Game Developers Conference kicks off

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: The 2014 Game Developers Conference (GDC 2014), the world's largest and longest-running event serving professionals dedicated to the art and science of making games, commenced at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California.

GDC 2014, which runs through Friday, March 21, brings together game professionals from across the globe to the industry's top destination for learning, inspiration and networking.

GDC 2014 offers five days of lectures, panels, tutorials, roundtable discussions and networking events, together with the Independent Games Festival (IGF) and Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCAs) ceremonies, and the most comprehensive Expo Floor of its kind. GDC will feature a lineup of eight summits dedicated to specific sectors of the industry, ranging from the Independent Games Summit, to the Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit, Localization Summit, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit, GDC Education Summit, QA Summit, the Game Narrative Summit and the Free to Play Design & Business Summit.

The main conference begins on Wednesday, March 19 with the GDC Flash Forward, a first-look at the breadth of sessions taking place Wednesday through Friday. A curated selection of main conference speakers will have a brief 30 seconds to captivate attendees on stage with an overview of their session.

Highlights of the main conference this year include the introduction of a Classic Studio Postmortem, alongside the popular Classic Game Postmortem series. The debut Classic Studio Postmortem will examine the early days of the revolutionary Lucasfilm Games studio. Additionally, GDC 2014 will feature a much-expanded Advocacy Track that will offer progressive sessions focused on social issues ranging from LGBT issues within both games and the development community, to women in games, issues of race, disabled gamers, depression amongst game developers, dealing with internet negativity and more.