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The Toolsmiths

Toolsmiths GDC 2023 Guide

Posted on 17 March 2023 by Victor Stepanov

At GDC 2023, you’ll find yourself searching in a vast ocean of over 700 sessions, tutorials, and events. While 386 of these contain the coveted keyword “tool,” (or other variants), sorting through them all to pinpoint the ones that cater to your needs can be quite a daunting task. On this page, you will find a compiled and curated list of sessions that will serve as your ultimate Tools dev guide to navigating the waters of GDC 2023. Whether you’re attending in person or planning to watch the latest session on the GDC Vault, this list will ensure that you make the most out of your GDC 2023 experience.

Note: Some talks that are mentioned here are not 100% tool-centered, but in any case, can provide inspiration and a different perspective. Understanding how the users of our tools work is paramount for the success of our tools.

If you don’t have a lot of time or just want Game Dev Tool-centered sessions - don’t miss the Tools Summit, Tools Roundtables, and Tools Design Roundtables. These sessions are organized by Geoff Evans, Robin-Yann Storm, and David Lightbown to bring you the best Tool Centered Talks and Discussions from experts around the industry.

Key Words & Key Roles

I have tried to make navigating this list easier by providing helper labels that will hint what Tool Developer roles might be interested in this session. Just use the find feature of your web browser and type one of the following key terms.

Here is the list of roles that you can use to search:

  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool UX/UI Designer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • Build
  • Tool Lead
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Tools QA

Furthermore, you can search the list by using the following keywords:

  • Programming
  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Pipeline
  • VFX
  • Visual Arts
  • Production
  • Design
  • AI
  • Procedural
  • Machine Learning
  • Visual Arts

How to use this list

  • If you are going to GDC, you can follow the links in the list below to create a schedule for yourself. Alternatively, if you already have a plan, you can check and make sure you don’t miss out on anything you would enjoy.
  • If you are not going, you can still look forward to watching sessions that you want to see in the GDC Vault.

Sessions marked with Toolsmiths icon - point to sessions that you should consider going to because you are 100% guaranteed to find insight as a Tools Developer.

I’m sure that you can find a session that will inspire you to make something great!


Tools Summit Day (Full Day)

Tools Summit: Tools to Build a World in One Day

  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • UX
  • Tools Summit
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev


Tools Summit: How ‘Fortnite’ Designers Made Their Own Tools

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Tools Summit
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


Tools Summit: Cosmonious High Case Study of Seret: Building a Custom VO System

  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • UX
  • Tools Summit
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Build
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tools QA


Tools Summit: SpeechEditor: A Versatile Tool to Edit Speech with Low Resources

  • Tools Summit
  • Machine Learning Summit
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Tools Summit: Managing Source Content for ‘Overwatch 2’

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Tools Summit
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Tools Summit: TestMonkey: Automated Testing at Santa Monica Studio

  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • Tools Summit
  • QA
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Build
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tools QA


Roundtables

Tools Roundtable Day 1: Assets

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Build
  • Pipeline Dev


Tools Roundtable Day 2: Pipeline

  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Build
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev


Tools Roundtable Day 3: Workflow

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev


Tool Design Roundtable Day 1: Design

  • Design
  • Production & Team Leadership
  • Workflows
  • UX
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


Tool Design Roundtable Day 2: Production

  • Design
  • Production & Team Leadership
  • Workflows
  • UX
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Technical Artist Roundtable Day 1

  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • Visual Arts
  • Programming
  • UX
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • DCC Tool Dev


Technical Artist Roundtable Day 2

  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • Visual Arts
  • Programming
  • UX
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • DCC Tool Dev


Technical Artist Roundtable Day 3

  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • Visual Arts
  • Programming
  • UX
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • DCC Tool Dev


Automated Testing Roundtable Day 1: Process

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • QA
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Build
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tools QA


Automated Testing Roundtable Day 2: Legacy

  • Programming
  • QA
  • Tools QA
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Build


Automated Testing Roundtable Day 3: Implementation

  • Programming
  • QA
  • Tools QA
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Build


Visual Effects Roundtable Day 1: General

  • Visual Arts
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool UX/UI Designer


Visual Effects Roundtable Day 2: Artistic Lens

  • Visual Arts
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev


Visual Effects Roundtable Day 3: Technical Lens

  • Visual Arts
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool UX/UI Designer


