GDC stands for the “Game Developers Conference”, which is an annual event held for professionals in the video game industry.
Originally it was called the Computer Game Developers Conference but the Computer was dropped to focus on video games as a whole rather than just “Computer Games”.
GDC serves as a hub for game developers, publishers, artists, programmers, designers, and other industry experts to come together to discuss, share, and learn about the latest trends, technologies, and practices in game development.
The event includes a wide range of sessions, panels, workshops, and networking opportunities.
The first Computer Game Developers Conference (CGDC) was held in 1988. It was founded by Chris Crawford, a well-known game designer and developer, and it took place in his living room in San Jose, California. This initial gathering was relatively small (27) and informal compared to the later iterations of GDC, but it marked the beginning of what would become one of the most significant annual events in the video game industry.
Since that modest start, GDC has grown in size and importance, attracting game developers and industry professionals from around the world.
The best source of information about the first few CGDC events is to watch this excellent documentary by GamersGlobal available below:
The second Computer Game Developers Conference (CGDC) was held later in the same year, on September 18th and 19th 1988. It was sponsored by Computer Gaming World and would be the first GDC with a pre-planned agenda. It had about 150 atendees, a whole five times larger than the previous conference hosted earlier the same year.
You can find the main talks and their authors in the table below:
| Title | Presenter | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Interactive Story Making | Brian Moriarty | Creator of Loom |
| Art and Animation Panel | Willie Aguilar, Paul Reiche III | Star Control creator |
| Creativity and Game Design | Chris Crawford | |
| Legal Issues | Susan Nycum | Lawyer who specialises in computer security and intellectual property issues |
| Playtesting and Q.A. | Dan Bunten, Cem Kaner, Dave Menconi | |
| Developing for the Macintosh | David Feldman | Shadowgate programmer? |
| Game Idea to Game Design | Kellyn Beeck | Game Designer for Rocket Ranger |
| Sound and Music panel | Chris Grigg, David Thiel, Dave Warhol | |
| Fantasy Role Playing Games | Brian Fargo | Founder of Interplay and InXile |
| PR for Developers | Ed Niehaus | |
| Brining Characters to Life panel | Chris Crawford, David Graves, Brenda Laurel | |
| Market Trends panel | Bob Lindstrom, Scott Mace | |
| Simulations panel | Ned Lerner, Gilman Loule, Gordon Walton | |
| From Proposal to Contract | Stephen J. Friedman | Worked on Impossible Mission II |
| Self-Publishing | Pete Antoniak | Templates of Doom creator? (edutainment) |
| Developing for MS-DOS | Evan and Nicky Robinson | Star Control developers |
| Sports and Action Games panel | Jordan Mechner, Scott Orr | |
| New Techniques in Theft Protection | Jeff Johannigman | Producer on games such as Ultima Worlds |
As far as we know all the content for these presentations have been lost to time, but please let us know if any slides or notes are available somewhere on the internet.
The conference did not become an annual event until a few years later.
From a programming perspective the session Developing for MS-DOS would have been one of the highlights of the conference. Evan and Nicky Robinson were both programmers on hit games Star Control and Mail Order Monsters. So to hear their perspective on developing games for MS-DOS would have been incredible!
In the Journal for Computer Game Development December 1988 issue Eric Goldberg wrote the following about the session:
Evan and Nicky Robinson’s “Developing for MS-DOS” was praised by many attendees. While no one professed a desire to grapple with an operating system universally regarded as clunky, the Robinsons were given full marks for a concise explanation of how to get through the odious task of supporting all four of the CGA, EGA, VGA, and Hercules graphics standards. The IBM PC and clone family is clearly where the most money is to be made in games. 1
Not much is known about the third version of the Computer Game Developers Conference (CGDC) hosted in Sunnyvale California sometime in 1989 and managed to double the previous attendance from 150 to 300.
| Title | Presenter | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Story vs Game: The Battle of Interactive Fiction | Doug Sharp | Notes from the Talk |
If you know of any sessions that took place in the 1989 Computer Game Developer Conference then please let us know!
For a brief insight into the fourth version of CGDC you can read Bill Pirkle’s observations in the June 1990 issue of Journal of Computer Game Design here: Volume 3 Number 5. June 1990
It was hosted in Le Baron Hotel in San Jose and was attended by over 470 people.
We only know of a few talks that took place at this conference:
The earliest known recording of a Game Developer Conference talk is called The Artistic C by Jim Gasperini.
This was when he was a creative director for Maxis while working on the simulation game Sim City. He talks about Computer Games as Art and how he believes it will evolve over time.
You can listen to it online on Archive.org: CGDC 90 Jim Gasperini - GDC Jim Gasperini
The Fifth CGDC was the first to have been directed by Ernest Adams just before his move to Electronic Arts where he would work on titles such as John Madden Football 2. It was again hosted in San Jose this time in the Hyatt Hotel and recieved 550 attendees.
We only know of a few talks that took place at this conference:
Only the Cyberspace talk was recorded on Audio cassette by the KNOW-IT-ALL Audiovisual Library 3.
For a review of what it was like to go to the 1991 CGDC check out Chris Crawford’s perspective: Volume 4, Number 4, March 1991 - Interactive Storytelling Tools for Writers - Chris Crawford
Hosted in the DoubleTree Hotel in Santa Clara California, the sixth CGDC was attended by over 600 game industry professionals.
We only know of a few talks that took place at this conference:
This list is incomplete, if you know of any more talks that took place at GDC 1992 then please let us know!.
For a review of what it was like to go to the 1992 CGDC check out Chris Crawford’s perspective: 1992 CGDC Report - Interactive Storytelling Tools for Writers - Chris Crawford
Again hosted in Santa Clara California but this time reaching 900 attendees, the seventh CGDC was becoming incredibly well known within the industry.
All the talks that were recorded by The KNOW-IT-ALL Audiovisual Library are listed in the table below 4.
Note that each session was given a unique ID in the form of CGDC93-0XX which will be provided in the table if know. This is mainly useful for finding missing sessions that were not recorded.
| Title | Presenter | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asset Acquisition | Clarke-Willson, Shane, San | Lecture | CGDC93-025 |
| Distribution Realities and Workarounds | Gordon Walton | Lecture | CGDC93-003 |
| Game Development for Windows | Sandige & Stafford | Lecture | CGDC93-018 |
| How We Almost Didn’t Make The Seventh Guest | Graeme Devine | Lecture | Similar Article CGDC93-006 |
| I Had A Dream | Chris Crawford | Lecture | CGDC93-002 |
| Imitating Life: Perception, Evolution & Complexity | Wright, Rob Tow, Bergman, Brenda Laurel | Lecture | CGDC93-026 |
| Interactive Entertainment Industry Report | Lee Isgur | Lecture | CGDC93-004 |
| Interactive Multimedia: Revolution or Crock? | Baltcom & Walton | Lecture | CGDC93-023 |
| Is A Picture Worth A Thousand Words? | Paul Reiche | Lecture | CGDC93-001 |
| ISDN Looms On The Horizon | Bob Alexander | Lecture | CGDC93-008 |
| Making It Real 2: Characters | Katherine Lawrence | Lecture | CGDC93-020 |
| The New Ergonomics: Design Beyond the Hardware | Goldberg & Fox | Lecture | CGDC93-024 |
| The New Jagged Edge: Multimedia & The Law | Mark Radcliffe | Lecture | CGDC93-022 |
| Paintbrushes to Pixels | Johnson, McCaig, Michaud | Lecture | CGDC93-009 |
| Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood | Steve Cooke | Lecture | CGDC93-010 |
| Producing Music with The Fat Man | George Sanger | Lecture | CGDC93-027 |
| Project Artificial Intelligence | Baldwin & Rakosky | Lecture | CGDC93-019 |
| 3DO and the Future of Interactive Entertainment | Bill Duvall, Bob Faber, David Maynard | Lecture | CGDC93-007 |
| The Viability of Different CD Formats | Koffler & Wilmunder | Lecture | CGDC93-021 |
| Where Have All the Chickens Gone? | David Walker | Lecture | CGDC93-005 |
| Adding Modem Play to Your Game | Rakosky & Baldwin | Seminar | CGDC93-036 |
| Algorithmic Music | David Rosenbloom | Seminar | CGDC93-031 |
| The Art of Game Balancing, Part II | Roe Adams | Seminar | CGDC93-039 |
| Designing Multi-Player Games | Dani Bunten | Seminar | CGDC93-034 |
| Designing the Puzzle: A Hands-On Seminar | Bob Bates | Seminar | CGDC93-047 |
| From Linear to Non-Linear: Game Scripting | Christy Marx | Seminar | CGDC93-038 |
| Hex, Bugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll: Powerful Debugging | Dan Hite | Seminar | CGDC93-017 |
| Lite Gaming and the Mass Market | Jeff Johannigman | Seminar | CGDC93-033 |
| Mystic Wisdom of the East | Evan Robinson | Seminar | CGDC93-035 |
| New Software Methods for Sound Compression | Brad Stewart | Seminar | CGDC93-012 |
| No C++ Required: Breaking In for Non-Techs | Ellen Guon | Seminar | CGDC93-016 |
| Not Just Kid Stuff: Late Learning Software | Marylyn Rosenblum | Seminar | CGDC93-015 |
| Object-Oriented Programming | Neil Kirby, Glenn Tenney | Seminar | CGDC93-014 |
| Realistic Behavior for Animated Characters | David Joiner | Seminar | CGDC93-029 |
| Rubbing the Lamp | Robert Leyland | Seminar | CGDC93-011 |
| Smart, But Not Rich? Find Out Why! | Ernest Adams | Seminar | CGDC93-037 |
| Stress Management for Game Designers | Diane Escoffon | Seminar | CGDC93-028 |
| A Technical Overview of the Sega Genesis | Dan Chang | Seminar | CGDC93-030 |
| 13 Million Can’t Be Wrong: Windows Games | Neil Kirby | Seminar | CGDC93-046 |
| 32-bit Programming: The Misunderstood Grail | John Miles | Seminar | CGDC93-032 |
| Who Designed This Cover, Anyway? | Davld Kessler | Seminar | CGDC93-013 |
| Adventure Game Design Roundtable | R.J. Berg | Roundtable | CGDC93-041 |
| Audio Issues for Game Developers | Tom Rettig | Roundtable | CGDC93-052 |
| Breaking In: the Wannabee Roundtable | Guon & Robinson | Roundtable | CGDC93-050 |
| Educational Software for Kids Under Ten | Leslie Grimm | Roundtable | CGDC93-051 |
| The Ethics of Game Design | Corey Cole & Lori Cole | Roundtable | CGDC93-053 |
| For Art’s Sake: A Roundtable | Chris Crawford | Roundtable | CGDC93-043 |
| From the Dustbin of Game History | Noah Falstein | Roundtable | CGDC93-042 |
| IBM PC & VGA Platform Issues | Brengle & Robinson | Roundtable | CGDC93-054 |
| RPG Design Roundtable | George MacDonald | Roundtable | CGDC93-049 |
| Skill & Action Game Design Roundtable | Gregg Tavares | Roundtable | CGDC93-040 |
| Sports Game Roundtable | Richard Hilleman | Roundtable | CGDC93-045 |
| Vehicle Simulations Roundtable | Edward Lerner | Roundtable | CGDC93-048 |
| Wargame Design Roundtable | Dave Menconi | Roundtable | CGDC93-044 |
| Which Company Should I Work For? | Ernest Adams | Roundtable | CGDC93-055 |
Potentially not officially recorded were the following talks:
Another hosted in Santa Clara California but this time reaching over the one thousand mark with 1250 attendees, it was the eighth CGDC.
Google Books claims to have the proceesings of the Eighth Annual Computer Game Developers Conference Proceedings but it doesn’t seem to be possible to read: Eighth Annual Computer Game Developers Conference Proceedings: April 23 … - Google Books
A user over at archive.org managed to upload audio recordings of the 1994 conference, some of the titles match the above but others do not, they are available in the table below:
There were at least 130 talks at CGDC 1994 that we know about, thanks to The KNOW-IT-ALL Audiovisual Library website, they are listed in the table below:
| Title | Presenter | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3DO, Cable, RBOCs: Who Wins? | Bob Alexander | Lecture | CGDC94-001 |
| Alternative Marketing Methods | Diana Gruber | Lecture | CGDC94-004 |
| Approaches to Funding Games | Steve Shannon | Lecture | CGDC94-005 |
| Audio Community Forum | Tom Rettig | Lecture | CGDC94-007 |
| Believable Interactive Characters | Joseph Bates | Lecture | CGDC94-011 Audio Slides |
| Business Plans for Multimedia Company | Gina Frye, John Kalb, Alison Ross | Lecture | CGDC94-013 Audio |
| C++ Light: OOP is a Four- Letter Word | Stephen Beeman | Lecture | CGDC94-028 |
| CD-ROM Programming for the PC | Mark Manyen | Lecture | CGDC94-014 |
| Celluloid to Silicon: A Sermon | Ernest Adams | Lecture | CGDC94-016 Audio Slides |
| Code Optimization for Intel Pentium | Gary Carleton | Lecture | CGDC94-017 |
| Contract Negotiations: Issues & Strategy | Jeff O’Connell | Lecture | CGDC94-021 Audio |
| Distribution Realities (and Workarounds) | Gordon Walton | Lecture | CGDC94-026 |
| Effective Quality Assurance | Tom Czarnik | Lecture | CGDC94-027 |
| Fantasy to Reality and Back Again | Michele Em | Lecture | CGDC94-030 |
| Fine Art of Data- Wrangler | Paul Reiche, Scott A. H. Ruggels | Lecture | CGDC94-031 |
| Games for Megamathematics | Michael Fellows | Lecture | CGDC94-033 |
| Getting a Job (For Technical Wannabes) | Kay Sloan | Lecture | CGDC94-034 |
| Hard Lessons in Program Design | John Miles | Lecture | CGDC94-036 |
| How the Other Half Plays | Barbara Lanza | Lecture | CGDC94-038 Audio |
| Human Animation Techniques | Kendra Lammas | Lecture | CGDC94-041 |
| Industry Overview for Wannabes | Tim Brengle, Greg Johnson, Mark Voorsanger | Lecture | CGDC94-043 |
| Interactive Directing | Noah Falstein | Lecture | CGDC94-045 Audio |
| Interactive Music: Why, How and Where | Donald S. Griffin | Lecture | CGDC94-046 |
| Interactivity Revolution, and Pain | Chris Crawford | Lecture | CGDC94-047 Audio |
| Interface is the Game | William Volk | Lecture | CGDC94-048 |
| Kid Friendly: Educational Games | Annie Fox, Ken Goldstein, Gano Haine, Ellen Guon | Lecture | CGDC94-049 Audio |
| Live Action Role Playing | Walt Freitag | Lecture | CGDC94-051 Audio |
| Making Interactive Games for Both Genders | Heidi Dangelmaier | Lecture | CGDC94-052 |
| Meet the Press | Bob Lindstrom, Wes Nihei, Gina Smith, Johnny L. Wilson, Susan W. Lee-Merrow | Lecture | CGDC94-054 Audio |
| Multimedia Versus Game Design | Chris Crawford, Sid Meier, Greg Roach | Lecture | CGDC94-057 |
| Music: The Heart of Interactivity | The Fat Man | Lecture | CGDC94-103 |
| Online Multiplayer Games | Carrie Washburn, Richard Mulligan | Lecture | CGDC94-059 Audio |
| Overview of the Jaguar Game Machine | Bill Rehbock | Lecture | CGDC94-060 |
| PLACEHOLDER: Real Bodies in Virtual Worlds | Brenda Laurel, Rob Tow | Lecture | CGDC94-062 Audio |
| Pixel Envy | Jenny Martin | Lecture | CGDC94-064 |
| Practical 3D Implementation (CGDC94-066) | Robert Zdybel | Lecture | CGDC94-066 |
| Programming for Commercial Virtual Reality Devices (CGDC94- 069) | David Whatley | Lecture | CGDC94-069 |
| Programming the VESA Audio Interface (CGDC94-071) | Doug Cody | Lecture | CGDC94-071 |
| Protecting the Intellectual Property in your Interactive Software (CGDC94-072) | Scott Pink | Lecture | CGDC94-072 |
| Puzzle Games and How to Design Them (CGDC94-074) | Scott Kim | Lecture | CGDC94-074 |
| Rapid Prototyping (CGDC94-075) | Nicole Lazzaro | Lecture | CGDC94-075 |
| Real AI, Part I: Game- Tree Search (CGDC94-076) | W. Bryan Stout | Lecture | CGDC94-076 |
| Software Ratings | John (Jack) W. Heistand, Dr. Barbara Simons, Johnny L. Wilson, Steve Peterson | Lecture | CGDC94-085 |
| Speech Technology | Gary Davenport | Lecture | CGDC94-087 |
| Status of the Interactive Entertainment Industry, 1994 | Lee S. Isgur | Lecture | CGDC94-089 Audio |
| Storybuilding: Creating Story & Character | Ellen Guon | Lecture | CGDC94-090 Audio |
| Surviving a Long Distance Relationship | Bobby Prince | Lecture | CGDC94-091 |
| Trends in Game Software Sales | Ann Stephens | Lecture | CGDC94-094 Audio |
| Tricks for Designing Game Music | Rob Wallace | Lecture | CGDC94-095 |
| Using Attorneys & Accountants | Bruce Maximov, Paul J. Heiselmann | Lecture | CGDC94-096 |
| Windows Programming: A Beginner’s View | Nicky Robinson, Stephen Beeman | Lecture | CGDC94-092 |
| WinG: A DLL for Graphics | Chris Hecker | Lecture | CGDC94-101 |
| Add Speech Recognition | Dragon Systems | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-002 |
| Autodesk | Autodesk | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-009 |
| DOS/4G: The Ideal Games Platform | Rational Systems | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-023 |
| Convergence, Consolidation, Confusion? | Frost Capital Partners | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-022 |
| Exploiting Logitech’s Cheap 3D Device | Logitech | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-029 |
| High-End Authoring Tools | Wavefront Technologies | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-037 |
| How to Get Your Program/Project Published by Ablesoft | Ablesoft | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-039 |
| How to Place Your Game on Shelves of 15,000 Retail Stores | Expert Software | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-040 |
| IBM Continuous Speech | IBM | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-042 |
| Intel’s New 3D Graphics Interface | Intel | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-044 |
| Media Vision | Media Vision | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-053 |
| OS/2 and the Home Market Place | IBM | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-058 |
| PC - The Platform of Choice for the Emerging Games Industry | Intel | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-061 |
| Phillips Interactive Media | Philips Interactive | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-063 Audio |
| Playing on the Information Highway | Microsoft | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-065 |
| Shifting Trends of Music and Sound | Advanced Gravis | Sponsored Session | CGDC94-081 |
| Adventure Game Design | George MacDonald | Roundtable | CGDC94-003 |
| Art and Craft of Games | Margot Comstock | Roundtable | CGDC94-006 |
| Audio Technical Issues | David Warhol | Roundtable | CGDC94-008 |
| Board Games | Hal Bogner | Roundtable | CGDC94-012 |
| Casino Gaming and Wagering | Lee Cannon, Kevin Furry | Roundtable | CGDC94-015 |
| Coin-Op Design | Mark Pierce | Roundtable | CGDC94-018 |
| Computer Gaming in Russia | Alex Fedorov | Roundtable | CGDC94-019 |
| Computer Players | Dave Menconi | Roundtable | CGDC94-020 |
| Defining Music for Interactivity | The Fat Man | Roundtable | CGDC94-024 |
| Different Approaches to Animation | Kirk Henderson | Roundtable | CGDC94-025 |
| Financing Your Company/Product | Goncher, Shannon | Roundtable | CGDC94-031 |
| Graphic Design | Susan Manley | Roundtable | CGDC94-035 |
| Letter Feedback | ? | Roundtable | CGDC94-102 |
| Little Guys | Chris Crawford | Roundtable | CGDC94-050 |
| Modem Game Design | Dan Hite | Roundtable | CGDC94-055 |
| Multimedia Meets Game Design | Eric Goldberg | Roundtable | CGDC94-056 |
| Primary Education Software | Jeff Haas | Roundtable | CGDC94-067 |
| Process Simulation | Will Wright | Roundtable | CGDC94-068 |
| Puzzle Game Design | Bob Bates | Roundtable | CGDC94-073 |
| Role-Playing Game Design | George MacDonald | Roundtable | CGDC94-078 |
| Secondary Education Software | Joyce Hakansson | Roundtable | CGDC94-079 |
| Sexual Themes | Dr. Cat | Roundtable | CGDC94-080 |
| So, Ya Wannabe in the Industry | MacDevitt, Nakagawa | Roundtable | CGDC94-083 |
| Software Ratings: Threat or Menance | Steve Peterson | Roundtable | CGDC94-086 |
| Sports Games | Keith Francart | Roundtable | CGDC94-088 |
| Vehicle Simulation | John Wheeler | Roundtable | CGDC94-097 |
| Violence in Interactive Entertainment | Johnny L. Wilson | Roundtable | CGDC94-098 |
| Wargame Design | Roger Keating | Roundtable | CGDC94-099 |
| When Teams Work, When Teams Break | Don Daglow | Roundtable | CGDC94-100 |
One of the most notable talks from this conference was WinG: A DLL for Graphics, this was the introduction to what would become DirectX. Microsoft finally taking Game Development seriously and allowing full screen fast graphics rendering without having to go into MS-DOS!
