The 2024 Game Developers Conference will take place next month in March, as part of which both Microsoft and Xbox teams will be present to “engage and empower” developers, publishers, and technology partners around the world.
“Our message is simple: Microsoft and Xbox are here to enhance your game and empower your team.”
GDC will feature speakers from Xbox, Activision Blizzard, Zenimax, and even King demonstrating “groundbreaking in-game innovations” and “community-building strategies.” Microsoft will also host talks highlighting new tools, software, and services that can benefit developers and increase player engagement.
Below is the complete schedule provided by Microsoft’s website. Titles featured include Call of Duty, Hi-Fi RUSH, Warcraft, Diablo IV, Minecraft, Pillars of Eternity, and more.
Monday, March 18th
Skyscraper Zombies: Advances in Call of Duty Systems for Giant AI
speaker: Andrew Hoyt (Treyarch, Gameplay Engineer)
date: Monday, March 18th
time: 3:50pm – 4:20pm
Tuesday, March 19th
H2O in H3LL: Different forms of water in Diablo IV
speaker: Aaron Aikman (Lead Technical Artist, Graphics, Blizzard Entertainment)
date: Tuesday, March 19th
time: 10:50am – 11:50am
Synergy of architecture and structural engineering in game art and design
speaker: Joshua Haun (Environmental Expert Artist, Activision)
date: Tuesday, March 19th
time: 10:50am – 11:50am
10 Years of Success: How Farm Heroes Saga has served players for 10 years
speaker: Sabrina Carmona (Deputy Head of Farm Heroes Saga, King)
date: Tuesday, March 19th
time: 2:40pm – 3:40pm
Audio Summit: How do I turn on audio for casual game players?
speaker: Dominique Devoucaux (Head of Audio, King)
date: Tuesday, March 19th
time: 4:40pm – 5:10pm
Wednesday, March 20th
Developing Hi-Fi RUSH “in the opposite direction” and finding a positive gameplay loop
speaker: John Johanas (Tango Gameworks Game Director)
date: Wednesday, March 20th
time: 9am to 10am
The First 30 Years of Warcraft: Shaping the Game Universe
speaker: John Hite (Franchise General Manager, Warcraft Franchise, Blizzard Entertainment)
date: Wednesday, March 20th
time: 9am to 10am
Pillars of Hell: Realizing Diablo IV’s Artistic Vision
speaker: John Mueller (Blizzard Entertainment, Art Director)
date: Wednesday, March 20th
time: 9am to 10am
Sweet Stats: What We Learned About 10 Years and Over 15,000 Levels of Candy Crush Content
Speaker: Jan Wedekind (King Head of Central Insights) and Xavier Guardiola (King Director of Data Science)
date: Wednesday, March 20th
time: 9am to 10am
Xbox Product Inclusion Framework and the Gateway to Inclusive Growth
speaker: Katy Jo Wright (Senior Director, Gaming for Everyone, Microsoft)
date: Wednesday, March 20th
time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Automated testing of shader code
speaker: Keith Stockdale (Senior Software Engineer, Rare Ltd)
date: Wednesday, March 20th
time: 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Diablo IV – Audio System Details “Living Audio”
Speaker: Chris Giampa (Audio Director, Blizzard Entertainment) and Michael Bartnett (Software Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment)
date: Wednesday, March 20th
time: 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Optimize your game development workflow with Visual Studio and AI
Speaker: David Li (Game Developer Product Manager, Microsoft) and Greg Denton (Principal Product Manager, Microsoft)
date: Wednesday, March 20th
time: 2:00pm – 3:00pm
All about Azure and OpenAI for game development
Speaker: Jon Kefaloukos (Strategic Account Director for Gaming, Azure, Microsoft) and Uthappa Kattera Chengappa (Lead Cloud Solutions Architect, Gaming, Azure, Microsoft)
date: Wednesday, March 20th
time: 3:30pm – 4:30pm
10 Years in Tamriel: The Success of the Elder Scrolls
speaker: Matt Firor (Studio Director/President of ZeniMax Online Studios)
date: Wednesday, March 20th
time: 5pm to 6pm
Hi-Fi RUSH 3D toon rendering
