GDC 2012 Debuts Level Design, Writing, Startup, Tech Art Tutorials

Author: by Staff

Organizers of the 2012 Game Developers Conference have debuted initial full-day tutorials for the March event in San Francisco, featuring full-day sessions on game writing, level design, studio startups, and much more. These first-come first-served tutorials will take place alongside the GDC Summits on Monday, March 5th and Tuesday, March 6th -- the first two days of the five-day San Francisco-based event. The tutorials will be open to those with an All-Access Pass or Summits & Tutorials Pass, and those interested in learning more about either of these options can do so at the official GDC website's passes page. The newly-announced tutorials for Game Developers Conference 2012, part of a growing selection, include the following: - The historically well-received tutorial "Level Design in a Day: Best Practices from the Best in the Business" will return to GDC in 2012, offering an intense, full-day examination of the ins and outs of video game level creation. Featuring speakers such as Bethesda Game Studios' Joel Burgess, EA's Seth Marinello, LucasArts' Mathias Worch, and Epic's Jim Brown, this tutorial will provide an inside look at the level design process for games and franchises such as Gears of War, Dead Space, and much more. - LucasArts lead narrative designer Evan Skolnick will host the perennial, highly rated "Learn Better Game Writing In A Day" tutorial, which will offer a comprehensive primer for game writers, covering the basics of good story structure, character development, and dialogue writing. Of course, developers in other disciplines will find a lot of useful information as well, as they will learn about a number of essential narrative concepts, including bridging the gap between game writers and the rest of the development team. - In "The Game Dev Start-Up 2012: Issues and Practical Answers for the Rookie Studio," Hidden Variable Studios COO Amos Marvel, Loeb & Loeb partner Dan Offner, and attorneys Jim Charne and David Rosenbaum will go over the issues and complications that come with starting your own game studio. In addition, this session will cover pre-formation considerations all the way through the necessities of maintaining a successful business. - Mathematics is a key element of coding, animation, physics simulation, and many other aspects of game development, and the "Math For Game Programmers" tutorial will go over the core principles need to know. This tutorial will primarily focus on issues surrounding 3D game development, and will feature speakers including Insomniac's Jim Van Verth, Mike Acton, and John O'Brien, as well as TrueThought's Squirrel Eiserloh and Applied Research Associates' Graham Rhodes. - Now in its second year, the "Technical Artist Boot Camp" will once again offer a breakdown of the key skills developers need to create efficient tools pipelines as well as optimized and striking art content. The tutorial's eight speakers, including Volition's Adam Pletcher, BioWare's Ben Cloward, and 343 Industries' Wes Grandmont III will all offer their own insight on how to become a better and more effective technical artist. Other notable tutorials at GDC 2012 include the ever-popular "Audio Boot Camp," the discipline-specific "Producer Boot Camp," a session focusing on "Physics for Games Programmers," the "Scrum Essentials Tutorial," a detailed look at "Advanced Visual Effects with DirectX 11," a Microsoft-specific developer day, and more. For more details on any of the above tutorials, check out the Tutorials page on the official GDC website (part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website.) The 2012 Game Developers Conference will take place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from March 5 to March 9, 2011, and will once again serve as the biggest worldwide event for games industry professionals to learn, get inspiration and network. To see more information on GDC 2012 as the event takes shape, please visit the official event website, or subscribe to updates from the GDC news page via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS.