In San Francisco, hear game makers explain how they made it.
GDC Festival of Gaming 2027
GDC 2027 is now called the GDC Festival of Gaming, from 1 to 5 March at Moscone Center in San Francisco, with more than 700 talks, workshops and summits. There is a new Business Hall for deal-making; the Festival Hall opens Tuesday to Thursday; the Game Developers Choice Awards are on Tuesday night and the Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday; Friday is Career Day. The award winners below are 2026 examples.
Most GDC talks are developers explaining how they solved one concrete problem: tuning how a combat system feels, why a story beat was rewritten three times, how sound follows the picture.
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The parts that just feel fun when you play get taken apart and explained here.
Conferences
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2026: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wins Game of the Year
At last year’s Game Developers Choice Awards, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won Game of the Year, Best Debut, Visual Art, Narrative and Audio, five awards in all. It brings turn-based and real-time play together.
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The awards are voted by developers, so the winners show what peers admire most.
2027-03-01 to 03-05; Festival Hall Tuesday to Thursday, GDCA on Tuesday night, IGF Awards on Wednesday night, Career Day on Friday.
America/Los_AngelesMore programme details
Hear game makers on their hardest problems
2026: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wins Game of the Year
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Venue & travel
Moscone Center
Follow official venue guidance and temporary public-transport plans; do not rely on event-day parking.
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Entry & companions
Each pass opens its own areas: the Festival pass covers all talks, the Festival and Business Halls and GDC Nights; hall-only passes do not include the main programme. Academic passes need an accredited school email.
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Tickets & access
Super Early rates USD 99–1,149 (until 9 October)
Accessible seating, companion policies and assistance vary by venue or ticket type; confirm with the organiser before purchase.
Sources & image credits
Dates and entry details refer to this edition; individual sessions may differ.
Only confirmed dates, competition formats or admission details for this edition are used. Unannounced competitors, exhibitors, films and guests are not promised to appear.
In one week, new films premiere, new bands play small bars and founders pitch their next idea: go to Austin if you want to see things before everyone else.
On stage, the people running Cloudflare, Atlassian and Arm; on the floor, row after row of young companies: one week to hear where the big firms are heading and see what the small ones are betting on.
For four days, companies building networks, phones and AI from around the world bring their newest work to Barcelona: trying it and asking face to face beats reading a hundred news stories.
Spain · Barcelona
2027 prices were not published on the checked pageWhy Go
GOWOAH · 走哇!
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