GDC Europe debuts '10 years of Battlefield' talk, Unreal Engine 4 demo, more

With just two days to go until early registration ends for GDC Europe 2012, show organizers have debuted brand new talks including a major retrospective on Battlefield developer DICE, a panel on financing games, as well as presentations on both Unreal Engine 4 and CryEngine 3. These talks all fall within GDC Europe's Main Conference, which takes place Monday through Wednesday, August 13-15, 2012 at the Congress-Centrum Ost Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany. Be sure to register soon, as those who do so before July 18 will save up to 200 Euros on their show pass. The full details on GDC Europe's new sessions are as follows: - In the show's Production track session, "Passion For Entertainment: 10 years of Battlefield/20 years of DICE," DICE general manager Karl Magnus will chart the trends and changes that helped shape this long-running and successful big-budget studio. Along the way, Magnus will explore how DICE supported and altered its popular Battlefield franchise as it transitioned from working as a traditional boxed product developer to one that supports persistent online services around the clock. In addition, he'll share some key design insights behind the studio's biggest games, giving attendees a chance to learn what's made DICE's games so successful. - Over in the Business & Marketing track, a notable panel of independent European game developers and financiers will help answer one of the biggest questions in modern game development: How do you get your game financed? In this panel, "Financing Options for Smaller Games," speakers including Nicholas Lovell (GAMESbrief), Jonathan Newth (Tenshi Ventures), Patrick O'Luanaigh (nDreams), and Ciaran O'Leary (Earlybird) will share their thoughts on how developers should raise money from investors, the benefits and pitfalls of crowdfunding, and much, much more. - In a number of recently added GDC Europe sponsored sessions, major companies including Intel, Crytek and Epic will discuss their business in talks open to all attendees. In particular, Epic Games will host a real-time demo of the upcoming Unreal Engine 4. Here, the studio will provide one of the first public showings of the engine's "Elemental" demonstration. In addition, Crytek will showcase a brand new, small-scale project created with CryEngine3's free SDK, and a look at the tools used in the the upcoming free to play shooter, Warface. These talks join over 100 other sessions, including a talk on World of Tanks developer Wargaming.net, postmortems on The Witcher 2 and the indie MMO Love, and much more. For a full list of all GDC Europe sessions announced thus far, check out the show's nearly completed Schedule Builder. Those interested in attending GDC Europe have less than 48 hours to secure their lower-cost pass for the Gamescom co-located event via the show's online registration page, since discounted prices for early registration are available only until July 18. For more information on GDC Europe, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. GDC Europe is owned and operated by Gamasutra parent company UBM Technology.