Organizers of next March's Game Developers Conference 2013 are highlighting the first summit talks behind some of the industry's biggest games in the free-to-play, smartphone and tablet, and indie arenas.
Firstly, Epic's upcoming Infinity Blade: Dungeons will serve as an example of how to design touch-based controls for both hardcore and casual markets. Exploring the free to play market in China, Tencent will discuss its best business and design practices for handling the multiple Game Developers Choice Online Awards winner League of Legends. And Indie Fund co-owner Aaron Isaksen will examine in-app purchases for indies 'without shame' in the Independent Games Summit.
For the Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit, Nick Cooper will share Epic Games' design process in 'The Iterative Touch: Crafting the Controls for Infinity Blade: Dungeons'. Epic aimed for touch-based input that appealed to casual and hardcore gamers for its action-RPG/dungeon crawler. Here, Cooper will discuss the design and implementation of Infinity Blade: Dungeons' touchscreen input, along with the iterative process by which it was developed.
For the Free to Play Design & Business Summit, Tencent's Jim Feng will discuss bringing Riot Games' League of Legends to China in his 'Operating Western Games in China' talk. Feng will highlight best practices for the operation and development of games for the massive Chinese market and will illuminate processes of working with Chinese game operators.
The Independent Games Summit is also starting to debut talks, with one of the first confirmed lectures in the form of 'In-App Purchase and Analytics for Indies Without Shame or Embarrassment'. In the talk by AppAbove founder and Indie Fund co-owner Aaron Isaksen, several case studies are presented on "how indies have used IAP to reach success and failure, [analyzing] what worked and what didn't work." Focusing on practical takeaways, the talk will include single and dual currencies, free versus pay apps, pricing, and ethics.
All of these talks will be available to those with at least a GDC 2013 Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, which is now available with an early registration discount. The lower-cost Independent Games Summit Pass is still available, though quantities are limited.
For more information on these lectures or others in the show's growing lineup, check out GDC 2013's official Schedule Builder, which has added new talks over the previous few days.
For more information on GDC 2013, which will take place March 25-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.