Game Art in the Age of AI Roundtable (Presented by the IGDA)

  • Advocacy
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev


Open Source and Disruption in the Game Industry Roundtable (Presented by the IGDA)

  • Advocacy
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


Technical Leadership Roundtable: Soft Skills for Hard Problems (Presented by the IGDA)

  • Advocacy
  • Programming
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


Audio Programming Roundtable Day 1: Game Integration

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • Programming
  • Audio
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


External Development (Outsourcing) Roundtable Day 1

  • Visual Arts
  • Production & Team Leadership
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


UX

UX Summit: Biometrics: Novel Tools, Methodologies, and Practices

  • UX Summit
  • Programming
  • QA
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • DCC Tool Dev


UX Summit: ‘Battlefield 2042’ Front End Redesign

  • UX Summit
  • QA
  • Tools QA
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Workflow Improvement Methods for Frostbite

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • Programming
  • Production & Team Leadership
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


Version Control & Files

Accelerate Developer Velocity by Improving Sync Times with Perforce (Presented by Perforce Software)

  • Production & Team Leadership
  • Programming
  • QA
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Build
  • DCC Tool Dev


Programming

Fixing the Unfixable: Techniques that Improved Stability for ‘Elder Scrolls Online’

  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev


Engine Optimization Powered by Big Data

  • Machine Learning
  • Programming
  • Production & Team Leadership
  • QA
  • Tools QA
  • Machine Learning
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Build


‘God of War Ragnarök’s’ Visual Scripting Solution

  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev


Extending In-Game Textures Using CDNs for ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’

  • Programming
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • Build


Localization of ‘Cyberpunk 2077’: Technology, Tools, and Approach

  • Programming
  • Production & Team Leadership
  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Build
  • Pipeline Dev


Technical Art

Technical Artist Summit: ‘LEGO® Star Wars™: Castaways’: Building an All-Brick World

  • Technical Artist Summit
  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Pipeline Dev


Technical Artist Summit: 3 Cities, 2 TAs, 1 Day: Techniques to Empower Artists

  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • UX
  • Technical Artist Summit
  • Procedural
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev


Technical Artist Summit: Building a DCC and Project Agnostic Animation Pipeline

  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • UX
  • Technical Artist Summit
  • Procedural
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • DCC Tool Dev


Technical Artist Summit: ‘Non-Destructible Workflows’: Re-Inventing Content Production for the ‘Forza Motorsports’ Franchise

  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • UX
  • Technical Artist Summit
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool UX/UI Designer


Technical Artist Summit: Approaching Technical Art Techniques Unconventionally Using Unreal Engine’s Niagara

  • Technical Artist Summit
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev


Machine Learning

Machine Learning Summit: GPT-3 Powered Text to Lifelike Speech and Animation for NPCs

  • Procedural
  • Machine Learning Summit
  • Machine Learning
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Machine Learning


Machine Learning Summit: Natural Language Generation for Games Writing

  • Pipeline
  • Programming
  • Procedural
  • Machine Learning Summit
  • Machine Learning
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • Build
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Machine Learning


Machine Learning Summit: Simulating Teamfight Tactics Using Deep Learning for Fast Reinforcement Learning AI Training

  • Machine Learning
  • Machine Learning Summit
  • Programming
  • QA
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Build
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Machine Learning


Machine Learning Summit: Differentiable Rendering for Scalable Asset Pipeline in ‘Honor of Kings’

  • Machine Learning Summit
  • Tools Summit
  • Machine Learning
  • Procedural
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • Build
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Machine Learning


VoRACE: Tools for Automating Dialogue Processing

  • Workflows
  • Audio
  • Programming
  • Programming
  • UX
  • QA
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Build
  • DCC Tool Dev


Open Source

Open Source Game Development Summit: Evolve a Legacy Game Engine With Open Source Tools

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Open Source Game Development Summit
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


Open Source Game Development Summit: Render Graph, a Data-Oriented Approach

  • Open Source Game Development Summit
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Pipeline Dev


Procedural

All Hands On Deck: Building the Ships of ‘Skull and Bones’

  • QA
  • Visual Arts
  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • DCC Tool Dev


