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BioWare San Francisco producer Ethan Levy recently looked back on the Google+ and Facebook-based Dragon Age Legends, noting that brand recognition, core-focused gameplay, and some key marketing tactics helped the game find a dedicated audience on social platforms.

The game launched this March alongside Dragon Age II, and serves as a turn-based spinoff of the mainline Dragon Age series. As of this writing, Dragon Age Legends sees more than 220,000 monthly active users, according to AppData.

Levy played a key role in the game's creation from day one, and in fact was the first employee to join the BioWare San Francisco studio (formerly known as EA2D). Previously, he served as lead producer on the game's predecessor, Flash game Dragon Age Journeys, and has experience working at casual game poublishers like PlayFirst and iWin.

At next week's GDC Online in Austin, Texas, Levy will host a metrics-heavy talk titled, "Dragon Age Legends' Road to 100k Likes," which will go over the successes and lessons learned for the game's pre and post launch marketing strategy.

In this interview, Levy speaks out on some of the other key factors that contributed to Dragon Age Legends' success, and discusses the ways in which social games can reach out to core players.

What factors do you think most contributed to Dragon Age Legends' success?

I would cite two key factors in contributing to Dragon Age Legends' success. The first is being tied to a big brand in Dragon Age, and having strong support from the core franchise owners in BioWare's Edmonton studio. Being closely tied to the HD game's release and having custom items players could earn in Dragon Age II by playing Dragon Age Legends was a key part of our early momentum, and being part of the Dragon Age brand meant we received a lot more notice from fans and press then if we were just some startup releasing "Dragon Puncher" on Facebook.

The second factor I would cite is the game's core gameplay loop. At the time we released Legends, and still to this date, few social network games feature what a core gamer would recognize as gameplay. Many social network games more closely resemble activities or addiction machines in the eyes of gamers. By having a strong gameplay loop with fun and meaningful combat, we were able to create a game that was accepted by BioWare and Dragon Age fans as authentic.

What were some of the marketing tactics you employed for Dragon Age Legends? Which ones did you find most useful?

Pre-launch, we employed some tried and true tactics from the console marketing world. This included press releases, a cinematic trailer, a closed beta program with beta key programs on major enthusiast outlets, email marketing and cross promotion with other EA games and communication channels.

Of these, we were especially happy with the results of the closed beta program, which helped drive a lot of excitement and awareness of Legends. The cross-promotional and email marketing efforts driven by EA's Play4Free publishing group have also been a bright spot for Legends, as they have allowed us to derive a lot of value from EA's existing player base.

With less than a week to go before GDC Online, show organizers added a talk for the breakout Sims Social from EA, also highlighting Dofus creator Ankama and one day to go until the pre-show registration deadline.

GDC Online will take place next week, from Monday, October 10 through Thursday, October 13 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, and these talks come from throughout the show's various tracks and Summits, with nearly 150 sessions and 230 speakers on tap.

Show organizers would also like to point out that attendees can save up to 25 percent on a show pass by pre-registering before midnight EDT on October 7. In addition, students and industry professionals can receive free Expo Passes to the show through GDC Online's Student Outreach and Games & Tech programs.

Here are the newest sessions to be revealed for the show:

- As part of the GDC Virtual Items Summit, EA Playfish executive producer Tom Mapham will host, "The Sims Social: Deepening Interaction with the World's Most Unpredictable Social Game." Here, he will discuss the game's highly-engaged user base, and will outline the monetization techniques and design decisions that helped encourage early adoption.

- In the Main Conference's Customer Experience track, David Calvo of Ankama will discuss key transmedia strategies in, "Chaos in Motion: Transmedia as a Living Community Experience." Using examples from Ankama's own transmedia properties like Wakfu and Dofus, Calvo will point to the company's successes and lessons learned, noting the importance of entertainment that extends beyond video games.

- Finally, new details on the sponsored "Building Iconic Online Games Tutorial Day" from GameSpy have been revealed. The event will open with a preview of Warm Gun from Emotional Robots and Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave from Trendy Entertainment, both of which use GameSpy Technologies for their online features on smartphones.

Following the event's opening session is a talk with author Ernest Cline on his new novel, Ready Player One, which is set within the an MMO and provides a unique perspective on the structure and implications of online entertainment.

[In her Bosslady Blog update for the 2012 cycle, Game Developers Conference events GM Meggan Scavio details the extent of the Advisory Board's work honing next March's Main Conference lectures.]

Although you may think there's a few months to go before GDC 2012, we're already well underway in working to hone lectures for the show. Here's what happened so far...

Three weeks ago, the Game Developers Conference 2012 Main Conference call for submissions came to a close. By midnight, September 6, a grand total of 722 session proposals were in the system.

During the following two weeks, multiple members of the main GDC advisory board, including almost 20 notables like Clint Hocking (Far Cry 2), Soren Johnson (Civilization IV), Mark Cerny (Marble Madness), and a host of other discipline-specific experts reviewed, commented on and rated each of these submissions.

Along the way, the board members read the abstract, and looked at the attendee evaluation history of each speaker (The GDC keeps all speaker ratings and attendee comments dating back to GDC 2000, and uses them to vet speakers). They also reviewed the supporting material that was uploaded with the submission (slides, videos, PDFs, audio files, all stored thanks to the new GDC submission and rating tool we've created this year). And they followed the URLs provided and used their extensive industry knowledge and online information to evaluate each submission.

Then last week, the 20+ board members all flew into the San Francisco Bay Area and gathered at a hotel for three days to select the submissions that would move forward. During two full day meetings, each track (Audio; Business, Marketing & Management; Game Design; Production; Programming; Visual Arts) met independently to discuss the submissions within their track.

