GDC Online has revealed new sessions within the Austin show's Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit, including a look at Zynga's Words With Friends studio, a series of mini-lectures on breaking into Asian markets, and a dual postmortem on Limbic Software's Nuts! and Zombie Gunship.
Taking place Monday, October 10 through Thursday, October 13, 2011 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, GDC Online continues as the leading worldwide event dedicated solely to discussing the development and business trends surrounding connected games -- including casual titles, MMOs, virtual worlds, and social networking games.
This year, the show will host three specialized Summits in addition to the traditional Main Conference, with topics covering Game Narrative, Virtual Items, and Smartphone & Tablet Games.
The following are among the first talks to be revealed within GDC Online's Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit:
- In "Words With Friends: Building and Growing a Game on the Top of the Charts," Vijay Thakkar of the Zynga subsidiary Zynga With Friends will outline the growth and evolution of the popular With Friends series (which includes Words With Friends, Hanging With Friends, and more). Thakkar will explain the inner workings of the studio's tech, and will point out "the trials and tribulations of multi-platform, cross-team development."
- Elsewhere, a handful of mobile company executives from ngmoco, Papaya Mobile, and Gamevil will discuss how to find success in Asian markets in "International Micro-Talks: Developing and Distributing Games for Japan, China and Korea." In this series of micro-talks, the speakers will each reflect on their experience in the mobile space to help developers overcome the challenges that come with breaking into these ever-growing markets.
- Finally, mobile developer Limbic Software will host a two-game postmortem session dubbed "Squirrels and Gunships Climbing the App Store: A Double Postmortem of Nuts! and Zombie Gunship." Limbic co-founder Arash Keshmirian and development partner Serban Porumbescu will look back on the company's two recent summer releases, offering an inside look at the conception, design, and execution of these titles and teaching attendees "new ways to launch, or extend/revive existing titles."
Over the last few weeks, GDC Online organizers recently debuted new talks within the show's Main Conference, including sessions from Ubisoft Blue Byte, Mind Candy, and a handful of full-day sponsored events from Blizzard Entertainment, Google, and Unity Technologies.
Outside of the Main Conference, show organizers also debuted a handful of Game Narrative Summit talks from Valve Software, BioWare Austin, and Telltale Games. In addition, organizers recently revealed the finalists for the Game Developers Choice Online Awards, which will run alongside GDC Online on the evening of October 12.
Event organizers would also like to point out that the GDC Online caption contest will run through September 18 on the show's official Facebook page. Everyone is eligible to submit captions, and the winner will receive an All-Access Pass to GDC Online 2011 -- see the contest page for more details.
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.
