GDC Europe reveals talks on Dead Island 2 and Angry Birds

Earlier this week we announced that GDC Europe 2014 would host both game industry veteran Chris Roberts and Fireproof Studios cofounder Barry Meade. Today, we're excited to reveal two more noteworthy sessions for the major European game conference, which is being held in Germany this August. GDC Europe covers topics spanning AAA through mobile gaming and indie, both technical and business-focused. The pair of talks we're announcing today are part of GDC Europe's storied Design track, and they should include learnings for the entire community. Organized by UBM Tech Game Network, GDC Europe, now in its sixth year in Germany, will run Monday through Wednesday, August 11-13 at the Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany, co-located with Europe's biggest video game trade and public show gamescom. We're happy to have Yager Interactive design director Joerg Friedrich joining us in Cologne to give a talk on the challenges of sandbox game design titled "The Players are Loose! Developing a Seamless Multiplayer Sandbox for Dead Island 2." Friedrich believes its possible to build large multiplayer sandbox games without sacrificing the tension of a singe-player experience, and during his talk he plans to run down the mistakes that Yager made when transitioning from Spec Ops: The Line to Dead Island 2 -- and how other developers can avoid them. Friedrich also hopes to share a behind-the-scenes look at development on the upcoming Dead Island 2 and offer some design principles for developers embarking on similar projects. We're also pleased to welcome Rovio vice president of games Miika Tams and Chimera Entertainment managing director Christian Kluckner to GDC Europe, where they'll be sharing the origin story of the free-to-play tactical RPG Angry Birds Epic. In their Design track talk, "Conquering New Frontiers: Angry Birds and Their Epic Adventure," Tams and Kluckner will share Chimera Entertainment's original pitch for the game and the challenges the pair faced in adapting a well-known IP to a completely new -- and frankly, unexpected -- kind of mobile game. Of course, these are just some of the many exciting sessions that will be announced for GDC Europe 2014 in the coming weeks, and a full list of announced talks is now available. In addition, this year marks the GDC Europe debut of the Student Pass, a more affordable alternative to the All Access Pass created specifically for qualified students interested in learning and networking at GDC Europe 2014 - as well as the return of the Indie Games Summit pass. All GDC Europe passes also allow visitors to attend Gamescom from Wednesday to Friday. For more information, please visit the GDC Europe website. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech