eSports, 'next gaming decade,' and China talks added to GDC Next

July 31, 2013

Game Developers Conference Next organizers have added new talks to the event's Business & Marketing discipline, with veteran Starr Long (pictured) on 'Nine Trends For The Next Decade Of Video Games', ESL organizer Turtle Entertainment on the eSports ecosystem, and Niko Partners' market research on China and Southeast Asia.
GDC Next is the spiritual successor to GDC Online. The new event aims to highlight the future of video games, and will take place alongside the App Developers Conference on November 5th-7th, 2013 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Starr Long will draw from his 20 years of industry experience, from project director of Ultima Online to now executive producer of the $2.3 million crowd-funded Shroud of the Avatar, to propose 'Nine Trends For The Next Decade Of Video Games.' In this talk, Long will explore how trends like 3D printing and wearable tech can change the way we make and consume games -- and how said trends will combine with each other to produce even more drastic changes down the line.
Turtle Entertainment's VP of gaming communities David Hiltscher will explain the ins and outs of the eSports (professional competitive games) industry in a talk called 'Inside the eSports Ecosystem; A Business Overview.' Hiltscher, who oversees the ESL eSports leagues, will use his work with companies like Riot Games (League of Legends) and Wargaming (World of Tanks) to discuss how the eSports ecosystem works, who the major players are, and how big it has become.

Thomas Was Alone, pop-up arcade, public play talks added to GDC Europe

July 30, 2013

Organizers have highlighted several notable talks for next month's Independent Games Summit at GDC Europe in Cologne, with talks on Thomas Was Alone; indie arcade postmortems from Zo-ii, Wild Rumpus, and Glitchnap; and an international collaborative project by the Copenhagen Game Collective to create simple games in public spaces of Male, the capital of the Republic of the Maldives.
These talks are part of GDC Europe 2013's Independent Games Summit, which will take place Tuesday, August 20th, during the three-day conference at Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the 275,000 person Gamescom event.
All GDC Europe attendees may access the Independent Games Summit, either with a reduced-price Independent Games Summit pass or any other pass. The Independent Games Summit Pass will also include a two-day pass to the Gamescom event itself, including admission during the business day on Wednesday, August 21st -- a significant additional perk.
Zo-ii's Zuraida Buter (Playful Arts Festival), Wild Rumpus's Marie Foulston, and Glitchnap's Jonatan Van Hove will speak about their efforts organizing and curating pop-up indie game events in 'Pop-Up Arcade: Postmortems on Indie Arcades and Events.' The talk will range from details on building a DIY arcade machine without a budget, to their views on the impact and importance of these events on game and play culture.

Papo & Yo, Unity, analytics talks added to GDC China 2013

July 26, 2013

GDC China organizers have begun to select presentations for the upcoming event, with the first talks covering multiplatform development tips with Unity3D, predictive analytics of online players, and the emotional journey for players in Papo & Yo (pictured).
Organized by UBM Tech Game Network, GDC China, now in its sixth year, has moved up to September this year, running the 15th to the 17th at the Shanghai International Convention Center in Shanghai, China. The event will be co-located with Cloud Connect China.
As part of the Business & Marketing Track, former Havok co-founder and Swrve CTO Steven Collins will discuss analytics his company has used with clients such as Epic and Activision in the talk 'Predicting Player Propensities in Online Games.' He will show how the tools can predict behavior, score users, test different actions and optimize strategies for exploiting the results of the prediction, all based on the players' interactions in-game.
In the Production Track, Flarb founder Ralph Barbagallo will discuss his platform of choice in 'Native Code is Dead: Multiplatform Development with Unity3D.' His session will cover the most popular options for developing games on mobile, web, desktop, and social platforms with particular attention spent on Unity3D, used in the company's own Android and iOS release of Brick Buddies.

Next-gen hardware talks from Sony, AMD, Oculus headed to GDC Europe 2013

July 25, 2013

Mere weeks before GDC Europe 2013, organizers review several key, next-gen and other game hardware talks scheduled for the event, including AMD on powering the graphics for PS4 and Xbox One; Sony on PlayStation 4's shading language; an HD Oculus Rift VR talk and expo floor demo; and Nintendo on Unity, HTML, and JavaScript tools.
GDC Europe will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event, with all GDC Europe passes also guaranteeing entrance to Gamescom.
In the Oculus VR session 'Virtual Reality Gaming and Game Development', founder Palmer Luckey and VP of product Nate Mitchell will speak about the challenges virtual reality presents for game devs, why VR will change the way games are played, and what VR means for the industry.
In addition, the company's product - the HD Oculus Rift VR headset - is currently planned to be playable in a booth on the GDC Europe show floor on Monday and Tuesday, August 19th and 20th, giving attendees the chance to check out the latest demonstrations on the unique hardware.
In another emerging hardware talk, Sony's Chris Ho and Richard Stenson are stepping up to present 'PlayStation Shading Language for PS4', a talk that will discuss PlayStation Shading Language, which "enables a degree of cross-compatibility with the PC, but extends far into specific PlayStation 4 hardware extensions that truly unlock features of the PS4 GPU in ways not seen before in this class of modern graphics hardware."

