Windows Phone Central heads to the Game Developers Conference

The Windows Phone Central staff covers all the big mobile events, such as Mobile World Congress and CES. But our gaming readers are probably most excited by gaming event coverage, such as last year’s Electronic Extertainment Expo and Casual Connect visits. Of course we’ll return to those shows again this year, but we’ve got a new one on the table too.

The Game Developers Conference - aka GDC 2013 - runs next week from March 25-29 in San Francisco, California. Your friendly neighborhood Gaming Editor and a handful of Mobile Nations staff will be there scouring for all the best Windows Phone and mobile gaming news.

Meet the Game Developers Conference

We all know E3 is a big deal - indeed, many primitive cultures still perform blood sacrifices in its name. But GDC is even more monumental, for game developers at least. It's the largest yearly gathering of game developers in the world. Devs travel from all over – even the far-off and wintry lands known to locals as “Europe” to learn, look for new talent, and network. Much of what goes on is panels focused on various areas of the gaming business, but of course there is a show floor with multitudes of booths as well. And the number of after-hours parties puts both E3 and Casual Connect to shame.

Windows Phone and Windows 8 in Session

Galactic Reign

While Windows Phone had a somewhat anemic presence at last year’s gaming events, Microsoft and its partners seem to be stepping up their game for GDC this time out. Check out the scheduled sessions dedicated to Windows Phone and Windows 8:

• Secrets of Success for Publishing Games in the Windows Store
• Basic Game Building for Windows Phone
• Building DirectX Games for Windows and Windows Phone
• Case Study: Bringing Vendetta Online to Windows RT
• Optimizing for Power Efficient GPUs in DirectX/C++ Windows Store Games
• Building Connected Game Experiences on Windows Phone
• Using In-Application Purchase for Windows Phone Games
• Expand Your Opportunities to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 with Cross Platform Engines and Libraries
• Core Technologies for Windows 8 Games
• Crossing Microsoft Screens: Building Cross Platform Gameplay in Skulls of the Shogun
• Conquering the Galaxy with Phones and Tablets: Galactic Reign Postmortem

We have so many interviews and meetings scheduled that we couldn’t possibly attend all of those sessions in person, but we’ll try to catch whichever ones we can during our downtime.

Meeting your (game) makers

Skulls of the Shogun

For us, the best part of industry events is meeting with developers and publishers in person. We’ve got interviews scheduled with heavy hitters Microsoft, Gameloft, and Chillingo; game engine makers Unity, Autodesk Scaleform, and Havok; as well as the developers of Galactic Reign, Skulls of the Shogun, Carcassonne, Fairway Solitaire, and more. We’re guaranteed to gain new insights into past, present, and future projects from the lot of them. And of course, we’ll do our best to sober up and wrangle some early access to upcoming Windows Phone and Windows 8 games as well.

Simon Sage, Rene Ritchie, and I will all be on-hand at the event next week. If you’re in the industry and want to meet up during the event, send me a tweet via @segacon. Everyone else, stay tuned for choice gaming news!