Following announcements of talks from Ninja Theory and Paradox last week, GDC Europe organizers are debuting two more notable sessions for the major European video game conference, which is being held in Germany this August.
In these freshly announced talks, Ustwo's Ken Wong will speak about the design of Monument Valley, while Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail (Ridiculous Fishing) will offer advice on how developers can better pitch their games to the press and their intended audience.
Organized by UBM Tech Game Network, GDC Europe, now in its sixth year in Germany, will run Monday through Wednesday, August 11-13 at the Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany, co-located with Europe's biggest video game trade and public show gamescom.
The event will include topics spanning AAA through mobile gaming and indie, both technical and business-focused. Today's announced talks cover both the design and the business of games, and they should include learnings for the entire community.
Firstly, Monument Valley lead designer Ken Wong will bridge GDC Europe's Design and Visual Arts tracks with a talk about how the art of M.C. Escher and the experience of being embedded in a UX studio led London-based Ustwo Games to design their first mobile game as a series of soothing puzzles in which every screen was intended to stand alone as a piece of art.
In 'Designing Monument Valley: Less Game, More Experience', Wong plans to discuss how rethinking games as user experiences inspired the team to trade challenging puzzles for an aesthetic journey, and why keeping that journey short but sublime helps to make a game more accessible to new audiences. By questioning existing game tropes and looking outside of game culture for inspiration, Wong believes we can design more creative, more diverse and more accessible game experiences.
Turning to the business side of things, Rami Ismail will be returning to GDC Europe this year to give a talk on perfecting the art of the game pitch as part of the Business, Marketing and Management track.
Ismail, who co-founded the Dutch indie studio Vlambeer, will draw from his experiences marketing hit Vlambeer games like Ridiculous Fishing, Luftrausers and Super Crate Box to offer attendees tips on crafting the perfect pitch and getting their games noticed by the press, by their target audiences and by the community at large.
Of course, these are just two of the many exciting sessions that will be announced for GDC Europe 2014 in the coming weeks, and early birds can register for GDC Europe 2014 by July 16 to save 200 euros on an All Access Pass.
In addition, this year marks the GDC Europe debut of the Student Pass, a more affordable alternative to the All Access Pass created specifically for qualified students interested in learning and networking at GDC Europe 2014 - as well as the return of the Indie Games Summit pass. All GDC Europe passes also allow visitors to attend Gamescom from Wednesday to Friday. For more information, please visit the GDC Europe website.
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