Metaverse, NFTs & Blockchain Gaming at Game Developers Conference 2022
The annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) is all set to run from Monday, 21 March 2022 to Friday, 25 March 2022 at the “George R. Moscone Convention Center” in San Francisco, California. After the virtual 2020 and all-digital 2021 GDC event, this year’s hybrid (Both in-person & Virtual) conference is expected to attract 25K+ industry professionals and 500+ exhibitors.
Hailed as one of the biggest game fairs worldwide, “Game Developers Conference” is a mecca for professional video game developers, with an expo, multiple networking events, Independent Games Festival and prestigious “Game Developers Choice Awards“, pipelined for an exhilarating week long spectacle.
Also, the 24th annual IGF Awards and the 22nd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards ceremonies are available to watch for all GDC 2022 pass-holders and the winners will be announced at GDC on Wednesday, March 23, 2022.
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Metaverse, NFTs and Blockchain Gaming Events at GDC 2022
There are 550+ sessions, roundtable, developer summit & workshop features laid out throughout the week, under a broad umbrella of topics like Advocacy, Audio, Business & Marketing, Design, Educators, Game Career Development, Game Narrative, Independent Games, Production & Team Management, Programming, Visual Arts, UX, Free-to-Play, Special Event and VR/AR.
Understanding the overwhelming number of formats at GDC 2022 and budding community interest in Non-Fungible Token development to enhance Gamers playing experience, we’ve screened some of the most captivating sessions related to Metaverse Crypto Projects, NFTs and Blockchain gaming for you.
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GDC 2022 Session: Understanding NFTs – A Sea-Change for F2P Games
For anyone who has been keeping a watch on Game Industry, must’ve noticed the impact of Non-Fungible Tokens on game mechanics, monetization & marketing, this past year. NFTs became a global phenomenon in 2021 and consequently started gaining traction amidst the art, music and online gaming community.
This session under the “Free-to-play” summit at GDC 2022 will be presented by “Jordan Blackman” (Founder of BrightBlack), an experienced F2P professional with client like EA, Ubisoft, Zynga and the Pokémon Company etc. Attendees will get a comprehensive picture about NFTs value in F2P games, ownership of in-game assets as well projections for game development industry.
| Date | Tuesday, 22 March 2022 |
| Time | 3:00 pm – 3:30 pm |
| Location | Room 2010, West Hall |
| Topic | Free-to-Play |
| Pass Type | All Access Pass, Summits Pass, All Access Online Only Pass |
| Experience | In-Person/Virtual |
| Vault Recording | Video |
GDC 2022 Session: How Web 3.0 Can Transform Free to Play Games – A ‘Habbo Hotel’ Case Study
Mika Timonen (Twitter – @Muumiopappa), the Lead Game Designer at Sulake will be presenting this session focused on future of play-to-earn model in changing gaming landscape through the lens of NFTs and Blockchain gaming.
Based out of Helsinki (Finland), Mika is the Founder of “Habbo NFT Avatar project” and the lead game designer for Habbo’s sister game, “Hotel Hideaway”. The session will include case study of “Habbo”, the iconic 21 year old game with over 330M registered users and its expansion into the web 3.0
| Date | Tuesday, 22 March 2022 |
| Time | 3:50 pm – 4:20 pm |
| Location | Room 2002, West Hall |
| Topic | Free-to-Play |
| Pass Type | All Access Pass, Summits Pass |
| Experience | In-Person |
| Vault Recording | Video |
GDC 2022 Session: Ethical Play to Earn Businesses for Decent Human Beings
Patrick Moran, the Vice President of Games at “Kongregate”, will be presenting this session on current P2E games concerns, NFT integration into traditional gaming and the long-term ethics which will determine play-to-earn credibility. Patrick has 20+ year of experience in game design and is one of the few experienced NFT executive leaders in P2E gaming with shipped titles as of GDC 2022.
| Date | Tuesday, 22 March 2022 |
| Time | 4:40 pm – 5:10 pm |
| Location | Room 2014, West Hall |
| Topic | Free-to-Play |
| Pass Type | All Access Pass, Summits Pass |
| Experience | In-Person |
| Vault Recording | Video |
GDC 2022 Session: Blockchain, NFTS, Play-To-Earn…Is It Real or a Farce?
