Organizers of Game Developers Conference Online 2011 have debuted the first sessions from the October show in Austin, TX, including League Of Legends's design director and major talks from Loot Drop and Playdom on social gaming's evolution.
Taking place Monday through Thursday, October 10-13, 2011 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, GDC Online continues as the leading worldwide event to solely discuss the development and business trends surrounding connected games -- including casual titles, MMOs, virtual worlds, and social networking games.
This year's Main Conference will include tracks on Business & Marketing, Customer Experience, Design, Production, and Programming, as well as a sponsored track on Monetization.
As the event's Schedule Builder reveals the first set of lectures, the following are some highlights from this year's Main Conference:
- In "Designers are Human Too - Causes of Poor Design Decisions," Riot Games' Tom Cadwell, design director of major hit League of Legends, will discuss poor decision-making in game design, outlining why talented teams don't always act in their own best interest.
Cadwell, a former Blizzard designer and architect of the multiplayer online game smash, will examine the root causes of a number of common design mistakes, and will offer advice on how to avoid them.
- In another signature lecture, Playdom's Steve Meretzky and Dave Rohrl will look back at the recent developments in the growing social space in "The Year in Social Games 2010-2011." In this talk, the veteran pair will examine the emerging trends, standout games, and business innovations that have emerged in the social game market over the last 12 months, and will point out the developments to look for in the coming year.
- Also in the Design Track, Laralyn McWilliams of buzzworthy social game studio Loot Drop will host a talk dubbed, "Get Over Yourself: Making Someone's Else's Game," which will encourage developers to create games not for themselves, but for the audiences who play them. McWilliams, who was co-creator of SOE's Free Realms, will discuss various ways for developers to learn about the players enjoying their games, and why it is important to develop games from their perspective.
In addition to the Main Conference, GDC Online will also feature the ever popular Game Narrative Summit, as well as Summits on Smartphone & Tablet Games and Virtual Items, all of which will host specialized sessions on some of the most vital emerging areas in games.
Earlier this month, GDC Online opened nominations for the annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards, and show organizers will continue to accept nominations until June 30, 2011.
The longrunning Austin-based show, which continues to expand a robust Expo and offer in-depth takeaway from sessions alongside networking opportunities, also has a number of other announcements planned for the upcoming weeks and months.
For more information on GDC Online as the event takes shape, please visit the official GDC Online website, or subscribe to updates from the new GDC Online-specific news page via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS. GDC Online is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb.
