GDC Next 2013 adds Jill Murray on 'diversifying feminine archetypes'

Game Developers Conference Next organizers have added new sessions to the November 'future of games' event, including Ubisoft's Jill Murray on new narrative and gameplay options for female characters in games and Gamesbrief director Nicholas Lovell on a model to welcome more players into F2P designed games. GDC Next is the spiritual successor to GDC Online. The new event aims to highlight the future of video game development, with tracks including 'Next Generation Game Platforms', 'Free To Play & New Business Models', and 'Smartphone & Tablet Games', as well as cloud and indie game tracks. It will take place alongside the App Developers Conference on November 5th-7th, 2013 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Organizers are announcing two new talks today, as follows: Ubisoft Quebec's director of narrative design Jill Murray will present 'Binders Full of Women: Diversifying Feminine Archetypes in Games.' The Assassin's Creed III : Liberation scriptwriter will discuss new narrative and gameplay options brought by a range of characters and personalities inspired by real women in history, and contemporary women important to game developers you know. Attendees will gain insight to help them research and create female characters, as well as suggestions for drawing narrative design and game mechanics from such characters. The bulk of the talk will consist of real women's stories, from the outwardly heroic to the quiet heroism of the ordinary. Elsewhere, Gamesbrief director Nicholas Lovell will present 'Where the Whales Live: The Pyramid Model of F2P Design.' The consultant and author of "How to Publish a Game" and "Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games" will discuss how to build a game that is free for all and fun to play, with unfolding layers of complexity that allow highly engaged players to enrich their game with meaningful purchases. These talks join a growing number of others added to the interactive Session Scheduler, now live for attendees to begin their planning. Previously announced talks include Disney Mobile on level design from hits such as Where's My Water and Where's My Perry, Realm of Empires's Facebook to mobile HTML5 porting, and an inspirational talk from former Edge Magazine editor Ste Curran. Registration is now open for GDC Next and the co-located ADC. The first 500 attendees who sign up can save over 30% on ADC, GDC Next, or a combined VIP Pass. For all the latest news on GDC Next, subscribe for updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Also, check out ADC's recently announced programming talks from Rotoshop animation software creator Bob Sabiston on design and UI approaches for Nintendo and Apple hardware, and Stormpath CTO Les Hazlewood on designing REST+JSON API for the Web.