From Battlegrounds to Fairways: Terrain Procedural Tools in Frostbite

  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • UX
  • QA
  • Programming
  • Design
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • DCC Tool Dev


Taking a Procedural Approach to Texturing the Machines of ‘Horizon Forbidden West’

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Visual Arts
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • DCC Tool Dev


Pipeline

Scaling Tools for Millions of Assets for ‘Horizon Forbidden West’

  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Pipeline Dev


Space-Efficient Content Packaging for ‘Horizon Forbidden West’

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


AI-enhanced content authoring

AI Summit: Advancing Content Creation with Generative AI

  • AI Summit
  • DCC Tool Dev


AI Summit: Beyond WaveFunctionCollapse: Constraint-Based Tile Map Generation and Editing

  • AI Summit
  • Procedural
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


AI Summit: Crafting Epic Boss Fights in ‘Psychonauts 2’

  • AI Summit
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • DCC Tool Dev


Creative Future with Artificial Intelligence

  • Visual Arts
  • Pipeline
  • Build
  • Pipeline Dev


AI

AI Summit: Bots at Work: Lessons on Deploying ML Bots in Your Game

  • AI Summit
  • Procedural
  • Programming
  • QA
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • DCC Tool Dev


AI Summit: Living in Procedural Worlds: Creature Movement and Spawning in ‘Nightingale’

  • AI Summit
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


AI Summit: AI for Testing at EA: From ‘Star Wars’ to ‘Apex’ and Beyond

  • AI Summit
  • Programming
  • QA
  • Tools QA
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Preparing AI Systems for ‘God of War Ragnarök’

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev


Audio

Audio Summit: Sounds as Intended: Quality Assurance in Game Audio

  • Audio Summit
  • QA
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • DCC Tool Dev


‘Gotham Knights’: Using Systemic Audio Tools to Build a Vibrant Gotham City

  • Audio
  • Design
  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Pipeline Dev


Visual Arts

Visual Effects Summit: The VFX Toolkit

  • UX
  • Visual Effects Summit
  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


How To Make AAA-Looking Games Like ‘A Plague Tale: Requiem’ with 20 Artists

  • Visual Arts
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Art Direction Summit: The Art of Making Vistas

  • Art Direction Summit


Shape and Shadow: Creating Horror in the ‘The Callisto Protocol’

  • Workflows
  • Visual Arts
  • Programming
  • UX
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev


Art Direction Summit: Big Visuals, Small Budget: Get the Most from a Lean Art Team

  • Art Direction Summit
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Building Champions: Character Art Pipeline for ‘Rumbleverse’

  • Visual Arts
  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Pipeline Dev


The Cinematics of ‘Horizon Forbidden West’

  • Visual Arts
  • Design
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev


Indie

Independent Games Summit: Indie VO Toolbox Start-to-Finish: Professional, Affordable, Optimized

  • Independent Games Summit
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Independent Games Summit: Porting on a Budget: There and Back Again

  • Independent Games Summit
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Independent Games Summit: Fixing Bugs by Cloning Them in ‘The Last Clockwinder’

  • Independent Games Summit
  • Programming
  • QA
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool UX/UI Designer


Independent Games Summit: Never Skip Playtest Day! Five Tips for Running Better Playtests

  • Independent Games Summit
  • QA
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • DCC Tool Dev


Independent Games Summit: Tech Toolbox: Custom Tool Microtalks

  • Independent Games Summit
  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Pipeline Dev


Level Design

Level Design Summit: A Visual Approach to Level Design in ‘Gotham Knights’

  • Level Design Summit
  • Postmortem
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Level Design Summit: Moving Mountains: Speedy Level Creation as a Desperate Indie Dev

  • Level Design Summit
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev


Postmortem

‘Cris Tales’ Postmortem: Innovation, Global Expectations, and Global Disasters

  • Postmortem
  • Production & Team Leadership
  • Design
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Production

Production Essentials Summit: Engaging Game Developers to Do Great Work, Happily

  • Production Essentials Summit
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool UX/UI Designer
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Leadership

Practical Tools for Transitioning Into Leadership Roles

  • Production & Team Leadership
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Pipeline Dev


QA

Testing with Building Blocks: A Modular Approach for Quality Assurance

  • Production & Team Leadership
  • QA
  • Tools QA
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Build


