A week of hardcore GDC action can really break you. Man, do I feel old. And, I’m very jealous of the IGDA student scholars who seemed to be out every night until 4am, but in lecture sessions for 9am! Though, I must say that this GDC did feel more intense than in past years. Perhaps the focus on the summits got more people over to GDC sooner in the week than usual. All I know is that my plane landed at noon on Sunday, and my first meeting was at 1pm - and the action didn’t let up until Saturday.

Overall, it was another great GDC. Though, sadly, I didn’t make it to as many actual conference sessions as I would have liked. There’s just always so much going on… Unfortunately, I did make it to the Microsoft “keynote”, which was one big brainwashing pitch. Even though some of the specific announcements were cool/worthwhile (like the XNA community portal), it all felt so forced and manufactured. GDC should stop calling these sessions keynotes and just label them as platform announcement hours or whatever. The Ray Kurzweil session is more along the lines of an actual real keynote…

Also, this was a special year for me personally in receiving the inaugural Ambassador Award. At the ceremony, I was fortunate enough to sit with Ralph Baer, though, you could tell he was a little dismayed with the heavy-metal gag video that opened the ceremony…

To save myself from rambling, I’ll use these photos to jog my GDC08 memories.


Gordon Walton (BioWare Austin) and Aaron Thibault (Gearbox Software) participate in the IGDA’s first ever Government+Association Summit.

 


Asante Bradford (Georgia Department of Economic Development) presents a case blast on the new Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act.

 


IGDA chapter and SIG leaders out for dinner after some behind-the-scenes workshops.

 


The 2008 IGDA Student Scholarship recipients.

 


The scholars take a tour of the snazzy Three Rings Design offices.

 


“Lite” reading in the Three Rings toilet stall.

 


Ian Baverstock (Kuju) welcomes delegates to the UK luncheon - one of many such government driven events at GDC.

 


Poster session during the IGDA’s Education Summit.

 


Petri Purho (Kloonigames) presents an IGF student postmortem during the Education Summit. His game, Crayon Physis Deluxe went on to win the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

 


IGDA Party: The small line up for the IGDA members-only party. The ~10-minute wait time was way better than last year’s 1-hour+!

 


IGDA Party: We packed over 2000 members into the Westin ballroom.

 


IGDA Party: Patric Palm (Hansoft), Drew Johnston (Microsoft) and Mike Cornford (IGDA scholar).

 


IGDA Party: James Everett, Heather Kelley and ?.

 


IGDA Party: Brenda Brathwaite rewards members (?, Catherine Herdlick and Greg Trefry of Gamelab, Sofia Battegazzore and Gonzalo Frasca of Powerful Robot) with free drink tickets for a successful game pitch (ie, putting together a winning hand in the Writers SIG social card game).

 


IGDA Party: Jesse Schell (CMU), Tobi Saulnier (1st Playable) and Justin Berenbaum (EmSense) make their way into the party.

 


IGDA Party: Tracy Kobeda Brown (PMS Clan - Ticorah / CMU ETC) and Jill Duffy (CMP) connect.

 


IGDA Party: Bill Fulton (Ronin User Experience), Gaurav Mathur (Factor5) and Marty O’Donnell (Bungie).

 


IGDA Party: Can’t be a real party without Scott’s in kilts: ? and Paul Rylance of Wyte Dragon.

 


IGDA Party: ?, ?, Luna Cruz (Anino Games), ?, ? and Gabby Dizon (Flipside Games).

 


IGDA Party: Brian Robbins (Fuel Industries) and Bob Bates.

 


The ever popular discussion on games, violence, censorship, etc, hosted by the IGDA.

 


John Schapert delivers the Microsoft “keynote”.

 


Backstage during the Choice Awards rehearsal.

 


StrategyLegends: Brian Reynolds (Big Huge Games) and Sid Meier (Firaxis).

 


Heather Kelley, Jenova Chen (thatgamecompany) and Phil Fish liquor up before the ceremony starts.

 


Phil Fish collects his IGF award for excellence in visual arts in Fez.

 


Realm Lovejoy and Kim Swift grab the Best Game Design award for Portal.

 


Ralph Baer gets a standing ovation for his Pioneer Award. Best line: “I’m still cranking out stuff”.

 


Joe McDonagh and Ken Levine caught without a written speech for winning the Best Writing award with BioShock.

 


Bob Bates, myself and Ralph Baer post-ceremony.

 


A make-shift barber shop at the Sony party. Now I’ve really seen everything…

 


Q-Tip entertains at the Sony party. But, was mostly just noise preventing good networking…

 


The Moscone West escalator: A good problem for AI pathfinding/flocking researchers ;)

 


Clint Hocking (Ubisoft) delivers an awesome/beautiful lecture on immersion. Wow!

 


Steampunk is always hip: Cosplayers promoting Recoil: Retrograd at the Nordic pavilion.

 


Laura Fryer (Microsoft) and Noel Llopis (Power of Two Games) checking out the IGF games.

 


Pleo. Weirdly cool.

 


Steve Meretzky (Blue Fang Games) dons his winning rabbit ears after the Game Design Challenge. Alexey Pajitnov, Brenda Brathwaite and Eric Zimmerman partake in the silliness.

 


Tough Crowd: Jade Raymond tries to give a lecture during Ubisoft’s party.

 


Daneil James (center) welcomes Kellee Santiago (thatgamecompany) and Brian Robbins (Fuel Industries) to Three Rings for the after-after party.

 


Dr. Babsi Lippe (Avaloop) welcomes women to the IGDA booth for the annual Women’s Group Gathering.

 


Packed house for the annual rant session. Inspiring stuff!

 


Jon Mak’s performative non-verbal rant.

 


Our attempt at a katamari, which seemed to be quite popular (@Joystiq, @IGN, @YouTube). It never got big enough to actually stick a person to it (which was the original plan/hope).


Post-Party: Jane Pinckard (F9) and Robin Hunicke (EA) at the annual day-after GDC party…

 


Post-Party: Poor R.O.B. looking a little lonely :(

 


Post-Party: Jon Blow, simply wiped out from a busy week at GDC working to change the world…