Photo: Emi Spicer
Oh GDC, how we miss you.When Motherboard travelled to San Francisco for our very first Game Developers Conference this year, we were prepared to be overwhelmed. But everything went down smoothly because there's one very special thing about GDC that separates it from every other videogame-related event: Everyone you meet there is actually making something.It's a refreshing change of pace from the cosplayers and corporate crap-peddling that normally dominates videogame conventions. And in addition to rubbing elbows with some truly talented folks, we even got to make something ourselves.Well, we helped make something.Over the course of the week, this gigantic 8 × 20 ft pixel wall in the Moscone Center's north hall revealed a crowdsourced mosaic composed of 5,760 individual 2 × 2″ squares, each one affixed by a single GDC attendee. Organized by west coast videogame art collective Iam8bit, the project was overseen by pixel artist extraordinaire Jude Buffum in honor of the Conference's 25th anniversary.Now you're probably thinking, "that's cool, but it'd be swell to see a time lapse video of the thing being built."Sha-bam!An art installation plus social experiment, PAINTING WITH PIXELS is a tribute to the perseverance of the pixel through several decades of gaming culture. Despite polygons prevailing in this modern area, the geometric prowess of the pixel is still one of intrigue and luster.Check out some other stuff we saw at the conference, like an arcade cabinet that's wired like a smartphone, the beginnings of a videogame museum, and a demo of how biological signals can be used to enhance and control games.More Pixels & Polygons:
Lo-Fi And The Lost Art of the Pixel
Architect Composes Music With 3-D Models
Thank You, Tiny Blue Pixel
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Lo-Fi And The Lost Art of the Pixel
Architect Composes Music With 3-D Models
Thank You, Tiny Blue Pixel
