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As GDC, the world\u2019s largest game developer conference, returns to San Francisco, Microsoft and Xbox will be there to engage and empower developers, publishers, and technology partners across the industry.\u00a0We are committed to supporting game developers on any platform, anywhere in the world, at every stage of development. Our message is simple: Microsoft and Xbox are here to help power your games and empower your teams.<\/p>\n
From March 18 – 22, the Xbox Lobby Lounge<\/b> in the Moscone Center South can\u2019t be missed \u2013 an easy meeting point, and a first step toward learning more about the ID@Xbox publishing program, the Developer Acceleration Program (DAP) for underrepresented creators, Azure cloud gaming services, and anything else developers might need.<\/p>\n
GDC <\/b>features dozens of speakers from across Xbox, Activision, Blizzard, King and Zenimax who will\u00a0demonstrate groundbreaking in-game innovations and share community-building strategies. Microsoft technology teams, with support from partners, will also host talks that spotlight new tools, software and services that help increase developer velocity, grow player engagement and help creators grow. See below for the Conference programming details.
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Xbox is also sponsoring the Independent Games Festival (IGF) <\/b>and our Xbox Gaming for Everyone<\/b> employee communities are coming together to host a networking event for underrepresented developers and their allies. We hope you can join us at the G4E event on Thursday March 21st from 11am to 4pm at Minna Gallery (111 Minna St. in San Francisco), located minutes from the Moscone center.\u00a0To learn more and to register for the event, please read our full GDC 2024 Gaming for Everyone Community Networking Lounge & Scholarship Program announcement<\/a>.<\/u> Skyscraper Zombies: Advancing ‘Call of Duty’s’ Systems for Giant AI H2O in H3LL: The Various Forms of Water in Diablo IV<\/b><\/a> The Synergy of Architecture and Structural Engineering in Game Art and Design<\/b><\/a> Harvesting 10 Years Of Success: How Farm Heroes Saga Has Super-Served It’s Players For A Decade<\/b><\/a> Audio Summit: How do you make casual games players turn their audio on?<\/b><\/a> Developing Hi-Fi RUSH “Backwards” and Finding Our Positive Gameplay Loop<\/b><\/a> The First 30 Years of ‘Warcraft’: The Making of a Game Universe<\/b><\/a> The Pillars of Hell: Achieving the Artistic Vision of Diablo IV<\/b><\/a> Sugary Statistics: What we have learned about Candy Crush content after 10 years and over 15,000 levels<\/b><\/a> Xbox\u2019s Product Inclusion Framework & Inclusive Growth Doorways Automated Testing of Shader Code<\/b><\/a> Diablo IV \u2013 Audio Systems Deep Dive \u201cLiving Audio\u201d<\/b><\/a> Optimizing Game Development Workflows with Visual Studio and AI All things Azure & OpenAI for Game Development<\/b><\/a> 10 Years in Tamriel: Success of The Elder Scrolls<\/b><\/a> 3D Toon Rendering in Hi-Fi RUSH<\/b><\/a> The View From Above: Designing Compelling Quests for ‘Diablo IV’<\/b><\/a> ‘Diablo IV’: The Art of Open World Sanctuary<\/b><\/a> Levelling Up: How AI’s Transformative Role in Level Automation Production Adds Business Value in ‘Candy Crush Saga’<\/b><\/a> Keeping Online Communities Healthy<\/b><\/a> DirectX State of the Union Featuring Work Graphs and Introducing DirectSR<\/b><\/a> Minecraft Players at the Center of the Universe of Big Data<\/b><\/a> MergeBot: Activision’s Merge and Resolve Infrastructure<\/b><\/a> How PlayFab Helped Texas Chainsaw Massacre Succeed<\/b><\/a> Operation Innovation: How Xbox Employs Military Talents in Gaming<\/b><\/a> Game Career Seminar: Who Are You? Building Your Profile Outside the Job<\/b><\/a> Shipping Diablo IV<\/b><\/a> Building the ‘Minecraft’ Creator Platform Block-by-Block<\/b><\/a> Embracing Art Performance on ‘Diablo IV’<\/b><\/a>
\n<\/p>\nMonday, March 18<\/b>
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\n <\/b><\/a>Speaker: <\/b>Andrew Hoyt (Gameplay Engineer, Treyarch)
\nDate: <\/b>Monday, March 18
\nTime: <\/b>3:50 pm – 4:20 pm<\/p>\nTuesday, March 19<\/b>
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\n Speaker: <\/b>Aaron Aikman (Lead Technical Artist, Graphics, Blizzard Entertainment)
\nDate: <\/b>Tuesday, March 19
\n Time: <\/b>10:50 am – 11:50 am
\n Speaker: <\/b>Joshua Haun\u00a0(Expert Environment Artist, Activision)
\nDate: <\/b>Tuesday, March 19
\n Time: <\/b>10:50 am – 11:50 am
\n Speaker: <\/b>Sabrina Carmona (VP Head of Farm Heroes Saga, King)
\n Date: <\/b>Tuesday, March 19
\n Time: <\/b>2:40 pm – 3:40 pm
\n Speaker: <\/b>Dominique Devoucoux (Head of Audio, King)
\nDate: <\/b>Tuesday, March 19
\n Time: <\/b>4:40 pm – 5:10 pmWednesday, March 20<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n Speaker: <\/b>John Johanas (Game Director, Tango Gameworks)
\n Date: <\/b>Wednesday, March 20
\n Time: <\/b>9:00 am – 10:00 am
