Agenda
Your Festival lineup starts here. Browse and filter by Pass Type, Track, Format, Audience Level, and (new this year) Tags!
'Battlefield 6': Game Feel is the Message
Speaker: Jac Carlsson (EA DICE)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Design, Game & Production Technology
Format: Lecture
'Clair Obscur Expedition 33': An Audio Postmortem
Speakers: Raphael Joffres (Sandfall Interactive), Maxance Playez (Sandfall Interactive), Olivier Penchenier (Sandfall Interactive)
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: Entry-Level
Track: Audio, Game & Production Technology
Format: Lecture
Speakers: Euna Park (That's No Moon), Shayna Moon (CD Projekt RED)
Location: Room 306, South Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Visual Development
Format: Roundtable
Balancing TCGs with Power Sorting
Speaker: Nathan Heiss (Heiss Games LLC)
Location: Room 3016, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: Intermediate
Track: Design
Format: Lecture
Speakers: Bo Mei (GoodDay Solution), Chase Shi (Blizzard Entertainment)
Location: Room 301, South Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Culture & Sustainability
Format: Roundtable
Bringing Narrative to 'Disney Dreamlight Valley'
Speaker: Josh Labelle (Gameloft Montreal)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Narrative & Performance
Format: Lecture
Designing Crush-Worthy Characters in 'Love and Deepspace'
Speaker: Xianzi Feng (Infold Games (Papergames))
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: Entry-Level
Track: Visual Development
Format: Lecture
From Reliable to Respected: Breaking Free of the Good Job Trap
Speaker: Cecile Hemery (Walayance)
Location: Room 208, South Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: Entry-Level
Track: Culture & Sustainability, Career
Format: Workshop
GDC Masters: 50 Years in Games and a Legacy for Creators
Speaker: Don Daglow (Sausalito Games Inc.)
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Culture & Sustainability, Independent Development
Format: Lecture
Game Funding: Lessons from Outersloth
Speakers: Victoria Tran (Innersloth), Forest Willard (Innersloth)
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Independent Development, Business Strategy
Format: Lecture
Local Game Community Organizers Forum
Speakers: Sandra Pinzon (Tan Grande y Jugando), Marlena Abraham (Steel Wool Studios/Bit Bridge), Michael Lee (Another Axiom), Daniel Lin (Schell Games/Bit Bridge)
Location: Room 2014, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: Entry-Level
Track: Culture & Sustainability
Format: Forum
Matchmaker as Code: A Constraint-Based Approach to Cross-Platform Multiplayer
Speaker: Albert Puertolas (Gameloft)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: Entry-Level
Track: Game & Production Technology, Design
Format: Lecture
Modernizing the Rendering of Minecraft
Speaker: A.J. Fairfield (Mojang; Microsoft)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Visual Development, Game & Production Technology
Format: Lecture
Speakers: Nico Williams (Unknown Worlds), Shayna Moon (CD Projekt RED)
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Team Leadership, Production
Format: Roundtable
The Year in Live Service Games - 2026 Edition
Speakers: Dave Rohrl (Mobile Game Doctor), Steve Meretzky (PeopleFun), Scott Hartsman
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Product Management, Design
Format: Microtalks
Tools Technology Roundtable Day 1
Speaker: Geoff Evans (Nvidia)
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Game & Production Technology
Format: Roundtable
Speaker: Alexis Denance (Ubisoft Da Nang)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Design
Format: Lecture
Uplifting Latine Game Devs Here, There, and Everywhere Roundtable (Presented by the IGDA)
Speaker: Elaine Gómez (Midnight Hour Games)
Location: Room 304, South Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Culture & Sustainability, Discovery & Marketing
Format: Roundtable
Speakers: Jason Keyser (VFX Apprentice), Ellie Koorlander (Creative Assembly)
Location: Room 312, South Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Visual Development
Format: Roundtable
From the Ground Up: Rethinking Quality in Games
Speakers: Aniruddha Pawar (Ubisoft), Jawad Shakil (Ubisoft)
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Game & Production Technology
Format: Lecture
Speakers: Bo Crutcher (Blindlight), Jennifer Hale, William Beaman (Halp Network), Patrick Michalak (Insomniac Games), Kal-El Bogdanove
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: Entry-Level
Track: Audio
Format: Panel
Creating a Culture of Sustainability in Tabletop Games
Speaker: Carol Mertz (Independent/Green Games Guide)
Location: Room 3016, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: All
Track: Culture & Sustainability, Design
Format: Lecture
Etudes and Actors: Owlcat's Tooling for Highly Branched Narrative
Speaker: Alexey Drobyshevsky (Owlcat Games)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: Intermediate
Track: Narrative & Performance
From Beautiful to Playable: Texture Compression Secrets Every Game Artist Should Know
Speaker: Jad Deeb (Jin&Jaw LTD/Omeda Studios)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: Entry-Level
Track: Visual Development, Design
Format: Lecture
Generative Recommender Post-trained by Reinforcement Learning in Video Games
Speaker: Dong Fang (LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS)
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level: Advanced
Track: Game & Production Technology
Format: Lecture
