Is anyone planning to go to the GDC next year?

I'm in the UK and have never been to the US. I want to go and that seems like a really good reason to travel across next March.

Thing is though none of my friends here want to go (non game developers), so I'm facing going on my own. Is anyone here planning to go?, I noticed on last years thread that a lot of people gave it a miss.

Oli

It's a shame it's not in May, otherwise I could have tied it in with a trip to the US I'm making.

I don't really know if I'd get anything out of it though. To be honest, I'd feel a little too small to be there.

I'm planning to attend. I missed GDC 2003 in order to finish the book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1584502142/davidrmsoftwa-20). The book is done now, and needs to be promoted. So I'll be there. :)

-David

I also missed GDC 2003, but I'll be at GDC 2004 hosting the Indie Developers roundtable. I hosted this same roundtable in 2001 and 2002 as part of the IGDA track, but in 2004 it will be part of the Business & Legal track.

Great, I'm tempted to book my flights now!.

With the 'roundtables' though, how do they work?. I've been to ECTS in London, which I guess is similar to E3. I presume GDC is a different sort of show though?

I'm not sure what pass to buy, I'd like to get as much out of it as possible, don't know whether $800 for the classic pass is good value?

Why not GDC europe instead of trekking over to america? They seem to have very similar sessions, and y'know, it's in london :)

I'll be there, along with the rest of my company and some others from the local IGDA chapter. I'll make sure to check out the roundtable; I'd love to meet some of the regulars here to pick their brains. I went to all of the casual/web games sessions last year and learned quite a bit. That was actually before our company even existed--since then we've launched (http://games.real.com/game.php?gameid=B57439CA-1E22-11B2-A9B9-00D0B7142009&pageid=index-hotnew) our first game a few places.

Rockingham: Classic pass gets you into everything except the first tutorials days. The IGDA business summit and serious games summit need tutorial passes, too, since they take place on the first two days alongside tutorials. If neither the tutorials nor the summits interest you, go with a Classic pass.

I'll be there, I go every year (but I'm only a 45-min drive away). I don't usually find any of the sessions useful, but it's a great place to meet up with people.

Sparky
http://www.theycamefromhollywood.com

I plan on being there again. I went for almost the whole week last year and I don't think I caught a single session. Guess I'm not a technical (or artistic) guy :( The booth crawl is kind of OK i guess. I'm debating on whether or not to get a room though. It's expensive, and I have less than no money at the moment, and what little I do have will go towards the GDC'04 demo CDs I figure. Troy Goodfellow will be there, so anyone who has had their game critisized by him can shank him at will, but he's staying with family. Ugh, driving 240 miles every day for a week, in traffic, sucked. Maybe my friend and I can just crash in my Mini or something, hehehe.

I'll be interested to see the indie roundtable. Never been to it before, but hopefully it's not going to be a bunch of people telling us how great Shockwave, Real, GameHouse, and Pogo are... YAWN.

Originally posted by Dr_Gonzo
Why not GDC europe instead of trekking over to america? They seem to have very similar sessions, and y'know, it's in london :)

I did consider going to this last August, but gave it a miss cos I was too busy.

The reason for planning to go to GDC '04 in the US is I've been planning to visit america for years, and by targetting an 'event' and actively signing up for that, will push me to actually 'do it now':) and book the trip.

I'd probably plan to go for 10 days or something, I want to see Las Vegas and some of the other touristy places in the area.

If I do go I'm sure meeting some of the guys on this board will be the highlight of my trip!. I'll be there on my own so this would make a huge difference.

Oli

Previous indie roundtables were very highly rated by participants, receiving average ratings of 4.7 and 4.8 out of 5.0 in the two years it was held. The actual title of the roundtable is "Secrets of Successful Indie Developers," so the discussion focuses on how-to. In past years it mostly centered around low-budget marketing methods for indies, including shareware. The past two years this session was the last of the entire show. I think the first year we stayed for nearly 3.5 hours, since most people wanted to keep discussing, and we were told we didn't have to leave until the hotel kicked us out.

I'm new to the whole GD social gathering type deal. Where/when/how much is this conference?

And Sparky, how's the progress on They Came From Hollywood coming along? I'm itching to try that out, but I didn't see any information on how far along it is on your site (perhaps I didn't look hard enough).

Originally posted by cableshaft
And Sparky, how's the progress on They Came From Hollywood coming along? I'm itching to try that out, but I didn't see any information on how far along it is on your site (perhaps I didn't look hard enough).
Slogging through lots of difficult AI stuff and not difficult-but-incredibly-tedious art stuff right now. Hopefully this spring. Hmmm...maybe you folks who want to attend GDC on the cheap can crash on my living room floor that week in return for beta testing? We could have pillow fights, popcorn, and no one would be able to sleep after telling scary stories about independent game publishing. "But he only got five downloads...and when he finally looked at the server -- there was a bloody hook stuck in it!" :)

Originally posted by SparkyTCFH
Hmmm...maybe you folks who want to attend GDC on the cheap can crash on my living room floor that week in return for beta testing? We could have pillow fights, popcorn, and no one would be able to sleep after telling scary stories about independent game publishing. "But he only got five downloads...and when he finally looked at the server -- there was a bloody hook stuck in it!" :)

Can we sing songs from Grease as we go through gaming magazines looking for pictures of Cliffy B to use in our collage/shrine? Then we can all pack into the bathroom and turn the lights off as I secretly splash water onto the mirror, then chant Derek Smarts name three times just before we turn on the lights and watch Dan run out screaming.

Originally posted by SparkyTCFH
Slogging through lots of difficult AI stuff and not difficult-but-incredibly-tedious art stuff right now. Hopefully this spring. Hmmm...maybe you folks who want to attend GDC on the cheap can crash on my living room floor that week in return for beta testing? We could have pillow fights, popcorn, and no one would be able to sleep after telling scary stories about independent game publishing. "But he only got five downloads...and when he finally looked at the server -- there was a bloody hook stuck in it!" :)

Count me in!

I hope you crossed yourself when you used "the incantation" (D.S. is a scary person).

Anyway, if I can swing it, and I quite possibly can :) I'll be at GDC.

I'm hoping to get my game up at the conf somewhere (if garagegames are going to put up a stand again this year, I'll prolly try and get in on that).

I'll be going from the UK as well btw. So if you want nearer the time we can organise ourselves so we have a meetup!

If I can swing some extra time, I'd like to have some fun in the US too, but thats unlikely (lecturing kinda has its own timeline).

Phil.

Originally posted by zoombapup
I hope you crossed yourself when you used "the incantation" (D.S. is a scary person). Aw, no he's not. He's actually quite friendly, IME. But I'm still not going to invoke his name three times here... :)

@SteveP: Any early indications as to which day the indie roundtable will be?

Not yet. AFAIK the schedule hasn't been determined yet. There might actually be multiple instances of this session, but that's up to the conference organizers to decide.

Maybe not scary Sparky, but has an uncanny nack of turning up whenever anyone calls his name. Like some kind of "summon gollem" spell.

Best to just steer clear (/me wears a sprig of lucky heather).

I was on the fence as to whether or not to attend GDC 2004. I wasn't even looking at the Business and Legal Track but now that I know about the Secrets of Successful Indie Developers round table I have to attend!

With SSM in the IGF finals I am definetly attending. Those who are flying in, have you chosen your hotel already? Or are you all crashing in at Octopus? :)