Search
HOME
MY ACCOUNT
VIEW CART
CHECKOUT






My Shopping Cart

[ 0 ] items in cart

View Cart | Checkout
Game Developer Research
bullet Research Reports

Gamasutra
bullet Contractor Listings

GDC Vault
bullet Individual Subscription

GDC Audio Recordings
bullet App Developers Conference 2013
bullet GDC Next 2013
bullet GDC Europe 2013
bullet GDC 2013
bullet GDC Online 2012
bullet GDC Europe 2012
bullet GDC 2012
bullet GDC 2011
bullet GDC 10
bullet GDC 09
bullet GDC Austin 08
bullet GDC Mobile 08
bullet GDC 08
bullet GDC Austin 07
bullet GDC Mobile 07
bullet GDC 07
bullet GDC 06
bullet GDC 05
bullet GDC 04
bullet GDC 03
bullet GDC 01
bullet GDC 2000 & Before

Newest Item(s)
bullet

Why Now Is the Best Time Ever to Be a Game Developer

Ingress: Design Principles Behind Google's Massively Multiplayer Geo Game

Playing with 'Game'

Gathering Your Party with Project Eternity (GDC Next 10)

D4: Dawn of the Dreaming Director's Drama (GDC Next 10)

Using Plot Devices to Create Gameplay in Storyteller (GDC Next 10)

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Making CounterSpy (GDC Next 10)

Luck and Skill in Games

Minimalist Game Design for Mobile Devices

Broken Age: Rethinking a Classic Genre for the Modern Era (GDC Next 10)

GDC 2011 Category

This category contains 313 products and 0 subcategories.

Sort By: with per page

226 - 250 of 313 results Results | 25 results per page
The Game Design of STARCRAFT II: Designing an E-Sport
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12248
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: The Game Design of STARCRAFT II: Designing an E-Sport
SPEAKER/S: Dustin Browder (Blizzard Entertainment)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Friday 9:30-10:30 Room 3014, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: Game Design , Production / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Designing an e-sport carries its own special challenges. The game has to be not only fun to play, but also fun to watch. The core design values of modern sports all feed into creating a game that can be played alone but can also be a live sporting event. Ultimately the decision to make an e-sport can have ripple effects that challenge developers on every aspect of the game from user-interface to the games story.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will learn how STARCRAFT II was designed from top to bottom as an e-sport that hopes to capture the imagination of fans, professional players and broadcasters around the world.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: This talk is intended for game developers who are interested in the special challenges in designing an e-sport and some of the solutions used by the STARCRAFT II team.

(Japanese Version) Break It Down! How Harmonix and Kinect Taught the World to Dance; The Design Process and Philosophy of DANCE CENTRAL
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12247JP
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Break It Down! How Harmonix and Kinect Taught the World to Dance; The Design Process and Philosophy of DANCE CENTRAL
SPEAKER/S: Matt Boch (Harmonix Music) and Dean Tate (Harmonix Music Systems)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Wednesday 3:00- 4:00 Room 135, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Game Design , Programming / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Join two Harmonix designers as they recount the story of how DANCE CENTRAL came to be. With the introduction of Kinect, Harmonix saw the opportunity to create a game it had long dreamt about, one that could make learning to dance as fun as dancing itself. Despite a dependency on evolving technology, in just over a year's development time the team managed to create a game that not only realized this dream but also became a genre defining experience for full-body motion gaming. In order to accomplish this feat, the team employed novel practices to shape and refine the goal, rule out interesting but problematic concepts, and ultimately drive towards the core mechanics of what is now DANCE CENTRAL.
TAKEAWAY: Developers will learn unconventional ways to approach exploratory prototyping when starting from scratch. Attendees will leave the talk with a greater awareness of the specific design and production challenges of full-body motion gaming and strategies to address them. They will also learn the pros and cons of utilizing game incentives for educational ends, as illustrated by DANCE CENTRAL's Break It Down mode.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: No prerequisite knowledge necessary. The talk will benefit developers and teams, regardless of discipline (designer, artist, etc), that are:
-Working with new technology
-Designing educational experiences
-Designing for motion controls
-Exploring new types of gameplay
OR
-Considering working with Kinect

