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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

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Experimental Game AI: Live Demos of Innovation
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SKU#: GDC11-12346
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Description: Experimental Game AI: Live Demos of Innovation
SPEAKER/S: David Armstrong (DigiPen Institute of Technology), James Trinklein (DigiPen Institute of Technology), Michael Mateas (University of California, Santa Cruz) and Trevor Sundberg (Monolith)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 1:45- 2:45 Room 3002, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: AI Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Experimental game AI gives us a taste of what might be possible and a glimpse of what the future might hold. This session will feature several interesting and experimental game AI prototypes, all demoed live on stage. This promises to be a very inspirational and thought-provoking session with many presenters on-hand to show their creations and innovations.


Healthy Microtalks [SGS Health]
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SKU#: GDC11-12345
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Description: Healthy Microtalks [SGS Health]
SPEAKER/S: Tadeusz Stach (Queen's University), Corey Bohil (Michigan State University), Don Miller (Playpower.org), Ben Sawyer (Digitalmill) and Doris C. Rusch (MIT)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 3:00- 4:00 Room 308, South Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Serious Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: This session features five microtalks focusing on different aspects of games and health and highlighting the diversity of ideas and areas of action happening in the games for health field.
- Elude: A Game to Help Family Members of Depressed Patients
- Insights for Major Multiplayer Exergaming : What happens when people start exergaming together in larger groups?
- Stopping Landmine Injuries : An original health game for OLPC
- Global Health & Games : PlayPower+Malaria, and a call to Action
- Creating Healthier Gamers : A Different Way to Look at Healthy Gaming

Attendees of this session will find enjoy the chance to sample new thinking and approaches that may prove useful models for their own endeavors. The session is also a chance to think beyond some of the current design and project patterns that have been the traditional mix of work in the game


Chasing Wonder: the Future of Engagement
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SKU#: GDC11-12344
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Description: Chasing Wonder: The Future of Mobile Engagement
SPEAKER/S: Nicole Lazzaro (XEODesign)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 4:15- 5:15 Room 305, South Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: GDC Smartphone Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Wonder, one of the strongest emotions of game design, rivets player attention and unleashes powerful neurochemicals that facilitate learning. At the heart of every intellectual pursuit, at the root of nearly all engagement, wonder keeps players coming back. Wonder does not show up in A/B testing. Come learn the secret mechanics that make smartphone games like ANGRY BIRDS, DOODLE JUMP, and FRUIT NINJA best sellers. Be the first to create your own GAME plan for creating engagement by connecting Goals, Actions, Motivations, and Emotions. Games are more than points and badges. Emotions drive fun.


The Next Steps of Indie: Four Perspectives
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SKU#: GDC11-12343
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Description: The Next Steps of Indie: Four Perspectives
SPEAKER/S: Dajana Dimovska (Copenhagen Game Productions), Jeff Hull (Nonchalance), Luke Schneider (Radiangames) and Brian Provinciano (Vblank Entertainment)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 1:45- 2:45 Room 135, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Independent Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Still well beneath the surface of what we think of as indie, four teams give us a glimpse into their unexpected paths in the past, and what we can expect from the future: Radiangames' (JOYJOY, CROSSFIRE) one-game-per-month road to success on Xbox Live Indie Games, Vblank (RETRO CITY RAMPAGE) on originating their anticipated game on an NES, Copenhagen Game Collective (B.U.T.T.O.N.) on not making the monitor the mediator, and Nonchalance on San Francisco's Jejune Institute, the best real-world game you've never played, happening right underneath our noses.


How to Win the IGF in 15 Weeks or Less
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SKU#: GDC11-12342
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Description: How to Win the IGF in 15 Weeks or Less
SPEAKER/S: Andy Schatz (Pocketwatch Games)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 3:00- 4:00 Room 135, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Independent Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: MONACO was entered into the IGF after 6 weeks of work by only one person. It became a finalist in the Grand Prize and Excellence in Design after 11 weeks of work. And it won both after 15 weeks. In this talk, one-man-team Andy Schatz will show how design-by-brownian-motion can not only lead to a better finished product, but a faster schedule as well. MONACO's fanciest tech tricks and failed experiments will be revealed.


