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GDC China 2012 adds talks from Naughty Dog, Volition, more

The lineup for November's GDC China in Shanghai continues to grow today, adding some of the creators of key titles like Saints Row: The Third, Uncharted 3, and more.

These three newly announced sessions -- along with the rest of GDC China -- will take place November 17-19 at the Shanghai International Convention Center in Shanghai, China, and will bring together the world's leading developers to share knowledge and ideas that will benefit the Asian game industry and beyond.

The full details on GDC China's newest sessions are as follows:

- As part of the Production track, Volition player experience researcher Jordan Lynn will examine the best practices for making satisfying games in "Playtesting and Metrics: Getting the Most Out of Your Usability Testing." Drawing examples from games like Saints Row: The Third and Red Faction: Armageddon, Lynn will explain "how to integrate back-end telemetry into an existing playtest program," noting how it can help developers gather valuable information and ultimately make better games.

- Over in the conference's Game Design track, Naughty Dog senior game designer Benson Russell will host, "The Last 10, Going From Good To Awesome." Here, Russell will examine how the acclaimed studio behind Uncharted and The Last of Us ensures its games launch as polished as possible. He'll discuss the team's approach to managing development schedules, the level of detail developers should shoot for, and how to make a high-quality game while still shipping on time.

- Finally, Ubisoft Shanghai's Xu Wang will present the Game Design track lecture "From Console to Mobile: the Best Practices to Build Multi-Platform Games." During this session, Wang will discuss how developers can use some principles from console game development to make their mobile projects go much more smoothly. Looking at everything from development pipelines, technology and communication, Wang will examine the ways in which console expertise can benefit nearly all forms of multiplatform development.

See how Meridian 59 set the stage for modern MMOs at GDC Online 2012

The 3DO Company's Meridian 59 became one the first true 3D MMOs when it debuted on PC in 1995, and the game even laid the foundation for games like EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and more. It's remembered as one of the most seminal games of the 1990s, and at next month's GDC Online, you can see how the title came to be in a newly announced classic game postmortem.

In addition to this presentation, GDC organizers have also revealed a talk on securing top placement on digital marketplaces, as well as a robust hiring session featuring a handful of the industry's top developers.

These new talks all fall within GDC Online's Main Conference, which offers some of the world's leading content on persistent and online games. The event will be held Tuesday, October 9 to Thursday, October 11 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas.

The full details on GDC Online's latest sessions are as follows:

- In GDC Online's newest classic game postmortem, Meridian 59 lead designer Damion Schubert, now a BioWare developer working on Star Wars: The Old Republic, will share "how he and his team created a game that would inspire decades-worth of massively multiplayer online RPGs."

Schubert will run through the game's creation from beginning to end, detailing how the game took creative risks and broke new ground for the many online games that followed in its wake.

- Elsewhere, Jason Ing, Microsoft's head of marketing for the Xbox Live Marketplace, will host an in-depth session on the importance of getting favorable placement for your game on Xbox Live, the iTunes App Store, and other digital storefronts.

Ing believes games that secure a prominent spot are much more likely to find success, and in "Getting Storefront Placement for Discoverability," he will outline the process he uses to identify high-profile titles, and will share some general principles to help developers maximize the discoverability of their digital games.

- Finally, GDC Online will host a "Massive Multi-Recruiter Developer Hiring Session," in which major studios from all over the industry will try to attract new talent by discussing their teams and the positions they're hiring for. The event is open to all GDC Online attendees, and is a great opportunity for anyone looking for a big break, a lateral move, or the next step in their career.

Featured recruiters at the event include Emily Gabrian (Harmonix), Kriste Stull (Sony Computer), Kevin Moot (The Nerdery), Mara Flores (Multimedia Games, Inc.), Michael Sheets (Kabam), Ashley Pierce (Bioware) and James Rivers (Nexon America, Inc).

GDC Online debuts talks on Fallout DLC, pen and paper games, and more

This year's Game Narrative Summit at GDC Online next month in Austin, TX is quickly becoming one of the event's most robust yet, and today GDC organizers have revealed even more Summit sessions featuring a behind the scenes look at the DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, a talk on writing for both paper and electronic games, and more.

Now in its seventh year, the Game Narrative Summit -- formerly the Game Writers Conference -- will once again take place at GDC Online, showcasing leading industry professionals on the many facets of interactive storytelling, with sessions ranging from roundtable discussions, workshops, case studies, and more.

