Game Developers Conference 2010 organizers have announced its first set of Main Conference lectures for the March 9th-13th event, with Uncharted 2, Braid and Brutal Legend-specific talks already confirmed.
Organizers of the industry-leading San Francisco-based event (part of Think Services, as is this website) will be highlighting track-specific talks gradually over the next few weeks, but some of the notable lectures already posted include:
- Among Friends - An Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Post-Mortem (Production Track)
In this postmortem, Naughty Dog co-lead game designer Richard Lemarchand examines what went right and wrong in the creation of the critically acclaimed PS3 title, "...in expanding our gameplay through the use of new traversal, combat and AI technologies, introducing characters that shed new light on our hero Nathan Drake, and tackling our first foray into multiplayer in four years."
- Rock Show VFX - The Effects That Bring Brutal Legend to Life (Art Track)
Two of Double Fine's key employees -- lead platform programmer Peter Demoreuille and technical/VFX artist Drew Skillman -- will discuss the making of the visual effects for action-adventure Brutal Legend, covering "the design and most commonly relied upon features of our particle rendering, simulation, effects timeline and climate packages."
- Scoring Hell: How We Created the Score for EA's Dante's Inferno, from Inception to Final Implementation (Audio Track)
In this notable audio lecture, composer Garry Schyman and EA audio director Paul Gorman discuss "an exploration from both the composers and audio director's point of view" on making sound for EA's upcoming action title Dante's Inferno, including working with choir and orchestra in London, tech info, and implementation issues.
- The Implementation of Rewind in Braid (Programming Track) Braid creator Jon Blow explains in his lecture description regarding his indie hit: "In Braid the player can rewind time at will... the game design required the player to be able to rewind a large amount of gameplay (30 to 60 minutes) and the memory of this gameplay had to fit into a small space (40 megabytes on consoles)." In this technical lecture, Blow will explain the intricacies and practicalities of doing just that.
- Why Owning Your Own IP is a Bad Idea: Giving Up Your Rights for Fun and Profit (Business Track)
Foundation 9 VP Chris Charla presents an interesting argument: "Conventional wisdom says you should always own your own IP. In the games space, we argue that the conventional wisdom is no longer valid. For independent developers to maximize their chance of popular and commercial success (and getting action figures made of your characters!), retaining ownership of your IP may be the worst decision you can make."
Alongside the full set of announced lectures thus far comes news on reduced conference pass prices for GDC 2010, with the introduction of optional lunch packages. Attendees now have the option to purchase lunch provided by the Moscone Center based on their GDC week schedule, or to find their own lunch alternatives.
Alumni registration for GDC 2010 ends December 17, 2009 and Early Bird rates end February 4, 2010. For more information on the 2010 Game Developers Conference, visit the official GDC 2010 website.
