Taking place alongside next month's GDC Online event in Austin, TX, the 3D Stereoscopic Games Summit has revealed speakers from Disney, Sony, Blitz, Crytek and more on the rise of 3D gaming.

The Summit, taking place on Tuesday, October 5th and open to GDC Online All-Access Pass holders, as well as Summits & Tutorial pass-holders, will be the first GDC event to explore the world of 3D stereoscopic gaming in depth.

With 3D-capable movies such as Avatar and Alice In Wonderland topping the worldwide box office for multiple weeks and engine companies and console manufacturers alike touting the rise of 3D in gaming, we'll be gathering industry experts to explain and demonstrate the latest advances in the area.

Should you be building 3D support into your games now? What are the key hardware penetration and technical barriers to 3D becoming a defacto standard in the video game industry?

Speakers and advisors led by Blitz Game Studios' Andrew Oliver (Dead To Rights: Retribution) will be exploring these questions in the 3D Stereoscopic Games Summit. Some of the session highlights for the one-day Summit include the following talks:

- The lecture 'Implementing Stereoscopic 3D in Disney/Pixar's Toy Story Midway Mania' sees Walt Disney Imagineering and Schell Games creators examine the work done to create the motion ride and Wii-exclusive 3D game. Along the way, "...stereo rendering issues will be discussed such as ghost-busting, eye point issues, off-axis projection, and the creation of (and iteration on) content for a 3D stereo rendered attraction."

- 'Introduction to Stereoscopic 3D Rendering' has Sony Computer Entertainment America's David Coombes "covering the techniques used to generate stereoscopic 3D game content", from the hardware manufacturer's perspective, currently putting a lot of hardware and software effort into 3D stereoscopic gaming for PS3. The lecture will "also cover the display options that are available as well as some practical tips for optimization."

- In the closing session, 'Experts Debate: Stereoscopic 3D Gaming Here to Stay?', the day's speakers, including notables from Nvidia, Schell Games, SCEA, the S-3D Gaming Alliance and more will discuss "the potential and pitfalls of the 3D gaming landscape", from tech through gimmicky approach issues and beyond.

In addition, the event includes a post-Summit mixer sponsored by engine company Crytek, who will be presenting a sponsored session on their much-publicized move into 3D stereoscopic gaming with the latest version of CryEngine.

The 3D Stereoscopic Games Summit will be one part of GDC Online, which will take place October 5-8, 2010 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas and also features a main conference based around social games and MMOs, plus Summits on iPhone and iPad games, as well as on game narrative.

To learn more about the other lectures and summits for GDC Online, for which registration is now open, please visit the official GDC Online website.

GDC Online organizers are reminding potential attendees that today is the last day to save up to 40% on passes to the October 5th-8th event in Austin, TX, fully detailing the comprehensive exhibit floor, Summits, keynotes, a PlayStation Home developer day and more.

The Austin, Texas based GDC Online conference -- formerly known as GDC Austin -- is mainly focused on the development of online games, including free-to-play titles, social network games, and traditional MMOs, with a veteran online game industry advisory board evaluating and selecting the lectures.

There are now more than 120 panels, lectures and tutorials currently scheduled for the event -- including the recently announced keynote from Civilization II designer and now Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds (FrontierVille), and just-debuted track keynotes from Blizzard on Battle.net, Raph Koster on social design trends, and European browser game giant BigPoint on its rise to success.

These lectures join a full set of highlighted lectures including Main Conference talks on October 6th-8th from Relic, Sony Online, Carbine, KingsIsle, IMVU, Disney, Playdom, BioWare Austin, Hangout Industries, Broken Bulb Studios, CCP, Gaia Online, Playfish, InstantAction, Ubisoft and a host of other notable companies at the leading worldwide online game-specific conference.

One of the other major advantages of attending GDC Online is the comprehensive list of nearly 90 exhibitors with whom attendees are able to get product demonstrations, meet, and interact on the vibrant GDC Online Expo Floor. These include major firms like Epic, Rackspace, Gaikai, Offerpal, Vindicia, Trinigy, ARIN, Versant, Rixty, Softlayer, and many other notable companies in the space.

Vendor-led sessions will also provide notable takeaway for many attendees, with a just-confirmed PlayStation Home developer day -- presented by Sony and giving full information on the console-based online world platform. Also confirmed are sessions by Playspan, Offerpal, Hi5, Autodesk and a host of other firms in the process of being scheduled and announced on the website.

Finally, the four Summits taking place at GDC Online on October 5th and 6th cover some major emerging areas in the video game space, with an iPhone Summit, iPad Summit, 3D Stereoscopic Gaming Summit and the Game Narrative Summit all presenting major speakers, themes, and takeaway relevant to both those making online games and devotees of these particular submarkets.

GDC Online will take place October 5-8, 2010 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. To learn more about lectures across all tracks and summits for the event, for which reduced-rated registration is only open until the end of Wednesday, September 1st, please visit the GDC Online's official website.

A day before the GDC Online early deadline, the major October 5th-8th Austin-based event has added track keynotes from Blizzard's Greg Canessa (on Battle.net), Playdom's Raph Koster (on social mechanics), and Bigpoint's Heiko Hubertz (on the rise of Europe in online gaming).

The Austin, Texas based GDC Online conference -- formerly known as GDC Austin -- is sharply focused on the development of online games, including free-to-play titles, social network games, and traditional MMOs, with a veteran online game industry advisory board evaluating and selecting the lectures.

There are now more than 120 panels, lectures and tutorials currently scheduled for the October 5th-8th event -- and following the announcement of a keynote from Civilization II designer and now Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds (FrontierVille), three track keynotes are debuting.

The brand-new track keynotes across the GDC Online Main Conference, which takes place from Wednesday October 6th to Friday October 8th, and for which majorly discounted passes are only available until Wednesday, are:

- In a production track keynote called 'Battle.net: A Postmortem', Blizzard's Battle.net project director Greg Canessa and technical director Matt Versluys will present an extremely rare lecture from the World Of Warcraft and Starcraft II creators, "sharing lessons learned from building and launching the new iteration of an online game service that connects and powers all Blizzard titles."

- Playdom's VP of creative design Raph Koster -- a stalwart of online game design from Ultima Online through Star Wars Galaxies to his current work in social games -- presents a design track keynote, 'Classic Social Mechanics: The Engines Behind Everything Multiplayer'.

He explains: "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", looking at underlying mechanics and principles that drive sociable gameplay in everything from Facebook games to sports.

- Major online game firm Bigpoint's CEO and founder Heiko Hubertz will discuss 'Europe: The Next Big Thing in Gaming' in his business track keynote. Hubertz, whose firm is working on the Battlestar Galactica MMO and has already built up a powerhouse European presence through browser games, outside of the 'hot' social network game market, explains how Europe "offers lucrative opportunities to global-minded... studios looking to significantly broaden their communities of players, particularly for those developing browser-based games outside Facebook."

These lectures join just-debuted talks with lessons from APB, Habbo and even Cow Clicker, with a full set of highlighted lectures including talks from Relic, Sony Online, Carbine, KingsIsle, IMVU, Disney, Playdom, BioWare Austin, Hangout Industries, Broken Bulb Studios, CCP, Gaia Online, Playfish, InstantAction, Ubisoft and a host of other notable companies at the leading worldwide online game-specific conference.

GDC Online will take place October 5-8, 2010 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. To learn more about lectures across all tracks and summits for the event, for which reduced-rated registration is only open until Wednesday, September 1st, please visit the GDC Online's official website.

Organizers of this October's GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin) are rolling out more major new talks, including ex-Realtime Worlds exec Joshua Howard on 'self-inflicted wounds' in game creation, Sulka Haro on the $500 million Habbo Hotel economy, and Ian Bogost on his satirical Facebook title Cow Clicker.

The Austin, Texas based GDC Online conference is focused on the development of online games, including free-to-play titles, social network games, and traditional MMOs, with a veteran online game industry advisory board evaluating and selecting the lectures.

There are already more than 80 panels, lectures and tutorials currently scheduled for the October 5th-8th event -- and following the announcement of a keynote from Civilization II designer and now Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds (FrontierVille), a number of other notable talks are debuting:

Some of the newly announced highlights from notable sessions across the GDC Online Main Conference, which takes place from Wednesday October 6th to Friday October 8th, and for which 'early registration' passes are only available until Wednesday, are:

- In 'Self-Inflicted Wounds: When We Are Our Own Worst Enemy', U.S.-based ex-Realtime Worlds executive producer Joshua Howard (APB) will discuss "common management and organizational failures that leaders talk themselves into accepting, which almost always end up impacting a game's success." Along the way, the former Carbonated Games exec "will provide techniques that anyone can use if they find themselves on a project that has already made one of these mistakes."

- The lecture 'From $0 To $500 Million A Year - The Evolution Of Habbo's Virtual Economy' sees Sulake's lead designer Sulka Haro discuss ten years of microtransactions in the company's online world Habbo Hotel. The online world for teenagers has more than 15 million monthly users, and collected more than $60 million in revenue in 2009, primarily from micropayments, as the amount of value traded in the economy is now over $500 million a year. The talk "examines how Habbo's economic system has evolved, including learnings from the recent addition of taxation into the economic structure of the game."

- Satirical Facebook game Cow Clicker has created a stir in recent months, and its creator, game designer writer and academic Ian Bogost is giving a lecture called 'Making A Mockery: Ruminations On Cow Clicker'. In it, he explains that the title "has enjoyed surprising success among players, developers, and the general public." As a result, the session covers the creation and reception of Cow Clicker, "as well as the lessons it invites us to chew on."

These lectures join recently announced talks from Relic, Sony Online, Carbine, KingsIsle, IMVU, Disney, Playdom, BioWare Austin, Hangout Industries, Broken Bulb Studios, CCP, Gaia Online, Playfish, InstantAction, Ubisoft and a host of other notable companies at the leading worldwide online game-specific conference.

GDC Online is operated by the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website, and will take place October 5-8, 2010 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. To learn more about lectures across all tracks and summits for the event, for which reduced-rated registration is open until September 1st, please visit the GDC Online's official website.

GDC Online organizers have confirmed industry veteran and Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds to discuss smash hit title FrontierVille and the future of social game design in a keynote at October's show in Austin.

In his keynote address, 'Bears and Snakes! The Wild Frontier of Social Game Design,' Reynolds will explain how his Facebook title FrontierVille "treads new territory" by combining the classic techniques of traditional game design with the social gaming expertise that Zynga has gained from their FarmVille and Mafia Wars titles.

Reynolds, whose career has spanned more than 20 years with companies such as Firaxis and Big Huge Games, and who has co-created titles including Civilization II, Alpha Centauri and Rise of Nations, will also confront the challenges of taking familiar social game models and making them more entertaining for gamers and non-gamers.

With the massive gains and rapid progress of the social game space, Reynolds will offer his take on why games like FrontierVille -- which currently has 30 million monthly unique users on Facebook alone, according to Appdata.com -- are only the first step towards other exciting opportunities for the video game medium.

"Social games are increasingly attracting traditional game developers, while also providing key learnings to leverage social features in all types of games," noted Izora de Lillard, Event Director, GDC Online. "We are proud to present Brian Reynolds at GDC Online with a talk that will inspire traditional and social game designers alike."

Reynolds joins a host of other major speakers for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Online event, with design talks from Relic, Sony Online and Carbine, notable lectures from KingsIsle and IMVU, and in-depth lectures from Disney and Playdom already confirmed.

The full session list for the October 6th-8th Main Conference includes over 50 talks from Sulake, BioWare Austin, Hangout Industries, Broken Bulb Studios, CCP, Gaia Online, InstantAction, Ubisoft and many more, with co-located Summits on October 5th and 6th including one and two-day events on game narrative, iPhone and iPad gaming and 3D stereoscopic gaming.

GDC Online will take place October 5-8, 2010 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. To learn more about lectures across all tracks for the event, for which reduced-rated registration is only open until September 1st, please visit the GDC Online's official website.

Game Developers Conference 2011 organizers are reminding that submissions for next February's historical 25th annual show are still being accepted through August 25th.

The call for submissions to present lectures, roundtables and panel sessions for the 2011 Game Developers Conference -- the historic 25th anniversary show -- is now open through Wednesday, August 25th at the official GDC website.

The main GDC advisory board is looking for submissions in the following game-related areas and tracks: Audio, Business and Management, Game Design, Production, Programming and Visual Arts, to be showcased on the prestigious Wednesday to Friday main conference of Game Developers Conference 2011.

(Submissions for the GDC Summits, including Social & Online, Independent, Serious Games Summits and a number of others will open in the next 30-60 days, and interested parties can submit adapted versions to both Main Conference and Summits.)

A talk abstract is required alongside a more detailed description and speaker information, and the GDC Call For Papers page has multiple annotated examples of previous submissions, giving detailed, precise instructions on speaker criteria and the selection process.

Alongside this year's call for submissions, the GDC 2011 advisory board has been expanded, adding several leading industry figures in the social and independent gaming spaces, part of the team that reviews all GDC written submissions.

In particular, new board members include Media Molecule studio director Siobhan Reddy (LittleBigPlanet 2), EA2D designer/programmer Soren Johnson (Civilization IV, Spore), independent developer Adam Saltsman (Canabalt, Flixel), and Playfish San Francisco GM Dan Fiden. Also added for their art and audio expertise respectively are Undead Labs' Steve Theodore and Microsoft's Scott Selfon.

More information about the Game Developers Conference 2011, will take place in San Francisco's Moscone Center on February 28 to March 4, is available at the official website.

UBM TechWeb Game Network, organizers of the Game Developers Conference Online (formerly GDC Austin), have announced the nominees for this October's first annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards, revealing that Riot Games' League of Legends is leading the pack, having been nominated for a total of five awards.

Other titles being honored with multiple nominations include We Rule (ngmoco), Champions Online (Cryptic), Dungeon Fighter Online (Nexon) and Nightclub City (Booyah) with three award nominations apiece.

The all-star list of nominees also includes nominations in new game and in-operation game categories for top companies like Blizzard (for World of Warcraft), Playfish (for FIFA Superstars) and Zynga (for Farmville and Treasure Isle).

The Game Developers Choice Online Awards will be held on the evening of October 7, 2010 as part of the 2010 Game Developers Conference Online (GDC Online), which is taking place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas October 5-8.

The Game Developers Choice Online Awards - a sister event to the Game Developers Choice Awards which take place at GDC in San Francisco every year - is the first award ceremony honoring the accomplishments of the creators and operators of online games.

