The Game Developers Conference Europe 2010 has concluded a second successful year, confirming record overall attendance across paid attendees, media, speakers and exhibitors to the August 16th-18th show.

At the same time, organizers have revealed a return to Cologne, Germany for a third GDC Europe show -- again opposite GamesCom -- on August 15-17, 2011.

Produced by UBM TechWeb Game Network, organizers of the leading worldwide Game Developers Conference series, GDC Europe is the largest professionals-only game event in Europe, presenting the latest trends and technology in all aspects of the online gaming space for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals.

Highlights of day two and three major talks at the show, reported by sister website Gamasutra.com, include the following notable talks:

Day Two

-In the day's first keynote, Heiko Hubertz, CEO and founder of Bigpoint, advised attendees that to conduct business in America as a European company, the time to do it is "right now." Throughout the talk, Hubertz elaborated on the differences between the U.S. and European markets and educated the audience about how to be successful in America as a European, based on Bigpoint's experience there. Hubert advised "There are only two existing markets in America, the console market and the Facebook market."

-In his keynote, Killzone developer Guerrilla Games' managing director Hermen Hulst discussed his studio's genesis, and its successes and failures in evolving into a Sony-owned AAA console powerhouse. Hulst began with the mantra: "to survive and to grow... you need to consistently improve yourself. He took attendees through examples of how Guerrilla's experiences have informed their history and the key decisions made from the time Sony signed the title that would become Killzone through to today. Plus, he revealed the studio is expanding to work on a "game with a scope and a level of ambition that once again makes us nervous" -- specifically a "brand new IP."

- Eric Chahi, creator of Another World, spoke about his newest project: He's director of Ubisoft's wildly ambitious downloadable title tentatively titled Project Dust, which allows players to re-terraform the world around them, creating islands, rivers, and life using simple tools that interact with each other intelligently. Chahi's talk centered on the idea that a correct meeting of technology and game design can allow for the creation of something truly unique. To do that, Chahi said one must "keep only the essentials for the purposes of optimization, and to keep these things simple for the player."

- Zenimax Online head Matt Firor talked about the complex definitional relationships between the 'casual' and 'hardcore' in games, showcasing how games like Zynga's FarmVille have "serious hardcore gaming characteristics." Going back to the beginnings of the industry, Firor pointed out that early, iconic titles like Donkey Kong or Super Mario Bros. weren't actually that casual -- they were, if anything, "fun but hard." These days, he says, "games aren't casual or hardcore... the gamers are."

Day Three

- Researcher and Malmo University associate professor Mikael Jakobsson says achievements aren't extrinsic to games, and suggests the Xbox Live Achievement experience is akin to its own MMO. If you think about it as a metagame, then the achievements aren't outside the gaming experience, "they're just part of the other gaming experience," he suggests, discovering that console users who judgmental of PC gamers and "addicted" MMO players might be doing the same kinds of things.

- Diverse engine makers, including Epic's Mark Rein, Terminal Reality's Joe Kreiner, Crytek's Carl Jones, StoneTrip's Philip Belhassen and Unity's David Helgason -- valiantly refereed by Google's Mark DeLoura -- traded jokes, caused chaos and squared off as they discussed new frontiers like the web and the 3DS, noting along the way that "we all seem to be converging into the same space."

- PopCap CEO Jason Kapalka explained why Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook hasn't taken the same hit to its user numbers as many other games on the platform since Facebook changed some of its viral aspects -- and described in fascinating detail how the company built an early Facebook success in a time when "nobody actually liked Facebook games." Social games are just a little bit "evil", suggests Kapalka, highlighting how the team had to get over the "disturbing" sense that "a large part of the social game industry is about finding loopholes in the system."

Another highlight of the show was a talk headed by Google's Mark DeLoura, in which the developer advocate showed off the progress the search engine giant has made in the gaming space. The company plans on launching an app store for its increasingly popular Chrome web browser in October, and games will be a major focus of the company going forward.

In addition to the conference content, GDC Europe provided several opportunities for creative exchange and business development, with venues including the GDC Europe Expo Floor, VIP Lounge, and the GDC Europe Business Lounge which continus to take place at Gamescom until Saturday, plus a host of industry parties. For more information on the show, which has just concluded, please consult the official GDC Europe website.

The organizers of Game Developers Conference Europe 2010 have opened the event's doors at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, and are recapping highlights and coverage of the first day's proceedings.

Produced by UBM TechWeb Game Network, organizers of the leading Game Developers Conference series, GDC Europe is the largest professionals-only game event in Europe, and has increased in scope compared to its inaugural debut event in 2009, with record attendance ahead of this week's Gamescom consumer and trade event in the same location.

