GDCOnline day one

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Oct 052010
 

I am here in Austin for GDC Online, and I haven’t made it to any sessions yet. Efforts continue to pare down my 1 hr 20 minute presentation to something that fits inside of a session slot, but moreover, I am now giving an addition presentation tomorrow, stepping in for John Donham who can’t make it. So if you are at the show, stop by Wednesday for this session:

AAA to Social Games — Making the Leap Speaker/s: Raph Koster (Playdom)
Day / Time / Location: Wednesday 1:30- 2:30 Room 5
Track / Format: Production / Lecture
Description: Developing games for social networks is a dramatic shift from making titles for PCs, consoles, or even the Internet. These new distribution channels have many unique lessons to learn, including fundamental revisions to the development process itself. This session will provide you with a solid basis for revising your strategy as you approach social game development.

My regular talk is on Friday. I also hope to have some liveblogs for you all of sessions I attend if I get the chance.

GDC Online track keynote

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Aug 312010
 

Gamasutra has an article up about more GDC Online talks, and mentions in there that I am giving the design track keynote.

Classic Social Mechanics: The Engines Behind Everything Multiplayer Speaker/s: Raph Koster (Playdom)
Day / Time / Location: TBD
Track / Summit: Design
Description: Games have been multiplayer throughout history and have always been fundamentally social. Today were seeing an explosion in games driven by new ways of interacting with people online. Many lessons are available to us from both anthropology and the history of games that demonstrate that sometimes, social mechanics are just old wine in new bottles. In this lecture well cut through the terminology and look at the underlying mechanics and principles that drive sociable gameplay in everything from Facebook games to sports.

I’m looking forward to this one. 🙂 Different but similar to the math one from last year, I hope. It’s been (gasp) seven years since I did my talk on social networking theory, and a lot has evolved since then.

I should also mention that John Donham, who I’ve been working with for years now at Metaplace and now Playdom, is giving a talk on moving from AAA game development to social games — a sort of “top ten bad assumptions” overview, that is looking really good (I get to peek over his shoulder as he preps…)

Early reg discounts end tomorrow! So go sign up for 40% off if you haven’t already!

Game Developers Choice Online Awards

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May 272010
 

GDC Online is getting its own awards, specific to online games! This builds on the Game Developers Choice Awards that have been given for the last ten years at the main GDC.

The award ceremony will honor the accomplishments of the sometimes overlooked creators and operators of online video games – from large-scale MMOs through free-to-play titles to social network games. Awards span excellence in live services, technology, game updates, online game design, and more.

via Game Developers Choice Online Awards official site

Game development professionals with a Gamasutra.com account can submit nominations in a bunch of categories. A big thing in the awards is that they recognize live operations as well as launches, so the categories include:

  • Best Online Game Design Award
  • Audience Award
  • Best Online Visual Arts Award
  • Best Community Relations Award
  • Best Online Technical Award
  • Best Social Network Game Award
  • Best Audio for an Online Game Award
  • Best New Online Game Award
  • Best Live Game Award

There are also a couple of special awards: an Online Game Legend award recognizing an individual and their career; and a Hall of Fame Award for a game.

GDC Online reg open!

 Posted by (Visited 5739 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , , ,
May 262010
 

Time to go register! This is the same conference as GDC Austin, just renamed to “Online” and now covering all sorts of online games including social games and MMOs.

Ticket prices are at a 40% early registration discount until September 1st, with a 55% alumni discount for those who attended last year. Five different pass options and prices are available on the GDC site.

via Austin’s GDC opens 2010 registration under new name – Massively.

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GDC Online submission deadline soon!

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May 122010
 

GDC Online, formerly GDC Austin, is coming up on the deadline for submissions. Send in your proposals by May 19th!

The deadline to submit to GDC Online (formerly known as GDC Austin) is approaching!
Send in your proposal by May 19th. Full details here:
http://www.gdconline.com/conference/c4p/index.html

The conference is still online-focused, and this year will encompass social gaming and other forms of online games as well as its usual deep focus on MMOs.

The Game Developers Conference Online focuses on development of connected games including social network titles, free-to-play web games, kid-friendly online titles, large-scale MMOs, and beyond.  Conference tracks focus on business and marketing, design, production, programming and how to achieve success going live.

I am really looking forward to it this year. There’s a new track on Live, which includes community relations, Live management, metrics and A/B testing, and that sort of thing. And there’s a stack of cool summits too: iPhone, iPad, the long-running Game Writers Summit renamed as Game Narrative and broadening in scope, and even a 3d stereoscopic summit.

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