GDC Europe's Innovative Games Showcase reveals 2016 game lineup

July 1, 2016

Good news, GDC Europe attendees: Today's the day GDC organizers happily reveal the lineup of games that will be showcased in the third annual European Innovative Games Showcase during the 2016 Independent Games Summit at GDC Europe in Cologne next month!

Games featured in the showcase were selected from a wide variety of applicants by game designers Lea Schönfelder and Jonatan Van Hove (who will also MC the event) working alongside a team of judges.

The Showcase winners receive free Speaker Passes to the event, which afford full access to every GDC Europe session as well as the massive Gamescom trade/public event.

These winners will also have the opportunity to give 5-minute microtalks at the final session of GDC Europe's IGS to showcase what's special about their current project. If you're planning to attend the show, make time to check these talks out!

Standalone VRDC to offer VR/AR talks for games & beyond

June 30, 2016

Now that the first standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference is in production, organizers would like to celebrate what sets the November conference apart from the games & entertainment-focused VRDC track of talks at GDC in February 2017.

While VRDC got its start earlier this year as a sibling event to GDC 2016 in San Francisco, it quickly proved so popular that organizers spun it off to become a standalone show. We expanded its remit beyond VR/AR in games and entertainment to encompass subjects such as healthcare, journalism, travel, manufacturing, retail, live events, real estate, training, and so much more.

VRDC will continue to be held alongside the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in 2017, the world’s largest professional game industry event. VRDC at GDC will continue to focus on creating amazing, immersive VR for games and entertainment.

To match the scope of the standalone VRDC's ambitions, the November conference will feature four different tracks of talks: Games & Entertainment, Brand Experience, Innovation and Partners.

So while VRDC attendees will be able to sit in on talks about the best practices of VR and AR game design, they'll also have the opportunity to see how NASA is using VR to train its astronauts and learn how a video game developer created an interactive VR documentary about Chernobyl's radiated Exclusion Zone.

Attend GDC Europe and master the art of guerrilla marketing your game

June 29, 2016

Heads up, devs: GDC Europe is just over a month away, and today organizers are pleased to announce an intriguing session on guerrilla marketing for games that will take place during the conference in Germany this August.

Thomas Reisenegger is an experienced PR consultant at Ico Partners who's assisted with PR for games like League of Legends, and in his GDC Europe talk on "Guerrilla Marketing - Games PR with Little Money, Much Insanity and Maximum Impact" he'll share some hard-won lessons on getting your game noticed.

He'll break down the concept of guerrilla marketing a video game, walk you through examples best practices (and worst practices), then showcase data on what sort of effect this strategy can have on media coverage and game sales. Plus, he'll deal with the question of what it takes to come up with -- and pull off -- a successful PR stunt.

Learn the art and science of embodied VR/AR game design at VRDC

June 28, 2016

The first standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference is taking place this year, and organizers have already started lining up an excellent array of informative cutting-edge sessions on VR/AR design for the November event.

VRDC officials are proud to announce that Robin Hunicke, Funomena cofounder, longtime game producer & designer (Journey, Boom Blox) and VRDC Advisory Board member, will be delivering a Games & Entertainment Track talk titled "The Body is Back! Understanding Embodiment in VR & AR Game Design."

Funomena recently announced its collaboration with Google on Woorld, a fascinating mobile AR experience co-created by Katamari Damacy's Keita Takahashi for Google's Tango AR tech.

In the lecture, Hunicke will explore some of the core challenges and opportunities that the human body presents in design - from controller design and gaze inputs to body posture, movement and gesture design.

Using examples drawn from dance, outdoor play, as well VR and AR game development, she will dig into the science and engineering behind embodied game design, looking at how work from social sciences, human computer interaction and psychology can inform our designs and make our games better!

Get tips on supercharging your mobile game's database at GDC Europe

June 27, 2016

This year's GDC Europe conference in Germany is coming up quick, and today event organizers like to tip you off to a great talk about massively multiplayer online mobile game design that will take place at the summer conference.

