GDC News and Information Blog

The organizers of the GDC 2010 event the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival -- the longest-running and largest festival relating to independent games worldwide -- are proud to announce record entry numbers for both IGF 2010's Main Competition and the IGF Student Showcase, with almost 500 games in total.

This year's Main Competition -- just one of the three IGF competitions taking place this year -- amassed 303 game entries, many of them new titles from leading indie developers. Information, screenshots and videos on each of the IGF Main Competition entries are now available on IGF.com. This total entry tally comprises 35% more games than last year's record 226 Main Competition entries, itself a 30% increase on the previous year -- showing the continuing popularity of independent games and the IGF.

Following the record Main Competition entries, organizers have also revealed 193 Student Showcase entries, a record 33% more entries than last year, and bringing the total entries across these two competitions to almost 500. Previous IGF Student Showcase honorees have included DigiPen's Narbacular Drop (evolved into Valve's acclaimed Portal), USC's The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom (now signed by 2K Games for XBLA), Hogeschool van de Kunsten's The Blob (made into a console title by THQ as De Blob), and early USC/ThatGameCompany (Flower) title Cloud.

This year's IGF entries will be checked and distributed to the more than 160 notable industry judges for evaluation, before finalists are announced in January 2010 and winners awarded at the IGF ceremony during Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco next March. This year's IGF Student Showcase entries will be judged by an opt-in subset of the judges.

More than twenty Main Competition finalists and ten Student Showcase winners will be given all-access GDC 2010 tickets to show their games at next March's event, which encompasses the IGF Pavilion on the GDC 2010 Expo floor (March 11th-13th), the high-profile IGF Awards (March 11th, and for which highlights footage is available on the official GDC website), and the related Independent Games Summit (March 9th-10th).

Finally, IGF 2010 organizers are reminding that entries to the IGF Mobile competition -- encompassing iPhone, mobile phone, PSP, DS, Android and other handheld games -- are due by December 1st, 2009.

Posted by Staff at 10:15 AM | Permalink

Game Developers Conference 2010 organizers are reminding potential Summit speakers that they have until Friday, Nov. 13th to submit lectures, with IGF Student and Mobile deadlines also impending.

Held on the first two days of GDC 2010 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco -- next March 9th and 10th -- this year’s GDC Summit line-up includes two new events in the form of the Social & Online Games Summit and iPhone Games Summit.

These summits, alongside the GDC Mobile/Handheld, Independent Games, and Serious Games Summits, which are all accepting submissions through the end of Friday, November 13th.

(Other Summits also held at GDC 2010 but not currently calling for submissions include one or two-day events on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Game Localization, and the IGDA Education Summit.)

In addition, Independent Games Festival 2010 organizers are reminding that, following record IGF Main Competition entries, games are due for submission in the free to enter Student Showcase category by Sunday November 15th, 2009. Separately of this, entries to the IGF Mobile competition -- encompassing iPhone, mobile phone, PSP, DS, Android and other handheld games -- are due by Tuesday, December 1st, 2009.

More information and registration specifics on the 2010 Game Developers Conference can be found at the official GDC 2010 website.

Posted by Staff at 04:37 PM | Permalink

Game Developers Conference 2010 organizers have opened registration for the March 9th-13th event, confirming Social Game and iPhone Summits and revealing newly reduced price options for event passes.

The first two days of the San Francisco-based conference will feature a total of eight summits, two of which are new to the GDC lineup: the iPhone Games Summit and the Social & Online Games Summit.

New for GDC 2010 are reduced conference pass prices with the introduction of optional lunch packages. Attendees now have the option to purchase lunch provided by the Moscone Center based on their GDC week schedule, or to find their own lunch alternatives.

In addition, Game Developers Conference 2010 will see the return of the much-requested Audio Pass. This pass provides access to the Audio Bootcamp and all GDC Audio track sessions.

GDC 2010 -- produced by Think Services, as is Gamasutra -- will also play host to the GDC Expo Floor, the GDC Career Pavilion, the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival and the 10th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards.

"From year to year the Game Developers Conference continuously evolves its content to ensure that conference attendees receive the most current, relevant, and important insight into pushing the boundaries of what games can do," said Meggan Scavio, GDC event director. "We look forward to another eye-opening year of great content, speakers, events and awards, as well as sharing conference news and updates with the industry leading up to GDC."

Alumni registration for GDC 2010 ends December 17, 2009 and Early Bird rates end February 4, 2010. For more information on the 2010 Game Developers Conference, visit the official GDC 2010 website.

Posted by Staff at 09:28 AM | Permalink

Game Developers Conference organizers have announced that the call for submissions is open for the 2010 event’s suite of Summits, which take place on the first two days of GDC in San Francisco, March 9th-10th 2010.

This year’s GDC Summit line-up includes two new events in the form of the Social & Online Games Summit and iPhone Games Summit, alongside the GDC Mobile/Handheld, Independent Games, and Serious Games Summits, which are all accepting submissions through November 13th.

The multi-track Social & Online Games Summit is focused around current and new opportunities for games on social networking services such as Facebook and MySpace. The Summit brings together leading thinkers and businesspeople to examine how social games have expanded the audience of gamers to encompass tens of millions of mainstream users, many of whom are not conventional gamers. It will also cover how online worlds have conquered the children’s gaming market, and how the casual gaming space is also feeding in to the next generation of mass market multiplayer games.

The iPhone Games Summit, first held at Game Developers Conference Austin 2009 to significant acclaim, marks its San Francisco debut at GDC 2010. This Summit will bring together top iPhone and iPod Touch developers from around the world to share key information and discuss the future of Apple’s increasingly important game platform. The Summit will include a first day dedicated to detailed sessions from some of the iPhone game industry’s top technical architects, with the second day of the iPhone Games Summit focusing on vital business and marketing strategies behind successful game companies in this extremely competitive market.

"GDC is in a constant state of evolution, just like the game industry itself," says Meggan Scavio, event director of the Game Developers Conference. “This year's exciting slate of summits speaks to the rapid growth of online & social network games, and the increasing importance of the iPhone as a gaming platform."

The two new summits represent a notable addition to the already comprehensive selection of GDC 2010 Summits, which take place immediately before the three-day GDC 2010 main program. Other Summits also held at GDC 2010 will include one or two-day events on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Game Localization, and the IGDA Education Summit.

GDC 2010 Summit submissions can be entered at the official submissions page. More information and registration specifics on the 2010 Game Developers Conference can be found at the official GDC 2010 website.

Posted by Staff at 02:04 PM | Permalink

Game Developers Conference China 2009 organizers have announced almost 3,000 attendees in total for the Shanghai-based event, which ended on Tuesday, revealing plans to hold GDC China 2010 next December.

The event ended on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at the Shanghai International Convention Center. According to organizers, it brought together over 900 conference, media, and speaking attendees and over 2,000 expo attendees.

GDC China 2009 -- part of Think Services, as is this website -- included three days of exploring the flourishing Chinese game development scene with a diverse lineup of more than 60 speakers and more than 50 sessions. (Detailed event coverage is available via sister game industry site Gamasutra.)