You can read Ross Erickson’s review of this experience at CGDC 1994 in his article published in the Game Bytes Magazine online here: THE 1994 COMPUTER GAMES DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE. he mentions his disappointment at some of the talks and where he was pleasently surprised.
There were so many talks in CGDC 1995 year that the conference was split into a number of specialist “Tracks”:
There were at least 128 talks at CGDC 1995 that to The KNOW-IT-ALL Audiovisual Library page on the audio recordings, they are listed in the table below:
| Title | Presenter | Track | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adding a New Dimension: Moving from 2D to 3D Animation | Vance Gloster | Visual Arts | CGDC95-001 |
| Ages, Stages, and Living Pages: Designing for Interactivity | Mark Schlichting | Edutainment/Education | CGDC95-002 |
| The Answer Is Money | Noah Falstein | General Interest | CGDC95-003 |
| Audio Community Forum | Tom Rettig, Bob Safir | Audio | CGDC95-004 |
| Beyond Bootstrapping & Royalty Advances: Financing Alternatives | Dean Gloster, Mark Gorenberg | Business | CGDC95-005 |
| CD-ROM Multimedia: Lessons & Issues from the Performing Arts | David Rosenbloom | General Interest | CGDC95-006 |
| Can You Believe Families Hate Games? | Fred M. Abaroa | Business | CGDC95-007 |
| The Challenge of the Interactive Movie | Ernest Adams | General Interest | CGDC95-008 |
| Creating Interactive Drama for CD-ROM Using Outside Techniques | Pamela Douglas, John Spencer | General Interest | CGDC95-010 |
| Cross-Platform Development: the 10 Key Criteria for Success | Sandy Montenegro, Don Rogal | Technical | CGDC95-011 |
| Deal Breakers: The Most Critical Provisions in Your Contracts | Jeffrey A. O’Connell | (Business) | CGDC95-012 |
| Design Documents that Work: Topiary for Fun and Profit | Matthew Stibbe | Special Interest | CGDC95-013 |
| Designing a Space Camel: Exploring the Development of Alien Legacy | Michael Moore | Management | CGDC95-014 |
| Developing Children’s Educational Multimedia: Practical Tips | Debra Lieberman, Lynn Rosener | Edutainment/Education | CGDC95-015 |
| Developing Digital Sets and Creative Animations (3D Studio) | Verin G. Lewis | Visual Arts | CGDC95-016 |
| Developing Games Based on Licensed Properties | David Mullich | (Business) | CGDC95-017 |
| Developing for the Sony Playstation | Mark Wozniak | (Business) | CGDC95-018 |
| The Development Process: What Nobody Seems to Know | David Walker | Management | CGDC95-019 |
| Directed Improvisation: A New Paradigm for Computer Games | Dr. Barbara Hayes-Roth | Special Interest | CGDC95-020 |
| Educational Software Design: A Developmental Psychologist’s View | C. Brannon, A.J. Lehrer | Edutainment/Education | CGDC95-022 |
| Effective Software Testing v1.2 | Tom MacDevitt | Special Interest | CGDC95-023 |
| Family Games: Something for the Rest of Us | Fabrice Florin, Peter Maresca | General Interest | CGDC95-024 |
| Film & Video Production for Interactive Entertainment | Mark Day | Management | CGDC95-025 |
| From Zork to Zillions: How to Fund, Value, and Sell a Company | Dean Frost, Ian Berman | Business | CGDC95-026 |
| The Fun Factor | Lori and Corey Cole | General Interest | CGDC95-027 |
| Game Trademarks: A Secret Weapon | Charles B. Kramer | Business | CGDC95-028 |
| Gaming on the Internet | Glen Tenney | Online/Network | CGDC95-029 |
| Gender Ghettos | Margy Hillman, Joanne Odenthal | General Interest | CGDC95-030 |
| Graphics, Video, & Sound: An Overview of the Technologies | Eric Klein | Technical | CGDC95-031 |
| Hot Content: Dealing with Controversial Material in Games | Daniel Greenberg | General Interest | CGDC95-032 |
| Humor in Game Design | Steve Meretzky | General Interest | CGDC95-033 |
| Intelligent Tutors & the Internet | Frederic Vincent Bien | Online/Network | CGDC95-034 |
| The Interactive Story: Can It Work? | Jonathan Knight | General Interest | CGDC95-035 |
| Interactive Storytelling | Chris Crawford | General Interest | CGDC95-036 |
| Interfaces, Agents, and Game Design | Denis Dyack | General Interest | CGDC95-037 |
| Machines of Loving Grace | Talin | General Interest | CGDC95-038 |
| Making Music Motivate (without Sacrificing Your Soul or Sanity) | Judy Munsen | General Interest | CGDC95-039 |
| Manhattan Graphic Engine | Eric Engstrom, Craig Eisler | Technical | CGDC95-040 |
| Maximizing Windows Game Performance | Chris Hecker | Technical | CGDC95-041 |
| Metaphor Design: A Case Study | Ken Kahn | General Interest | CGDC95-042 |
| The Microsoft Speech API | Mike Rozak | Audio | CGDC95-043 |
| Nine Routes to Climax: the Bases of Interactive Storytelling | Lawrence Schick | General Interest | CGDC95-045 |
| Online vs. the Superhighway | Richard Mulligan | Online/Network | CGDC95-046 |
| Pencils vs. Pixels: 2D Animation for Multimedia | Bridget Erdmann | Visual Arts | CGDC95-047 |
| Programming the Sega 32X | Jesse Taylor | Technical | CGDC95-048 |
| Programming the 3DO (Opera) | Al Chang | Technical | CGDC95-049 |
| The Quest for Realism | Ned Lerner | General Interest | CGDC95-050 |
| Realtime 3D on the PC: When? | Rob Glidden | Technical | CGDC95-051 |
| Shoestring Marketing: Hard-Won Lessons | Mike Dornbrook | Business | CGDC95-052 |
| Should I Design for ITV? | Sam Palahnuk | General Interest | CGDC95-053 |
| Software Development Models | Leo Hourvitz | Management | CGDC95-054 |
| The Status of the Industry: 1995 & 1996 | Lee Isgur | Business | CGDC95-056 |
| 3D Hardware Acceleration Standards | Michael Abrash | Technical | CGDC95-057 |
| Traditional Animators in Game Industry: How to Find & Use Them | Pamela Kleibrink Thompson | Management | CGDC95-058 |
| Treasures & Quagmires: The Internet as a Developer’s Resource | Phillip King | Online/Network | CGDC95-059 |
| Using DCI 2.0 for Fast Game Performance | Ken Rhodes | Technical | CGDC95-060 |
| Using Illusion and Deception in Game Design | Walt Freitag | General Interest | CGDC95-061 |
| Using the RSAC Rating System | Rec. Software Advisory Council | Special Interest | CGDC95-062 |
| VR Development for Head-Mounted Displays | Joanna Alexander, Mark Long | Technical | CGDC95-063 |
| Wannabe Seminar: Getting Inside while Staying Alive on the Outside | Neil Kirby | Special Interest | CGDC95-064 |
| War Stories: The Making of Shock Wave | Michael Becker | General Interest | CGDC95-065 |
| What the Hollywood Model Doesn’t Tell Us about Interactive Video | Philip Bouchard | General Interest | CGDC95-066 |
| When Teams Work, When Teams Break | Don Daglow | Management | CGDC95-067 |
| Working with Talent Unions | Carol Contes | Business | CGDC95-068 |
| The Writers’ Panel | C. Marx, Michele Em, K. Lawrence | General Interest | CGDC95-069 |
| Writing Great Windows 95 Games | A.St. John, G.Dahl, M.Van Flandern | Technical | CGDC95-070 |
| Alias PowerPlay for Game Developers | Alias | Technical | CGDC95-071 |
| The Battle beyond the Bits and Polygons | Trip Hawkins, 3DO | General Interest | CGDC95-072 |
| BRender: The Realtime 3D Rendering System for Games | Jez San, Argonaut Technologies | Technical | CGDC95-073 |
| BtV Multimedia Chipset from Brooktree | Brooktree Corporation | Technical | CGDC95-074 |
| The Business of Macintosh Games | Eric Klein, Apple | Business | CGDC95-075 |
| Create Windows Games under the Microsoft Home Brand | Stuart Moulder, Microsoft | Business | CGDC95-076 |
| Developing and Debugging with the Windows 95 Game SDK | ATI Technologies | Technical | CGDC95-077 |
| Developing Killer Games for PowerMacintosh | Eric Klein, Apple | Technical | CGDC95-078 |
| Enhancing Audio: No Longer an Afterthought | Intel Corporation | Audio | CGDC95-079 |
| Fast 3D Graphics on the PC | Dave Clark, Intel Corporation | Technical | CGDC95-080 |
| Full-Screen Video on the PC | Intel Corporation | Technical | CGDC95-081 |
| GamePC Consortium Meeting: the Windows 95 Game SDK | ATI Technologies | Special Interest | CGDC95-082 |
| Hear the Difference! | ESS Technology, Inc. | Audio | CGDC95-083 |
| High-End Computer Graphics Tools: Going Beyond Asset Creation | Wavefront Technologies | Technical | CGDC95-084 |
| IBM Speech Recognition: How Does It Work? | IBM | Technical | CGDC95-085 |
| IBM Speech Recognition: What Is It? | IBM | Audio | CGDC95-086 |
| Interfacing to Virtual Reality Devices on the PC | Forte | Technical | CGDC95-087 |
| An Introduction to Programming 3D Games | Criterion Software | Technical | CGDC95-088 |
| Multimedia Technology from Yamaha | Yamaha | Technical | CGDC95-089 |
| Network Gaming | Catapult Entertainment | Online/Network | CGDC95-090 |
| Next-Generation Game Controllers | Advanced Gravis | Technical | CGDC95-092 |
| Origin: Not Just Ultima and Wing Commander | Origin Systems | General Interest | CGDC95-093 |
| OS/2 as a Viable PC Games Platform: Part 1 | IBM | Business | CGDC95-094 |
| OS/2 as a Viable PC Games Platform: Part 2 | IBM | Technical | CGDC95-095 |
| Realtime 3D Graphics Development on Multiple Platforms | Gemini Technology Corporation | Technical | CGDC95-096 |
| Storytelling for the 21st Century | Silicon Studio, Inc. | Technical | CGDC95-097 |
| 3D Studio: The Latest Developments | Autodesk, Inc. | Visual Arts | CGDC95-099 |
| Windows 95 and the Consumer Entertainment Market | Microsoft | Business | CGDC95-100 |
| Windows 95 DirectSound APIs | Microsoft | Audio | CGDC95-101 |
| Writing Network Games for Windows 95 | Microsoft | Online/Network | CGDC95-102 |
| Adventure Games | Hal Barwood | Special Interest | CGDC95-103 |
| Caught between Two Shores | B. Bates, C. Cole, L. Cole | Management | CGDC95-104 |
| Coin-Ops | John Salwitz | Special Interest | CGDC95-105 |
| Designing by Committee | Raymond Benson | Management | CGDC95-106 |
| Digitizing Video: Technical Issues | Jerry L. Newton | Technical | CGDC95-107 |
| Fantasy Roleplaying Games | Cathryn Mataga | Special Interest | CGDC95-108 |
| Geeks vs. Suits, Round 1 | Anthony L. Farmer | General Interest | CGDC95-109 |
| Legal Problems | Charles Kramer | Business | CGDC95-110 |
| MUDs (MultiUser Dungeons) | Dr. Cat | Online/Network | CGDC95-111 |
| Multiplayer & Family Games | Danielle Berry | General Interest | CGDC95-112 |
| Multiplayer Modem Games | Dan Hite | Special Interest | CGDC95-113 |
| On-Line Multiplayer Games | Carrie Washburn | Online/Network | CGDC95-114 |
| Primary Education Software | Karen Crowther | Edutainment/Education | CGDC95-115 |
| Programming the 3DO (Opera) | Neil Cormia | Technical | CGDC95-116 |
| Puzzle Games | Michael Sandige | Special Interest | CGDC95-117 |
| Secondary Education Software | Rob Harris | Edutainment/Education | CGDC95-118 |
| Sex & Violence | Johnny Wilson | General Interest | CGDC95-119 |
| Simulations & Simulators | Gordon Walton | Special Interest | CGDC95-120 |
| Social Responsibility | Steve Peterson | General Interest | CGDC95-121 |
| Sports Games | Happy Keller | Special Interest | CGDC95-122 |
| Successful Game A. I. | Jon Freeman | Special Interest | CGDC95-123 |
| 3D Modeling | Josh White | Visual Arts | CGDC95-124 |
| Too Valuable to Promote? | Kevin Furry | Management | CGDC95-125 |
| The Wannabe Roundtable | Neil Kirby | Special Interest | CGDC95-126 |
| Wargames | Don Griffin | Special Interest | CGDC95-127 |
| The Writers’ Roundtable | C. Marx, Michele Em, K. Lawrence | General Interest | CGDC95-128 |
This years show even had IBM trying to get people to write games for OS/2 with their sponsored “OS/2 as a Viable PC Games Platform” sessions, I wonder how many developers were convinced because it certainly did not become a viable PC Games Platform and was competing with Windows 95 DirectX talks. I would love to see what content was presented at that, fantastic bit of game development history, what APIs were even shown off for OS/2?
This is the last year before it was sold to Miller Freeman for about 3 million dollars, now being run by a company many developers could feel the change in the conference becoming more corporate 5. So this will be the last conference with a presentation by Chris Crawford.
