Game Developers Conference (GDC): How the Event Works

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What Is the Game Developers Conference?

Game Developers Conference (GDC) is a developer-focused conference built for people who make games.

Each year, developers across disciplines—engineering, design, art, production, and business—gather to share how games are built in practice. The conference centers on technical knowledge, production experience, and peer-to-peer learning, with sessions led by industry practitioners.

In 2025, GDC brought together approximately 30,000 attendees, more than 400 exhibitors, and speakers from over 100 countries, with hundreds of sessions taking place across the week.

Conference: March 9–13, 2026
Festival: March 11–13, 2026

In 2026, GDC will be presented under the name GDC Festival of Gaming.
The event runs across a five-day conference schedule, with Festival programming concentrated over the final three days.

The Conference period covers the full range of sessions, including technical talks, postmortems, panels, and keynotes.
The Festival period aligns with peak on-site activity, featuring expanded networking, community-driven programs, and evening events.

Who Attends GDC?

The audience at the Game Developers Conference is professional and role-driven.

Core attendees include game developers across engineering, design, art, and production.
Senior developers, technical leads, creative directors, and studio founders also attend in large numbers.

In recent years, attendance has expanded. Indie developers, small studio teams, tool and middleware builders, and platform partners now make up a larger share of the audience.

As roles in the game industry become less rigid, GDC attracts professionals who work across development, technology, and community. This shift continues to shape how the event evolves.

How GDC Programs Are Structured

Conference Sessions Are the Core

Game Developers Conference is, first and foremost, a conference.
The main content of the event is its extensive lineup of conference sessions.

Throughout the day, attendees move between technical talks, design discussions, production postmortems, business sessions, and keynotes. Multiple sessions run in parallel, and there is no single agenda that everyone follows.

Instead of a fixed program, GDC operates as a self-directed learning environment. Attendees build their own schedules based on their role, interests, and level of experience, using the official session planner to navigate the density of content.

Expo Floor and Industry Booths

Beyond the conference rooms, GDC also features a large expo floor where companies across the game industry present their work.

These booths cover a wide range of areas, from studios introducing new games or works in progress, to engine and platform providers, middleware companies, production tools, and specialized technologies. In many cases, what is showcased is not a finished product but a technique, workflow, or solution that supports game development.

Unlike consumer expos, GDC booths are designed less around spectacle and more around conversation. They function as spaces for demos, practical discussion, and professional exchange.

For many attendees, exploring the expo floor is one of the defining parts of the GDC experience, offering a way to see how different segments of the game industry intersect beyond their own role.

Learning Beyond Formal Sessions

Learning at GDC does not stop at scheduled talks.

Informal conversations at booths, spontaneous meetings between sessions, and discussions in common areas often provide as much value as formal presentations. This blend of structured sessions and unstructured interaction is central to how knowledge circulates at GDC.

The conference is intentionally designed to support both planned learning and unexpected discovery.

Evening Programs and Community Events

While conference sessions and the expo floor shape the daytime experience, some of GDC’s most recognizable programs take place in the evening.

The Developer’s Concert celebrates game music as a creative discipline and has become a long-standing tradition within the developer community.

The Independent Games Festival (IGF) highlights innovation in independent game development, recognizing creative achievement across solo developers and small teams.

The Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) are uniquely peer-driven, with winners selected by fellow developers to honor craft, impact, and contribution.

These evening programs are often described as the most “festival-like” moments of GDC. However, they remain firmly industry-facing, serving as moments of recognition and shared identity rather than public showcases.

Marketing Agency for GDC

We support global game companies across major North American events, including Game Developers Conference, Anime Expo, San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), and PAX West.

As a turnkey marketing agency, we manage strategy, creative, production, and on-site execution under one system. It allows brands to operate efficiently during complex, multi-day events like GDC.