This Summit will run alongside the rest of GDC Online, which will take place October 9-11 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas.

The full details on these new Summit sessions are as follows:

- In "A 4 Hour Story in 400 Simple Steps: Fallout DLC," Obsidian Entertainment's creative director, Chris Avellone, will explain how the studio created small-scale RPG narratives in its 2010 hit, Fallout: New Vegas. Throughout his talk, Avellone will offer a number of tips to help game writers create story flowcharts, build emotional vistas, proofread their scripts, and edit their interactive storylines.

- Elsewhere, game scriptwriter Daniel Greenberg will host, "How NOT to Freelance," detailing some common mistakes among independent game writers. Drawing from his experience working with licenses like The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Crysis, and more, Greenberg will discuss his own mistakes, how he handled them, and what other writers can do to avoid those same errors.

- Finally, a panel of pen and paper game designers will discuss how their experience in the non-digital world helped them become better video game developers. During the talk, "The Journey from Paper Games to Digital Games - What Writers Have Learned," the panelists will discuss how the history of the pen and paper industry has played a major role in shaping modern game development.

Speakers at this panel include ArenaNet's Angel Leigh McCoy, Zenimax's Sam Lewis, and Crossover Technologies' Eric Goldberg, freelancer Thomas Reid, and Schell Games veteran Sheri Ray.

GDC Online adds Ultima Forever postmortem, Unity, startup sessions

With GDC Online's October kickoff quickly approaching, the show's organizers have revealed a trio of new talks, including a postmortem of BioWare Mythic's Ultima Forever, a Unity session on multiplatform game development, and some bootstrapping tips from social startup PerBlue.

These new talks all fall within GDC Online's Main Conference, which offers some of the world's leading content on persistent and online games. The event will be held Tuesday, October 9 to Thursday, October 11 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas.

The full details on GDC Online's newly announced sessions are as follows:

- In Ultima Forever: Reimagining a Classic, BioWare Mythic senior creative director Paul Barnett will discuss how the studio drew inspiration from the classic Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, and reimagined it as an all-new free-to-play online game. This lecture will join the previously announced Ultima Online classic game postmortem, and will showcase how the renowned Ultima franchise has been updated by modern game designers to put a distinctly different spin on the IP.

- As part of GDC Online's Production track, Unity director of games monetization Adam Gutterman will host "The Challenges (and Promise!) of Multiplatform Production." Here, he will outline the challenges of multiplatform game development, and will offer some business-focused advice to help developers decide whether this production strategy is the right fit for their game.

- Elsewhere, highly rated GDC speaker Justin Beck will share some tips for getting a startup off the ground in the Business & Marketing track session, "Bootstrapping 101: How College Kids Built a Thriving Game Company in Under Three Years." Here, he will share lessons learned from the social startup PerBlue (Parallel Kingdom), detailing "why we turned down seed funding and how we compensated team members when we had no money."

GDC China 2012 reveals first Smartphone, Indie Summit sessions

In the latest update for this November's GDC China, event organizers have revealed the show's first three Summit sessions, which cover how to achieve long-term success on mobile platforms, some tips for improving user acquisition, and whether indies should find a publisher or work on their own.

These sessions fall within the Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit and the Independent Games Summit, which will run alongside the show's Main Conference, and offer specialized content focused on these two very important realms of the modern video game landscape.

These Summits will take place alongside GDC China's Main Conference on November 17-19.

The full details on these new Summit sessions are as follows:

- As part of the Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit, NaturalMotion Games' Struan Robertson will discuss how his studio has maintained success on mobile devices with games like My Horse and the extremely popular CSR Racing (pictured). His talk, "Mobile Social - The Future is Quality," will discuss how to attract a dedicated, sophisticated player base by focusing on specific gameplay mechanics and crafting a high-quality user experience.

- In that same Summit, Chartboost's Maria Alegre will host, "User Acquisition: The Latest Trends, Tools and Best Practices." Here, Alegre will examine a number of iOS and Abdroid games that have found their way to the top of the app charts, detailing the tools they used, how successful they were, and how the mobile user acquisition market is changing.

- Over in the Independent Games Summit, noted Chinese indie Wen Chen of Coconut Island Studio (One Tap Hero for iOS) will discuss the best way to distribute your independent game in "Self-Publishing or Find a Publisher?" Chen will compare these two very different publishing strategies, and will give indie developers a better understanding of how they can get their games into players' hands.