This one hour panel discussion with industry experts like Seth Sivak (CEO, Proletariat Inc.), Lars Doucet (Co-Founder, Level up Labs, LLC), Holly Liu (Partner, PKO Investments), Dave Ranyard (CEO, Dream Reality Interactive) and Katrina Wolfe (Product Director, Laguna Games), will delve both into the current state as well as the future of Blockchain P2E games.
Covering a broad range of topics like “Ownership, Identity & Decentralization” of Blockchain Technology, “Scams/Pyramid Schemes & bad Game experiences” in current P2E games as well as “Platform, Regulatory & Environmental issues” pertaining to Crypto games, this is certainly one of the most sought after session and panel at GDC 2022.
| Date | Tuesday, 22 March 2022 |
| Time | 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm |
| Location | Room 2006, West Hall |
| Topic | Free-to-Play |
| Pass Type | All Access Pass, Summits Pass, All Access Online Only Pass |
| Experience | In-Person/Virtual Livestream |
| Vault Recording | Video |
Sponsored Session: Blockchain and Games: What Every Developer Should Know (Presented by WAX)
This sponsored Session on inclusion of NFTs and Blockchain in game development will be presented by WAX (Worldwide Asset eXchange), a blockchain for NFTs, video games & collectibles with over 400K+ Daily Unique visitors and 12 Million+ WAX Accounts.
Attendees will be presented with an opportunity to pick the brains of David Kim (Head of Games Publishing, WAX Studios, WAX) and Michael Rubinelli (GM, Head of Studio, WAX Studios, WAX), both of whom are game industry veterans with 45+ years of combined experience.
| Date | Wednesday, 23 March 2022 |
| Time | 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm |
| Location | Room 3009, West Hall |
| Topic | – |
| Pass Type | All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Plus Pass, Audio Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass |
| Experience | In-Person |
| Vault Recording | Video |
GDC 2022 Session: How Web3 Games Work (and Sadly Don’t)
William Robinson, a PhD holder in Game Studies and a core contributor at Alliance DAO – a leading Web3 accelerator, will present this session highlighting both the ongoing bad practices in P2E NFT games as well as new ways to reshape Web 3.0 game development.
| Date | Wednesday, 23 March 2022 |
| Time | 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm |
| Location | Room 202, South Hall |
| Topic | – |
| Pass Type | All Access Pass, Core Pass |
| Experience | In-Person |
| Vault Recording | Video |
Sponsored Session: A Journey of Bridging Gaming with Blockchain and NFTs (Presented by LUCKMON)
MC Tang, the CDO & Co-founder at Luckmon, will be presenting this sponsored session Discussing innovation for Web3/Blockchain gaming and NFT integration in game design. Luckmon is working towards developing exclusive Games to win digital in-game collectibles on Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) for a decentralized interactive experience.
| Date | Thursday, 24 March 2022 |
| Time | 2:00 pm – 2:30 pm |
| Location | Room 3022, West Hall |
| Topic | – |
| Pass Type | All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Plus Pass, Audio Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass |
| Experience | In-Person |
| Vault Recording | Not Recorded |
Attendees looking to connect with companies showcasing services related to Metaverse, NFTs and Blockchain gaming can find some of the most prominent Exhibitors and their Floor plan/Booth number in the table below. While the Conference sessions will be taking place each day from 9:30 am-6:30pm PT, the GDC Expo Hours is scheduled for: Wednesday-Thursday: 10am-6pm | Friday: 10am – 3pm
| Exhibitors | Booth Number |
| Wemade | S427 |
| WAX | N2825 |
| The Sandbox | P1840 |
| The Net VR | N3112 |
| The Blockchain Game Alliance | P1839 |
| Thirdverse Inc. | N3011, N3013 |
| Splinterlands | N3146 |
| Red Hat | N2215 |
| Polygon Studios | N2324 |
| Meta | S527 |
| Luckmon | N3131 |
| Leeroy | P1867 |
| International Game Developers Association | P1725 |
| Harmony | P1763 |
| Gamescoin.io | N2321, N3012 |
| FTX | S849 |
| dacoco.io | P1847 |
| Seascape Network | S449 |
| Bitwave | P1838 |
| Backtrace.io | P1753 |
Disclaimer: This article is for general information purposes only. Please visit the official site at gdconf.com for the most up-to-date info about the event.
