Gdc 2006

[Phil Steinmeyer]

Last year there was a sort of mini casual games con preceding the main GDC (i.e. on Monday and Tuesday there were full day tracks for casual games).

From the looks of the GDC site (www.gdconf.com), this is not happening this year. Will there be Casual stuff sprinkled throughout the conference, or is it assumed that the July dedicated casual games conference is the place to be?

[Matthew]

The casual games summit is happening again this year, AFAIK:

http://www.cmpevents.com/GD06/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=1889

[James C. Smith]

Yes. Be sure to plan to be there during the "tutorial" sessions or you will miss the casual games summit. I think they accept fewer proposals for sessions about casual games during the “classic” part of GDC because they set a side a while day for the casual games stuff. The casual games summit will once again be a day long event with many different speakers and panels through the day. This year it will be organized a little better to have less repetition form one speaker to the next, less introductory stuff, and delve deeper into the details. At least that's the plan I was told about.

[ChilledOut]

Did those of you who attended the casual games summit last year find it worthwhile?

[Phil Steinmeyer]

So Tuesday is the only day with events/classes aimed at the casual game crowd?

[robleong]

Talking about the GDC, now that I'm living close enough to consider attending, can someone tell me if there is any way to get a pass for cheap or even free, considering that they seem to cost upwards of $500 for a tutorials-only pass? :( Thanks.

[Miguel Tartaj]

Did those of you who attended the casual games summit last year find it worthwhile?

I've attended all the casual games summits at GDC.

Every year they get more or less the same people, I personally always miss some key people (some important companies that are always mentioned but never have somebody there) and don't understand why others are there (some topics could be managed a lot better... if James is a panelist this year that's good news and probably a change). Any way you get a good picture of the space and can extract good conclusions.

My advice: if you haven't been before you'll find it very interesting and valuable and probably can make good contacts hard to reach otherwise.

[Matthew]

Talking about the GDC, now that I'm living close enough to consider attending, can someone tell me if there is any way to get a pass for cheap or even free, considering that they seem to cost upwards of $500 for a tutorials-only pass? :( Thanks.

http://www.gdconf.com/register/caregistration.htm

[robleong]

http://www.gdconf.com/register/caregistration.htm

Thanks, Matthew - that's certainly one good way of doing so.

[arcadetown]

Did those of you who attended the casual games summit last year find it worthwhile?
Attended the GDC, IGC, and Casual Games Conference last year. All were good. To me the Casual Games Conference was the most useful as had most everyone in the casual games industry under one roof. The IGC was mostly developer oriented. The GDC was so huge hard to meet up with the right folks. Ranking wise I'd go CGC, GDC, IGC if you're limited in time/resources.

[James C. Smith]

So Tuesday is the only day with events/classes aimed at the casual game crowd?
As far as I know, they have not announced the list of sessions for 2006 yet. So who knows if there will be some sessions specific to casual games during the Wednesday - Friday part of GCD. In the past years there have been about 4 or 5 Indie/Casual sessions in addition to the casual games summit.

In other words, last year the casual games summit had lots of casual stuff (obviously) but there were still a few casual and indie focused sessions during the "classic" part of the conference. (Death to 3 in a row, Indie Power, Flash something or other to name a few). I suspect it will be the same again this year.

Of course, many of the general game developer sessions are relevant to casual game developers. But there does seem to be an overwhelming number that are specific to things we would never do in a casual, downloadable, or indie game.

I proposed a GDC session about casual game design and got turned down again. But it looks like I will be part of the faculty for the casual games summit.

[Matthew]

I'm sure this is subject to change, but a list of all sessions is available at:

www.gdconf.com/conference/view-sessions-redirect.htm

[James C. Smith]

Did anyone find anything interesting (to indies or casual game developers) in that list?

[ChilledOut]

I think the Bang Howdy session would be particularly interesting to casual indies. I know I'll be there.