The Global Gathering for Everyone Who Make Games Happen
Rooted in decades of legacy, GDC has set the global standard for technical excellence, creative innovation, and the connections that drive the industry forward.
The Festival of Gaming expands that legacy. Across five days, every discipline, every role, and every stage of the game-making lifecycle is on one program – from design and code to publishing, marketing, and investment. It’s still the rigorous, developer-trusted content you expect from GDC, now amplified with broader perspectives, new interactive formats, and more opportunities to learn, collaborate, and celebrate together.
This 40th edition marks an expansion of everything GDC stands for: A festival of ideas, innovation, and imagination. A space that reflects your journey, your role, and your future in games.
We also want to give a big thank you to the GDC Advisory Board.
Mission
They say that every shipped, successful game is a miracle. It takes vision, collaboration, and resilience to make it happen.
At GDC, we believe in miracles. The GDC Festival of Gaming is where the entire games industry comes together to learn, connect, collaborate and celebrate. If you make games happen, welcome home.
The Journey
How It Started
GDC began in 1988 as a small, peer-to-peer meetup of game developers – literally in a living room – built on curiosity, candor, and shared problem-solving. Those early gatherings became the definitive annual meeting place for professionals who build interactive entertainment.
How It Grew
Through the ’90s and 2000s, GDC became the global destination for technical learning, iconic postmortems, platform shifts, and industry-wide dialogue – adding cornerstones like the Independent Games Festival (IGF) and the Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA).
What GDC is Today
GDC Festival of Gaming is the modern expression of GDC’s original spirit: a five-day, city-wide celebration built for how games are made now. The Festival brings the full B2B game-making ecosystem together to learn, connect, and celebrate – with rigor, scale, and community at its heart.