Mark DeLoura's decades-long career in games includes roles ranging from Nintendo engineer to White House senior advisor. A longtime and passionate developer advocate, this year he's been tapped to help reinvent the industry's largest annual gathering, GDC.

DeLoura outlines the changes coming to this year's conference, defines what "festival" means in the context of GDC, and previews the ambitious goals for its future. But your nice hosts also raise concerns about the elimination of the lowest-priced passes, the accessibility of new programming, and the critical issue of attendee safety now that more official GDC events serve alcohol.

Whether you have or are planning to attend GDC, are one of its critics, or just want to know more about how the industry creates and manages its community, this episode is a must-listen.

• Your nice hosts will be at GDC 2026, March 9th - 13th, 2026 in San Francisco. Look for our annual GDC special episode(s) then.
• Mark DeLoura on Bluesky
• Mark DeLoura on LinkedIn
• HITLab - Human Interface Technology Lab - University of Washington
• Game Programming Gems - Mark DeLoura
• Dr. Miguel Luengo-Oroz (MalariaSpot) - Online game & crowdsourcing & malaria - The International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases, YouTube
• About FoldIt
• Video games owe a lot to President Obama's administration - Brian Crecente, Polygon

• Mark DeLoura also co-hosts a podcast! His weekly gaming news/discussion show, Boss Rush, is available on YouTube!

• After the discussion, DeLoura turned the tables on your nice hosts and asked a few questions of his own. It didn't fit into the episode, but we saved it and put it up as a Patreon exclusive bonus segment!

Reinventing GDCThe annual Game Developers Conference is changing - Michael McWhertor, PolygonCannes Lions International Festival of Creativity - WikipediaBlack Hat - Upcoming EventsGDC Passes & Pricing - Game Developer ConferenceSeattle Indies SLICECalling partners for GDC 2026! - Game DeveloperGames Industry GatheringFemale Game Devs Open Up About Harassment And Drink Spiking At GDC - Ahmad Hassan, RespawnFirstAmir Satvat's Games Jobs Resources