The conference commenced on Sunday, October 11 featuring focused talks on mobile and independent games. On Monday, the esteemed game designer, programmer, screenwriter and creator of Prince of Persia, Jordan Mechner, kicked off the day with his keynote address, entitled "Prince of Persia: 20 Years From Game to Film."

Tuesday began with the opening keynote, "A Fantastic Westward Journey," from Min Kim, vice president of Nexon America, a leading developer of massively multiplayer online titles and pioneer of the free-to-play business model. Kim's keynote chronicled the role that microtransactions have played as the evolutionary catalyst for the North American games market.

This year, GDC China also played host to the Inaugural Independent Games Festival China (IGF China), recognizing the best independent game developers in the Asian-Pacific area with a competition, conference summit, and awards ceremony. GDC China also contained one and two-day tutorials on Scrum and Visual Arts and hosted a robust expo floor with over 60 participating companies including: Shanda Games, Tencent Games, 9You, Emergent, Dolby, Autodesk, Crytek, China Telecom, and Xpec.

The Chinese government ministry responsible for management of industry bases, project development, conferences and trade fairs, and market oversight for the animation and online gaming industries, the Ministry of Culture of the P.R. of China (MoC) officially endorsed GDC China and sent delegates to interact with the development community.

"The success of this year's GDC China once again affirms the GDC's reputation for delivering quality content and providing international and regional developer communities with the tools they need to grow the industry," said GDC China event director Meggan Scavio. "We want to thank the Ministry of Culture and participating international developers for making these three days of learning and networking possible."

GDC China returns to the Shanghai International Convention Center in December of 2010. For more information, please visit the official GDC China website.

Posted by Staff at 02:35 PM | Permalink

The Independent Games Festival (IGF) Mobile, the premiere venue that celebrates creativity and innovation on handheld platforms, has opened submissions for its third annual festival.

The overall IGF Mobile winner will be awarded at the IGF Awards Ceremony, which precedes the Game Developers Choice Awards on March 11th, 2010. Both the IGF Awards Ceremony and the Game Developers Choice Awards are part of the 2010 Game Developers Conference, which takes place in San Francisco's Moscone Center in March.

This year's competition -- the sister event to the main Independent Games Festival -- will again feature independently-developed handheld games for all mobile devices including Apple's iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone OSes, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and other handheld devices.

IGF Mobile submissions are now being accepted at the competition's official website through December 1, 2009; finalists will be announced in January 2010, and will each receive one pass to attend the 2010 Game Developers Conference.

Finalists will compete for $5,000 in prizes, including notable awards for design, art, and technology innovation in mobile game development. This year, winners in each category -- with the exception of 'Best Game', will be announced before the show, on February 8th, 2010. Each category winner will receive $500 in spending money to come to the 2010 Game Developers Conference in March 2010 and showcase their mobile game.

The five category winners will exhibit their games in a special area of the main IGF Pavilion. The winners will then compete for the coveted IGF Mobile Best Game award, worth $2,500. The prize is presented on stage during the main Independent Games Festival Awards, preceding the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony on March 11th, 2010. In addition, the winners in each category can take part in an IGF Mobile Finalist Showcase at GDC10, a session during which the five IGF Mobile main prize finalists will present their mobile games to the audience.

Now in its third year, IGF Mobile has blossomed into a major showcase of the handheld form. Last year's IGF Mobile 'Next Great Mobile Game' winner Reflection has been signed by Konami for Nintendo DSi, and Apple's App Store created a special Store section just to highlight the IGF-nominated iPhone games from 2009's IGF Mobile competition.

Submissions to the competition are now open to all independent developers working on mobile platforms, including game development for cell phones, iPhone, PSP, DS, and other handheld devices. The important dates for IGF Mobile in 2009-2010 are as follows:

September 28th, 2009 Submissions Open
December 1st, 2009 Submission Deadline
January 22nd, 2010 IGF Mobile Finalists Announced
February 8th, 2010 Category Winners Pre-Announced
March 9-13th, 2010 Game Developer's Conference 2010
March 11th, 2010 IGF Awards Ceremony

For a complete list of IGF Mobile 2010 information, please visit IGFMobile.com.

Posted by Staff at 06:41 AM | Permalink

Game Developers Conference China has announced its lineup of speakers from noted industry players including Blizzard Entertainment, Maxis, EA DICE and many more. Think Services, a division of United Business Media will present GDC China at the Shanghai Convention Center, October 11-13 of this year.

Chris Hecker will be presenting a session on the challenges and meaning of user-generated content in Spore, Colt McAnlis of Blizzard will be addressing the technical challenges of generating and affixing art to the massive terrains of World of Warcraft, and Tobias Dahl and Mikael Lagre of Dice EA will discuss the unique task of creating a robust perspective for Mirror's Edge, a game emphasizing fluid first-person movement and perspective.

Professionals from Activision, Take Two Asia, Volition and Ubisoft Chengdu will be among the full roster of speakers presenting varied and informative talks.

Headlining the solid roster of speakers is Jordan Mechner, the accomplished game designer, programmer, screenwriter, and creator of Prince of Persia who will be providing a keynote lecture titled "Prince of Persia: 20 Years From Game to Film."

The list of featured speakers at GDC China includes:

- From Evolution to Revolution: Upgrading the Graphics Engine of EVE Online -- Halldor Fannar (CTO, CCP)
- Texturing Massive Terrain -- Colt McAnlis (Programmer, Blizzard Entertainment)
- Meaning, Aesthetics, and User-Generated Content -- Chris Hecker (Formerly Technology Fellow at Maxis)
- Preparing a Leading Chinese IP for Videogame Development: The Daomubiji Case Study -- James Zhang (Chairman, Concept Art House), Xu Lei(Author, Daomubiji), Xuan Li (Development Director, Concept Art House), Ken Chou (Creative Director, Concept Art House)
- Workflow Methods for the Environment Artist -- Ray Tylak (Art Production Manager, Ubisoft Chengdu)
- Creating First Person Movement for Mirror's Edge -- Tobias Dahl (Senior Lead Animator, Dice EA), Mikael Lagre (Engineer, Dice EA)
- Dubbing Design and Setting Up the Auditory Atmosphere in Games -- Peng Meng (Sound Designer, Composer)
- Designing Sound for Games in China -- Jie Yang (Sound Director, Virtuos)
- Squeezing Every Drop Of Performance Out Of The iPhone Speaker: Noel Llopis (Founder, Snappy Touch)
- Panel Discussion: Chinese Indie Game Outlook and Opportunity -- Billy Hsu (CEO, DJL Worldwide), Tony Chen (Online Business Development Manager, Take Two Asia)
- How to Prepare Your Studio/Game to Attract Investors/Publishers -- Kevin Li(Exec. Director, Activision China)
- Agile Game Development with Scrum Tutorial & Certification -- Clinton Keith (Founder, Clinton Keith Consulting)
- Maximizing Art Production with Effective Art Pipelines
-- Kelly Snapka (Art Director, Volition, Inc.)