This includes categories around community support and continued innovation in the field with awards in audio, design, visual arts, among other categories. These categories are nominated and voted on by the game development community, with the distinguished GDC Online Advisory Board helping to pick the special awards.

The nominees of the Game Developer Choice Online Awards run the gamut of online titles, from expansive and hugely popular MMOs such as Blizzard's World of Warcraft, through addictive social network-based titles like Farmville by Zynga. The most honored nominee is Riot Games' critically acclaimed League of Legends, a multiplayer online battle-arena game that combines role-playing, strategy, and action elements to create a captivating online experience.

The complete list of nominees for the 2010 Game Developers Choice Online Awards are as follows:

Best Online Game Design (new)
- We Rule (Newtoy/Ngmoco)
- Champions Online (Cryptic)
- Zoo Kingdom (Blue Fang)
- Dungeon Fighter Online (Neople/Nexon)
- League Of Legends (Riot Games)

Best Online Visual Arts (new)
- GodFinger (Wonderland/Ngmoco)
- Papermint (Avaloop)
- League Of Legends (Riot Games)
- Star Trek Online (Cryptic)
- Love (Quel Solaar)

Best Online Audio (new)
- Nightclub City (Booyah)
- Champions Online (Cryptic)
- We Rule (Newtoy/Ngmoco)
- Music Pets (Conduit Labs)
- Aion (NCSoft)

Best Online Technical (new)
- Global Agenda (Hi-Rez)
- Aion (NCSoft)
- Love (Quel Solaar)
- League Of Legends (Riot Games)
- Champions Online (Cryptic)

Best Social Network Game (new)
- Nightclub City (Booyah)
- NanoStar Siege (Digital Chocolate)
- FIFA Superstars (Playfish)
- Social City (Playdom)
- Treasure Isle (Zynga)

Community Relations (ongoing)
- Wizard101 (KingsIsle Entertainment)
- Free Realms (Sony Online Entertainment)
- EVE Online (CCP)
- Guild Wars (ArenaNet)
- World of Warcraft (Blizzard)

Best New Online Game (new)
- League Of Legends (Riot Games)
- Dungeon Fighter Online (Neople/Nexon)
- We Rule (Newtoy/Ngmoco)
- FIFA Superstars (Playfish)
- Nightclub City (Booyah)

Best Live Game (ongoing)
- EVE Online (CCP)
- World of Warcraft (Blizzard)
- Dungeon Fighter Online (Neople/Nexon)
- Farmville (Zynga)
- League Of Legends (Riot Games)

(Those awards marked 'new' were eligible to games launching in North America in Open Beta or full version in the 12 months to May 2010, whereas the 'ongoing' awards are open to any game currently operating in the market. One additional category has yet to be decided - the Audience Award, which honors the favorite game of the worldwide online game community, will open in September.)

"The world of online gaming has expanded and evolved massively in just a few years, and those creators who have pushed the category forward deserve to be recognized for their creations," says Simon Carless, Global Brand Director, UBM TechWeb Game Network. "We're delighted to have set up the Game Developers Choice Online Awards to recognize these talented, sometimes underappreciated developers and honor the social past, present and future of the game industry."

The Game Developers Choice Online Awards will also be honoring landmark titles and deeply influential figures in the vibrant online gaming world with the Online Game Legend Award and the Hall of Fame award. This year, organizers will be presenting the Online Game Legend award to Dr. Richard Bartle, co-creator of the original MUD (Multi-User Dungeon), the seminal virtual world credited with pioneering online games over 30 years ago.

In addition, the Choice Online Awards organizers have also announced that Electronic Arts' Ultima Online - the Origin-created game that is now the longest continually running massively multiplayer online game in history - will be honored with the first ever Hall of Fame award for online games at the ceremony. Both Bartle and key Ultima Online creators will be present for the ceremony, and will also be giving lectures at GDC Online itself on their work.

More information about the Game Developers Choice Online Awards is available at the official website for the GDC Online awards. GDC Online takes place in Austin, Texas from October 5-8, 2010. Information about sessions and registration, which has a September 1th early deadline, is available at the GDC Online website.

Organizers of this October's GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin) have announced key speakers for its iPhone and iPad Gaming Summits, including Words With Friends/We Rule's David Bettner, Pocket Legends' Cinco Barnes and more.

The two new Summits, focusing on Apple's portable gaming devices, take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 5th-6th in Austin, Texas alongside the larger GDC Online event, to provide a lexicon of key facts and advice for all those working in the iPhone and iPad game areas.

From key business learnings through top technical takeaways, some of the developers who are even now surging to major success on the iPhone, iPad and other mobile platforms are shaping this inaugural GDC Summit on the subject.

Some of the newly announced highlights of this year's iPhone and iPad Gaming Summit talks, chosen by a distinguished Summit advisory board including Gamevil's Kyu C. Lee, Canabalt's Adam Saltsman, GeoDefense's David Whatley and Backflip's Julian Farrior, include the following:

- The lecture 'Turn Based: The Power and Potential of Asynchronous Gaming in Mobile' sees Newtoy co-founder David Bettner, one of the minds behind smash iPhone hits Words With Friends and We Rule, explaining why "turn based gaming, previously confined to the living room, has been liberated. At its core, it's gaming meets text-messaging and it allows you to play with your friends anytime, anywhere, in a way never before possible."

- Successful indie Arash Keshmirian of Limbic Software (Tower Madness) is presenting 'App Store Survival - Launching and Sustaining a Successful Franchise', outlining "strategies for developing a game that not only thrives at launch but holds players attention and can become an enduring franchise." Attendees will learn how to analyze and hone initial concepts (including revenue models) for the best chance of success, managing a launch and an ongoing marketing calendar, and a host of other notable tips.

- In 'Surviving and Thriving as an iPhone MMO Developer', Cinco Barnes, previously lead designer of Star Wars: Galaxies, discusses how his company abandoned their charter to create large-scale PC MMO games and leveraged their advantages to find profitability in the mobile games biz via games like acclaimed persistent iPhone online game Pocket Legends.

- 'Fun Meters: Data Driven Design For TILT' sees noted player experience expert Nicole Lazzaro discuss her popular iPad/iPhone title TILT, with plenty of information on "how to use data to make your game more fun, what data we collected, how data from real players is different from Betas, viral web mechanics' effect on App Store positioning, [and] answers to such mysteries as why advanced players continually replay."

Additional confirmed lectures include a panel on getting your game noticed by the press with representatives from SlideToPlay, IGN, and 148Apps, some analysis on 'rapid development in the mobile games space' from NewToy's Vijay Thakkar, a look at mobile social games in Asia from DeNA's Tomoko Namba, and much more still to be announced.

The iPhone Games Summit and the iPad Gaming Summit will be just one part of GDC Online, which will take place October 5-8, 2010 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas and also features a main conference based around social games and MMOs, plus Summits on game narrative and 3D stereoscopic gaming.

To learn more about the other lectures and summits for GDC Online, for which early, reduced-price registration is only open until September 1st, please visit the official GDC Online website.

The Game Developers Conference Europe 2010 has concluded a second successful year, confirming record overall attendance across paid attendees, media, speakers and exhibitors to the August 16th-18th show.

At the same time, organizers have revealed a return to Cologne, Germany for a third GDC Europe show -- again opposite GamesCom -- on August 15-17, 2011.

Produced by UBM TechWeb Game Network, organizers of the leading worldwide Game Developers Conference series, GDC Europe is the largest professionals-only game event in Europe, presenting the latest trends and technology in all aspects of the online gaming space for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals.

Highlights of day two and three major talks at the show, reported by sister website Gamasutra.com, include the following notable talks:

Day Two

-In the day's first keynote, Heiko Hubertz, CEO and founder of Bigpoint, advised attendees that to conduct business in America as a European company, the time to do it is "right now." Throughout the talk, Hubertz elaborated on the differences between the U.S. and European markets and educated the audience about how to be successful in America as a European, based on Bigpoint's experience there. Hubert advised "There are only two existing markets in America, the console market and the Facebook market."

-In his keynote, Killzone developer Guerrilla Games' managing director Hermen Hulst discussed his studio's genesis, and its successes and failures in evolving into a Sony-owned AAA console powerhouse. Hulst began with the mantra: "to survive and to grow... you need to consistently improve yourself. He took attendees through examples of how Guerrilla's experiences have informed their history and the key decisions made from the time Sony signed the title that would become Killzone through to today. Plus, he revealed the studio is expanding to work on a "game with a scope and a level of ambition that once again makes us nervous" -- specifically a "brand new IP."

- Eric Chahi, creator of Another World, spoke about his newest project: He's director of Ubisoft's wildly ambitious downloadable title tentatively titled Project Dust, which allows players to re-terraform the world around them, creating islands, rivers, and life using simple tools that interact with each other intelligently. Chahi's talk centered on the idea that a correct meeting of technology and game design can allow for the creation of something truly unique. To do that, Chahi said one must "keep only the essentials for the purposes of optimization, and to keep these things simple for the player."

- Zenimax Online head Matt Firor talked about the complex definitional relationships between the 'casual' and 'hardcore' in games, showcasing how games like Zynga's FarmVille have "serious hardcore gaming characteristics." Going back to the beginnings of the industry, Firor pointed out that early, iconic titles like Donkey Kong or Super Mario Bros. weren't actually that casual -- they were, if anything, "fun but hard." These days, he says, "games aren't casual or hardcore... the gamers are."

Day Three

- Researcher and Malmo University associate professor Mikael Jakobsson says achievements aren't extrinsic to games, and suggests the Xbox Live Achievement experience is akin to its own MMO. If you think about it as a metagame, then the achievements aren't outside the gaming experience, "they're just part of the other gaming experience," he suggests, discovering that console users who judgmental of PC gamers and "addicted" MMO players might be doing the same kinds of things.

- Diverse engine makers, including Epic's Mark Rein, Terminal Reality's Joe Kreiner, Crytek's Carl Jones, StoneTrip's Philip Belhassen and Unity's David Helgason -- valiantly refereed by Google's Mark DeLoura -- traded jokes, caused chaos and squared off as they discussed new frontiers like the web and the 3DS, noting along the way that "we all seem to be converging into the same space."

- PopCap CEO Jason Kapalka explained why Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook hasn't taken the same hit to its user numbers as many other games on the platform since Facebook changed some of its viral aspects -- and described in fascinating detail how the company built an early Facebook success in a time when "nobody actually liked Facebook games." Social games are just a little bit "evil", suggests Kapalka, highlighting how the team had to get over the "disturbing" sense that "a large part of the social game industry is about finding loopholes in the system."

Another highlight of the show was a talk headed by Google's Mark DeLoura, in which the developer advocate showed off the progress the search engine giant has made in the gaming space. The company plans on launching an app store for its increasingly popular Chrome web browser in October, and games will be a major focus of the company going forward.

In addition to the conference content, GDC Europe provided several opportunities for creative exchange and business development, with venues including the GDC Europe Expo Floor, VIP Lounge, and the GDC Europe Business Lounge which continus to take place at Gamescom until Saturday, plus a host of industry parties. For more information on the show, which has just concluded, please consult the official GDC Europe website.

The organizers of Game Developers Conference Europe 2010 have opened the event's doors at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, and are recapping highlights and coverage of the first day's proceedings.

Produced by UBM TechWeb Game Network, organizers of the leading Game Developers Conference series, GDC Europe is the largest professionals-only game event in Europe, and has increased in scope compared to its inaugural debut event in 2009, with record attendance ahead of this week's Gamescom consumer and trade event in the same location.

Highlights of today's major speeches at the show include (with links to full write-ups on sister site Gamasutra.com where available):

- At his track keynote on Monday, Tencent Games VP Bo Wang discussed how the billion-dollar revenue Chinese tech/game company has risen to the top of the pack, citing massive growth rates and key routes to success in Asia. Wang noted than in the six months to the end of June 2010, the gigantic Chinese-headquartered firm, which deals with instant messaging, virtual currency, and video games as its major parts, had revenues of $1.3 billion U.S. dollars.

Wang noted that Chinese gamers have a much lower disposable income, so there are unique ways Tencent attracts these gamers. Tencent tries to have 1,000 hours available at launch in its typical MMORPGs, and also encourages gamers to have fun by playing against each other in games. As Tencent also has the top instant messaging service in China, plus a top free email service, a massive web portal at QQ.com, and even a search engine, cross-marketing from all of Tencent's properties seems to have catapulted the firm to the top of the pile in the Chinese market.

- In a session titled "Rethinking a Studio for the Digital Space," THQ Digital creative director Don Whiteford discussed the publisher's burgeoning specialization in digital games, discussing learnings from his rebranded THQ studio. Along the way, he revealed its debut XBLA/PSN title, top down vehicle combat title Red Faction: Battlegrounds, a topdown car, mech and rover combat title for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network with up to four players on the same screen. In addition, various achievements in the game -- which was built by a core team of just four people -- will unlock unique elements in retail franchise continuation Red Faction: Armageddon.

- BioWare's Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk delivered an Q&A-style look back on the founding of their studio and the creation of the seminal Baldur's Gate franchise. The duo referenced their early years' inexperience in conventional game business, yet success with Baldur's Gate through their passion and a love of the art. The duo ended with a teaser of some potentially exciting new titles, as yet unannounced, coming out of the Virginia-based BioWare Mythic office that currently operates stalwart, still-profitable titles such as Warhammer Online and Ultima Online.

- Talking in a packed keynote, Creative Director of Disney's Junction Point studio Warren Spector (Epic Mickey) delivered a lyrical discussion of video games and how the medium should -- and shouldn't -- learn from other media to shine in its own right. Referencing film, radio, comic books and board games, Spector illustrated the importance and power of the user's imagination and videogames' 'power to transport' - the ability to become another character entirely, and how they can immerse people in worlds that appear completely believable.

- In the first of the "Focus Russia" series of sessions, Dmitry Lyust and Konstantin Popov gave an overview about the Russian market. They cited figures suggesting that Russia's online games market will grow from $223 million in 2009 to $400-410 million by 2012, and that the Russian market for casual games will grow from $32 million USD to $42 million USD by the end of this year. Lyust and Popov also discussed Russia's recent welcoming climate for business and investments from abroad, and particularly pinpointed government plans to build up a "Russian Silicon Valley" inside a special economic zone near Moscow.

- Other notable lectures covered by sister site Gamasutra include the creators of Limbo on puzzle balancing for their XBLA hit, plus the challenges of motion control in Red Faction 2, and new analysis of Heavy Rain by its creator David Cage, plus Playfish's Jeferson Valadares discussing intuition versus metrics. Video and sync-ed slide versions of the lectures will also be available to GDC Vault subscribers shortly after the show.

