This week, Game Developers Conferece 2012 is revealing a trio of notable new sessions, including the first Western appearance of Space Invaders Infinity Gene and Groove Coaster's creator, product ownership as it relates to Dragon Age, and the music behind Journey and Monaco.
The 26th GDC show will take place Monday, March 5 through Friday, March 9 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and the Main Conference (March 7th-9th) offers six tracks covering key disciplines in the games industry, including Audio, Business, Marketing & Management, Game Design, Production, Programming, and Visual Arts.
The following lectures are the newest additions to GDC 2012's Main Conference:
- In a Game Design track talk simultaneously translated from Japanese, Taito chief game designer Reisuke Ishida will make his first ever Western speaking appearance, discussing his two recent signature titles in a lecture called "Five Techniques for Making an Unforgettable Game, Illustrated in Space Invaders Infinity Gene and Groove Coaster."
Using the examples of Space Invaders Infinity Gene a stylish, well-received 30th anniversary update of the classic game, and Groove Coaster a popular iOS exclusive music title, Ishida will explore the best ways to make a game stand out, even in the overcrowded market.
- Also added in the Production track is a talk dubbed "Ownership - Dragon Age Style," in which BioWare's Adriana Lopez will explain what "ownership" means, organizationally, in the context of handling a major video game franchise.
Using BioWare's acclaimed Dragon Age role-playing game franchise as an example, Lopez will detail the responsibilities of product owners and how they can leverage their control over a franchise to better manage their projects and maintain a fully-engaged team.
- Finally, in the Audio track session "Journey vs Monaco: Music is Storytelling," composer Austin Wintory will contrast two different video game scores he wrote in 2011, for both thatgamecompany's Journey and Pocketwatch Games' IGF-winning Monaco.
Wintory will detail the ways these two games use music to create narrative arcs and reconcile adaptivity, while also going over the audio production processes for both titles. Near the end of the talk, thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen and Pocketwatch Games' Andy Schatz will join the session for an audience Q&A on the construction of the games' audio.
Besides these announcements, GDC organizers recently debuted the show's first Summit sessions, featuring Playdom on the (lack of) iconic social game characters, SingStar creator Paulina Bozek on using apps for behavioral change, and Untold Entertainment on its viral hit Sissy's Magical Ponycorn Adventure. Previously announced Main Conference talks include an in-depth look at Plants vs. Zombies, Naughty Dog's production cycle, and the art of Saints Row: The Third.
For more information on any of these sessions, keep an eye on the official GDC 2012 website, as more details will become available in the coming weeks. To ensure you receive the latest news about GDC 2012 as the event takes shape, please subscribe to updates from the GDC news page via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS.