We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges: How to Re-invent Reality Without Gamification [SGS Gamification]
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SKU#: GDC11-12341
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Description: We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges: How to Re-invent Reality Without Gamification [SGS Gamification]
SPEAKER/S: Jane McGonigal (Social Chocolate)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 1:45- 2:45 Room 308, South Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Serious Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: If you hate the term gamification, you're not alone: Plenty of game developers think gamification sounds cynical and opportunistic -- a way to motivate gamers to do something they' ordinarily avoid. Worse, many early adopters of gamification are creating mere shells of a game: game feedback systems stripped of any satisfying activity, meaning, story, or heart. But there is another way. What we need now is a more holistic and whole-hearted approach to using game design to transform reality. This presentation is an introduction to gameful design: how to infuse real life and real work with the true spirit, or emotional and social qualities, of gameplay. You'll learn a four-part gameful strategy that focuses on how to create the lasting positive impacts that games are famously good at generating: more positive emotions, stronger social relationships, a bigger sense of purpose, and meaningful mastery. As game designers, we can do better than gamification. We owe reality more than some stinkin' achievement badges, or points, or leaderboards.


LEAGUE OF LEGENDS Postmortem -- Beta, Launch and Beyond [SOGS Design]
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SKU#: GDC11-12340
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Description: LEAGUE OF LEGENDS Postmortem -- Beta, Launch and Beyond [SOGS Design]
SPEAKER/S: Tom Cadwell (Riot Games) and Steve Snow (Riot Games)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 11:15-12:15 Room 134, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: League of Legends has been a pioneer in providing a core gaming experience under a free to play business model in the west But like all pioneers, it has had a number of hurdles throughout its development. In this talk, Riot Games will discuss the three major areas that were particularly challenging: Recruiting a team without a reputation or a product, interacting with an existing audience with large expectations, and organizing teams to be successful amidst the distractions of a live game.


Creating Your Building Blocks: Modular Component AI Systems
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SKU#: GDC11-12339
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Description: Creating Your Building Blocks: Modular Component AI Systems
SPEAKER/S: Joel McGinnis (CCP Games North America), Alex Champandard (AiGameDev.com) and Brett Laming (Rockstar Leeds)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 10:00-11:00 Room 3002, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: AI Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: A thirst for detail and realism sees gamers demand more AI depth than ever before. With production costs rising and gameplay teams expanding, AI programmers need to provide a safe, adaptable playground that remains under their control. Smart objects and component systems may oil this idea, but it's the design principles behind them that provide the key. The secret is to create modular AI systems that can be assembled and reconfigured together. The session will show how a rigorous approach to compartmentalization helps AI remain flexible and ensures that authoring of behaviors is more accessible to designers and programmers alike.


AI Development Postmortems: Inside DARKSPORE and THE SIMS: MEDIEVAL
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SKU#: GDC11-12338
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Description: AI Development Postmortems: Inside DARKSPORE and THE SIMS: MEDIEVAL
SPEAKER/S: Dan Kline (Maxis), Rez Graham (Electronic Arts (Sims Division)) and Lauren McHugh (Maxis)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 3:00- 4:00 Room 3002, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: AI Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: This session looks into some of the unique challenges that were faced (and conquered!) in two upcoming titles. Dan Kline and Lauren McHugh show how DARKSPORE managed both scale and code-sharing for more than 100 different enemies and over 100 different powers -- all while making each AI memorable and unique... and accomplishing it all in a short development time! Rez Graham will share how he started with the celebrated THE SIMS 3 codebase and made numerous improvements to fit the new challenges posed by THE SIMS: MEDIEVAL -- including performance issues, the addition of quests, and even life-schedules for key NPCs.


The Fun in Blending Digital and Real Worlds
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SKU#: GDC11-12337
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Description: The Fun in Blending Digital and Real Worlds
SPEAKER/S: Keith Lee (Booyah)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 3:00- 4:00 Room 305, South Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: GDC Smartphone Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Booyah was created with a mission to bring game mechanics to real life applications to motivate positive change. The vision was built on the paradigm shift that smartphones, geo-location features and other innovations brought. The company has been through an adventure from MYTOWN on mobile to NIGHTCLUB CITY on Facebook, discovering that the inverse, bringing real world elements into interactive experiences is what delights consumers the most. The talk will follow our journey and share learnings of what we learned about combining the fun of games and the real world, supported by anecdotal notes and hard data.
TAKEAWAY: The audience will hear both from a market enabling technology perspective, and a design and gameplay perspective what considerations go into building apps that blend the real and digital worlds and what the future may hold for new types of experiences that will delight players.


