2010 GDC China Adds Happy Farm, Bigpoint, League Of Legends Talks

Author: by Staff

This December's Game Developers Conference China is debuting further new Chinese and Western speakers for its December 5th-7th Shanghai event, including major talks from Happy Farm's creators, Riot Games (League Of Legends) and German browser game giant Bigpoint. These announcements, with all talks simultaneously translated between English and Chinese languages, add to multiple high-profile speakers already confirmed for the event. GDC China is run by the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website, and takes place at the Shanghai International Convention Center. Some of the the newly announced speakers include the following: - In 'League Of Legends Postmortem: One Year Later', Riot Games president Marc Merrill will look back at the last year of live operation on the popular multiplayer online battle-arena title, recently the winner of multiple awards at the Game Developers Choice Online Awards in Austin. Merrill will discuss "lessons learned and some key factors for developing, launching and supporting a core game that is operated as a live service", including surprises and challenges the team faced, spanning strategies to optimize the live feedback loop, key roles and live team structure. - Presenting 'Philosophies and Principles of Creating Social Games for Everyone' is Shaofei Gao, CEO and co-founder of Five Minutes Inc., the noted social game developer and maker of Happy Farm (pictured), which launched in 2008 in Asia -- predating Zynga's famous Western social network game hit FarmVille. In a Social Game Summit lecture given in Chinese and simultaneously translated into English, Mr. Gao notes that "social games are a game form which has become part of people's daily life", and discusses ways that his company - one of the leading Chinese firms in the sector - is trying to "sustain innovation and make leading social games" along the way. - Finally, Bigpoint's Nils-Holger Henning is presenting 'Destination World: How to Succeed in Online Gaming', with the German executive discussing the firm's rapid rise to 150 million registered users, and recent expansion from Europe into North America. Among the subjects discussed from the Battlestar Galactica MMO developer will be "the intricacies of working with Hollywood intellectual property, the integration of global payment solutions, employing worldwide marketing campaigns to attract new users, and the importance of community management in ensuring a positive gaming experience." Now in its 3rd year, Game Developers Conference China offers "valuable and timely insight into the world of game development in China for an audience of both local and international developers", according to its organizers. These lecture announcements immediately follow earlier confirmation of Blizzard, Flagship and Cryptic alumnus Bill Roper as one of the keynote speakers, plus major talks from Volition, Slant Six and BioWare staffers, and Summit sessions from the makers of Angry Birds and Monaco. Overall, the December 5th-7th event provides a forum for local and international developers to explore business opportunities, expand their reach to a unique market, and discover the on-going trends emerging in this region. There will be a robust Expo Floor also in place at GDC China, which is the only game development event supported by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China (MoC). GDC China offers 25% savings on registrations before November 5th, with online registration ending on November 30th. For more information about the event, please visit the official GDC China website.