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.'
Timo Dries, currently product lead on a 'top-secret unreleased game' at Wooga (Diamond Dash, Bubble Island), will speak about which key performance indicators (KPIs) devs ought to pay attention to and which to ignore, in 'Stealing Your Heart, Eating Your Brain.' Dries will also explore how adding "some heart to these numbers can pay dividends," cultivating long term players.
DeNA producer Tom Hess will discuss how his team leveraged Japanese mobile card battle game design to create a top-grossing licensed hit in 'TRANSFORMERS Legends: Bringing Japanese Game Design to the West'. Here, Hess will explain the inner workings of mobile Japanese card games and speak on his experience collaborating with a major licensing partner.
More talks will be revealed throughout the weeks leading up to GDC Europe in August. The schedule builder is live with a significant list of talks already available.
Early bird registration for GDC Europe 2013 is also live, with discounts up to 20% off admission. Group admission discounts are also available. For all the latest news on GDC Europe, subscribe for updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.