Come August, GDC Europe 2016 attendees will have an opportunity to check out a talk from Cygames' Shuichi Kurabayashi on how to "Create a 20 Times Faster Database Engine Optimized to MMOGs."

Cygames (Granblue Fantasy, pictured) is one of the largest mobile game developers in Japan, and as a technical advisor Kurabayashi has built a wealth of experience about best practices for providing mobile game services to millions of unique players.

Learn why 'idle games' click with players at GDC Europe 2016

June 24, 2016

Far from remaining idle, GDC officials are working hard to line up great talks for the big GDC Europe conference this August in Cologne, Germany. Today, they're excited to debut another exciting session taking place at the show that will dig into the heart of an under-explored genre.

In "Idle Chatter: What We Can Learn From Self-Playing Games" Kongregate's Anthony Pecorella will look at how the "idle game" genre has evolved -- and what lessons game developers can take from it.

Attendees will learn the core mechanics behind idle games, see how they have lead to success for even small, indie developers, and hopefully gain insight and ideas about making your own idle games or implementing these ideas into non-idle games. Prepare to get bizarrely, inexplicably excited about watching numbers go up!

Learn to make your game run better on mobile devices at GDC Europe

June 22, 2016

GDC officials are lining up some smart talks for this year's big GDC Europe event in Cologne, Germany, and today they're happy to announce another cutting-edge session taking place at the August conference.

Antoine Cohade helps developers optimize their games as part of Intel's Developer Relations Division, and at GDC Europe he'll be sharing his expertise in "You've Got the Power: Your Game Running Better on Portable Devices."

Check it out to learn how to efficiently reduce a game's power consumption by performing simple modifications such as capping the frame rate, reducing AI threads, changing the rendering resolution, and choosing the right algorithm. Developers will leave the presentation with an increased understanding of key power optimizations to take back and use in their next games.

First standalone VRDC debuts in November, call for talks now open

June 22, 2016

Great news, VR enthusiasts: GDC organizers are proud to announce that the first ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference, the premier event for creators of immersive VR (and AR) experiences, will be held this November 2-3 in San Francisco.

This will be the second edition of VRDC, following the strikingly successful debut of VRDC as a sibling conference to GDC 2016 earlier this year. Bringing an expanded focus overseen by a new advisory board, the two‐day event will bring together VR/AR experts from multiple industries to share best practices, demo new technology, create new business partnerships, and exchange ideas with innovators shaping the industry.

To meet the growing demand for high‐quality content in the space, VRDC’s second edition will expand to cover virtual and augmented reality in games, entertainment, and beyond into subjects such as healthcare, journalism, travel, manufacturing, retail, live events, real estate, training, so much more.

Come to GDC Europe and see how LawBreakers' gameplay is designed

June 20, 2016

What comes first in game design: fun or functionality?

There are a lot of moving pieces to account for when designing a video game, and it's easy to focus only on getting things working before they're actually fun.

At this year's big GDC Europe conference in Germany, GDC organizers are excited to announce that Boss Key Productions' lead designer Dan Nanni will be delivering an expert talk on how to design a game that's both fun and functional, using the studio's work on the upcoming multiplayer shooter LawBreakers as a prime example.

In "Following the Fun -- How We Designed Gameplay for LawBreakers", Nanni will detail design considerations that should allow attendees to evaluate their own designs and make more innovative choices based on mistakes Boss Key has made, past experiences the team has worked through and conclusions they've come to while developing LawBreakers.

Get all the game industry insights, data and trends at GDC Europe

June 17, 2016

The days between here and the big GDC Europe conference this August are dwindling, and today GDC organizers are proud to announce another excellent, expert talk that will be taking place at the renowned event in Cologne, Germany.

Joost Van Dreunen is the chief of video game market research firm SuperData Research, and as such he has direct access to a wealth of fascinating data about the trends and tendencies of the game industry. At GDC Europe he's going to share some of that wealth in a session simply titled "All the Insights, Data, and Trends" that promises to be a fascinating talk.