GDC Next reveals Double Fine, Riot notables on Board for November event

July 24, 2013

As Game Developers Conference Next session selections are prepared, event organizers have revealed the industry notables curating content - alongside GDC staff - for the future-facing conference.
GDC Next is the spiritual successor to GDC Online - the new event aims to highlight the future of video games and will take place alongside the App Developers Conference on November 5th-7th, 2013 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
GDC Next will offer six tracks that will cover new and rapidly expanding areas in video games. Event organizers have chosen 19 members for the Advisory Board with expertise in these evolving fields, including many of the key advisors from GDC Online.
The first lectures from the show, announced last month, include Google on the first year of its Play service, thatgamecompany on its design philosophy and future, Disney on theme park design lessons for game developers, and Adam Orth on reforming toxic online behavior.

Crytek, Silent Hunter Online talks late additions to GDC Europe 2013

July 23, 2013

With less than a month before GDC Europe 2013, organizers continue to highlight important talks scheduled for the event, including making the 3D rendering engine for Silent Hunter Online, Crytek's people management strategy and how to succeed on Facebook with a 'hardcore' game are late additions to GDC Europe 2013's massive line-up.
GDC Europe will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event, with all GDC Europe passes also guaranteeing entrance to Gamescom.
First up, Crytek executive producer Joshua Howard will show attendees how to apply game design to management and create more productive teams in 'Better Teams Through Game Design.'
Howard advocates people as players and not pieces in management, drawing from experience currently working on free-to-play FPS Warface and former projects such as Microsoft Flight and APB.

GDC 2014 adds board members, calls for talk submissions

July 22, 2013

The call for submissions to present lectures, roundtables and panel sessions for the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2014 is now open through Thursday, August 29.
Organized by the UBM Tech Game Network, GDC 2014 is the game industry's most comprehensive and longest running professionals-only event, where game developers converge for a week of learning, networking and inspiration. GDC 2014, the event's 27th edition, will take place March 17th-21st, 2014 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California.
The GDC 2014 advisory board is looking for Main Conference submissions for the Audio, Business, Marketing & Management, Design, Production, Programming and Visual Arts tracks. Session proposals can be submitted via the official GDC website. GDC 2014 Summit submissions will open in early September 2014.
The GDC Main Conference advisory board, which includes game industry notables such as Square Enix's Julien Merceron, PlayStation 4 lead architect Mark Cerny, Media Molecule's Siobhan Reddy and Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman, is also very excited to welcome two new members to assist in content planning for the conference.

Final reminder: IGF China deadline is July 19 for pan-Pacific indie game submissions

July 18, 2013

Organizers are putting out a last call for submissions towards the Independent Games Festival China - which will take place alongside this September's GDC China in Shanghai - with pan-Pacific game entries due Friday, July 19.

Last day for GDC Europe 2013 early reg - HD Oculus Rift, Valve recruiting, more

July 18, 2013

On the last day of early registration, GDC Europe organizers highlight can't-miss talks including Ubisoft's Child of Light and Quantic Dream's The Dark Sorcerer next-gen demo, along with expo events such as Valve recruiting and an Oculus VR demo.
GDC Europe will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event, with all GDC Europe passes also guaranteeing entrance to Gamescom.
Below are just some of over 80 talks scheduled for GDC Europe 2013:
- Ubisoft Montreal creative director Patrick Plourde (lead design on two Assassin's Creed titles and creative director on Far Cry 3) will reveal his upcoming project Child of Light and the internal greenlight process behind it in 'Small Projects in AAA in Studios.'
- Frogmind's Johannes Vuorinen will share marketing tricks behind the two-man team's Apple Design Award winning game, which sold over 100,000 copies in its first week, in 'Badland Postmortem: How to Launch a Premium Priced Indie Game in the App Store.'

European devs heavily favoring mobile, PC over consoles, GDC survey says

July 17, 2013

European game developers are jumping into the mobile and PC bandwagon more quickly than their North American counterparts, says an industry survey conducted by the Game Developers Conference.
In order to paint a picture of the European sector of game development right before GDC Europe, the Game Developers Conference has surveyed over 300 European games industry professionals who have attended GDC shows, read Gamasutra.com, or plan to attend GDC Europe 2013 in August. The survey was focused in part on determining which platforms game developers intended to target in their current and upcoming projects.
Organized by the UBM Tech Game Network, GDC Europe will take place August 19-21, 2013, at the Congress-Centrum Ost Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany.