Google Books claims to have the proceedings of the 1996 Computer Game Developers Conference in its library but it doesn’t seem to be possible to access its contents: Computer Game Developers’ Conference Conference Proceedings: March 30-April … - Google Books
There were at least 234 talks at CGDC 1996 that to The KNOW-IT-ALL Audiovisual Library page on the audio recordings, they are listed in the table below:
| Title | Presenter | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Don’t Flip the Bozo Bit…and other Principles of Shipping Great Software on Time | Jim McCarthy | CGDC96-001 |
| “Show, Don’t Tell”: Fundamentals of Interactive Design | Noah Falstein | CGDC96-002 |
| Design Errors of the Rich and Famous and How to Fix Them | Barbara A. Lanza | CGDC96-003 |
| Real AI, the Sequel: Pathfinding | Bryan Stout | CGDC96-004 |
| Legal Basics for the Game Development Business | Gene K. Landy | CGDC96-005 |
| Modern Development Strategies for On-line Gaming | James M. Turner | CGDC96-006 |
| Mathematics: The Soul of Puzzling in Games for Education and Exploration | Michael Fellows | CGDC96-007 |
| Hardware Innovation under DirectSound | Campbell Stras | CGDC96-008 |
| Software and Compatibility Testing | Megan Quattrocchi & Jeanne Collins | CGDC96-009 |
| The Hiring Process: How to Hire or be Hired | Kay Sloan | CGDC96-010 |
| Geeks vs. Suits | Anthony Farmer | CGDC96-011 |
| 3D Art Tools | Josh White | CGDC96-012 |
| Developing Multilingual Products | Aric Wilmunder | CGDC96-013 |
| Voodoo Graphics by 3Dfx Interactive: Use the Hottest 3D Technology… | Andy Keane, 3Dfx | CGDC96-014 |
| Writing Applications for the Architecture | Intel | CGDC96-015 |
| Interactive 3D Audio: Coming to a PC Near You! | Tim Bratton & Bill Windsor, Spatializer | CGDC96-016 |
| The Point Is: The Social and Ontological Ramifications of the Web | Brian Moriarty | CGDC96-017 |
| Developing for the Sony Playstation | Steve Ackroyd | CGDC96-018 |
| The Basics of Interactive Drama | Ben Calica | CGDC96-019 |
| Improvisational Puppets, Actors, and Avatars | Barbara Hayes-Roth | CGDC96-020 |
| Software Maturity: Do Game Developers Really Need It? | Larry Constantine | CGDC96-021 |
| Strategies for Truly Interactive Animation Production | Mark Netter & Nicole Tostevin | CGDC96-022 |
| Managing the Complexity of the Interactive Entertainment Design Document | Jared Freedman | CGDC96-023 |
| Designing for Social Interaction | Danielle Berry | CGDC96-024 |
| The Changing Face of 3D Programming | Brian Hook | CGDC96-025 |
| Windows 95 Debate | Michael Sandige | CGDC96-026 |
| Product Development is from Jupiter, Marketing is from Uranus | Steve Peterson | CGDC96-027 |
| AI in Strategy & Military Games | Phil Steinmeyer | CGDC96-028 |
| Music Roundtable | Donald Griffin | CGDC96-029 |
| Multiplayer Games | Brian Hammerstein | CGDC96-030 |
| 3D StudioMax: The Next Generation of Modeling & Animation Tools | Philp Miller, Autodesk | CGDC96-031 |
| Writing Applications for the Intel Architecture: Audio | Intel | CGDC96-032 |
| Animation Master | Jeff Bunker, Hash Inc. | CGDC96-033 |
| Windows Programming Fundamentals | CGDC96-034 | |
| Artificial Gossip | Chris Crawford | CGDC96-035 |
| Real AI for Real Games, Part 1: Technical Tutorial and Design Practice | Dr. Walter Alden Tackett | CGDC96-036 |
| Creating Dazzling Sound Effects | Rob Wallace | CGDC96-037 |
| The Emerging Design Grammar of VR Games | Mark Long & Joanna Alexander | CGDC96-038 |
| When Teams Work, When Teams Break | Don L. Daglow | CGDC96-039 |
| Riding the Speeding Train: Controlling the Design Process | Amanda Crispel | CGDC96-040 |
| Living in a 256 World | Merrill Nix | CGDC96-041 |
| Big Brother in the 21st Century | Kevin Cheung | CGDC96-042 |
| Financing Alternatives | Dean Gloster | CGDC96-043 |
| Developing for New Technologies | Theodore Beale & Andrew Lunstad | CGDC96-044 |
| Edutainment Design | Tom Guthery | CGDC96-045 |
| Writing Workshops for Computer Games | Katherine Lawrence | CGDC96-046 |
| Story vs. Gameplay | Raymond Benson | CGDC96-047 |
| DirectPlay: Protocol Independent Multiplayer Games | Donna Scott & G. Eric Engstrom, Microsoft | CGDC96-048 |
| Analog Devices | CGDC96-049 | |
| Writing Applications for the Intel Architecture: Video | Intel | CGDC96-050 |
| Using COM to Develop Games in Delphi and Borland C++ | Charles Calvert & Lar Mader, Borland Int | CGDC96-051 |
| Diamond Developer Relations Program | Gary Kinsey, Diamond Multimedia | CGDC96-052 |
| The Making of the 11th Hour | Robert Stein III & David Wheeler | CGDC96-053 Video |
| Current Issues in Licensing & Royalty Rates | Brian Napper | CGDC96-054 |
| Real AI for Real Games, Part 2: Design Practice and Demonstrations | Dr. Walter Alden Tackett | CGDC96-055 |
| The Nine Act Story Structure, Part 1 | David Siegel | CGDC96-056 |
| Female is a Six-letter Word | Laura Groppe | CGDC96-057 |
| Win 32 Game Development Under Win 95, Part 1 | Ed Averill | CGDC96-058 |
| Interactive Audio on the Bleeding Edge | Donald S. Griffin | CGDC96-059 |
| The Future of the Gaming Industry | Eric Pinnell | CGDC96-060 |
| Coin-Ops | Mark Pierce | CGDC96-061 |
| Strategic Business Models for Development on the Internet | Christopher Dean | CGDC96-062 |
| Adventure Building for On-line RPGs | Don McClure | CGDC96-063 |
| Pre-Production Art Prep | Arlin Robins | CGDC96-064 |
| Adventure Games | Hal Barwood | CGDC96-065 |
| DirectSound: Low-latency Sound Mixing for Windows | Bob Heddle & G. Eric Engstrom, Microsoft | CGDC96-066 |
| Writing Applications for the Intel Architecture:3D | Intel | CGDC96-067 |
| Transforming the PC | Ken Comstock, Diamond Multimedia | CGDC96-068 |
| In Praise of Sex and Violence | Ernest Adams | CGDC96-069 |
| Producing Compelling Film/Video for Interactive Products | Mark W. Day | CGDC96-070 |
| From Concept to Contract: Making A Successful Product Pitch | David Mullich | CGDC96-071 |
| The Nine Act Story Structure, Part 2 | David Siegel | CGDC96-072 |
| The Implications of Live-Action for On-line Interactive Games | John O’Neil | CGDC96-073 |
| Win 32 Game Development Under Win 95, Part 2 | Ed Averill | CGDC96-074 |
| Surviving as a Full-Time Freelancer | Mike Breault | CGDC96-075 |
| Collaborating in Game Design | Noah Falstein & David Fox | CGDC96-076 |
| Legal Problems | Charles Kramer | CGDC96-077 |
| Working with Hollywood Talent | Jim Bloom | CGDC96-078 |
| Audio Forum | Dominic Milano | CGDC96-079 |
| Managing Programmers and Game Development | Evan Robinson | CGDC96-080 |
| Authoring Tools Hits and Misses | Jamie Siglar | CGDC96-081 |
| Primary Education | Ann McCormick | CGDC96-082 |
| SoftImage for NT: Imaging Power on the Desktop PC | Microsoft | CGDC96-083 |
| GrIP - Stop Playing with Yourself | John Smith, Advanced Gravis | CGDC96-084 |
| Writing Applications for the Intel Architecture: Optmizing Apps | Intel | CGDC96-085 |
| The Mirage Universal CD Emulator | Guy Carpenter, Cross Products Ltd | CGDC96-086 |
| Developing Great Windows 95 Game with Diamond | Jon Burgstrom & Panel, Diamond Multimedia | CGDC96-087 |
| “Psychic Detective” Solves the Mystery of Making the Interactive Film into a Game | Michael Kaplan, John Sanborn & Jim Simmons | CGDC96-088 |
| Owning and Protecting Intellectual Property | Bruce Maximov | CGDC96-089 |
| General MIDI Sound Cards? OK, Let’s Talk. | George Alistair Sanger | CGDC96-090 |
| 3D & Video Asset Management: Establishing and Maintaining a Digital Prop Department | Mark Peasley | CGDC96-091 |
| Writing Bug-Free Games | David Thielen | CGDC96-092 |
| Marketing Slime: What Do They Want? | Rick Reynolds & Robin Harper | CGDC96-093 |
| Focused On-line Environments: The Next Experience | Hans Bukow | CGDC96-094 |
| Click-Smart: Some Considerations for the Design of Click-Ons in Educational Games | Marv Westrom & Doug Super | CGDC96-095 |
| Story vs. Gameplay | Raymond Benson | CGDC96-096 |
| Adventure Games | Hal Barwood | CGDC96-097 |
| Coin-Ops | Mark Pierce | CGDC96-098 |
| Developing for New Technologies | Theodore Beale & Andrew Lunstad | CGDC96-099 |
| Multiplayer Games | Brian Hammerstein | CGDC96-100 |
| Developing Multilingual Products | Aric Wilmunder | CGDC96-101 |
| Apple Game SDK, Part 1 - Intro, Overview and Future Directions | Ben Calica, Apple | CGDC96-102 |
| Advanced 3D-Interaction with the Spaceball Avenger (and Avenger II!) | Adam Bosnian, Spacetec IMC Corp. | CGDC96-103 |
| How to Bring your Games to the Internet, Via TEN | William Lipa, Dave King & Greg Harper | CGDC96-104 |
| 3D Graphics - The Only Game in Town | Steve Mosher, Creative Labs | CGDC96-105 |
| Floating Point Performance Programming Techniques | Chris Hecker | CGDC96-106 |
| Building an On-line Gaming Service | G. Eric Engstrom | CGDC96-107 |
| Representing Human Characters in Interactive Games | Greg Pisanich & Michael Prevost | CGDC96-108 |
| Pixel Production: Pleasure or Pain? | Steve Snyder | CGDC96-109 |
| Keep ‘em Laughin’ AND Thinkin’: How to Design Great Kids’ Games | Annie Fox | CGDC96-110 |
| The Contractor-Publisher Relationship, From Both Sides | Ellen Guon & Gano Haine | CGDC96-111 |
| Developing Immersive Interfaces: Lessons Learned Outside of Games | David G. Shaw | CGDC96-112 |
| Designing for Social Interaction | Danielle Berry | CGDC96-113 |
| Strategic Alliances | Judy Lange | CGDC96-114 |
| 3D Art Tools | Josh White | CGDC96-115 |
| Music Roundtable | Donald Griffin | CGDC96-116 |
| Geeks vs. Suits | Anthony Farmer | CGDC96-117 |
| Alternative Financing | Theodore Beale & Andrew Lunstad | CGDC96-118 |
| Managing Programmers and Game Development | Evan Robinson | CGDC96-119 |
| Apple Game SDK, Part 2 - RAVE | Mike Kelley, Apple | CGDC96-120 |
| Voodoo Graphics by 3Dfx Interactive: Use the Industry’s Hottest 3D Technology… | Andy Keane, 3Dfx | CGDC96-121 |
| How to Bring your Games to the Internet, Via TEN | William Lipa, Dave King & Greg Harper | CGDC96-122 |
| PC Audio in the 90’s What to Listen For | Dave Rossum & Eric Larsen, Creative Labs | CGDC96-123 |
| The Invasion of the Hollywood Talent Pool | Roger Holzberg & Howard Burkons | CGDC96-124 |
| How to Appeal to the On-line Gamer | Daniel Goldman | CGDC96-125 |
| The Expanding Job of the Game Artist | Leslie Pardew | CGDC96-126 |
| Developing for the PC CD | Guy Wright | CGDC96-127 |
| Exploring New Worlds with QuickTime VR | Peter Mackey | CGDC96-128 |
| Successful Planning to Get Your Business Funded | Gina Frye & Ann Winblad | CGDC96-129 |
| Hard-won Lessons of a Veteran Game Marketer | Michael Dornbrook | CGDC96-130 |
| El Mariachi on the Mac: Game Development on a Shoestring | Roger Kemper & Tom Kemper | CGDC96-131 |
| Writing Workshops for Computer Games | Katherine Lawrence | CGDC96-132 |
| AI in Strategy & Military Games | Phil Steinmeyer | CGDC96-133 |
| Edutainment Design | Tom Guthery | CGDC96-134 |
| The Changing Face of 3D Programming | Brian Hook | CGDC96-135 |
| Audio Forum | Dominic Milano | CGDC96-136 |
| Authoring Tools Hits and Misses | Jamie Siglar | CGDC96-137 |
| Apple Game SDK, Part 3 - PowerPlug, PowerAmp and Speech Input | Michael Evens & Dan Venolia, Apple | CGDC96-138 |
| Building the Game of the Future | ATI Technologies | CGDC96-139 |
| Activation - Real-time 3D Graphics Software for Game Prototyping | Bruce Sinclair, Coryphaeus | CGDC96-140 |
| PowerVR: A Revolution in 3D Graphics Technology | NEC Electronics | CGDC96-141 |
| Statistics and Predictions for the Interactive Entertainment Industry | Ruthann Quindlen | CGDC96-142 |
| Writing Multiplayer Games for the Internet | Jeffrey Rothschild | CGDC96-143 |
| Choice, Control, and Consequence in Interactive Comedy | Walter Freitag | CGDC96-144 |
| Software Project Management | C. Gordon Walton, Jr. | CGDC96-145 |
| Virtual Sets: Creating High Quality Video/3D Composites | Mark Giambruno | CGDC96-146 |
| Four Ways to Play: Piaget’s Analysis of Common Childhood Games | Erik Strommen | CGDC96-147 |
| Getting the Most Out of 3D Accelerators | Robert Mullis | CGDC96-148 |
| Interactive 3D Audio: A New Dimension for Game Development | Toni Schneider | CGDC96-149 |
| The Hiring Process: How to Hire or be Hired | Kay Sloan | CGDC96-150 |
| Legal Problems | Charles Kramer | CGDC96-151 |
| Pre-Production Art Prep | Arlin Robins | CGDC96-152 |
| Financing Alternatives | Dean Gloster | CGDC96-153 |
| Software and Compatibility Testing | Megan Quattrocchi & Jeanne Collins | CGDC96-154 |
| Windows 95 Debate | Michael Sandige | CGDC96-155 |
| Apple Game SDK, Part 4 PowerPlay and PowerShow | Jamie Osborne & Cary Farrier, Apple | CGDC96-156 |
| Feel the RAGE: Experience ATI’s New Mach64-based 3D Accelerator | ATI Technologies | CGDC96-157 |
| The Quake Graphics Engine | Michael Abrash | CGDC96-158 |
| Developing for the Sega Saturn | Marty Franz | CGDC96-159 |
| The Breakthroughs and Pitfalls of Developing Interactive Drama | Dexter Chow, Haney Armstrong & Ken Golfstein | CGDC96-160 |
| Seven Ways to Avoid Getting Screwed | Edward de Jong | CGDC96-161 |
| 2D Animation in 3D Worlds | John Gaffey & Ray Manabe | CGDC96-162 |
| Digital Joystick Protocols and Gaming Devices | CGDC96-163 | |
| Distribution Options for Today’s Market | Bryan Neider | CGDC96-164 |
| Some Design and Industry Pointers for Wannabe Coin-Op Developers | Jeff Brown | CGDC96-165 |
| Big Brother in the 21st Century | Kevin Cheung | CGDC96-166 |
| Adventure Building for On-line RPGs | Don McClure | CGDC96-167 |
| Product Development is from Jupiter, Marketing is from Uranus | Steve Peterson | CGDC96-168 |
| Working with Hollywood Talent | Jim Bloom | CGDC96-169 |
| Sports Games | Kevin Hogan | CGDC96-170 |
| Developing Multilingual Products | Aric Wilmunder | CGDC96-171 |
| The Business of Mac Games | Mark Gavini, Apple | CGDC96-172 |
| Firewalker Authoring System - Invent New Levels of 3D Interactivity | Jeff Benrey & Sheila Ward, Silicon Studio | CGDC96-173 |
| What Game Developers Need to Know About the New 3D Audio Paradigms | Win Craft, David Bates & Dales Gulick, Spatializer | CGDC96-174 |
| Interactive Movies Debate: Hot New Genre or Marketing Fluff? | Ernest Adams & Jim Simmons | CGDC96-175 |
| DOS Games in a Windows World | David Thielen | CGDC96-176 |
| Play & Learning: A Battle for Mindshare? | Ann McCormick | CGDC96-177 |
| Developing Windows Games for the Japanese Market | James Spahn | CGDC96-178 |
| Technical Aspects of On-line Development | Kevin Cheung | CGDC96-179 |
| Moving Mountains: Getting Animation and 3D Data into the Game Box | Peter Ryce | CGDC96-180 |
| Programming the M2 | David Maynard | CGDC96-181 |
| Audio Forum | Dominic Milano | CGDC96-182 |
| Sports Games | Kevin Hogan | CGDC96-183 |
| AI in Strategy & Military Games | Phil Steinmeyer | CGDC96-184 |
| Pre-Production Art Prep | Arlin Robins | CGDC96-185 |
| Geeks vs. Suits | Anthony Farmer | CGDC96-186 |
| Coin-Ops | Mark Pierce | CGDC96-187 |
| Voodoo Graphics by 3Dfx Interactive - Use the Industry’s Hottest 3D Technology | Andy Keane, 3Dfx | CGDC96-188 |
| Thexder Meets Win 95 or Writing Great Games in the Win 95 Environment | Cheryl Makovsky | CGDC96-189 |
| PC Network Games for Nearly Everyone | Neil Kirby | CGDC96-190 |
| Aristotle’s Dramatic Principles in the Interactive Medium | Jim Simmons | CGDC96-191 |
| Maximizing Shareware Success | Karen Crowther | CGDC96-192 |
| The Responsibility of the Author in Developing Storytelling Games | Bob Bates | CGDC96-193 |
| Breaking the Mold in Edutainment Design | David Katzner | CGDC96-194 |
| Tricks and Techniques for Sound Effect Design | Bobby Prince | CGDC96-195 |
| “Wargames Don’t Sell” or How to Actually Write Successful Wargames | Mark Baldwin | CGDC96-196 |
| Strategic Business Models for Development on the Internet | Christopher Dean | CGDC96-197 |
| 3D Art Tools | Josh White | CGDC96-198 |
| Edutainment Design | Tom Guthery | CGDC96-199 |
| Managing Programmers and Game Development | Evan Robinson | CGDC96-200 |
| The Changing Face of 3D Programming | Brian Hook | CGDC96-201 |
| Legal Problems | Charles Kramer | CGDC96-202 |
| Multi-Player On-Line Gaming - Who? What? Where? Why? How? When? | Konstantin Othmer, Catapult | CGDC96-203 |
| Building Games for ATI’s 3D Rage | ATI Technologies | CGDC96-204 |
| Direct 3D: Device Independent Acceleration | Servan Keondjian & G. Eric Engstrom, Microsoft | CGDC96-205 |
| What is Interactive? A Rigorous Definition | Stuart Moulder | CGDC96-206 |
| Motion Capture: Replicating Reality | Ken Kline | CGDC96-207 |
| 20th Century Scoring for Next Century Entertainment: A Call for Interactive Audio Design | Dave Javelosa | CGDC96-208 |
| Real-time 3D Modeling | Josh White | CGDC96-209 |
| The Art of the Deal | Dean M. Gloster | CGDC96-210 |
| Design Issues for On-line Virtual Communities and Playgrounds | Ben Calica | CGDC96-211 |
| A Nuts and Bolts Seminar on How To Direct and Help Actors | Jeanne Hartman | CGDC96-212 |
| Writing Workshops for Computer Games | Katherine Lawrence | CGDC96-213 |
| Adventure Building for On-line FRPGs | Don McClure | CGDC96-214 |
| Multiplayer Games | Brian Hammerstein | CGDC96-215 |
| Story vs. Gameplay | Raymond Benson | CGDC96-216 |
| Authoring Tools Hits and Misses | Jamie Siglar | CGDC96-217 |
| Working with Hollywood Talent | Jim Bloom | CGDC96-218 |
| Exporting Object and Animation Data to Multiple Platforms | Dave Aronson, Nichimen Graphics | CGDC96-219 |
| Optimizing Games for 3D Hardware | 3D Labs | CGDC96-220 |
| Five Simple Steps to the Perfect Model | Jonathan Houston, Faro Technologies | CGDC96-221 |
| DirectDraw: Highspeed BLTing in Windows | Craig Eisler & G. Eric Engstrom, Microsoft | CGDC96-222 |
| Developing a Cross-Platform Product Strategy | John Kavanagh | CGDC96-223 |
| 3D Graphics and Animation for Real Time Games | Gregory Hammond | CGDC96-224 |
| The Evolving Internet: A Gaming Perspective | Phillip King | CGDC96-225 |
| A Story Wrapped Inside a Puzzle Wrapped Inside an Enigma: Designing Adventure Games | Steven Meretzky | CGDC96-226 |
| Utilizing Lawyers in Today’s Deal-making Environment | Alisa Baker | CGDC96-227 |
| How to Make Your Games Sell Overseas | Juergen Egeling | CGDC96-228 |
| Use of Voice in Interactive Products | Wally Fields & Mike Bailey | CGDC96-229 |
| Windows95 Debate | Michael Sandige | CGDC96-230 |
| Product Development is from Jupiter, Marketing is from Uranus | Steve Peterson | CGDC96-231 |
| Big Brother in the 21st Century | Kevin Cheung | CGDC96-232 |
| Adventure Games | Hal Barwood | CGDC96-233 |
| Software and Compatibility Testing | Megan Quattrocchi & Jeanne Collins | CGDC96-234 |
| Music Roundtable | Donald Griffin | CGDC96-235 |
| BRender: The Real-time 3D Rendering System for Games | Jez San & Rich Seidner, Argonaut Technologies | CGDC96-236 |
| Demystifying Motion Editing | Bart Gawboy, Nichimen Graphics | CGDC96-237 |
| Banquet Speaker | Peter Bergman, Firesign Theatre | CGDC96-238 |
Here are the talks that have slides available online:
On Archive.org a video recording of the session The Making of the 11th Hour by R. Stein and D. Weeler is availabe to watch here.
It mentioned they were in the beta program for 3D Studio 3.0 which allowed them to do dual texture maps to add dirt to the textures, the video shows footage from 3D Studio 3.0.
The 1997 Computer Game Developers Conference was hosted in the Santa Clara Conference Center in Washington, D.C. It was much larger in scope than the previous years and in fact took five days instead of the usual two.
The first 2 days introducted two new sub-conferences:
The Classic CGDC Conference would then take the next three days (27th-29th).
The overall attendees was estimated to be over 6,300 by the July 1997 issue of Next Generation Magazine.
This conference introduced what they called the Two Day Tutorials which were tutorials on various software that would take up the full first two days of the conference, presumably for those uninterested in the other two sub-conferences going on at the same time.
There were four of them but no other details apart from their name remain online:
These tutorials only took a day to complete and were all on the 26th of April, they were:
Sadly the website didn’t list who actually presented these tutorials but if you know please submit a Pull Request or leave a comment below.
The first day talks were:
The second day talks were:
Pretty much nothing is available online about who gave these talks or what they contained.
The first day talks were:
The Day 2 talks were:
Pretty much nothing is available online about who gave these talks or what they contained.
