GDC 2011 Debuts Sony NGP Lecture, Microtalks, Fergusson On Gears Of War

Author: by Staff

GDC 2011 organizers have revealed a first-ever Sony lecture on its NGP handheld, also debuting a GDC Microtalks line-up including David Jaffe and Epic's Rod Fergusson on producing the Gears Of War trilogy. The complete GDC conference schedule is now available on both GDC Schedule Builder and the newly launched, smartphone-centric GDC Mobile site. With the February 28th-March 4th Moscone Center, San Francisco-based show less than two weeks away, organizers are highlighting the following lectures: - In a newly confirmed Sony-sponsored session, SCEA's David Coombes will present a lecture called 'Next Generation Portable Platform', presenting the first public discussion of its new portable gaming platform at GDC 2011. The talk description simply notes: "In this presentation we will introduce a new handheld console. We will talk about the devices broad range of input and connectivity options and how these create exciting new opportunities for game designers." - The full speaker line-up for the always popular 'GDC Microtalks 2011: One Hour, Ten Speakers, Hundreds of Fun New Ideas' has now been confirmed, in a swift format whereby "each speaker gets 20 slides, each of which will be displayed for exactly 16 seconds before automatically advancing." The GDC Microtalk speakers this year, MC-ed by Naughty Dog's Richard Lemarchand (Uncharted franchise) are David Jaffe (Eat Sleep Play), Michael John (Electronic Arts), Brenda Brathwaite (Lolapps), Asi Burak (Games for Change), Jamin Brophy-Warren (Kill Screen Magazine), Jason Rohrer (Between creator), Colleen Macklin (Parsons the New School for Design), Naomi Clark (Fresh Planet) and Brandon Boyer (Independent Games Festival). - In a lecture called 'Scoping Success', Epic Games' executive producer Rod Fergusson discusses his work on the Gears Of War trilogy, noting in his description: "It takes more than just a great game for it to be commercially successful. Many high quality games have seen limited success due to other factors like shipping dates, fierce competition or lack of marketing." Fergusson adds: "One of the keys to avoiding those pitfalls is managing your game's scope such that you design a product that can be delivered predictably, at high quality and when opportunity is at its highest. This session presents an overview of some of philosophies, process and techniques for appropriately scoping your game for success." Other recommended lectures for this year's show include game design veteran discussing her latest moving board game project in 'One Falls For Each Of Us: The Prototyping of Tragedy', and Chair Entertainment's Mustard brothers on 'Basically, We Sold Our Souls: The Art Implementation of Infinity Blade'. Game Developers Conference 2011 -- the 25th iteration of the industry-leading show -- will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from February 28th to March 4th, and pre-show registration is open until February 27th. For more information on all aspects of the show, part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website, visit the official GDC 2011 website.