(English Version) Break It Down! How Harmonix and Kinect Taught the World to Dance; The Design Process and Philosophy of DANCE CENTRAL
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12247EN
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Break It Down! How Harmonix and Kinect Taught the World to Dance; The Design Process and Philosophy of DANCE CENTRAL
SPEAKER/S: Matt Boch (Harmonix Music) and Dean Tate (Harmonix Music Systems)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Wednesday 3:00- 4:00 Room 135, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Game Design , Programming / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Join two Harmonix designers as they recount the story of how DANCE CENTRAL came to be. With the introduction of Kinect, Harmonix saw the opportunity to create a game it had long dreamt about, one that could make learning to dance as fun as dancing itself. Despite a dependency on evolving technology, in just over a year's development time the team managed to create a game that not only realized this dream but also became a genre defining experience for full-body motion gaming. In order to accomplish this feat, the team employed novel practices to shape and refine the goal, rule out interesting but problematic concepts, and ultimately drive towards the core mechanics of what is now DANCE CENTRAL.
TAKEAWAY: Developers will learn unconventional ways to approach exploratory prototyping when starting from scratch. Attendees will leave the talk with a greater awareness of the specific design and production challenges of full-body motion gaming and strategies to address them. They will also learn the pros and cons of utilizing game incentives for educational ends, as illustrated by DANCE CENTRAL's Break It Down mode.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: No prerequisite knowledge necessary. The talk will benefit developers and teams, regardless of discipline (designer, artist, etc), that are:
-Working with new technology
-Designing educational experiences
-Designing for motion controls
-Exploring new types of gameplay
OR
-Considering working with Kinect

Alternative Business Models with Downloadable Games (DLG) and Downloadable Content (DLC)
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12244
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Alternative Business Models with Downloadable Games (DLG) and Downloadable Content (DLC)
SPEAKER/S: Geoffrey (GZ) Zatkin (Electronic Entertainment Design and Research)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Wednesday 3:00- 4:00 Room 3020, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: Business and Management / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Alternative Business Models with Downloadable Games (DLG) and Downloadable Content (DLC) will cover the current market trends for digital distribution on the next-generation consoles. Comprehensive research on timing, genres, marketing, demographics, pricing models, and why DLG and DLC require two different strategies will be explored by using exclusive data collected by EEDARs annual digital survey and EEDARs own proprietary database.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will leave with an understanding of the flexibility that digital environments offer, with a practical overview of best practices to help achieve maximum consumer satisfaction and revenue for both Downloadable Games and Downloadable Content on the next-generation platforms.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Business managers, marketers, brand managers, producers, and industry professionals that want a better understanding of Downloadable Games and Downloadable Content on the next-generation platforms.

Navigation in Insomniac Engine
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12243
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Navigation in Insomniac Engine
SPEAKER/S: Reddy Sambavaram (Insomniac Games Inc)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Thursday 9:00-10:00 Room 3020, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: Programming , Game Design / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Navigation of the level is increasingly becoming one of the necessary components for an immersive and fun AI. This talk tracks the evolution of Navigation at Insomniac by sharing our approach, implementation and experience. Among other things, the talk focuses on how we turned a navigation job in SPU shaders and ran it full frame deferred in our game. One of the key problems a nav mesh approach has is how to introduce custom (non-mesh) link semantics into the problem domain. We present our custom-links approach, with in game examples (e.g. jumps), and explain how it naturally blends into the nav mesh problem domain. We also present our approach to another vexing problem of how to allow a designer to custom tweak the nav mesh while still using an auto-generation tool. Finally, we end with sharing notes on our approach to dynamic nav mesh generation at run time.
TAKEAWAY: Presentation shares how Insomniac's AI navigation works and how the computation is off-loaded to run full frame deferred on SPU. Talk will share the tips and tricks we used to address specific issues we encountered on our titles. It also presents our custom links approach which blends itself really well into the nav mesh representation of the level. Talk shares how to preserve designer nav mesh customization while still auto generating it.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Programmers are the primary intended audience but the talk shares details also relevant to a game designer. Anyone working on or with a navigation system are the intended beneficiaries who will share our implementation details and experience. Bit of familiarity with the topic of navigation would be nice but not required.