In addition to the conference content, GDC Europe provides several opportunities for creative exchange and business development, with venues including the GDC Europe Expo Floor, VIP Lounge, and the GDC Europe Business Lounge at gamescom, plus a host of industry parties.

More than forty exhibitors and sponsors from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, the UK and the USA have registered for the exhibitor zone measuring 650 square meters. Exhibitors include Crytek, Bigpoint, Epic, Howest University, Imagination Studios and Intel. In addition, GDC Europe also has a business lounge at the accompanying games expo, gamescom, at which Autodesk, Crytek, Epic, Zotac, DigiProtect, Level 3 are confirmed to be exhibiting.

For more information on the show, please consult the official GDC Europe website.

Organizers of this October's GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin) have announced several major sessions for the conference, featuring speakers from Sony Online Entertainment, Carbine, and Relic.

The Austin, Texas based GDC Online conference is focused on the development of online games, including free-to-play titles, social network games, and traditional MMOs, with a veteran online game industry advisory board evaluating and selecting the lectures.

There are already more than 70 panels, lectures and tutorials currently scheduled for the October 5th-8th event -- and organizers have newly announced a number of important talks in the 'Design' track, which discusses trends, strategies, and techniques to help developers create more successful online games.

As its official description explains, the design track -- unique to online game conferences worldwide -- focuses on "improving player retention, satisfaction, and lifetime value, applying principles of MMOs to new genres and platforms, and designing games for a wide range of audiences."

Some of the newly announced highlights from notable sessions in the GDC Online design track and elsewhere include:

- 'I'm a Special Snowflake: The Art of Participatory Story Telling in MMOs' sees Tim Cain, the design director of MMO developer Carbine Studios, drawing from his experience in the industry "to discuss the art of taking storytelling from single-player RPGs to the world of massively multiplayer online games."

Using his work writing for games like Fallout -- the seminal Interplay title that Cain also produced and lead programmed -- and Arcanum, Cain will showcase an "exclusive first look at Carbine Studios' work" regarding storytelling in the NCSoft-formed studio's unannounced MMO.

- In 'Surviving Social Media: Advice From The SOE Playbook', Sony Online's Linda Carlson will discuss best practices for interacting with your online game players while avoiding pitfalls and money sinks. As she says: "Learn from real-world examples of SOEs experience in developing a comprehensive social media program. We've experimented so you don't have to!"

-Relic Entertainment's Brian Wood will present 'Lead Into Gold: How Company of Heroes Online Turns Losers Into Winners,' which will examine the company's free-to-play RTS game project, and explain "the core design changes made to the original Company of Heroes with regards to the tutorials, reward mechanisms, customization and expanded mission content to ensure that this highly competitive, hardcore multiplayer game is successful in the free-to-play market."

These newly announced GDC Online lectures join other design track talks from Playdom, Schell Games, PlayStation Home, Bioware Austin, Habbo, CCP Games and many more -- to be showcased from October 6th-8th during the GDC Online Main Conference.

The overall event will also host the first ever Game Developers Choice Online Awards, which celebrates the accomplishments of the creators of persistent online games of all kinds, from traditional MMOs to social network titles, and has just awarded Ultima Online and Richard Bartle for their services to online games.

GDC Online is operated by the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website, and will take place October 5-8, 2010 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. To learn more about lectures across all tracks for the event, for which reduced-rated registration is open until September 1st, please visit the GDC Online's official website.

Game Developers Conference Online organizers have announced Richard Bartle as the recipient of the first ever Online Game Legend Award and Ultima Online as the first Hall of Fame game, as part of the Game Developers Choice Online Awards taking place October 7, 2010 at GDC Online in Austin -- recognizing landmark titles and deeply influential figures in the vibrant online gaming world.

These special awards were picked after open nominations from the online game community, by the distinguished GDC Online Advisory Board - including game industry veterans Playfish's Sebastien De Halleux, Schell Games' Sheri Graner Ray, and Nexon's Min Kim.

Organizers will be awarding the Online Game Legend award to Dr. Richard Bartle, co-creator of the original MUD (Multi-User Dungeon), the seminal virtual world credited with pioneering online games over 30 years ago.

Bartle, who worked with fellow MUD programmer Roy Trubshaw at the UK's Essex University starting in 1978, was responsible for greatly extending, fleshing out and popularizing the text-based multiplayer game, in which players logged onto a mainframe, socialized with one another, fought enemies and formed lasting friendships and relationships.

After commercializing MUD in the 1980s, Bartle continues to consult in the game industry and teach at Essex University as a Visiting Professor. His research on player personalities types in online games - 'achievers, explorers, socializers and killers', has led to the popular online 'Bartle Test', and the influence of both his actions and theories in the online game industry have been profound and long-lasting.

In association with his acceptance of the Online Game Legend award, Dr. Bartle will also be presenting a special talk on his work at GDC Online. The lecture, titled The History of The Multi-User Dungeon, will see him sharing his unique perspective and hands-on experience with the next generation of online game developers.

Choice Online Awards organizers have also announced that Electronic Arts' Ultima Online, the Origin-created game that is now the longest continually running massively multiplayer online game in history, will be honored with the first ever Hall of Fame award for online games.

The persistent world installment for the seminal Ultima game franchise, which launched on September 25th, 1997, has now been operating for almost 14 years - and was a key part of the wave of late 1990s subscription-based MMOs which brought the genre to much wider attention.

Some of Ultima Online's most important features included in-game events affecting the entire lore of the world, and progressive features for their time such as item crafting and persistent player housing. Continued upgrades of in-game content and even the game engine have helped to keep the game fresh for players, some of which have subscribed continuously for over a decade.

In honor of the game's induction, the Hall of Fame award will be accepted on stage by key members of Ultima Online's original development team: Rich Vogel, Launch Producer, Starr Long, Associate Producer, and Raph Koster, Lead Designer. Joining them will be Eugene Evans, GM of BioWare Mythic, the current home of Ultima Online within Electronic Arts, who will introduce key team members from the game's development history.

In celebration GDC Online will present a special lecture, 'Then and Now: Ultima Online Over Time'. The lecture will be co-presented by Rich Vogel, currently at BioWare Austin and the original producer of Ultima Online, and Calvin Crowner, the current Ultima Online game producer. The duo will talk about the history of the title, contrast their work on the game throughout its history, and provide anecdotes and specific takeaway from many years of work.

Both of the above awards will be presented at the Game Developers Choice Online Awards ceremony taking place on the evening of Thursday, October 7th during GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin) in Austin, Texas. Additional finalists will be announced in the near future.

More information about the Game Developers Choice Online Awards is available at the official website for the awards. GDC Online as a whole takes place in Austin, Texas from October 5-8, 2010, and information about sessions and registration is available at its official website.

The Game Developers Conference Europe, the leading conference for computer and video game developers in Europe after its successful debut last year, is on track to exceed its registration and exhibitor numbers from 2009.

The conference is now expected to receive up to 2,000 attendees, speakers and media representatives from 45 different countries, already surpassing the attendance numbers from the 2009 debut. The event is expected to garner a strong presence from European and North American industry professionals.

In particular, GDC Europe, which takes place August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress East Center in Cologne, Germany, will this year focus on media convergence and online gaming, and also features a concentration on the booming Chinese and Russian markets.

Several leaders of the international development scene and the games industry will be participating in GDC Europe addressing major topics facing the industry. In total, the event will feature more than 90 workshops, and presentations by more than 130 speakers from all over the world.

Late additions include 'Games on the Chrome Web Store', featuring Google's Mark DeLoura and Michael Mahemoff; a talk called 'Next-Gen Consoles: Cloud-Based Gaming', with Tom DuBois of streaming service OnLive, and EEDAR's Greg Short presenting 'State of The Games Market.'

They join a list of notable speakers including Warren Spector (Disney), Eric Chahi (Ubisoft), Heiko Hubertz (Bigpoint), Bo Wang (Tencent), Hermen Hulst (Guerrilla Games), Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk (BioWare), Louis Castle (InstantAction), Martin Walfisz (Planeto), David Cage (Quantic Dream), Steven Gaffney (Splash Damage), Chris Charla (Foundation 9), Jorg Tittel (Break Thru Films), Avni Yerli (Crytek), Harald Riegler (Sproing), Matias Myllyrinne (Remedy Entertainment), Don Daglow (Don Daglow Interactive Entertainment), Steve Meretzky & Dave Rohrl (Playdom), Aki Jarvinen (Digital Chocolate), and Seb Canniff (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe).

In addition to the conference content, GDC Europe provides several opportunities for creative exchange and business development, with venues including the GDC Europe Expo Floor, VIP Lounge, and the GDC Europe Business Lounge at gamescom, plus a host of industry parties. Already thirty exhibitors and sponsors from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, the UK and the USA have registered for the exhibitor zone measuring 650 square meters.

Exhibitors include Crytek, Bigpoint, Epic, Howest University, Imagination Studios and Intel. In addition, GDC Europe will also be hosting for the first time a Business Lounge at the accompanying games expo, Gamescom, at which Autodesk, Crytek, Epic, Zotac, DigiProtect, and Level 3 are confirmed to be exhibiting.

"We always focus on practical solutions and market needs," says event director Frank Sliwka, summing up the conference's unique philosophy. "We aim to combine trend analysis with the search for new models for technology and at the same time, creating marketing and business opportunities to present to our attendees."

Online registration for GDC Europe ends August 12, 2010 at 1pm CEST. For more information on GDC Europe, including a schedule of all conference events and parties, plus a complete exhibitor list, please visit: the official GDC Europe website.

Organizers of this October's GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin) have announced details of the Game Narrative Summit, including a keynote from Bungie's Joseph Staten on '10 Years Of Halo Storytelling... And Beyond', plus major Harmonix and 2K Games lectures.

The Summit, known as the Game Writers Summit in previous years, aims to cover all facets of the game narrative development process, from writing scripts for major console titles to integrating stories into ARGs and Facebook games, and takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 5th-6th in Austin, Texas.

Some of the newly announced highlights of this year's Game Narrative Summit, chosen by distinguished Summit advisory board including Ubisoft's Richard Dansky, Microsoft Game Studios' Tom Abernathy and Blindlight's Lev Chapelsky, include the following:

- Bungie writer and design director Joseph Staten will keynote the Summit with a talk titled, "Writing The Whirlwind: 10 Years On The Frontlines Of Halo Storytelling...And Beyond." Staten will discuss his lessons learned working on Bungie's flagship franchise, and how those lessons "are fundamentally changing the writing and story design for Bungie's next universe of games."

- In an intriguing lecture called "Get in the Van: Storytelling in the Rock Band Series," Harmonix design director Chris Foster and senior writer Helen McWilliams will discuss how the company's rhythm games - from The Beatles: Rock Band through Rock Band 3 -- tell stories in unconventional and unexpected ways.

Topics discussed will include "structural and implicit narrative, storytelling within the context of a party game, using real history as story and gameplay elements, tonal accuracy within writing, and using the word rock as few times as humanly possible."

- Experienced comics writer Antony Johnston (Daredevil, Wolverine, Wasteland), who also has experience writing games for EA and Sega, discusses how games can learn from comics in "From Comics To Consoles," focusing on "the similarities and differences between comics and games, the effect of transmedia on both media, and what games writers can learn from studying -- and writing -- comics."

- Another notable lecture is "I Don't Want To Know: Delivering Exposition In Games" sees 2K Games' Greg Kasavin (Spec Ops: The Line) discussing how to hook players through game narratives. The session promises to "examine a variety of expository techniques that can be used to strengthen game openings, build intrigue, parse out information at a sensible pace, and immerse the player in the experience."

The Game Narrative Summit will be one part of GDC Online, which will take place October 5-8, 2010 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas and also features a main conference based around social games and MMOs, plus Summits on iPhone and iPad games and 3D stereoscopic gaming.

To learn more about the other lectures and summits for GDC Online, for which registration is now open, please visit the official GDC Online website.

Organizers of the leading Game Developers Conference series have announced that renowned game designer Warren Spector, creative director for Disney Interactive Studios' Junction Point, will open the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe on Monday, August 16.

Spector's keynote address, titled, "What Video Games Can Learn from Other Media ... What We Can't ... And What We Shouldn't" will kick off GDC Europe, which returns to Cologne Germany August 16-18, 2010 for three days of learning, networking and inspiration.

During his keynote, Spector will share with the audience his thoughts on video games as they compare to other media such as movies, television, theater, radio and comic books and explore the ways in which video games use techniques borrowed from those mediums.

The Deus Ex co-creator will question the assumption that video games should be more like other media, and will discuss how valid these comparisons are while suggesting some new comparisons that may be more relevant for moving our industry forward.

Using examples from a variety of media and a variety of games, Spector will examine what we have learned, what we still have to learn in the future and what may be holding us back from reaching our potential as the unique medium we must strive to become.

Warren Spector is a game development veteran with 6 years in tabletop games with Steve Jackson Games and TSR, followed by 21 years in electronic games with Origin, Looking Glass Studios, Ion Storm and most recently Junction Point, a division of Disney Interactive Studios.

"It is always a pleasure to welcome a long time friend of the GDC such as Warren Spector," said Frank Sliwka, GDC Europe Event Director. "Warren's breadth of work from Deus Ex to the highly-anticipated Disney Epic Mickey demonstrates innovative game design. His talk will inspire current and new generations of European developers."

Spector joins a large GDC Europe line-up announced to date, including late additions from the creators of Limbo and Kane & Lynch 2, plus a Guerrilla Games/Killzone 3 keynote. Other lectures include a Rare-helmed lecture on Microsoft's Kinect, the BioWare co-founders on the Baldur's Gate franchise, a lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, an ESA/G.A.M.E. panel on government intervention in games, and a Heavy Rain production talk.

Also added are lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent, significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, and other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders.

To receive more information on GDC Europe -- for which online registration is still open until August 12th, and onsite registration will also be available -- interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

GDC Europe organizers are highlighting a number of key new talks at the GamesCom-colocated Cologne, Germany developer event this month, including business & production advice from LucasArts, Double Fine and Foundation 9, plus online/social game analysis from leading studios in the space.

In the past few days, a number of notable business, production, and social game panels have been confirmed for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which will take place August 16th-18th, and is an easy additional stop for GamesCom visitors, being located in Cologne, Germany alongside the leading European trade and consumer show.

