GDC 2011 Diary: Day 0

Not a whole heck of a lot to report today. Set out today with my suitcase in hand, and one short flight and a taxi ride later I'm checked into a beautiful hotel in San Francisco.

For one week, I live like a messy king

Before the sun went down though, I walked over to the building where GDC will be held just to make sure I could find it. I registered and got my pass as well as a bunch of crap in a bag. Some of it is interesting, like this game development magazine, but most of it is just ads for various useless junks.

Tomorrow is the first day of the event proper and I'll be clocking in at 10:00 AM to head to the Game Design Workshop I signed up for. It goes 'till 6:00 PM and there's a part two on Tuesday, so I honestly have no idea what to expect in such a large amount of time. I may duck out early in favor of seeing other parts of the show if it doesn't seem like it's worth the time and energy, but I have literally zero expectations for what this will be so I'll play it by ear.

In the coming days I'll write in here about what I spent time doing at the show that day. Never done a GDC before, so we'll see how this goes.

See ya tomorrow!

Game Developers Conference 2011

Next week is a convention in San Francisco in which game developers from around the globe come to give speeches, set up booths, and talk to people about designing video games. I will be attending and attempting to learn as much as possible! The show begins on monday and ends on friday. Each evening I'll be doing write-ups in this blog about what I learned and I'll be shooting out tweets throughout the week as well, so check me out on there as well if you care to follow me.

Here's my schedule for the event.

Session Title	Date	Start Time	End Time	Location
Game Design Workshop	2011-02-28	10:00 AM	6:00 PM	Room 236, East Mezzanine
Edu to Indy: Teaching Students Self-Reliance	2011-02-28	3:00 PM	4:00 PM	Room 301, South Hall
Game Design Workshop	2011-03-01	10:00 AM	6:00 PM	Room 236, East Mezzanine
Distance Education Vs. Brick and Mortar: What Game Courses Work Online and What Don't	2011-03-01	3:00 PM	4:00 PM	Room 301, South Hall
IGDA Indie SIG Social Gathering	2011-03-02	10:30 AM	11:30 AM	IGDA Booth, Lobby South Hall
How to Build a Game Studio: Workplace Design Strategies to Maximize Your Team's Creativity and Productivity	2011-03-02	12:00 PM	2:00 PM	Room 300, South Hall
The 13th Annual Independent Games Festival & Awards Ceremony	2011-03-02	6:30 PM	7:30 PM	North Hall D, Lower Level
The 11th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards	2011-03-02	7:30 PM	8:30 PM	North Hall D, Lower Level
Killer Portfolio or Portfolio Killer: Advice from Industry Artists (Part 1)	2011-03-04	11:50 AM	12:40 PM	Room 303, South Hall
Killer Portfolio or Portfolio Killer: Portfolio Review (Part 2)	2011-03-04	1:00 PM	3:00 PM	Room 300, South Hall
From College to Industry: 20 Lessons for Getting the Most out of Your Early Career	2011-03-04	3:10 PM	4:00 PM	Room 303, South Hall
Breaking into AAA Game development: Ask the Pros	2011-03-04	4:10 PM	5:00 PM	Room 303, South Hall

Nothing scheduled for thursday, so I'll likely end up spending a lot of time on the show floor talking to people and looking at all the booths. Maybe I'll even go to one of the parties, who knows. I'll try to take some pictures, too. This will be fun!