This post was published in Gamers Daily News

A great indicator of growth in this industry is how healthy new game development is. At the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco this spring, I was blown away by the energy and the large number of people there. This year a record 19,000 people attended GDC.

We set out to meet some quality game developers and learn more about trends from big names as well as indie game developers. Here are three trends that seemed to become thematic for the entire event, and that we think will color how the rest of 2011 will play out.

1. HTML5 vs. Apps as future games platform

HTML5 is getting closer and closer to prime time, and those of us who are betting big on the browser-based gaming experience can expect to see even more big developments this year. At GDC, the Khronos Group announced the release of their final WebGL 1.0 specification, which enables hardware-accelerated 3D graphics in HTML5-compatible web browsers without requiring plug-ins.

Khronos reports that WebGL “defines a JavaScript binding to OpenGL ES 2.0 to allow rich 3D graphics within a browser on any platform supporting the industry-standard OpenGL or OpenGL ES graphics APIs.” Their graphics library makes the most of the “pervasive availability” of OpenGL ES 2.0 on a variety of desktop, mobile, and embedded platforms. Khronos believes that the ability for web developers to access OpenGL-class graphics straight from Javascript, and mix 3D with other HTML content will enable a “new wave of innovation in web gaming, educational and training applications and graphically rich user interfaces to make the web more enjoyable, productive and intuitive.”

It’s clear from announcements such as these and others at GDC that HTML5 is bringing a rich, app-like UI, design and interactivity to the mobile web. Now that a huge number of consumers are consuming mobile content, we expect to see more games developed for HTML5 including every popular title from the likes of Zynga.

2. Despite iPad 2, Android Becomes the King in Mobile

Although Apple made its iPad 2 announcement simultaneously with GDC, Google made its own waves by passing out free Cr-48 laptops at Google’s Web Developer Day got a, as well as a free Motorola Xoom tablet or a Nexus S smartphone to those attending technical sessions on Android.

Other companies on the Android wagon included Sony Ericsson and Unity Technologies.

Sony Ericsson introduced their Xperia Play, the first PlayStation-certified smartphone that features a slide-out pad for gaming. Here’s a good demo of the new device.

Unity Technologies announced the release of the Unity Android add-on for its development platform, which allows game developers to port their Unity-based projects to Android devices. The add-on features an integrated editor for deploying a single project on multiple platforms, as well as support for upcoming Android devices, such as Tegra Tablets and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. Other features are an optimized graphics pipeline or OpenGL ES 2.0 and the ability to use an Android phone as an input device to view/test projects directly.

As Android continues to see increased device adoption and further integration of gaming on the platform, we expect to see Google rolling in the coins and make a big move into gaming.

3. Brands and Mobile Social Explode

We are starting to see growing legitimacy around social gaming and mobile gaming. Major players like John Romero, Steve Meretzsky, and Ralph Koster – whose bread and butter was PC games – have moved into social gaming. Even Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stressed the importance of social interaction in his keynote speech.

Social gaming on mobile brings a number of positives; creating for mobile is conducive to smaller team projects, and has the potential to tap into hundreds of millions of people, unlike games for one platform.

Another hot topic in mobile social was taking existing brands and IPs and pushing them into social; Playdom is a great example of this, with their “ESPN College Town” developed with ESPN University. The Playfish team has also seen great success with the Monopoly brand.

Overall, GDC this year had a great vibe to it. We’re seeing a ton of potential in mobile social, and the explosion of platforms is providing an exciting and competitive edge to the space. As we move further into 2011, we can’t wait to see what the talented developers of our industry have in store for us.