GDC Phase II Resources

Phase II means that the GDC Advisory Board is interested in your submission as a potential talk, but needs additional detail or clarification in order to accurately evaluate your proposal and determine its status. Please reach out to the GDC Advisor copied on your Phase II notification email for next steps and be ready to prepare a short video demonstrating presentation delivery.

As mentioned in your proposal status email, a GDC Advisor has offered to guide you through the Phase II process, communicating the GDC Advisory Board’s feedback and recommendations. Phase II is intended to help fine tune and identify the core takeaways of your presentation content, and ultimately set the speaker(s) up for success on the GDC stage. 

The goal of this step is to get a "substantially complete presentation", meaning the advisors are not focused on appealing slides or transitions. They are trying to make sure the presentation is comprehensive and that it builds to a set of identifiable takeaways. The end result is more than an outline, but less than a showable deck. There will be plenty of time for the polish in Phase III and beyond.

Final Acceptance Tips & Guidelines

In addition to fine-tuning your presentation content, Phase II is also an opportunity to prepare your session and speaker information for publication on the GDC website and promotion leading up to the event.

While specific feedback and criteria for acceptance from the GDC Advisory Board vary from session to session, there are some best practices when preparing your session for acceptance and the live presentation itself. Please see below for GDC presentation tips and guidelines:

Session title

• Should clearly and concisely describe the content.
• If based on a game, should reference that game.
• Should be designed to draw an audience.
• If humor is used, should not make the content difficult to understand.
• The first word and major words are capitalized, such as in APA capitalization style.

Descriptive text (description, intended audience, and attendee takeaway)

• Major points of the talk itself should be clear.
• Should reflect any revisions made in Phase II.
• If a specific game is the focus of the talk, it should be mentioned.
• Should either present a clear, actionable takeaway or make clear it’s mostly an inspirational talk.
• Overall set attendee expectations. 
• Make sure everything is in the 3rd Person—using “he/she/they instead of “I.”
• Avoid using “you,” instead use the term “attendees”.
• Write everything in present tense. Eg. “In this session, Simone teaches the basics of game design” instead of “In this session, Simone will teach the basics of game design.”

2nd topic/track

• If you and your advisor have determined a 2nd track is appropriate, confirm it has been added to your submission/proposal.

Session duration  

• During Phase II, you and your GDC Advisor will have determined the appropriate duration based on your presentation content. Double check that it’s listed as the correct duration (60 or 30 minutes).  

Presentation

• The quantity and content should match your speaking pace so it doesn’t feel like there are too many slides, or too few. 
• *Slides shouldn’t be text heavy. Instead, text should be moved to notes for you to reference during the talk.           
• *For EAL (English as an additional language) speakers, the big takeaways of each slide should be clearly written, so that even if there are some verbal comprehension issues on the part of the audience, they will still finish the talk understanding the throughlines. See EAL section below for more tips for EAL speakers.
• If you are not using the GDC slide template, make sure the text/images don’t blend into the background color. 
• Slide content should be large enough to be seen from the back of a large room. 
• Double check that the images/videos used don’t violate the GDC code of conduct. 
• Videos should be embedded into the slides. Do not rely on a direct connection or wifi on stage. 
• If the talk has multiple speakers, the presentation should be in one file. 

Speaker information

• Confirm your name, job title, company and bio are accurate, as they will be published on the website.
• Since your job title will be printed on your GDC Speaker badge, please limit your job title to two titles maximum.
• Make sure your bio is written in the 3rd Person—using “he/she/they instead of “I.”
• Make sure your email is accurate and belongs to you. If the session has multiple speakers, each speaker must have a unique email. GDC uses this email to register speakers for the conference and send important information related to speaker logistics, etc. PR and additional contacts can be added to a speaker's profile, once created.
• You may add your headshot, pronouns, twitter/X username, facebook URL, and/or linkedin URL.
• Your contact information, such as email, address and phone number, will be transferred over to your profile/account for the GDC mobile app, however they will remain private unless you choose to share them with a connection.

Speaker delivery 

• Practice, practice, practice! Rehearse in front of friends/family/colleagues, or record yourself presenting. Your GDC Advisor may ask you to share a recording of a rehearsal, or you can also ask your GDC Advisor to help you rehearse.
• Content should fit within the assigned duration naturally.
• Q&A at the end is optional, but there should be enough time left at the end to accommodate it. We suggest leaving 5-10-minutes for Q&A at the end.
• If you have a 30-min talk and need more time for the meat of the talk, Q&A can be taken in a nearby Wrap Up Area.
• If multiple speakers, the transition between speakers should be well rehearsed/planned out. 

EAL (English as an Additional Language) speakers

• If you do not have experience presenting in English, your GDC Advisor is there to help! They may ask you to submit a 2-5-min video of them giving a portion of your talk so they can give you feedback on keyword pronunciation, pacing, and memorizing the talk.
• Compared to speakers with experience presenting in English, having a script to reference is ok!