"GDC China approaches head-on the challenges and exciting opportunities of one of the world's most bustling and growing regions for games," says Meggan Scavio, GDC China event director. "We're honored to have a cross-section of local and international developers representing some of the most dynamic and influential studios and games today. GDC China is on the forefront of an exciting future for game development in the East."

Interested parties can find more information on GDC China at the event's official website.

Posted by Staff at 06:44 PM | Permalink

[In a regular column, Gamasutra publisher Simon Carless -- recently added as a member of the Game Developers Conference Advisory Board -- goes behind the scenes to explain some of the most frequently asked questions about how GDC 2010 is taking shape, from lecture submissions to rating and beyond.]

So it's only September, and the main 2010 Game Developers Conference is being held from March 9th-13th, 2010. How much work can actually go into the conference this early, you might be asking?

Well, those who noticed the Call For Papers that the GDC organizers already held, we get started pretty early with lecture submissions and grading. And that's a cue for me to boot up this column and explain what happens behind the velvet (iron? velcro?) curtain. I'll be updating regularly with the GDC Advisory Board's perspective over the next few weeks and months.

One initial point that is worth making strongly. I know that in some conferences (both outside the game industry and in), the Advisory Board can take a much smaller role in actually directly picking the content.

But one of the reasons that Game Developers Conference is so well respected, I believe, is that all of the talks are either empirically chosen from submissions, or carefully and specifically invited by the official GDC Advisory Board. The GDC organizers don't pick your talk -- key members of your own peer group pick your talk.

Continue reading "Notes From The Advisory Board: The Start Of The GDC 2010 Journey" »

Posted by Staff at 07:12 AM | Permalink

GDC China organizers have announced that Prince Of Persia franchise creator, game designer, and screenwriter Jordan Mechner will deliver a keynote address at the 2009 Game Developers Conference China in Shanghai next month.

Mechner's keynote will explore the success of the Prince of Persia series, which first debuted in 1989 and has grown into a major multi-title game franchise, as well as his own work as a game designer, programmer, and finally director and screenwriter.

Following the release of seven chapters of the Prince Of Persia game series, Mechner wrote the script for the film version of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Mike Newell. The movie will be released by Walt Disney Pictures in May of 2010.

"We are so excited to welcome Jordan to the stage in Shanghai," said Meggan Scavio, GDC China event director. "He has a great story to share with the audience from a game design, artistic, and storytelling perspective; as well as the business acumen to succeed in maintaining a strong brand, building commercial success, and further transitioning games to film."

Mechner joins a prominent lineup of GDC China speakers including Kelly Snapka (Art Director, Volition, Inc.), Todd Coleman (Co-Founder, Wolfpack Studios Inc.), Chris Ulm (CEO, Appy), Billy Hsu (CEO, DJL Worldwide), Mack Growen (GM, Playfish China), Brad MacDonald (Art Director, Large Animal Games), Tony Chen (Online Business Development Manager, Take Two Asia), and more.

The 2009 GDC China event -- presented by Gamasutra parent Think Services -- will take place at the Shanghai International Convention Center, October 11-13 of this year, with early registration closing on September 15th. For more information, please visit the official GDC China website.

Posted by Staff at 07:22 AM | Permalink

The organizers of GDC Austin 2009 have announced a partnership with the Austin Museum of Digital Art to show two notable video game-related documentaries at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema during next week's Game Developers Conference in Austin -- one of them a U.S. cinema premiere.

To coincide with the first day of the Independent Games Summit at GDC Austin, the famous Alamo Drafthouse independent theater in downtown Austin will be showing 'Into The Night with Chris Crawford & Jason Rohrer' on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at 10.15pm.

This documentary, originally shot for a European TV series featuring meetings between notable creators, and being shown in cinemas in the U.S. for the first time, "follows an extended conversation between the indie game designer Jason Rohrer and legendary game designer Chris Crawford. Filmed over the course of a day during GDC 2009, Crawford and Rohrer play and discuss various indie titles at the conference, show their games to one another, and talk about the past and future of game design." Selected indie game-related short films will also be shown before the main feature presentation.

Also playing during GDC Austin at a special AMODA and Alamo Drafthouse one-off showing at is the pinball-related doc, 'TILT: the Battle to Save Pinball', on Thursday, September 17th at 10.20pm. This Greg Maletic-directed documentary "tells the story behind one of entertainment's most mysterious failures" - the Pinball 2000 series of Williams pinball machines which twinned video game and pinball technology.

Plenty of behind-the-scenes interviews and footage illustrate the battle over Pinball 2000 at Williams, as "soon after its successful and highly-profitable launch, Williams pulled the plug, leaving behind unanswered questions and abandoning one of the world's great design organizations." The documentary tries to answer some of these questions by speaking to many of the principals involved. Selected short films will also play before this special GDC Austin screening.

More information on the screenings, which are open to the public and GDC Austin attendees alike at a standard admission fee, are available on the Alamo Drafthouse cinema homepage. (AMODA, an Austin-based organization that "engages the public and artists in the creation, understanding, and appreciation of digital art", is the facilitator of both showings.)

Posted by Staff at 05:42 PM | Permalink

The Game Developers Conference Austin (GDC Austin) features lectures, panels and roundtables for developers looking to release successful titles in the burgeoning connected gaming space, and this year's conference has added final sessions from notable game developers at Nexon, Bioware Austin, 2D Boy, Zynga, CCP Games and many others.

Presented by Think Services, GDC Austin returns with three days of main conference content focused on connected games, online games, virtual worlds, and social networking game play and four two-day summits -- the Game Writers, Game Audio, iPhone Games and Independent Games Summits. The event takes place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-18, 2009. Conference goers wanting to take advantage of pre-registration discounts should register online by September 11.

This year's GDC Austin features three visionary keynotes from industry pioneers at Sony Online Entertainment, Blizzard Entertainment, and successful newcomer Playfish that address the technical knowledge and business advice necessary to create successful virtual worlds, massively multiplayer online (MMO) titles, and social networking games.

Four days of deep-dive sessions cover topics including designing games for non-traditional gamers, developing secure and profitable monetization systems, and leveraging the strengths of social networking platforms to make innovative games. Featured new sessions include:

- The Cat and Mouse Game of Fraud - Speaker: Arthur Chu (Fraud Manager, Nexon), Einar Hreidarsson (Team Lead-Customer Support, CCP Games)
- Twist, Touch & Travel: Harnessing the iPhone's Unique Features - Speaker: Glenda Adams (President & Lead Programmer, Maverick Software)
- Beyond the Finish Line of Shipping an Indie Game - Speaker: Ron Carmel (Co-Founder, 2D Boy)
- Wizard101 - Lions and Tigers and Ninja Pigs, Oh My! - Speaker: J. Todd Coleman (Creative Director, KingsIsle Entertainment)
- Going from Free to Pay in Free-to-Play - Speaker: Min Kim (Vice President, Nexon America Inc.)
- The Loner - Speaker: Damion Schubert (Lead Combat Designer, Bioware Austin)
- The Social Gaming Tipping Point - Speaker: Brian Reynolds (Chief Designer, Zynga)
- Facebook: Is the Cake a Lie? - Speaker: Blake Commagere (Independent Game Developer)

"With the number of connected game developers, titles, and players continuing to grow, attending GDC Austin is more important than ever," says Izora de Lillard, event director at Think Services Game Group. "The sessions will provide key insights into current and future business opportunities in games ranging from free-to-play casual games, viral Facebook apps, epic MMO adventures and those we haven't imagined yet in this evolving category of games."

