Why, the GDC, of course!

What happens every year, usually in March, and usually in California?

Yes, Valve will be making an appearance at GDC 2011, taking place from the 28th of February to the 4th of March, at Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Last year at GDC, Gabe received the Game Developers’ Choice Pioneer Award, taking the opportunity to deliver an impressive speech, which was purposely interrupted by a fake BSOD that was actually part of Portal’s “Dinosaur ARG”.

Their booth, which appears to be the booth labeled “BS416” is in the Business Center, situated between Microsoft and Epic’s booths, and in front of OnLive and Havok’s booths.

Valve will also be having some speakers:

– Mike Ambinder, experimental psychologist at Valve since 2008, “works on the application of knowledge and methodologies from psychology to game design”, and has worked on L4D1 and 2, TF2, Alien Swarm, and Portal 2.

– Jeremy Bennett, art director and concept artist at Valve, previously worked at WETA on the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, King Kong, and The Water Horse. He’s done work on L4D1 and 2, Portal 1 and 2, Episode Two, and Episode Three. Interestingly, GDC’s mini-bio does not mention Episode Three, it instead says: “and several to be announced titles”.

– Bronwen Grimes, technical artist at Valve, has worked on L4D1, L4D2 and Portal 2.

– Elan Ruskin, previously worked at Naughty Dog before going to Valve in August of 2006 and working on Episode Two, Portal, L4D1, L4D2 and Alien Swarm.

– Tim Larkin, sound designer. His freelance work in the video game industry alone is quite impressive; he’s worked on the Myst series, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, LAIR. At Valve, he’s done work on Episode One, Episode Two, Portal, L4D1 and L4D2.

Sounds interesting! We’ll be keeping a close eye, but don’t expect any announcements or game footage.