Game Developers Conference
1,740 reports, presentations and talks by Game Developers Conference in the Game Industry Library, the newest “How to Succeed in Co-Development: Sam Carlisle Interview” (2026).
Documents
How to Succeed in Co-Development: Sam Carlisle Interview
Co-development represents a strategic evolution in game production, shifting away from traditional, transactional outsourcing toward deeply integrated partnerships.
- Co-development is increasingly essential for industry sustainability, allowing studios to balance resources, diversify revenue streams, and scale production without the risks of hiring full-time staff.
- External development partners provide greater organizational resilience than traditional in-house models because they typically work on multiple titles simultaneously, protecting them from the impact of a single project cancellation.
- When selecting a co-development partner, the strength of the personal relationship and the partner's willingness to communicate problems early are more critical to project success than technical quality alone.
What Indie Game Publishers Really Think: 15 Years of Industry Insights from Finji's Rebekah Saltsman
Indie game publishing functions as a strategic partnership designed to mitigate the financial, operational, and interpersonal risks inherent in software development.
- Indie publishers typically manage titles with budgets of $2 million or less, focusing on small teams across all genres while providing essential business development, marketing, and operational support.
- Publishers act as mediators for team communication and project health, protecting their own reputation and financial investment by ensuring developers avoid burnout and adhere to platform-mandated schedules.
- When pitching to publishers, developers must demonstrate they can ship by providing realistic schedules, documented budgets with appropriate buffers, and clear team breakdowns to de-risk the project.
What Was That Noise: Mastering Creative UI Sound Design with Intention
Effective user interface sound design functions as a vital communication tool that bridges the gap between player input and game response.
- Apply UX design principles—specifically the isolation effect, cognitive load, selective attention, Occam's razor, and flow—to ensure UI audio communicates information effectively without requiring visual reliance.
- Use specific sonic characteristics to convey emotional intent: rising pitches and major scales signal positive outcomes, while distinct, unmissable sounds are required for critical gameplay feedback like parries.
- Match UI sound materials to the visual interface, such as using metallic sounds for metal UI elements or organic textures like bone and bubbling liquids for thematic environments like a witch's hut.
Steam Platform 2026: How Valve is Helping Game Developers Succeed on PC Gaming
Steam has solidified its position as the dominant PC gaming storefront by 2026, achieving a massive scale with 42 million peak concurrent users and 13.9 million in-game concurrent users.
- Developer revenue from Steam Daily Deal placements increased by 274% year-over-year following the implementation of a self-service scheduling system that allows developers to claim slots directly via Steamworks.
- Steam now categorizes user reviews by language to provide context for players and developers, addressing concerns about review bombing and regional-specific issues without removing content.
- Controller usage on Steam is significant, with nearly 5 billion gameplay sessions involving gamepads in 2025; developers are encouraged to use the Steam Input API to ensure compatibility across various hardware, including Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo controllers.
From Journey to Sword of the Sea: Austin Wintory on His Most Ambitious Game Scores | Full Interview
The annual Game Developers Conference concert serves as a vital barometer for the evolving landscape of interactive audio, transforming from a modest experiment into a premier showcase for the medium’s artistic breadth.
- Austin Wintory emphasizes that successful game scoring is driven primarily by the strength of professional relationships, noting he would prioritize collaborating with trusted partners like Matt Nava of Giant Squid regardless of the specific project type.
- The GDC Developer's Concert, which Wintory organizes and orchestrates, grew from an experimental lunch-hour session into a major event drawing 3,000 attendees.
- Wintory designs the GDC concert program to reflect the current state of the industry rather than acting as a static 'greatest hits' parade, often finalizing the creative direction only months before the event.
Clair Obscur Expedition 33: Small Team, Massive Game | Technical Secrets Behind Making Hit RPG
Sandfall Interactive achieves the ambitious scope of the role-playing game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by utilizing a lean, four-person programming team that prioritizes a vanilla-first development philosophy.
- Sandfall Interactive developed the 30+ hour RPG 'Clair Obscur: Expedition 33' using a core programming team of only four people by offloading 95% of gameplay logic to Unreal Engine Blueprints.
- The studio utilized a build farm to optimize development efficiency, reducing the total game packaging time from 2.5 hours to 50 minutes.
- To empower designers, the programming team created a comprehensive Blueprint API that allows non-programmers to access complex systems like quest status, inventory, and battle logic without writing C++ code.