IGF China reminds on Monday entry deadline for 2012 competition

Following another successful event in 2011, this November's Independent Games Festival China is beginning to take shape, and developers looking to feature their games at the event should act soon, as the call for indie game submissions ends on Monday, September 10.

IGF China -- which will take place alongside GDC China in Shanghai -- is accepting submissions from developers from throughout the pan-Pacific area, which includes both Asian and Australian regions. To enter, simply fill out the submissions form on the official GDC China website.

As in previous years, IGF China will be divided into three main segments: The IGF Summit, the IGF Pavilion, and the IGF Awards. The IGF Summit will feature sessions from some of the world's top developers, while the IGF Pavilion will showcase some of the region's best independent and student games.

The prestigious IGF Awards, meanwhile, will be split into both Main and Student competitions, and will honor the many talented developers in both China and its surrounding regions.

The 2012 IGF China Main Competition will give out awards and cash prizes in five categories, including:

- Best Game (RMB20,000 ~ $3,150 USD)
- Best Mobile Game (RMB10,000 ~ $1,570 USD)
- Excellence in Audio (RMB5,000 ~ $780 USD)
- Excellence in Technology (RMB5,000 ~ $780 USD)
- Excellence in Visual Arts (RMB5,000 ~ $780 USD)

The Student Competition, meanwhile, will offer two awards, for Best Student Game (RMB10, 000 ~ $1,570 USD, 1 Winner) and Excellent Student Winner (RMB3, 000 ~$470 USD, 2 Winners).

GDC Online 2012 adds Koster keynote, new game design sessions

With experience working on titles ranging from Ultima Online to Star Wars Galaxies, industry veteran Raph Koster has developed quite a bit of expertise on online game design, and at next month's GDC Online, he'll present a robust keynote detailing his theory for creating fun in the modern online game industry.

Alongside his keynote, GDC Online organizers have also revealed two new Design track sessions, covering the best practices for video game analytics and the evolving tastes of female players.

These new talks all fall within GDC Online's Main Conference, which offers some of the world's leading content on persistent and online games. The event will be held Tuesday, October 9 to Thursday, October 11 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas.

The full details on GDC Online's newly announced sessions are as follows:

- In Raph Koster's keynote, the 2012 Online Game Legend Award recipient will reflect on a speech he gave 10 years ago at the very first GDC Online - then known as the Austin Game Conference. In that keynote, Koster explored why games matter, how they teach players, and what fun is.

In his upcoming presentation, dubbed "A Theory of Fun 10 Years Later," he'll revisit those ideas and address how his theory has changed over the last decade, reexamining the importance of how games interact with their players.

- Elsewhere, Bigpoint's Christian Godorr and Stefanie Hels will host "Separating Signal from Noise: Leveraging Creative Analytics for Game Design." Here, the pair will explain how to look past cliched terms like "Monthly Active Users" and "Lifetime Value" to find the proper way to blend data-driven analytics with real, creative game design.

- Finally, Real Life Plus creative director Terry Redfield will examine female player demographics in "It's Not Your Game, It's Me: How a Woman's Taste in Games May Change As She Ages." Redfield, who has also worked on titles such as Psychonauts and Gardens of Time, will use the latest research on female hormone and neurological studies to examine how certain game mechanics appeal to distinct female age groups.

GDC Online adds new narrative sessions on Halo 4, Guild Wars 2, more

In the latest update for GDC Online, show organizers have debuted a trio of new sessions in the Game Narrative Summit for October's Austin event, including talks on Halo 4 and Guild Wars 2, as well as the ever-popular Game Writing Tutorial.

Now in its seventh year, the Game Narrative Summit -- formerly the Game Writers Conference -- will once again take place at GDC Online, showcasing leading industry professionals on the many facets of interactive storytelling, with sessions ranging from roundtable discussions, workshops, case studies, and more.

The full details on these new Summit sessions are as follows:

- In "Building Transmedia Worlds in Halo 4," 343 Industries' Armando Troisi and Kevin Grace will discuss how to juggle a sprawling franchise that exists across video games, comics, novels, and much more. They'll share anecdotes from managing the Halo brand to help other developers grow and sustain a blockbuster video game franchise.