More Pirates on a Burning Ship and Other Leadership Challenges
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12241
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: More Pirates on a Burning Ship and Other Leadership Challenges
SPEAKER/S: Laura Fryer (WB Games Seattle)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Wednesday 4:30- 5:30 Room 303, South Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Production , Business and Management / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Leaders lead from where they stand, wherever that may be in an organization. True leadership means helping people, appealing to their better natures, and building the foundation of trust necessary for great work. Drawing upon lessons learned from shipping the Xbox and GEARS OF WAR, and building WB Games, we'll explore the challenges of leading passionate and creative people to greatness.
TAKEAWAY: Participants will learn how to make a lasting impact on teams. We'll discuss how to lead smart and creative people. The talk will give new ways of thinking about old problems and concrete techniques that are immediately applicable.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: This talk is intended for developers from any discipline whether they are technically in a leadership position or not. Anyone can lead and everyone should.

Games on TV: Evolution or Revolution?
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12236
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Games on TV: Evolution or Revolution?
SPEAKER/S: David Mariner (NDS Denmark ApS)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Wednesday 10:30-11:30 Room 130, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Business and Management / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: With over 400M Pay TV subscribers in the western world and virtually zero piracy, television is being hailed as a potential gold-rush area for games. VCs invest focusing two-to-five years into the future, and it is precisely this window that is presented by Games on TV. The opportunities are clear, but the route to market is complicated. When considering this space it is vital to have an understanding of the market to maximize on investment and not lose the first-mover advantage.

In this lecture, we present: A big-picture overview of Games on TV including value chains and technical capabilities from both current and future market perspectives. The challenges faced, from both a BD and a production perspective, when entering todays marketplace. An understanding of why the market has been so difficult to enter up until now, and the necessity for change in the market. Possible disruptions on the horizon that necessitate a continued evaluation of strategy towards this market segment.
TAKEAWAY: This lecture equips the audience with an understanding of the challenges and opportunities that exist in a market due for radical disruption, and gives them a solid basis to make an informed decision as to whether TV is the right match for their profile, now or in the future.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: This lecture is intended for studio heads, investors, and entrepreneurs either considering entering the Games on TV space or previously involved in the market that wish to understand the changes on the horizon.

Video Game Play as Nightmare Protection [SGS Health]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12224
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Video Game Play as Nightmare Protection [SGS Health]
SPEAKER/S: Jayne Gackenbach (Grant MacEwan University)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 11:50-12:15 Room 308, South Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Serious Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: The nightmare, an abrupt awakening from sleep due to a frightening dream, is the hallmark of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and indeed is experienced by most people at some time in their lives. Jayne Gackenbach and colleagues have been studying the hypothesis that video game play might act as a protective mechanism against nightmares. The mechanism for this dream response is waking rehearsal of response to threatening situations in games. These virtual experiences then translate into dreams along the ability to dream lucidly and have control over dream circumstances.
TAKEAWAY: 1. Potential therapeutic applications of video game play with regards to nightmares are detailed.
2. Interactive factors which may affect nightmare command are examined.
3. Emotional regulation function of dreams is changing in gamers.

My Avatar: Quantified Self Meets Behavior-Change Games [SGS Health]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12223
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: My Avatar: Quantified Self Meets Behavior-Change Games [SGS Health]
SPEAKER/S: BJ Fogg (Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab), Richard Tate (HopeLab/Zamzee), Michael Kim (Kairos Labs), Ricky Engelberg (Nike Digital Sport) and David Reeves (Limeade)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 4:15- 5:15 Room 308, South Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Serious Games Summit / Panel
DESCRIPTION: Several mega-trends are converging and are poised to profoundly disrupt the industry: Mobile, Social Gaming, Serious Gaming, & the Gamification of life. Combined they present an enormous opportunity for companies, brands, game developers, & casual gamers. Together, they can empower entirely new Games for Good that integrate contemporary game mechanics with research-based methodologies, e.g., the Fogg Behavior Model, Behavioral Economics, Positive Psychology, Purpose-Driven Marketing, et.al.

