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11th annual Experimental Gameplay Sessions reveals GDC 2013 line-up

With less than two weeks remaining before the Game Developers Conference 2013, show organizers are detailing its special workshop dubbed "Experimental Gameplay Sessions," which returns to GDC for its 11th year.
This jam-packed, two-hour session -- which takes place Friday, March 29 at 2:30pm in Room 2014 of the San Francisco Moscone Center's West Hall -- will showcase an eclectic mix of unusual game prototypes that defy convention and explore new ideas and genres.
With this year's EGS curated and organized by leading creators Robin Hunicke (Journey), Richard Lemarchand (Uncharted franchise) & Daniel Benmergui (Storyteller), it's an exciting opportunity for presenters and attendees alike to explore some brand new territory in game design.
In fact, a number of 'experimental' titles that debuted in previous years have gone on to become some of the most well regarded in the industry. Some of these standout games include flOw, Braid, Portal, World of Goo and Today I Die.
This year, the session aims to recapture that innovative spirit, with over 20 titles from some of the industry's most creative developers.

GDC 2013 Audio Track highlights Walking Dead, Dear Esther, Dead Space 3 talks

GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting notable Audio track lectures, including Rod Abernethy on the art form of game audio, Dear Esther's approach to mixing live and digital instruments, Dead Space 3's interactive mixing, The Walking Dead's episodic sound design and production, and Double Fine's 'Audio Production Survival Guide.'
These talks are part of the Audio Track for GDC 2013's Main Conference, which will take place Wednesday-Friday, March 27-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
This in-depth track is available for All-Access and Main Conference pass holders, as well as holders of the special lower-cost Audio Track Pass.
Looking at highlights from the Track, Sean Vora and J. White of Visceral Games / EA will outline their process for 'Interactive Mixing in Dead Space 3.' Attendees "will gain insight into ducking mixer hierarchy design, and methods that incorporate state-based mix functionality into location-based game systems."
thechineseroom's Jessica Curry will share how live musicians merged with digital instruments in 'The Music of Dear Esther: Creating Powerful Scores with Limited Resources.' She will also explain the compositional process for the IGF 2012 Excellence in Audio finalist (pictured), "including specific examples of the score's thematic content, emotional aims, and technical process."

GDC 2013 announces winners for Game Narrative poster sessions

GDC and the Game Narrative Summit are proud to announce the winners of the 2013 edition of the annual Student Narrative Analysis Competition, who all receive passes to this year's March conference in San Francisco, CA.
Every year, leading game design programs at universities across the country integrate the competition into their academic curricula. Each participating student conducts a detailed structured analysis of the narrative elements of a game title of their choice.
The resulting papers are submitted to the GDC Game Narrative Summit advisors for review, and the submitters with the most promising entries are then invited to present poster sessions of their work to their future professional peers at the Game Narrative Summit.
Past winners, available for viewing on GDC Vault, have explored both the biggest of AAA games and highly praised indies, games renowned for their storytelling and games that theoretically had no formal narrative at all.
But with ingenuity and a keen analytical eye, the competitors have consistently produced incisive, bold analysis that foreshadows the contributions they will someday make to the field of game narrative.
2013 featured an exceptionally strong group of entrants from schools across the country and around the world. For the first time, the competition had an international student among its winners, as well as representation from colleges and universities across the US.
We're proud to announce that this year's winners are:

Steam for Linux, Oculus Rift, Hawken, HTML5 sponsored sessions come to GDC 2013

GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting notable sponsored sessions for the March 25th-29th show, including Valve/Nvidia on moving Steam to Linux, Oculus Rift, Google on native HTML5 apps, and Microsoft on second screen gaming with SmartGlass.
These sponsor supported talks are part of the Main Conference for Game Developers Conference 2013, which will take place Wednesday-Friday, March 27-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA, and are open to all relevant passholders.
Some of the highlights from the multitude of vendor sessions at this year's show include:
- Nvidia is presenting a notable session in the form of 'Porting Source to Linux', with Valve's Rich Geldreich and Nvidia's John McDonald discussing "tool alternatives on Linux, OS issues and pitfalls, and porting from Direct3D to OpenGL."
- In addition, much-hyped Oculus Rift creator Oculus VR will present 'Virtual Reality: The Holy Grail of Gaming' with CEO Brendan Iribe and founder Palmer Luckey highlighting "VR's false starts, what's different this time, and why virtual reality is poised to revolutionize the way we play games."
- Nvidia's second high-profile session is 'Enhancing Hawken and PlanetSide 2 Through Turbulence and Destruction' with their own Dane Johnston and Aron Zoellner explaining how APEX Turbulence and Destruction can create more immersive game environments than was possible in previous-generation games.