Looking more broadly at the business and production of games, a notable new panel called 'Multiple Paths of Success for the Independent Developer' features veterans like Foundation 9 VP Chris Charla, Double Fine's Zack Karlsson and Bigpoint's Nils-Holger Henning discussing new methodologies and routes to success in the increasingly competitive independently-run game studio market.

A similarly expansive production panel, called 'Extreme Producing: Order & Chaos in The Game Development Process', features figures like LucasArts' Marianne Monaghan, 2K's Lulu LaMer and ThatGameCompany's Robin Hunicke discussing "specific examples of some the extreme highs and lows they have experienced in controlling the often chaotic process of making games", with plenty of practical takeaway.

With a plethora of major social/online game lectures -- from leading companies in the space like Playdom, RockYou, Bigpoint, Digital Chocolate, Tencent and Playfish -- already part of the overall GDC Europe schedule, several other lecture and panel additions around non-social network online games have fleshed out the program. These include a panel on browser-based vs. client-downloaded online games with Gamigo, GamersFirst and IGG representation, plus a case study on localizing Asian online game Runes Of Magic for the West.

Another late addition of particular interest in the social games space is 'Wiring a Hardcore Brain to a Social Mindset', in which Planeto CEO Martin Walfisz -- formerly the founder of successful Swedish 'core' game studio Massive Entertainment (Ground Control, World In Conflict) -- talks about his new social game company and "the implications of developing games as services rather than products - all from the mindset of a hardcore gamer, game developer and entrepreneur."

These latest announcements are part of a large GDC Europe line-up, including late additions from the creators of Limbo and Kane & Lynch 2, plus a Guerrilla Games/Killzone 3 keynote. Other lectures include a Rare-helmed lecture on Microsoft's Kinect, the BioWare co-founders on the Baldur's Gate franchise, a lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, an ESA/G.A.M.E. panel on government intervention in games, and a Heavy Rain production talk.

Also added are lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent, significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, and other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders.

To receive more information on GDC Europe, for which online registration is still open until August 12th, and onsite registration will also be available, interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

As momentum builds for GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin) in Texas this October, organizers have announced key new lectures from the world's leading online game firms, including Zynga, Disney, Playdom, Tencent, and more.

The Austin, Texas-based GDC Online conference and expo -- taking place October 5-8, 2010 -- is focused on online games of all kinds -- including social network titles, free-to-play web games, kid-friendly online titles, large-scale MMOs, and more.

With a leading advisory board guiding the evaluation and choice of lectures, and the newly announced GDC Online Awards honoring the leading games in the space, the conference is a must-attend for those working in online games.

Some of the highlights from newly announced sessions -- as the August 4th alumni registration deadline for GDC Austin 2008/2009 attendees and speakers approaches -- include:

- 'AAA To Social Games -- Making the Leap' sees Playdom VP John Donham, most recently at Metaplace and a 20-year veteran of online games, discussing why "developing games for social networks is a dramatic shift from making titles for PCs, consoles, or even the Internet." The session will "provide you with a solid basis for revising your strategy as you approach social game development."

- In 'Scalability for Social Games: YoVille, Mafia Wars and Farmville', Zynga's Robert Zubek expands on his GDC 2010 Summit talk from the leading Facebook game firm to "describe architectures and proven techniques for building scalable server infrastructure, particularly for social web games, operating on the web and social networks."

- A practical lecture called 'MMO 101: Building Disney's Server System', Disney Online Studios' director of architecture and R&D Roger Hughston presents on the system underlying titles like World Of Cars and Pixie Hollow Online This technical discussion -- "with heavy emphasis on server systems" -- will describe approaches that have been taken in the Disney Online Studios in the development of their MMO environments, including "candid discussion about what is good, bad, and ugly."

In addition to the main conference content, GDC Online will present specialized Summit programs, with in-depth business and technical advice on major up-and-coming facets of the game industry, including the 3D Stereoscopic Games Summit, the iPhone Games Summit, the iPad Gaming Summit, and the Game Narrative Summit (formerly the Game Writers Summit).

A vibrant GDC Online Expo Floor -- something no other online game-specific conference boasts -- also enables attendees to get all the latest information from game tool, engine, middleware, payment, and virtual currency firms exhibiting at the show, as well as recruitment-specific areas and other notable vendors.

GDC Online is scheduled for October 5-8, 2010 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. To learn more about the newly announced lectures across all tracks for GDC Online, for which registration is available now, please visit the official GDC Online website.

With just a day until the July 21st early reg deadline, GDC Europe organizers have announced major talks on Limbo, Guild Wars 2 and Kane & Lynch 2 at next month's Cologne, Germany-based game conference.

Coming shortly after the Guerrilla Games/Killzone 3 keynote, these new talks are confirmed for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which will take place August 16th-18th, and is located in Cologne, Germany alongside GamesCom, the leading European trade and consumer show.

The newly announced GDC Europe lectures arriving just before the early registration deadline include the following notables:

- In 'Limbo: Balancing Fun and Frustration in Puzzle Design', Playdead's Jeppe Carlsen focuses on the acclaimed Xbox Live Arcade title Limbo, discussing "creating an immersive game experience that is challenging to players without being discouraging." Along the way, he'll explore "relevant design principles using concrete examples from the game, focusing on considerations in the areas of accessibility, difficulty, learning by dying, and fun."

- IO Interactive art director Rasmus Poulsen is speaking on 'Art Direction in the YouTube Era', discussing how he and his colleagues approached the distinctive look to the Square Enix-published console title Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. The game takes an alternative, documentary film-inspired look to visuals, and the description notes that "as the gaming industry continues to follow the trend of hi-fidelity graphics to convey realism, an exploration to find what 'real' is sparked a fresh artistic vision" for the title.

- 'Designing Guild Wars 2 Dynamic Events' features the much-awaited ArenaNet MMO's lead designer Eric Flannum and lead content designer Colin Johanson outlining how the core content of games in the MMORPG genre has evolved over time. They "will discuss the inspiration for and the implementation challenges of their Dynamic Events system, with the goal of creating an exciting, living, breathing online world that encourages social interaction between players."

In addition, GDC Europe organizers are presenting 'Focus Russia', presenting up-and-coming regions or countries that are important for the worldwide game industry. During the show, organizers will hold two workshops to analyze the current changes in the Russian market, present important players and trends as well as new business concepts and opportunities for cooperation.

These latest announcements are part of a large GDC Europe line-up that includes a Rare-helmed lecture on Microsoft's Kinect, the BioWare co-founders on the Baldur's Gate franchise, a lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, an ESA/G.A.M.E. panel on government intervention in games, and a Heavy Rain production talk.

Also added are lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent, significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, and other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders.

With just one day to go until the early registration deadline, more information on GDC Europe, for which reduced price registration is in place until July 21st -- visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

GDC Europe has revealed a keynote from Guerrilla Games' head Hermen Hulst, discussing the upcoming Killzone 3 and managing the Sony-owned studio to success, as the July 21st early registration deadline approaches for the pre-eminent European game business/design conference.

This keynote -- to be held on August 17th -- is the latest to be announced for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which will take place August 16th-18th, and is located in Cologne, Germany alongside GamesCom, the leading European trade and consumer show.

Hulst's talk at GDC Europe will examine how the Amsterdam-headquartered studio -- one of the leading European game developers, and employing 140 developers from 20 countries -- has matured, and which obstacles had to be overcome along the way.

He'll also focus on the company's technical focus on best utilizing console hardware, and what some of the ingredients behind the success of the Killzone series are, illuminating some of Guerrilla's emerging work on the PlayStation 3-exclusive title Killzone 3, due out in early 2011.

The announcements come with just five days to go before the July 21st early registration deadline for the show, which is created by the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website, and is now in its second year as the pre-eminent European game development event.

"We are excited to welcome to the GDC Europe stage such a prominent European developer and industry figure such as Hulst," said Frank Sliwka, GDC Europe Event Director. "The Killzone series and work produced from Guerrilla Games is exemplar of the ingenuity of European developers."

These latest announcements are part of a large GDC Europe line-up that includes a Rare-helmed lecture on Microsoft's Kinect, the BioWare co-founders on the Baldur's Gate franchise, a lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, an ESA/G.A.M.E. panel on government intervention in games, and a Heavy Rain production talk.

Also added are lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent, significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, and other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders.

With just five days to go until the early registration deadline, more information on GDC Europe, for which reduced price registration is in place until July 21st -- visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

Game Developers Conference organizers have announced the opening of the call for submissions for the show, to be held in San Francisco on February 28th to March 4th 2011. The call for submissions to present lectures, roundtables and panel sessions for the 2011 Game GDC -- the historic 25th anniversary show -- is now open through Wednesday, August 25th.

The main GDC advisory board is looking for submissions in the following game-related areas/tracks: Audio, Business and Management, Game Design, Production, Programming and Visual Arts, to be showcased on the prestigious Wednesday to Friday main conference of Game Developers Conference 2011. (Submissions for the GDC Summits will open later in the year.)

A talk abstract is required alongside a more detailed description and speaker information, and the GDC Call For Papers page has multiple annotated examples of previous submissions, giving detailed, precise instructions on speaker criteria and the selection process.

Alongside this year's call for submissions, the GDC 2011 advisory board has been expanded, adding several leading industry figures in the social and independent gaming spaces.

In particular, new board members include Media Molecule studio director Siobhan Reddy (LittleBigPlanet 2), EA2D designer/programmer Soren Johnson (Civilization IV, Spore), independent developer Adam Saltsman (Canabalt, Flixel), and Playfish San Francisco GM Dan Fiden. Also added for their art and audio expertise respectively are Undead Labs' Steve Theodore and Microsoft's Scott Selfon.

These new members join industry veterans such as Julien Merceron (Square Enix), Mark Cerny (Cerny Games), Rob Pardo (Blizzard Entertainment), Chris Hecker (Spy Party), Chris Butcher (Bungie), Mike Capps (Epic), Laura Fryer (Warner Bros.), Lou Castle (InstantAction), Clint Hocking, and Dave Perry (Gaikai) on the active advisory board. The Board as a whole consists of leading industry notables who rate and discuss every submitted lecture for the show, and participate in multiple in-person meetings regarding the content.

"We pride ourselves on providing best practices for game developers of all genres and GDC 2011 will continue this tradition as the gaming space grows and adapts to the evolving market," said Meggan Scavio, director, Game Developers Conference.

"We're excited to welcome our newest advisory board members and expect them to bring a healthy balance of their past experiences along with a fresh approach to the conference program. The forward-facing content, inspired sessions, and especially the insightful advisory board are what has kept the event thriving for 25 years, and will sustain it for the next 25."

Organized by the UBM TechWeb Game Network, GDC 2011 marks the quarter-century anniversary of the game industry's most comprehensive professionals-only event -- where game developers converge for a week of learning, networking and inspiration.

As well as its flagship San Francisco event, the GDC series of conferences also now include GDC Europe (August 16th-18th, Cologne), GDC Online (October 5th-8th, Austin), and GDC China (December 5th-7th, Shanghai) in the remainder of 2010.

For more information on the call for papers for GDC 2011 in San Francisco, please visit the official GDC website.

2010 Game Developers Conference Europe organizers have announced a Rare-helmed lecture on Microsoft's Kinect, the BioWare co-founders on the Baldur's Gate franchise, plus an iPhone marketing lecture from Words With Friends' creator, with the early registration deadline looming.

These in-depth talks are the latest to be announced for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which will take place August 16th-18th, and is located in Cologne, Germany alongside GamesCom, the leading regional trade and consumer show.

The announcements come with less than two weeks to go before the July 21st early registration deadline for the show, which is now in its second year as the pre-eminent European game development event. The notable new speakers for this must-attend show for game developers throughout Europe consist of the following:

- In a lecture entitled 'Kinecting With A New Audience', Rare's Nick Burton and Blitz's Andrew Oliver -- respectively first and third-party developers for the Xbox 360's newly announced Kinect motion control system -- will talk about their recent experiences building Kinect launch titles and how this affected development in their respective studios.

Subjects will include "how Kinect fitted into their game engines.... how design was affected... how they built on top of changing technology", as well as many other notable areas that might be of interest to game creators considering how motion-controlled gameplay might work within their own titles.

- A special lecture called 'Baldur's Gate - A 10 Year-Retrospective' see BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk team up with Obsidian CEO and former Black Isle head Feargus Urquhart to present a retrospective lecture on the seminal PC role-playing game Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn - one of the highest-rated RPGs of all time. The Dungeons & Dragons-based title launched in 2000, and paved the way for successful BioWare RPGs like Dragon Age and the Mass Effect franchise - and three of the principals will discuss the game's creation in depth.

- In addition, 'Keys to Successful iPhone Game Marketing' sees Newtoy CEO Paul Bettner, creator of popular iPhone/iPad app Words With Friends, team up with Sidhe and PikPok's Jos Ruffell (Bird Strike, Flick Kick Football) to discuss how they created successful, best-selling iPhone titles. As the duo note, "from the effectiveness of advertising, to code giveaways and promotions, if you're creating a game for iPhone, this session will better prepare you for the task of marketing your game."

These latest announcements are part of a large GDC Europe line-up that includes a rare lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, as well as a ESA/G.A.M.E. panel on government intervention in games and a Heavy Rain production talk. Also added are lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, plus a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent.

Other talks in the packed line-up include significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, APB and Split/Second, plus other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders.

For more information on GDC Europe, which is created by the UBM Techweb Game Network, as is this website, and for which reduced price registration is in place until July 21st -- visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

Continuing the Game Developers Conference 2010 free video lecture series, organizers have debuted the 'Indie Gamemaker Rant' from the 2010 Independent Games Summit, also adding multiple new site navigation features.

The new lecture, highly rated by GDC attendees, is part of a free update published at the GDC Vault website, and features video technology that allows users to simultaneously view a presenter's slides alongside video and audio of their presentation.

The well-received 'Indie Gamemaker Rant' is now available for free video streaming, and was described by its creators at the time as: "A series of exquisite [five-minute] rants by notable indie game creators. Experience different points of view on indieness, art, beauty, and the future presented by an all star cast of international friends."

As a detailed Destructoid write-up on the hour-long set of microlectures described, presenters on a host of fascinating topics included Adam Saltsman (Canabalt, pictured), Jonatan Soderstrom (aka Cactus), Anna Anthropy (aka Auntie Pixelante), Jarrad Woods (Captain Forever), Offworld editor [and now IGF Chairman] Brandon Boyer, Randy Smith (Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor), Nathan Vella (Critter Crunch), Craig D. Adams (Superbrothers), Tommy Refenes (Super Meat Boy), Robin Hunicke (thatgamecompany), Ryan O'Donnell (Co-Op/Area 5 Media) and Babsi Lippe (Papermint).