The Classic CGDC Conference had 200+ different sessions split up into the following four types:
All the talks from the two days of the “Classic” Computer Developers Conference are in the table below. If you know of any links to videos, slides, reviews or even notes from any of the sessions please add them to the Notes column in the table.
| Title | Presenter | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Creative Role of the Producer: Lessons from Linear Media | David Brownstein | Lecture | |
| Internet Based Client/Server Network Traffic Reduction | Bernt Habermeier | Lecture | |
| Listen! The Potential of Shared Hallucinations | Brian Moriarty | Lecture | |
| Making Things Fun to Learn: Principles of Edutainment Design | Craig Brannon | Lecture | |
| Opening the Box; 3D Toolkits | John Gwinner | Lecture | |
| Real AI, Part III: Planning | Bryan Stout | Lecture | |
| Strategic Pricing | Phil Adam | Lecture | |
| Understanding the Process of Art Production | Phil Trumbo | Seminar | |
| More Ways to Avoid Getting Screwed | Edward de Jong | Seminar | |
| Downloadable Sounds: The Next Wave in Multimedia Audio Delivery | Tom White | Seminar | |
| Ask the Publisher | Ken Goldstein | Roundtable | |
| Choosing an Authoring Tool | Jamie Siglar | Roundtable | |
| Designing and Building Multiplayer Action Titles for Internet Play | Harald Seely | Roundtable | |
| Designing Games to Use 3D Audio | Brian Schmidt | Roundtable | |
| How to Screw Up a Perfectly Good Production | Heather Chirtea | Roundtable | |
| Multiplayer Online Games | Carrie Washburn | Roundtable | |
| Original Content: R&D For The Breakthrough Title | Larry Tuch | Roundtable | |
| Shared Virtual Environments | David Rosenbloom | Roundtable | |
| What Do Female Game Players Really Want? | Annie Fox | Roundtable | |
| What Makes Software Educational? | Channah Horst | Roundtable | |
| Whither (or Wither) War Games | Mark Baldwin | Roundtable | |
| Windows 95: Stories from the Trenches | Jack Thornton | Roundtable | |
| A3D: Interactive 3D Audio Workshop | Aureal Semiconductor | Sponsored Session | |
| Leveraging the Voodoo Platform in Next Generation Game Development | 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. | Sponsored Session | |
| DirectPlay | Microsoft | Sponsored Session | |
| Application of Motion Capture to Interactive Entertainment | Paul Lewis | Lecture | |
| Better Audio Sells More Product | James Grunke | Lecture | |
| Coin-Op Arcade Videogames: An overview of the Coin-Op Industry | Mark Pierce | Lecture | |
| Cross Promotion and Product Placement in Video Games | Rich Shane | Lecture | |
| Event Based Design: An Action Adventure Game Approach | Jared Freedman | Lecture | |
| Interactive Playmates in Real Time or Why Online Games Suck | Dani Bunten Berry | Lecture | |
| Optimizing Direct3D Graphics Performance | Miriam Sedman | Lecture | |
| Pixel Production: Pleasure or Pain? | Steve Snyder | Lecture | |
| Surviving the Bloodbath: Perspectives on our Industry’s Cycles | Michael Dornbrook | Lecture | |
| Inside NHL Powerplay 96: What Are They Thinking? | David Roberts | Seminar | |
| When Teams Work, When Teams Break | Don Daglow | Seminar | |
| Art in Computer Games: Tools and Techniques | Denis Loubet | Roundtable | |
| Designing Online Puzzle Games | Scott Kim | Roundtable | |
| Directors Roundtable: What Do They Mean? What Do They Want? | Jeanne Hartman | Roundtable | |
| Discussion on Artificial Intelligence in Computer Games (Section 1) | Steve Woodcock | Roundtable | |
| Discussion on Artificial Intelligence in Computer Games (Section 2) | Eric Dybsand | Roundtable | |
| Discussion on Artificial Intelligence in Computer Games (Section 3) | Neil Kirby | Roundtable | |
| Environment vs. the Game: Is the Medium or the Content? What Keeps Them? | Susan Manley, Jim Stern | Roundtable | |
| The Future of Strategy Games | Phil Steinmeyer | Roundtable | |
| Geeks vs. Suits 3.0 | Anthony Farmer | Roundtable | |
| Good, Clean and Fun: How Can They All Go Together? | Brad Andrews | Roundtable | |
| New World, New Paradigms: The Frontier of Multiplayer Non Zero-Sum Entertainmen | Sean Patrick Fannon | Roundtable | |
| Puzzles in Adventure Games | Hal Barwood | Roundtable | |
| Testing Roundtable | Jeanne Collins , Megan Quattrocchi | Roundtable | |
| Visceral Gaming: Should We Be Afraid? | Paul Schuytema | Roundtable | |
| Developing Game Content for Multiple Platforms | Nichimen Graphics | Sponsored Session | |
| Leveraging the Voodoo Platform in Next Generation Game Development | 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. | Sponsored Session | |
| DirectInput | Microsoft | Sponsored Session | |
| The Art Of The Pitch | Heather Chirtea , Ken Goldstein , Stefanie Henning | Lecture | |
| Autonomous Agents: A Matter of Life and Death | Peter de Bourcier | Lecture | |
| Avatars and Chat: Improving Immersive Interfaces | David Shaw | Lecture | |
| How to Write Interactive Fiction | Howard Burkons , Michelle Em , Rick Tiberi | Lecture | |
| Interactive Soap Operas: Crafting Environments for Multiuser Interaction | Reid Hoffman | Lecture | |
| The Jack Principles: Change the Way You Think About Interactive Design | Harry Gottlieb | Lecture | |
| Optimizing Code with MMX | Mike Schmit | Lecture | |
| Real-Time 3D Animation | Greg Hammond | Lecture | |
| State of the Industry | Lee Isgur | Lecture | |
| Writing Bug-Free Games | Dave Thielen | Lecture | |
| Writing by Design: The Critical Path to Great Gameplay | Roger Holzberg, Larry Tuch, Terry Borst, Howard Cushnir, Ted Elliot, Adam Wolff | Lecture | |
| Entertainment Quality Comes of Age | Diannah Morgan | Seminar | |
| Interactive Soundworlds | Daniel Bernstein | Seminar | |
| 3D Acceleration, One Year After | Brian Hook | Roundtable | |
| Business Models for Maximizing Revenue from Online Games | Kirk Owen | Roundtable | |
| Database Development for Real-Time 3D Games | Gjon Camaj | Roundtable | |
| Designing and Building Multiplayer Action Titles for Internet Play | Harald Seely | Roundtable | |
| Designing Multiplayer Games | Kevin Bentley | Roundtable | |
| Developing for New Technologies | Theodore Beale , Andrew Lunstad | Roundtable | |
| Discussion of Real-Time 3D Modeling | Evan Fisher , Jordi Davis | Roundtable | |
| The Interactive Storytelling Problem | W alt Freitag | Roundtable | |
| Multiplayer Online Games | Carrie Washburn | Roundtable | |
| The Real Design: From Design Spec to Product | Christopher Thompson | Roundtable | |
| Real-Time Audience Feedback: What Should We Do With It? | Dr. Cat | Roundtable | |
| “Relevant” Music Scoring for Next Generation Games | Rich Goldman | Roundtable | |
| Force Feedback - How to Add Another Dimension to Your Games by Microsoft Sidewinder Group | Microsoft (HW) | Sponsored Session | |
| Internet Business Opportunities for Multiplayer Games | Mpath | Sponsored Session | |
| High-End Graphics Delivered on Real-Time Platforms | Alias Wavefront | Sponsored Session | |
| Advanced Real-Time 3D Modeling | Josh White | Lecture | |
| Bringing Design to Software | Terry Winograd | Lecture | |
| Cinematic Direction in Interactive Products | Lawrence Guterman | Lecture | |
| Client/Server Design for Online Games | Andrew Kirmse | Lecture | |
| Designing the Puzzle | Bob Bates | Lecture | |
| Fair Use: Technology and Content | Marc Brown, Simon Frankel | Lecture | |
| Government Report 97: Impact on Game Developers | Daniel Greenberg | Lecture | |
| Mass Market Interactive Entertainment: The New Art Form | Hal Barwood , Roger Holzberg , Kendall Lockhart, Richard Hilleman, Brett Sperry | Lecture | |
| Multiplayer Web Games on a Shoestring | James Abbott | Lecture | |
| Music on Computers: A 5 Year Projection from the “Project Bar-B-Q” Think Tank | George Alistair Sanger | Lecture | |
| On Time and Under Budget | William Volk | Lecture | |
| Taking Maximum Advantage of 3D Hardware Accelerators | Mike Newhall | Lecture | |
| OO Is So Good | Glenn Mandelkern | Seminar | |
| Artists vs. Programmers | Dave Menconi | Roundtable | |
| Designing for Community: How to Handle the Problem Children of the Online World | Dave Weinstein | Roundtable | |
| The Future of Sports Game Development | Michael Meischeid | Roundtable | |
| Game Worlds: Slouching Toward a True Mass Audience | Jeff Gomez | Roundtable | |
| Getting Into the Game Industry | Darren Reid | Roundtable | |
| Localization | Aric Wilmunder | Roundtable | |
| What Do Female Game Players Really Want? | Annie Fox | Roundtable | |
| “Why Won’t They Tell Me What They Want!” Real World Communication Between Musician and Producer | David Schultz | Roundtable | |
| Wavetable: Ubiquitous Platform?!? | Creative Labs | Sponsored Session | |
| Creating Your Own Private Branded Online Gaming Service Around Your Content | Mpath Interactive | Sponsored Session | |
| Working with Microsoft “In The Zone” | Microsoft (HW) | Sponsored Session | |
| Total Exposure: Reaching Millions via One Company Partner | The ImagiNation Network | Sponsored Session | |
| The Best Kept Secrets of Digital Art | Dale Mauk, Patricia Pearson | Lecture | |
| Humor in Game Design | Steven Meretzky | Lecture | |
| Into the Grey Zone and Beyond: Protecting Your Legal Interests in the New Multimedia Environment | Alisa Baker | Lecture | |
| Merc 101: Sim Game Design - Features and Research | Arnold Hendrick | Lecture | |
| A Very Geeky Overview of TCP/IP Protocols | Zachary Simpson | Lecture | |
| VRML for Games? | Alan Wooton | Lecture | |
| Writing a Successful Business Plan | Anne Winblad | Lecture | |
| The Dirt on DVD | Guy Wright | Seminar | |
| Getting Started in Interactive Audio | Donald S. Griffin | Seminar | |
| How Not to do Videocompositing and Effects | Mark Christiansen | Seminar | |
| Mass Participation Games on the Web: Delivering Web Games that Support Thousands | Leonard Quam | Seminar | |
| Rules to Live By: Mantras for Software Producers | Martin Streicher | Seminar | |
| Art in Computer Games: Tools and Techniques | Denis Loubet | Roundtable | |
| Database Development for Real-Time 3D Games | Gjon Camaj | Roundtable | |
| Designing Multiplayer Games | Kevin Bentley | Roundtable | |
| Localization | Aric Wilmunder | Roundtable | |
| Getting Into the Game Industry | Darren Reid | Roundtable | |
| Puzzles in Adventure Games | Hal Barwood | Roundtable | |
| Real-Time Audience Feedback: What Should We Do With It? | Dr. Cat | Roundtable | |
| “Relevant” Music Scoring for Next Generation Games | Rich Goldman | Roundtable | |
| Programming for 3Dfx Interactive Voodoo | 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. | Sponsored Session | |
| QMixer: A Highly Efficient 3D Audio SDK for Direct X and MacOS | QSound Labs | Sponsored Session | |
| Optimizing 3D Geometry and Lighting Performance of PC’s | Intel Corporation | Sponsored Session | |
| Force Feedback - How to Add Another Dimension to Your Games by Microsoft Sidewinder Group | Microsoft (HW) | Sponsored Session | |
| c:\media\games\online\bizmodels.exe or Online Games: Multiple Business Models | TEN | Sponsored Session | |
| Metrowerks Game Programming Tools | Metrowerks Corporation | Sponsored Session | |
| Cinematic Audio for Video | Tim Clarke , Christopher Stevens | Lecture | |
| The Little Four: Panel Discussion with Low Latency Gaming Networks | Dean Frost , Jack Heistand , Jeff Leibowitz , Paul Matteucci , John Taylor | Lecture | |
| Maintaining Developer-Media Relations through the Development Cycle | Mark Shander | Lecture | |
| Merc 201: Sim Game Design - Nuts and Bolts | Arnold Hendrick | Lecture | |
| Ritual Reality: The Social Aspects of Designing an Online Gaming Environment | Amy Jo Kim | Lecture | |
| Strategic Alliances | Jude Lange | Lecture | |
| The Talkies Are Coming! | William DeSmedt | Lecture | |
| Adding Extensible Custom Languages to Game Engines | Robert Huebner | Seminar | |
| Art Direction For Games | Isaac Kerlow | Seminar | |
| Cyberlife: A Biologically Inspired Architecture for Games | Toby Simpson | Seminar | |
| Physical Animation of Humans and Other Articulated Forms | Seamus Blackley | Seminar | |
| 3D Acceleration, One Year After | Brian Hook | Roundtable | |
| Ask the Publisher | Ken Goldstein | Roundtable | |
| Directors Roundtable: What Do They Mean? What Do They Want? | Jeanne Hartman | Roundtable | |
| The Integration of Cinematic Elements Into Interactive Games | Jim Bloom | Roundtable | |
| The Interactive Storytelling Problem | Walt Freitag | Roundtable | |
| The Real Design: From Design Spec to Product | Christopher Thompson | Roundtable | |
| What Do Female Game Players Really Want? | Annie Fox | Roundtable | |
| What Makes Software Educational? | Channah Horst | Roundtable | |
| Windows 95: Stories from the Trenches | Jack Thornton | Roundtable | |
| Programming for 3Dfx Interactive Voodoo | 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. | Sponsored Session | |
| Qsound 3D Audio Processing Tools | Schmidt Entertainment Technologies, Inc. | Sponsored Session | |
| Scaleable 3D Sound Using MMX Technology | Intel Corporation | Sponsored Session | |
| Working with Microsoft “In The Zone” | Microsoft (HW) | Sponsored Session | |
| Implementing Compelling 3D Audio Today and Tomorrow | VLSI Technology, Inc. | Sponsored Session | |
| Creating a Multiplayer Gaming Success | HEAT | Sponsored Session | |
| Adapting Licensed Products to the Computer Medium | Micah Jackson | Lecture | |
| Communication Models for Internet Games | Jeffrey Rothschild | Lecture | |
| Distribution Options For Today’s Market | Brian Neider | Lecture | |
| The Magic of Writing Kids’ Games | Matthew Costello , Tony Perutz , Meryl Perutz , Deborah Todd | Lecture | |
| Making 3D Work for Social Environments | Rusty Dawe | Lecture | |
| Quake: A Post-Mortem and a Glimpse Into the Future | Michael Abrash | Lecture | |
| Raising the Bar | Leslie Pardew | Seminar | |
| Women In Interactive Entertainment | Deborah Cook, Annie Fox , Julie Marsh, Margo Nanny , Hilary Nation, Solange Van Der Moer | Seminar | |
| Business Models for Maximizing Revenue from Online Games | Kirk Owen | Roundtable | |
| Designing and Building Multiplayer Action Titles for Internet Play | Harald Seely | Roundtable | |
| Designing for Community: How to Handle the Problem Children of the Online World | Dave Weinstein | Roundtable | |
| Designing Games to Use 3D Audio | Brian Schmidt | Roundtable | |
| Directors Roundtable: What Do They Mean? What Do They Want? | Jeanne Hartman | Roundtable | |
| Environment vs. the Game: Is the Medium or the Content? What Keeps Them? | Susan Manley ,Jim Stern | Roundtable | |
| Good, Clean and Fun: How Can They All Go Together? | Brad Andrews | Roundtable | |
| Multiplayer Online Games | Carrie Washburn | Roundtable | |
| Original Content: R&D For The Breakthrough Title | Larry Tuch | Roundtable | |
| Shared Virtual Environments | David Rosenbloom | Roundtable | |
| Visceral Gaming: Should We Be Afraid? | Paul Schuytema | Roundtable | |
| Whither (or Wither) War Games | Mark Baldwin | Roundtable | |
| The Benefits of 3D Graphics By Using MMX Technology | Intel Corporation | Sponsored Session | |
| Benchmarks: Do They Do Justice? | 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. | Sponsored Session | |
| DirectDraw in DX5 | Microsoft | Sponsored Session | |
| Video Reality Reality GC: Creating Navigable Feature Film Environments | SouthPeak Interactive | Sponsored Session | |
| Quicktime for Windows as a Media Delivery Engine for Games | Apple Computer | Sponsored Session | |
| Creating a Multiplayer Gaming Success | HEAT | Sponsored Session | |
| Achieving New Levels of Realism with Image Based Modeling and Rendering | Paul Debevec | Lecture | |
| The Alchemy of Addiction: Creating Games that Keep People Playing | Mike Sellers | Lecture | |
| Color Reduction | TBA | Lecture | Did this go ahead? Who did it? |
| Foundations and Empires | Mark Baldwin | Lecture | |
| Recovery Mode: Taking Control of an Out of Control Project | Evan Robinson | Lecture | |
| Revenue Models for Net-Based Games | Gene DeRose | Lecture | |
| Writing First Person Engines for 3D Hardware | Gary McTaggart | Lecture | |
| Dirty Little Programs: Installing and Removing Your Product | Andrew Megowan | Seminar | |
| Music Construction for Interactive Media | Donald S. Griffin | Seminar | |
| Designing Online Puzzle Games | Scott Kim | Roundtable | |
| Developing for New Technologies | Theodore Beale , Andrew Lunstad | Roundtable | |
| Discussion of Real-Time 3D Modeling | Josh White | Roundtable | |
| Discussion on Artificial Intelligence in Computer Games (Section 1) | Steve Woodcock | Roundtable | |
| Discussion on Artificial Intelligence in Computer Games (Section 2) | Eric Dybsand | Roundtable | |
| Discussion on Artificial Intelligence in Computer Games (Section 3) | Neil Kirby | Roundtable | |
| The Future of Strategy Games | Phil Steinmeyer | Roundtable | |
| How to Screw Up a Perfectly Good Production | Heather Chirtea | Roundtable | |
| New World, New Paradigms: The Frontier of Multiplayer Non Zero-Sum Entertainment | Sean Patrick Fannon | Roundtable | |
| Testing Roundtable | Jeanne Collins , Megan Quattrocchi | Roundtable | |
| Software Interfacing Techniques for Accelerated Graphics Port | Intel Corporation | Sponsored Session | |
| Next Generation PC Platforms: How to Leverage the Transition | Cirrus Logic | Sponsored Session | |
| Direct3D | Microsoft | Sponsored Session | |
| A3D: Interactive 3D Audio Workshop | Aureal Semiconductor | Sponsored Session | |
| POW! Adding Force-Feedback to Your Applications | Immersion Corp | Sponsored Session | |
| Implementing AGP Using ATI’s RAGE PRO Graphics Chip | ATI Technologies | Sponsored Session | |
| Collaborating in Game Design | Noah Falstein, David Fox | Lecture | |
| From Spelling To Surfing: The Evolution of the Edutainment Industry | Joe Durrett , Dean Frost , Steve McBeth , Kevin O’Leary , Charlotte Walker | Lecture | |
| Grass Isn’t <0,255,0>: Better Living Through Color Theory | John Edel | Lecture | |
| A Guided Tour through Hard Core Game Physics | Chris Hecker | Lecture | |
| Negotiating a Great Game Publishing or Distribution Deal | Dean Gloster | Lecture | |
| Worldwide Licensing and Funding of Titles | Jack Ghoulian | Lecture | |
| Designing for the Universal 2nd Grader | Michael Wyman | Seminar | |
| Forcing Interactions: How to? How much | Richard Aronson | Seminar | |
| User Intention as a Design Tool | Doug Church | Seminar | |
| Artists vs. Programmers | Dave Menconi | Roundtable | |
| Choosing an Authoring Tool | Jamie Siglar | Roundtable | |
| Coin Ops Roundtable | Mark Pierce | Roundtable | |
| The Future of Sports Game Development | Michael Meischeid | Roundtable | |
| Game Worlds: Slouching Toward a True Mass Audience | Jeff Gomez | Roundtable | |
| What Ever Happened to Role-Playing Games? | Anthony Farmer | Roundtable | |
| “Why Won’t They Tell Me What They Want!” Real World Communication Between Musician and Producer | David Schultz | Roundtable | |
| How To Build Internet Hybrid Games | Intel Corporation | Sponsored Session | |
| Catering to the Sound Sense: How to Use DirectSound3D to Enhance a 2D or 3D Game | Cirrus Logic | Sponsored Session | |
| DirectSound | Microsoft | Sponsored Session | |
| Memory Efficient Color Mapping Techniques for Game Development | Nichimen Graphics | Sponsored Session | |
| ATI’s Hi-Volume RAGE PRO Graphics Chip | ATI Technologies | Sponsored Session |
For me some of the most interesting sessions from this day were the Sponsored Sessions presented by Industry Heavyweights that are still household gaming names today and others who have fallen by the wayside (Nichimen Graphics I am looking at you).
Microsoft had sessions advertising their DirectX technology (DirectPlay, DirectSound, Direct3D and DirectDraw) and even from their hardware division (Sidewinder Group).
There was even a session by Apple on using Quicktime for Windows Game Development! Would love to get a hold of what was presented at that session.
The 1998 Computer Game Developers Conference was hosted in Long Beach Convention Center on Long Beach, California. This would be the last one under the CGDC name as it was now rebranded to just GDC 6.
