GDC Europe 2009
Call For Submissions

Closed on May 8th

Overview & Guidelines | Submission Criteria & Form

Introduction

The GDC Europe 2009 is the premier professional conference for the creators of games within the European community. If you share our passion and commitment for videogames, we want to hear from you. The GDC Europe is now soliciting session proposals from potential speakers with deep industry expertise and a fresh and unique perspective on the state of the industry.

Please review the submission criteria closely for the list of topics for each track. It is also encouraged that you submit your own topic, since, after all, many of the most interesting and valuable presentations are those unique ideas not found elsewhere.

Tracks

Click on the desired track to review the list of topics:

Business and Management
Game Design
Production
Programming
Visual Arts
Mobile
Serious Games

Criteria

Successful submissions will answer the following questions:

What expertise and insight do you bring to this topic?
How many shipped titles (products) you have produced, project-managed or directed? Over how many years?
What is the largest team you've personally managed/directed?
What is the largest development budget you have personally controlled?
Are you sharing a current best practice or proposing a future solution?
What professional training or experience have you received in project management?
How many units did your best-selling game sell to consumers?
Who would benefit most from your talk?
What was the best-rated game you produced or directed?
Do you personally manage content creators?
What sort of visuals and examples will back up the ideas?

Business and Management

To succeed, game developers need both broad-ranging business knowledge about the industry and in-depth financial and management experience to apply to their current project.

Suggested topics include:

Social Networking – Lessons Learned
MMO Market Evolution and Business Models
Market Share, Industry Trends, High-level Data for All Markets
Running and Independent Studio in this Economy
Opportunities for Service Companies and Use the Downturn Economy as an Advantage
Failed Studios Postmortem
Entrepreneurialism Case Studies
Funding – Non-Traditional, Non-Publisher Sources
Negotiation Skills/Best Practices
Digital and Direct Distribution, How Small Teams Can Reach Mass Distribution
Retention Mechanisms in MMOs to Stay Connected to the Player After the Sell
Casual Games vs. Traditional Games, New Models

Submit your proposal.

Game Design

The goal of the game design track is to inspire, demystify, educate and reveal the most interesting and important aspects a leading designer will be faced with today and in the coming years.

Suggested topics include:

Building Community, Intersection Between Console and Online
New and Unique development on the Wii console
Multiplayer Game Design
Social Networking Game Design, What Comes Next?
Game Design for Online User (Influence of Social Networks)
User-Created Content
Making a Great Sequel (Complexity Issue)
Postmortems on Hit Titles, Why was It a Hit?
User Interface / Controls / Simplicity
The Game Engine as a Platform - Modding
Open World Design
Innovation vs. Execution and Quality
Creative Risk Management and Original Game Design
How to Build Emotions in a Game
Creating International or Local IPs
Level Design Integration in the Production Pipeline
Episodic Content and Game Design

Submit your proposal.

Production

Skyrocketing budgets have resulted in the highest production quality the industry has yet seen. The goal of the production track is to provide developers with concrete tactics for managing this growth.

Suggested topics include:

Production Postmortems
Producing Sequels
Applying Time Management/Life Management Techniques
Managing New IP Creation
Innovations in Outsourcing Management
Co-development/Distributed Development/Building Virtual Teams
Managing Live Teams/Collaborating with International Teams
Making Games on a Small Budget/Developing Games with Small Teams
Agile Development
Realities of SCRUM
User Research and Play Test
Using Web 2.0/New Tools & Trends to Manage Your Teams and Distributed Information
Online production issues (cost of servers, bandwidth)
Management of proprietary engine, features, needs risk, and evolution to the production

Submit your proposal.

Programming

The current-generation consoles and sky high expectations are putting the focus on ever more accurate simulations of physical reality. The programming track addresses the challenges facing developers.

Suggested topics include:

Online Games:

Architectures for different online game types
Challenges of purchasable content
Community-centric features (web access to game data, community, etc)
Content creation and user-created content

AI:

Dealing with dynamic environments
Integration with animations
Reactive characters
Crowds

Multi-threading:

Second generation architectures (on all platforms)
Cross platform strategies

Physics:

Deformation and destruction
Integration of physics and online play
Integration with animation

Graphics:

New techniques
Photo realistic rendering of reality
How to achieve non-realistic styles
Volumetric effects
Dynamic lighting and shadows

Performance:

General techniques
Platform-specific optimizations
Best optimization practices and processes

Dynamics of Programming:

Middleware integration
Build system and asset pipeline
Fast iteration in asset creation and editing, live editing, concurrent editing
Challenges of dealing with large teams

Submit your proposal.

Visual Arts

The Visual Arts track addresses the latest technologies, techniques, and tools used to develop quality artwork in a streamlined, efficient, and productive manner.

Suggested topics include: