All photos, unless otherwise noted, courtesy of the Game Developers Conference.

When people think of animation, their mind naturally turns to feature films, television or perhaps even the Internet. All have enjoyed varying degrees of attention and success as outlets for animated talent. However, comparatively little regard has been given to that other medium, that forgotten sibling, of games.

Gaming, of course, appeals to a variety of end users, with certain games suited best for certain platforms. Games are distributed for PCs, consoles, arcades, online and, increasingly, wireless devices. Even so, in the hierarchy of animation, gaming is sometimes given only peripheral consideration as an opportunity for meaningful, artistic expression.

This is ironic, given the huge amount of business that gaming does. Research forecasts that computer and video game sales, worldwide, will reach approximately $20-$25 billion during the next few years, with mobile gaming alone expected to reach global revenues of $5 billion by 2005.

Gone are the simpler, nostalgic days of Pac-Man and Space Invaders. Since its inception in 1961, gaming has evolved into a medium that is remarkably popular and visionary. Having endured decades of criticism and stereotype, blamed for everything from truancy to theft to violence, gameplay is now emerging as an acknowledged, even helpful, presence in our professional and personal lives.

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Jose, California, organized by the International Game Developers Association, is in its sixteenth year, providing a collective voice for the influence, potential and business of games. This year's event, with the simple thematic imperative of "Make Better Games," hosted upwards of 10,000 visitors, with hundreds of tutorials, panel and roundtable discussions, an independent games festival, awards ceremony night, and beer-swigging "booth crawl" around the conference floor of vendors, among other highlights.

Because the weeklong conference was so ambitious in its scope, catering to the interests of game developers, publishers, artists, programmers, writers and enthusiasts, it would be impossible, in the space here, to articulate the breadth of lectures, gameplay and networking opportunities offered. With talks ranging on topics anywhere from creating algorithms for the adaptive tessellation of polynomial surfaces; to understanding Wittgenstein as a means for simulating sophisticated social activity among game characters; to simply "making games that don't suck," as one discussion was curtly self-described -- you can appreciate how the small arms of my words will not begin to hold the hugeness of the event.

Nonetheless, with that as part preface and part apology, we will take a look at some of the overarching considerations of game development, with respect to its merits both as an industry and as an ever-refining art form.