Playstation Underground had a brief 3 minute look at CGDC 1998, it interviews Jennifer Pahlka who was a female director of the GDC, you can watch on Youtube:
The talks we know that were held at CGDC 1998 are in the table below:
| Title | Presenter | Track | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| “A Formula Is Worth a Thousand Keyframes” Mathematically Derived Real Time Character Animation | Peter Akemann | Programming | Lecture | |
| 3D Controllers One Year Later: What Have Learned? What Have We Earned? | Tom Cmajdalka, Frank Evers, Jon Peddie, Jay Eishenlohr, Scott Sellers | Programming | Lecture | |
| Blazing Fast Code | Jon Bentley | Programming | Keynote | |
| Bringing Engineering Discipline to Entertainment Development | Gordon Walton | Programming | Seminar | |
| Bringing Your Code Up to Speed | Ron Fosner | Programming | Lecture | |
| Building a Better Mouse: AI Lessons From Artificial Life | Robert Huebner | Programming | Lecture | |
| Building Advanced Autonomous AI Systems for Large Scale Real-Time Simulations | John Laird | Programming | Lecture | |
| Building Commercial Games in Java: How We Did It | Garner Halloran | Programming | Lecture | Tom Clancy’s Politika |
| Coding the Ideal Direct3D Game | Richard Huddy | Programming | Sponsored | |
| Collecting Money on the Internet: Gameplay by the Click | Russ Jones | Programming | Sponsored | |
| Collision Detection in Pacman Ghost Zone: Collision Techniques in a 3D Environment for Man and Camera | Gilbert Colgate | Programming | Lecture | |
| Creating Realistic Effects with OpenGL | Simon Hui | Programming | Lecture | |
| Cross Platform Development : Easier and Harder Than You Think | Eric Klein | Programming | Lecture | |
| Curved Surfaces vs. Discrete Multiresolution Models | Murali Sundaresan | Programming | Lecture | |
| Database Development for Real-Time 3D Games: A View From Both Sides | Gjon Camaj | Programming | Lecture | |
| Development Tools: Shines & Whines | David Gill | Programming | Sponsored | |
| DirectAnimation | Pablo Fernicola | Programming | Sponsored | |
| DirectShow | Kevin Larkin | Programming | Sponsored | |
| Display List Rendering | Marc Pinter-Krainer | Programming | Sponsored | |
| Efficient System Memory Texturing Architecture for Games | John Brothers, Ray Koduri | Programming | Sponsored | |
| Engine Scalability and 3D Hardware | Charlie Brown, Gary McTaggart | Programming | Lecture | |
| Exploiting Parallelism in 3D Games Using a Multithreaded Game Application Framework | Feng Xie | Programming | Sponsored | |
| Gaming and Multimedia Graphics on Windows CE: A Case Study | David Gould | Programming | Sponsored | |
| Getting the Most Out of 3D Accelerators | Greg Corson | Programming | Lecture | |
| Hardcore AI for the Computer Games of Tomorrow | John Funge | Programming | Lecture | |
| High Color, High Res: Graphics Programming in a Non-Palletized World | Wade Brainerd | Programming | Lecture | |
| High Performance Game Programming in C++ | Paul Pedriana | Programming | Lecture | |
| How Bout Dem Bones: Creating a Bones-Based Animation System | Andrew Lunstad | Programming | Lecture | |
| How Shadows of the Empire Used the Force | Gary Brubaker | Programming | Lecture | |
| Improving Graphics Performance Using iPEAK | Herb Marsales | Programming | Sponsored | iPeak |
| Intel740 Graphics Accelerator Performance Tuning | Theodore Omtzigt, Jay Sturges | Sponsored | ||
| Lies, Damn Lies, and ASR Statistics: A Voice Processing Primer | Neil Kirby | Programming | Seminar | Slides on CD |
| Low Cost 3D Graphics for Independent Game Developers | Caligari | Programming | Sponsored | truespace4 |
| Making the Play: Team Cooperation in Microsoft Baseball 3D | Steve Rabin | Programming | Lecture | |
| Maximizing Real-Time Game Performance | Robert “Dwango Bob” Huntley | Programming | Sponsored | |
| Messiah: What You May or May Not Believe | Michael “Saxs” Perrson, David Perry | Programming | Plenary | |
| Motivate - Intelligent Digital Actor System | Yotto Koga | Programming | Sponsored | Motion Factory |
| Multiplayer Game Development: Networking SimCity | Jason Shankel | Programming | Lecture | |
| Multiresolution Meshes: A Solution for Creating Scalable 3D Games | Stephen Junkins | Programming | Sponsored | |
| Natural Language Processing in 55 Minutes or Less | John O’Neil | Programming | Lecture | |
| Next Generation BSP Trees | Bruce Naylor | Programming | Lecture | |
| Next Generation Effects Using Multi-texture, Multi-pass Triangles | David Kirk | Programming | Lecture | Direct3D |
| Optimizing 3D Performance with Direct3D | David Kirk | Programming | Sponsored | |
| Optimizing Games for the Real 3D Starfighter with Intel740 | Hadden Hoppert, Jeff Potter, Andy Thompson | Programming | Sponsored | Real3D |
| Performance Tuning for Pentium II Processors with VTune 3.0 | Gary Carleton | Programming | Sponsored by Intel | Pentium II processor tuning |
| Physical Modeling for Games | Michael Shantz | Programming | Lecture | |
| Physics Q&A | Chris Hecker, David Wu | Programming | Seminar | |
| Porting Flight Sim ‘98 to Direct3D: Dragging a 15 Year Old Graphics Engine Into the 90s | Todd Laney | Programming | Lecture | |
| PowerVR II Technology Overview | John Smith | Programming | Sponsored | Dreamcast and PC GPU |
| Programming for PC-based Coin-Op and Arcade Games | Mark Atkins | Programming | Sponsored | |
| Programming with Glide | 3Dfx Interactive | Programming | Sponsored | |
| Project AI | Mark Baldwin | Programming | Lecture | Used in Games: The Perfect General, Empire Deluxe and Empire II |
| Quake2: A Study in Using OpenGL and Hardware Acceleration for the PC Platform | Brian Hook | Programming | Lecture | |
| Real-Time Procedural Texturing | Haim Barad | Programming | Sponsored | MMX, fractional Brownian motion |
| State of the Art in 3D Real-Time Characters | Jeff Lander | Programming | Lecture | |
| Texture Caching | Jonathan Blow | Programming | Roundtable | Artistic styles in computer games |
| The Art of Force Feedback: Adding Realism To Your Applications Using Force Feedback Sticks, Wheels, and Mice | Dean Chang | Programming | Sponsored | DirectInput |
| The Future of Coin-Op Games | John Fowler, John Latta, Matt Saettler, Albert Teng, Tom Petit, Jeff Walker | Programming | Plenary | |
| The Physics of Baseball 3D | Miguel Gomez | Programming | Lecture | Microsoft Baseball 3D |
| Tips & Tricks of PowerVR’s First & Second Generation | Kevin Kralian | Programming | Sponsored | Gremlin, Kalisto, Ion Storm, Acclaim, and others. |
| Triangle Strip Generation for Real-Time 3D Games | Programming | Michael Rosenzweig | Sponsored | |
| Vector Quantization Texture Compression, Hardware Bump Mapping, and Generalized Modifier Volumes | Programming | Mark Butler | Sponsored | |
| VR-1 Conductor: Creating a Standard Technology Platform for Online Gaming | Mark Vange | Programming | Sponsored | VR-1 Conductor SDK |
| 3D Character Modeling for Animation | Stefan Henry-Biskup | Visual Arts | Lecture | Spline-based modeling techniques |
| Art Skills to Produce Superior Figurative Game Art | Don Seegmiller | Visual Arts | Lecture | |
| Artists And Game Design Documents: From Interpretation To Implementation | Joshua Gordon | Visual Arts | Lecture | |
| Building Tight Real-Time Models | Ocean Quigley | Visual Arts | Lecture | |
| Directing an Art Department | Glen Schofield | Visual Arts | Lecture | |
| Game Developer Magazine’s Animation Confrontation | Sponsored by Game Developer | Visual Arts | Plenary | Participants include Kinetix, NewTek, and Softimage |
| How to Break in as an Artist | Carrie Galbraith | Visual Arts | Seminar | |
| Killer Games with SOFTIMAGE3D | Softimage | Visual Arts | Sponsored | SOFTIMAGE GDK, Tantrum Entertainment |
| Picture Imperfect: Common 3D Rendering Flaws | Brad Cain | Visual Arts | Lecture | |
| Planning and Directing Motion Capture for Games | Melianthe Kines | Visual Arts | Seminar | |
| Real-Time 3D Art Ideas from Online Applications | Stasia McGehee | Visual Arts | Lecture | Web-based low-poly 3D applications |
| The Art of Low-Poly | Paul Steed | Visual Arts | Lecture | Quake II |
| The Need for Renaissance Men and Women in this Digital Age of Art | Cyrus Lum | Visual Arts | Keynote | 3D Artist scripting languages |
| You Want What? Scaleable Character Approaches for 3D Real-Time | Paul Lewis | Visual Arts | Lecture |
This year had Sponsored sessions showing off how to program for the newly released Intel740 GPU and a session from 3dfx Interactive on Programming with Glide for their Voodoo 2 hardware.
In the session Programming for PC-based Coin-Op and Arcade Games by Mark Atkins, he proposes that arcade machines of the future will be PCs connected to esoteric input devices like motion chairs and thus will allow easy porting between arcade and home computer when using technologies like DirectX.
He was not the only developer to propose a PC-based arcade as there was another session called The Future of Coin-Op Games by the Open Arcade Architecture (OAA) forum members who share their insights on what makes a great arcade game, understanding the differences in creating hit arcade games and hit home games, making money in the arcade market, and how to use arcade as a first-run theater for titles headed for the home.
There is even a session this year on building games in Java, which was not seen as a viable programming language for game development at the time due to it being an interpreted language with limited APIs for hardware acceleration. Garner Halloran talks about developing the game Tom Clancy’s Politika in Java which was a virtual board game similar to Risk.
The 1999 GDC had more than 9,500 attendees 7 and had Shigeru Miyamoto as a keynote speaker along with other keynotes from Sega and Sony.
GDC 1999 was split into six different tracks:
The sessions that we know about are listed in the table below:
| Title | Presenter | Track | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Changing for the Better: Redefining Game and Hardware Development through Evolution (Sega’s Console Keynote) | Bernie Stolar | All | Keynote | |
| The Secret to Consistently Delivering Hit Titles | Louis Castle | Production | Keynote | Westwood Studios |
| Surviving 15 Years on the Frontlines of the War | Brian Fargo | Business & Legal | Keynote | |
| The Future of Interactive Entertainment (Sony’s Console Keynote) | Phil Harrison | All | Keynote | |
| New Players, New Games | Brenda Laurel | Game Design | Keynote | Diversity |
| How To Render The World | Andrew Glassner | Programming | Keynote | Shading techniques, from direct illumination to ray-tracing and radiosity |
| Music in Video Games: The Art of the Deal (How to Make Tons of Cash Writing Video Game Music!) | Tommy Tallarico | Audio | Keynote | |
| Conference Keynote: Shigeru Miyamoto | Shigeru Miyamoto | All | Keynote | |
| The Reality of Fantasy | Syd Mead | Visual Arts | Keynote | |
| Developing Environments for the Creation of Entertainment Software | Juan Carlos Arevalo-Baeza and Edward Kilham | Visual Arts | Lecture | 3301 |
| Glory and Shame | Jonathan Baron | Programming | Lecture | 3205 |
| The Freelance Life | Ellen Beeman | Business & Legal | Lecture | 5110 |
| Using DirectMusic | Daniel Bernstein, Guy Whitmore, David Yackley and Jon Laff | Audio | Lecture | 4111 |
| Basics of Dynamic Audio Generation | Jonathan Blow | Audio | Lecture | |
| Back to Basics: Better 3D through 2D | Adrian Bourne | Programming | Lecture | 5507 |
| Loading and Saving Game Objects: A Persistent Reusable Format | Michael Braley and Sandeep Kharkar | Programming | Lecture | 5502 |
| Can Educational Be Fun? | Amy Bruckman | Game Design | Lecture | 3106 |
| Advanced Multitexture Effects with Direct3D and OpenGL | Jim Bushnell and Jason L. Mitchell | Programming | Lecture | 5201 |
| Visual Level Design: Designing Machines for Playing In | Steve Chen | Game Design | Lecture | 5404 |
| Don’t Be a Vidiot: What Computer Game Designers Can Learn from Paper Games | Greg Costikyan | Game Design | Lecture | 5505 |
| Win32 for Games | Tony Cox | Programming | Lecture | 4203 |
| Schedules That Mean Something | Don Daglow | Business & Legal | Lecture | 5401 |
| Virtual Virtuality: Cheap Tricks for Immersive Worlds | Graeme Davis | Visual Arts | Lecture | 3506 |
| Designing Al Engines with Built-in Machine Learning Capabilities | Zhimin Ding | Programming | Lecture | 5303 |
| Making Packages Fun Again | Mike Dornbrook and Steve Meretzky | Programming | Lecture | 3110 |
| Building an LBE Attraction: Hercules in the Underworld, A Case Study | Noah Dudley and Joe Shochet | Programming | Lecture | 4305 |
| Console Audio Programming | Thomas Engel | Audio | Lecture | 3402 |
| A Grand Unified Game Theory | Noah Falstein | Game Design | Lecture | 3105 |
| Licensing Ins and Outs For Developers | Frederick U. Fierst | Business & Legal | Lecture | 4207 |
| How to Keep Internet Hackers Far, Far Away | Andrew Finkenstadt | Programming | Lecture | 4303 |
| Every Byte Counts: Graphic Design for Online Games | Tracy Fullerton | Visual Arts | Lecture | 5208 |
| Teaching an Old Dog New Bits: How Are Console Developers are Able to Improve Performance When Hardware Hasn’t Changed | Andy Gavin and Stephen White | Programming | Lecture | 3202 |
| Painting with Light | Reid Gershbein | Programming | Lecture | 3507 |
| Arcade Game Psychology | Michael C. Getlan | Game Design | Lecture | 5306 |
| Tales from the Trenches of Coin-Op Audio | Chris Granner | Audio | Lecture | 5509 |
| The Gamer’s Eye View | Charles D. Gray | Game Design | Lecture | 5305 |
| Negotiating a Great Advance and Royalty Deal | Dean Gloster | Programming | Lecture | 3310 |
| Networking Coin-Op Arcade Games: Technology and Economics | Michael J. Hanson | Programming | Lecture | 5109 |
| Creating Character Animation Assets | Jeff Hayes | Visual Arts | Lecture | 4107 |
| Manuals: They Can Be Good | Arnold Hendrick | Visual Arts | Lecture | 5304 |
| Controlling Simulated Characters | Jessica K. Hodgins and W.L. Wooten | Programming | Lecture | 3403 |
| Using Java as an Embedded Game Scripting Language | Robert Huebner | Programming | Lecture | 3501 |
| What’s Love Got to Do With It? Exploring Consumers’ Emotional Attachments to Products | Christopher Ireland | Game Design | Lecture | 4310 |
| C++ Optimization Strategies and Techniques | Peter Isensee | Programming | Lecture | 4103 |
| Distributed Liability: Emerging Legal Issues | Curtis Karnow | Programming | Lecture | |
| Creating Reflections and Shadows Using Stencil Buffers | Mark Kilgard | Programming | Lecture | 5102 |
| The Art of Puzzle Game Design | Scott Kim | Game Design | Lecture | 4407 |
| Directing Motion Capture Talent | Melianthe Kines | Visual Arts | Lecture | 3107 |
| Client/Server Design For Online Games | Andrew Kirmse | Programming | Lecture | 4104 |
| A Conversation about Alliances | Stuart Kliman | Business & Legal | Lecture | 3109 |
| File I/O Optimization: The Hidden Win | Eric Klein, John Newlin and Jason Regier | Programming | Lecture | 4404 |
| Developing an Artificial Intelligence Engine | John Laird and Michael van Lent | Programming | Lecture | 5503 |
| Reinventing the Wheel: Build 3D Tools or Buy Them | Jeff Lander | Programming | Lecture | 3201 |
| Rapid Prototyping: From The Pitch through Design to Final Sale | Nicole Lazzaro | Programming | Lecture | 3104 |
| Fast Collision Detection for Interactive Games | Ming C. Lin | Programming | Lecture | 3102 |
| The Internet Sucks: What I Learned Coding X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter | Peter Lincroft | Programming | Lecture | 3303 |
| Inspiration for the Design of Game Characters and Settings | Linda Lubken | Game Design | Lecture | 5108 |
| Don’t Starve that CPU! Making the Best of Memory Bandwidth | Herbert Marselas | Programming | Lecture | 5103 |
| Principles of Believable 3D Character Animation | Chris Mead | Visual Arts | Lecture | 3508 |
| Applying the Technology of Distributed Training Simulations to Gaming | Larry Mellon and Jesse Aronson | Programming | Lecture | 5504 |
| Asset Management: Taming the Complexity | Daniel Miller | Visual Arts | Lecture | 5510 |
| Tools for Giant Robots: An Evolution from 1994 to 1999 | Tim Morten | Programming | Lecture | 3101 |
| What It Costs to Make a Game | Dr. Ray Muzyka | Business & Legal | Lecture | 4110 |
| Color Theory and Designing with Color Schemes | Eni Oken | Visual Arts | Lecture | 3307 and 3408 |
| Polygon Character Design Under Technical Constraints | Walter Park | Visual Arts | Lecture | 4109 |
| Funding Your Next Title Set: Choices, Not Guesses | Bruce Poitevin | Business & Legal | Lecture | 4208 |
| After the Shoot: Motion Capture Data | Greg Pyros | Visual Arts | Lecture | 3207 |
| The “Designed for Microsoft Windows” Logo Program: What it Means to Game Developers | Len Rehard | Business & Legal | Lecture | 3410 |
| Steering Behaviors for Autonomous Characters | Craig Reynolds | Programming | Lecture | 5101 |
| Designing Web-Based Games | Gary Rosenzweig | Game Design | Lecture | 5506 |
| The Game Developer’s Legal Guide To Web Commerce | Ira Rothken | Business & Legal | Lecture | 4411 |
| Working with a Big Publisher | Matt Saettler | Business & Legal | Lecture | 3209 |
| Outcast: Programming Towards a Design Aesthetic | Franck Sauer, Olivier Masclef, Yann Robert, and Pierre Deltour | Programming | Lecture | 4405 |
| Empowering Constraint: Lessons from Industrial Design | Phil Saunders | Game Design | Lecture | 3108 |
| Introduction to Parametric Surfaces | Brian Sharp | Programming | Lecture | 3103 |
| Writing a Game Site in Java: Write Once, Test Everywhere | Matt Shea and Michael Bayne | Programming | Lecture | 5204 |
| Fundamental Principles of Modeling and Simulation | Roger Smith | Programming | Lecture | 3203 |
| Optimizing 3D Art: Less is Best | Paul Steed | Visual Arts | Lecture | 4408 |
| Extreme Detail Graphics | Jan Svarovsky | Programming | Lecture | 5501 |
| Getting Your Design Down on Paper | Chris Taylor | Game Design | Lecture | 4306 |
| Performance Optimization, Windows 2000, and DirectX | Phillip Taylor | Programming | Lecture | 3404 |
| How to Draw Monkeys the LucasArts Way: An Analysis of The Funny Pictures in the Curse of Monkey Island | William Tiller | Visual Arts | Lecture | 5207 |
| Optimizing Game Applications for the MIPS RISC Architecture | Michael Uhler | Programming | Lecture | 4205 |
| Top 10 Things Every Producer Should Know about Programming and Programmers | Gordon Walton | Business & Legal | Lecture | 3412 |
| Human Factors Engineering for Game Interface Design | Robert Warren | Programming | Lecture | 5402 |
| Designing Around Pitfalls of Game Al | Douglas Whatley | Game Design | Lecture | 5206 |
| Making the Message Fun: The LBE in Theme Parks and Trade Shows. | Todd Williams | Game Design | Lecture | 4206 |
Shigeru Miyamoto discusses his creation of such worldwide recognized characters as Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, and Zelda. He also shares his vision of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the fastest-selling game in history, and looks into what the future holds for game developers in the new millenium.
In this speech, Bernard Stolar, president and COO of Sega of America, addresses how the company is preparing for the new marketplace with its Dreamcast video game system. Dreamcast’s unique architecture creates a machine that is up to 15 times more powerful than current consoles and can actually change and grow with the gamer. Stolar discusses the benefits of creating games for a platform that will actually evolve, not just with simple peripheral add-ons, but with significant technologies that keep the machine as fresh, current and competitive as the day it was purchased.
The 2000 GDC ticked off on March 8th with the tagline “Take your place in game history”, it was attended by ? games industry professionals.