Of additional significance to those interested in independent and alternative views on games is the already available free video of the 'Artgame Sessions' GDC 2010 lecture -- including several smaller talks on Far Cry 2, Braid, Mark Essen's games (Flywrench), and Terry Cavanagh and Stephen Lavelle's Judith.

In addition to these lectures, GDC Vault's free videos section includes GDC 2010 lectures from Zynga, Ernest Adams, and NCsoft, plus highly rated lectures featuring 2D Boy's Ron Carmel and Bungie's Brian Sharp, as well as a number of other top talks.

The free recordings available are a fraction of the content currently being flowed into the GDC Vault, which has added several new features with this latest content upgrade. It's now easier to navigate through the Free section of the site, with video, audio and slides more obviously split up while browsing and searching. In addition, site searches will bring up both free content and Vault Subscriber-only content in the same results page.

Full GDC Vault access, including synchronized video recordings for over 200 of GDC 2010's sessions and hundreds of historical video and audio recordings, is available to GDC 2010 All-Access Pass holders, as well as All-Access Pass holders for other GDC events during the year.

In addition, development studios and schools who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available by contacting Suzanne Cunningham or viewing an online demonstration. Individual Vault subscriptions not tied to All-Access passes are being considered for a 2011 launch.

GDC Europe organizers have announced a rare lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, also debuting an ESA/G.A.M.E. panel and a Heavy Rain production talk.

These lectures are the latest to be announced for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which will take place August 16th-18th, and is located in Cologne, Germany alongside GamesCom, the leading regional trade and consumer show.

The notable new speakers for this must-attend show for European game developers are led by Ubisoft's Eric Chahi, the creator of seminal adventure game Another World (also known as Out Of This World) in the early '90s.

Chahi has recently returned to the game industry, and is presenting a lecture with Ronan Bel of Ubisoft called 'Creating a High-Performance Simulation: A Dynamic Natural World to Play With'. In it, the duo will introduce Galileo, "a real-time simulator of flowing water, lava, erosion, sedimentation and vegetation", and its use as foundation for a fully dynamic world-based game, the just-announced Project Dust.

In addition, a panel called 'Building Grassroots Video Game Activist Networks' sees Richard Taylor of the Entertainment Software Association and Stephan Reichart of G.A.M.E. (the German Games Developers Association) team with Crytek's Avni Yerli and additional, yet to be announced panelists to discuss how the industry can guard against censorship by using its biggest advocates - its fans.

Finally, one of Europe's key, critically acclaimed games of 2009 is examined in detail by Quantic Dream's Charles Coutier in his lecture, 'A Challenging Production: Heavy Rain'. The talk will focus on the French developer's iterative processes and adaptive management approach in making the atypical title, with plenty of specifics on asset management and outsourcing practices discussed.

These latest announcements are part of a large GDC Europe line-up that includes lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, plus a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent.

Other talks in the packed line-up include significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, APB and Split/Second, plus other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders.

For more information on GDC Europe, for which reduced price registration is in place until July 21st -- visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

Bill Roper, the former Blizzard executive who now serves as chief creative officer for MMO developer Cryptic Studios, will deliver a keynote address at the 2010 Game Developers Conference China in Shanghai this December, event organizers announced today.

In his keynote presentation, Roper will "speak to the future of game development" in a wide-ranging speech on his career and views on the industry, according to an official statement.

Best known for the decade he spent at Blizzard, Roper was heavily involved in all of the studio's franchises starting with its first PC game, WarCraft: Orcs & Humans, on which he served as producer. Over his time with Blizzard, he contributed in a variety of roles to StarCraft and Diablo as well, and became most associated with Diablo after becoming a VP at that series' creator, Blizzard North.

After leaving Blizzard in 2003, Roper co-founded Flagship Studios, which produced the online action-RPG Hellgate: London before the company folded. Since late 2008 he has been the CCO at Cryptic Studios, the original developer of City of Heroes and now the company behind Champions Online and Star Trek Online.

"We are delighted to host such a luminary as Bill Roper for the keynote address," said event director Meggan Scavio in a statement. "Bill's expertise helps cement GDC China's place as the essential event for learning, networking, and inspiration for the Chinese game development community."

This year marks the third GDC China event, to be held from December 5 to 7 in Shanghai -- more information on the event is available on the official event website.

Organizers of GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin) have announced the first set of lectures for this October's pre-eminent conference related to online games, including a 'Live' track featuring Sony Online, Wizard101 and IMVU speakers.

The Austin, Texas-based GDC Online conference and expo is keenly focused on development of connected games including social network titles, free-to-play web games, kid-friendly online titles, large-scale MMOs, and more, with a leading advisory board guiding the evaluation and choice of lectures.

While there are already over 25 confirmed lectures across the entire event, organizers are focusing on the 'Live' track, which discusses the vital topic of successful strategies for online games post-launch.

The rise of swiftly iterated social games and microtransactions have led to a wide array of new techniques and technologies that can help increase fun, profitability and retention, and the 'Live' track will deal with many of these.

Some of the highlights of the GDC Online 'Live' track, as announced thus far, include:

- In 'From Shadowbane to Wizard101: Strategies for Expanding Player Communities and Sustaining Enthusiasm After Launch', J. Todd Coleman & Josef Hall of KingsIsle Entertainment will reference their 10 million registered-user online game and previous experience, identifying "sustaining community that transcend genre and generation, the importance of always having new content in queue, and strategies for communicating milestones and methods for remaining engaged in public conversation."

- 'Surviving Social Media: Advice From The SOE Playbook' sees Sony Online Entertainment's Linda Carlson discussing how the Free Realms and upcoming DC Universe Online creators "identify the best outlets for ROI, implement efficiencies in time and money, involve all departments for the common good, craft audience-specific messaging, proven strategies to engage and motivate fans, manage multiple games in social media, maintain brand strength" -- with "plenty of war stories and scars to prove points!"

- IMVU's Brett Durrett will present 'Building A Successful Business After Launch through Rapid Iteration', showing how, by "creating systems that utilize A/B testing, instant customer metrics and a sophisticated deployment process IMVU is able to shorten the iteration loop and deploy new software to production up to 50 times per day" - leading to an avatar-heavy online environment with over 100 million registered users.

In addition to the main conference content, GDC Online will present specialized Summit programs, with in-depth business and technical advice on major up-and-coming facets of the game industry, including 3D stereoscopic games and iPad development.

The event is also hosting the first ever Game Developers Choice Online Awards -- honoring the accomplishments of the sometimes overlooked creators and operators of persistent online video games -- from large-scale MMOs through free-to-play titles to social network games.

GDC Online will take place October 5-8, 2010 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. To learn more about the newly announced lectures across all tracks for GDC Online, for which registration is now open, please visit the official GDC Online website.

The UBM TechWeb Game Network, organizer of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference events, is pleased to announce that submissions are now open for the 2011 Independent Games Festival -- to be held at GDC 2011 in San Francisco next March.

The longest-running and highest-profile independent video game festival, summit and showcase is now accepting entries to the 13th annual Festival, with deadlines in the Main and Student Showcase categories by October 18th and November 1st respectively, and finalists to be announced on January 2011.

All games selected as finalists will be available in playable form at the IGF Pavilion on the GDC show floor, and will compete for nearly $50,000 in prizes, including the Nuovo Award, Excellence in Design, Art, Best Student Game, the Audience Award and the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Winners will be announced on stage at the high-profile Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, March 2, 2011, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The Independent Games Festival Awards are held immediately before the wider Game Developers Choice Awards, and both multi-thousand person attendee award shows are part of the 2011 Game Developers Conference, taking place February 28th-March 4th, 2011. GDC 2011 also includes the 2011 Independent Games Summit, which is entering its fifth year and offers two days of inspiration and practical lectures and rants from the top minds in the independent games world.

Continuing to honor the best and brightest of the indie gaming community, the Independent Games Festival is expanding in its thirteenth year to recognize the new opportunities open to mobile and handheld game developers. Responding to developer feedback, games made for Apple's iPhone, Android, Nintendo DS/DSi, PlayStation Portable, and all handheld devices will compete in the same traditional IGF categories. They will also be eligible for a new Best Mobile Game award, honoring innovation, achievement and artistry in handheld gaming.

Other changes to the 2011 festival include an expanded focus on alternative elements in independent gaming, with the number of finalists for the IGF Nuovo Award -- honoring abstract, shortform, and otherwise esoteric 'art games' -- increasing from five to eight games in total.

The festival's judging process has also been modified to see winners decided via jury debate from focused industry peers. Expanding on a successful 2010 experiment using the Nuovo Award, entrants will be recommended for consideration in individual categories by the larger IGF judging body of over 170 notable industry participants. Following this process, smaller juries with specific knowledge of the award in question will discuss and choose the finalists and winner in each individual category.

The modifications continue to expand the Independent Game Festival's global importance as the largest and most all-encompassing showcase of independent game talent across the wide spectrum of artistically- and commercially-aimed development. Notable former IGF winners include World of Goo, Braid, Castle Crashers, Everyday Shooter, Darwinia and Audiosurf, with IGF 2010 prizewinner Limbo a key game in Xbox Live Arcade's 'Summer Of Arcade' line-up and 2010 nominee Joe Danger a recent, acclaimed release on PlayStation Network.

Brandon Boyer, Chairman of the IGF, said of this year's event: "Expanding the IGF to include mobile and more artistic experiences is our way of recognizing the constantly evolving landscape of indie game development, and the advancement of the expression possible in the medium itself. I'm more excited than ever to see what the indie community creates for this year's festival, and wish all the entrants the best of luck!"

Submissions to the competition are now open to all independent game developers; important dates for IGF 2011 are as follows:

June 28th, 2010 - Submissions are Open
October 18th, 2010 - Submission Deadline, Main Competition
November 1st, 2010 - Submission Deadline, Student Competition
January 3rd, 2011 - Finalists Announced, Main Competition
January 10, 2011 - Finalists Announced, Student Competition
February 28 - March 4, 2011 - Game Developers Conference 2011
February 28 - March 1, 2011 - Indie Games Summit @ GDC 2011
March 2 - March 4, 2011 - IGF Pavilion @ GDC 2011
March 2, 2011 - IGF Awards Ceremony (Winners Announced!)

For a complete list of information on the 2011 Independent Games Festival, including submission specifics, frequently asked questions, and more discussion on this year's changes from the IGF Chairman, please visit the official Independent Games Festival website.

For a complete list of information on the 2011 Independent Games Festival, including submission specifics, frequently asked questions, and more discussion on this year's changes from new IGF Chairman Brandon Boyer, please visit the official Independent Games Festival website.

Organizers of the Game Developers Choice Online Awards at GDC Online in Austin this October are reminding that nominations for the awards -- honoring the best MMOs and social games -- are only open until June 30th.

The first-ever awards ceremony, being held at GDC Online (formerly GDC Austin), will honor the accomplishments of the sometimes overlooked creators and operators of persistent online video games -- from large-scale MMOs through free-to-play titles to social network games. The awards span excellence in live services, technology, game updates, online game design, and more.

In addition, two special awards will honor outstanding individuals and games in the space, with the Online Game Legend Award being given to a person who's changed the world of online games forever, and one particular all-time classic online game being inducted into the GDC Online Awards' Hall Of Fame.

After award finalists are announced, the worldwide community of online game players will also have the opportunity to designate their favorite online game in the Audience Award category.

Nominations are now open, and game professionals with free Gamasutra.com user accounts can put forward their favorite online games for the awards. The GDC Online Awards are a sister event to the Game Developers Choice Awards which take place at GDC San Francisco every year.

The award categories and this year's Special Award winners will be determined by the GDC Online Advisory Board. This group includes notables like BioWare Austin's Gordon Walton, Metaplace's Raph Koster, Playfish's Sebastien De Halleux, and Nexon's Min Kim.

Winners for the Game Developers Choice Online Awards will be selected by a specially selected subset of the International Choice Awards Network (ICAN). This is the same group of over 500 handpicked leading industry creators that pick the Game Developers Choice Awards winners at GDC in San Francisco every year.

The full list of categories for the first annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards (part of the UBM Techweb Game Network, as is this website) include:

Regular Awards

The Best Online Game Design Award honors the overall excellence of design in an online game that launched in public beta or full version in the year to May 2010. This category recognizes the best social-specific gameplay mechanics, quest design, and other major game design elements.

The Audience Award honors the favorite game of the worldwide online game community. After initial developer-specific nominations, members of the public will be able to vote on their favorite currently operating online game, with options from the Game Developers Choice Online finalists and beyond.

The Best Online Visual Arts Award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in online games that launched in the 12 months to May 2010 - including, but not limited to, character and animation design, interface design, and 2D or 3D art creation and direction of all kinds.

The Best Community Relations Award honors the currently operating online game that provides the highest quality community feedback and experience, including customer support, forum moderation and leadership, weblog and information updates, real-life events, and other community outreach.

The Best Online Technical Award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in an online game that launched in the 12 months to May 2010. This includes excellence in complexity of network infrastructure, persistent world coding, graphics technology, artificial intelligence, or any other elements.

The Best Social Network Game Award recognizes the best game that launched on a social network such as Facebook or MySpace in open beta or full version in the year to May 2010, honoring the most outstanding title in terms of overall depth, execution and quality in the space.

The Best Audio for an Online Game Award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in an online game that launched in the 12 months to May 2010 - including sound effects, musical composition, and overall sound design for an online title.

The Best New Online Game Award recognizes excellence in any online-specific game, including MMOs, free to play titles and social network games that launched to the public in open beta or full versions in the twelve months ending May 2010.

The Best Live Game Award recognizes the best currently-operating online game - distinguishing itself by that exceptional new content through expansion packs, patches, or other updates in the last 12 months, as well as a vibrant player community, high-quality community management and network operation during that period.

Special Awards

The Online Game Legend Award recognizes the career and achievements of one particular creator who has made an indelible impact on the craft of online game development.

The GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame recognizes a specific online game that has resulted in the long-term advancement of the medium, pioneering major shifts in online game development and games as a whole.

More information about the Game Developers Choice Online Awards, which will take place on October 7th in Austin, is available at the official website for the event. The awards are co-located with the market-leading GDC Online event, which takes place from October 5th-8th at the Austin Convention Center, and for which registration is now open.

