I returned late on Friday evening from Game Developers Conference 2005 held in San Francisco, CA. I had fun, though I am beginning to have misgivings about the direction that it is heading in.

There were a number of problems with GDC this year. The food was lacklustre. Many panels were insipid. Conference rooms were poorly planned. The Expo floor was un-inspiring.

The expo part of GDC is becoming ever more like a mini-E3. Even though there were a number of innovative products shown, and I was very happy to see a lot of smaller companies showing off their exciting wares, GameStudio and GarageGames to name just two, there was the feeling of the big guys pushing out everyone else and wooing developers with razzle dazzle rather than substance.

Microsoft. Food. Pavillion. Dreamer’s Guild.

Steve Woita. Atari.

Tom Sloper. Activision.

Jim Charne. Activision. Roundtables.

Jeff Buchanan. Activision. Midway. Long hair.

John Harris. The John Harris.

IGF.

Simon Carless. GDM/Gamasutra.

Press Office. Bad food.

Crappy bandwidth.

Felt bigger than last year.

Benno. Santa Cruz Games.

— Justin Lloyd

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