Highlights of today's major speeches at the show include (with links to full write-ups on sister site Gamasutra.com where available):

- At his track keynote on Monday, Tencent Games VP Bo Wang discussed how the billion-dollar revenue Chinese tech/game company has risen to the top of the pack, citing massive growth rates and key routes to success in Asia. Wang noted than in the six months to the end of June 2010, the gigantic Chinese-headquartered firm, which deals with instant messaging, virtual currency, and video games as its major parts, had revenues of $1.3 billion U.S. dollars.

Wang noted that Chinese gamers have a much lower disposable income, so there are unique ways Tencent attracts these gamers. Tencent tries to have 1,000 hours available at launch in its typical MMORPGs, and also encourages gamers to have fun by playing against each other in games. As Tencent also has the top instant messaging service in China, plus a top free email service, a massive web portal at QQ.com, and even a search engine, cross-marketing from all of Tencent's properties seems to have catapulted the firm to the top of the pile in the Chinese market.

- In a session titled "Rethinking a Studio for the Digital Space," THQ Digital creative director Don Whiteford discussed the publisher's burgeoning specialization in digital games, discussing learnings from his rebranded THQ studio. Along the way, he revealed its debut XBLA/PSN title, top down vehicle combat title Red Faction: Battlegrounds, a topdown car, mech and rover combat title for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network with up to four players on the same screen. In addition, various achievements in the game -- which was built by a core team of just four people -- will unlock unique elements in retail franchise continuation Red Faction: Armageddon.

- BioWare's Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk delivered an Q&A-style look back on the founding of their studio and the creation of the seminal Baldur's Gate franchise. The duo referenced their early years' inexperience in conventional game business, yet success with Baldur's Gate through their passion and a love of the art. The duo ended with a teaser of some potentially exciting new titles, as yet unannounced, coming out of the Virginia-based BioWare Mythic office that currently operates stalwart, still-profitable titles such as Warhammer Online and Ultima Online.

- Talking in a packed keynote, Creative Director of Disney's Junction Point studio Warren Spector (Epic Mickey) delivered a lyrical discussion of video games and how the medium should -- and shouldn't -- learn from other media to shine in its own right. Referencing film, radio, comic books and board games, Spector illustrated the importance and power of the user's imagination and videogames' 'power to transport' - the ability to become another character entirely, and how they can immerse people in worlds that appear completely believable.

- In the first of the "Focus Russia" series of sessions, Dmitry Lyust and Konstantin Popov gave an overview about the Russian market. They cited figures suggesting that Russia's online games market will grow from $223 million in 2009 to $400-410 million by 2012, and that the Russian market for casual games will grow from $32 million USD to $42 million USD by the end of this year. Lyust and Popov also discussed Russia's recent welcoming climate for business and investments from abroad, and particularly pinpointed government plans to build up a "Russian Silicon Valley" inside a special economic zone near Moscow.

- Other notable lectures covered by sister site Gamasutra include the creators of Limbo on puzzle balancing for their XBLA hit, plus the challenges of motion control in Red Faction 2, and new analysis of Heavy Rain by its creator David Cage, plus Playfish's Jeferson Valadares discussing intuition versus metrics. Video and sync-ed slide versions of the lectures will also be available to GDC Vault subscribers shortly after the show.

In addition to the conference content, GDC Europe provides several opportunities for creative exchange and business development, with venues including the GDC Europe Expo Floor, VIP Lounge, and the GDC Europe Business Lounge at gamescom, plus a host of industry parties.

More than forty exhibitors and sponsors from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, the UK and the USA have registered for the exhibitor zone measuring 650 square meters. Exhibitors include Crytek, Bigpoint, Epic, Howest University, Imagination Studios and Intel. In addition, GDC Europe also has a business lounge at the accompanying games expo, gamescom, at which Autodesk, Crytek, Epic, Zotac, DigiProtect, Level 3 are confirmed to be exhibiting.

For more information on the show, please consult the official GDC Europe website.

The Game Developers Conference Europe, the leading conference for computer and video game developers in Europe after its successful debut last year, is on track to exceed its registration and exhibitor numbers from 2009.

The conference is now expected to receive up to 2,000 attendees, speakers and media representatives from 45 different countries, already surpassing the attendance numbers from the 2009 debut. The event is expected to garner a strong presence from European and North American industry professionals.

In particular, GDC Europe, which takes place August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress East Center in Cologne, Germany, will this year focus on media convergence and online gaming, and also features a concentration on the booming Chinese and Russian markets.

Several leaders of the international development scene and the games industry will be participating in GDC Europe addressing major topics facing the industry. In total, the event will feature more than 90 workshops, and presentations by more than 130 speakers from all over the world.

