GDC’s General Manager, Katie Stern has officially announced GDC 2021 as a digital event that will run throughout the year. The new event marks the 35th anniversary of GDC according to the announcement, it has been reimagined to overcome the obstacles set by the COVID-19 threat.
Stern confirms that the goal event will continue providing resources and great content as well as networking and discussion platforms to connect the industry.
The evolved approach to GDC programs in 2021 allows us to create new offerings such as deep dives for specialized areas and further exploration of timely topics across key industry themes through unique showcases. This is all in addition to producing GDC’s advisory board curated conference program, as well as hosting our annual prestigious award ceremonies by game developers and for game developers.
Stern also revealed the plans to host additional GDC-branded events in the second half of the year to keep the learning and networking going throughout this period of what feels like constant change, so we’ll have more to share on that soon.
Here’s a quick overview of what’s coming:
GDC Masterclass (March 4-5): Consisting of one and two-day small-group virtual workshops that deliver in-depth, hands-on training around some of the most important challenges facing game developers today.
GDC Showcase (March 15-19): This one-of-a-kind event will provide a taste of what GDC is all about while exploring a slightly different and new array of content and formats, featuring spotlight lectures, AMAs with the people behind some of the industry’s biggest games, interactive panels with renowned game developers, live podcasts, and more.
GDC 2021 (July 19-23): This year’s conference will be filled with deep content developed with GDC’s advisory board, a focus on community-building, networking, and celebrations that GDC is known for.
Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards (July 21) The IGF and GDCAs will return during the main GDC 2021 event. Submissions for the IGF Awards are already in and nominees will be announced in early May. The awards will take place back-to-back like usual and will be livestreamed on the official GDC Twitch channel.
Source: PC Invasion
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A Nintendo Switch trailer was also released.
According to SteamDB.
An announcement trailer was also released.