Independent Games Festival 2020 now accepting submissions

Informa Tech, the organizers of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2020, are now accepting submissions to present lectures, roundtables, and panels for the Core Concepts part of the event, taking place from Wednesday through Friday of the GDC week.

Proposals will be open from now until Thursday, August 15th at 11:59 PM PT. GDC 2020 marks the 34th edition of the conference, which returns to the Moscone Center in San Francisco, March 16-20, 2020.

Today’s call for submissions specifically involves the sessions that take place on Wednesday through Friday of the conference, encompassing these discipline-based tracks:

• Advocacy
• Audio
• Business & Marketing
• Design
• Production & Team Management
• Programming
• Visual Arts

The above content is now known as the Core Concepts or ‘Core’ content, changing its previous branding from “Main Conference,” to emphasize the essential nature of the talks that take place later in the GDC week alongside the Expo Hall. So if you have a discipline-focused talk idea, we want to hear it!

Separately, the Monday and Tuesday content at GDC 2020, previously known as “Summits”, “Tutorials,” “Bootcamps,” and “Dev Days,” is also undergoing a clarifying name change. All Monday/Tuesday content will now be named Summits, and there will be more than 20 Summits to choose from for GDC 2020, including traditional offerings such as the Indie Games Summit and newer programs such as the Machine Learning Summit. The Summits will be open for submissions starting August 29th through September 30th, 2019.

The labels for the GDC 2020 passes will also reflect these new simplified names (Core Pass, Summits Pass, and All Access Pass) when registration opens later in the year.

The GDC Advisory Board is currently seeking submissions from game developers with expertise in any of the following Core Concepts tracks: Advocacy, Audio, Business & Marketing, Design, Production & Team Management, Programming, and Visual Arts.

Those looking to submit Core content should first review the submission guidelines and track topics prior to submitting. They should also know that the submission process is divided into a three-phase system:

• Phase I - open call for submissions and initial advisory board review
• Phase II - submission declines or conditional Phase 2 acceptances sent, pending the submission of additional requested materials for advisory board review
• Phase III - review of Phase 2 resubmissions and final acceptances and declines sent

The GDC Advisory Board will review and determine submissions based on the criteria of concept, depth, organization, credentials, and takeaway.

GDC organizers aim to achieve diversity of voice, experience, and perspective. When considering who would be best to speak on behalf of your company or department, it is strongly encouraged to take this goal into consideration.

For more details on the submission process or GDC 2020, in general, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook or Twitter. The GDC Vault website - www.gdcvault.com - offers access to a wide variety of free GDC 2019 slides & session videos, and GDC All-Access Pass holders and individual Vault subscribers get access to hundreds of video sessions from this and previous GDC events.