Austin GDC October 5-8 2010

News & General Discussion
1

Just curious if Unity or any Unity Middleware companies will be going to Austin GDC in October? The list of Exhibitors looks slim this year. Garage Games isn’t on the list and neither is Unity. 2-3 years ago this list was pages long. Now it is almost nothing. Since I live in Houston this is the only GDC I get to go to. This is where I got contacts to buy Torque and Unreal engines for my projects at work (oil and gas industry) but with the list shrinking each year it looks like the Austin GDC might be dieing. Apparently the Exhibitor Registration Page says “more info coming soon” which could explain the lack of exhibitors.

Anyone else plan on attending?

Austin Tx
October 5-8 2010
Austin Convention Center
http://www.gdconline.com/index.html

List of Exhibitors:
Allegorithmic
Autodesk Inc.
Bigpoint Inc
Bioware/Electronic Arts
BRADIC
CCP Games
CPMStar
Dell
DeVry University
DigiPen Institute of Technology
Dolby Laboratories
Epic Games Inc.
FileCatalyst
Hansoft
InComm
Internap
iovation, Inc.
Mixamo
Multimedia Games Inc.
Offerpal Media
Parature
Pillsbury
Rixty, Inc.
SoftLayer Technologies
Surfpin Ltd
Texas Film Commission / Texas Economic Development
Texas State Technical College - Waco
The Guildhall at SMU
Umbra Software
VASCO Data Security
Versant Corporation
Vindicia Inc.
Wacom Technology
Wake County Economic Development
xaitment Inc

2

Is the Austin GDC (now called Online GDC) just not that popular? I mean I know the GDC in California is the big one but why don’t many vendors go to the Austin GDC?

3

Many companies, like us, have to choose their conferences carefully and frankly, why go to two GDC events in the USA as opposed to one here and one elsewhere? When faced with those sorts of decisions GDC in SF is almost always the one to go to.

For example, take Unity Technologies. We are far more active in terms of conferences and events this year than we were last year, just look at how active we’ve been and are being this year:

But with that in mind, we opted to not have an expo booth at GDC Online in Austin, that after being on the expo floor the last two years in a row. Flat out, booths are expensive (beyond belief if you’ve never had to secure one), and for us we opted to not spend that money and instead spend it elsewhere, going to and hosting events in other markets. Now, we’ll be at GDC Online (I’m a speaker and we’ll have others there in attendance), but just not in an exhibitor role.

So in the end, I really do think it breaks down to a cost/benefit decision.

4

While Austin is starting to grow into a large gaming mecha, they’re not quite there yet. SF and LA are still the places to be. After that come places like Austin and Seattle.

But Austin looks like they’re growing, so I wonder what the landscape will look like in 5 yrs.

5

is the Unity3d.com store down? I was going to look into getting tickets to Unite 2010 But I cant seem to load the page.

6

Yes, we’re experiencing some issues with our web shop and have appropriate IT SOS calls underway.

7

Zergcow,

Just thought I would let you know that we are putting together the first Unity meetup in Houston, the week after GDC Online (I’m going…)

Check out this link for further details Houston Unity Group | Meetup

We’ll be meeting at HCC where they are currently using Unity in their game dev courses. Hope to see you there!

8

I will be attending.

9

Awsome, I will be there! thanks for the info!

10

Cool, I’ll try to make that Houston meetup. I wonder if I’ll be the oldest one there? :?

11

Ouch. I live in SA, but it’s in the middle of the week and costs $$$. But I guess that’s to keep the hobbyist at bay.

Which is me.

12

Well, Unity booth or no, I plan to be at GDC Austin (fooey on the new “online” name). But without the Unity booth, how are we going to meet up?

13

I say we plan a day and location. dont they useually have a food court or bar or something? we could just all meet up there one of those days at lunch. Unfortunatly since I have to give demos all week and work full time making these virtual training environments it will be hard for me to make it for more than one day. In fact I think I will only make it for the 5th if I make it at all.

I say we all plan to meet up at high noon in the food/bar area on the 5th :slight_smile: Who is down?

14

Sounds fine to me. :slight_smile:

15

HiggyB is speaking on Weds (1:30PM) - I say we all sit in the back and heckle…

JK - looking forward to the session.

We could plan to meet shortly prior to the session on Weds… Maybe kindof a group huddle outside the door, or lunch. Maybe Tom might even join his endearing fan club :slight_smile:

16

That sounds like a good idea, we could meet briefly before and after his session :slight_smile:

17

We just had a Unity meetup here in Austin earlier today! Snoop (Fernando) was there. If anyone wants to be on the list to hear about future Austin meetings, shoot me a PM or go here.

Also, I’d definitely be into meeting up around the Austin GDC Online event, so Where and When? GDC Online is at the convention center? Perhaps we could meet at one corner of the building and just walk to a cafe or bar downtown.

18

The talk at expo hall 1 from 1:30 to 2:30. We could meet at the red star below which is right through the doors from Expo Hall 1 if I’m not mistaken. Why don’t we just meet there at 3 pm?

If anyone wants to meet before the talk, maybe at noon, to go get some lunch, then post something!

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19

looks like I wont be able to make it to Austin GDC. Bummer. But I will be at the Houston Unity Group meetup.

20

Anybody coming?