2016 to welcome attendees as honored guests in their "Mild Rumpus" game lounge.

Last year, Wild Rumpus encouraged GDC attendees to stroll through the trees and into the welcoming heart of their GDC 2015 Mild Rumpus woodland grotto.

This year the grotto returns as a comfortable oasis where GDC 2016 attendees can seek respite from the hum and drum of the action-packed GDC week. 

Grotto-goers will also discover a fresh, hand-picked selection of independent games, and they may even have a chance to catch a live talk or performance from one of the games' talented designers. 

Hear real talk from fellow game makers at GDC's Indie Soapbox

As the game industry prepares to attend GDC 2016 next month, conference organizers would like to quickly highlight one of the more exciting Independent Games Summit sessions: the perennially popular Indie Soapbox.

If you're not familiar with the Indie Soapbox, know that it's a long-running panel presentation in which ten indies take the stage to share their unique perspective on the game industry and the world at large.

It's often a raucous, cathartic way to close out the two-day Summit on Tuesday evening of GDC week, and while individual topics range as widely as the individuals themselves, these microtalks are sure to provoke, inspire, and broaden your horizons.

This year, soapbox speakers were asked: What's been on your mind a lot these days? Their answers could be an inspiration, obsession, worry, goal, or fascination. Regardless, attendees will be sure to leave the session with ten new perspectives on ten totally different topics.

GDC 2016: ARM sponsors expert talks on Vulkan and mobile VR design

Heads up, game makers: Passes for the Game Developers Conference 2016 are still available, and as the conference draws closer we're highlighting more cutting-edge sponsored sessions at the March event that you won't want to miss.

If you're at all interested in the latest graphics technologies, make time to check out some of the talks ARM is sponsoring at the show. From mobile virtual reality insight to practical advice on how to prepare your game's graphics engine for Vulkan, you won't be disappointed.

Attend ARM senior software engineer Daniele Di Donato and staff engineer Marius Bjorge's talk on "How to prepare your graphics engine for Vulkan," for example, and you'll learn how to get the best performance benefits out of the new cross-platform Vulkan open graphics standard.

GDC 2016: Turn and face the strange in making games for change

GDC 2016 is nearly upon us, and today we'd like to quickly highlight a great talk at the March conference from game designer and educator Colleen Macklin about the new "third wave" of the games for change movement. 

Macklin's Advocacy track talk "Games for Change: Turn to Face the Strange," is exciting because it's designed to offer game makers from across the industry an insightful look at the history of the games for change movement and community of those dedicated to driving social change through digital games.

She'll also illuminate important, even surprising connections between games like FoldIt and The Witness (pictured), and speak to how it's more important than ever for designers to be aware of how games can influence society and affect social change -- even if they aren't explicitly designed to do so.

Here are your GDC 2016 Narrative Summit poster session winners

Nice bit of news today from the organizers of GDC 2016 and its Game Narrative Summit, who are proud to announce the winners of the 2016 edition of the annual Student Narrative Analysis Competition, who will all receive passes to attend the March conference.

If you're not familiar with the competition, here's how it works: Every year, leading game design programs at universities across the country integrate the competition into their academic curricula. Each participating student conducts a detailed structured analysis of the narrative elements of a game title of their choice.

The resulting papers are submitted to the GDC Game Narrative Summit advisors for review, and the entrants with the most promising submissions are then invited to present poster sessions of their work to their future professional peers at the Game Narrative Summit.

Past winners (which you can watch right now on GDC Vault) have explored a variety of games in their sessions, from big-budget blockbuster games to smaller, critically-acclaimed indie titles, including games renowned for their storytelling and games designed with no formal narrative at all.

GDC 2016's Game Design Challenge: Design a game that takes 30 years to play

As the game industry prepares for GDC 2016 next month, organizers want to remind all attendees that the popular Game Design Challenge returns this year for a special session to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Game Developers Conference.

This year, a panel terrifyingly talented game designers will be challenged to to design a game that is meant to be played across 30 years - that's 11,000 days, or 250,000 hours, or 15 million minutes... A full human generation.

Why 30 years? Game designers too often think about only the next technology cycle. Designers in other fields - from architects to typeface designers - think of their audiences in terms of decades or even centuries. So what happens when designers take the long view?

Find out at GDC 2016, where on Wednesday, March 16th game designer, NYU professor and GameLab co-founder Eric ZImmerman will once again serve as MC for the hour-long Game Design Challenge on the Design track of GDC talks.

PSA: Use the Session Scheduler to get the most out of GDC 2016

The Game Developers Conference is one month away, so now's the perfect time for attendees to sort out their schedules to ensure get the most from the March conference.

(And if you're not attending, don't worry -- there's still time to register now!)

To help streamline your planning process, conference officials encourage you to take advantage of the free GDC 2016 Session Scheduler to plan out which talks you'd like to attend and ensure you don't miss anything the show has to offer.

If you've never used the Session Scheduler before, it's a fairly straightforward process to get started: simply select "Create Account" from the Session Scheduler page and provide a valid email address, then start adding talks to your personal GDC 2016 schedule.

GDC 2016 attendees, don't miss the Nite to Unite charity gala

As the game industry prepares to gather in San Francisco next month for the Game Developers Conference, organizers would like to encourage all attendees to make time in their schedules for the smorgasbord of events happening at and around the March conference.

Among them is the annual fundraising gala, Nite to Unite, which is being held the evening of Tuesday, March 15th alongside GDC in San Francisco by the Entertainment Software Assocation Foundation. Given its charitable nature, GDC organizers wanted to take a moment to ensure its on the radar of all conference attendees.

The event which is supported and attended by members of the association and the entertainment software industry, raises funds for the ESA Foundation's two key programs - providing scholarships to college students interested in video game technology and related coursework, and supporting non-profit organizations that utilize video game technology in the furtherance of their mission.

Improve your game dev teaching skills at the GDC Education Summit

Now that we're about a month out from this year's Game Developers Conference, organizers are eager to let you know about some of the great education-focused talks that will be taking place during the March conference.

Each of these talks is part of the GDC Education Summit, one of eight that will take place Monday, March 14th and Tuesday, March 15th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA during the first two days of the conference.

Each Summit offers a comprehensive overview of a specific game industry discipline, and this year the GDC Education Summit has a strong lineup that features talks like Eric Zimmerman's "How I Teach Game Design: Lessons for Working Game Designers."

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