Organizers have debuted the latest round of GDC Europe talks, with Remedy on Alan Wake's art direction, design wisdom from Age Of Empires co-creator Bruce Shelley, and a motion control-centric postmortem of Red Steel 2.

The lectures are newly announced for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which takes place from August 16th-18th, and is -- for the second year -- located in Cologne, Germany. It takes place alongside the leading European consumer/trade GamesCom event, making the duo a must-attend for European and international game creators.

Some of the notable new speakers for the conference include the following:

- A lecture called 'Alan Wake: Light and Dark' has Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen discussing the multiple graphical techniques and work behind the Xbox 360 game's acclaimed atmosphere. As he notes: "How did the game's basic dualities of light vs. dark, sanity vs. insanity and real vs. supernatural echo in the design and visuals in order to support the story and create a memorable experience?"

- In 'Chilling Tales from Red Steel 2: How Motion Control Will/Won't Change The Future', Ubisoft creative director Jason VandenBerghe explains: "Red Steel 2 broke the mold, and proved that motion controls aren't just for the casual crowd... But sales were sluggish, and the team was confronted with extensive challenges in making real gameplay work with an entirely new input method." This honest lecture will explain what went right -- and wrong -- during the game's creation.

- Ensemble Studios (Age Of Empires) co-founder and design veteran Bruce Shelley is making a special appearance at GDC Europe to present 'Five Rules for Draft One of Your Game Design', and he'll share "five guidelines for the challenge of producing a complete first draft game design proposal, a road map to help designers focus their thoughts and get momentum on the process of 'getting it down.'"

These latest announcements are part of a major GDC Europe line-up that includes lectures and panels from 2K Czech talking Mafia 2, PopCap on Bejeweled Blitz, and an all-star Brink/Alan Wake/Mirror's Edge level design talk, plus a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent.

Previous announcements have included significant talks from Heavy Rain's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, APB and Split/Second, plus other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

Overall, the conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, is running alongside the major GamesCom event -- which non-student GDC Europe passholders will also gain free access to -- to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals.

For more information on specifics for GDC Europe -- for which reduced price registration is in place until July 21st -- interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

Organizers of Game Developers Conference China 2010 have announced main Online Game Business and Outsourcing tracks, plus Social and Mobile Summits and the Indie Game Summit/Fest, simultaneously calling for submissions for the December Shanghai event.

The call for submissions to present lectures, panels, and tutorials at the event is open now through Wednesday, July 21, 2010, and UBM TechWeb's third Chinese conference aims to provide a forum for local and international developers to explore business opportunities, expand their reach to a unique market, and discover the ongoing trends emerging within the region.

The two GDC China main conference tracks will focus both on global game development and outsourcing, as well as on the business and development of online games.

In addition, the conference will feature three dedicated summits, each providing a laser focus on some of the industry's top trends: the Mobile Games Summit, the Independent Games Summit, and the new Social Games Summit.

This year, GDC China will introduce a new summit to its lineup, the Social Games Summit. Sitting at the intersection of social networking services and the online games market, the summit will bring together leading thinkers and business people to provide attendees a snapshot of the social network game industry and where it is going

GDC China -- part of the UBM Techweb Game Network, as is this website -- will also feature the return of the Independent Games Festival China, the regional competition that recognizes the best independent game developers and student creators from the Asia-Pacific area. More information on entry timing for IGF China will debut in the near future.

"The importance of the Chinese development community to the global games industry continues to grow, and we feel it's the responsibility of the Game Developers Conference to grow alongside it and provide a destination for learning, networking and inspiration," said Meggan Scavio, event director.

"The return of our core products, the Independent Games Festival and Mobile Games Summit, together with the new Social Games Summit are our response to the broadening of the industry worldwide and our wish to create opportunity for Chinese game makers."

GDC China returns to the Shanghai International Convention Center in Shanghai, China for three days, December 5-7, 2010. To submit your lectures, please visit the official GDC China Call For Papers site, and check out the full GDC China site for more information on the event as a whole.

GDC Europe organizers have announced major new speakers for the August event in Cologne alongside Gamescom, with 2K Czech talking Mafia 2, PopCap on Bejeweled Blitz, an all-star level design talk, and a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent.

Following major recent talks announced from Heavy Rain's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, APB and Split/Second, the new talks further expand the leading European video game conference, which takes place on August 16th-18th in Cologne, Germany.

Some of the notable new speakers for the conference include the following:

- Level designers from major games Brink, Mirror's Edge and Alan Wake combine for the collaborative talk 'The Tao of Level Design: A Study of 3 AAA Games', with Splash Damage's Neil Alphonso, EA DICE's Elisabetta Silli and Remedy's Mikael Kasurinen posing the following question: "Are level design approaches for radically different games inherently similar, or do accepted methods need to be drastically altered to fit the unique nature of the project?"

- Talking in a notable technical lecture called 'The Living City In Mafia 2', 2K Czech lead programmer Jan Kratochvil will explain "creating a visually attractive city", with particular reference to 2K's much-awaited console and PC title. Facets discussed will include the algorithms for spawning and despawning pedestrians and cars, the AI for NPCs, and "examples and the most interesting issues we had to solve over the years of development of Mafia 2."

- In 'Postmortem: Bejeweled Blitz, Cross-Platform Social Gaming in Practice', PopCap Games co-founder Jason Kapalka discusses the acclaimed social puzzle game, which "gained over 10 million active players on [Facebook] before going on to be adapted for the iPhone and as a PC-downloadable product." The session will go over the important design and technical challenges that PopCap's teams faced, explain successes and failures, and discuss what lessons have been learned from the process.

- In a Design Track highlight, Digital Chocolate's noted social game designer Aki Jarvinen will present 'Viral Mechanics Uncovered', a design lecture "combining psychological concepts such as persuasion with game design principles" to look at case studies of popular Facebook/social games' viral features -- pinpointing how viral loops have been successfully created via specific mechanics.

In addition to these major announcements, GDC Europe organizers have announced a keynote for the event from Bo Wang, Vice President of Tencent Games. In his keynote, 'Bridging the East and West: The Tencent Games Story', Wang will address -- in Tencent's first ever lecture to Western game creators -- the success story of one of the largest online gaming companies and virtual currency providers in China, and its development plans for the future.

Tencent was founded in 1998, and is particularly well known for its instant messaging system QQ, which has 568 million registered users in China as of March 2010, as well as the major QQ Game portal, which runs and operates a host of casual games and MMOs to one of the biggest worldwide audiences.

These talks add to an already packed GDC Europe line-up that includes additional talks from Sony, Playdom, Crytek, and a keynote from German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO), with multiple keynotes and more major conference content still to be announced.

Overall, the conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, will once again run alongside the major GamesCom event -- which non-student GDC Europe passholders will also gain free access to -- to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals.

For more information on specifics for GDC Europe -- for which registration is now open -- interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

As this October's GDC Online -- formerly called GDC Austin -- prepares for first content announcements, the Texas-based show has added Playfish and Electric Bat execs to BioWare, Nexon, SOE, and Zenimax notables on its Advisory Board.

The GDC Online Advisory Board, which is also helping oversee the newly revealed Game Developers Choice Online Awards, is intimately involved in selecting content for the October 5th-8th show at the Austin Convention Center.

Board members individually rate each GDC Online lecture submission. They also meet in person multiple times yearly to decide final lectures and keynotes from submissions and invitations -- making sure GDC Online remains the leading worldwide game industry event to concentrate specifically on social games, free-to-play titles, MMOs, and more.

At last week's GDC Online board meeting in Austin, existing board members were joined by new recruits in the form of Sebastien de Halleux, VP of EA Interactive and Playfish co-founder, and Cindy Armstrong, Webzen and SOE veteran and Electric Bat Interactive CEO.

Following Electronic Arts' $300 million acquisition of social game company Playfish in November 2009, De Halleux -- who helped head up the Pet Society creator -- now works on "monetization, business development, and relationships" with key partners across the division's three business units, Playfish, Pogo and EA Mobile.

Armstrong, who has been a high-profile executive in the online games space for many years -- previously as CEO of Webzen America and Vice President of Business Development at Sony Online Entertainment -- is currently president and CEO of Electric Bat Interactive, who are working on online 'layered reality gaming' including WebLords and Weblings.

The duo joins leading figures from the online game industry on the active Advisory Board which includes Gordon Walton and Rich Vogel of BioWare Austin (Star Wars: The Old Republic), online design notable Raph Koster (Metaplace), Nexon America VP Min Kim (MapleStory, Combat Arms), and Schell Games' Sheri Graner Ray (the newly announced The Mummy Online).

Also represented on the board are Sony Online Entertainment's John Blakely (DC Universe Online, PoxNora), ex-Disney and current Hangout Industries exec Mike Goslin, EA Mythic GM Eugene Evans (Warhammer Online), ICO Partners' Thomas Bidaux, and Zenimax Online's Matt Firor.

Following last week's Advisory Board meeting, first lectures for GDC Online should be announced in the near future, with invitations in the process of being extended to many more of the online game industry's leading players.

More information on the major online game event, which will include an Expo Floor with the major companies in the space, the GDC Online Awards, and co-located Summits on notable topics like iPad/iPhone games and 3D stereoscopic games, is available at the official GDC Online website.

The 2010 GDC China Chengdu Forum's first event, held in late April, was a success, organizers say. The event, co-organized by Game Developers Conference organizers UBM together with the Chengdu Municipal Government, took place in Chengdu City's New Int'l Convention & Exposition Centre.

With the themes of game outsourcing and talent cultivation, the Forum accelerated the current momentum in the area of government entities, studios and local institutions working together to promote industry advancement in Chengdu and other Western cities in China.

The Forum adhered to GDC's "content-first" tradition, and partnered with leading game developers to program the most relevant content to the local development community.

There were a number of standout sessions, such as "The Relationship between Chinese Art Requirements and the Outsourcing Industry" delivered by Daisong Guan, Director of Art R&D Center from Shanda Games; "Game Outsourcing for The Global Market" by Aaron Pulkka, Director of Production from Activision; and "How to Transform Game Lovers into Game Developers" by Monte Singman, CEO of Radiance Software (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Partners.

With GDC's major resources and reputation within the industry, experts from home and abroad were invited as honored speakers, providing the Chengdu attendees a rare opportunity to meet and network with their international peers. For the Western area-based game companies in attendance, the Chengdu event allowed a first-hand introduction to an area experiencing rapid growth within the game industry.

Considered a highlight of the 8th Annual China International Software Fair, this GDC China-organized high-level forum in Chengdu successfully attracted more than 300 professionals from major companies in the space from Activision, Ubisoft, EA, Virtuos, Eidos, Pearl Digital, Chengdu Sheer, Shanda Games, Kingsoft, Tencent, and more.

This event was a precursor to the main GDC China 2010 conference, which is scheduled for December 5-7 at the Shanghai International Convention Center, and will expand and build upon the major topics and issues raised at the Chengdu Forum.

This December's event will follow on from the successful GDC China event in October 2009, which saw almost 3,000 attendees and keynotes from Prince Of Persia's Jordan Mechner and Nexon's Min Kim, GDC China 2010 will again present major Chinese and international speakers.

The 2010 event will discuss online and social games in China, major business trends in the Asian market, the state of video game outsourcing, the evolution of mobile game markets in the region, and many other cutting-edge topics.

Continuing their Game Developers Conference 2010 free video lecture series, organizers have debuted well-received lectures from Amy Jo Kim (on meta-game design) and Bob Bates (on 'living a creative life' in games.)

The two new lectures, both highly rated by GDC attendees, are part of a free update published at the GDC Vault website, and feature video technology that allows users to simultaneously view a presenter's slides alongside video and audio of their presentation.

The first talk to be made freely available in this set is 'Meta-Game Design: Reward Systems that Drive Engagement', originally presented at the Social & Online Games Summit by Shufflebrain co-founder and veteran social game/community designer Amy Jo Kim.

Kim, whose clients have included Electronic Arts, Sony, Disney, eBay, MTV, Square Enix and Harmonix, presents an in-depth look at 'metagame design', that is, "the practice of applying game-like reward and feedback systems to non-game applications for the purpose of driving loyalty and engagement".

In the 30 minute talk, the designer and consultant examines games like FarmVille and websites like Stack Overflow to see how clever incentivizing can make -- or break -- your product, whether it sits in the game space, web space, or somewhere in between.

The second lecture available for free is 'The Belly of the Whale: Living a Creative Life in the Game Industry' from 25-year industry veteran Bob Bates (Infocom, Legend Entertainment). The designer, who has worked on dozens of games since he started at seminal adventure game creator Infocom in 1986, explains his talk as follows: "Every year, thousands of people enter the games industry, believing they have found their 'dream job.' Five years later, half of them are gone."

As Bates goes on to explain of the inspirational bit practical hour-long lecture: "This talk addresses the problems of leading a creative life in our business, identifying traps and pitfalls, but also offering specific solutions to the challenges we all face."

In addition to these lectures, GDC Vault's free videos section includes talks from Zynga, Ernest Adams, and NCsoft, plus highly rated lectures featuring 2D Boy's Ron Carmel and Bungie's Brian Sharp, Brenda Brathwaite and geoDefense creator Doug Whatley, plus social game experts Neil Young (Ngmoco) and Michael Acton Smith (Moshi Monsters).

The free recordings available are a fraction of the content currently being flowed into the GDC Vault. Full GDC Vault access, including synchronized video recordings for over 200 of GDC 2010's sessions and hundreds of historical video and audio recordings, is available to GDC 2010 All-Access Pass holders, as well as All-Access Pass holders for other GDC events during the year.

In addition, development studios and schools who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available by contacting Suzanne Cunningham or viewing an online demonstration. Individual Vault subscriptions not tied to All-Access passes are being considered for a 2011 launch.

Organizers of this October's GDC Online conference (formerly known as GDC Austin) have announced that they will host the first annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards, to recognize the rich history, technical excellence, and continued innovation in the arena of online games.

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

In addition, two special awards will honor outstanding individuals and games in the space, with the Online Game Legend Award being given to a person who's changed the world of online games forever, and one particular all-time classic online game being inducted into the GDC Online Awards' Hall Of Fame.

After award finalists are announced, the worldwide community of online game players will also have the opportunity to designate their favorite online game in the Audience Award category.

Nominations are now open, and game professionals with free Gamasutra.com user accounts can put forward their favorite online games for the awards. The GDC Online Awards are a sister event to the Game Developers Choice Awards which take place at GDC San Francisco every year.

