Thousands of video game developers, students, and journalists made the pilgrimage to San Francisco's Moscone Center last week for the Game Developers Conference. Solid crowds constantly travel from one building to the next during the week-long event. You’d be hard-pressed to avoid seeing a GDC attendee within a five-mile radius of the convention center.

But just try to get inside. Unless you can spend more than a grand for passes or get a press pass, you won't find any easy way to attend the show, which is meant to educate, inspire, and celebrate the industry we all love. If you plan a few months ahead, you can volunteer as a conference associate and get in by working a few hours throughout the week.

GameSpot's charming 8-bit-inspired artwork, made entirely out of Post-its

Just for fun, a few friends and I decided to see what we could do as outsiders to the main GDC crowd. Of course, chances are good you'll run into journalists and developers at nearby restaurants or bars [editor's note: especially the bars], but we wanted to see if we could get into the seminars or the expo itself. 

The result? You can’t really do much without a badge. 

I’m sure other people found ways over the years to sneak into certain parts of the conference, but we were turned away at every opportunity. Even the NOS Energy Drink models set up right across from Moscone West refused to give us free lanyards. Their marching orders said to only give them to badge holders. We eventually grabbed a few lanyards and drinks by blending into a huge crowd. Otherwise, GDC keeps you on the outside looking in.

"But Giancarlo, why try to get in when most of the seminars and award shows are covered online?" you might ask.

Now my true motivations come to light. I wanted to see various seminars and lectures, yes, but I knew from the start I'd never get inside GDC without a badge. But here's the biggest reason to attend for press and exhibitors alike: You meet people.

GDC, by far, represents the biggest social networking event of the year for the industry. And while some of this happens during the show, the real bonding happens in bars and lounges across the city at night. If you follow any developer or video game journalist on Twitter, you read a lot of tweets last week recounting drunken stories from the night before, often priding themselves on the pitifully low number of hours they’d slept during the week. 

Many companies sponsor parties. This year alone, you saw events thrown by Markus "notch" Persson (creator of Minecraft) and the International Game Developer's Association, to name two. And just like the conference, you couldn't get in without an invitation. A few events hold no such restrictions, like the PixelJunk 4am preview party held by the Super 7 Store...halfway across the city from Moscone Center.

The last batch of magazines for (the now out-of-print) Kill Screen #1

I felt determined to attend at least one of these parties, if only to see firsthand the cool, insidery networking that seemed to go on all day and night during GDC. Then some friends told me about a party put on by indie-game-centric Kill Screen Magazine. I quickly tweeted an offer to volunteer at the event. In exchange for free entry, I would help give away pledge prizes from their Kickstarter page. More importantly, they'd give me the door list with all the attendees' names.

This was my chance to meet people...and play their games.