GDC Quesition

I went to the GDC about 2 years ago. This was when it still was held in San Jose. I'm not a professional game developer nor do I aspire to be one. I only do this sort of stuff as a hobby - when I have time. Professionally, I'm a medical/business application developer.

The GDC was fun. The show was cool. Grabbed a lot of booth garbage (free stuff they hand out that you will never ever use again - except the pens). I didn't go to any of the lectures since I'm not that interested in game development. Overall, I'd say the show part was worth it though. I'm thinking about going again this year just for the show. (It helps living 30 minutes from SF).

Would this be for you? Well. Don't expect too much. You might learn a bit more about the type of companies that work with game development, see a few new things, get a better idea of what goes into the whole industry...yeah, you might see something interesting.

I got the student pass 2 years ago. $50. I just wanted to go see the show. The damn dirty apes now ask for $75 for a student pass and you can only go Friday. But if you're coming all the way from Florida...might as well spend a little more and go see some speakers. I don't know if the tutorials would be worth anything to you with what you know now. I suggest the Classic Pass.

I think it depends on how rich you are. I think the GDC would be a good experience for a student - if you aren't some advanced DirectX guru looking for the latest techniques go to some of the design, business and production seminars/workshops and you'll pick up a lot. Keynotes and other presentions also give you a lot of insight into the industry. It's also a good place to network, and the expo can be interesting and fun, though not nearly as educational as the rest. And there are lots of open bar parties afterwards (how old are you?)

However the cost to attend and get into a wide range of things is high if your are a student. Going to just the expo is affordable ($75 friday pass is obviously very cheap), but unless there is something very specific you are going for you'll probably end up paying $900+ for your pass (the price goes up after Jan 31st except for the Friday pass which you buy at the door IIRC).

From GDC pass options:


VIP: $1675, gets you into everything a regular visitor can see, plus you get food.

Giga: $1375, gets you into everything but GDC mobile, and frankly I don't think GDC mobile is worth an extra $300 yet. If you want to see everything, this is probably the best pass.


Mobile Plus: $1195, this is the classic pass (read below) but with GDC mobile. Same comments about GDC mobile.

Independent Games Summit Classic Pass: $995, another classic pass+, this one gets you into the independent games summit on Monday and Tuesday. For a student like you this might be a good pass.


Classic Pass: $945, this basically gets you into most things between Wed and Fri. Unless you plan on showing up later, the Independent pass is the better deal since you get 2 more days of content for $50.


There are then some passes for individual areas ranging from $225-$845: Mobile, Audio, Serious Games and Independent Games Summit. Unless you are interested only in a specific area, the only one of these passes to pay attention to is the Tutorials Only pass for $600, which gets you into the Monday and Tuesday tutorial content, and then gives you expo and party access for the rest of the week.

And then there are Expo passes, the full 3 day one for $175, and the Friday only Student one for $75.


Depending on your budget I'd suggest the Independent Games Summit Classic Pass ($995)or the Tutorial Only pass ($600), unless you are rich and can just dump money on the Giga pass.

I went the last time it was in San Francisco. I was working for an author and had a press pass so when I wasnt scheduled for certain sessions I had free reign over what I did.

To be honest, I dont has aspirations of being a game developer and even until about six months ago I wasnt even planning on being a programmer but I had a great time at the GDC. Many of the sessions I was assigned to were about mobile games and serious games. I didnt have much of an idea about what either of these two fields were about and I learned a lot about their goals and the complications that arise (in particular for mobile games). I was able to attend some discussions about women in games and was able to hear the points made from the creators of The Sims, Leisure Suit Larry, and The Playboy game (a very enlightening experience). This is just a couple of the highlights of what I was assigned to participate in. In my breaks I saw a lot of technology presentations including a talk about character designs by two of the developers of Half Life 2 and a talk about resource management when you have a lot of similar resources and you dont particularly care which of them is used given by the lead developer of games like Theif. Then there's the mingling you get to do at lunch...

In short, amazing. I hope to go again.

No matter what your level of involvement in the industry, attending GDC is a Good Thing^TM. Get there any way you can if you wanna be in this industry