The award categories and this year's Special Award winners will be determined by the GDC Online Advisory Board. This group includes notables like BioWare Austin's Gordon Walton, Metaplace's Raph Koster, Playfish's Sebastien De Halleux, and Nexon's Min Kim.

Winners for the Game Developers Choice Online Awards will be selected by a specially selected subset of the International Choice Awards Network (ICAN). This is the same group of over 500 handpicked leading industry creators that pick the Game Developers Choice Awards winners at GDC in San Francisco every year.

The full list of categories for the first annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards include:

Regular Awards

The Best Online Game Design Award honors the overall excellence of design in an online game that launched in public beta or full version in the year to May 2010. This category recognizes the best social-specific gameplay mechanics, quest design, and other major game design elements.

The Audience Award honors the favorite game of the worldwide online game community. After initial developer-specific nominations, members of the public will be able to vote on their favorite currently operating online game, with options from the Game Developers Choice Online finalists and beyond.

The Best Online Visual Arts Award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in online games that launched in the 12 months to May 2010 - including, but not limited to, character and animation design, interface design, and 2D or 3D art creation and direction of all kinds.

The Best Community Relations Award honors the currently operating online game that provides the highest quality community feedback and experience, including customer support, forum moderation and leadership, weblog and information updates, real-life events, and other community outreach.

The Best Online Technical Award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in an online game that launched in the 12 months to May 2010. This includes excellence in complexity of network infrastructure, persistent world coding, graphics technology, artificial intelligence, or any other elements.

The Best Social Network Game Award recognizes the best game that launched on a social network such as Facebook or MySpace in open beta or full version in the year to May 2010, honoring the most outstanding title in terms of overall depth, execution and quality in the space.

The Best Audio for an Online Game Award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in an online game that launched in the 12 months to May 2010 - including sound effects, musical composition, and overall sound design for an online title.

The Best New Online Game Award recognizes excellence in any online-specific game, including MMOs, free to play titles and social network games that launched to the public in open beta or full versions in the twelve months ending May 2010.

The Best Live Game Award recognizes the best currently-operating online game - distinguishing itself by that exceptional new content through expansion packs, patches, or other updates in the last 12 months, as well as a vibrant player community, high-quality community management and network operation during that period.

Special Awards

The Online Game Legend Award recognizes the career and achievements of one particular creator who has made an indelible impact on the craft of online game development.

The GDC Online Awards Hall of Fame recognizes a specific online game that has resulted in the long-term advancement of the medium, pioneering major shifts in online game development and games as a whole.

More information about the Game Developers Choice Online Awards, which will take place on October 7th in Austin, is available at the official website for the event. The awards are co-located with the market-leading GDC Online event, which takes place from October 5th-8th at the Austin Convention Center, and for which registration is now open.

GDC Europe organizers have revealed major new speakers for its August 2010 event in Cologne, including a Heavy Rain postmortem from David Cage, plus detailed talks from the creators of Crysis 2, APB and Split/Second.

The latest announcements follow details of a keynote from Bigpoint and initial lectures from notables from Playdom, Sony, and Playfish. These begin to flesh out the schedule for the major three-day European game development event, taking place for the second year on August 16th-18th in Cologne, Germany.

The notable new speakers for the conference, which is created by the UBM Techweb Game Network, include the following major new talks from leading video game creators:

- In 'Heavy Rain: How Far Are You Prepared to Go to Develop an Original Project?', David Cage "will be driving the audience through a detailed postmortem on the hurdles Quantic Dream had to overcome to produce a game such as Heavy Rain", looking at making the "babylonian production while trying to keep creative control."

- InstantAction's Lou Castle is debuting a notable Business Track lecture called 'Baggies, DVDs and Bitstreams: How to Reinvent Yourself in a Dynamic Market', and the Westwood co-founder (Command & Conquer) will showcase thought-provoking opinions, "offering several specific methods of retaining and refocusing your personal outlook and, therefore, your professional career in games."

- 'The Art and Visual Styling of Crysis 2' is the title of a lecture by Crytek senior art director Frank Kitson, discussing the process of defining and shaping the visual styling the much-awaited action title. It will "offer practical techniques of defining color space and getting to the core of building a compelling visual image, as well as how to define key visual requirements and build a unique visual language that is consistent across an entire game."

- Black Rock's Matthew Rubin presents a lecture called 'Rigged to Blow: Powerplay Pipeline for Split/Second', looking at authoring set pieces and destructible environments for the acclaimed Disney racing game. Each stage of the data-driven pipeline will be discussed, including early prototyping, fracture modeling, rigging and animation, collision attachment, timeline and game event authoring, layering of audio and visual effects, real-time previewing and in-game play testing.

- Realtime Worlds' Joshua Howard will present 'APB's Beta Postmortem (And How We Changed Realtime Worlds Along the Way)', honestly discussing -- with regard to the PC MMO beta from the co-creator of Grand Thef Auto -- "what... worked and didn't work, what we learned along the way, and how the drive to go live served as a forcing function for a variety of changes that needed to be made."

The second GDC Europe event takes place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, alongside the major GamesCom public/trade event. All non-student GDC Europe passholders will receive a four-day pass to attend GamesCom, which includes hardware and game exhibits from all of the industry's biggest names, from Sony and Nintendo through EA, Ubisoft and beyond.

For more information on specifics for GDC Europe -- for which registration is now open -- interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

Organizers of the 2010 Game Developers Conference Canada, co-produced by UBM TechWeb Game Network and Reboot Communications, have announced that more than 775 game industry professionals gathered last week for two days of learning, networking and inspiration at the Vancouver Convention Center.

With attendance numbers comparable to last year's, GDC Canada 2010 provided opportunities for sharing knowledge, making new connections and celebrating the passion and dedication of fellow Canadian game-makers.

With more than 35 lectures, panels, and sessions covering best-practices that studios should implement to develop successful franchises for consoles, iPhone games and digitally distributed titles, the conference was successful in inspiring Canadian developers to share experiences for fostering ingenuity and quality games.

GDC Canada featured the Game Career Seminar, an expo area, business to business lounge and networking receptions where attendees met with representatives from Epic Games, Radical, Relic, Blue Castle, Hansoft and Sony Computer Entertainment, among others.

"It was our honor to host some of the most dedicated and talented developers at GDC Canada this year," said Izora de Lillard, event director of GDC Canada. ?The event was a great opportunity for the developer community to network with like minded professionals and learn best practices for developing big global titles and understanding emerging digital distribution models."

Bill Mooney, a Vice President at Zynga Studios and General Manager of FarmVille, kicked off GDC Canada with a keynote that provided a deeper dive into the evolving social gaming space and its future. The talk elaborated on development and business trends in social games, using prominent Zynga titles as case studies, including FarmVille and Mafia Wars, whose soaring popularity has helped the Facebook-based games garner tens of millions of active users. Full details on multiple GDC Canada talks are available via Gamasutra.com's event coverage.

Going forward, in May 2011, Reboot Communications will continue to serve the Canadian development community in Vancouver with a major video game conference as part of Vancouver Interactive Digital Week 2011.

UBM TechWeb is pleased to continue to participate in the 2011 event in Vancouver, in the form of a specialized 'Best of GDC' Track. This partnership with Reboot will bring top GDC lectures from worldwide to the Canadian audience for the first time, and more information on plans will be available later in 2010.

Continuing their Game Developers Conference 2010 free video lecture series, show organizers have debuted well-received lectures on social/free to play games by Ngmoco's Neil Young and Moshi Monsters' Michael Acton Smith.

The two new lectures, both highly rated by GDC attendees, are part of a free bi-weekly update published at the GDC Vault website, and feature video technology that allows users to simultaneously view a presenter's slides alongside video and audio of their presentation.

Firstly, organizers are presenting Neil Young's Business & Management Track keynote from GDC 2010, 'Things to Unlearn Moving From Traditional Development to the New Digital World'. Young, who is CEO & founder of iPhone/iPad centric publisher/developer ngmoco (TouchPets, We Rule, Rolando) "talks candidly about the challenges that traditional game developers face" in this new market.

Young, who was previously a long-time EA executive (Majestic) discusses "transitioning from long development cycles, packaged goods and the one time sale to the essential new models of games as a service, virtual goods, data driven design & minimum viable products" in this highly-rated GDC lecture.

The second lecture available for free is from the popular Social & Online Games Summit, and features Mind Candy's Michael Acton Smith discussing 'Lessons Learned Building Moshi Monsters to 15 Million Users'. The highly successful webbased game in question, Moshi Monsters, is a social online game for kids (7-11 year olds).

As Acton Smith explains in his lecture description, the title is "an unusual mix between Tamagotchi, Brain Training and Facebook." The game launched in April 2008, and "hit its tipping point in 2009, when 9 million more players joined." The session then goes into detail about what the team learned during this intense period of growth -- also discussion how traffic was acquired, and which acquisition channels have been most effective.

In addition to these lectures, GDC Vault's free videos section includes talks from Zynga, Ernest Adams, and NCsoft, plus highly rated lectures featuring 2D Boy's Ron Carmel and Bungie's Brian Sharp and Brenda Brathwaite plus geoDefense's creator Doug Whatley.

The free recordings available are a fraction of the content currently being flowed into the GDC Vault. Full GDC Vault access, including synchronized video recordings for over 200 of GDC 2010's sessions and hundreds of historical video and audio recordings, is available to GDC 2010 All-Access Pass holders, as well as All-Access Pass holders for other GDC events during the year.

In addition, development studios and schools who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available by contacting Suzanne Cunningham or viewing an online demonstration. Individual Vault subscriptions not tied to All-Access passes are being considered for a 2011 launch.

GDC Europe organizers have announced the first keynote for the August event in Cologne, with Heiko Hubertz, CEO of dominant German online game firm BigPoint discussing elements likely to include the company's NBC backing, the Battlestar Galactica MMO, and pointers for business success.

BigPoint, which was founded in 2002, now employs 340 employees in Hamburg, Germany. Its runaway financial success in the browser game marketplace led to NBC taking a 35% stake in the firm in 2008.

As a result, the company recently opened a U.S. office, announcing a major partnership with engine firm Unity and an MMO based on NBC Universal's Battlestar Galactica property along the way.

Company founder Hubertz is likely to discuss the firm's history, trends in the industry, and tips to succeed in the competitive online game business as a major keynote for GDC Europe, which is ramping up announcements for its second event.

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, will once again run alongside the major GamesCom event to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals.

By once again pairing GDC Europe with GamesCom, Europe's leading consumer and industry show, the conference can offer content to address the development community at a central location in the heart of Europe and command the critical mass of the European games sector. In 2009, its first year, GDC Europe saw more than 1,500 participants, including 130 international speakers, 40 exhibitors and 240 media representatives.

For more information on GDC Europe, including location and how to purchase passes -- for which registration is now open -- interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

As GDC Canada nears, organizers have added key lectures for the May 6th-7th Vancouver event, including a BioWare duo on Dragon Age and former EA exec and current VC Glenn Entis on funding for game developers.

These confirmations come on the heels of already-announced emerging market lectures from Zynga and Diner Dash creator Nick Fortugno, and other recently debuted talks from Obsidian, Blizzard, Telltale, and Blue Castle Games execs and creators.

The new set of lectures round out a major program of events at the Vancouver, Canada-based show which include lectures on console and emerging markets. Some of the top new talks include:

- 'Bringing Dragon Age to Life - Digital Actors in an Epic RPG' features BioWare's lead animator Clove Roy and lead character artist Shane Hawco who will "provide an in-depth look in how to tell a huge complex story through an interactive narrative, complete with hundreds of emotionally engaging digital actors" for the Canadian-developed hit title Dragon Age: Origins.

- In 'Funding for Game Developers - Do's and Don'ts', Vanedge Capital co-founder Glenn Entis, formerly CTO of Electronic Arts and now running a game-focused VC fund, will give "an overview of what it takes to fund a young company or game development studio."

- Other notable GDC Canada lectures that have just debuted details include updates of high-rated GDC 2010 talks, including Bungie's Brian Sharp on 'Concrete Practices to be a Better Leader', and Critical Thought's David Whatley on 'Striking it Rich with iPhone Games: The geoDefense Example' -- plus Disney's Howard Donaldson debuting a talk on tax credits and game development.

GDC Canada tracks will also focus on hot game industry topics including digital distribution, social games, and iPhone games, with a full schedule of announced lectures now available.

The show, presented by Reboot Communications and the UBM Techweb Game Network, will also host newly confirmed evening parties and networking events, as well as an expo hall. In addition, the debut of the Canadian Videogame Awards will occur the night before the show starts.

More information on the 2010 GDC Canada event, including pricing specifics, a full list of lectures and registration deadlines are available on the official GDC Canada website.

2010 GDC Online organizers have announced that the call for submissions is open for the leading online game-focused conference, which takes place this October 5-8 in Austin, Texas.

GDC Online, formerly known as GDC Austin, is now accepting submissions through midnight EDT on Wednesday, May 19th to present lectures, roundtables, tutorials and panel sessions at the largest worldwide industry event to concentrate specifically on social games, free-to-play titles, MMOs, and more.

To address the unprecedented growth in the online and social game space over the last year, development and business-oriented submissions for GDC Online are being sought after, in content tracks including Business and Marketing, Design, Production, and Programming.

Notably new to this year?s event is the ?Live? track, which will discuss successful post-launch strategies to help increase profitability and retention. This topic covers metric-driven live development, design patterns for viral mechanics, and the balance between customer service and community relations.

GDC Online is keenly focused on development of connected games including social network titles, free-to-play web games, kid-friendly online titles, large-scale MMOs, and more, with a leading advisory board guiding the evaluation and choice of lectures.

In addition to the main conference content, GDC Online will present specialized Summit programs, with in-depth business and technical advice on major up-and-coming facets of the game industry, including 3D stereoscopic games and iPad development.

Submissions are now also being accepted for these Summits, including the iPhone Games Summit, the Game Narrative Summit, the 3D Stereoscopic Games Summit and the iPad Gaming Summit, following the recent announcement of these events on the first two days of the conference.

"While the name of the conference has changed, GDC Online will continue its heritage of presenting the most knowledgeable speakers on the vital online game space, alongside other emerging markets", said Izora de Lillard, event director of GDC Online. "This October, Austin, Texas will be the epicenter for established developers and industry trailblazers to come together, learn, and continue to grow the connected gaming space."

GDC Online will take place October 5-8, 2010 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. To learn more about the submissions guidelines and conference topics for GDC Online, for which registration will open in the near future, visit the official GDC Online website.

2010 Game Developers Conference Europe organizers are reminding potential speakers that submissions are still open for the August event, with a final deadline at the end of Friday, April 23rd.