There were so many talks that it was split into seven different tracks:
The sessions that we know about are listed in the table below:
| Title | Presenter | Track | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Making Fun for the Masses: We’ve Just Scraped the Surface! | Tom Dusenberry | Business & Legal | ||
| Mainting Your Vision and Consistency through the Hell of Production | Lorne Lanning | Production | ||
| PlayStation Keynote | Phil Harrison | All | ||
| Using the Evolution of Black & White As an Example of Next Generation Development Ethos | Peter Molyneux | Game Design | ||
| New Pioneers at the Graphics Frontier | Kurt Akeley | Programming | ||
| Conference Keynote | Danny Hillis | All | ||
| The Role of Reality in Epic Game Creation | Yu Suzuki | Game Design | ||
| Designing Sound for Media and Designing Media for Sound | Randy Thom | Audio | ||
| The Designs of Star Wars: Episode One | Doug Chiang | Visual Arts | ||
| AI in Computer Games Roundtable | Eric Dybsand, Steven Woodcock and Neil Kirby | Programming | ||
| The Benefits of a Microprogramable Graphics Architecture | Dominic Mallinson | Programming | ||
| BOPS: Conquering the Geometry Pipeline | Marco Jacobs, Ivan Greenberg and Mike Strauss | Programming | Sponsored Session | |
| Building Control Systems for Robot Locomotion | Jessica Hodgins | Programming | ||
| Digital Scent: Revolution of the Senses | Jason Herskowitz, Ralph Cooksey Thomas | Programming | Sponsored Session | |
| Fast Proximity Queries for Large Game Environments | Ming Lin | Programming | ||
| Half-Life and TeamFortress Networking: Closing the Loop on Scaleable Network Gaming Backend Services | Yahn Bernier | Programming | ||
| The Heroes III Random Map Generator | Gus Smedstad | Programming | ||
| Hidden Surface Reduction and Collision Detection Based on Oct Trees | Brent Pease | Programming | ||
| How to Simulate a Ponytail: Implementing Open Loop Chains | Chris Hecker | Programming | ||
| Open Architecture for Free Internet Gaming | David Wright and Bryan Gibson-Winge | Programming | ||
| Interaction with Groups of Autonomous Characters | Craig Reynolds | Programming | ||
| It’s Great To Be Back! Fast Code, Game Programming, and Other Thoughts From 20 (Minus 2) Years in the Trenches | Mike Abrash | Programming | ||
| It’s Still Loading? | Scott Bilas | Programming | ||
| Metrics for Level of Detail | Dave Eberly | Programming | ||
| NetZ Multiplayer Architecture for Online Games | Carl Dionne, Martin Lavoie, Kenneth Trueman | Programming | ||
| Pawn Captures Wyvern: How Computer Chess Can Improve Your Pathfinding | Mark Brockington | Programming | ||
| PC vs Console vs Embedded Game Development | Greg Corson | Programming | ||
| Real-Time Cloth | Jason Weber | Programming | ||
| Real-Time Continuous Level of Detail (LOD) for PCs and Consoles | Louis Castle, Jonathan Lanier, James McNeill | Programming | ||
| Real-Time Statistics and In-Game Debugging, or How to Deal with Insubordinate Tools | John Olsen | Programming | ||
| Run-Time Skin Deformation | Jason Weber | Programming | ||
| Subdividing Reality: Employing Subdivision Surfaces for Real Time Scalable Photorealism | Stephen Junkins | Programming | ||
| Taking Tiger Woods Java Golf Online | Robert Burnett, Phil Sorger | Programming | ||
| Terrain Analysis for Realtime Strategy Games | Dave Pottinger | Programming | ||
| The Tribes Engine Network Architecture | Mark Frohnmayer, Tim Gift | Programming | ||
| Two Advanced Terrain Rendering Systems | Jonathan Blow, Seumas McNally | Programming | ||
| Using Technology to Create Believable 3D Characters | Jeff Lander | Programming | ||
| Vehicle Dynamics for Racing Games | Ted Zuvich | Programming | ||
| Writing Portable Code | Didier Malenfant | Programming | ||
| The Art of Empires: Lessons Learned from Age of Empires | Brad Crow, Mark Terrano, Scott Winsett | Visual Arts | ||
| Cutting to the Chase: Cinematic Construction for Gamers | Hal Barwood | Visual Arts | ||
| Digital Figure Painting | Don Seegmiller | Visual Arts | ||
| From Aquilaris to Malastare, Making Worlds for Star Wars: Episode One Racer | Duncan Brown | Visual Arts | ||
| Motion Editing: Principles and Practice | Susan Van Baerle | Visual Arts | ||
| On the Future of Real-time Characters | Joby Otero | Visual Arts | ||
| Pattern Reduction in Massively Tiled Scenes | Jason Waskey | Visual Arts | ||
| Visual Storytelling through Lighting | Sudeep Rangaswamy | Visual Arts | ||
| Advancing 3D Audio Through Acoustic Geometry Interface | Edward Riegelsberger, Micah Mason, and Suneil Mishra | Audio | Slides | |
| A Roadmap: Moving Beyond the Big Audio API¹s (Interactive Audio with Configurable Components) | Chris Grigg | Audio | ||
| The Future of Interactive 3d Audio | Brian Schmidt and Conrad Maxwell | Audio | ||
| Implementing ZoomFX 3D Objects in 3D-space using DS3D | Mike Percy | Audio | Slides | |
| Proposal for IA-SIG 3D Audio Rendering Guideline Level 3 (13DL3) | Jean-Marc Jot | Audio | Slides | |
| Retained Mode 3D Audio | Bo Gehring | Audio | ||
| Top Down Bottom Up Game Audio: What I Learned from Ken Griffey Baseball | Michelle Sorger | Audio | ||
| Asset Management: Problems and Solutions | Katy Franz | Production | Roundtable | Production |
| The Brain Behind the Game: Media Asset Management For Your Project | Gregor vom Scheidt and Pascal Jarry | Production | Sponsored Session | |
| Data Wizards and Wands: Making Better Games More Quickly with Tools and Tool Experts | Steve Taylor | Production | ||
| Developing Leadership and Management Skills in the Game Industry | Robert White | Production | ||
| The Fourth Thread: Effectively Integrating Audio and New Audio Technology into the Game Development | Cycle Brett, Heather Sowards | Production | ||
| A Monster in the Making: Creating Baldur’s Gate | Ray Muzyka | Production | ||
| New Tools for Task Communication | Torgier Hagland | Production | ||
| Project Prototyping | oster? | Production | Roundtable | |
| Prototyping for Fun and Profit | Ed Nanale, Michael Wyman | Production | ||
| Quantifying QA: A Stitch in Time | Patricia Pizer | Production | ||
| Rollcage: A Post-Mortem of the Porting Process | Fred Gill | Production | ||
| Schedules that Mean Something | Don Daglow | Production | ||
| Working With Brands: A Post-mortem of Dune 2000 and LEGO Loco | Matthew Stibbe | Production | ||
| Write is Might: Making Documentation Your Friend | Graeme Davis | Production | ||
| Commencing the Developer/Publisher Relationship: Experiences in Pitching Summoner | Mike Kulas | Business & Legal | ||
| European Market Opportunities | Torsten Oppermann | Business & Legal | ||
| Internet Business Models: New Options for Game Developers | Scott Draker | Business & Legal | ||
| Localizing for Japan: Wildroid 9 Case Study | Stuart Roch | Business & Legal | ||
| The New Principles of Marketing | Christopher Ireland | Business & Legal | ||
| Publishers Speak! What it Really Takes to Land a Publishing Deal | Dan Rogers | Business & Legal | ||
| Taking the Mystery out of Starting Your Own Company | Stacy Hering Astor | Business & Legal | ||
| Working with Licensors | Louis Castle | Business & Legal | ||
| Your Ass, My Foot: Management Styles for the Next Century | Dave Timoney | Business & Legal | ||
| The Art and Science of Level Design | Cliff Bleszinski | Game Design | ||
| Children¹s Software: Past, Present and Future | Ken Kahn | Game Design | ||
| Designing Web-Based Games | Gary Rosenzweig | Game Design | ||
| Developing Software For Girls | Jesyca Durchin | Game Design | ||
| Eurostylin¹: An American Game Designer in Europe | Ernest Adams | Game Design | ||
| Everything But the Words: A Dramatic Writing Primer for Gamers | Hal Barwood | Game Design | ||
| The Future of Strategy Games | Phil Steinmeyer | Game Design | ||
| Game Character Creation | Paul Douglas, Toby Gard | Game Design | ||
| Heat into Light: Community Generating Conflict in Online Multiplayer Games | Jonathan Baron | Game Design | ||
| The In-Game Economics of Ultima Online | Zack Simpson | Game Design | ||
| Interactive Toys: The Child as Programmer | Jonathon Ackley, Mike Dooley | Game Design | ||
| Level Designers Brainstorm | David Chang | Game Design | ||
| The Many Face of a Winning Design Team: Which Face is Yours? | Larry Hodgson | Game Design | ||
| Metagames | Richard Garfield | Game Design | ||
| Mostly Armless: Grabbing the 3D World | David Rees | Game Design | ||
| Myth Adventures: How Games, Myth and Movies Team Up on the Path of Heroes | Christopher Vogler | Game Design | ||
| Puzzle Game Design | Scott Kim, Alexey Pajitnov | Game Design | ||
| The “Rules” Of Making Massively Multiplayer Persistent Worlds | Raph Koster, Rich Vogel | Game Design | ||
| Smart Toys: Benefits of Technology-Enhanced Play | Amy Francetic, Helen Shwe | Game Design | ||
| Storytelling in Action | Bob Bates | Game Design |
It included a “Microsoft DirectX Developer Day” on the 8th of March held by Microsoft who presented multiple lectures explaining how to use the new functions of the DirectX 8 SDK. The knowledge about DirectX 8 was so cutting-edge that it required a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to be signed to even attend 8! But you would walk out not just having the knowledge of DirectX 8 but also an early build exclusive to atendees.
It began with a speech by Chris Jones, about the current state and future of Windows games. Next, Brian Moran, program manager of the company’s Windows Division, held a session on precautions in the production of Windows 2000 compatible game software.
The lectures prepared at Microsoft DirectX Developer Day are divided into three areas:
There were 5 lectures for 1 hour in each field, so a total of 15 sessions were held.
From the original website it looks like the sessions were roughly the following:
Note that although we don’t have much details on the contents of each of the talks, there is a physical Binder available at the Museum of Play: Microsoft DirectX Developer Day binder, 2000 - The Strong
Electric Playground is a Canadian television show and digital media platform focused on video games, technology, and the gaming industry.
They had a whole episode where they visted the 2001 Game Developer’s Conference which you can watch on youtube below:
The sessions that we know about are listed in the table below:
| Title | Presenter | Track | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| “1,500 Archers on a 28.8: Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond” | Bettner, Terrano | Programming | |
| Advanced Character Physics | Jakobsen | Programming | |
| Anybody Seen that Transform Node? Strategies to Better Link Animation Data in Games | Engel | Programming | |
| The Basics of Team AI | Gibson, O’Brien | Programming | |
| Bringing Dr. Jones to the Infernal Machine — Dealing with Memory Constraints | Sauer | Programming | |
| BSP Collision Detection As Used In MDK2 and NeverWinter Nights | Melax | Programming | |
| Camera Techniques for Complex Environments | James | Programming | |
| Creature Smarts: The Art and Architecture of a Virtual Brain | Burke, Isla | Programming | |
| Experiences in Programming Maya 3.0 | Giberson | Programming | |
| FuBi: Automatic Function Exporting for Scripting and Networking | Bilas | Programming | |
| Game Boy Advance Resource Managment | Baptista | Programming | |
| Implementing Multicolored Volumetric Fog without Using Up Texture Stages | Arevalo, Baeza | Programming | |
| Latency Compensating Methods in Client/Server In-game Protocol Design and Optimization | Bernier | Programming | |
| Lessons Learned from a Year with Xbox | Abrash | Programming | |
| Linux in Game Development | Strauss, Kreimeier, Vance, Packard, Lantinga | Programming | Tutorial Content |
| Optimization Techniques for Hardware Transformation and Lighting Pipelines | Ratcliff | Programming | |
| Practical Implementation Techniques for Multiresolution Subdivision Surfaces | Brickhill | Programming | |
| Procedural Rendering on PlayStation 2 | Green | Programming | Content |
| Proximity Queries and Penetration Depth Computations on 3D Game Objects | van den Bergen | Programming | |
| Real-Time Full Scene Antialiasing for PCs and Consoles | Mitchell | Programming | |
| Real-Time Photorealism via Procedural Shaders | Baker, Boyd | Programming | |
| Real-Time Photorealistic Terrain Lighting | Hoffman, Mitchell | Programming | |
| Real-Time Shadows | Haines, Moller | Programming | |
| A Robot Soccer Simulator: A Case Study for Rigid-Body Contact | Larsen | Programming | |
| Shading Languages for Graphics Hardware | Mark, Proudfoot | Programming | |
| Simulation Level-Of-Detail and Culling | Chenney | Programming | |
| Stable Rigid-Body Physics | Rhodes | Programming | |
| Technology Five Years from Now | Braben | Programming | |
| Terrain Reasoning for 3D Action Games | van der Sterren | Programming | |
| Using Windows To Create Palm Games | Magerkurth | Programming | Audio |
| What Happened to My Colors? Displaying Console Computer Graphics on a Television | Dawson | Programming | |
| Designing for the Internet Gamer | Gordon | Business & Legal | Keynote |
| Financing a Game Development Company in Today’s Market | Foster, Karlov, Kay, Thoma | Business & Legal | |
| Fun and Games in the Online Medium: Insights from the World’s Largest Online Service | MacLean, Mills, Opas | Business & Legal | Panel |
| Getting to the Next Level: All the Cheats on Employee Nirvana | Hering Astor, Rose | Business & Legal | |
| “How to Market in Korea: Small Country, Large Market for PC Games” | Park | Business & Legal | |
| Independent Development and Publishing: Case Study | Quirk | Business & Legal | |
| Publisher Contracts That Protect Your Title and Team | Powell | Business & Legal | |
| Publishers Speak | Rogers | Business & Legal | |
| Why Cheating Matters | Davis | Business & Legal | |
| “Baldur’s Gate II and Sequels: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” | Muzyka | Production | |
| Console Development Crash Course | Taylor | Production | |
| Designing Your Company Culture: Westwood Studios over 15 Years | Castle | Production | |
| Don’t Ship it Yet: Why You Need Hardcore QA | Bryant | Production | |
| Effective Project Management | Angle, Dwyer | Production | |
| How to Kill Feature Creep Without Ever Saying No | Crabtree | Production | |
| Leveraging Middleware | Wofford | Production | |
| “Maintaining Your Budget by Organizing, Defining Milestones and Staying on Schedule” | Daglow | Production | |
| “Managing 40,000 Assets per Game (Hey, Where’d it Go? It was Just Here!)” | Marselas | Production | |
| The Mysteries of Multiplatform: Developing on Console and PC | Falkner, Zeschuk | Production | |
| The Architecture of Level Design | Brown, Chen | Level Design | |
| Content Acquisition for Levels in The Getaway: London Wasn’t Built in a Day | Coates | Level Design | |
| Current Architecture and Potential Approaches to Level Design | Brown | Level Design | |
| A Better Understanding of Audio and the Technical Design Process | Hubbard | Audio | |
| Beyond the Library: Applying Film Post-Production Techniques to Game Sound Design | Peck | Audio | |
| Diablo II Case Study | Uelmen | Audio | |
| Implementing an Audio Engine Using DirectX 8 | Geist | Audio | |
| Interactive Music Sequencer Design | Patterson | Audio | |
| The 12 Principles of Classic Character Animation | Kerlow | Visual Arts | |
| Aesthetics Beyond Techology: Nonphotorealistic Rendering Art Styles | Snyder | Visual Arts | |
| Art Creation for a PlayStation 2 Launch Title - The Ups and Downs of Summoner | Pletcher | Visual Arts | |
| Art Management for Artists | Oglesby | Visual Arts | Roundtable |
| Conceptual Design: Understanding and Communicating Form | Saunders | Visual Arts | |
| Dealing with Artistic Limitations as a 3D Game Artist. PC vs. Consoles | Isaac | Visual Arts | |
| Exorcising Satan’s Rotoscope: Motion Capture from an Animator’s Perspective | Stripinis | Visual Arts | |
| From PC to TV | Nichols | Visual Arts | |
| Questions Artists Should Ask Programmers | Lubken | Visual Arts | |
| Realistic Inverse Kinematics: Set-Up and Techniques | Coven | Visual Arts | |
| Scripting for Artists | Versluis | Visual Arts | |
| Taking the Mental out of Environmental: Building a Beautiful World Without Going Crazy | Duvall | Visual Arts | |
| That Extra Dimension: Differences in Thinking Between 2D and 3D Animators | Bradrick | Visual Arts | |
| Tools of the Trade: The Changing Nature of Design Tools | Barry | Visual Arts | |
| Fusing Traditional Computer Graphics with Game Development: ACM SIGGRAPH’s Outreach to the Game Developer Community | Scott Owen, Theresa-Marie Rhyne, Alyn Rockwood | IGDA | |
| “The Demo Scene, an Introduction” | Foo, Vincent Scheib | Special Session | |
| AI in Computer Games: AI for Beginners Discussion | Dybsand, Kirby, Woodcock | Game Design | Roundtable |
| AI Roundtable Report | Woodcock | Game Design | Roundtable |
| Analyzing and Learning from Great Games | Falstein | Game Design | Tutorial |
| Applying Behavioral Psychology to Game Design | Tucker | Game Design | |
| Creating Emotional Involvement in Interactive Entertainment | Barrett | Game Design | Roundtable |
| Designing Interactive Theme Park Rides: Lessons Learned Creating Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Buccaneer Gold | Schell, Shochet | Game Design | |
| Designing Mobile Games for WAP | Seppanen | Game Design | |
| Designing Web Games that Make Business Sense | Kim | Game Design | |
| Shockwave Tutorial: Building Web Games in Flash | Kim | Game Design | Tutorial |
| How to Balance a Real-Time Strategy Game: Lessons from the Age of Empires Series | Kidd, Petersen, Street | Game Design | |
| Interaction Design for Immersive Public Entertainment Spaces | Kaufman, Kline | Game Design | |
| Oddfellows: Character Design the Oddworld Way | O’Connor, Ulm, Varahramyan | Game Design | Panel |
| Principles for Designing Successful Games | Shelley | Game Design | |
| Story: Writing Skills for Game Developers | Bates | Game Design | |
| Using Video Input for Games | Marks | Game Design |
There was a special session that didn’t appear in the conference proceedings book which was presented by Vincent Scheib and another unknown author simply known as Foo (surname or programming joke?). It is unclear if this session actually took place, it was listen on the GDC Website: Game Developers Conference - Archives - 2001- Special Sessions Proceedings with a Word document that was never backed up the the Wayback Machine.
This may be the same session also presented by Scheib at SIGGRAPH 2002 called The Demo Scene.
If this session did take place, it is a great example of game developers reaching out to the hobbiest Demoscene for very talented graphics programmers.
An American TV show called Extended Play had some brief coverage of GDC 2002 which is available to watch below:
There is also coverage on the GameDev.net archive, which has everything from lectures to “booth babes”: Inside the 2002 Game Developers Conference
There was a CD produced that had 65 papers and presentations from the 2002 Game Developers Conference on one CD-ROM.
