GDC Europe 2011 has debuted new main conference talks in its Game Design and Programming tracks, including Ernest Adams on the problems with MMOs, a postmortem of Dance Central, and the lighting system used in DICE's Battlefield 3.
Taking place Monday through Wednesday, August 15-17, 2011 at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost ahead of the major gamescom trade show, GDC Europe 2011 has now revealed more than 60 sessions in the event's Schedule Builder.
Some of the new highlights from the Main Conference sessions, which encompass tracks on Business & Marketing, Game Design, Production, Programming and Visual Arts, include the following:
- Harmonix's Matt Boch and Dean Tate will reflect on the development of the Kinect launch title Dance Central in "Break It Down! How Harmonix and Kinect Taught the World to Dance; The Design Process and Philosophy of Dance Central." In this talk, the two will discuss how the studio built the game from scratch in just one year, while still adapting to a completely new motion control interface.
- In the conference's Game Design Track, industry veteran Ernest Adams will examine the problems with online persistence in "Making MMOGs More Storylike." In this talk, he will explain why modern online games prevent players from meaningfully affecting the game world, and will offer solutions that could grant players more control over their online environment.
- As part of the conference's Programming track, DICE's Christina Coffin will give a lecture dubbed "SPU-based Deferred Shading in Battlefield 3 for PlayStation 3," in which she will outline the SPU based lighting system in the studio's own Frostbite 2 engine. Coffin will discuss the performance benefits that SPU based shading offers, and will explain how it influences the visuals of DICE's flagship shooter, Battlefield 3.
In addition to the Main Conference, GDC Europe has added notable Summits on social games, smartphone & tablet games, indie games and community management to the existing line-up this year.
GDC Europe recently announced that Wooga founder Jens Begemann will keynote the show's Business & Marketing track, and other keynote announcements are due to be revealed over the next few weeks. Other recent announcements include talks from Zynga, Epic Games, and Silent Hill: Downpour developer Vatra Games, as well as mobile game talks on Catan and Galaxy on Fire 2, and Ubisoft's Jason VandenBergh on working with established IP.
For more information on GDC Europe as the event takes shape, please visit the official GDC Europe website, or subscribe to updates from the new GDC Europe-specific news page in RSS form, official Twitter page, or official Facebook page. GDC Europe is a product of UBM TechWeb, as is this website.
