GDC Day 1

The game developers conference is HUGE. There are so many people that even blocks away from the convention the streets of San Francisco are flooded with GDC badges. Really, its a pain to get food anywhere close!

The convention floor is also HUGE. It takes hours to even just stroll around the place, much less stop and talk to the hundreds of displays and booths set up. There are video games, such as a display of 8 computers all hooked up and playing World of Tanks, or an entire floor filled with 3DS's playing the new Kid Icarus. The coolest, and from what I could tell the most popular, gaming station was the Indie Game floor. Every finalist and a lot of the coolest entries were on display to play. It was awe inspiring. The creativity and genius simplicity of these games is what everyone strives for, which is exactly why the indie floor was constantly packed with players and onlookers.

But we didn't come to play video games. We can to learn, and explore new ways of developing our art. The information overload we got was incredible, and almost too much to take in. Here are my list of highlights for the day:

The Metronome: Everyone has Rhythm - This was a great talk about how you can use the beat of a game's music to time in-game events.
Playstation Suite - Basically XNA for all PS hardware, this could be very cool in the future.

Z Space - The coolest 3D design tool ever. You gotta look it up to believe me.
Mind controlled bunny ears - The future. Its here.
Navigation Mesh Generation - Path finding made easy.
But this is just a sample of all of the amazing stuff we saw. We came home with our arms full of magazines, fliers, business cards, and swag! And now its time for round 2!