Late additions include 'Games on the Chrome Web Store', featuring Google's Mark DeLoura and Michael Mahemoff; a talk called 'Next-Gen Consoles: Cloud-Based Gaming', with Tom DuBois of streaming service OnLive, and EEDAR's Greg Short presenting 'State of The Games Market.'

They join a list of notable speakers including Warren Spector (Disney), Eric Chahi (Ubisoft), Heiko Hubertz (Bigpoint), Bo Wang (Tencent), Hermen Hulst (Guerrilla Games), Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk (BioWare), Louis Castle (InstantAction), Martin Walfisz (Planeto), David Cage (Quantic Dream), Steven Gaffney (Splash Damage), Chris Charla (Foundation 9), Jorg Tittel (Break Thru Films), Avni Yerli (Crytek), Harald Riegler (Sproing), Matias Myllyrinne (Remedy Entertainment), Don Daglow (Don Daglow Interactive Entertainment), Steve Meretzky & Dave Rohrl (Playdom), Aki Jarvinen (Digital Chocolate), and Seb Canniff (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe).

In addition to the conference content, GDC Europe provides several opportunities for creative exchange and business development, with venues including the GDC Europe Expo Floor, VIP Lounge, and the GDC Europe Business Lounge at gamescom, plus a host of industry parties. Already thirty exhibitors and sponsors from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, the UK and the USA have registered for the exhibitor zone measuring 650 square meters.

Exhibitors include Crytek, Bigpoint, Epic, Howest University, Imagination Studios and Intel. In addition, GDC Europe will also be hosting for the first time a Business Lounge at the accompanying games expo, Gamescom, at which Autodesk, Crytek, Epic, Zotac, DigiProtect, and Level 3 are confirmed to be exhibiting.

"We always focus on practical solutions and market needs," says event director Frank Sliwka, summing up the conference's unique philosophy. "We aim to combine trend analysis with the search for new models for technology and at the same time, creating marketing and business opportunities to present to our attendees."

Online registration for GDC Europe ends August 12, 2010 at 1pm CEST. For more information on GDC Europe, including a schedule of all conference events and parties, plus a complete exhibitor list, please visit: the official GDC Europe website.

Organizers of the leading Game Developers Conference series have announced that renowned game designer Warren Spector, creative director for Disney Interactive Studios' Junction Point, will open the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe on Monday, August 16.

Spector's keynote address, titled, "What Video Games Can Learn from Other Media ... What We Can't ... And What We Shouldn't" will kick off GDC Europe, which returns to Cologne Germany August 16-18, 2010 for three days of learning, networking and inspiration.

During his keynote, Spector will share with the audience his thoughts on video games as they compare to other media such as movies, television, theater, radio and comic books and explore the ways in which video games use techniques borrowed from those mediums.

The Deus Ex co-creator will question the assumption that video games should be more like other media, and will discuss how valid these comparisons are while suggesting some new comparisons that may be more relevant for moving our industry forward.

Using examples from a variety of media and a variety of games, Spector will examine what we have learned, what we still have to learn in the future and what may be holding us back from reaching our potential as the unique medium we must strive to become.

Warren Spector is a game development veteran with 6 years in tabletop games with Steve Jackson Games and TSR, followed by 21 years in electronic games with Origin, Looking Glass Studios, Ion Storm and most recently Junction Point, a division of Disney Interactive Studios.

"It is always a pleasure to welcome a long time friend of the GDC such as Warren Spector," said Frank Sliwka, GDC Europe Event Director. "Warren's breadth of work from Deus Ex to the highly-anticipated Disney Epic Mickey demonstrates innovative game design. His talk will inspire current and new generations of European developers."

Spector joins a large GDC Europe line-up announced to date, including late additions from the creators of Limbo and Kane & Lynch 2, plus a Guerrilla Games/Killzone 3 keynote. Other lectures include a Rare-helmed lecture on Microsoft's Kinect, the BioWare co-founders on the Baldur's Gate franchise, a lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, an ESA/G.A.M.E. panel on government intervention in games, and a Heavy Rain production talk.

Also added are lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent, significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, and other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders.

To receive more information on GDC Europe -- for which online registration is still open until August 12th, and onsite registration will also be available -- interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

GDC Europe organizers are highlighting a number of key new talks at the GamesCom-colocated Cologne, Germany developer event this month, including business & production advice from LucasArts, Double Fine and Foundation 9, plus online/social game analysis from leading studios in the space.

In the past few days, a number of notable business, production, and social game panels have been confirmed for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which will take place August 16th-18th, and is an easy additional stop for GamesCom visitors, being located in Cologne, Germany alongside the leading European trade and consumer show.