Commercial Game Engines

The State of Unreal (Presented by Epic Games)

  • Special Event
  • QA
  • Tools QA
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


The Verse Programming Language (Presented by Epic Games)

  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev


New Tools for Building Photoreal Worlds in Unreal Engine 5.2 (Presented by Epic Games)

  • Programming
  • QA
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool UX/UI Designer


Battle-Testing UE5 Next-Gen Systems with ‘Fortnite’ (Presented by Epic Games)

  • QA
  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Pipeline Dev


MetaHuman Framework & Machine Learning for Next-Gen Character Deformation (Presented by Epic Games)

  • Procedural
  • Programming
  • Machine Learning
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Machine Learning


Creating Realistic Landscapes in Unreal Engine with Houdini (Presented by Epic Games)

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Unity Developer Summit: The Unity Roadmap for 2023 (Presented by Unity Technologies)

  • Business & Marketing
  • Programming
  • Programming
  • QA
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer


Unity Developer Summit: Technical Tips for Every Stage of Game Creation (Presented by Unity Technologies)

  • Programming
  • QA
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool UX/UI Designer


Deep Dive into Data-Oriented Design for a Cross-platform UGC Game Engine (Yahaha): Stateful, Assets, Synchronization, Performance (Presented by YAHAHA Studios)

  • Design
  • Programming


Unraveling the Mystery of a Thriving Game Codebase: What You Didn’t Know About Your Game (Presented by Endava)

  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev


Spicy Sauce -The Secret Ingredient to Gaming DevOps (Presented by Sauce Labs)

  • QA
  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • Pipeline Dev
  • DCC Tool Dev


Art Optimization in the 41st Millennium: How FatShark Constructed their Central Asset Pipeline with Simplygon (Presented by Microsoft)

  • Programming
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Pipeline Dev


Planning for Change: How Telltale Games Developed Their Modern Writing Pipeline (Presented by Backlight Gem)

  • Workflows
  • Programming
  • Production & Team Leadership
  • Design
  • UX
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • DCC Tool Dev


Evolving the Game Development Pipeline with Omniverse (Presented by NVIDIA)

  • Workflows
  • Production & Team Leadership
  • Programming
  • UX
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev


From AI Generation to Art-Directed Stylizer: How Yahaha Platform Helps Create Stylized Worlds (Presented by YAHAHA Studios)

  • Visual Arts
  • Design
  • Procedural
  • Programming
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


Third-party DCC Tools

Adobe Developer Summit: Advances in Uniform Creation for EA Sports’ NHL (Presented by Adobe)

  • Workflows
  • Visual Arts
  • UX
  • Procedural
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • DCC Tool Dev


Autodesk Developer Summit: Maya Codex: Leveraging Large Language Models for Intuitive Interactions (Presented by Autodesk)

  • Machine Learning
  • Programming
  • Programming
  • Visual Arts
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Machine Learning


Autodesk Developer Summit: Next-Gen Game Workflows with USD ft. Epic Games Panel (Presented by Autodesk)

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Visual Arts
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


Adobe Developer Summit: Adobe Substance 3D Keynote (Presented by Adobe)

  • Visual Arts
  • Programming
  • QA
  • Pipeline Dev
  • DCC Tool Dev


Autodesk Developer Summit: New Tales from the Borderlands: Maximizing Time with an Automated Cinematic Pipeline (Presented by Autodesk)

  • Visual Arts
  • QA
  • Pipeline
  • Dev Support/Production Engineer
  • Pipeline Dev


Adobe Developer Summit: ‘A Plague Tale: Requiem’: Making AAA Characters with an AA Budget (Presented by Adobe)

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Visual Arts
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer


Adobe Developer Summit: The Material Art of ‘The Last of Us Part I’ (Presented by Adobe)

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Visual Arts
  • Pipeline
  • DCC Tool Dev
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev


Adobe Developer Summit: ‘The Callisto Protocol’: A Tile Mask Painting Workflow for Environment Art (Presented by Adobe)

  • UX
  • Workflows
  • Visual Arts
  • Pipeline
  • Tool Lead/Engineering Producer
  • Pipeline Dev
  • DCC Tool Dev


Check out the other guides from previous years: