San Jose for GDC

This last week tons of game developers from all around the world descended on San Jose for the annual Game Developer Conference. Along with about twenty others from Harmonix, I spent four days shuttling around conference halls and classrooms getting inspired and educated by industry giants from some of the best game studios in the world.

These photos are from the IDGA Awards, which is the Game Industry’s less glamorous equivalent of the Oscars. Guitar Hero was nominated in five categories, including best game, and won three: ‘Innovation’, ‘Audio’, and a special ‘Maverick’ award recognizing Harmonix’s breakthroughs in music gaming. Quite a haul, especially seeing as God of War left empty handed which shocked everyone. ‘Shadow of the Colossus’ won 7 awards, including the biggie ‘Best Game’.


Josh, Greg and Daniel in what I’ll claim as intentional arty silhouette.


Marc and Ryan slurp up complementary drinks at our award show table.


Members of the ‘Shadow of the Colossus’ team, on stage to accept the ‘Game of The Year’ award.


The following night Eric, Will, Daniel and Ethan bask in glory after two awards won at the GANG audio awards show.