GDC 2023 Session Highlights

GDC 2023 will feature sessions from the game studios and companies behind some of the industry’s biggest innovations and most beloved games. We’ve highlighted a few recently announced sessions below:

The GDC will once again examine benchmark games that have long served as inspiration to the development community with the return of the ever popular Classic Game Postmortem! In the Classic Game Postmortem: ‘Tamagotchi’: The Original Virtual Pet, Nobuhiko Momoi, Director and Chief Tamagotchi Officer, BANDAI Co., Ltd., will take attendees on a walk through history and provide learnings about what was at the core of the original virtual pet’s success, what Bandai has changed about Tamagotchi to keep it fresh and relevant, and what has been kept the same to maintain brand awareness. You may even get an insight into where Tamagotchi is heading into the future.

Rendering ‘God of War: Ragnarök’ dives into the advanced rendering techniques used on God of War: Ragnarök, plus various leadership approaches to ensure a whole programming team delivers its project goals. Stephen McAuley, Lead Rendering Programmer at Sony Santa Monica Studio, will go into the features needed to realize the narrative of the game, before moving onto lighting and art workflow improvements, from automation to eliminating areas of high production cost.  This talk is only one of several talks on God of War: Ragnarök taking place at GDC 2023.

Electronic Arts Executive Producer Phillip Ring will be presenting “’The Sims’: Process and Learnings for Developing DEI Content,” which will focus on the changing expectations of players and include insights and best practices for connecting with your game communities, underrepresented communities, and resource groups to help deliver on these expectations.

Wordle is the rare zeitgeist game to get acquired and continue to grow. In this talk titled, “’Wordle’: One Year Later,” go behind the scenes with Zoe Bell, Executive Producer of New York Times Games, as she covers the initial acquisition, the transition, the push to put Wordle on all the New York Times surfaces, and how a non-subscription game ended up growing the Times’ subscription business.

In this talk titled, “Applying Blizzard’s Core Design Principles To Create Genre-Defining Games,” Allen Adham, Co-Founder & Chief Design Officer at Blizzard Entertainment, will discuss in detail the core design principles that Blizzard has used for 30 years. These specific principles provide a framework for thinking about game design in a way that allows new teams and new designers to consistently build award-winning games that attract broad audiences across nearly any genre.

2) Learn How Navigate the Event at GDC 101

In a week featuring hundreds of talks and a thousand speakers, it can be a challenge for a first-time attendee, or anyone after a break from live events, to understand how best to get the most out of GDC.  For that reason, GDC organizers will present GDC 101 on Tuesday, March 21 for a crash course on how to navigate the full week of events. Help your readers prepare ahead of time by encouraging them to attend this course to learn how to plan their time at GDC, receive an overview of the week, including which games will be playable and what sponsored sessions to check out, alongside details to help get around the conference while staying healthy and happy. After the presentation, folks can stick around for informal networking to make a friend or two and stay in touch through the week.

3) Have you pre-registered for your GDC 2023 media badge yet?

Confirming you should have already received your press invitation for GDC 2023 via email, but if you have trouble locating it, please notify the GDC Press Team and we’ll be happy to help you register.

If you know of any journalists who want to register for a media pass to GDC 2023, please have them submit a request to the GDC Press Team at gdcpress@fortyseven.com. To register for the conference, we ask that they have the following information available to expedite the process of reviewing applications:

Three published editorial pieces that you have authored within the past year on topics relevant to the GDC

Your business card at the media outlet you are representing

An assignment letter on letterhead from your assigning editor/producer

(For blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels and streamers) Third-party verification of the count of your monthly visitors, readers or viewers/listeners

4) Hotel and Travel Information

GDC and Convention Housing Partners have secured discounted rates on hotels near the event for attendees. You can book your room now through the official site for the best availability and lowest rates. For more information, email gdc@chphousing.com or call (US: 866-561-0540; International: +1-415-813-6088, option 6)

For additional information regarding travel, parking details, transportation, maps, attractions and more, please visit https://gdconf.com/hotels-travel.