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The GDC team talks about planning a digital showcase

The Game Developers Conference team talks about putting on events like the all-digital GDC Showcase/

Ozzie Mejia

August 9, 2023 8:00 AM

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Earlier this summer, the Game Developers Conference team held the online-only GDC Showcase. The virtual event contained pre-recorded sessions, fireside chats, and interactive roundtables with game developers from across the video gaming space. Coming off of the live GDC 2023 in March, the GDC team continues to adjust to the changing times. To learn more about what it takes to put on a showcase of this magnitude, we spoke with GDC Event Director Stephanie Hawkins and Game Developer Senior Editor Bryant Francis.

"[For] 2022, we did a hybrid event and we found that it was hard for unattendees and our new staff to put on both [in-person and hybrid] events at the same time," Hawkins told Shacknews. "We felt like it wasn't that GDC experience that we wanted everyone to have, so for 2023, we made the decision to have our in-person event in March and then our second virtual event in the summer, and it was nice that we could fully dedicate all of our time and resources to the virtual event, to GDC Showcase."

Hawkins and Francis talk about the growth of the GDC Vault for those unable to attend live Game Developers Conference events, the implementation of roundtable discussions to the GDC Showcase agenda, the importance of connecting game developers from around the world, and much more.

This year's GDC Showcase took place at the end of June. The team is already looking ahead to the future, so check out the GDC TikTok to learn more about how to submit proposals for Core Concepts. Submissions are open through Thursday, August 10. GDC 2024 will return to San Francisco on March 18-22, 2024. And for more interviews like this, check out Shacknews and Shacknews Interviews on YouTube.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?