DmC, Tomb Raider, Tearaway, ESRB talks headed to GDC 2013

GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting more notable talks for its March conference, including topics on Tearaway's tangibility, Tomb Raider and DmC reboots, the aftermath of the 'EA: The Human Story' open letter, and an international ratings system.
All of these lectures take place during the Main Conference to be held March 27-29 during the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
Lead Designer Rex Crowle from LittleBigPlanet creator Media Molecule will speak about the challenges of creating a digital papercraft adventure for PS Vita in 'Building the Touchy-Feely World of Tearaway.' The developer seeks to expand creative gameplay with a new tangible craft aesthetic and by encouraging a creativity-loop outside of the game.
Ninja Theory's visual art director Alessandro Taini will explore the re-imagining and rebooting of Capcom's famous franchise in 'The Art Direction of DmC Devil May Cry.' Taini will present work "from concept and inspiration, through to the 3D realization of the game's bright and bold art style."
Elsewhere, Crystal Dynamics' Jonathan Hamel will share how Tomb Raider was rebooted in 'One with Lara: The Croft of Systems Design.' Hamel will share the specific strategy used to assess the game dynamics, which ensured that it added up to "an emotionally moving gameplay experience."

AI postmortems of Assassin's Creed III, XCOM, AI rant planned for GDC 2013

GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting several notable Artificial Intelligence Summit lectures for its March conference, including AI postmortems of Assassin's Creed III, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Warframe (pictured), its annual AI dev rant, and 'The Simplest AI Trick in the Book.'
The AI Summit has been organized with the help of the AI Game Programmers Guild. The Summit promises to give attendees an inside look at key architectures and issues within successful games and provide insight into what AI can offer the next generation games.
(The AI Summit is just one of eight Summits to be held Monday-Tuesday, March 25-26 during the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.)
Firstly, in a collection of three 'AI Postmortems,' developers will dive right into the most challenging AI issues they faced and how they overcame them.
Ubisoft's Richard Dumas and Aleissia Laidacker will discuss improving climbing and running mechanics in Assassin's Creed III, Firaxis' Alex Cheng will share approaches to movement and ability usage for the various aliens in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Digital Extremes' Daniel Brewer will cover creating tactical and behavioral AI in procedurally generated levels of Warframe.

GDC 2013 to feature last ever Game Design Challenge, Warren Spector on narrative

GDC 2013 organizers spotlight special sessions, including Warren Spector on narrative in games, a 10-speaker microtalk on the state of play, and the Game Design Challenge Final Championships.
These talks are part of the Design Track and Game Narrative Summit for Game Developers Conference 2013, which will take place Monday-Friday, March 25-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
In the main conference's Design Track, the 10th and final Game Design Challenge will bring together winners from the past to design 'Humanity's Last Game.' Speakers will present what should be the last game humanity ever plays, with moderator Eric Zimmerman again polling the audience for the winner.
Returning champions will include Playdom's Steve Meretzky (Leather Goddesses of Phobos), thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen (Journey), University of Southern California visiting associate professor (and former Uncharted lead) Richard Lemarchand, Ivy Games' Erin Robinson (Puzzlebots), independent designer Jason Rohrer (Between), Arkane Studios' Harvey Smith (Dishonored), and Stupid Fun Club's Will Wright (The Sims).
Elsewhere, in 'GDC Microtalks: One Hour, Ten Talks, A Bazillion Design Ideas,' presenters will have 20 slides and 5 minutes each to share their ideas about the past, present and future of play.

'Road to the IGF' Pt. 2: more stories behind this year's top indie games

Gamasutra's Road to the IGF continues to highlight every 2013 Independent Games Festival finalist - and here's the second batch of interviews, including Little Inferno, FTL, Inrusion 2 and Spaceteam.
All finalists will be playable at an expanded IGF Pavilion on the Game Developers Conference 2013 Expo floor from March 27-29, 2013, at San Francisco's Moscone Center.
This year's 'Road to the IGF' series continues with interviews on games such as the "spaceship simulation roguelike-like" FTL by Subset Games, the one-step-a-day VESPER.5 by Michael Brough, and the multi-generational family history game 7 Grand Steps by Mousechief.
This second helping of highlights from this year's finalists are as follows:
- Spaceteam creator Henry Smith discusses the various influences he drew inspiration from, and what he plans to do next with the space genre.
- Mousechief's Keith Nemitz talks multi-generational family history game 7 Grand Steps, and how history helps us understand humanity.