Posted by Staff at 01:15 PM | Permalink

Think Services, organizer of the Game Developers Conference (also parent of Gamasutra), has announced its advisory board for the October 11th-13th GDC China event in Shanghai.

Board members include industry veterans Ding Yingfeng, product director of NetEase's popular Chinese free-to-play MMO Fantasy Westward Journey, Eric Chang, CTO and co-founder of XPEC Entertainment, Xu Xiao Yue, a lead engineer at Ubisoft Shanghai and Joe Zuo, vice president of Shanda Games, the Shanghai-based licensed publisher of MapleStory, Ragnarok Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online and many others.

The 2009 event marks the second GDC China conference dedicated to the art, science and business of games by returning to the Shanghai International Convention Center, October 11-13 of this year.

The full 2009 GDC China advisory board is as follows:

Ding Yingfeng
Deputy Director of Online Game Department & Product Director, Fantasy Studio (Fantasy Westward Journey) of NetEase

Raymond Neoh
Founder, TQ-Global Ltd

Billy Hsu
CEO, DJL Worldwide

Xu Xiao Yue
Lead Engineer, Ubisoft Shanghai

Eric Chang
CTO & Co-Founder, XPEC Entertainment Inc.

Joe Zuo
Vice President & Partner of "18 Fund," Shanda Games

"GDC China is the ideal venue to explore the groundbreaking frontier of Chinese game development," says Meggan Scavio, event director for GDC China, "and there's no group better qualified to act as our guides than the expert developers and executives of the GDC China advisory board."

"They helped craft the content that makes GDC China the must-attend event for anyone interested in the Chinese game industry."

GDC China has extended its early bird registration to September 15, 2009. Interested parties can find more information at the event's official website.

Posted by Staff at 12:30 PM | Permalink

Organizers of the newly announced IGF China event, intended to expose Asia-Pacific indie game innovation, have announced judges for the satellite event taking place in Shanghai this October.

The judges, for which information is available on the official GDC China website, are headed by main Independent Games Festival chairman and Game Developer/Gamasutra publisher Simon Carless.

They include notables such as Michael Lu, Director of Game Art Department at the Shanghai Film Art Academy and Art Director at CWC, as well as Feng Zhu, President of the Singapore-based FZD School of Design.

Also tapped to be judges are Xubo Yang, Director of Digital Art Lab at Shanghai Jiaotong University's School of Software, plus Monte Singman, the Founder/CEO of Radiance Digital Entertainment, and Kevin Li, Strategy Growth Director at Activision China.

The first ever Independent Games Festival in China is to be held in conjunction with the 2009 Game Developers Conference China, which returns to the Shanghai International Convention Center, October 11-13 of this year.

After 11 years of the main Independent Games Festival competition being held at GDC in San Francisco, the Independent Games Festival will present itself to Shanghai, China for the first time in 2009, in a competition specifically designed to encourage innovation and showcase standout games from smaller companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Organizers are also reminding that submissions for the IGF China event, which are free, must be completed by September 7th at the latest. For more English-language information on the submission guidelines for IGF China and an official entry form, please visit the official IGF China website on the GDC China webpage. (Chinese-language information is also available.)

Posted by Staff at 06:50 AM | Permalink

2009 GDC Austin organizers have announced its final keynote, with Playfish co-founder Sebastien de Halleux (Pet Society) talking about Facebook and social network gaming at the September 15th-18th conference.

London-headquartered Playfish is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing social games companies, with hit microtransaction-powered titles such as Who Has The Biggest Brain? and Crazy Planets on Facebook and other networks.

By examining the inherent strengths of the community on social networks, de Halleux’s keynote will "provide insight on how these platforms can be used to create engaging games, and why developers should be looking at social networks as a burgeoning area of video game design and business development."

Playfish itself has a verified base of more than 100 million game installations across nine titles, reached only 18 months after the company’s launch in late 2007, and de Halleux was recently interviewed about social gaming trends on GDC's sister website Gamasutra.

This keynote joins two others -- by Sony Online Entertainment head John Smedley on the company's move into a wider market, and by a notable Blizzard duo on 'The Universe Of World Of Warcraft', as well as over 90 other lectures at the event, which has three days of main conference content focused on connected games, online games, virtual worlds, and social networking game play.

GDC Austin also has four two-day summits including the Game Writers, Game Audio, iPhone Games and Independent Games Summits, takes place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-18, 2009. More information is available on the official event website.

Posted by Staff at 07:34 AM | Permalink

2009 GDC Europe organizers announced that the three day pre-GamesCom event in Cologne saw nearly 1,500 game professional attendees, with the event's return confirmed for August 16-18, 2010.

GDC Europe, which was held at the Cologne Congress East Center as a precursor to the massive GamesCom trade show, is the largest professionals-only game industry event in Europe, organizers claim. The event, organized by Think Services sported a lineup of more than 130 speakers from around the world, over 40 exhibitors and sponsors, and more than 250 media representatives.

As for highlights, keynote speaker Cevat Yerli, CEO of Crytek, kicked off the conference Monday with a keynote lecture before a packed audience, where he discussed the challenges of creating some of the gaming world's most graphically-intense gameplay experiences.

Matias Myllyrinne, Managing Director of Finland's Remedy Entertainment, covered the topic of creating successful new intellectual property for games during his keynote speech on Monday, referencing the company's blockbuster shooter franchise, Max Payne and their hotly-anticipated Alan Wake.

During his keynote speech on Tuesday, CEO of Icelandic game developer CCP Hilmar Veigar Petursson, made the unexpected announcement of Dust 514, a console-based massively multiplayer online first person shooter set within the world of EVE Online, CCP's landmark massively multiplayer title, which now boasts an audience of more than 300,000 active users.

Tuesday also saw the keynote from David Cage, founder and CEO of Quantic Dream, in which Cage discussed conquering the challenges of expressing mature, emotionally resonant interactive narratives for games, and how these challenges are being addressed in his company's upcoming title, Heavy Rain.

On Wednesday, Klaas Kersting, CEO of Gameforge Productions, discussed the history of his German-headquartered free-to-play firm during his keynote. Kersting spoke about the cultural difference between Europe and Asian game design that make Gameforge's titles stand out as a distinctly European take on online role playing games.

A number of other notable lectures, from Peter Molyneux to iPhone panels and beyond, were covered in Gamasutra's official event lecture round-up. GDC Europe organizers also confirmed that the event will return on August 16-18, 2010, once again co-located with GamesCom and earlier in the same week.

