GDC Canada 2009

I travelled up to Vancouver, B.C. this week to speak at GDC Canada, the first year this conference under the GDC umbrella has been held. The event content is very production-oriented rather than technical, but I filled up most of my (somewhat small) speaking room for my two presentations. It is hard to say what the focus really is for this conference. GDC Austin is very focused on MMOs. Vancouver generally has been focused on traditional hard-core AAA titles shipping on high-end consoles. Some recent major project cancellations and layoffs have shaken up the gamedev community here, so there may be more indie startups dong mobile, Wii, or other smaller titles going forward. PIXAR recently announced plans to open their first satellite animation studio up here as well, so at least animators and some graphics programmers will be able to find local jobs.

Vancouver’s gaming scene has a genesis story similar to Austin’s around a single successfully company that spawned numerous other companies since the 80s, and the angst about the downturn sounds very familiar to the way Austin felt when the dot-com bubble burst and publishers pulled their money out to keep their HQs in California running. Rough times, but hopefully more "creative destruction" than just plain destruction.