As those of you who follow my Twitter know, I’ve just recently returned from GDC (right after PAX East, so don’t ever doubt what a warrior I am). I saw so many awesome games, attended tons of fun events, and ate all of the delicious cheeses laid out for my pleasure.

Sistahs Are Doin It!

An awesome occurrence during GDC was how much more of a presence women had this year. There was the 1ReasontoBe panel, the Women in Games panel, the Women in Games Awards, and Anita Sarkeesian’s talk on trolls, all of which were well-received, insightful and inspiring. It is a great time to be a women in games…changes are occurring, and I truly feel that this is the year that will be looked back on as the turning point.

Along with the panels were the games themselves. Of the folks I spoke with at GDC, ALL of them had playable female characters in their games. This is a big step up from last year. Check out my additional GDC articles to read more about a few of the games, such as Guacamelee and Blackwell Epiphany.

Project SHIELD FTW

I had the opportunity to check out Nvidia’s Project SHIELD hands-on as well. I had a quick talk with the booth hunk and learned about a few interesting capabilities involving its streaming abilities. He mentioned playing games on your computer while laying in bed instead of having to sit up at your desk. The console can stream from your computer anywhere that your wifi can reach. I sat for a while playing Borderlands 2 and feeling awesome, but I found myself using it more like a controller than a screen. It was VERY hard to read menus on the smaller screen. My friend Jonelle was playing Skyrim next to me, and she said it was impossible to read anything. The gentleman informed us that they were working with developers on creating versions for Project SHIELD with bigger text, so that was exciting!

Extreme Reality Showed Me the Future

Another amazing piece of technology came from Extreme Reality, who you may remember from my meeting with them at CES. Well they’ve accomplished even more now, and their software now works for iOS games. In other words, not only can devs create motion controlled games for the PC without consumers needing to buy any peripherals, but they can also now develop motion controlled games for iPhones and iPads! The new possibilities are pretty exciting. They are also working on getting the technology running on Android as well.

Reasons Why GDC is My Favorite

I also had a ball playing around in the arcade area. I learned how to play the arcade versions of Donkey Kong, Crystal Palace and Mortal Kombat Ultimate. I also played Street Fighter on Sega Genesis and Donkey Kong Country on the Super Nintendo. While drinking wine. And eating cheese. You don’t really understand my joy right now, do you? You could never understand.

I had an awesome time at GDC, and I can’t wait to attend next year! For more pictures, Like our Facebook page and check them out!