The event, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, will once again run alongside the major GamesCom event to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals.

The event is asking for session proposals beginning now, through via the official GDC Europe website. Lectures and panel proposals are being solicited from the international game developer community for all five of this year's conference tracks, which include Business & Management, Game Design, Production, Technology, and Visual Arts.

The event marks a return for the successful conference, which in 2009, its first year, saw more than 1,500 participants, including 130 international speakers, 40 exhibitors and 240 media representatives.

With the expansion of European developers focused on online and browser-based games, GDC Europe will focus one day of the event, August 17th, to cover social networks and online games, as well as key emerging markets in the region.

By once again pairing GDC Europe with GamesCom, Europe's leading consumer and industry show, the conference can offer content to address the development community at a central location in the heart of Europe and command the critical mass of the European games sector.

For more information on GDC Europe, for which registration is now open, interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

The organizers of next month's GDC Canada event in Vancouver are offering free Main Conference passes to Canadian game developers laid off in the last twelve months to help them return to the game industry.

Continuing a similar program conducted during GDC Canada 2009, and recognizing the toll the recession has taken on elements of the mainstream video game industry, a special page on the GDC Canada website details the offer's specifics.

To qualify, prospective attendees must have been laid off from a Canadian video game or creative/digital arts company within the past 12 months, not be currently full-time employed, and provide their Canadian Record of Employment document at GDC Canada onsite registration to validate your status.

They will also need to pre-register now for the May 6th-7th event at the Vancouver Convention Center by following the instructions on the GDC Canada page devoted to the subject. Only a limited amount of these passes are available.

The GDC Canada event itself has now confirmed much of its content, with a full schedule of announced lectures now available, and the Canadian Videogame Awards now confirmed for the night before the event.

Highlighted lectures for GDC Canada, which is presented by Reboot Communications and this website's parent the UBM Techweb Game Network, include a FarmVille-related keynote plus talks from the Dead Rising 2 and Fallout: New Vegas creators.

The event will also host a Game Career Seminar on the Friday of the show, plus evening networking events, as well as an expo hall including a number of career booths from local Canadian companies hiring staff.

More information on the 2010 GDC Canada event, including pricing specifics, lectures announced to date and registration deadlines are available on the official GDC Canada website.

GDC organizers have debuted two new free lecture videos recorded at Game Developers Conference 2010, including acclaimed talks from Train boardgame creator Brenda Brathwaite and iPhone geoDefense maker David Whatley.

The two new lectures, both highly rated by GDC attendees, are part of a free bi-weekly update published at the GDC Vault website, and feature video technology that allows users to simultaneously view a presenter's slides alongside video and audio of their presentation.

Firstly, Brenda Brathwaite's Design Track talk 'Train (or How I Dumped Electricity and Learned to Love Design)' sees the Slide creative director and veteran developer (Wizardry) discuss why she "shut off her computer and consoles and began to consume dozens of non-digital games from all over the world", after "playing a run of games that both looked and played the same."

In this lecture, Brathwaite talks about the design process of her series the Mechanic is the Message and specifically the award-winning board game Train, and "shares what she learned from our brothers and sisters in that other medium when she cut the cord, became incredibly inspired, and learned to love design."

The second lecture available for free is one of the highest rated by attendees of this year's iPhone Games Summit, 'From Zero to Time Magazine: App Success' from Critical Thought's David Whatley -- also the President and CEO of HeroEngine creator Simutronics.

Whatley explains in his lecture overview: "Making an iPhone App is easy. Making a successful business from it takes more than technical know-how. This talk takes you through the journey of the geoDefense line of iPhone games, how they were designed, developed and promoted to take them from obscurity to [an inclusion in] the Time Magazine 'Best of Everything 2009' Award."

Elsewhere in the in-depth iPhone Games Summit talk, you'll "gain insight into the pivotal fundamentals you have to get right in order to have a shot at the top of the rankings and financial success. The terrain is changing fast, and here is where you'll learn what things to focus on and what things to ignore."

In addition to these lectures, GDC Vault's free videos section includes multiple, previously-announced selection from Game Developers Conference 2010, including talks from Zynga, Ernest Adams, and NCsoft, plus a newer set of highly rated lectures featuring 2D Boy's Ron Carmel and Bungie's Brian Sharp.

The free recordings available are a fraction of the content currently being flowed into the GDC Vault. Full GDC Vault access, including synchronized video recordings for over 200 of GDC 2010's sessions and hundreds of historical video and audio recordings, is available to GDC 2010 All-Access Pass holders, as well as All-Access Pass holders for other GDC events during the year.

In addition, development studios and schools who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available by contacting Suzanne Cunningham or viewing an online demonstration. Individual Vault subscriptions not tied to All-Access passes are being considered for a 2011 launch.

Organizers of this October's GDC Online game conference in Austin have confirmed Summits to run parallel with the major event, including one and two-day events dedicated to game development on Apple?s iPad, 3D stereoscopic games, iPhone games and video game narrative.

The summits, to be held on the first two days (October 5th and 6th) of the four-day event, will present key in-depth business and technical advice in these major up-and-coming facets of the game industry, ahead of the online game-centric Main Conference content.

The newly revealed topics to be presented at the Game Developers Conference Online (formerly known as GDC Austin) this October include the following:

iPad Gaming Summit

Debuting at GDC Online, the one-day iPad Gaming Summit, paired with the iPhone Games Summit, will provide an abundance of key facts and advice for all those working on the iPhone and iPad platforms.

Sharing key business learnings to top technical takeaways from developers already surging to major success on this already extremely competitive format platform, the iPad Summit provides a springboard into the world of iPhone/iPad game development.

3D Stereoscopic Gaming Summit

In another Summit debut, the one-day 3D Stereoscopic Gaming Summit will be the first GDC event to explore the world of 3D stereoscopic gaming in depth.

With 3D-capable movies such as Avatar and Alice In Wonderland topping the worldwide box office for multiple weeks, and graphics engine companies and console manufacturers alike touting the rise of 3D in gaming, the 3D Stereoscopic Gaming Summit will gather industry experts to explain and demonstrate the latest advances in the area.

Sessions will cover how to build 3D support into future games, potential technical barriers and solutions, and an analysis of key trends surrounding hardware adoption and penetration.

iPhone Games Summit

Returning to Austin after its successful debut in 2009, the third iPhone Games Summit will once again bring together top game developers from around the world to share ideas, best practices and discuss the future of this revolutionary platform.

This one-day summit, paired with the iPad Summit on the following day, will focus on driving business and marketing strategies and how to truly succeed through micro-transactions through the iPhone 4.0 operating system and beyond.

With advice from successful iPhone game companies, leading speakers and advisors in the space this event will be a must-attend for those in the space, or just looking to learn more about this space.

Game Narrative Summit

The 2010 Game Narrative Summit, evolving in name and intent from the long-running Game Writers Summit, is dedicated to exploring the state and future of storytelling in video games - all the way from emerging independent and social game experiences to the biggest AAA game titles.

The two-day event will span all facets of the game story-making process and will bring together experts from the writing, design and creative game communities to showcase what interactive entertainment can do with storytelling - and why it's so vital to the future of video games.

Sessions will address the art of writing scripts that seamlessly integrate into major console and online game titles with the new breed of story experiences, centered in anything from ARGs to Facebook games.

Summit Call For Submissions To Open Soon

"With this new batch of specialized summits, GDC Online proves once again that this event is at the forefront of the emerging technologies and platforms of the future," says Izora De Lillard, Event Manager of GDC Online. "Alongside the key online game event this October, we're proud to present these summits on the new technologies that make a difference in today's game business."

In addition to these Summits, the three days of GDC Online main conference sessions will offer a host of business, marketing, design and technical content vital to those making social network titles, free-to-play web games, kid-friendly online titles, larger-scale MMOs, or experimenting with other online gaming genres.

GDC Online 2010 takes place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas from October 5th to the 8th. The call for submissions for both GDC Online summits and main conference sessions will open in the near future, and more information will be available at the GDC Online website in the near future.

GDC Canada organizers have revealed initial Game Career Seminar lectures for the May 6th-7th Vancouver event, also adding a Main Conference lecture by Disney and ex-Radical execs on the harsh 'new realities' of making major console games.

As well as already-announced emerging market lectures from Zynga and the Diner Dash creator and other recently debuted talks from Obsidian, Blizzard, Telltale, and Blue Castle Games execs and creators, the event is starting to debut details on this year's Game Career Seminar.

Held on Friday, May 7th, and a one-day program designed for students and individuals interested in learning how to build a career in the video game industry, the first two GDC Canada Game Career Seminar lectures have debuted via the event's Schedule Builder, as follows:

- In a GCS keynote entitled 'From Air Guitar to Video Games Live (and PBS!): A Conversation with Tommy Tallarico', veteran video game composer and Video Games Live co-creator Tommy Tallarico will talk to Victor Lucas about his career in the industry, from Earthworm Jim through the present day, and his work to popularize video game music -- giving helpful hints and tips for those looking for a longlasting career making video games.

- In a practical Game Career Seminar lecture, 'Preparation (Don't Give Us a Reason to Reject You!)', Obsidian Entertainment's Jim Rivers, the hiring manager for the Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol creators, explains of his lecture description: "Every convention, college or job fair people ask me one question. How do I get my foot in the door? I always answer 'Preparation!'... So I invite you to learn what to do to become prepared, and not give us a reason to reject you."

In addition, several new Main Conference lectures have been announced, including a key new panel featuring Disney's Howard Donaldson and ex-Radical head Kelly Zmak, called 'Console Games ? New Realities Require New Strategies to Win'. As the introduction notes: "With average development budgets skyrocketing to $20+ million and established blockbuster titles costing $40+ million, profit margins are down." Therefore: "The ante for a hit title has gone up. If your title is not in the top 20 today, you probably are not making any money. As a result, it's tougher to get new funding green lit if you don't already have an established franchise." The talk will discuss the key ingredients for success in this tough market.

New GDC Canada tracks will also focus on hot game industry topics including digital distribution, social games, and iPhone games, with a full schedule of announced lectures now available. GDC Canada, presented by Reboot Communications and the UBM Techweb Game Network, will also host evening networking events, as well as an expo hall.

More information on the 2010 GDC Canada event, including pricing specifics, lectures announced to date and registration deadlines are available on the official GDC Canada website.

GDC organizers have released two new free lecture videos recorded at Game Developers Conference 2010, including 2D Boy's Ron Carmel on funding independent games and Bungie's Brian Sharp on compassionate leadership in game development.

The two new lectures, published at the GDC Vault website, feature video technology that allows users to simultaneously view a presenter's slides alongside video and audio of their presentation.

First, the Independent Games Summit at GDC this year was kicked off by Ron Carmel's lecture, 'Indies and Publishers: Fixing a System That Never Worked', for which the full video presentation is now available.

Carmel, co-founder of World Of Goo creator 2D Boy, is one of the key movers behind the recently-announced Indie Fund, an "angel"-style funding source for indie game makers, and his lecture and Q&A discusses his thoughts on the future of funding for independents.

The lecture begins with IGS co-organizers Matthew Wegner and Steve Swink introducing the Summit and making remarks about the state of independent games - click on the 'Indies and Publishers' link in the navigation window if you'd like to move straight to Ron's talk.

In addition, Bungie's Brian Sharp gave one of the highest-rated lectures of Game Developers Conference 2010 in the form of 'Concrete Practices to be a Better Leader', now also available for free at GDC Vault.

Game development veteran Sharp uses a clever custom slide deck and heartfelt techniques to discuss how to "distill leadership to its essential qualities with practical techniques for developing them", with inspiration "drawn from a wide range of sources, from serene Buddhist meditators in monasteries to freewheeling pickup artists in Hollywood penthouses."

Both lectures were originally presented at March's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, and show organizers will be posting new videos bi-weekly throughout the year on GDC Vault, which is designed to eventually showcase a decade or more of historical show recordings.

GDC Vault's free videos section includes a previously-announced selection from GDC 2010 featuring talks from Zynga, Ernest Adams, several 'art game' panelists, and NCsoft, as well as several lectures from previous GDC events.

The section also includes sponsored GDC 2010 sessions filmed in association with companies such as Intel, Palm, and Nvidia, including CCP (on EVE Online) and Firaxis (on Civilization V). 2010's sponsored videos are free to watch after entering a valid email address for sponsor information purposes, and 2009's sponsored videos are now free to watch without any restrictions.

The free recordings available are a fraction of the content currently being flowed into the GDC Vault. Full GDC Vault access, including synchronized video recordings for over 200 of GDC 2010's sessions and hundreds of historical video and audio recordings, is available to GDC 2010 All-Access Pass holders, as well as All-Access Pass holders for other GDC events during the year.

In addition, companies who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available by contacting Suzanne Cunningham or viewing an online demonstration. Individual Vault subscriptions not tied to All-Access passes are being considered for a 2011 launch.

Remedy Entertainment's Matias Myllyrinne has joined the advisory board of the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe, where he'll add his thoughts to the region's major event for industry professionals.

GDC Europe 2010, held by UBM TechWeb (also parent of this website) will be held August 16-18 in Cologne, Germany, alongside the Gamescom event to present a complete offering for developers, consumers, publishers and other trade professionals. The event's call for session proposals is still open until April 23.

Myllyrinne is executive director of Finnish Max Payne creator and Alan Wake developer Remedy. He's been with the studio since 1999 and is one of the key figures credited with the studio's rise to prominence.

"We are glad to have added Matias Myllyrinne, another key figure in the international games industry, to our advisory board," said Frank Sliwka, VP European Business Development of the UBM TechWeb Game Network and Event Director of GDC Europe. "He epitomizes the successful symbiosis between creative game development and successful marketing."

The advisory board's other members include Bob Bates (formerly of Infocom & Legend Entertainment); Don Daglow (Emmy-winning founder of Stormfront Studios); Alexander Fernandez (CEO, Streamline Studios); Sean Kauppinen (CEO, International Digital Entertainment Agency); Harald Riegler (CEO, Sproing), Frank Sliwka (VP European Business Development; UBM TechWeb Game Network and Event Director, GDC Europe), Robert Wallace (Principal, Strategic Alternatives) and Avni Yerli (Managing Director, Crytek).

Says Myllyrinne: "It's an honor to be a part of a conference that highlights the incredible talents of Europe's best developers. We look forward to seeing what the industry's leaders will present at the conference when the event begins on August 16th, 2010."

Interested parties can find further information on GDC Europe at the event's official website.