\n Speaker: <\/b>John Hight (Franchise General Manager, Warcraft Franchise, Blizzard Entertainment)
\n Date: <\/b>Wednesday, March 20
\n Time: <\/b>9:00 am – 10:00 am
\n Speaker: <\/b>John Mueller (Art Director, Blizzard Entertainment)
\n Date: <\/b>Wednesday, March 20
\n Time: <\/b>9:00 am – 10:00 am
\n Speakers: <\/b>Jan Wedekind (Head of Central Insights, King) and Xavier Guardiola (Data Science Director, King)
\n Date: <\/b>Wednesday, March 20
\n Time: <\/b>9:00 am – 10:00 am
\n Speaker: <\/b>Katy Jo Wright (Senior Director, Gaming for Everyone, Microsoft)
\n Date: <\/b>Wednesday, March 20
\n Time: <\/b>12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
\n Speaker: <\/b>Keith Stockdale (Senior Software Engineer, Rare Ltd)
\nDate: <\/b>Wednesday, March 20
\n Time: <\/b>2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
\n Speakers: <\/b>Kris Giampa (Audio Director, Blizzard Entertainment) and Michael Bartnett\u00a0 (Software Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment)
\n Date: <\/b>Wednesday, March 20
\n Time: <\/b>2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
\n Speakers: <\/b>David Li (Game Developer Product Manager, Microsoft) and Greg Denton (Principal Product Manager, Microsoft)
\n Date: <\/b>Wednesday, March 20
\n Time: <\/b>2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
\n Speakers: <\/b>Jon Kefaloukos (Strategic Account Director Gaming at Azure , Microsoft) and Uthappa Kattera Chengappa (Lead Cloud Solution Architect Gaming at Azure , Microsoft)
\n Date: <\/b>Wednesday, March 20
\n Time: <\/b>3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
\n Speaker: <\/b>Matt Firor (Studio Director \/ President, ZeniMax Online Studios)
\n Date: <\/b>Wednesday, March 20
\n Time: <\/b>5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
\n Speakers: <\/b>Kosuke Tanaka (Lead Graphics Programmer, Tango Gameworks) and Takashi Komada (Graphics\/Physics Programmer, Tango Gameworks)
\n Date: <\/b>Wednesday, March 20
\n Time: <\/b>5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
\n Speaker: <\/b>Harrison Pink (Senior Quest Designer II, Blizzard Entertainment)
\nDate: <\/b>Wednesday, March 20
\n Time: <\/b>5:00 pm – 6:00 pmThursday, March 21<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n Speakers: <\/b>Mahreen Fatima (Senior Environment Artist, Blizzard Entertainment), Sam Gao (Environment Artist, Blizzard Entertainment), and Justin Whitehead (Associate Material Artist, Environments, Blizzard Entertainment)
\n Date: <\/b>Thursday, March 21
\n Time: <\/b>10:00 am – 11:00 am
\n Speaker: <\/b>Anna Hernandelius (Product Director Content, King) and Sahar Asadi (Director of AI Labs, King)
\n Date: <\/b>Thursday, March 21
\n Time: <\/b>10:00 am – 11:00 am
\n Speakers: <\/b>Jennifer Mills-Perov (Principal Product Manager Gaming Trust and Safety, Microsoft) and Ivory Harvey (Senior Technical Program Manager Gaming Trust and Safety, Microsoft)
\n Date: <\/b>Thursday, March 21
\n Time: <\/b>11:30 am – 12:30 pm
\n Speakers: <\/b>Shawn Hargreaves (Dev Manager, Direct3D, Microsoft), Austin Kinross (PIX Developer Lead, Microsoft), Wessam Bahnassi (Principal Engineer, Developer Technology, Nvidia), and Rob Martin (Fellow Software Engineer, AMD)
\n Date: <\/b>Thursday, March 21
\n Time: <\/b>12:45 am – 1:45 pm
\n Speaker: <\/b>Francisco Rius (Head of Data at Mojang Studios)
\n Date: <\/b>Thursday, March 21
\n Time: <\/b>12:45 pm – 1:45 pm
\n Speaker: <\/b>Damianos Gkouzkouris (Senior Tools Engineer, Activision)
\n Date: <\/b>Thursday, March 21
\n Time: <\/b>3:00 pm – 3:30 pm
\n Speakers: <\/b>CJ Williams (Director of Product Management Microsoft Game Creator Services, Microsoft) and Rob Fox (Designer and Producer Gun Interactive, Gun Interactive)
\n Date: <\/b>Thursday, March 21
\n Time: <\/b>4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
\n Speakers: <\/b>Fiona Cherbak (Lead Talent Program Manager, Xbox Game Studios), iAsia Brown (Senior Producer, Xbox Game Studios Publishing), Lisa Elswick (Vice President, USO Transition Programs , USO), Jenn Panattoni (Head of Xbox Social Impact, Xbox\/Microsoft), and Jason Coon (Director of Xbox Safety Operations, Xbox\/Microsoft)
\n Date: <\/b>Thursday, March 21
\n Time: <\/b>4:00 pm – 5:00 pmFriday, March 22<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n Speaker: <\/b>Ashley Poprik (Writer, High Moon Studios)
\n Date: <\/b>Friday, March 22
\n Time: <\/b>10:10 am – 10:40 am
\n Speakers: <\/b>Michael Bybee (Production Director, Blizzard Entertainment) and Tiffany Wat\u00a0 (Production Director, Blizzard Entertainment)
\n Date: <\/b>Friday, March 22
\n Time: <\/b>1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
\n Speaker: <\/b>Kayla Kinnunen (Executive Producer, Mojang Studios)
\n Date: <\/b>Friday, March 22
\n Time: <\/b>3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
\n Speaker: <\/b>Evan Edwards (Senior Technical Artist I, Graphics, Blizzard Entertainment)
\nDate: <\/b>Friday, March 22
\n Time: <\/b>3:00 pm – 4:00 pm