The submissions were sorted by average board member rating in descending order, and discussed one by one starting from top rated. It's here that the track members determined which submissions would move on to what we call 'Phase Two'.

Telltale Games' director of design and adventure game veteran Dave Grossman recently shared his thoughts on player choice in game design, noting that designers need to strike a balance between complete player autonomy and complete authorial control.

Grossman has more than 22 years of experience writing, designing, and directing story-centric games, including classic LucasArts titles such as The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle, and is well-practiced in telling stories through games.

At next month's GDC Online, Grossman will host a lecture in the Game Narrative Summit dubbed, "The Hand of Fate: Authorial Voice in Game Design," in which he will discuss the relationship between the developer and player when crafting interactive stories.

In anticipation of his talk, Grossman spoke out on the importance of balancing player freedom and creative control, and what implications this balance can have on game design.

What sort of tactics to you use to convey a story when players have control over the pacing and flow of a game experience?

Dave Grossman: Writers in other media use pacing and sequence of events to great effect, and it can be kind of disorienting to work in games, where a lot of control over those things is given to the player. Fortunately, there are plenty of other tools one can apply to create drama, tension, and story, including things you'd find in film like sound design, lighting, and camera work, and some elements that are particular to games, like play mechanics and the overall structure of challenge and reward.

Also, it's worth noting that players don't generally have absolute control over pacing and flow -- the game can exert influence on those as well, maybe a little, maybe a lot, and how a designer arranges that is part of what I mean when I'm talking about authorial voice.

How do you balance the control of the authorial voice with player autonomy?

DG: Carefully, I hope. We're talking about interactive media, so both the author and the player (or players) need to take control of some aspects of the experience. The challenge for the designer is to figure out which things to control strongly, and which not to. Some of the tools available are inherently subtle, some are not, but all are useful in various contexts.

The balance is probably not unlike being a parent, where you typically want to establish some clear rules, provide opportunities and context, and intervene where necessary, but if you try to manage your child's actions too closely, you'll both go nuts.

With GDC Online just around the corner, event organizers have debuted eight new lectures for the October show, with session topics ranging from monetization strategies in Firefall and Combat Arms, to breaking into Asian mobile markets, to the capabilities of Sony's PlayStation Vita.

GDC Online will take place next month, from October 10 through October 13 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, and these talks come from throughout GDC Online's numerous tracks and Summits, with nearly 150 sessions and 230 speakers on tap.

Many of these new talks fall within the show's Main Conference, which features tracks covering Business & Marketing, Customer Experience, Design, Production, and Programming, as well as a sponsored track on Monetization.

The show also includes three dedicated Summits, which offer specialized talks covering Smartphone & Tablet Games, Virtual Items, and Game Narrative.

Here are the newest sessions to be revealed for the show:

- In the GDC Virtual Items Summit, Mark Kern (Blizzard veteran and founder and CEO of Red 5 Studios) will host "Firefall - Free2Play Reborn," a session that examines the monetization techniques Kern's studio will use for its upcoming persistent online shooter (pictured).

- Another lecture in the GDC Virtual Items Summit, "Combat Arms Postmortem: The Art of Selling Guns," will feature Nexon America managing producer Jungsoo Lee, as he explains how the company completely re-vamped the monetization model for its popular shooter Combat Arms when bringing the title to the U.S.

- As part of the Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit, a panel of family-focused industry experts will host, "Kids, Tablets and Family: Social Gameplay at Home," which will look at the ways in which tablets and other mobile devices are changing the ways families play and enjoy media together.

- The Business & Marketing track will feature "Rift: Surviving and Thriving in Today's MMO Climate," in which Trion Worlds executive producer Scott Hartsman will look back on the studio's experience with Rift to offer tips on creating a successful MMO in today's competitive market.

With just two weeks to go until GDC Online, event organizers have detailed the show's Game Career Seminar, a one day event targeted at students, graduates, and other individuals looking to build a career in the games industry.

Taking place Wednesday, October 12, the Game Career Seminar will allow attendees to network with industry professionals, and listen to HR representatives and top developers as they share their insights on what it takes to break into the games business.

This seminar will run as its own dedicated track alongside the Main Conference tracks at the show, which cover Business & Marketing, Customer Experience, Design, Production, and Programming, as well as a sponsored track on Monetization.

Unlike the other tracks at GDC Online, the Game Career Seminar is open to those who purchase the special one day reduced-price Game Career Seminar Pass, as well as All-Access Pass holders. Those who purchase Game Career Seminar passes will also gain access to a keynote from PopCap co-founder John Vechey. To register for a GDC Online pass, please visit the official GDC Online website.

Here are the all the sessions to be announced so far for GDC Online's Game Career Seminar:

- As game education programs become more prevalent, it's important that students understand the challenges and requirements these programs present. In "Surviving an Education at a Game School and Graduating Employable," the Academy of Interactive Entertainment's Christopher Erhardt will go over the essential facts on game education programs, covering the pros and cons of online versus brick-and-mortar classes, what employers look for in graduates, and more.

- As with most professional careers, creating a good resume is key to nailing your dream job in the games industry, and Obsidian Entertainment's Jim Rivers will offer some useful tips and guidelines in, "What to Do Right on a Resume, Cover Letter and Website." Rivers serves as Obsidian's hiring manager -- effectively making him one of the gatekeepers for new developers in the industry -- and he will use his expertise to help attendees improve their resumes, cover letters, and websites.