- Elsewhere, ArenaNet's Bobby Stein and Angel Leigh McCoy will discuss how to craft a story for a sprawling MMO in "Guild Wars 2: Finding Our Voice." Looking back on the game's five year development cycle, the pair will outline how the team wrote and recorded hours upon hours of recorded dialogue, and created enough written content to fill the game's enormous online world. Along the way, they'll offer advice to help other studios avoid the common mistakes of writing for an online game.

- In addition, the Game Narrative Summit will also include the "Game Writing Tutorial," a one-day workshop discussing the theory and practices of game writing and narrative design. During this event, novices and pros alike will learn from some of the industry's top designers and writers, and will get a chance to go hands-on with a number of collaborative exercises to hone their game writing abilities.

GDC China debuts Valve, Bethesda level design day, first design talks

With GDC China 2012 just a few months away, the show has debuted the first sessions in its quickly expanding lineup. For this first update, show organizers have added a robust level design tutorial featuring developers from Bethesda, Valve, and The Fullbright Company, as well as game design talks from companies like EA Sports and Virtuos.

These debut sessions -- along with the rest of GDC China -- will take place November 17-19 at the Shanghai International Convention Center in Shanghai, China, and will bring together the world's leading developers to share knowledge and ideas that will benefit the Asian game industry and beyond.

The full details on GDC China's initial sessions are as follows:

- First, the show will host the in-depth "Level Design Workshop," an interactive tutorial session examining the best practices for successful level design. During this session, Bethesda's Joel Burgess, Valve's Matthew Scott, and The Fullbright Company founder and Bioshock 2 designer Steve Gaynor will discuss fundamental principles such as layout, flow, pacing, and narrative, and will apply those concepts to a variety of game genres.

- In the Design Track's "The Business of Art Direction: 7 Critical Precepts," EA Sports executive art director Rick Stringfellow will discuss some essential guidelines that can help developers better manage their production pipelines. He'll examine everything from "debugging difficult digital content to establishing new visual processes," and will give attendees the knowledge they'll need to streamline development for all types of games, platforms, and audiences.

- Finally, Florian Dhesse of outsourcing house Virtuos will host "Improve Your Games' Quality by Managing Your Designers," offering tips to help Chinese studios lead and nurture their valuable game designers. Drawing from Virtuos' own experience working in China, the senior game design manager will outline the methods and tools studios will need to improve their products and better manage their game design staff.

GDC Online 2012 debuts full lineup for the Game Dev Start-Up Summit

Starting your own game company can be an exciting, liberating, yet extremely complicated process. It takes a lot to get a new game studio off the ground, but luckily, GDC Online's inaugural Game Dev Start-Up Summit will offer plenty of content to help developers accomplish that goal.

This one-day Summit, put together by GDC Online organizers and veteran game industry lawyer Jim Charne, will include a host of sessions that provide a step-by-step look at the issues, challenges, and realities of striking out on your own with a new video game start-up.

The Summit will take place the first day of GDC Online -- which will run October 9 to October 11 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. The full-day event will be open to all Summits & Tutorials and All-Access Pass holders.

Earlier this month, GDC Online organizers revealed the Summit's first three sessions, which cover everything from preparing a start-up to securing funding. Now, here is the rest of the lineup for the upcoming event:

- In "Operating a Company - The Day to Day Routine," the Summit's speakers will address the minutiae of making sure a start-up functions as intended. This session will address the essentials of hiring and firing employees, managing staff concerns, drafting an employee handbook, and much more.

- Of course, every start-up needs to have a solid plan for the next stage of its business; after all, the company won't be a start-up forever. In "Exiting / Cashing Out - Strategies to be Acquired, Merge, Go Public," the speakers will outline the various business strategies to consider when a company has made it big, or when the founders are ready to move on.

- In addition, the Game Dev Start-Up Summit will give speakers and attendees the chance to share their own anecdotes in "War Stories: Worst Mistakes / Best Moves." Here, panelists and audience members can learn from each other by discussing their greatest accomplishments, their most colossal failures, and everything in-between.

Game Developers Choice Online Awards honor Raph Koster, World of Warcraft

GDC Online organizers have revealed that Raph Koster, a key industry veteran behind the prodigious MMORPGs Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, will be honored with the Online Game Legend Award at the third annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards.

In addition, Blizzard Entertainment's influential World of Warcraft will be inducted into the Choice Online Awards Hall of Fame during the ceremony, taking place Wednesday, October 10 at GDC Online in Austin, Texas.

