GDC Europe 2011 Debuts Playfish, Mortal Kombat, Playdom Talks

GDC Europe organizers have announced new lectures for the August show, including Social Games Summit talks by Playdom and Playfish, and NetherRealm on creating Mortal Kombat's cinematics. Taking place Monday through Wednesday, August 15-17, 2011 at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost, GDC Europe 2011 -- alongside the major gamescom trade show -- will again provide the essential pan-European perspective of game development and business trends. New to the conference this year is the Social Games Summit, which will feature panels and lectures from some of the most influential figures in the social space, on topics including Facebook games, persistent MMOs, web-based online titles, and much more. As part of the Social Games Summit, Playdom's VP of global distribution Paul LaFontaine will host a talk dubbed "Social Gaming is no Long Just Facebook," during which he will help developers prioritize which platforms to develop for among the ever-growing sea of regional and specialized social networks like Odnaklassniki.ru and QQ.com. The Summit will also feature Playfish UK's general manager John Earner in a talk on how social game development should adapt to the ever-increasing demand for high production values on Facebook and other social platforms. The lecture from the Electronic Arts-owned firm's executive, titled "Evolution of the Development Process in Social Gaming," will help put the evolution of social games in context by comparing the budding industry with previous gaming platforms. Elsewhere, in the main conference's Visual Arts track, NetherRealm Studios' cinematic director Dominic Cianciolo will discuss the studio's approach to the development and execution of the cinematics in the recently released Mortal Kombat title. The session, titled "The Cinematics of Mortal Kombat: Re-Booting a Legend," will help attendees make story-based sequences that "improve player immersion and their emotional connection to the game’s characters and experiences." Many more GDC Europe Main Conference sessions are due to be revealed over the next few weeks for the event -- part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website. In addition to the Social Games Summit, GDC Europe has added a notable Summit on indie games, as well as a Summit on smartphone and tablet games and the Community Management Summit to the existing line-up of learning and inspiration. For more information on GDC Europe as the event takes shape, please visit the official GDC Europe website, or subscribe to updates from the official Game Developers Conference news page in RSS form, official Twitter page, or official Facebook page.