"With GDC Europe concluded, we're happy to look back at a truly successful event that will help guide the European game industry even further into the spotlight," said Frank Sliwka, Vice President of European Business Development of Think Services Game Group. He added: "From Sweden to Germany, France to England, amazing developers from every corner of the continent and throughout North America and Asia came together to make this conference truly pan-European as well as global."

Posted by Staff at 07:03 AM | Permalink

Due to popular demand, GDC organizers have extended the call for submissions for next March's 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the pre-eminent game creation conference, to next Tuesday, August 18th, for those game developers and businesspeople wanting to submit simple abstracts.

The pre-eminent annual conference dedicated to the art, science and business of games -- presented by Think Services, a division of United Business Media -- returns to San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center March 9th - 13th, 2010. Session proposals can be submitted via the official GDC 2010 Call For Papers website.

This year, the GDC is continuing its successful three-phase submission system, introduced in 2008, easing the initial entry process and thereby allowing the submitter to have ample time to expand on their session proposal if selected to advance to phase two.

The simplified first-phase of the call for submissions reduces the entry form to session focus and attendee takeaway, along with basics such as biographical information and speaking experience.

The GDC Advisory Board -- which includes major game industry notables such as Maxis' Chris Hecker, Blizzard's Rob Pardo, Warner Bros' Laura Fryer, Bungie's Chris Butcher, Cerny Games' Mark Cerny, and Eidos' Julien Merceron, as well as new additions in the form of Ubisoft Creative Director Clint Hocking and Epic Games President Mike Capps - will review phase one submissions and determine who will proceed to phase two, at which point submitters will be asked to prepare a complete presentation plan.

In the third phase of the process, the advisory board will review the presentation plans and make the final cut. To read more regarding the submission phases, visit the official submission site. Guidelines for submissions can be found at the submission FAQ site.

Tracks at GDC 2010 include Audio, Business and Management, Game Design, Production, Programming and Visual Arts. Session formats this year include 20- and 60-minute lectures, panels, roundtables, one- or two-day tutorials and poster sessions.

For further information and to begin the submission process, please visit the official GDC 2010 Call For Papers website.

Posted by Staff at 06:03 PM | Permalink

2009 GDC Austin organizers have announced a raft of new lectures as the August 13th early registration deadline nears, with Metaplace's Raph Koster and Zynga's Brandon Barber joining keynotes from Blizzard and SOE at the September 15th-18th conference.

As organizers note, the many notable sessions taking place at GDC Austin include BioWare technical director Bill Dalton's talk on the tech complexities and struggles of developing MMO titles and Cartoon Network's Richard Weil's co-presented session on the financial and regulatory complications of online games for younger children. Also added is best practices for creating 'sticky' game designs from Zynga's Brandon Barber.

Other topics include viral growth tactics, harnessing community feedback to improve game design, micro-transaction security, and developing recognizable IP that appeals to all generations of gamers.

Some of the other highlights of newly announced or existing 2009 GDC Austin lectures include:

- Talking in 'Challenges In Designing A Casual MMO', Sony Online Entertainment's Laralyn McWilliams will address the creation of Free Realms, presenting "a discussion of the user-driven design process the team followed, and a frank look at what worked for the team and for players...and what didn’t."

- Metaplace's Raph Koster is discussing 'Games are Math: 10 Core Mechanics That Drive Compelling Gameplay', with the intriguing lecture positing: "Games fundamentally model systems – and that’s a topic that mathematicians wrestle with for a living! Are there particular math problems that make for great game mechanics?"

- An interesting core MMO-centric panel called 'Making the Grade: What Gaming’s Premier Guilds Really Think About You' spans Meridian 59 to Age of Conan and "will assemble five Guild Masters from gaming’s premier player organizations to discuss the state of MMO gaming from top to bottom -- why they choose some games and quit others, how they approach beta testing, what they love (and hate) about our games, and what they still hope to see."

- In 'Why We Need Heroes And Villains In Games', some of the key creators of the upcoming DC Universe Online MMO, including SOE Austin's Chris Cao and Jens Andersen, alongside DC Comics writer Marv Wolfman, discuss "why... tension between good and evil is so critical -- not only for telling a good story, but for making a video game."

These lectures join confirmed keynotes by Sony Online Entertainment head John Smedley on the company's move into a wider market, and by a notable Blizzard duo on 'The Universe Of World Of Warcraft', as well as over 90 other lectures at the event, which has three days of main conference content focused on connected games, online games, virtual worlds, and social networking game play.

"One of the unique challenges of GDC Austin is staying ahead of the next trend in the ever changing online gaming space. We have seen the industry expand and morph from MMOs to virtual worlds to online social networked free-to-play casual MMOs," says Izora De Lillard, event director at Think Services Game Group. "This September, we are proud to present a program focused on the lessons you need to harness current opportunities and the inspiration to develop the next breakthrough."

GDC Austin also has four two-day summits including the Game Writers, Game Audio, iPhone Games and Independent Games Summits, takes place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-18, 2009. More information is available on the official event website, and early registration discounts of up to 25% will end on Thursday, August 13.

Posted by Staff at 08:49 AM | Permalink

2009 GDC Austin organizers have announced that Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley will keynote next month's event, discussing the success and lessons learned from the firm's recently launched, family-friendly free to play MMO Free Realms.

Smedley, who heads up the long-time online game publisher/developer and creator of EverQuest and EverQuest II, will present a keynote entitled: "From Dragons and Daggers to Kart Racing, Cooking and Concerts ... It's a Whole New MMO World".

He will discuss how the critically-acclaimed freely available tween and teen title Free Realms, originally announced during GDC Austin 2007, has worked to expand the base of players engaging together in online worlds.

The online game, launched in April 2009 and monetizing via item sales and optional membership, saw 1 million registered accounts in the first ten days, and has already seen users reach nearly 5 million, according to a Comic-Con panel.

According to the announcement, Smedley "will inform attendees about the challenges and lessons learned when creating a full-blown MMO for younger audiences", with empirical research and insights.

The keynote will "speak to the challenges and boundless opportunity of connected games, and will also describe how to re-educate development teams to move away from stagnant MMO designs towards mass market success."

The SOE executive's talk joins an already-confirmed Blizzard keynote on 'The Universe Of World Of Warcraft', as well as a number of major online game-centric sessions at the event, which has three days of main conference content focused on connected games, online games, virtual worlds, and social networking game play.

GDC Austin also has four two-day summits including the Game Writers, Game Audio, iPhone Games and Independent Games Summits, takes place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-18, 2009. More information is available on the official event website, and early registration discounts will end on August 13.

Posted by Staff at 08:11 AM | Permalink

Organizers of this September's Game Writers Summit at GDC Austin have revealed the full session line-up, including Valve's writers teaming up to discuss Portal and Half-Life 2, and the notable writers behind Overlord, Deus Ex 3 and more.

Full information about the September 15th-16th Summit, a separate part of the wider, 'connected game'-focused Austin-based event, is available on the GDC Austin website.

The two-day Writers Summit is dedicated to the art and craft of game writing, game narrative and interactive storytelling, and, as the developer-led advisory board explains: "This is the premier event in the world for discourse on, and learning about, the subject of video game writing."

