GDC07

I've attended the GDC a few times as part of the Conference Associate program (the best volunteer-based conference staff program in the universe!) - starting in 96 (in Santa Clara, when it was still the Computer Game Developers Conference), again in 97, then down to Long Beach in 98, back up to San Jose in 99, as press for Unwebbed.com in 00, and after a brief hiatus: 05 in San Francisco, 06 in San Jose, and I'm looking forward to 07 back in San Francisco. Time can really fly when you are having fun...and I guess that's what games are all about. Being a CA is a ton of fun, and making new friends through that program has given me a whole new love of gaming (and a good reason to keep being a CA til I'm old and gray).

In true nerdly fashion I've combed through the conference schedule to pick out all the sessions that I'd like to attend:

Game Developer’s Conference 2007 – Jen's Sessions To See

MONDAY MARCH 5th

09:00:00-10:00:00
1886 Serious Games Squared, Ichiro Otobe

11:45:00-12:45:00
1836 Testing Assumptions: Creative Approaches to Gathering Evidence of Serious Game Impacts Brian Winn, Caitlin Kelleher, Carrie Heeter, David William Shaffer, Richard Van Eck

13:00:00-13:50:00
1837 Group Meet-up: Research & Assessment Alicia Sanchez

14:00:00-14:30:00
1861 Labyrinth: Keeping the Play in Learning Games Dan Roy, Kristina Drzaic

14:40:00-15:10:00
1839 A Practical View on Interactive Storytelling: Drama Games Santiago Siri

14:40:00-15:10:00
1862 Designing Selene: Theory-based Game Design and Data Mining Dr. Debbie Denise Reese

15:00:00-15:45:00
1791 Finding the Fun First: An Agile Mobile Game Development Case Study Jeferson Valadares

15:00:00-15:45:00
1875 Using Touch, Sight, and Gesture in Mobile Games Paul Coulton

15:20:00-15:50:00
1863 Location-Based Learning with Mobile Games Karen Schrier

16:10:00-16:55:0
1841 Serious Games: A Preparation for Future Learning Approach Chuck Kinzer, Gillian Andrews, Jessica Hammer, John Black, Zhou Zhou

17:00:00-17:45:00
1865 Colonial Williamsburg: Revolution Postmortem - How Commercial Game Engines Affect Pedagogical Design Brett Camper, Matthew Weise

TUTORIAL- ALL DAY
10:00:00-18:00:00
1988 (108) Do-It-Yourself Usability: How to Use User Research to Improve your Game Charles Harrison, Hiroko Nakata, Kevin Goebel, Kris Moreno, Ph.D., Ramon Romero, Tracey Sellar


TUESDAY MARCH 6th

08:00:00-08:50:00
1843 Group Meet-up: Educational Game Designers Jim Parker

09:00:00-10:00:00
1892 One Laptop Per Child & Serious Games SJ Klein

11:45:00-12:45:00
1894 The Future of Collective Play: Fostering Collaboration, Network Literacy, and Massively Multiplayer Problem-Solving through Alternate Reality Games Jane McGonigal

14:00:00-14:30:00
1847 Teaching Kids About Nutrition Through Edu-Gaming in Whyville.net James M. Bower

14:40:00-15:10:00
1848 Cool School: An Inside Look at a Federally Funded Conflict Resolution Game and Interactive Tool for Classrooms David Warhol, F.J. Lennon

17:00:00-17:45:00
1798 Location, Location, Location (Based Gaming) Marta Vieira



WEDNESDAY MARCH 7th

09:00:00-10:00:00
1852 One Laptop per Child: Gaming Platform for the Developing World? SJ Klein SKIP?? SIMILAR PRESENTATION DAY BEFORE

09:00:00-10:00:00
1721 Developing Next-Gen Grads: Collaborating On Proactive Student Experiences (Day One) Stephen Jacobs

10:30:00-11:30:00
1956 In-Game Advertising 2007 Robb Lewis



THURSDAY MARCH 8th

09:00:00-10:00:00
2164 LucasArts: True Next Generation Gameplay in Service of Story & Character Denny Thorley, Haden Blackman

09:00:00-10:00:00
2100 Are Serious Games Worth Taking Seriously? Noah Falstein
12:00:00-13:00:00
1994 Ten Games You Need to Play: The Digital Game Canon Christopher Grant, Henry Lowood, Matteo Bittanti, Steve Meretzky, Warren Spector

13:00:00-14:00:00
1696 English Speaking Players as In-Game Content: New Ideas for Marketing to Youth in Asia Edd Schneider, Kai Zheng

14:30:00-15:30:00
1949 Breaking the In-game / Out-of-game Barrier Sean Flinn, Todd Northcutt

14:30:00-15:30:00
1980 Creating Innovative Launch Titles for the Nintendo Wii and Its Unique Controller Andrew Oliver

14:30:00-15:30:00
1932 Burning Man: Takeaways for Game Developers Daniel James, Daniel Terdiman, Lorne Lanning, Michael Steele, Ron Meiners

16:00:00-17:00:00
2103 The Secret Garden: Mobile Games and The 4% Addressable Market Who Love Them John Szeder

16:00:00-17:00:00
2012 Designing Games for Everyone: Harmonix Design in Practice Rob Kay, Tracy Rosenthal-Newsom

17:30:00-18:30:00
1687 ARG Group Gathering Adam Martin



FRIDAY MARCH 9th

09:00:00-10:00:00
1688 Academics/Students Group Gathering Susan Gold

11:45:00-12:30:00
1971 Tips & Tricks to Making a Lasting Impression Darius Kazemi

16:00:00-17:00:00
1940 Rethinking Challenges in Games and Stories Ernest Adams


As you can see there are a couple overlaps - thank goodness for GDC radio. Recordings from several GDC sessions are available for download at: http://www.gdcradio.net/