This session will highlight the most recent trends, tools, & innovations that attendees can apply immediately to take advantage of this emerging market. Panelists include executives & leading academics representing Nike+, Stanford's Persuasive Technology Lab, XBox, Gameful.org, & the Quantified Self movement.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will learn cutting-edge approaches, methods, & tools that can be applied towards building successful Games for Good, including the Fogg Behavior Model (Stanford), Nike+ design methodology & practices, XBox Live/Kinect product planning, Gameful.org community & collaborative game development, & successful attributes of Quantified Self solutions.

Deeper Problems, Deeper Gamification: Solving Hard Real-world Problems with Games [SGS Gamification]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12221
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Deeper Problems, Deeper Gamification: Solving Hard Real-world Problems with Games [SGS Gamification]
SPEAKER/S: Seth Cooper (University of Washington) and Zoran Popović (University of Washington)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 11:15-11:40 Room 308, South Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Serious Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: From the creators of the groundbreaking protein-folding game FOLDIT, this session focuses on the creative process behind three games being developed at the Center for Game Science at the University of Washington, covering the topics of biochemistry, early math education, and reconstructing the world in 3D. Each of these games has resulted in conference publications and even received a number of awards. The talk aggregates general principles compiled from the experiences of developing these games, to inspire and inform other designers who are interested in mapping real-world and scientific problems onto a game environment.
TAKEAWAY: Significant scientific and real-world problems can be solved by mapping the problems onto a game environment -- but it takes a lot more than points, levels and achievement badges to do it successfully. Attendees will understand the distinct challenges to designing such games, potential approaches to these challenges, and an emerging set of principles to guide this process for general problems.

Gamification 201 - 60 Tactics in 60 Minutes [SGS Gamification]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12220
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Gamification 201 - 60 Tactics in 60 Minutes [SGS Gamification]
SPEAKER/S: Molly Kittle (Bunchball)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 10:00-11:00 Room 308, South Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Serious Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: A look inside Bunchball's Super-Secret Invisible and Hard-to-Read Gamification Playbook - the tactics that we've learned from 4 years of implementing gamification solutions for companies of all sizes, and across multiple industries.

These are the real-world questions that we get asked every time we start a new project, and we'll share our answers.

Should I have one point system or more?
What should I call my points?
What should the scale of my point system be?
How many points should I award for X behavior?
Should users start out with any points?
Should points ever reset?
Should there be limits on how many points someone can earn?
Should I let people trade earned points for purchased points?
How many levels should I have?
How should they be spaced out?
What should I name my levels?
Should I use levels to gate access to content? etc.
TAKEAWAY: The answers to a lot of tactical gamification questions that you will encounter the minute you try to actually gamify something. 60 Tactics in 60 Minutes.

Hyperlocal Game Design: Connecting Social Currency to Real World Currency [SGS Gamification]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12219
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Hyperlocal Game Design: Connecting Social Currency to Real World Currency [SGS Gamification]
SPEAKER/S: Kati London (Area/Code/Zynga)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 11:50-12:15 Room 308, South Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Serious Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: MACON MONEY is a real world social game designed for Macon, GA that connects players social currency with a currency they spend at local businesses. Developing a game for a socio-economically segregated community required designing for how the game fits into peoples everyday lives in terms of location, their social and individual identities, consumer, and entertainment habits. Learn about issues surrounding hyperlocal game design as Area/Code addressed them in this 3-zip code, community-specific game, in which constraints became a key to innovation.
TAKEAWAY: - How design constraints can lead to innovation and unexpected mechanics.
- Understand a novel approach that foundations, game designers, and communities can use to work collaboratively on serious game development that bakes evaluation and assessment goals into the process.