Learn proven formulas for balancing your next game at GDC Europe

June 15, 2016

GDC officials are organizing some great talks for this year's big GDC Europe event in Cologne, Germany, and today they're happy to announce another exciting session taking place at the August conference.

Brian Davis has been balancing games and game economies for years, from FarmVille to CityVille to Tiny Monsters. He's currently working on a new project at Wooga, and at GDC Europe he'll be talking frankly about "Balancing Your Game: A Formula-Driven Approach."

Game balancing can be an esoteric art form, and there are few resources available to learn about it. How long should this quest take? How much should a sword cost? In his talk Davis will share the methods used to balance dozens of games and show you how to apply these methods to your game. He will cover the set up, process and share the exercises he's done to prepare for balancing even the most intricate game systems.

GDC Europe and Gamescom team up for second annual Women In Tech Day

June 10, 2016

Mark your calendars: GDC Europe organizers are pleased to announce that they're continuing their partnership with gamescom to help put on the second annual Women in Tech Day in Cologne, Germany.

The limited-capacity event will once again take place immediately after the close of GDC Europe, on Wednesday, August 17th -- the first day of gamescom.

As always, the Women in Tech Day is meant to be a common space and forum for women working in all areas of technology, including the game industry, IT, digital and other fields. Prominent leaders from the video game industry and other areas of tech will come together to speak, network and share their unique experiences.

Goals include inspiring women to collaborate on innovative solutions by providing opportunities for learning and networking, promoting diversity in technology industries, advocating technology and celebrating women role models who have chosen a career in tech and who inspire others to do the same.

Limbo devs share tips on creating games with striking visuals at GDC Europe

June 10, 2016

The big GDC Europe conference in Germany is just months away, and today GDC organizers are happy to announce a popular talk that will be taking place at the August conference from the developers of the critically acclaimed Limbo.

Playdead visual effects artist Mikkel Svendsen and graphics programmer Mikkel Gjoel will speak at GDC Europe about techniques you can use to achieve striking, high-fidelity visuals in your next game.

Their talk, "Low Complexity, High Fidelity - Inside Rendering," will describe the variety of effects used to achieve an atmospheric look, including local shadowed volumetrics and a robust water-rendering system, in their upcoming game Inside (pictured.)

To explore how a unique art style is created technically they'll also show you how they authored lighting as entirely separate diffuse, specular and bounce-light entities, while focusing on artist-approachable tools meant utilizing analytic primitive-based ambient occlusion and screenspace reflections.

At GDC Europe, see how military theory can help you design better strategy games

June 9, 2016

This year's GDC Europe conference in Germany is coming up quick, and today event organizers like to tip you off to a great talk about strategy game design that will take place at the summer conference.

Come August, GDC Europe 2016 attendees will have an opportunity to attend the "Strategy Game Design and the Operational Level of War" talk from Plarium's Guy Ulmer.

The one-time Red Alert modder now serves as an expert on optimizing mobile games, and during his presentation he'll show you how a better understanding of some basic military discipline when building a strategy game will help designers better define their niche in the crowded strategy/RTS game markets.

GDC Europe: Get a behind-the-scenes look at Call of Duty art production

June 6, 2016

The popular GDC Europe conference in Cologne, Germany is coming up fast, and as organizers continue to line up great talks for the show they're excited to announce that Activision Blizzard is backing a talk on the art production process behind the hit Call of Duty games.

Check out the "Art Production for 'Call of Duty'" talk to hear Activision Blizzard's Carlos Garcia and Red Hot CG's Claas Grimm take you behind the scenes of AAA game production.

From setup to planning to execution, the pair will afford attendees detailed insight into the inner workings of a large-scale art production process. They'll also offer advice and lessons learned about resource management, tools selection, creative challenges, and ongoing trends in the game industry.

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