The World's Largest Professional Game Industry Event Kicks Off 31st Edition Alongside Virtual Reality Developers Conference, Showcasing Advancements in VR and AR

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27, 2017 — (PRNewswire) —  The 2017 Game Developers Conference (GDC), the world's largest and longest-running event serving professionals dedicated to the art and science of making games, kicks off its 31st edition today at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Following last year's successful introduction of the Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC) and the standalone VRDC in November, the event will also be returning to bring together experts from the video game, entertainment, and tech fields to discuss the latest breakthroughs in immersive virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences. GDC and VRDC are held concurrently at the Moscone Center, with VRDC running through Tuesday, February 28 and GDC running through Friday, March 3.

GDC 2017 offers five days of lectures, panels, tutorials, roundtable discussions, and networking events, the Independent Games Festival (IGF) and Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCAs) ceremony, a robust Expo, and the showcase of emerging game developers known as GDC Play.

The conference begins with two days (Monday, February 27 and Tuesday, February 28) of specialized summits on the topics of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Community Management, Game Narrative, Education, Mobile Games, Independent Games, and User Experience (UX). The first two days of the conference will also feature GDC Developer Days, immersive learning experiences led by thought leaders from influential tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

The returning Virtual Reality Developers Conference will provide two days of content showcasing some of the most groundbreaking and respected developers and development teams in the fields of VR and AR discussing topics relating to film, journalism, travel, sports entertainment, and more. VRDC will host more than 30 sessions presented by speakers of celebrated entertainment studios, such as HBO, Legendary Entertainment, Lucasfilm's ILMxLAB, Oculus, Owlchemy Labs and more. There are more than 50 additional VR sessions in the GDC Summits and Main Conference throughout the week.

Following VRDC and the GDC Summits, the main GDC conference will kick-off on Wednesday, March 1. This year, the main GDC conference will feature four Classic Game Postmortem sessions, in which the creators of Sid Meier's Civilization, Deus Ex, Oregon Trail and Seaman share their unique development processes, inspirations and lessons learned creating some of the most innovative games of their eras. Huge names from across the video game industry will also be hosting sessions during the main conference, including Blizzard Entertainment, Capcom, Eidos Montreal, Naughty Dog, Nintendo, Respawn Entertainment, Riot Games, Square Enix, and more.

The 19th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards, which honor the most promising developers and projects from the world of independent video games, and the 17th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCAs), which recognize and celebrate the creativity, artistry and technical ingenuity of the finest developers and games created in the last year, will both take place back-to-back on Wednesday, March 1, starting at 6:30pm PT. The ceremonies will also feature special honors for important industry leaders, including a Lifetime Achievement Award for Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney, the The Pioneer Award, which honors breakthrough tech and game design milestones, which will be presented to Jordan Mechner, creator of the Prince of Persia series. Mark DeLoura will be presented with the Ambassador Award for his advocacy of the video game industry, education and the productive use of technology while a Senior Advisor within the Obama White House.

GDC will also host a variety of Interactive Spaces that are open to all attendees throughout the week. Independent games will be celebrated at Double Fine and iam8bit's "Day of the Devs," the Indie MEGABOOTH Showcase and the nature-themed lounge known as the Mild Rumpus. iam8bit will present Art Boss, an art gallery of some of the best concept and production art from celebrated video games that launched during the past year. Additional Interactive Spaces include GDC Train Jam, which presents games created by developers on a train ride from Chicago to GDC, alt.ctrl.GDC, which allows attendees to play with imaginative games that use non-traditional controllers, and more.

"GDC has been at the forefront of tectonic industry changes over three decades. In that same way, VRDC is charting the exciting new territory of developments in the virtual reality and augmented reality world. This is more important than ever as developers are coming to terms with the VR and AR platforms that are now out in the wild," said Meggan Scavio, general manager of the Game Developers Conference. "Beyond AR/VR, GDC is honored to host the global community of developers from all disciplines, walks of life and regions at GDC, we've always been a show that has embraced the new, unique and diverse. This year is no different."

In total, the GDC consists of more than 500 lectures, panels, tutorials and roundtable discussions. The GDC Expo has more than 300 exhibitors and includes the Business Center, the Game Career Seminar, a variety of Interactive Spaces, and more.

To learn more about GDC and VRDC, follow @Official_GDC or visit: www.gdconf.com. Both the Game Developers Choice Awards and IGF ceremonies are available to attend for all GDC 2017 pass-holders and will be livestreamed on the GDC's official Twitch channel.

About the UBM Game Network
A core provider of essential information to the professional game and VR/AR industries, the UBM Game Network drives community and business partnerships through market-defining content. Its award-winning lineup of events and digital products and services include the Game Developers Conference®, the Virtual Reality Developers Conference, Gamasutra.com, GameCareerGuide.com, GDC Play, the Independent Games Festival and Summit, and the Game Developers Choice Awards. Visit www.ubmgamenetwork.com for more information.

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