Conference Tracks
Overview
The Game Developers Conference Canada is the premier event for local and international game developers managing established franchises, developing new global titles, or looking to take advantage of new distribution models.
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Conference Topics
Many established studios and first time publishers alike are grappling with the legal and business development strategies needed to identify commercially successful projects in social, iPhone and digitally distributed markets.
Attendees will gain insight into new business opportunities and distribution models with sessions addressing Digital Distribution, Social Games, and iPhone Games alongside tracks on Game Design, Business/Production, and Programming.
Session Highlights Announced
GDC Canada is the perfect place to gain exposure to the latest techniques for developing successful social & casual games, develop strategies to take advantage of new distribution models and sharpen your skills with advice from industry leaders at Backflip Studios, Bioware, Bungie, Pug Pharmand more.
Featured Sessions Include:
- One Year in the App Store: A Case Study of Backflip Studios
Speaker: Julian Farrior (CEO / Founder, Backflip Studios)
- Concrete Practices to be a Better Leader
Speaker: Brian Sharp (Lead Engineer, Bungie, LLC)
- Bringing Dragon Age to Life - Digital Actors in an Epic RPG
Speakers: Shane Hawco (Lead Character Artist, Bioware), Clove Roy (Lead Animator, Bioware)
- Funding for Game Developers - Do’s and Don’ts
Speaker: Glenn Entis (Founder and General Partner, Vanedge Capital)
- Beyond Mafia Wars: The Rise of Next-Generation Social Entertainment
Speaker: Steve Bocska (President, Pug Pharm Productions Inc.)
Review all sessions in the GDC Canada schedule builder now.
Topic Descriptions
The Business and Production Track looks at the game development process from the standpoint of running the business as well as subtle (and not so obvious) project nuances and offers proven strategies for the developer who needs to understand complex business and game production issues.
Creating compelling, immersive games requires understanding, visualizing, demonstrating, and tuning the interactions of an ever-increasing number of game tools and systems. While game designers need to understand and exploit the possibilities of new technologies they must also continue to master the traditional disciplines of drama, game play, and psychology.
The Game Design Track explores the challenges and ramifications of the interaction between new technologies and established techniques.
As new platforms emerge and existing platforms evolve, programmers face an ever increasing challenge to produce games that capture the attention of the public and the media.
The Programming Track focuses on these challenges and the opportunities presented by next and current generation development including: mature consoles, new handhelds, a highly competitive sales environment, and increased demand for very high production values in games.
The iPhone track will highlight the best of iPhone development, with technical and design techniques as well as postmortems and case studies of business and marketing strategies behind successful iPhone game companies.
As new digital distribution channels on handheld consoles open up and new, more powerful products emerge particularly based around manufacturer-specific application stores digital distribution continues to change the game industry. Filled with hands-on information, case studies and debates, the Digital Distribution Track will cover both successful business strategies and the nuts and bolts of development to successfully digitally distribute your game.
Few areas of our industry have moved as fast as the rise of socially connected gaming. Today we see that many of the most popular games in the world are played on social networking services such as Facebook, MySpace, and hi5. These games are capturing tens of millions of mainstream users, people who do not consider themselves gamers. At the same time, the idea of the casual game has changed and is engaging new audiences, moving mainstream brands into an increasingly connected world through the medium of games.
The Social & Casual Games Track covers the converging trends, bringing together leading thinkers and business people to provide the attendee a snapshot of the industry and where it is going. Attend to learn about the secrets of virality, the next generation of monetization, and the ways in which casual games are changing to meet the demands of an ever-growing audience.