Details on the Game Writers Summit at GDC Austin include specifics on the first lectures and panels for the long-running GDC Austin standout event, and the highlights include:

- A special panel called 'Having Your Cake and Eating It Too: A Conversation with the Writers of Valve' brings together for the first time three of the Half-Life, Left 4 Dead and Portal creator's writers – Marc Laidlaw, Erik Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek. They "will take the stage together to discuss the process that has made Valve games a gold standard of writing in games."

- In 'What’s a Writer to Do? Redefining Our Role in Crafting Player Driven Narratives', Mary Le Merle, who is lead writer on Eidos Montreal's upcoming Deus Ex 3, discusses whether we will ever "succeed in engrossing players in rich, story-driven narratives, while simultaneously allowing them to define their own paths -- and their own stories" -- a particularly relevant issue for the update of Warren Spector's cyberpunk title.

- Presenting a pertinent lecture to GDC Austin's main online-centric content, ZeniMax Online's Tracy Seamster and 38 Studios' Steve Danuser discuss 'Writing for MMOs: You're Doing It Wrong', explaining of the genre: "Rather than thinking of our job as 'writing for MMOs,' we should consider ourselves MMO storytellers."

- In the panel 'Clash Of The Titans: Debating Gameplay vs. Story', major game writing notables including Chris Avellone (Fallout 2, Alpha Protocol), Rhianna Pratchett (Overlord series, Heavenly Sword), Christian Allen (Ghost Recon), and Andrew Walsh (Prince of Persia, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) discuss conflicts between gameplay and storytelling, and how to resolve them.

- In 'Thinking Inside the Box: Finding Creative Space in Your Franchise', Red Storm's Jay Posey discusses why "finding ways to bring fresh and innovative ideas to [existing major franchises] can be a challenge for developers of all stripes, but writers in particular may be especially daunted by the sometimes rigorous constraints imposed by legacy titles."

Other Summits taking place at GDC Austin this year -- also available to access for those with an Austin GDC Summits Pass or All-Access Pass -- include brand-new Independent Games and iPhone Game Summits and the noted, long-running Audio Summit.

Further information on 2009's Game Writers Summit at GDC Austin, including registration details and other specifics, is available at the official Summit website. Early Bird registration for the event, which brings significant savings with it, ends on August 13th.

Posted by Staff at 08:45 AM | Permalink

[Game Developers Conference Europe event director Frank Sliwka welcomes you to his regularly updated comments about the August 17-19 event taking place in Cologne, Germany.]

One of my favorite jobs in preparing GDC Europe was to check out the nightlife of Cologne. With my two good friends, Alex and Franko (both members of the gamescom team), we enjoy KOLSCH a local beer you too will soon enjoy. We then went to "Friesenstrasse", one of the state-of-the -art clubs are here. This was just one of the many clubs and restaurants in Cologne.

Then there is the Ivory Lounge, where we will have our GDC Club Party (powered by Gameforge) on Monday night. In my opinion, this is a really nice place, but I prefer the "Old part of Cologne" which is located at the river Rhine near the famous Cologne cathedral or Kolner Dom.

Stay tuned for more in my next blog.

[Frank and his colleagues will be posting regular news updates from behind the scenes of GDC Europe, including content reveals and other helpful information. You can subscribe individually to the GDC News blog via its RSS feed.]

Posted by Frank Sliwka at 07:52 AM | Permalink

GDC Austin organizers are reminding 2008 Alumni that they can save up to 40% on All Access and Main Conference passes by registering by midnight on July 30th.

For those who previously attended the online gaming-centric event, the Main Conference pass is available at a major discount until midnight tonight.

GDC Austin, to be held September 15th-18th, 2009 at the Austin Convention Center in Texas, now includes six online-centric 'tracks' for the Main Conference, which takes place Wednesday 16th to Friday 18th. More than 120 sessions will be available covering online games, MMOs and social networking games, from business through technical to design and beyond.

In addition, access to the major GDC Austin Indie, iPhone, Writing, and Audio Summits -- which take place on Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th -- are also available for those alumni wanting to purchase All-Access passes or Summits & Tutorials passes.

More information on the overall 2009 GDC Austin event -- which recently added a Blizzard duo discussing World Of Warcraft as a keynote, and is still to announce a number of major lectures and roundtables -- is available on the official GDC Austin homepage.

Posted by Staff at 02:23 PM | Permalink

GDC Europe organizers, fresh from announcing David Cage's keynote, are reminding attendees that today (July 29th) is the last day for early registration (with a nearly 20% saving) for the major August 17-19th Cologne, Germany game development conference.

As well as revealing the Quantic Dream (Heavy Rain) founder's lecture on "Writing Interactive Narrative for a Mature Audience", the event also recently announced a lecture from Microsoft Game Studios' European creative director Peter Molyneux, alongside an 'Ask The Publishers' session featuring senior executives from Capcom, Disney, Namco Bandai.

Other recently announced keynotes for the major European event include Crytek's Avni Yerli on the future of game graphics, GameForge CEO Klaas Kersting on monetization models, Remedy's Matias Myllyrinne on creating IP, and CCP's Hilmar Petursson on EVE Online and the company's new project.

Overall, GDC Europe (part of Think Services, as is this website) will offer a schedule of forward-looking panels, lectures and keynotes on game development across five tracks: business management, game design, production, programming and visual arts.

GDC Europe will be held in conjunction with the European GamesCom industry event for consumers, publishers, and trade professionals, and will take place August 17-19 at the Cologne Congress East Center in Germany.

The event will host more than 70 sessions addressing the needs and opportunities for developers and business professionals throughout Europe, and registration is open now, with its early discount ending in a few hours.

Posted by Staff at 06:53 AM | Permalink

[Game Developers Conference Europe event director Frank Sliwka welcomes you to his regularly updated comments about the August 17-19 event taking place in Cologne, Germany.]

During the last week we received many registrations for GDC Europe. I would like to say "Thank You" to everyone who registered for our event. Every registration supports us in making GDC Europe the showcase for European development, products, and services.

Today, we are looking forward to see around 1,500 attendees from all over the world, 130 speakers, 40 exhibitors, and more than 160 media representatives. We will be welcomed at the Congress Center East in Cologne with high level publishers to developers. So if you are looking for new business opportunities or wish to learn more about new technologies, then you are at the right place - here at GDC Europe!

[Frank and his colleagues will be posting regular news updates from behind the scenes of GDC Europe, including content reveals and other helpful information. You can subscribe individually to the GDC News blog via its RSS feed.]

Posted by Frank Sliwka at 07:37 AM | Permalink

Quantic Dream founder and CEO David Cage will give a keynote at next month's 2009 Game Developers Conference Europe, say event organizers Think Services.

Cage, the Indigo Prophecy creator who's currently at work on the highly-anticipated Heavy Rain, will give a talk entitled "Writing Interactive Narrative for a Mature Audience." He'll focus on why mature games are necessary, what difficulties developers face in creating narrative-driven adult games, and will expose possible solutions and techniques in interactive storytelling.

