Organizers for March 2009's GDC Mobile summit have revealed a focus on emerging platforms such as Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, as well as initial speakers from EA and Indiagames, for the mobile-specific game event taking place on the first two days of GDC 2009.

The GDC Mobile conference (created by Think Services) gathers creators, publishers, technology providers, handset manufacturers, and distributors to discuss the future of the medium.

This year's program will cover six tracks encompassing the entirity of mobile gaming: New Platforms, Game Design, Programming, Deals & Distribution, Production, and Original Innovation.

The lectures announced so far include 'The iPhone Bag Of Tricks,' a hands-on session covering the day-to-day aspects of iPhone development, presented by G3 Studios CEO Guido Henkel; and 'Social Games for Android, iPhone, Java, C++ and Objective C? Where do you fit in?', presented by Pick Up And Play president and CEO Paul Foster.

Other notable speakers announced for the event include EA Mobile Europe marketing director Tim Harrison, Indiagames founder and CEO Vishal Gondal, Amplified Games president and CEO Tom Hubina, and School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech associate professor Blair MacIntyre.

In addition, the IGF Mobile competition, which is giving out $30,000 to the most innovative independent mobile games, including a new $10,000 Best iPhone Game award, will have its awards during GDC Mobile once again this year.

GDC Mobile 2009 will take place on March 23rd and 24th during Game Developers Conference 2009, which will run from March 23rd to 27th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.

For more information on the GDC Mobile summit and other lecture highlights, please visit the official GDC Mobile 2009 site.

Posted by Staff at 3:00 PM | Permalink

The organizers of the 2009 Independent Games Summit have announced initial speakers for the March 2009 GDC-included conference, including notables from 2D Boy (World Of Goo), Stardock (Sins Of A Solar Empire), and more.

Initial confirmed speakers for the event, which is taking place on March 23rd and 24th, 2009 as part of the 2009 Game Developers Conference, include 2D Boy co-founder Ron Carmel, talking on 'Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Going Indie But Were Afraid to Ask'. As is explained in the lecture description:

"When Ron Carmel and his business partner Kyle Gabler formed 2D Boy and started making the IGF award-winning World Of Goo, they knew a bit about game design and programming, but hardly anything about the business aspect of making a game... Having published on Wii/WiiWare and PC both physically and digitally in multiple territories, Carmel explains how they managed it, with plenty of real-world numbers plugged in."

In addition, Stardock's Brad Wardell, the founder of an independent game developer and publisher involved in such titles as Galactic Civilizations II, Sins of a Solar Empire, Demigod and Elemental, is presenting a lecture named 'Stardock On The PC Hardcore Scene As Indie', described as follows:

"Through its choice of game projects combined with its digital distribution platform, Impulse, Stardock has been able to tap into the "core" PC game player, a group that has been often ignored in recent years, with the ability to create games they want and deliver those games to them. Wardell will discuss the strategy Stardock uses to design such games, as well as how they deliver these games to the target audience through both retail and digital channels."

Other notable lectures confirmed at this early stage include:

- Acclaimed indie creator Jonatan 'Cactus' Soderstrom (Clean Asia, Psychosomnium) is renowned for the wide-ranging, eclectic multitude of freeware games that he creates. In an IGS lecture, "he'll discuss fast prototyping and how he creates standout, beautiful games in as little as four hours."

- Infinite Ammo's Alec Holowka (IGF Grand Prize-winning Aquaria, Paper Moon) and Pillowfort Games' Tommy Refenes (Goo!, Grey Matter) talking on 'How to Finish a Game Project You... Hate?', specifically "finding and maintaining motivation on an indie game project, long after it feels natural to do so."

- IGF Chairman and Gamasutra/Game Developer publisher Simon Carless on 'Independent Games & Sales: Stats 101', talking on "how you can make a living from PC web, casual, and downloadable indie titles, iPhone games, XBLA, WiiWare, and PlayStation Network titles, to name but a few."

The Independent Games Summit takes place alongside the yearly Independent Games Festival at GDC 2009, with IGF finalists invited to attend IGS for free, and other interested parties able to attend via a GDC Summits Pass. More information on the full line-up for the Summit will be available at the official Independent Games Summit webpage in the near future.

Posted by Staff at 2:57 PM | Permalink

[Ever wondered how talks get selected for GDC? Game Developers Conference event director Meggan Scavio reveals this year's GDC advisory board and submission process.]

Every summer, the GDC advisory board gathers to discuss the direction of the next event. The board is made up of 17 of the most dedicated, brilliant people in the industry. And I’m not just saying that because they might read this.

You may have heard of some of them, for example Blizzard’s Rob Pardo, Electronic Arts' Lou Castle, veteran creator Mark Cerny, Bungie's Chris Butcher, MGS's Laura Fryer, and Maxis’ Chris Hecker. See, it’s true. Smarties.

Anyhow, during this meeting they talk about everything from networking opportunities (“wouldn’t it be cool to have a roundtable follow a thought-provoking lecture so the attendees can discuss what they just heard?”) to session formats (“what if we gave speakers 3 minutes each to present their cool idea or technology”).