Social Network Games in Retrospective - Are We Being Social? [SOGS Essentials]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12218
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Social Network Games in Retrospective - Are We Being Social? [SOGS Essentials]
SPEAKER/S: Patricia Pizer (Consultant)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 4:15- 5:15 Room 130, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Seven years ago, an extensive analysis of social play in Massively Multiplayer games was published in Massively Multiplayer Game Development. The concept behind this chapter was that, as an industry, social aspects of multiplayer games had not evolved much in more than a decade and that, using simple tools and concepts, the social fabric of such games could be made more solid. In retrospective, many, if not all, of these still apply to social network games where there is very little social interaction. This talk endeavors, not only to share that retrospective, but to give concrete examples of ways in which today's social games can strengthen their social component and lower the churn rate as players are more engaged with their friends as well as the game content.
TAKEAWAY: Ideas and principles for creating more engaging, more socially active games for social networks. Both practical and theoretical, attendees will have immediately implementable concepts for improving their games.

Community Management: Efficiencies and Economies of Scale [SOGS Essentials]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12217
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Community Management: Efficiencies and Economies of Scale [SOGS Essentials]
SPEAKER/S: Richard Weil (Metaverse Mod Squad)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 3:00- 4:00 Room 130, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Customer interaction is happening across more platforms and systems than ever before. At the same time, customer service and community relations continue in static and, in some cases, divergent courses. But does fracturing this effort across these disciplines help or hinder the objective of building a positive image and serving customers?

By consolidating and broadening both customer support and community relations, companies that depend on online communities can streamline and improve their entire customer relations effort.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will learn strategies and tactics involving consolidating customer service and community relations efforts, which will reduce costs while improving customer relations overall.

The Fantasy of Labor: How Social Games Create Meaning [SOGS Design]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12216
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: The Fantasy of Labor: How Social Games Create Meaning [SOGS Design]
SPEAKER/S: Eric Zimmerman (Independent) and Naomi Clark (Fresh Planet)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 1:45- 2:45 Room 132, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Every developer wants to create meaningful experiences. You want your players to play your games again and again.

To understand the appeal of social games, we need to look at their design across multiple levels: from the cognitive design of good interaction to the way that games insert themselves into the social lifestyles of their players. But we also need to look at larger cultural narratives of work and play.

This session will trace the fantasy of labor across all of these levels, looking at how social games evolved from the intersection of RPG grinding and the player- centric design of casual games to arrive at the controversial position they now hold. Love them or hate them, social games have lessons for us all.
TAKEAWAY: By way of social network games, we will uncover the mechanisms by which all games create meaning, from the micro-mechanics of button-pressing to the macro-mechanics of ideas about play and labor. Most of us dont want to merely create the next clone of last years hit; understanding how players experience meaning, motivation, and fantasy in our games empower us all to guide the future of games.

How to Survive the Inevitable Enslavement of Developers by Facebook [SOGS Vision]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12215
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: How to Survive the Inevitable Enslavement of Developers by Facebook [SOGS Vision]
SPEAKER/S: Daniel Cook (Spry Fox)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 10:00-11:00 Room 134, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: On October 17th, 2010 Facebook shut off access to developer LOLapps. 14 million users lost service. In the history of games, platform owners and publishers have wielded immense leverage over individual game developers. This strategy talk covers the economic, historical and strategic forces behind platforms, aggregators and developers. Daniel Cook, CCO of Spry Fox, will discuss how these forces lead to consolidation and creative disenfranchisement of developers. Social games are currently following a similar path that rhymes with history. There is still hope. Savvy teams of creatives can A) diversify risk by creating a portfolio of customer sources and B) escape to the cloud. This talk will include concrete examples from previous platforms and current social games.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will gain models for understanding how the social gaming ecosystem is likely to evolve in the future and how to roll with the trends. Youll also learn how to identify and tap secondary sources of customers that give your company the ability to say No when your primary platform transforms from a partner into a predator.

Bringing a Design Culture to Social Games Developers: Trial and Error [SOGS Business]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12214
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Bringing a Design Culture to Social Games Developers: Trial and Error [SOGS Business]
SPEAKER/S: Bernie Yee (Episode Technologies)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 4:15- 5:15 Room 130, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Social games (and prior to that, virtual worlds and casual games) bring a host of new teams and studios into the game industry. Many of these teams include longtime developers and designers leading teams and building games. But plenty of teams come in without that prior experience and are now competing in a space that affords them more design latitude then they ever had. Or maybe theres a team of game developers who feel under pressure to react to the constant stream of metrics purporting to define 'optimal gameplay'. This talk will lay out the speakers attempts at bringing a design culture to five different teams and why he succeeded and failed.
TAKEAWAY: This management postmortem addresses one of the biggest organizational hurdles to building a good game not programming solutions or compelling art but how to build a shared design vision in a team that hasnt had the time to learn from/exposure to seasoned game development teams.