"I am excited to participate at GDC Europe and to represent France in such a well-rounded European keynote roster," he said.

Providing a unified forum for the often-fragmented developer community in the different European countries is a large part of the goal of GDC Europe, says Frank Sliwka, vice president of European Business Development at Think Services' European Game Group. "This is our chance to show what happens in Europe, and what we have in development and services," he tells us.

The lion's share of major publishers have their seat in either North America or Asia, says Sliwka, so the European development community has its own slate of unique needs. "Europe is focused so we have a lot of companies that work in the online games field," he says. "So a lot of what we want to do is give them a showcase." Sliwka says he expects some 1,500 attendees to come to GDC Europe for education, networking and learning experiences.

All of the event's keynotes are European; the lineup includes Gameforge CEO Klaas Kersting, Remedy's Matias Myllyrinne, CCP's Hilmar Petursson and Crytek's Cevat Yerli. The latest addition to the lineup, Quantic Dream's Cage, discusses the values behind his keynote: "With the game audience maturing, we feel it's important to share visions and ideas to define how our industry should now evolve," he says. "I am convinced more than ever that the most important next gen feature is emotion. How to trigger more complex emotions is our biggest challenge in the coming years." Adds Sliwka: "I think it's safe to say that all GDC Europe attendees can expect an inspiring and thought provoking keynote on a topic not often addressed."

GDC Europe is set for August 17-19 at the Cologne Congress East Center in Cologne, Germany, in conjunction with the GamesCom event. Early registration is now open and closes July 29. Interested parties can find further information at the event's official site.

Posted by Staff at 08:55 PM | Permalink

GDC Austin organizers have confirmed the first of the Sept. 15-18 event's keynotes, with Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce and World Of Warcraft production director J. Allen Brack discussing operating challenges and lessons in "The Universe Of World Of Warcraft".

In the joint keynote, Pearce, executive vice president of product development and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, and J. Allen Brack, the production director on Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, will talk about the ongoing challenges involved with operating one of the world's most popular subscription-based MMORPGs.

After more than four years in development, World of Warcraft was released in 2004 and since that time has grown into a global phenomenon, in addition to garnering critical praise from reviewers and gamers worldwide.

Pearce is well-placed to discuss the game, being one of the original co-founders of Blizzard in 1991, and having worked on classic Blizzard Entertainment titles including Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Diablo, StarCraft, Diablo II and Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. He's also overseeing Starcraft II's production.

Brack is responsible "for coordinating the efforts of the game's development team as it creates new content to keep the experience fresh and exciting for the global audience of World of Warcraft players, and previously worked at Sony Online on Star Wars Galaxies and at Origin on the Wing Commander franchise. At Blizzard, he helped created WoW expansion pack The Burning Crusade, and currently manages the production of patches and expansions from their initial conception through their release.

Pearce and Brack's joint keynote address will "specifically discuss the steps taken to create this online world, and the hard work and team coordination necessary to keep that world engaging and rewarding over its lifetime."

"World of Warcraft continues to attract more and more subscribers year after year and has changed perceptions of what online gaming can achieve," says Izora De Lillard, event director at Think Services Game Group. "An exploration of Blizzard Entertainment's enduring success in the online gaming space offers important lessons for all connected game developers interested in developing the next great MMO, casual game, or virtual world."

Presented by Think Services (also owner of Gamasutra), GDC Austin returns with three days of main conference content focused on connected games, including online games, virtual worlds, and social networking game play; and four two-day summits, including the Game Writers, Game Audio, iPhone Games and Independent Games Summits.

The event takes place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-18, 2009, and early registration deadlines end soon - more information is available on the official GDC Austin website.

Posted by Staff at 09:55 AM | Permalink

The call for submissions for the 2010 Game Developers Conference has opened and will be available through August 14th, for those game developers and businesspeople wanting to submit simple abstracts.

The pre-eminent annual conference dedicated to the art, science and business of games -- presented by Think Services, a division of United Business Media -- returns to San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center March 9th - 13th, 2010. Session proposals can be submitted via the official GDC 2010 Call For Papers website.

This year, the GDC is continuing its successful three-phase submission system, introduced in 2008, easing the initial entry process and thereby allowing the submitter to have ample time to expand on their session proposal if selected to advance to phase two.

The simplified first-phase of the call for submissions reduces the entry form to session focus and attendee takeaway, along with basics such as biographical information and speaking experience.

The GDC advisory board - consisting of industry-leading figures - will review phase one submissions and determine who will proceed to phase two, at which point submitters will be asked to prepare a complete presentation plan.

In the third phase of the process, the advisory board will review the presentation plans and make the final cut. To read more regarding the submission phases, visit the official submission site. Guidelines for submissions can be found at the submission FAQ site.

Tracks at GDC 2010 include Audio, Business and Management, Game Design, Production, Programming and Visual Arts. Session formats this year include 20- and 60-minute lectures, panels, roundtables, one- or two-day tutorials and poster sessions.

For further information and to begin the submission process, please visit the official GDC 2010 Call For Papers website.

[UPDATE: GDC organizers have also announced the addition of Ubisoft Creative Director Clint Hocking and Epic Games President Michael Capps to the Game Developers Conference advisory board, which guides the direction of the show, rates GDC lecture submissions and coaches prospective speakers.

Hocking, during his eight year tenure at Ubisoft, has worked as level designer, game designer, script writer and creative director on top titles including the original Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Far Cry 2. Capps is president of Epic Games, makers of the hit titles Unreal and the Gears of War franchise.

The duo join existing GDC Advisory Board members which include major game industry notables such as Maxis' Chris Hecker, Blizzard's Rob Pardo, Warner Bros' Laura Fryer, Bungie's Chris Butcher, Cerny Games' Mark Cerny, and Eidos' Julien Merceron.]

Posted by Staff at 07:12 AM | Permalink

The organizers of GDC Europe 2009 have confirmed a lecture from Microsoft Game Studios' European creative director Peter Molyneux, alongside several other new announcements for August 17-19th's major Cologne-based event.

Lionhead co-founder Molyneux will lecture on 'Choice: The Ultimate Game Mechanic', with the Black & White and Fable franchise creator showing "how choice can be a compelling game mechanic so long as player decisions have tangible effects on the game world."

In another notable lecture, former Half-Life 2 art director Viktor Antonov will speak about 'Creating Visual Identity for Games', and the production designer will "analyze the elements and tools that designers use to enhance storytelling and gameplay: space, architecture, light, color and stylization."

Another major just-announced panel is simply called 'Ask the Decision Makers: Find Out What Publishers Want And How To Get What You Want', and features senior executives from Capcom, Bruckheimer Games, Microsoft, Disney, Namco Bandai, Foundation9, and Paramount discussing how developers can stand out from the crowd, get meetings and secure deals.

Overall, GDC Europe will offer a schedule of forward-looking panels, lectures and keynotes on game development across five tracks: business management, game design, production, programming and visual arts.

