Organizers of this year's Game Developer Conference that took place last week in San Francisco say that the event saw a record breaking 23,000 attendees. This number includes game developers, businessmen, marketers, staff, and of course journalists covering the event.

While GDC may be over, the accusations continue to fly over the International Game Developers Association's GDC party which was brought to light last week in this report. Now the co-presenter of the party, YetiZen, is throwing a few elbows at the IGDA and the press.

While GREE made a lot of developers upset when it discontinued the OpenFeint platform in December of last year, the co-founder of the social mobile platform will soon have something to replace it. Late last year GREE shut down the OpenFeint platform, feeling that Apple's GameCenter was dominating the space. Much to the chagrin of developers using that platform, they were not given enough time to migrate their game data to another platform and lost a lot of the user data they were storing in the OpenFeint cloud.

Women in Games International today announced its plan to present a panel at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco later this month that focuses on the need to encourage more youth participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects. The panel brings together leaders from video games, government, and media organizations to discuss the issue and to raise awareness. The panel is called "Responsibility to Youth and Staying Competitive in the Global Marketplace" and will take place Wed., March 27 from 2 - 3 p.m.

BioWare's founding fathers - Doctors Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk - will be honored at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco as part of the Game Developers Choice Awards. The founders of the studio that have brought us such hits as Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Knights, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age will be honored with lifetime achievement awards for their "contributions to the art and science of games."

Develop reports that UK-based indie developers Byron Atkinson-Jones and Andrew Roper have a novel way for game developers to pass the time while flying to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in March: create a game! They are challenging themselves and other developers to make a game on their flight to GDC with a special "Plane Jam." The only hard rule is that the game must be created during your flight to GDC.

The Independent Games Festival (IGF) juries have announced the Main Competition finalists for the 15th annual awards - nominating nearly 30 independent game titles from around the world. This year's finalists were picked by expert juries, following "playthroughs and recommendations" of 580+ IGF entries from over 200 top independent game experts, according to organizers.

Epic Games revealed its plans for the Game Developers Conference (GDC) which will include a preview of Unreal Engine 4 game engine technology, planned press sessions, and participation in various panels and discussion. Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszinski will also serve as the host for the Game Developer Choice Awards.

THQ is apparently planning a crazy promotional event at GDC for its soon-to-be-released action game Homefront. According to SF Weekly, THQ has hired actors to pose as anti-North Korean protesters, march across the Golden Gate bridge, down the streets of San Francisco, and stopping across the street from GDC at Yerba Buena Gardens.

It seems odd to decry North Korea's "human rights violations" to promote a video game, but THQ's marketing department didn't consult us. The staged promotional event will also feature speeches by global experts, musical performances, and the launch of 10,000 balloons. Nothing says "we've been invaded" like a bunch of balloons, after all.

The "event" will take place on Wednesday in San Francisco.

Interactive Studio Management (ISM) will host its fourth annual Invitational Charity Poker Tournament alongside the 2011 Game Developers Conference (GDC 2011). As is the case every year with the event, all proceeds will benefit charity. The proceeds for this year's event will go to Best Buddies California, a nonprofit 501©(3) organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, utilizing a global volunteer movement to create opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development.

On average, the ISM poker events see an average of average of 160 players, spectators and video game companies participate. The event hopes to exceed the annual $80,000 it raised last year.