Cross-Platform Game Development: 10 Lessons from Mobile to PC & Console
Transitioning from a mobile-first development model to a cross-platform strategy requires a fundamental shift in organizational structure, technical architecture, and market positioning.
- To successfully transition from mobile to cross-platform, studios should hire talent with specific AAA console and PC experience to complement existing mobile veterans, rather than relying solely on internal upskilling.
- Test the 'three Cs' (character, camera, and controls) across all target platforms early in development, ideally before finalizing the vertical slice, to avoid costly retrofitting of UX, HUD, and locomotion issues.
- Avoid the risk of launching on too many SKUs simultaneously; instead, adopt a methodical, platform-by-platform expansion strategy to allow for better optimization and responsiveness to player feedback.
GDC Concert 2026: Expedition 33, Hades II, DOOM (2016), and more; feat. Austin Wintory & Troy Baker
The 2026 GDC Developer’s Concert serves as a comprehensive celebration of the evolution of video game music, tracing its trajectory from technically constrained early compositions to the sophisticated, emotionally resonant orchestral scores defining modern titles.
- The GDC Developers Concert, held during the March 2026 festival, featured live orchestral performances of scores from titles including Hades II, Rift of the Necrodancer, ABZU, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
- Composer Austin Wintory and voice actor Troy Baker co-hosted the event, emphasizing the importance of integrating voice acting and musical composition early in the game development process.
- The concert served as a platform to highlight emerging talent, specifically showcasing first-time commercial releases from composers alongside established industry veterans.
260 Hours of MoCap: Baldur's Gate 3's Karlach Actor on Game Performance | GDC Side Quest
The production of modern narrative-driven video games requires a fundamental shift in how studios engage with performers, moving away from treating actors as mere technical assets toward fostering deep, collaborative partnerships.
- Samantha Béart performed 260 hours of motion capture work for the character Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3, requiring the recording of multiple thematic variations for scenes to account for various player-driven narrative outcomes.
- Game studios should integrate actors earlier in the development process by utilizing traditional theatrical practices like table readings and chemistry tests to improve performance quality and character consistency.
- Actors can improve their performance in abstract or green-screen environments by applying theatrical techniques, such as Peter Brook’s 'magic space,' to visualize and ground their interactions within the game world.
Jennifer Hale Reflects on Iconic Roles and Industry Evolution on GDC Side Quest Podcast
The GDC Side Quest podcast features an interview with veteran voice actor Jennifer Hale, who discusses the collaborative nature of performance in video games and the evolving landscape of the industry.
- Voice actor Jennifer Hale advocates for an industry-wide framework for generative AI based on the three pillars of consent, control, and compensation.
- Performers are advised to protect their intellectual property and livelihoods by incorporating specific AI riders into their professional contracts.
- Industry professionals are encouraged to utilize the National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA) as a primary resource for safeguarding work against the risks of AI integration.
26th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards
The 26th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards served as both a celebration of creative excellence and a critical forum for addressing the current instability within the global gaming industry.
- Death Stranding 2 won the Game of the Year award at the 2026 Game Developers Choice Awards.
- Nominees for the 2026 Game of the Year included Donkey Kong Bonanza (Nintendo EPD), Claire Obscure: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive), Ghost of Yote (Sucker Punch Productions), and Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios).
- The Innovation Award nominees featured Baby Steps (Devolver Digital), Ball Pit (Devolver Digital), Blueprints (Raw Fury), Panic Dispatch (Ad Hoc Studio), Ghost of Yote (Sony Interactive Entertainment), and Split Fiction (Electronic Arts).
GDC 2026 Keynote - An Odyssey in Building Games That Last
Enduring success in the modern gaming industry is not a product of rigid top-down mandates or formulaic pitch decks, but rather the result of an iterative, non-linear odyssey.
- The most reliable indicator of a game's potential for success is when the development team becomes so obsessed with the core experience that they must be forced to stop playing to return to work.
- Game development is rarely a linear process; teams must be prepared to pivot, cancel, or fundamentally restructure projects—such as the transition from the failed 'Titan' project to the development of 'Overwatch'—when the core vision fails to resonate.
- At Bonfire Studios, the team identifies viable projects by having staff from all disciplines pitch 'seeds' (early concepts), which are then evaluated through mood boards and stack-ranked by the entire team to ensure collective buy-in.