Zigging While Others Zag - KINGDOMS OF CAMELOT Postmortem [SOGS Design]
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SKU#: GDC11-12336
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Description: Zigging While Others Zag - KINGDOMS OF CAMELOT Postmortem [SOGS Design]
SPEAKER/S: Andrew Sheppard (Kabam)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 4:15- 5:15 Room 134, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Social gaming has come a long way in its short existence. To date, most popular social networking games trend towards simple game mechanics, asynchronous gameplay and an audience of casual gamers. While this simplicity has helped popularize the genre, it's done so by sacrificing the depth and breadth of experience that traditional games facilitate. Kabam breaks from the pack by bringing the advantages of traditional massively multiplayer online gaming (strategy, RPG) to a social platform that has become flooded with clones of a simple formula. Chief Product Officer, Andrew Sheppard will explore how Kabam has combined strategy, analytics and creativity to create a winning formula with Facebook smash hit, KINGDOMS OF CAMELOT.
TAKEAWAY: Session attendees will gain insights into how a company can leverage a single-minded insight, along with the right people, process, technology and analytics, to evolve the social games category and create a success in a rapidly evolving business environment.


GDC Microtalks 2011: One Hour, Ten Speakers, Hundreds of Fun New Ideas
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SKU#: GDC11-12330
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Description: GDC Microtalks 2011: One Hour, Ten Speakers, Hundreds of Fun New Ideas
SPEAKER/S: Richard Lemarchand (Naughty Dog), Brenda Brathwaite (Loot Drop), Asi Burak (Games for Change), Jamin Brophy-Warren (Kill Screen Magazine), Jason Rohrer (Independent), Colleen Macklin (Parsons the New School for Design), Naomi Clark (Fresh Planet), Brandon Boyer (Independent Games Festival), David Jaffe (Eat Sleep Play) and Michael John (Electronic Arts)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Wednesday 12:00- 1:00 Room 3014, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: Game Design / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: The fast-moving talk format with fans all around the world returns to GDC for another hour of lightning-fast lectures, visual punch and innovative ideas. The concept is simple: MC Richard Lemarchand invites nine experts from different game design-related fields to give a short talk on a subject related to this years theme, 'Say How You Play' - a discussion of new contexts for play and games. Each speaker gets 20 slides, each of which will be displayed for exactly 16 seconds before automatically advancing, giving the speaker five minutes and 20 seconds to deliver their fresh game design perspectives.
TAKEAWAY: GDC Microtalks will provide an hour of diverse viewpoints from some of the thinkers at the leading edge of game design, game studies, journalism and curation. Use the session to gather new insights about time-honored subjects, or to make discoveries about fields you barely knew existed.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: This session is intended to inspire designers and developers to think about game design in new ways, and to explore new directions in their game design practice. The rapid-fire format almost guarantees something useful and entertaining for everyone interested in the rapidly expanding field of digital games and contemporary play.


PC Gaming's Global Value Propositions
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SKU#: GDC11-12304
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Description: PC Gaming's Global Value Propositions
SPEAKER/S: Matt Ployhar (Intel)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Friday 2:00- 2:25 Room 3002, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: Business and Management / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: This session will be an overview of key findings and trends occurring in the PC Gaming Ecosystem as prescribed by the PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA). The focus is to expose current and future opportunities in this space and discuss the steps necessary to leverage and maximize revenue. There are three key areas that will be covered: 1) Understanding the global scale and scope of PC Gaming, 2) Current and future trends occurring in Gaming over the next 3 to 5 years, and lastly 3) What game design methodologies are most likely to increase your chances for success.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will better understand the latest total available market (TAM), and install base (IB) projections in the PC Gaming Ecosystem. This session will also cover the latest trends taking place in game design most likely to assist in maximizing revenue.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: This session is primarily targeted at: game designers, business development managers, and key dcision makers.


