The Game Developer's Conference (GDC, not to be confused with the defunct WPI Game Development Club), is an annual conference where games industry professionals from around the world convene for a series of talks, networking events, and parties.
If you want to jump-start or progress a career in the games industry, this is the conference to go to to make a lot of connections, and potentially even find employment opportunities.
Unfortunately, attending the GDC is cost-prohibitive. Below are some strategies that have or could be used by WPI students/alumni.
- Since 2015, WPI has sent at least one student each year as a winner of the GDC Narrative Review competition. This gains one free entry to the conference, including the ability to attend several exclusive summits not available with the expo pass.
- IGDA members can obtain a 20% discount on all passes above the expo pass tier via their member dashboard on igda.org
- Applicants who are accepted as speakers and panelists get a free all-access pass, and travel expenses paid for by the GDC.
- WPI's chapter of IGDA, like other professional societies on campus, is able to request funding within the constraints of the Student Government Association's bylaws in order to subsidize expenses in line with its mission. As of writing, this has not yet been done for GDC, but the process is rather painless and could result in a renewable annual travel budget to take several WPI students to GDC at little-to-no out of pocket cost with some additional fundraising or subsidy from other entities on campus (e.g. IMGD, or the School of Arts & Sciences).