Social Speed - Improving Flash Performance for Social Games [SOGS Tech]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12213
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Social Speed - Improving Flash Performance for Social Games [SOGS Tech]
SPEAKER/S: Amitt Mahajan (Zynga)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 1:45- 2:45 Room 132, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Amitt Mahajan, Director of Engineering, discusses techniques used in FARMVILLE and other Zynga games to get the most out of flash in both loading and runtime performance.
TAKEAWAY: Audience members will take away different approaches to making their social games load and run fast such as:
1) Embedding data in Javascript to avoid runtime calls from Flash
2) Dynamic conversion of Vector art to Rasterized art
3) Having several levels of detail of in-game art that are swapped out based on screen space utilized
4) Amortizing update cost of game objects across several frames

Using Your Friends: Identifying the Top Interaction Mechanics in Current Social Games & Media [SOGS Essentials]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12212
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Using Your Friends: Identifying the Top Interaction Mechanics in Current Social Games & Media [SOGS Essentials]
SPEAKER/S: Mia Consalvo (MIT, Comparative Media Studies)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 10:00-11:00 Room 132, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: New social games are released daily, yet many of the most popular games offer very limited forms of interaction between players. This presentation answers the question: how social are social games?

It does so through analysis of 80 games, identifying the major types of interactions employed, and highlighting games offering unusual social mechanics.

The second part of the lecture explores how social media applications are using interaction in novel ways, such as Nike's new running app, which invites users to broadcast the start of their run, turning friends' responses into real-time cheering.

In closing, the lecture identifies the range of social functions offered by social games, and points to other types of interactions enabled via social media, to encourage game designers to think beyond the boundaries of game design.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will learn what social mechanics are employed in more than 80 current social games. They will also learn about innovative interaction mechanics being employed by non-game based social media, and suggestions for integrating those mechanics into their game designs.

Social Genetics: The Demographics and Affinities of Facebook Gamers [SOGS Business]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12211
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Social Genetics: The Demographics and Affinities of Facebook Gamers [SOGS Business]
SPEAKER/S: Nick Berry (DataGenetics)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 3:00- 4:00 Room 130, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: What do you really know about your social games customers? How old are they? What do they watch on TV? What brands do they follow? Who should you be chasing for sponsorship opportunities? Where should you be advertising? The more you understand about your customers, the more efficiently you can attract, retain and monetize them.

This presentation will describe the results obtained from the mining and analysis of millions of Facebook data points. Eye-opening findings around Facebook's top consumer brands and top social games will be discussed. Discover intriguing user preferences, from the brand of trainers FARMVILLE players wear and the TV shows watched by BEJEWELED BLITZ players, to the brand of fast food enjoyed by COLLAPSE! players and the unique combination of games different users choose to play.
TAKEAWAY: A better understanding of the diverse range of people who play games on social networks, and some of the obvious, and not so obvious, correlations between their interests.

CITY OF WONDER: Postmortem [SOGS Design]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12210
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: CITY OF WONDER: Postmortem [SOGS Design]
SPEAKER/S: Scott Jon Siegel (Playdom)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 10:00-11:00 Room 132, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Player versus Player gameplay isn't just for hardcore games anymore. CITY OF WONDER successfully leveraged this mechanic to add a new competitive dimension to the popular city building genre. This session will examine how Playdom took inspiration from traditional game mechanics and interpreted them for a casual Facebook audience. Learn how the team refined their concept as they moved from early prototypes to a live release, and continue to expand the game's content and features.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will learn about how City of Wonder used core game mechanics as the inspiration for compelling casual social gameplay. They will learn about the creative and development process for the features that helped make City of Wonder a success.

