GDC 2026: Your Complete Guide to the Festival of Gaming

The Game Developers Conference is no longer called the Game Developers Conference. Starting this year, the event is officially GDC Festival of Gaming, and the 2026 edition runs March 9 through 13 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The rebrand is not just cosmetic. New ticket pricing, a simplified pass structure, split awards ceremonies, and a free public showcase the Saturday before make this the most accessible GDC in years. Whether you are attending in person or following from home, here is everything you need to know.

What Changed with the Rebrand

GDC used to segment access by pass type, track, and day of the week. If you had the wrong badge, entire sessions were off limits. That system is gone.

The new Festival Pass starts at $649, which is 45% cheaper than the old All-Access pass. Every Festival Pass holder gets equal access to all sessions, the expo floor (now called Festival Hall), and networking events for the full week. No more locked doors based on your ticket tier.

A Game Changer Pass ($1,699) adds premium perks: priority seating, the Luminaries Speaker Series for senior executives, the GamePlan facilitated meeting program, and GDC Vault access. A Digital Pass ($799) gives remote attendees access to online networking during the event and GDC Vault content afterward.

GDC is also offering reduced pricing ($200 to $300 off the Festival Pass) for early stage indie studios, startups, and academic attendees through a limited application program.

The Awards: Two Nights, Two Ceremonies

For the first time, the IGF Awards and the Game Developers Choice Awards will be held on separate nights instead of back to back.

IGF Awards: Wednesday, March 11

The 28th annual Independent Games Festival ceremony takes place at 6:30 PM PT on March 11. Baby Steps leads with five nominations across Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Design, Excellence in Narrative, the Nuovo Award, and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Bennett Foddy, Gabe Cuzzillo, and Maxi Boch built the game and published it with Devolver Digital.

Titanium Court follows with four nominations. Blippo+ also earned four nods, including Visual Arts and Audio. The full Grand Prize finalists are Baby Steps, Blippo+, Titanium Court, HORSES, Angeline Era, and Perfect Tides: Station to Station.

Other standouts include Skate Story and Eclipsium in Visual Arts, Skin Deep and Time Flies in Design, and Wednesdays in both Narrative and the Nuovo Award. The nominees were selected from nearly 800 submissions.

GDCA: Thursday, March 12

The 26th annual Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony follows the next night. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 dominates with eight nominations, including Game of the Year, Best Audio, Best Debut, Best Design, Innovation Award, Best Narrative, Best Technology, and Best Visual Art. If you read our review of Clair Obscur, none of this is surprising. A 30 person French studio swept nearly every category.

Ghost of Yotei sits at five nominations. Blue Prince, the puzzle mansion game from solo developer Dogubomb, earned four nominations including Game of the Year and Best Debut. The full Game of the Year slate: Clair Obscur, Blue Prince, Donkey Kong Bananza, Ghost of Yotei, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Split Fiction.

Both ceremonies are open to all GDC passholders and streamed free on the official GDC Twitch channel.

Day of the Devs: Free and Open to Everyone

You do not need a GDC badge for the best indie showcase of the week. Day of the Devs: San Francisco Edition takes over The Midway on Saturday, March 8, one day before GDC starts. The event is free, open to the public, and features over 60 playable indie games.

A smaller Day of the Devs x GDC Pop-Up runs inside the Moscone Center from March 11 to 13 during GDC open hours, giving badge holders a second chance to play games from the main lineup.

GDC Nights

Every evening features a dedicated event:

• Monday: Opening Night Social Mixer
• Tuesday: Austin Wintory’s Developer’s Concert. The Grammy nominated composer behind Journey, Abzu, and Sword of the Sea returns with a live orchestra and surprise guests
• Wednesday: IGF Awards ceremony
• Thursday: Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony

Five Games to Watch at the Show

We already covered five indie games on our GDC radar, including REPLACED (launching March 12), MOUSE: P.I. For Hire (March 19), and Mina the Hollower. Here are five more names worth tracking through awards week.

Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury). Four GDCA nominations for a puzzle game built by a solo developer. The mansion with 45 shifting rooms earned Game of the Year, Best Debut, Best Design, and Innovation Award nods.

Baby Steps (Cuzzillo, Boch, Foddy / Devolver Digital). Five IGF nominations and an Innovation Award nod at the GDCA. The game where walking is the entire challenge continues to earn recognition nine months after launch.

Titanium Court (four IGF nominations). One of the most nominated games at the festival across Design, Narrative, the Grand Prize, and the Nuovo Award.

Dispatch (Adhoc Studio). Nominated for both Best Debut and Best Narrative at the GDCA. A narrative game from a studio worth watching.

BALL x PIT (Kenny Sun & Friends / Devolver Digital). Best Debut, Best Design, and Innovation Award at the GDCA, plus Excellence in Audio at the IGF. One of the few games nominated at both ceremonies.

How to Follow from Home

Not everyone can make it to San Francisco. Here is how to stay connected.

• GDC Twitch channel streams both awards ceremonies live (Wednesday and Thursday evenings)
• Day of the Devs posts game trailers and developer interviews on their website and social channels before and after the March 8 event
• GDC Vault archives session recordings after the event. Digital Pass holders get immediate access. Others get a selection of free talks a few months later
• The GDC schedule at schedule.gdconf.com lists every session with descriptions, speaker bios, and time slots

If you are following along from home and looking for games to play right now, Steam Next Fest runs through March 2 with thousands of free demos. Check our hidden gems picks and top demos guide before the festival ends. And if all this industry talk inspires you to start making games, our beginner’s guide to coding your first game covers the basics.