The sessions that we know about are listed in the table below:
| Title | Presenter | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Art Direction: The Employee, the Critique and the Axe | Reid | |
| Creating Characters with Dimension and Depth | Bates | |
| Effective Team Communication | Kelley | |
| Game Audio Network Guild Panel | ||
| Hardware-Accelerated Procedural Texture Animation | James | |
| How to Get Positive Coverage for Your Company | Bohle | |
| My Adventures With Inverse Kinematics | Hecker | |
| Optimizing Memory Bandwidth | Wall | |
| Scripting for Artists: Beyond the Basics | Versluis | |
| Why We Shouldn’t Make Games | Adams | |
| American Mc Gee’s Alice a Postmorten: Lessons Learned | Mc Gee | |
| Art Directors Panel | Herring, Lubken, Lum, Mauk & Petty | |
| Battling Level Design in Hardcore Genres for a Casual Audience | Longo | |
| Episodic Entertainment: Viva-La Evolution | Young | |
| Hardcore Character Modeling and Animation | Steed | |
| Mobile Phone Games: Where Are They Now and Where Are They Going? | Baverstock | |
| Of Internet Servers and SQL Databases:Designing the Backend for Power and Performance | Hallenberg | |
| Parappa 2 and Vib Ribbon 2: Conflicts and Problems in Creating Sequels | Matsuura | |
| Rainbow Connection | DeSimmone & Lapin | |
| Taming a Wild River: 3D Fluid Simulation | Lander | |
| The Complete 5.1 Audio Experience for Video Games Panel | Allen, Kirschner, Staats & Tallarico | |
| The Visual Engineering of SSX | Rayner | |
| Xbox Launch: Lessons Learned | Isensee | |
| Sony Computer Entertainment Research & Development | Okamoto | |
| Crossing Over to Film and Back Again | Chan | |
| Genre Specific World Building Methodology in SSX & SSX Tricky | Karolic | |
| Global IP Protection and Anti-Piracy Techniques | Chapin | |
| How to Manage a Large-Scale Online Gaming Community | Koster, Vogel | |
| Maintaining an Edge in this Increasingly Competitive Field | Schmidt | |
| Preproduction | Spector | |
| Pros and Cons of the Organic Design Process | Carter | |
| Real-Time Cloud Rendering for Games | Harris | |
| Real-Time Strategy Game Balance | Browder | |
| Social Activities: Implementing Wittgenstein | Barnet-Lamb & Evans | |
| Using a Webcam as a Game Controller | Blow | |
| What Worked: 10 Detailed Examples of Successful Character Action Design | Cerny | |
| “The More Things Change…” | Colcord | |
| Character Animation for Videogames | Friedman | |
| Creating Great Games Within a Large Organization | Goodman | |
| In-Game Special Effects and Lighting | Arce & Wloka | |
| Innovation on Demand | Bachus | |
| Quality or Death: How the Business Model and Player Psychology Collide in For-Pay Online Games | Todd | |
| Realistic Deformation | O’Brien | |
| The Hook(s) of the Game | Perry | |
| The Player With a Thousand Faces: Measuring Fun and Adapting Difficulty | Arey & Wells | |
| UI Case Study: This is Football 2002 | Hamilton & Ranyard | |
| Virtually Limitless: Virtual Memory on Nintendo GameCube | Engel | |
| A Data-Driven Game Object System | Bilas | |
| Beyond Psychological Theory: Getting Data that Improves Games | Fulton | |
| How to Organize and Run an IGDA Chapter | Meretzky | |
| Image-Based Rendering for Computer Games | Chen & Grzeszczuk | |
| Manhattan as Muse: New York City as a Conceptual Tool | Brown | |
| Nintendo GameCube Programming 101 | Ravanpey & Treglia | |
| Redefining the Business of Game Development | Newell | |
| Rez: The Synesthesia that Games Invite | Mizuguchi | |
| The Necessity of Character Design in Game Development | Rafei | |
| The Power of the High Pass Filter | Hajba | |
| Using a Live Orchestra in Game Soundtracks | Giacchino, Soule, Tallarico, Thomas & Wall | |
| Vector Units and Quaternions | VanVerth | |
| Academia and Video Games: How to Build and Maintain a Relationship Between Two Different Worlds | Buchanan | |
| Incredibly Dense Meshes | Brickhill | |
| Interviewing Techniques | Baker | |
| Kids Communities: What Works, What Doesn’t | Schell & Shochet | |
| Level Design in an Outdoor Environment | Leonard | |
| Online Anarchy: Massively Multiplayer from a Design and Architectural Point of View | Strand | |
| Stories You Can’t Tell | Crawford | |
| The Employment Lifecycle: Your Best Investment | Longoria | |
| The Physics that Brought Cel Damage to Life: A Case Study | Wu | |
| The Role of Technical Director at LucasArts | Brew | |
| Xbox Audio | Selfon | |
| 22 Secrets for Creating Realistic Dialogue and Scene Flow | Freeman | |
| Afterthoughts - The Audio of Star Wars: Rogue Leader | Engel | |
| Another Five Years from Now: Future Technologies | Braben | |
| Fur Using Shells and Fins | Lengyel | |
| Games with Collectible Components | Garfield | |
| IGDA Whitepaper on Online Games | Estanislao, Ford, Jarett, MacLean, Vechey, Walton, Welch | |
| In-Depth 3D Exporter Design and Implementation | Muratori | |
| Intellectual Property: The Current Game of Swords and Shields | Rubin | |
| Modern Techniques in Creating Tile-Based Graphics for Game Boy Advance | Bala | |
| Next Generation Console Development and Production in the Global Market: Opportunities and Challenges | Yoshida | |
| Systemic Level Design for Emergent Gameplay | Smith | |
| The Making of Shrek | Walker | |
| When Maps Collide: A Conversation with Will Wright and Scott McCloud | Mcloud & Wright Adapting Cinematic Filmscores For Games | Abernethy & Adams |
| Advancing a Franchise Through Design | Yamauchi | |
| Defense Against Service Theft, Internet Cheating and Denial of Service | Gray Digital Imagery and Level Design | Maatta |
| Game Scripting in Python | Dawson | |
| Modeling Lush and Expansive External Environments | Dixon & Lovett | |
| Negotiating Contracts: Getting Developers What They Need While Giving Publishers What They Want | Camps | |
| PlayStation 2 Geometry Transform and Clipping Using Vector Unit Microprogramming | Hughes | |
| Rendering Outdoor Light Scattering in Real-Time | Hoffman & Preetham | |
| Toss it in the Blender: Non Linear Animation for Games | Theodore | |
| Tracking Assets in the Production of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within | Kawai | |
| Cinematic Lighting for 3D Graphics | Birn | |
| Dynamic Range in Games: An Overview for Sound Creators | Hays | |
| Examining the Production Process for the No One Lives Forever Franchise | Ryan | |
| High Dynamic Range Imagery and Image-Based Lighting | Debevec | |
| Maximizing DMA Bandwidth on the PlayStation 2 | Omi | |
| More of the 400: Discovering Design Rules | Barwood & Falstein | |
| Online Game Design for Mobile Phones | Imai & Shimizu | |
| Realistic Expectations in Developer/Publisher Relations | Blackman, Frisina, Goodman, Keighley, Moulder, Raffel & Wilbur | |
| State Based System of Animation: Artfully Blending Animation with AI | Hirschmann & Thankamushy | |
| The Relationship Between Background and Interface Design Procedures in Video Game Development | Nagoshi | |
| This is Not a Game: A Discussion on the Creation of the AI Web Experience | Lee & Weisman | |
| Building a Third-Generation Online Persistant World Game | Koster, Lawrence, Mulligan & Walton | |
| Complexity Demons: They’re All Around Us | Leker | |
| Console Audio Panel | Engel, Schmidt & Vawter | |
| Distributed Area Lighting | Boyd | |
| Flight Simulator X-Plane - A Postmortem: Profiting on the Web | Meyer | |
| Getting Cinematic Quality from In-Game Cutscenes without a Hollywood Budget | Hancock | |
| Inverse Kinematics: Setup and Techniques | Coven | |
| Level-of-Detail Rigid Body Physics | Golding | |
| Sound Propagation in 3D Environments | Carollo | |
| Startup Horror Stories | Morten | |
| Business and Creative Aspects of Sequels | Muzyka, Smith, Smith, Spector & Zeschuk | |
| Creating Stars and Planets in Earth and Beyond | Wang | |
| Fundamentals of Lighting and Perception: The Rendering of Physically Accurate Images | Dutre, Pattanaik & Yee | |
| Game Boy Advance Networking | Mataga | |
| Multi-Scale Community Design for Games | Kim | |
| Publishers Speak 2002: What it Really Takes to Get a Publishing Deal | Rogers & Summers | |
| Seaman: Creating an Eccentric Title | Saito | |
| So Many Polys, So Little Time: Modeling and Texturing Rogue Leader | Hoppe,Topolos&Wagner | |
| Staying on Time and on Budget: Processes, Milestones and Schedules | Daglow | |
| The Audio Production for Halo | O’Donnell | |
| Cloth Simulation in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within for PlayStation 2 | Banel | |
| Design Fundamentals of Stealth Gameplay in the Thief Series | Smith | |
| Fun and Games | Conway | |
| Creating the Illusion of Intelligence: Where AI and Level Design Overlap in Halo’s AI | Butcher & Griesemer | |
| Moving to Multiple Projects | Muzyka & Zeschuk | |
| MultiStream: Design and Implementation | Page | |
| Storytelling in the Online Medium | Koster & Vogel | |
| The Quest for Pure Motion Capture | Washburn | |
| Two Dozen Ways to Screw Up a Perfectly Good Project | Rohrl | |
| Venture Capital Bootcamp for Game Startups | Long | |
| 3D Performance and Optimizations for the ARM Architecture | Kolli | Slides |
| Action-Based Discretization for AI Search | Neller | |
| Building a Data-Driven Game Engine: A Case Study from Age of Mythology | Fermier | |
| Creating 3D Assets that Perform Well on 3D Hardware | Penttinen | |
| Game Audio Production: Process and Strategy | Bajakian | |
| Know Your Audience: Writing Design Documents That Get Read | Upton | |
| Managing Large-Volume Text Translations in Computer Games | Christou & Moar | |
| May Time Be with You: Level Designing Rogue Leader | Chen & Klie | |
| The Cultural Study of Games: More than Just Games | Southern | |
| The Secret Of Psalm 46 | Moriarty | |
| Creating Useful Technical Design Documents | Taylor | |
| Enter the Dragon: The Chinese Game Industry | Ye | |
| Negotiating the Best Deal Possible | Powell | |
| Polygon Soup for the Programmer’s Soul: 3D Pathfinding | Hjelstrom & Smith | |
| Race Against Time: How to Build a Driving Game | Gabell | |
| Real-Time Hatching | Cebenoyan, Domine & Rege | |
| Supporting Scalability as Artists | Bradley, Burke & Seitz | |
| The Evolution of the Fantasy Role: Playing Genre using Project Ego as an Example | Molyneux | |
| Why They Won’t Let You Make Great Online Games | Baron |
The sessions that we know about are listed in the table below:
| Title | Presenter | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Great Reasons You Don’t Want to Make a Massively Multiplayer Game! | Gordon Walton | Business and Legal |
| 20/20 Design Vision | Andrew Leker (Electrified Games, Inc.) | Game Design |
| 34 Ways to Create Emotions in Games | David Freeman | Game Design |
| A Review of Current and Future Animation Issues | Paul Steed | Visual Arts |
| A Review of Funding Models for the Independent Developer and Their Impli… | Jeff Hilbert | Business and Legal |
| Advanced Real-Time Illumination Techniques | Nathaniel Hoffman | Programming |
| Advanced Techniques in Creating Tile-Based Graphics for GameBoy Advance | Karthik Bala | Visual Arts |
| Animation Blending: Achieving Inverse Kinematics and More | Programming | |
| Animation System Implementation: What Works and What Doesn’t | Jake Simpson | Programming |
| Applying the Lessons Learned from Korea and Lineage to Today’s and Tomorrow’s Online Games | Business and Legal | |
| Art Directors Panel: Aesthetics and the Almighty Dollar | Cyrus Lum | Visual Arts |
| Audio Programming for Very Large Projects | David Ranyard (Sony) | Audio |
| Aural Subjectivity: A Personal Perspective | Audio | |
| Automated Testing of Massively Multiplayer Games: Lessons Learned from The Sims Online | Larry Mellon | Programming |
| Beyond Bouncing Boxes: The Physics of Things That Bend and Break | John O’Brien | Programming |
| Bossy Behavior: Patterns and Techniques in Boss Design | Luis Barriga | Game Design |
| Breaking the Rules of a Game | Katie Salen | Game Design |
| Building AI Sensory Systems | Tom Leonard | Programming |
| Building An Object System: Features, Tradeoffs, and Pitfalls | Programming | |
| Casual Games Panel | John Vechey (PopCap Games) | Game Design |
| Character Rigging and Animation: Parts 1 & 2 | Martin Coven | Visual Arts |
| Completion Bonding for Game Development Projects | Business and Legal | |
| Composing, Producing and Implementing an Interactive Music Soundtrack for a Video Game | Chuck Doud | Audio |
| Control Where it Belongs: Latest Generation Audio Development for Xbox | Scott Selfon (Microsoft) | Audio |
| Crack Character Creation: The Mad Puffer Fish Panel | Scott Campbell | Visual Arts |
| Creating a Cinematic Game Experience | Game Design | |
| Creating Aesthetic 3D Organic Volumes and Using the Right Tools for the Project | Visual Arts | |
| Creating Character Models: A Review of Current Techniques | Stefan Henry-Biskup | Visual Arts |
| Creating the Worlds of Dungeon Siege | Game Design | |
| Custom STL Memory Allocators | Programming | |
| Deathmatch: Ted Price vs. Jason Rubin | Ted Price (Insomniac Games) | Game Design |
| Design With Music In Mind: Integrating an Immersive Game Score With Your… | Guy Whitmore (PopCap) | Audio |
| Designing a Portable Shader Library for Current and Future APIs | Alex Vlachos (Valve) | Programming |
| Designing a Ratchet & Clank Level | Brian Allgeier | Game Design |
| Designing Original Games Based on Licensed Properties | Chris Charla (Microsoft Game Studios) | Game Design |
| Designing Power-Ups for Action Games: Parts 1 & 2 | Randy Smith | Game Design |
| Developing Wireless Games: From Idea to the Marketplace | Oliver Miao (Pixelberry Studios) | Business and Legal |
| Displacement Mapping | Tom Forsyth | Programming |
| Does Melody Matter? | Rod Abernethy (Rednote Audio) | Audio |
| Doing Business with the Telecom Industry: Understanding their Deal Terms… | Dan Scherlis (Sonamine) | Business and Legal |
| Dynamics for Designers | Will Wright (Stupid Fun Club) | Game Design |
| Enabling Data Driven Design Tuning via Existing Tools | Programming | |
| Episodic Content: Here, Now & Next Month Too | Chris Foster (Harmonix Music Systems) | Game Design |
| Exploring the Fringes: Interactive Entertainment for the 21st Century | Ernest Adams (International Hobo) | Game Design |
| Extreme Character Rigging: When Less is More | Steve Theodore (Undead Labs) | Visual Arts |
| Facial Animation For Game Characters | Visual Arts | |
| Fast Proximity Queries for Large Game Environments | Ming Lin | Programming |
| FilmGame: Adapting Lord of the Rings | Neil Young | Game Design |
| Findings of IGDA’s 2002/2003 Online Games Whitepaper | Jeferson Valadares (Playfish) | IGDA |
| Five Physics Simulators for a Human Body | Chris Hecker | Programming |
| Fooling All of the People All of the Time | Bill Kroyer | Visual Arts |
| Frame Buffer Postprocessing Effects in DOUBLE-S.T.E.A.L (Wreckless): Par… | Programming | |
| Freedom of Expression: Dealing with the Threat of Censorship | Jason Della Rocca | IGDA |
| Game Audio : Coding Vs. Aesthetics | Leonard Paul | Audio |
| Game Design Patterns | Game Design | |
| Geometric Algebra: The Framework for Geometric Computations | Programming | |
| Geometric Modeling of Sound Propagation | Audio | |
| Going Global: Effective Strategies for Protecting Intellectual Property … | Business and Legal | |
| Great Game Graphics… Who Cares? | Jason Rubin (Naughty Dog) | Game Design |
| Halo: Development Evolved | Marty O’Donnell (Bungie) | Game Design |
| Hardware Shaders for the Artist | John Versluis | Visual Arts |
| High Dynamic Range Imagery and Image-Based Lighting | Programming | |
| Highly Detailed Continuous Worlds: Streaming Game Resources From Slow M… | Programming | |
| How to Build a Better Cutscene | Visual Arts | |
| How to Make Your Game Successful in Japan | Rio Hasegawa (Sony) | Game Design |
| How to Mix Discrete Surround Sound for PlayStation 2 | Jason Page (SCEE R&D) | Audio |
| How to Take Your Mobile Game to Market | John Chasey (FinBlade Ltd) | Business and Legal |
| How to Write Good “Bad Dialogue”: Cramming Storytelling Into an Action Game | Ryan Kaufman (Telltale Games) | Game Design |
| Interactive Mixing | Scott Gershin (Soundelux Design Music Group) | Audio |
| Korea, Where Multiplayer Gaming is King | Won Il Sue | Business and Legal |
| Little to Big: What Changes? | Frederick Brooks, Jr. | Programming |
| Living in a Procedural World: Growing a Virtual Forest | Programming | |
| Making Games More Fun: Methods for Playtesting Games | Bill Fulton | Game Design |
| Making Sound Designers Independent: Techniques to Integrate Audio into G… | Programming | |
| Memory Optimization | Christer Ericson | Programming |
| Mobile Games: Japan and the Future | David Collier | Business and Legal |
| Negotiating the Best Deal Possible | Jay Powell | Business and Legal |
| Neverwinter Nights Client/Server Postmortem | Mark Brockington | Programming |
| Old School: Arcade Games in the Golden Age | Mark Cerny | Game Design |
| On All Levels | Dustin Browder (Blizzard) | Game Design |
| Optimized Stenciled Shadow Volumes | Cass Everitt | Programming |
| Orthogonal Unit Design | Harvey Smith | Game Design |
| Pathematics: Routing for Autonomous Agents | Alex Champandard (AiGameDev.com) | Programming |
| PC to Console: Bringing Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast to Xbox a… | Karthik Bala | Game Design |
| Physics and Animation, Blending Kinetics and Kinematics in a 3rd Person … | David Wu | Programming |
| Physics-Based Synthesis of Sound Effects | Audio | |
| Porting a PlayStation 2-Centric Game to the Xbox: A Case Study of State … | Programming | |
| Preserving the Past - The Panel | Greg Costikyan | IGDA |
| Producing Orchestral Scores for Games | Daniel Irish (Threewave Software) | Audio |
| Product Success in Online Software Distribution | John Vechey (PopCap Games) | Business and Legal |
| Profiling the Female Gamer: A Look at How She Buys and Plays | Clarinda Merripen (Cryptic Studios | Game Design |
| Proven Strategies for Self-Publishing on the Internet: Real-Life Storie… | John Vechey (PopCap Games) | Business and Legal |
| Real-Time Fluid Dynamics for Games | Programming | |
| Relinquishing Control: Giving Programmers Control of Your Animation Assets | David Stripinis | Visual Arts |
| Representational AI Planning Techniques | Programming | |
| Reputation Systems: Saving Your Service | Game Design | |
| Sandbox Strategy Learning in Sports Games | Programming | |
| Scaling the Software Development Process: Lessons Learned From The Sims … | Larry Mellon | Programming |
| Sequels and Adaptations: Design Innovation in a Risk-Averse World | Warren Spector (Ion Storm) | Game Design |
| Show Me The Money! Revenue Models for Massively Multiplayer Online Games | Brian Green | Business and Legal |
| Simulation and Animation with Hardware-Accelerated Procedural Textures | Mark Harris (NVIDIA) | Programming |
| Small Worlds: Competitive and Cooperative Structures in Online Worlds | Raph Koster | Game Design |
| Smartly Define and Use Your Audio Budget | Audio | |
| SOCOM: Bringing a Console Game Online | Game Design | |
| Spherical Harmonic Lighting: The Gritty Details | Robin Green (Microsoft) | Programming |
| Squeezing Every Last Drop Out of the PlayStation 2 | Programming | |
| State of the Art: Building 3D Environments and Models Review Panel | Chris Williams (PlayFirst) | Visual Arts |
| Stepping Away From the Pack: Resources and Methods for Developing Art St… | David Rose (Neversoft) | Visual Arts |
| Story and Gameplay Are One | Jesse Schell | Game Design |
| Story Summit | Patricia Pizer | Game Design |
| Temptation and Consequence: Dilemmas in Videogames | Steve Bocska (Pug Pharm Productions Inc. | Game Design |
| The 12 Principles of Traditional Character Animation Applied to 3D Compu… | Visual Arts | |
| The Continuous World of Dungeon Siege | Scott Bilas | Programming |
| The Good and the Bad: A Second Chance | Peter Molyneux (Lionhead Studios) | Game Design |
| The Intellectual Property Realm: New Challenges for the Developer | Stephen Rubin (Law Office of Stephen Rubin) | Business and Legal |
| The Puzzlemaker’s Survival Kit: Principles, Case Studies and Design Process | Scott Kim | Game Design |
| The Seven Secrets of Voiceover Production | Audio | |
| The Social Significance of Games: Killing our Monsters | IGDA | |
| The Technology of Jak & Daxter: Our Techniques for Realizing a Massively… | Stephen White | Programming |
| Three Great Mobile Games | Matthew Bellows | Game Design |
| Toward Massively Responsive Conversations | Sheldon Pacotti | Game Design |
| Towards Building a Fully Realized Interactive Drama | Andrew Stern | Game Design |
| U.S. Immigration Issues for Game Developers | Business and Legal | |
| What It Takes To Run a Successful Game Studio | Todd Hollenshead (ID SOFTWARE) | Business and Legal |
| When the Site Hits the Fan: Wrangling Community Fansites | Elonka Dunin | Business and Legal |
The 2004 Game Developers Conference had the theme “Evolve”, emphasizing the industry’s shift towards middleware and robust production processes. The dominance of licensed titles and sequels was noted, with Dave Perry discussing these trends in his keynote.