What’s The Story Morning Glory? [SOGS Design]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12209
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: What's the Story Morning Glory? [SOGS Design]
SPEAKER/S: Kenny Shea Dinkin (Independent) and James Portnow (Rainmaker Games)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 11:15-12:15 Room 130, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: In this hour we'll hear an inspiring and elegant blend of art, business history and monetization strategies as Kenny Shea Dinkin CCO of PlayFirst & James Portnow CEO of Rainmaker Games consider the dilemma of integrating story into mass market social games and utilizing story to emotionally connect with consumers.

In his portion of the talk, Kenny Shea Dinkin explores the challenges a game designer faces when trying to integrate rich storytelling and robust character development into social games - the talk will take a deep dive into the best storytelling efforts in social games to date, as well as some of the worst, and will make the case for storytelling as a powerful tool for retention, reengagement and emotional connection with consumers.

James Portnow will follow up by describing specialized techniques for creating the most compelling narrative possible with the unique tools social games offer the narrative designer. Attendees will also learn how to design their narrative specifically to reinforce or increase monetization.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will be exposed to an inspiring and elegant blend of art, business history and monetization strategies as they consider the dilemma of integrating story into mass market social games and utilizing story to emotionally connect with consumers.

Applifier Postmortem: From Zero to 55M Users in 100 Days [SOGS Business]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12208
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Applifier Postmortem: From Zero to 55M Users in 100 Days [SOGS Business]
SPEAKER/S: Jussi Laakkonen (Applifier)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 10:00-11:00 Room 130, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: The story of Applifier is the story of being late to the social gaming gold rush, dying a thousand times by complexity, only to be saved by a simple idea of sharing players with other game developers.

In less than a 100 days Applifier transformed from a game developer to a cross-promotion network reaching over 55 million monthly active users. Applifier's CEO and founder Jussi Laakkonen looks at why this happened and what's going on in the rapidly maturing social games market.

Jussi will share tactics on what developers can do to find and retain players on Facebook and offer a personal take on social games and reveal some spectacularly ambitious failures on the road to overnight success.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will learn about how to iterate, fail, get back up, and pivot the whole company, and insights on how to navigate social gaming as it is turning towards a red ocean.

Behavioral Economics and Social Games [SOGS Business]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12207
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Behavioral Economics and Social Games [SOGS Business]
SPEAKER/S: David Botkin (Playdom) and Elena Rykhlevskaia (Playdom)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 10:00-11:00 Room 130, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: What does the price of The Economist magazine have to do with virtual dresses? How are principles from social psychology and economics reflected in social games? Playdom's VP of Intelligence, David Botkin, and Business Intelligence Analyst, Elena Rykhlevskaia, explore classic behavioral biases in decision making and how those biases impact the features game designers put into social games.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will learn about social psychology research on departures from hyper-rational behavior, and how social games incorporate these lessons from psychology.

Retain Your Customers by Letting Go: Fixing the Short Term Tactics that Threaten Player Loyalty [SOGS Business]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12205
Add to Cart
More Info
Description: Retain Your Customers by Letting Go: Fixing the Short Term Tactics that Threaten Player Loyalty [SOGS Business]
SPEAKER/S: Scott Rigby (Immersyve)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 1:45- 2:45 Room 130, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: The churn rate in social & online games is staggering. We often visualize churn as a bucket with holes in it, but in reality, the numbers dont even justify the existence of the bucket as players pour into one end and out the other. Research indicates that by focusing too much on driving short-term behavior, we actively harm long-term motivation to stay engaged. While we increasingly rely on behavioral metrics to make decisions, we often overlook motivational and psychological data that is critical to success over time. This talk reviews specific techniques for deepening meaningful motivation in the design of social and online games, as well as discussing strategies to collect quantitative motivational metrics alongside behavioral metrics to better gauge success. Multiple game examples/best practices are discussed, along with strategies for game design and testing.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees take-away valuable information and strategies that can be immediately applied on three levels (1) specific strategies for retention, validated by gamer data, to implement in game design, (2) examples of best-practices from existing games to clearly illustrate concepts, and (3) ideas and strategies for improving metrics to include motivational data alongside behavioral data.


1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Please leave this field blank.
HOME MY ACCOUNT VIEW CART CHECKOUT   Powered by Modular Merchant shopping cart software.