SAN FRANCISCO — The Game Developers Conference is the kind of place where controllers for the PlayStation 4, Sony’s forthcoming console, sit under glass like the Hope Diamond, and where designers and other industry professionals line up for hours to try the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset, which has begun shipping as prototypes to those who paid $300 for a development kit.

But futuristic gadgets weren’t the only innovations on display at the Moscone Center here, where independent designers who make text adventures and other lo-fi games can seem like bigger stars than the ones who make blockbusters. All told more than 20,000 people attended the conference last week.

When I dropped by the “ ‘AAA-level design in a day’ boot camp” on Tuesday — AAA being industry jargon for big, mainstream titles with multimillion-dollar budgets — the room was a quarter-full at best. A few hours later a near-capacity crowd of about 1,000 started queuing up more than 30 minutes in advance for a series of five-minute talks known as the “indie soapbox.” Ushers held up fingers and guided people to the few remaining seats.

Indies also dominated the Game Developers Choice Awards, which were handed out Wednesday night. Journey, a downloadable game made by the independent studio thatgamecompany for the PlayStation 3, became the first independent title to win the game of the year award. Past winners were blockbusters like Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto III and the Sims.