GDC 2013 adds localization talks on Diablo III, Resistance franchise

GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting sessions on real time localization tools for Diablo III, Sony's expanded localization database for Resistance: Burning Skies, Yodo1 on Western games succeeding in China, and rapid-fire microtalks on bringing games to international markets.
GDC has partnered with the IGDA Game Localization SIG for the Localization Summit, which aims to help professionals understand how to plan and execute game localization and culturalization as a part of the development cycle. This Summit will take place on Tuesday, March 26 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
Using Diablo III as the example, 'Implementing Blizzard's Localization Vision in Real Time' will showcase outdated methods the company has shed in favor of more collaborative practices. Blizzard speakers William Barnes, Arthur Flew, Ines Rubio, and Jason Walker will also share the tools used to implement these practices.
Elsewhere, Sony PlayStation's proprietary Localisation Management System (LAMS) project lead and programmer Chris Burgess will present a 'Return on Investing in a Robust Localization Database.' He will show how changes changes on Sony's LAMS database from Infamous 2 to Resistance: Burning Skies improved productivity and freed time for creativity.
In Yodo1 CEO Henry Fong's 'The Western Games That Conquered China,' developers will learn about localizing, distributing, and monetizing their mobile games in China and about leveraging China's local social media, while protecting their IP rights.

Dragon's Dogma, La-Mulana, Tokyo Jungle, Virtue's Last Reward talks added to GDC 2013

GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting design lectures on recent hits from Japan, including Dragon's Dogma, La-Mulana, Tokyo Jungle, Rune Factory 4, Puzzle & Dragons and Zero: Escape: Virtue's Last Reward.
These design lectures on acclaimed Japanese games, simultaneously translated by the notable game industry translators 8-4, will take place during GDC's main conference on Wednesday-Friday, March 27-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
In the 'Behind the Scenes of Dragon's Dogma,' lecture, director Hideaki Itsuno will discuss Capcom's open-world action RPG through "untold development stories, humor and inspiring ideas" and touch on "marketing and post-release product support strategy."
Next, Takumi Naramura will discuss how his team at Nigoro used feedback from its audience before and after La-Mulana's release in 'Commun-indies: Making the Most of Your Indie Community.' Their support spans from before the game's initial 2005 release to beyond its 2011 WiiWare, 2012 PC remake release, and its 2013 successful Steam Greenlight campaign.
In 'RPG Development: Inspiration and Perspiration,' Marvelous AQL's Yoshifumi Hashimoto will draw on his experience helping to produce RPGs such as Rune Factory, Harvest Moon, and Muramasa: The Demon Blade to discuss "best practices for developing and innovating in the genre."

GDC 2013 highlights developer days from Google, Unity, Intel, more

GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting more day-long sessions for the March conference, including those on the Google Cloud platform, Unity Technologies, Intel's next-generation GPUs, along with Digital River's multiple monetization sessions.
These developer days all take place during the first two days of GDC's March conference on Monday-Tuesday, March 25-26 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. In addition, Digital River's sponsored monetization track will take place on Wednesday, March 27.
Google will provide a full day on game development with its cloud platform, including lectures on how to connect mobile apps to Google Cloud and how to run large, scalable games. Joining Google specialists will be Staq Inc. founder Luca Martinetti on understanding players with near real-time data analytics, and EA's Yanick Belanger on how EA builds mobile game servers on the Google App engine.
In the developer day presented by Unity Technologies, Allegorithmic and Mixamo will present alongside Unity's internal teams on topics such as the Unity rendering pipeline, standing out in the Unity Asset Store, and the company's Mecanim animation technology. Additionally, Allegorithmic will present tools that help keep games below 50MB.
Elsewhere, Intel will present its second dev day with training and hands-on activities in 'Ultrabook - Graphics, Power, and Human Interfaces.' Sessions will include a lab on adding touch and sensor technologies to new PC games while allowing for backward compatibility with other PCs, a secret-spilling session on Intel's next generation of GPUs, and a free-form Q&A with third-party game developers.

'iOS games in a day', animation, producer bootcamps detailed for GDC 2013

GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting more day-long sessions for the March conference, with industry-driving animation and cross-platform production bootcamps and an iOS crash course that will cover API and popular engine implementations.
The tutorials and bootcamps all take place during the first two days of GDC's March conference on Monday-Tuesday, March 25-26 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
The first bootcamp is simply called 'iOS games in a day'. It will include lessons on Cocos2D, openGL and Unity3D, lectures on popular and essential iOS APIs for games, and "a deep-dive on game architecture selection and best practices."
Speakers at this iOS crash course include Mike Daley (Co-Founder, 71Squared Ltd), Gareth Jenkins (Founder & Lead Developer, 36peas), Matt Rix (Founder, Magicule), Mike Schramm (Editor, TUAW/Joystiq), Keith Shepherd (Co-Founder, ImangiStudios), Rod Strougo (iOS Developer & Instructor, Big Nerd Ranch & Prop Group), Ray Wenderlich (Founder, Razeware LLC), and David Whatley (CEO, Critical Thought Games, LLC).
In the day-long 'Animation Bootcamp', animators from across the industry will first focus on the believability, body mechanics, and facial animation needed in today's games. From these lectures will come practical discussions, including Hitman: Absolution animation director Simon Unger on how to get the most from motion capture, Ubisoft's Jonathan Cooper on animating the "3rd Assassin," and Battlefield 3 and Killzone 2 animator Ryan Duffin on how to give purpose to first-person animation.

