The 3DO Company's Meridian 59 became one the first true 3D MMOs when it debuted on PC in 1995, and the game even laid the foundation for games like EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and more. It's remembered as one of the most seminal games of the 1990s, and at next month's GDC Online, you can see how the title came to be in a newly announced classic game postmortem.
In addition to this presentation, GDC organizers have also revealed a talk on securing top placement on digital marketplaces, as well as a robust hiring session featuring a handful of the industry's top developers.
These new talks all fall within GDC Online's Main Conference, which offers some of the world's leading content on persistent and online games. The event will be held Tuesday, October 9 to Thursday, October 11 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas.
The full details on GDC Online's latest sessions are as follows:
- In GDC Online's newest classic game postmortem, Meridian 59 lead designer Damion Schubert, now a BioWare developer working on Star Wars: The Old Republic, will share "how he and his team created a game that would inspire decades-worth of massively multiplayer online RPGs."
Schubert will run through the game's creation from beginning to end, detailing how the game took creative risks and broke new ground for the many online games that followed in its wake.
- Elsewhere, Jason Ing, Microsoft's head of marketing for the Xbox Live Marketplace, will host an in-depth session on the importance of getting favorable placement for your game on Xbox Live, the iTunes App Store, and other digital storefronts.
Ing believes games that secure a prominent spot are much more likely to find success, and in "Getting Storefront Placement for Discoverability," he will outline the process he uses to identify high-profile titles, and will share some general principles to help developers maximize the discoverability of their digital games.
- Finally, GDC Online will host a "Massive Multi-Recruiter Developer Hiring Session," in which major studios from all over the industry will try to attract new talent by discussing their teams and the positions they're hiring for. The event is open to all GDC Online attendees, and is a great opportunity for anyone looking for a big break, a lateral move, or the next step in their career.
Featured recruiters at the event include Emily Gabrian (Harmonix), Kriste Stull (Sony Computer), Kevin Moot (The Nerdery), Mara Flores (Multimedia Games, Inc.), Michael Sheets (Kabam), Ashley Pierce (Bioware) and James Rivers (Nexon America, Inc).
These talks join numerous other sessions at GDC Online, including a classic game postmortem on Ultima Online, a keynote from online game veteran Raph Koster, and much more. For more on these or any of the 100+ talks at GDC Online, check out the show's official Schedule Builder.
(This is the final GDC Online show in Austin - organizers have announced a successor, Game Developers Conference Next, debuting in Los Angeles in November 2013 alongside the new App Developers Conference.)
For more information on GDC Online, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.