Speaker: Kosuke Tanaka (Tango Gameworks Lead Graphics Programmer) and Takashi Komada (Tango Gameworks Graphics/Physics Programmer)
date: Wednesday, March 20th
time: 5pm to 6pm
A view from above: Designing engaging quests in Diablo IV
speaker: Harrison Pink (Senior Quest Designer II, Blizzard Entertainment)
date: Wednesday, March 20th
time: 5pm to 6pm
Thursday, March 21st
Diablo IV: The Art of Open World Sanctuary
Speaker: Mahreen Fatima (Senior Environment Artist, Blizzard Entertainment), Sam Gao (Environment Artist, Blizzard Entertainment), Justin Whitehead (Associate Material Artist, Environments, Blizzard Entertainment)
date: Thursday, March 21st
time: 10am – 11am
Leveling Up: How AI’s innovative role in level automation creation drives business value in Candy Crush Saga
speaker: Anna Hernandelius (King, Director of Content) and Sahar Asadi (King, Director of AI Labs)
date: Thursday, March 21st
time: 10am – 11am
Keep your online community healthy
Speaker: Jennifer Mills-Perov (Principal Product Manager, Gaming Trust and Safety, Microsoft) and Ivory Harvey (Senior Technical Program Manager, Gaming Trust and Safety, Microsoft)
date: Thursday, March 21st
time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
DirectX State of the Union features Work Graph and introduces DirectSR
Speaker: Shawn Hargreaves (Direct3D, Development Manager, Microsoft), Austin Kinross (PIX Developer Lead, Microsoft), Wessam Bahnassi (Principal Engineer, Development Technology, Nvidia), and Rob Martin (Fellow Software Engineer, AMD)
date: Thursday, March 21st
time: 12:45am – 1:45pm
Minecraft players at the center of a big data universe
speaker: Francisco Rius (Head of Data at Mojang Studio)
date: Thursday, March 21st
time: 12:45pm – 1:45pm
MergeBot: Activision’s merging and resolution infrastructure
speaker: Damianos Gkouzkouris (Activision Senior Tools Engineer)
date: Thursday, March 21st
time: 3:00pm – 3:30pm
How PlayFab contributed to the success of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Speaker: CJ Williams (Director of Product Management, Microsoft Game Creator Services, Microsoft) and Rob Fox (Designer and Producer, Gun Interactive)
date: Thursday, March 21st
time: 4pm to 5pm
Operational Innovation: How Xbox is leveraging military talent in gaming
Speaker: Fiona Cherbak (Xbox Game Studios Lead Talent Program Manager), iAsia Brown (Xbox Game Studios Publishing Senior Producer), Lisa Elswick (USO Vice President of Transition Programs), Jenn Panattoni (Xbox/Microsoft, Head of Xbox Social Impact) Jason Coon (Xbox Safety Operations Director, Xbox/Microsoft)
date: Thursday, March 21st
time: 4pm to 5pm
Friday, March 22nd
Gaming Career Seminar: Who are you? Build your profile outside of work
speaker: Ashley Poprik (Writer, High Moon Studio)
date: Friday, March 22nd
time: 10:10am – 10:40am
Diablo IV delivery
Speaker: Michael Bybee (Production Director, Blizzard Entertainment) and Tiffany Wat (Production Director, Blizzard Entertainment)
date: Friday, March 22nd
time: 1:30pm – 2:30pm
Building the Minecraft creator platform block by block
speaker: Kayla Kinnunen (Mojang Studios Executive Producer)
date: Friday, March 22nd
time: 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Adoption of art performance in “Diablo IV”
speaker: Evan Edwards (Senior Technical Artist I, Graphics, Blizzard Entertainment)
date: Friday, March 22nd
time: 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Visual Effects Roundtable Day 3
speaker: Gabriel Boileau (VFX Artist, Activision Blizzard)
date: Friday, March 22nd
time: 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Xbox also sponsors the Independent Games Festival. The festival also includes networking events and will be held on two days. March 21, 2024.
Of course, if any interesting news emerges from these conferences, we’ll be sure to let you know. Are any of the above conferences of interest to you? Please leave a comment below.
