This week, GDC China debuted a trio of new sessions, featuring Canabalt developer Adam Saltsman on opportunities for small developers, mobile studio Booyah on location-based games, and a full-day design tutorial from thatgamecompany's Robin Hunicke.
Taking place November 12-14 at the Shanghai Exhibition Center in Shanghai, China, the event will once again serve as the premier game industry event in China, bringing together influential developers from around the world to share ideas, network, and inspire each other to further the game industry in this region.
This year, the show's Main Conference will feature three primary tracks, covering Online Game Development & Business, Global Game Development, and Social Games, and two Summits on Indie Games and Mobile Games, respectively.
Here are the latest talks to be revealed for the upcoming show:
- In the Independent Games Summit, Canabalt creator and independent game maker Adam 'Atomic' Saltsman will host a lecture titled, "Commercial and Creative Opportunities for Small Companies, Small Teams and Solo Developers." Here, Saltsman will examine the commercial realities of today's most popular platforms, and will point out several overlooked areas that would be a good fit for small developers.
- Over in the Mobile Games Summit, Keith Lee, co-founder and CEO of Booyah (MyTown) will offer an in-depth look at creating location-based games. His talk, dubbed, "5MM Users in MyTown: Key Learnings from the #1 Geo-Location Game," will go over Booyah's challenges and lessons learned, and will present hard data to illustrate how the studio found a healthy audience for its own location-based game.
- Finally, Robin Hunicke of Journey developer thatgamecompany will host a first-ever, day long Chinese debut for the popular MDA Game Design Workshop. Previously held at the primary GDC in San Francisco, this interactive tutorial will teach attendees to analyze, design, and improve the games they work on by applying the MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics) approach to game design. Participants will take part in several hands-on exercises and learn a new vocabulary for describing games with co-workers and collaborators, leaving them with a better understanding of games and how to talk about them with peers.
For more information on these or other sessions at GDC China, please check out the show's official Schedule Builder.
The above talks join previously announced sessions from notable developers, including Square Enix on large publishers, Kabam on creating social MMOs, and more. Elsewhere in the conference are other new talks covering Limy Sky's Doodle Jump, mobile game publisher Gamevil, and Halfbrick's Fruit Ninja.
With registration for GDC China now open, interested parties can go to the event's official website to start the registration process and gain access to the numerous talks, tutorials, and events the show will have to offer. Keep an eye out for even more news as the show draws closer, as GDC China organizers have a number of exciting announcements planned for the coming weeks.
For more information on GDC China as the event takes shape, please visit the official GDC China website, or subscribe to updates from the new GDC Online-specific news page via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS. GDC China is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb.