Monster Teams: How One Producer Tamed the Beast and Lives to Tell About It
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SKU#: GDC11-12302
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Description: Monster Teams: How One Producer Tamed the Beast and Lives to Tell About It
SPEAKER/S: Alex Parizeau (Ubisoft Toronto)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Thursday 4:30- 5:30 Room 132, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Production / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Requirements on content production have increased significantly over the past few years and it is now common to see teams of 200+ people working together on a AAA game to meet high quality expectations and tight deadlines. This session will analyze the shift in management perspective that is required to maintain efficiency & productivity in this new environment, as well as how to adapt tried and true game project management principles to massively large teams. Examples from SPLINTER CELL: CONVICTION and RAINBOW SIX: VEGAS will be used to demonstrate how these teams are managed in order to get exceptional results from a large number of people and cross Atlantic, multi-site development productions.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will be invited to shift their perspective and think of the project as a full-fledged organization. They will learn how to start from the vision and the scope to adapt main areas of the project including team structure, culture, planning, processes and communication. Attendees will also gain insight on how Ubisoft structures these large projects in the different phases of production, as well as how to deal with some of the unique challenges of these massive teams.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Managers who are working with large teams will directly benefit from this session. However anyone who works in an organizational structure will gain valuable insight from the challenges of team management in the context of large teams.


The Great Gamification Debate! [SGS Gamification]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12301
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Description: The Great Gamification Debate! [SGS Gamification]
SPEAKER/S: Ian Bogost (The Georgia Institute of Technology), Noah Falstein (The Inspiracy), Margaret Robertson (Hide&Seek), Eric Marcoullier (ONETRUEFAN), Ross Smith (Microsoft), Margaret Wallace (Playmatics), Jesse Schell (Schell Games) and Jane McGonigal (Social Chocolate)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Tuesday 4:15- 5:15 Room 308, South Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Serious Games Summit / Panel
DESCRIPTION: Only platform FanBoy wars have created a more passionate debate then the overall fracus between gamification's current proponents and its detractors. Strong opinions exist on both sides of the pro/con debate that it seems suitable to have an actual honest debate over the merits, incarnations, and future of gamification. Featuring a who's who of passionate GDC regulars and gamification developers who've deployed actual solutions into the field, this session will provide a unique debate format hosted by the Serious Games Summit advisory board and moderated by Noah Falstien of The Inspiracy. Assigning sides via a coin-toss to force each participant to prepare arguments for and against despite their own heartfelt positions The Great Gamification Debate will present all attendees with a deep critical analysis of the emergent space's strengths and weaknesses. Both sides will compete to win the debate. Once the final opinion is fielded and a winner is declared each participant will be allowed a final closing moment to speak to whatever personal opinion they still hold but were unable to express in the heat of competition.


The Failure Workshop
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12300
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Description: The Failure Workshop
SPEAKER/S: Chris Hecker (definition six, inc.), Kyle Gabler (2D Boy), Matthew Wegner (Flashbang Studios), Kyle Gray (Tomorrow Corporation), George Fan (PopCap Games) and Brad Wardell (Stardock)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Wednesday 3:00- 4:00 Room 134, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Game Design , Production / Panel
DESCRIPTION: A series of rapid-fire presentations by successful developers on their less-than-successful projects, the Failure Workshop focuses on the glorious failures we all have, and the successful games that emerged as a result. Each speaker will have less than 12 minutes to showcase a game or feature that has never seen the light of day and explain:
1) why they thought it was a good idea
2) why it failed
3) what they gained from the whole experience
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will observe how other developers have crashed and burned in the past, and how they've recovered successfully. Failures range anywhere from just not fun to the world wasn't ready. The experience should be informative, humanizing, and schadenfreudistically entertaining.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: This session is open to attendees of all experience levels, especially attendees who are interested in learning how to fail better.


Spectacular Specular: LEAN and CLEAN Specular Highlights
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12299
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Description: Spectacular Specular: LEAN and CLEAN Specular Highlights
SPEAKER/S: Dan Baker (Firaxis)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Wednesday 3:00- 4:00 Room 3006, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: Programming / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Solving the Normal Map filtering problem. This course describes the technique LEAN Mapping, as used by CIVILIZATION V. LEAN mapping allows movie quality specularity inexpensively and without major changes to our current art pipelines.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will learn the concept of LEAN mapping, and how it can improve their rendering. The course contains info information for attendees to implement the technique on their own.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: This course is intended for advanced graphics programmers with experience in lighting, and at least basic knowledge in filtering, BRDFs, and lighting theory.


Social Mechanics for Social Games [SOGS Design]
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SKU#: GDC11-12297
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Description: Social Mechanics for Social Games [SOGS Design]
SPEAKER/S: Raph Koster (Playdom)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 3:00- 4:00 Room 134, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Many have accused social games of not really being social. But they are underpinned by many classic social mechanics that drive interaction and community-building. Some of these have been proven to work in other genres such as MMOs and are beginning to filter into the social games market; others are easily visible and quite familiar in real life, but have yet to be seen in the design of social games. In this talk we will draw from both proven game design and from anthropology and sociology and explore the social potential of social games.
TAKEAWAY: Learn about core human psychology driving social games, and walk away with a clear list of game mechanics that encourage social structures and human relationships, thereby driving retention.


