The golden gate bridge is in sight, the aroma of Moons Over My Hammy fills the air, and an army of people wearing name tags are wandering about town. This can only mean one thing! Well, I suppose it could mean many things but in our case it's the kick-off of GDC in beautiful San Francisco, California. First held in 1988, GDC seems to have grown exponentially and has changed with market trends over the years. With the advent of the App Store, the conference has substantially shifted gears to be surprisingly iOS-centric, filled with developers from all over the world anxious to sit in on iOS talks and meet fellow iOS game makers.

But what does this mean to you, faithful TouchArcade reader? It just so happens that all of these developers absolutely love meeting with people like us to show off their up and coming games, share ideas, and otherwise just spill their guts on what they've been up to and what they plan on doing in the future. Looking back at our GDC 2009 and GDC 2010 coverage, we saw tons of cool games. Judging by our meeting schedule, which couldn't possibly be more insane, we're going to have even more cool stuff to write about this year. (Particularly so as Apple seems intent on crashing the event by unveiling the iPad 2 this Wednesday barely a block away from where GDC is taking place.)

If you're a developer, we look forward to meeting with you. If you don't have an appointment with us yet, it's not too late, but we'll likely need to get creative with when and where we meet. Send me an IM via AOL Instant Messenger. My screen name is ioburn [Status: ]. If you don't have an AIM account, signing up is easy and only takes a second. Alternatively, AIM even connected to Facebook and Google Talk, if you would rather use that. Of course you can also email at tips@toucharcade.com, it just won't be anywhere near as fast. (Be sure to put "GDC 2011" somewhere in the subject for email filters.)

Also, don't forget about our party on Wednesday night at Bin 55 in the lobby of the Marriott. We're going to kick things off at 8:00 PM and go until they kick us out, which should be sometime between 11:00 PM and midnight. Find someone from TouchArcade and we'll trade you your business card for a fancy schmancy TouchArcade tyvek bracelet for free drinks. (If you don't have a business card, a GDC pass will suffice.)

Likely the best way to track us down and follow what we're doing at GDC will be via Twitter. Here's our array of Twitter accounts:

• @hodapp - Eli Hodapp
• @arnoldkim - Arnold Kim
• @blakespot - Blake Patterson
• @jaredta - Jared Nelson
• @nicholsonb - Brad Nicholson

Let's get this conference kickin'!

Earlier this month we somewhat predictably announced we will be at GDC 2011 in San Francisco. Since then, we've been receiving a monsoon of meeting requests which has made my usual disaster of an inbox into... something far less manageable. I'm fairly caught up with existing meeting requests, and our schedule is getting pretty packed. However, since we're bringing the entire TouchArcade crew to San Francisco, I still have tons of availability to cram even more meetings in.

For the sake of simplicity, and avoiding the lag in between emails, if you'd like to book a meeting with us please send me an IM via AOL Instant Messenger. My screen name is ioburn [Status: ]. If you don't have an AIM account, signing up is easy and only takes a second. Alternatively, AIM even connected to Facebook and Google Talk, if you would rather use that. Of course you can also email at tips@toucharcade.com, it just won't be anywhere near as fast. (Be sure to put "GDC 2011" somewhere in the subject for email filters.)

Don't forget our party that we're having on Wednesday night either! We'll be at Bin 55 which is the bar in the hotel lobby of the Marriott near Moscone. If you track down someone from TouchArcade, we'll be giving out fancy little tyvek TouchArcade bracelets which will allow you to gain access to free beer and drinks from 8:00 PM until last call, which I think is sometime around 11:00 PM!

I can't wait to see everyone there! This GDC is working up to be even more crazy than the last.

I can hardly believe it myself, as the past year has just flown by, but GDC is once again right around the corner. Taking place in San Francisco, California starting February 28th and running until March 4th, GDC is basically the event to be at if you're a game developer of any kind. In recent years, GDC events have almost completely been taken over by iOS developers. If you're a TouchArcade reader, expect an overwhelming avalanche of cool iOS gaming news and previews that week just like in 2009 and 2010.

If you're an iOS developer, read on.

First off, if you're on the fence regarding whether or not you're attending GDC, I really can't think of a better event to go to as an iOS developer. The amount of networking there is to be done there is absolutely insane, as the event is absolutely loaded with many different media outlets and oodles of like-minded developers eager to share and discuss ideas. It's also not too late to register, find a hotel, and score some plane tickets that aren't ridiculously expensive yet.

If you're an iOS developer and already plan on coming, awesome. We'd love to meet up with you if you have something new, cool, and/or exciting to show us. Shoot us an email at tips@toucharcade.com with "GDC 2011" somewhere in the subject so it gets picked up and properly highlighted by our email filters. We'll set up a meeting, likely at or near The Marriott, and we'll see you there.

If you just want to say "Hello!", or you enjoy drinking, we'll be hosting a get together (or "mixer" I suppose the cool kids are calling them now) at Bin 55. Bin 55 is the bar right inside the previously mentioned Marriott's lobby, you can't miss it. We'll be there from 8:00 PM Wednesday night until they kick us out. When you get there, track down someone from TouchArcade and we'll give you a fancy TouchArcade tyvek bracelet which will get you access to all the beer and/or mixed drinks you can (safely) drink.

We're totally excited for GDC this year, and can't wait to see everyone there. Incidentally, the first day of GDC is also my birthday, so if you schedule a meeting with us after the 28th and I suddenly seem wiser, that's likely why.