Ahead of deadline, GDC Europe adds Wii U, Hitman: Absolution, DeNA talks

July 17, 2013

As Thursday's early registration deadline looms, new GDC Europe talks include Hitman: Absolution's AI/animation; Scattered Entertainment's Senta Jakobsen (The Drowning) on distributed work environments; and Nintendo on using Unity, HTML, and JavaScript on the Wii U.
The event itself will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event, with all GDC Europe passes also guaranteeing entrance to Gamescom.
In the first of Nintendo of Europe's (NOE) two vendor-presented sessions, 'Nintendo Wii U Application Development with HTML and JavaScript,' NOE's own Svyetoslav Pidgornyy and Martin Buchholz "will introduce a new way of rapidly developing Wii U applications that takes full advantage of unique Wii U features while reducing development times significantly."
The second vendor session, 'Unity, Wii U and You,' will feature NOE senior software engineer James Steele and Unity core team developer Wayne Johnson, presenting "everything from technical advantages of using Unity to develop your Wii U titles, to the process of getting your title published on the Wii U."

GDC Europe industry survey reveals tax incentive, content rating, country insights

July 16, 2013

In order to paint a picture of the European sector of game development right before GDC Europe, the Game Developers Conference has surveyed over 300 European games industry professionals who have attended GDC shows, read Gamasutra.com, or plan to attend GDC Europe 2013 in August.
Along the way, the respondents have revealed several fascinating trends about tax incentives, regional development centers, and top European game-making countries of the past, present and future.
Organized by the UBM Tech Game Network, GDC Europe will take place August 19-21, 2013, at the Congress-Centrum Ost Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany, co-located with the major Gamescom game business/consumer event.

Gunpoint, Ubisoft, QA gamification talks added to GDC Europe 2013

July 15, 2013

Ahead of this Thursday's early registration deadline, GDC Europe 2013 organizers have announced more talks for its August event, featuring a talk on the lessons behind designing IGF finalist Gunpoint, Ubisoft on improving the UX of development tools, and Automation's producer on gamifying beta-testing.
The event will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event, with all GDC Europe passes also guaranteeing entrance to Gamescom.
Ubisoft UX director David Lightbown, who has worked on the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry franchises, will show how to improve efficiency in 'The User Experience of Game Development Tools.' Lightbown believes the industry needs to make UX of tools a priority so that their pipeline is "focused on accomplishing the goals of the content creators," and attendees will learn techniques to apply to their own existing tools to make this happen.
Elsewhere, long-time PC Gamer writer-turned-developer Tom Francis will share 'How Reviewing Games for Nine Years Helped in Designing Gunpoint' as part of the Indie Games Summit. While focusing on the results for his IGF-nominated stealth puzzler (pictured), he will also impart how to pick apart and what to learn from both enjoyable and detestable games.

Google Dev Day, Nintendo, Project Anarchy sessions added to GDC Europe 2013

July 12, 2013

GDC Europe 2013 organizers have announced a collection of vendor sessions for its August event, including a day-long boot camp covering Google Play Game Services, Cloud, and Mobile App Analytics; Havok sessions on its 3D game engine for mobile and a case study on next-gen online gaming; and two upcoming Nintendo talks.
These special sessions are accessible to VIP and All Access Pass holders during GDC Europe 2013. The three-day conference will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event.
On Tuesday, August 20th, the first-come, first-served Google Developer Day will begin with learning how to use Google's monetization and promotion tools to support and grow your game company, followed by a discussion of how to support multi-platform gaming with Google Cloud.
Continuing the day will be 'Acquiring the Most Valuable Users for Your Game,' which will include Google staffers covering how to focus on the lifetime value of users and how to implement a data-driven advertising strategy to retain them. Additionally, 'Measuring and Optimizing Games using Google Mobile App Analytics' will explain how this tool can help developers iterate on gameplay experiences and establish new monetization models.
The full schedule of the Google Developer Day is available here.

David Cage to discuss The Dark Sorceror at GDC Europe 2013

July 11, 2013

GDC Europe 2013 organizers have announced new talks for the August event, including Quantic Dream's David Cage (Beyond: Two Souls) on their virtual actor capturing techniques for next-gen, Ubisoft on User Experience development methods, and Nevosoft on tapping into the burgeoning German mobile market.
These sessions will be part of the Production and Visual Arts tracks and the Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit, accessible to VIP and All Access Pass holders for GDC Europe 2013. The event will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event.
Multiple award-winning Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream CEO David Cage will cover the visual arts techniques from his latest two projects in 'The Dark Sorcerer and Beyond: Shooting, Directing and Filming Virtual Actors.' These techniques will cover everything needed for using virtual actors (Beyond's William Dafoe pictured) in next-gen titles, and will be demonstrated with exclusive footage from The Dark Sorcerer.
Julia Lebedeva, business development director of English and Russian casual games publisher Nevosoft, will uncover the value in the emerging 'Russian Mobile Game Market: Not Easy but Worth It.' Her talk will cover the market's volume and peculiarities, tips for breaking into it, and how to avoid common pitfalls.

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