These special awards categories recognize developers and titles that have had significant impact in the world of online games. Honorees were selected through open nominations from the online game community and the distinguished GDC Online Advisory Board.

Raph Koster, this year's Online Game Legend Award winner, has led a prolific career. As the lead designer on Ultima Online and the creative director on Star Wars Galaxies, his contributions helped lay the foundation for the many massively multiplayer games that followed. Koster's professional credits span nearly every facet of game development, including writing, art, soundtrack music, programming and design.

Raph Koster is considered a thought leader, as he is a frequent lecturer and published author on topics of game design, community management, storytelling and ethics in game development. His A Theory of Fun, published in 2004, is considered seminal by educators and members of the art game movement, as well as being one of the most popular books ever written about games.

In his youth, Koster taught himself programming on an Atari 8-bit computer that he used to create the first game he ever sold (It was purchased by a fellow classmate). His early professional years include work on the award-winning multi-user dungeon LegendMUD, which he later parlayed into a position as lead designer on the seminal MMO Ultima Online. Koster's varied interests in writing, art and graphic design served him well when he joined Sony Online Entertainment in the role of creative director on Star Wars Galaxies, a game praised for its lush graphics, authentic movie-based soundtrack, expansive in-game world, customization options and sophisticated gameplay mechanics.

After serving as chief creative officer at Sony Online Entertainment, Koster established his own firm, Metaplace, a software platform developer for social worlds and the company behind popular Facebook games Island Life and My Vineyard. In 2010, Metaplace was acquired by Disney Interactive Media Group's online social development arm, Playdom, where Koster currently serves as vice president of creative design.

Voting opens for the Game Developers Choice Online Audience Award

With GDC Online's Game Developers Choice Online Awards quickly approaching, event organizers have opened voting for the ceremony's popular Audience Award, and are encouraging developers and gamers alike to vote for their favorite persistent online game from now until September 14.

Typically, winners at the Game Developers Choice Online Awards are chosen by the online body of the event's International Choice Award Network (ICAN), but the Audience Award allows the public to choose the best currently operating persistent online game, whether it be a traditional MMO, a free-to-play web game title, a social network game, or anything else.

To vote, users can simply enter the name of their selected game and a valid email address at the Game Developers Choice Online Awards website. After making a selection, all users must verify their vote via email.

With hundreds of thousands of votes cast in the past, the Audience Award is one of the most hotly contested of the show, with previous winners including KingsIsle's Wizard101 and Riot Games' League Of Legends.

The winner of the Audience Award will be revealed alongside the other award winners at the third annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards, which will run alongside GDC Online in Austin, Texas on the evening of Wednesday, October 10.

GDC Online adds Kabam, King.com talks, reminds on early reg deadline

With just one day until Early Bird registration ends for October's GDC Online event, show organizers have added talks from Kabam and King.com, plus a lecture on how female developers can help broaden the industry's reach and diversity.

These new talks all fall within GDC Online's Main Conference, which offers some of the world's leading content on persistent and online games. The event will be held Tuesday, October 9 to Thursday, October 11 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas.

The full details on GDC Online's newly announced sessions are as follows:

- As part of the Production track, Riccardo Zacconi, CEO and co-founder of major social game developer King.com, will discuss his philosophy for multi-platform game development in "Building a Multi-Platform Game Business out of Facebook and onto Mobile."

Zacconi will look back on major King.com titles like Bubble Witch Saga to present his strategy for creating games that offer a smooth user experience, achieve high ratings, and successfully integrate cross-platform gameplay.

- Over in the Design track, Kabam art lead Josh Viers and general manager Justin Lambros will discuss how they leveraged their art and design talents to improve engagement and monetization in Kabam's latest social strategy game, Trojan War.

Their session, "Enhancing Engagement with Art and Design in Hardcore Social Games," will offer a behind the scenes look at Kabam's design process for games that exist across Facebook and the web.

- Finally, Jill Schneiderman, the VP of games at SGN (Bingo Blingo), will host "For Women, by... Men?" -- a Design track lecture examining the implications of gender imbalance in the game industry.

As Schneiderman will explain, women make up a large portion of the video game-playing audience across social, mobile, and other platforms, yet only a small fraction of the people making these games are female. She'll examine the state of the industry and outline the key insights that women can bring to the development process.

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