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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

David Cage to discuss The Dark Sorceror at GDC Europe 2013

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

GDC Europe's Indie Games Summit adds Indie Megabooth, Canabalt C64 talks

Organizers have announced several notable new talks for next month's Independent Games Summit at GDC Europe in Cologne, including creating the text-based hit, Steve Jackson's Sorcery!; building the Indie Megabooth's presence at PAX and in the press; and porting Canabalt and Super Crate Box to the Commodore 64 - also revealing a new extra with the reduced-price Indie Games Summit Pass.
These talks are part of GDC Europe 2013's Independent Games Summit, which will take place Tuesday, August 20th, during the three-day conference at Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany - just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event.
These likely to be popular talks are accessible via the reduced-price Independent Games Summit pass for the show, but are also available for all GDC Europe passholders.
Organizers are also announcing that the Indie Games Summit Pass will now include a two-day pass to the Gamescom event itself, including attendance during the business day on Wednesday, August 21st - a significant additional perk.
The breakdown of the newly added talks, part of an extensive line-up for the day, are as follows:

GDC Europe adds Crysis III, AMD, Housemarque talks

GDC Europe 2013 organizers have announced new talks covering the visually stunning lighting of Crysis III, AMD's next-gen powering GPU architecture, and Housemarque's tips for staying independent and flexible for almost 20 years.
These sessions will be part of the Visual Arts, Business, and Programming tracks, accessible to VIP and All Access Pass holders for GDC Europe 2013. The event will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event.
In 'Shining the Light on Crysis 3,' Crytek senior lighting artist Donzallaz Pierre-Yves will demonstrate to attendees how Crytek achieved its highly acclaimed visuals for the FPS, explaining the lighting pipeline from 2D concept artworks and prototypes to final, fully-lit-in-real-time 3D scenes.
For a detailed discussion of programming game visuals of the future, AMD developer relations manager Layla Mah's Powering the Next Generation of Graphics: The AMD GCN [Graphics Core Next] Architecture' is a can't-miss session. Mah plans to go into very low-level detail about the GCN architecture's compute and functional units' capabilities; considering AMD's technology will power the PS4 and Xbox One, this talk is definitely a must-see for graphics engineers wanting to know how to take advantage of next-generation consoles.
Finally, CEO Ilari Kuittinen of notable Finnish developer Housemarque (Outland, Super Stardust) will share how the company has maintained independence and survived for nearly 20 years in 'Adaptation and Antifragility: Life of an Independent Studio.' The lecture will focus on building 'antifragility' into the company's DNA, so that it "withstands any high-impact crisis."

GDC Europe F2P Summit adds Wooga, Big Fish, Red 5, DeNA talks

GDC Europe 2013 organizers have announced new talks on free-to-play games for August's conference in Cologne, Germany, including Big Fish on casual game best practices, Red 5 on MMO monetization tips, Wooga on its winning formula of KPI and "some heart", and DeNA on Japanese mobile card game design and license collaboration.
These sessions will be part of the Free to Play Design & Business Summit, accessible to VIP and All Access Pass holders for GDC Europe 2013. The event will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event.
Big Fish VP and general manager of free-to-play Chris Williams will speak about what made games such as Big Fish Casino a massive hit in '5 Key Best Practices in Free-to-Play Gaming.' He will offer insight on discoverabilty, design, team structure, development timeline, and social features for successful F2P games.
Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern will share best and worst practices from his experience with upcoming MMOFPS Firefall and as former team lead of World of Warcraft in 'Balancing Monetization to Succeed in the F2P MMO Space.' Kern's talk will include what types of content should be paid for, how to set prices, and how to prevent players from 'paying to win.'

Oculus Rift VR talk/demo, League of Legends community talks added to GDC Europe

GDC Europe 2013 organizers have announced the latest additions for August's show in Cologne, Germany, with Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey speaking on the challenges and opportunities virtual reality can pose for game devs, Riot Games devs on attracting and encouraging offline player evangelists, and Top Eleven studio Nordeus's tips on tutorials and player retention.
These talks are part of the business, programming, and design tracks in GDC Europe 2013, which will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event.
In the Oculus VR session 'Virtual Reality Gaming and Game Development', founder Palmer Luckey and VP of product Nate Mitchell will speak about the challenges virtual reality presents for game devs, why VR will change the way games are played, and what VR means for the industry.
In addition, the company's product - the Oculus Rift VR headset - is currently planned to be playable in a booth on the GDC Europe show floor on Monday and Tuesday, August 19th and 20th, giving attendees the chance to check out the latest demonstrations on the unique hardware.

GDC Europe 2013 adds notable Blizzard, Epic, GOG.com talks

Organizers of GDC Europe 2013 have announced its latest talks for this August's Cologne event, including GOG.com's Trevor Longino on what developers need to build buzz on their game, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm's Brian Kindregan on cinematics for storytelling, and Epic's Chris Mielke on outsourcing to external art teams.
These talks are part of the business, programming, and design tracks in GDC Europe 2013, which will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany - just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event.
While cinematics has been under fire as an effective storytelling tool in games, Warner Bros. storyboard artist turned Blizzard lead writer Brian Kindregan will make his best case for them in 'How Hard Could it BE? The Story of a Cinematic.' He will discuss multiple versions of a scene from StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, covering the distinctions among them, the choices that were made, and how they impacted the story.
Next, digital game distributor GOG.com's head of marketing & PR Trevor Longino will explain the three things developers will need to build buzz around their title in 'PR Quest! The Adventure to Make Your Game Famous' Longino will "discuss three different approaches to adding a human face to your digital business (honesty, humility and delight), and how if you focus on these touchstones, you're sure to find yourself well-equipped for your own PR Quest."

GDC Europe adds PS4 tech talk, Ubisoft Child of Light reveal

Organizers of GDC Europe 2013 have announced its latest talks for this August's Cologne event, including Ubisoft's Patrick Plourde revealing his 'small project in triple-A studio' Child Of Light; Sony with newly-revealed public details on the PlayStation 4's shading language; and Execution Labs' Jason Della Rocca on startup funding options.
These talks are part of the business, programming, and design tracks in GDC Europe 2013, which will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany - just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event.
Those interested in the graphics shader pipeline for Sony's upcoming console will want to attend SCEA engineers Chris Ho and Richard Stenson's talk, 'PlayStation Shading Language for PS4.'
The two will discuss the degree of cross-compatibility that the shading language will have with the PC, and the "hardware-oriented extensions that will enable PS4 developers to 'Push the Boundaries of Play.'"

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