Well, not the usual GDC Austin, at least. It seems that GDC has decided to reformulate (and rename) the former GDC Austin as GDC Online, which is now geared towards “connected games including casual, MMOs, virtual worlds, and social networking games.” So instead of a smaller version of the more general GDC, it’s now focusing primarily on online games.
I’m disappointed, but I think I can understand the move. I really liked having a smaller, more accessible GDC than the big one in San Francisco. It probably makes more sense to have a meeting that focuses on a particular area of game development, rather than just another “mini” GDC, especially with the rise of other conferences and meetings like PAX and IndieCade, both of which are around the same time in the fall.
I have no particular interest in the topics of GDC Online, so that’s a conference I won’t be attending. I’ll miss having GDC Austin to look forward to, but perhaps that will just free me up for the other conferences.
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2 Comments
I was disappointed by that too, except that I gather GDC Online is still going to include the Writers’ Summit morphed into the Game Narrative Summit. Which made me feel better.
Ah, good catch, I didn’t see that. That makes me feel a bit better too, but I’m not sure that it’s enough by itself to get me there.