Implementation and Application of the Real-Time Procedural Helper-Joint System
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SKU#: GDC11-12296
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Description: Implementation and Application of the Real-Time Procedural Helper-Joint System
SPEAKER/S: Ju Bok Kim (Nexon) and Choong-Hyo Kim (Nexon)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Friday 11:00-12:00 Room 3006, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: Visual Arts , Programming / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: A helper joint is a joint which measures the movement of other joints and settle the movement of itself. It is a standard solution to skinning problems in the industry now. But helper joint has its own drawbacks too. Pre-baked animation data gets bigger than the previous generation with helper joints. The worst part is that it is not compatible with the procedural animation such as ragdoll or full-body IK. To resolve these problems, we have built the Real-Time Helper Joint System. In this presentation, first we would like to explain the rigging technique we have adopted and the system. Next, we will be talking about the process that copies and implements the helper joints to in-game animation engine. Then we will be demonstrating how the system is working. Finally, we would like to introduce the computational order resolution technique and optimization technique for the system.
TAKEAWAY: Attendee will be able to make sure the basic concept of helper joint and the creation process in DCC tool. They will get learning for how to copy the movement of helper joint to in-game animation system. We will be displaying the problem that might be occurring when implementing Real-Time Helper Joint System so attendee can avoid unnecessary trial and error and refer to our solution.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: - A technical artist or an animation programmer who is interested in helper joint system which reacts correctly to procedural animation like ragdoll physics or full-body ik. A new approach to create various changeable costumes utilizing real-time helper joints without pre-baked animation will be presented. Basic rigging experience is required for a technical artist. Basic knowledge of skeletal animation is required for an animation programmer.


The Science of Play Testing: EA's Methods for User Research
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SKU#: GDC11-12295
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Description: The Science of Play Testing: EA's Methods for User Research
SPEAKER/S: Veronica Zammitto (Electronic Arts)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Thursday 9:00-10:00 Room 3006, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: Game Design / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Play testing is an aspect of the game development process that is gaining more recognition. It contributes to a better understanding of gamers, and provides information to developers that in turn are transformed into design decisions. This talk focuses on the newest methods for identifying gamers' emotions, attention, and in-game behavior. From the broad array of techniques in the User eXperience (UX) field, we will address scientific methods that have been employed at Electronic Arts for assessing player experience in a more objective, reliable, and continuous way, such as employing eye-tracking, psychophysiology, and telemetry.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will gain knowledge on: new game user experience techniques (eye-tracking, biometrics, telemetry), identifying the concrete information these techniques provide, assessing the suitability of these methods according to their needs, and how to capture an emotional profile and engagement level of players.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: This talk is intended to people involved or interested in gaming user experience and playtesting. There is no mandatory pre-requisite, but previous knowledge on playstesting techniques would be beneficial.


Anti-aliasing from a Different Perspective
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SKU#: GDC11-12294
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Description: Anti-aliasing from a Different Perspective
SPEAKER/S: Dmitry Andreev (LucasArts)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Friday 3:30- 3:55 Room 3006, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: Programming , Visual Arts / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: The focus of this lecture is to show how a technical problem of anti-aliasing could be solved in an artistic way. An alternative anti-aliasing algorithm for PlayStation3 and XBox360 is introduced by going through a series of prototypes and experiments, looking for similarities and analogies in existing methods and techniques. As any other screen-space anti-aliasing algorithm, the new one hides the artifacts from being seen.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will see how applying a different way of thinking about a problem can help lead to alternative non-traditional solutions to it giving them more options when improving quality and performance.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: This talk is intended for engineers, technical artists and anyone who is interested to see how a technical problem could be solved in a creative and artistic way by experiment, observation and analogy.