Other recently announced keynotes for the major European event include Crytek's Avni Yerli on the future of game graphics, GameForge CEO Klaas Kersting on monetization models, Remedy's Matias Myllyrinne on creating IP, and CCP's Hilmar Petursson on EVE Online and the company's new project.

"We're very proud to have such high level executives and veteran developers speaking on a wide variety of topics and trends that are vital to game developers in Europe," said Frank Sliwka, Vice President European Business Development of Think Services Game Group.

GDC Europe will be held in conjunction with the European GamesCom industry event for consumers, publishers, and trade professionals, and will take place August 17-19 at the Cologne Congress East Center in Germany.

The event will host more than 80 sessions addressing the needs and opportunities for developers and business professionals throughout Europe, and registration is open now, with its early discount ending at midnight on July 29th.

Posted by Staff at 07:07 AM | Permalink

[While submissions have just opened for the main IGF, we're pleased to announce that we've also created an IGF China event, starting this year - all Asian entrants should check out the IGF China site (Chinese-language version) for more info.]

Think Services, organizer of the Game Developers Conference events, has announced the first annual Independent Games Festival China. The event is to be held in conjunction with the 2009 Game Developers Conference China, which returns to the Shanghai International Convention Center, October 11-13 of this year.

After 11 years of the main Independent Games Festival competition being held at GDC in San Francisco, the Independent Games Festival will present itself to Shanghai, China for the first time in 2009, in a competition specifically designed to encourage innovation and showcase standout games from smaller companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Continue reading "2009 IGF China Announces Inaugural Pan-Asian Competition" »

Posted by Staff at 04:35 PM | Permalink

Organizers of this September's iPhone Games Summit at GDC Austin have announced first speakers, with the developers of titles like Enigmo and Flower Garden join Looking Glass alum Randy Smith to discuss the business and tech behind working on Apple's device.

Initial information about the September 15th-16th Summit, a separate part of the wider, 'connected game'-focused Austin-based event, is available on the GDC Austin website.

The two-day iPhone Summit is divided in half, with one day dealing with the business and marketing realities behind making games for Apple's phone, and the other going in-depth on technical hurdles and tips for iPhone developers.

Other Summits taking place at GDC Austin this year -- also available to access for those with an Austin GDC Summits Pass or All-Access Pass -- include a brand-new Independent Games Summit and the notable, long-running Writing and Audio Summits.

Details on the iPhone Games Summit at GDC Austin include specifics on the first lectures and panels for the first-ever Austin edition of the popular main GDC event, and the highlights include:

- In 'Pangea’s Road To Success: Launching & Marketing an iPhone App', the local Austin company's founder Brian Greenstone (Enigmo, Bugdom 2) explains why "the hardest part about being an iPhone app developer is figuring out how to get your app seen by the consumer", suggesting concrete solutions from a successful practitioner.

- Snappy Touch (Flower Garden for iPhone) founder and Game Developer magazine programming columnist Noel Llopis will present 'Squeezing Every Drop Of Performance Out Of The iPhone', which will "describe the iPhone performance optimization lessons learned through many hours of tuning", with lots of practical tips and tricks.

- In 'From AAA to iPhone: Tiger Style and the making of Spider', Looking Glass and EA LA veteran Randy Smith is joining colleague David Kalina to discuss their move from high-budget console to iPhone games, promising a look at the business and design behind making an iPhone game, and "how it all impacted the quality of the product and the sales numbers."

- Presenting a more technical lecture, Elecorn's Michael Smith will speak on 'iPort: How To Bring Any C++ Game To The iPhone', which presents techniques used to faithfully port a 3rd person shooter to iPhone, and discusses "general platform porting methods and principles", as well as game play and user interface design differences to consider.

- Finally, in 'Bringing Game Brands to the iPhone: A Business Approach', PlayFirst's Chris Williams (Diner Dash, asks an interesting question: "What do you do when Diner Dash proves to be a Top 100 Paid Application for over 9 months? You make 49 more ports… Or maybe you don’t." Approaches and lessons learned will be covered, with quandaries such as balancing the promise of an increase in sales with the cost of adding iPhone-specific features to existing games.

With more lectures to be announced in the near future, further information on 2009's iPhone Games Summit at Austin GDC, including registration details and other specifics, is available at the official Summit @ Austin GDCs website.

Posted by Staff at 07:13 AM | Permalink

Think Services, organizer of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference (GDC) events, is pleased to announce that submissions are now open for the 2010 Independent Games Festival. Entries to the 12th annual festival are due in both Main and Student Showcase categories by November 2009, with Main Competition finalists to be announced January 4, 2010.

Games selected as finalists will be available in playable form on the GDC show floor and will compete for nearly $50,000 in prizes, including awards for Excellence in Design, Art, the Audience Award and the coveted $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Winners will be announced on stage at the prestigious Independent Games Festival Awards on Thursday, March 11, 2010, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The Independent Games Festival Awards are held alongside the Game Developers Choice Awards and both award shows are part of the 2010 Game Developers Conference. GDC 2010 also includes the 2010 Independent Games Summit, which is entering its fourth year and offers two days of inspiration and practical lectures and rants from the top minds in the independent games world.

Over the years, the Independent Games Festival has recognized the best and brightest indie game developers and their games. As the indie game mindshare continues to grow, thanks to the rise of digital distribution and a compelling aesthetic, the Independent Games Festival has played a key role in putting a well-deserved spotlight on these games. Notable former IGF winners include Everyday Shooter, Audiosurf, World of Goo, Blueberry Garden, Darwinia, Castle Crashers, and many more.

Notable evolutions to this year's Festival include a substantial increase in the number of hand-picked IGF judges - chosen, as always, from notables practicing both mainstream and indie game development, as well as discerning indie-minded games journalists.

The judging pool has more than doubled over last year's event, allowing each individual game entry to be played in much greater depth. The IGF is also adding compulsory (previously optional) written judge feedback alongside scores, an important part of deriving value and takeaway from entering the Festival, even for non-finalists.

Simon Carless, Chairman of the IGF, commented of this year's event: "We're delighted to return for our twelfth year of the Independent Games Festival, and we're really looking forward to see what the independent game community comes up with this time around. Good luck to all entrants!"

Submissions to the competition are now open to all independent game developers; important dates for IGF 2010 are as follows:

July 1st, 2009 - Submissions are Open
November 1st, 2009 - Submission Deadline, Main Competition
November 15th, 2009 - Submission Deadline, Student Competition
January 4th, 2010 - Finalists Announced, Main Competition
January 11th, 2010 - Finalists Announced, Student Competition
March 9th-13th, 2010 - Game Developer's Conference 2010
March 9th-10th, 2010 - Indie Games Summit @ GDC
March 11-13th, 2010 - IGF Pavilion @ GDC
March 11th, 2010 - IGF Awards Ceremony (Winners Announced!)

Sponsors already confirmed for the 2010 Independent Games Festival include Official Download Partner Direct2Drive and Platinum Student Showcase sponsor DigiPen Institute Of Technology. For a complete list of IGF 2010 event information, please visit the official IGF website.

Posted by Staff at 11:50 AM | Permalink