GDC Play 2013 'Best in Play' game winners announced

Organizers of the 2013 Game Developers Conference are announcing the eight winners of its new award program - 'Best in Play' - for exhibitors in the three-day GDC Play 2013 event, which allows emerging developers to show their games in a specially designed kiosk.
The winners, picked from more than 70 exhibitors currently at GDC Play, include the beautifully landscaped, mech-based first-person shooter Hawken by Meteor Entertainment for PC and the extremely physical and collaborative micro challenge game Spin the Bottle by KnapNok Games for Wii U.
For the new Best in Play award program, all GDC Play exhibitors were judged on their in-development or complete games by a panel of veteran GDC organizers and Gamasutra editors. All Best in Play winners receive 2 All Access Passes to the 2014 Game Developers Conference.
Winners for Best in Play will also receive special designations for their kiosks at GDC 2013, where their games will be playable by all GDC attendees. GDC All-Access Pass holders can contact all GDC Play exhibitors via the currently operating GDC Play Matchmaking Software.
The Best in Play winners are as follows:

GDC 2013 highlights new PlayStation 4, Oculus Rift, Project SHIELD vendor sessions

GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting major new vendor sessions, including Sony on PlayStation 4 development and design, Mozilla on 'fast and awesome' HTML5 games, NVIDIA on its Project SHIELD handheld device, and Oculus VR on diving into virtual reality with Oculus Rift.
These sessions all take place during GDC's Main Conference to be held Wednesday-Friday, March 27-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
A month after announcing the PlayStation 4, Sony Computer Entertainment America will present at GDC 2013 an 'Overview of PS4 for Developers.' Attendees can expect to hear about "the technology from a development standpoint as well as from the design side" for this next-generation console releasing later this year.
Oculus VR will present 'Running the VR Gauntlet -- VR Ready, Are You?' with chief software architect Michael Antonov and co-founder Nate Mitchell. They will share what they have learned from building their new VR game platform, what developers need to know about supporting it, and how to overcome VR technical challenges.
In 'NVIDIA Project SHIELD and Tegra 4: Redefining AFK,' senior software engineers Andrew Edelsten and Paul Hodgson will share tips and tricks for targeting the Project SHIELD handheld device, a run down of the latest NVIDIA development tools, and Tegra 4's relevant new GPU features.
Finally, in 'Fast and Awesome HTML5 Games' presented by Mozilla, senior researcher Alon Zakai and engineering director Vladimir Vukicevic will talk about techniques for quick JavaScript execution and easy porting of existing titles. The two will also show what HTML5 currently offers for graphics, multithreading, networking, and audio in games.

Double Fine, Journey sand tech, Capy/17-Bit talks added to GDC 2013

GDC 2013 organizers are highlighting multiple new talks for the March conference, including Double Fine on 'optimizing for human performance,' a panel on building indie studio culture, and Journey's refined sand technology.
The talks are part of the Visual Arts, Business, Programming, and Production tracks -- four of seven Main Conference tracks to be held Wednesday-Friday, March 27-29 during the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
For 'Sand Rendering In Journey,' lead engineer John Edwards will cover thatgamecompany's approach to graphics and will review three years' worth of lessons learned refining the sand rendering technology. This will include "surprising non-physical techniques, such as an 'ocean' specular effect and a 'phenomenological' diffuse lighting model."
Elsewhere, Double Fine studio technical director Nathan Martz will discuss how to build software and grow teams that are fast and flexible in 'Ideas per Second: How Double Fine Optimizes for Human Performance.' Martz's talk is "tailored for producers, technical directors, lead programmers, studio heads, and anyone else interested in cultivating software and the people who create it."
Finally, XBLA portfolio director Chris Charla will head a panel of independent studios in 'Building a Great Studio Culture on a Budget.' Nathan Vella of Capy Games (Sword & Sworcery EP), Jake Kazdal of 17-Bit (Skulls Of The Shogun), and Mike Mika of Other Ocean (Monsters Love Candy) will spill their culture building secrets, including "what $250 investment can bring a studio together better than anything else on earth."

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