ZOO KINGDOM: Building and Scaling a Facebook Game Server
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SKU#: GDC11-12293
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Description: ZOO KINGDOM: Building and Scaling a Facebook Game Server
SPEAKER/S: Jeffrey Kesselman (Blue Fang Games)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Friday 9:30-10:30 Room 130, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Programming / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: When BlueFang Games decided to take our award winning ZOO TYCOON gameplay to Facebook, we had to radically change our approaches to engineering. Where as the ZOO TYCOON games had a whole computer dedicated to each player and development cycles that were many months long, ZOO KINGDOM had to handle thousands of players per server in a sub-week release rate. Other new issues such as game security and network latency also had to be addressed. To address these challenges, we developed a secure, highly scalable and extensible back-end architecture that has supported and fueled our growth -- at times the highest growth rate of any game on Facebook. This talk will deep dive into all parts of that back-end as well as the game design decisions made to help support that back-end's scalability.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will leave fully understanding one practical and battle-proven approach to building efficient, secure and massively scalable facebook games.


Adaptive Order Independent Transparency: A Fast and Practical Approach to Rendering Transparent Geometry
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SKU#: GDC11-12291
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Description: Adaptive Order Independent Transparency: A Fast and Practical Approach to Rendering Transparent Geometry
SPEAKER/S: Marco Salvi (Intel Corporation)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Thursday 1:30- 2:30 Room 3020, West Hall 3rd Fl.
TRACK / FORMAT: Programming , Production / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: Rendering transparent geometry like foliage, hair or glass is a challenging task for graphics engineers and content creators, due to the lack of a robust and high performance solution that can accumulate transparent fragments in the correct order. In this session, we attack this long standing problem by introducing Adaptive Transparency, a new approximate order independent transparency algorithm that is an order of magnitude faster than DX11 A-buffer implementations while often rendering images that are indistinguishable from such exact methods. We analyze pros and cons of our method with respect to other order independent transparency techniques and we discuss how to integrate AT in modern forward or deferred graphics engines.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will be introduced to Adaptive Transparency (AT), a new order independent transparency algorithm for DX11 GPUs that provides high performance and great image quality. Features and limitations of this new method will be thoroughly discussed and also compared in a real-time demonstration with a wide range of alternative OIT approaches. Audience members will learn how to integrate AT in their forward or deferred shading graphics engine.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: This session is aimed at graphics engineers and technical directors that want to get rid of transparency related hacks and unleash the creativity of their artists by removing most of the constraints that come with using transparent geometry. Audience will come away with concrete examples of how to use Adaptive Transparency to correctly composite objects like foliage, glass and hair that are usually considered difficult to render without compositing or aliasing artifacts.


Message Queuing on a Large Scale: IMVU's Stateful Event Architecture
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SKU#: GDC11-12290
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Description: Message Queuing on a Large Scale: IMVU's Stateful Event Architecture
SPEAKER/S: Jon Watte (IMVU)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Friday 3:30- 4:30 Room 304, South Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Programming / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: The social entertainment platform of IMVU has grown to tens of millions of customers. We recently replaced an aging messaging architecture with a re-engineered message queue, reducing hardware requirements and latencies by a factor of 10 or better. We will cover the problems we set out to solve, which off-the- shelf solutions we considered and why they came up lacking, and the system design we ended up with. We will also talk about why we chose to implement the system in Erlang rather than more traditional languages like C++, Java or Python. Finally, we will show how this system scales well beyond millions of connected clients.
TAKEAWAY: Developers will learn what it takes to build a system serving hundreds of thousands of users interactively at any one time. Systems architecture considerations and scalability concerns are explained in detail, and a reference list of related open source is provided. After attending this talk, developers will understand what the most common options are, and their relative strengths and weaknesses.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: This session is best attended by persons of technical background, who either want to deepen their knowledge of and exposure to large-scale networked service architecture and implementation, or who needs to understand the constraints and parameters that go into building and maintaining such a service.


Turning Data Into Better Social Games [SOGS Essentials]
Price:$3.95

SKU#: GDC11-12288
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Description: Turning Data Into Better Social Games [SOGS Essentials]
SPEAKER/S: David Stern (Playfish)
DAY / TIME / LOCATION: Monday 2:20- 2:45 Room 130, North Hall
TRACK / FORMAT: Social & Online Games Summit / Lecture
DESCRIPTION: As a leader in social gaming, Playfish relies heavily on data to understand game play behavior and ultimately create meaningful and lasting social experiences for players. In this talk, David Stern, Playfish's director of analytics and strategy, will discuss how Playfish turns data into insights that help optimize the player experience.
TAKEAWAY: Attendees will learn best practices for analytics and how to apply these insights to creating innovative and meaningful social game experiences.



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