A session on building big licensed games highlighted the industry’s evolution from smaller teams to larger projects with 25 to 75 people and budgets ranging from $3 to $40 million. The need for well-organized processes and formal development procedures was emphasized, posing a non-technical challenge of integrating these without stifling creativity.
GDC 2004 highlights included:
Many of these sessions are freely available on the GDC Vault however bare in mind some of the meta data such as presenters are incorrect on their site and we have a cleaned up version in the table below:
| Title | Presenter | Track | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Port” is a Four-Letter Word: The Challenges of Redesigning The Sims fo… | Michael Perry (Electronic Arts, Inc.) | Game Design | |
| 10 Tricks from Psychology for Making Better Characters | Katherine Isbister | Game Design | |
| 14 Ways of Drawing Players in with an Opening Cinematic | David Freeman | Game Design | |
| Island Thunder and Raven Shield : Creating Believable Stories for Realistic Games | Richard Dansky (Red Storm Entertainment/Ubisoft) | Game Design | |
| Republic : Lessons Learned | Dave Dixon | Production | |
| The Hobbit : A Case Study | Christopher Michael | Audio | |
| Wallace and Gromit in Project Zoo: A Postmortem of a Licensed, Cross-Platform Game | Warren Kruse | Production | |
| A Candid Look at the Issues and Rewards of Bleeding Edge Engine Development | Tom Peltier | Programming | |
| A Peek Behind the Shoji: Japan’s Videogame Market Today | Rio Hasegawa (Sony Computer Entertainment Japan) | Game Design | |
| A Road Map for Peace: Redefining the Publisher-Developer Relationship | Joe Minton | Business and Legal | |
| Accurate Prediction and Other Organizational Myths | Starr Long | Production | |
| Acting for Animators | Douglas Conorich | Visual Arts | |
| Adding Spherical Harmonic Lighting to the Sushi Engine | Leander Hasty | Programming | |
| Advanced Real-Time Reflectance | Thomas Peltier | Programming | |
| Adventures in Character Design | Tim Schafer | Game Design | |
| AI and Design: How AI Enables Designers | Rishi Bhattacharya | Programming | |
| AI: Gameplay & Design: A Marriage of Heaven or Hell? | Michael Corby | Programming | |
| Anatomy of a 2D Side-Scroller | Michael Rasmussen | Game Design | |
| Artificial Potential Fields for the Control of Navigation and Animation | Paula Moore | Programming | |
| Artist Management in a Small Games Company | Production | ||
| ArtModJam | Seth Fogie | Game Design | |
| Audio Asset Management for Large Projects | David Chan (Hinterland Studios) | Audio | |
| Audio Director to the Rescue | Andrew Boyd | Audio | |
| Audio for Mobile Panel | James Doyle | Audio | |
| Automation Recipes: Automation Ideas to Save Project Time and Money | Jennifer Boespflug | Production | |
| Behavioral Game Design | John Hopson (Bungie Inc.) | Audio | |
| Beyond Finite State Machines: Managing Complex, Intermixing Behavior Hierarchies | Joseph W. Popinski III | Programming | |
| Beyond Fun: Setting Aesthetic Goals and Sticking toThem | Tim Stellmach (Harmonix) | Game Design | |
| Building a Million Particle System | Cheryl Jackson | Programming | |
| Building Big Licensed Games with Big Teams | Don Daglow (Daglow Entertainment LLC) | Production | |
| Building Value in Your Company: One Small Studio’s Approach | Business and Legal | ||
| Character Rigger’s Cookbook | Steve Theodore (Undead Labs) | Visual Arts | |
| Common C++ Performance Mistakes in Games | Pete Isensee | Programming | Xbox |
| Creating Water and Fluid Effects For Video Games | Cyrus Peikari | Visual Arts | |
| Creating a Monster RPG: The Light and the Dark Side of Development on St… | William Murray | Production | |
| Creating the Right Mix of Static Versus Dynamic Content in a Massively… | Scott Anderson | Game Design | |
| Cross Platform User Interface Development | Tim Stellmach (Harmonix) | Game Design | |
| Cross-Platform Audio Using Interactive XMF | Jessica Bayliss | Audio | |
| Deferred Shading on DX9 Class Hardware and the Xbox | Matt Pritchard | Programming | |
| Designing an Interactive Music System | Jason Booth (Harmonix Music Systems) | Audio | |
| Designing Games for Coin-Op and Internet Gambling | Game Design | ||
| Destruction on a Diet | Paul Lindberg | Programming | |
| Developing and Mastering 36 Different Sku’s of One Title Simultaneously for the PS2 & Xbox | Michael Corby | Production | |
| Developing Wireless Location-Based Games | Programming | ||
| Digital Painting, and The Narrowing Gap between Games and Film | Paula Moore | Visual Arts | |
| Doing Business with Europe: A Survivor’s Guide | Vincent Scheurer | Business and Legal | |
| Encouraging Innovation in Game Development | Rebecca Herold | General Interest | |
| Entering the World: Cognitive Dissonance and Immersion in Electronic Games | Hal Barwood (Finite Arts) | Game Design | |
| Entertainment Experience First, Videogame Second: The Making of The Return of the King | Scott Baker | Game Design | |
| ESRB Explained: Behind the Ratings | Robert Richardson | IGDA | |
| Everything You Need to Know to Make Money in Coin-Op | Business and Legal | ||
| Experimental Gameplay Workshop | Daniel VanBelleghem | Game Design | |
| Fast Yet Realistic Deformation and Fracture | James O’Brien | Programming | |
| Follow The Money: Understanding Console Publishers | Business and Legal | ||
| Four at a Time: Techniques for Maximizing Enemy and Object Placement | Chris Cross | Game Design | |
| From Script to Joystick: World-Building 101 | Sharon Ruckman | Game Design | |
| From Visual Anti-Establishment to Ubiquity and Back | John_Gaeta | Visual Arts | |
| Game Design Challenge: The Love Story | David Lynas | Game Design | |
| Game Design Methods of ICO | Eamon Neary | Game Design | |
| Game Design: Risk and Return | Masahiro Sakurai (Sora Ltd.) | Game Design | |
| Game Development Modeling with 3ds Max | Fred Trickey | Visual Arts | |
| Game Mobility Requires Code Portability | Guido Henkel | Programming | |
| Game Narrative: What Would Aristotle Do? | Tim McCarthy | Game Design | |
| Game Prototyping with 3ds Max | Zoe Strickland | Visual Arts | |
| Game Soundtracks: Structuring Your Deal Like the Movies | Fred Tompkins | Audio | |
| GDC Programming Keynote: John Carmack | John Carmack (iD Software) | Programming | |
| Great Games in 50k: Three Addictive Mobile Phone Titles | Thomas Peltier | Game Design | |
| Growing a Dedicated Tools Programming Team: From Baldur’s Gate to S… | Production | ||
| Hi Res Modeling for Consoles in Maya | Wendi Rafferty | Visual Arts | |
| High Dynamic Range Lighting | John O’Leary | Programming | |
| How to Budget Audio: ‘What Am I Forgetting?’ | Terry Gudaitis | Audio | |
| How to Get More Coverage for Your Company and Titles | Sue Bohle | Business and Legal | |
| HR in the Studio | Business and Legal | ||
| IGDA Quality of Life White Paper Unveiling | Gregory Abrenio | IGDA | |
| Immigration for Foreign Games Professionals in the Age of Homeland Sec… | Kevin Kingdon | Business and Legal | |
| Industry & Government: Working Together | Rishi Bhattacharya | Business and Legal | |
| Integrating Physics into a Modern Game Engine | Rishi Bhattacharya | Programming | |
| Interfacing With Hollywood: Challenges and Opportunities | Harvey Smith | Business and Legal | |
| Jak’s Makeover for JakII : Why the Dramatic New Look for a Sequel? | Visual Arts | ||
| Learning by Design: Games as Learning Machines | Mark O’Neill | IGDA | |
| Lemke’s Algorithm, The Hammer In Your Math Toolbox? | Chris Hecker (Formerly Technology Fellow at Maxis) | Programming | |
| Light Scattering: Oh, that Looks Cool! Can we Have it in the Game, Real … | Derek Palmer | Programming | |
| Make Better Criticism: A Mature Form of Cultural Analysis | J.R. Reagan | IGDA | |
| Managing the Hydra: Successfully Running Multiple Projects in a Videog… | Michael Corby | Production | |
| Master Your Game’s Domain: Data-Driven Asset Management | Warren Kruse | Production | |
| Maya for Games - Tools & Pipelines in Maya | Matthew Luallen | Visual Arts | |
| Minefields in Videogame Intellectual Property Protection | Stephen Rubin (Law Office of Stephen Rubin) | Business and Legal | |
| Mixing and Mastering Music and Sound for Games | Scott Gershin (Soundelux Design Music Group) | Audio | |
| Mobile Games: Lessons from Online Games | Dan Scherlis (Sonamine) | Business and Legal | |
| Motion Capture-driven Simulation for Characters | Lisa Schlosser | Programming | |
| Motion Synthesis | Terri Curran | Programming | |
| Music Licensing for Videogames: How Popular Music and Artists Can Make … | Victor Rodriguez (THQ) | Business and Legal | |
| Music Publishing: A Primer for Game Developers and Composers | Douglas Conorich | Business and Legal | |
| Open Spaces and How to Find Them in New Game Ideas | Thomas Peltier | Game Design | |
| Outdoor Jungle Vegetation: Battlefield Vietnam | Rishi Bhattacharya | Visual Arts | |
| Pitching an Original IP: Notes from the Field | Chris Charla (Microsoft Game Studios) | Business and Legal | |
| Practical Implementation of High Dynamic Range Rendering | John Williams | Programming | |
| Practical Physics for Articulated Characters | Rishi Bhattacharya | Programming | |
| Practical Shadows: Out of the Demo and Into the Engine | Tom Forsyth | Programming | |
| Prepping for the Transition: Will You Be Ready? | John Schappert (Zynga) | Business and Legal | |
| Procedural Shaders: A Feature Animation Perspective | Arcot Preetham (ATI) | Programming | |
| Producing Motion Capture and Animation | Paul Immo | Production | |
| Producing Orchestral Scores for Games | John O’Leary | Audio | |
| Producing Programmers: Strategies for Managing Technical Staff | Pierre-Luc REFALO | Production | |
| Producing the Characters and Creatures of Ultima X Odyssey | Brenda Brathwaite | Visual Arts | |
| Through Collaboration: Escalating Demands on the Producer | Dave Perry | Production | |
| Programming the PlayStation Portable (PSP) | Bryan Fletcher | Programming | |
| Re-awakening a Classic: Prince of Persia: A Case Study | Production | ||
| Real World Multi-Threading in PC Games | Arron Coday (Intel) | Programming | |
| Real-Time Global Illumination | Eskil Steenberg | Programming | |
| Real-Time Translucent Animated Objects | Fred Trickey | Programming | |
| Realistic and Fast Cloud Rendering in Computer Games | Programming | ||
| Requirements for a Next Generation Massively Multiplayer Online Game | Gordon Walton | Production | |
| Reusing Shading for Interactive Global Illumination | Programming | ||
| Revisiting the Standard Joint Hierarchy: Improving Realistic Modeling of… | Programming | ||
| SciFi MMPs: Lessons from Star Wars Galaxies and Earth and Beyond | Raph Koster (Independent) | Game Design | |
| Seven Years of Max Payne | Production | ||
| SOCOM II: Creating a Compelling Online Console Game | Richard Murphy | Game Design | |
| Sound Design: Strategies for Success | Thomas Rude | Audio | |
| Spare No Expense: Starbucks and Aeron Chairs for Everyone | Business and Legal | ||
| Starting a New Studio | John Hayes | Business and Legal | |
| State of the Art: Anatomy of 3D Level Design | Herve Schmidt | Game Design | |
| Storytellers vs. Puzzle-Makers: New Traits of Successful Games | Kevin Bachus (Nival Interactive) | Business and Legal | |
| Storytelling in Earth & Beyond | Game Design | ||
| The Civilization Series: How to Maintain a Successful Franchise | Soren Johnson (Mohawk Games) | Game Design | |
| The Full Spectrum Warrior Camera System | Thomas Peltier | Programming | |
| The Collection and Applications of Metrics in an MMP Game: Lessons Lea… | Larry Mellon | Programming | |
| The Easy Route To Console Online | Thomas Peltier | Production | |
| The Emotional Heart of Art Direction | Visual Arts | ||
| The End Game: How Top Developers Sold Their Studios | Dan Rogers | Business and Legal | |
| The Evolution of a Franchise: The Legend of Zelda | Eiji Aonuma (Nintendo Co., Ltd.) | Game Design | |
| The History of Animation | Paul Hormis | Visual Arts | |
| The I-Spy Book of Developer Contract Law | Business and Legal | ||
| The Impact of Middleware Technologies on Your Game Development | Thomas Peltier | Production | |
| The Interesting Thing About Bishops: Simulation Boundaries in Splinter Cell | Clint Hocking | Game Design | |
| The Interface: How to Create an Effective Audio Schedule | Troy Larson | Production | |
| The Making of the Official Counter-Strike Bot | Michael Booth (Valve) | Programming | |
| The Negotiation | Tom Buscaglia (Dev Biz, Inc.) | Business and Legal | |
| The Philosophical Roots of Computer Game Design | Ernest Adams (International Hobo) | Game Design | |
| The Physics-Sound System of Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief 3 | Brian Sharp (Bungie, LLC) | Programming | |
| The Secret of Pac-Man ‘s Success: Making Fun First | Chris Cook | Game Design | |
| The Sound Design Methodology of Medal of Honor | Frank Butler | Audio | |
| The State of Non-Linear Audio for Interactive Media | Pete Garza | Audio | |
| The State of the Web and Downloadable Games Industry: A 2004 IGDA Online… | Derrick Morton (FlowPlay) | Business and Legal | |
| The Virtual and Mixed Media Orchestra for Game Music | Audio | ||
| The Well-Fed Freelancer: A Survival Guide in 24 Easy Lessons | Francois Dominic Laram’e | Business and Legal | |
| Tips & Tricks for UV Mapping | Keith Self-Ballard | Visual Arts | |
| Tips and Tricks for 3ds max 6 in Games | Phillip Hallam-Baker | Visual Arts | |
| Towards Relevant Research: Collaboration 101 | Stephen Gantz | IGDA | |
| Triangulation: A Schizophrenic Approach to Game Design | Will Wright (Stupid Fun Club) | Game Design | |
| True Crime: Streets of L.A.-Bringing Crime to the City of Angels | Rishi Bhattacharya | Programming | |
| Turning Innovation into Impact | J Allard | Audio | |
| Understanding the Elements of Employee Compensation | Business and Legal | ||
| User-testing in a Hostile Environment: Overcoming Apathy and Resistance … | William Stackpole | Production | |
| Using External Contractors Effectively | Jessica Bayliss | Production | |
| Using Verlet Integration and Constraints in a Six Degree of Freedom Rigi… | Programming | ||
| Visualizing Sly Cooper | Brad Smith | Visual Arts | |
| What Got Left out of Battlefield 1942 | Dennis Brixius | Game Design | |
| What Lies Ahead in the Ever-evolving Interactive Entertainment Industry? | Tim McCarthy | Game Design | |
| What to Do When it All Goes to Hell: Lessons Learned Shutting Down a G… | Cody Northrop | Business and Legal | |
| Why We Play Games: The Four Keys to Player Experience | Nicole Lazzaro (XEODesign) | Game Design | |
| Winning the Race Against Pirates And Crackers: Next Generation Copy Pr… | Jeff Orkin | Production | |
| Workflow Convergence: How Motion Picture Pipelines Are Merging With Game… | Robert J. Thornberry Jr | Visual Arts | |
| Would the Real Emergent Gameplay Please Stand Up? | Todd Fitzgerald | Game Design | |
| Zoological Gardens: The Science of Creature Design | Greg Gabet | Game Design |
In his 2004 Game Developers Conference (GDC) keynote speech, John Carmack discussed the history of video games, the progress that has been made in the industry, and his predictions for the future.
Carmack started by talking about his own experiences, recalling his first computer, a VIC-20 with 4 KB of RAM and a 1 MHz processor. He mentioned that the first commercial program he sold was developed on an Apple IIc with 128 KB of RAM and 8 KB of video memory.
Carmack noted the progress in the video game industry since he started, with a factor of a million difference in power between the VIC-20 and today’s computers. He also said that early computer games were very niche, while now we have things that can appeal to a wider audience.
For the future, Carmack said he is confident that there will be more progress and hopes that there will be a place for innovative and exciting new things in the industry. Carmack concluded his speech by saying that he is very excited about the future of video games. He believes that the industry has the potential to do great things, and he is looking forward to seeing what the future holds.
Sponsored by both NVIDIA and ATI was a full day tutorial on OpenGL graphics programming, all the slides are available on NVIDIA’s website - GDC 2004 - NVIDIA Developer and you can see the schedule below:
| Time | Session Name |
|---|---|
| 10:00 - 10:10 | Introduction – Simon Green |
| 10:10 - 11:00 | OpenGL Shading Language Overview – Bill Licea-Kane |
| 11:00 - 11:15 | Break |
| 11:15 – 11:30 | OpenGL Shading Language (continued) |
| 11:30 - 11:45 | NVIDIA OpenGL SL implementation + demos – Simon Green |
| 11:45 - 12:30 | OpenGL 2.0 proposed extensions – Cass Everrit |
| 12:30 - 2:00 | Lunch |
| 2:00 - 2:45 | New ATI extensions (“Uber” buffers) – Rob Mace |
| 2:45 - 3:30 | New NVIDIA extensions + demos – Simon Green |
| 3:30 - 4:00 | Tools and Libraries – Sebastien Domine, Evan Hart |
| 4:00 - 4:15 | Break |
| 4:15 - 5:00 | Performance Optimization – Evan Hart |
| 5:00 - 5:45 | General Purpose Computation for Games in OpenGL – Mark Harris |
| 5:45 - 6:00 | Conclusion, Q&A |
We don’t have the schedule for the DirectX sessions that were sponsored by a number of companies (Microsoft, Nvidia, Valve, Ati, Sony and Climax) but we do have some of the slides available on NVIDIA’s website - GDC 2004 - NVIDIA Developer.
Although there are no slides or videos available from this tutorial day, the exact same authors (Dustin Clingman, Shawn Kendall, Syrus Mesdaghi) wrote the book Practical Java Game Development (Game Development Series) which was published in 2004, so it is very likely that all the content used at this tutorial is available in the book.
GDC 2005 was the first to be hosted in San Francisco and brought in a record 12,000 attendees 2.
Thankfully all the sessions for 2005 and onwards seems to have audio recordings (and some videos!) freely available on the GDC Vault: GDC Vault
Satoru Iwata was the president of Nintendo at the time of the 2005 Keynote, his speech titled “Heart of a Gamer” was about the history of Nintendo and his own experiences as a game developer.
Iwata begins by talking about his first experience with video games, playing Pong as a child. He then talks about his early days as a game developer, creating games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). He discusses the importance of creating games that are fun and challenging for all players, regardless of their skill level.
Iwata also talks about the importance of innovation in the video game industry. He discusses Nintendo’s efforts to create new and innovative gaming experiences, such as the Wii console and the Nintendo DS handheld system. He also talks about the importance of supporting third-party developers in order to create a diverse and vibrant gaming industry.
Finally, Iwata talks about his own personal philosophy as a game developer. He says that he believes that the most important thing is to create games that are fun and that bring joy to players. He also says that he believes that game developers should always be striving to create new and innovative experiences.
Overall, the video is a reflection on the history of Nintendo and the importance of innovation in the video game industry. It is also a personal story about Iwata’s own experiences as a game developer.
[JCGD Volume 2 Issue 1](https://www.erasmatazz.com/library/the-journal-of-computer/jcgd-volume-2/volume-2-number-1-octoberno.html_ ↩
Computer Game Developers Conference 1991 audiotape catalog ↩ ↩2
Computer Game Developers Conference 1993 audiotape catalog ↩
The History of Game Developers Conference (documentary, 2019/2020) - YouTube ↩