The meat of what they talk about, however, is the session content and how to make it better. It’s all-quality all-the-time with these folks.

Our attempt at improving (and some might say maintaining) session quality for GDC 2009 was evidenced in our Call for Submissions. The board is always looking for interesting, well crafted submissions but the reality is they are really looking at takeaway.

When reviewing submissions, they want to know if the attendee is going to walk out of the room knowing something they didn’t know when they walked in.

We updated the submissions process this year by dividing it into two phases with takeaway being the focal point of phase one.

GDC Submissions: Phase One

We asked three things in phase one of GDC submissions this year: what do you want to call your talk?; briefly explain the focus of your talk; and explain to us how the attendee is going to benefit from attending this talk. We received over 800 of these.

The board then reads, reviews and grades every single one to determine who moves on.

This process involves locking the board into a hotel meeting room for 2 whole days while they productively discuss (sometimes I call it bickering like little girls but they don’t like that very much) the merits of the submissions.

It breaks down like this: by track, we sort the submissions by the reviewers average grade and discuss every single submission that received a grade of 3.8 or higher (1=not so much, 5=much awesomeness).

The board determines which of these will move on to phase two. After that, we go around the room and each board member has an opportunity to fight for a submission that didn’t score so well but they want to save.

We continue to go around the room until no one has anything left to save. Wash and repeat. All weekend. And you wonder why I drink.

GDC Submissions: Phase Two

Right now we are in phase two. Submitters are in the process of, well, submitting the bulk of what their Game Developers Conference presentation is going to be for a second round of review.

This is where the board can see if the content matches the intent. And this will, fingers crossed, help us in making sure that what seems like a super awesome submission turns into a super awesome GDC session.

We shall see!

[Meggan and her colleagues will be posting regular updates from behind the scenes through the lead-up to next March's Game Developers Conference 2009, including content reveals and other helpful information. You can subscribe individually to the GDC News blog via its RSS feed.]

Posted by at 4:40 PM | Permalink

The organizers of the 2009 Independent Games Festival have announced a record turnout for this year's IGF competition, with a total of 226 entries in the Main Competition (an increase of 30% on last year's 173 entries), and a total of 145 Student Showcase entries (up over 15% on last year's 125 entries).

Information on the 226 separate IGF Main Competition entries, including screenshots, descriptions, and links to official game websites, are now available to view on the official IGF website.

Examples of the entries span already announced indie titles, including Jason Rohrer's Between, alternate reality RPG Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden, visually lush point and click adventure Machinarium, and art-game I Wish I Were The Moon, through previously little-discussed titles such as Pieces Interactive's "first walk'em up" Walkie Tonky, new Nifflas-designed title Night Game, and Lexaloffle's "ecological action game" Conflux.

In addition, the 145 IGF Student Showcase entries are also available for viewing on the official IGF website, with descriptions, screenshots, and official website information.

Again, a great diversity of student-made games with original concepts are showcased, with examples including GumBeat, in which you "...blow bubble gum and gather enough supporters to your cause to topple the anti-gum government", High Moon, a "abstract post-apocalyptic zombie western robot romance in 3 acts", and It's MimeTime, in which "you are a female mime artist in Paris, who must earn as much as possible, by miming your way through an invisible maze."

The IGF judges, which currently comprise notable journalists, indie and mainstream game creators, are now in the process of judging this year's titles. with almost $50,000 in prizes to be handed out, including the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Finalists will be announced in early January 2009, and winners, as picked by the 2009 IGF judges, will be announced on stage at the prestigious Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, March 25, 2009, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The Independent Games Festival Awards are held along the Game Developers Choice Awards, and both award shows are part of the 2009 Game Developers Conference, which also features a two-day Independent Games Summit, with lectures and panels from the best indie developers.

More information and a full list of entrants for this year's Independent Games Festival is available at its official website.

Posted by Staff at 3:47 PM | Permalink

Think Services, co-organizer of the Game Developers Conference Canada has announced that next year's inaugural expo will run from May 12 - 13, 2009 at the Vancouver Convention and Exposition Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The organizers have also opened the call for proposals on lectures, roundtables, and panel sessions, and will accept submissions through midnight, Friday, November 28, 2008.

GDC Canada, which has an extensive local advisory board including representation from BioWare, EA Black Box, Threewave, Radical, Next Level Games and more, will emphasize the challenges and opportunities of creating games with long production cycles, large development teams, and multi-platform releases.

The event's tracks are structured according to production stages of game development, so submissions should address the most pressing game development challenges that fall under the following development stages: concept/preproduction, production, finalling, and post-launch.

Building on the success of the Vancouver International Game Summit, GDC Canada, which is co-organized by Reboot Communications and Think Services, will feature global perspectives on cross-discipline and cross-platform content, with an eye to serving the increasingly significant Canadian games business sector.

The conference will take place during Vancouver Digital Week, organized by local government entity New Media BC, billed as "...an immersive week of innovative programming and partnership opportunities for the digital media industry that features top minds from around the globe."

To learn more about the submission guidelines and conference tracks, please visit the official site for 2009 GDC Canada.

Posted by Staff at 2:59 PM | Permalink