Looking more broadly at the business and production of games, a notable new panel called 'Multiple Paths of Success for the Independent Developer' features veterans like Foundation 9 VP Chris Charla, Double Fine's Zack Karlsson and Bigpoint's Nils-Holger Henning discussing new methodologies and routes to success in the increasingly competitive independently-run game studio market.

A similarly expansive production panel, called 'Extreme Producing: Order & Chaos in The Game Development Process', features figures like LucasArts' Marianne Monaghan, 2K's Lulu LaMer and ThatGameCompany's Robin Hunicke discussing "specific examples of some the extreme highs and lows they have experienced in controlling the often chaotic process of making games", with plenty of practical takeaway.

With a plethora of major social/online game lectures -- from leading companies in the space like Playdom, RockYou, Bigpoint, Digital Chocolate, Tencent and Playfish -- already part of the overall GDC Europe schedule, several other lecture and panel additions around non-social network online games have fleshed out the program. These include a panel on browser-based vs. client-downloaded online games with Gamigo, GamersFirst and IGG representation, plus a case study on localizing Asian online game Runes Of Magic for the West.

Another late addition of particular interest in the social games space is 'Wiring a Hardcore Brain to a Social Mindset', in which Planeto CEO Martin Walfisz -- formerly the founder of successful Swedish 'core' game studio Massive Entertainment (Ground Control, World In Conflict) -- talks about his new social game company and "the implications of developing games as services rather than products - all from the mindset of a hardcore gamer, game developer and entrepreneur."

These latest announcements are part of a large GDC Europe line-up, including late additions from the creators of Limbo and Kane & Lynch 2, plus a Guerrilla Games/Killzone 3 keynote. Other lectures include a Rare-helmed lecture on Microsoft's Kinect, the BioWare co-founders on the Baldur's Gate franchise, a lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, an ESA/G.A.M.E. panel on government intervention in games, and a Heavy Rain production talk.

Also added are lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent, significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, and other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders.

To receive more information on GDC Europe, for which online registration is still open until August 12th, and onsite registration will also be available, interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

With just a day until the July 21st early reg deadline, GDC Europe organizers have announced major talks on Limbo, Guild Wars 2 and Kane & Lynch 2 at next month's Cologne, Germany-based game conference.

Coming shortly after the Guerrilla Games/Killzone 3 keynote, these new talks are confirmed for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which will take place August 16th-18th, and is located in Cologne, Germany alongside GamesCom, the leading European trade and consumer show.

The newly announced GDC Europe lectures arriving just before the early registration deadline include the following notables:

- In 'Limbo: Balancing Fun and Frustration in Puzzle Design', Playdead's Jeppe Carlsen focuses on the acclaimed Xbox Live Arcade title Limbo, discussing "creating an immersive game experience that is challenging to players without being discouraging." Along the way, he'll explore "relevant design principles using concrete examples from the game, focusing on considerations in the areas of accessibility, difficulty, learning by dying, and fun."

- IO Interactive art director Rasmus Poulsen is speaking on 'Art Direction in the YouTube Era', discussing how he and his colleagues approached the distinctive look to the Square Enix-published console title Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. The game takes an alternative, documentary film-inspired look to visuals, and the description notes that "as the gaming industry continues to follow the trend of hi-fidelity graphics to convey realism, an exploration to find what 'real' is sparked a fresh artistic vision" for the title.

- 'Designing Guild Wars 2 Dynamic Events' features the much-awaited ArenaNet MMO's lead designer Eric Flannum and lead content designer Colin Johanson outlining how the core content of games in the MMORPG genre has evolved over time. They "will discuss the inspiration for and the implementation challenges of their Dynamic Events system, with the goal of creating an exciting, living, breathing online world that encourages social interaction between players."

In addition, GDC Europe organizers are presenting 'Focus Russia', presenting up-and-coming regions or countries that are important for the worldwide game industry. During the show, organizers will hold two workshops to analyze the current changes in the Russian market, present important players and trends as well as new business concepts and opportunities for cooperation.

These latest announcements are part of a large GDC Europe line-up that includes a Rare-helmed lecture on Microsoft's Kinect, the BioWare co-founders on the Baldur's Gate franchise, a lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, an ESA/G.A.M.E. panel on government intervention in games, and a Heavy Rain production talk.

Also added are lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent, significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, and other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders.

With just one day to go until the early registration deadline, more information on GDC Europe, for which reduced price registration is in place until July 21st -- visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

GDC Europe has revealed a keynote from Guerrilla Games' head Hermen Hulst, discussing the upcoming Killzone 3 and managing the Sony-owned studio to success, as the July 21st early registration deadline approaches for the pre-eminent European game business/design conference.

This keynote -- to be held on August 17th -- is the latest to be announced for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which will take place August 16th-18th, and is located in Cologne, Germany alongside GamesCom, the leading European trade and consumer show.

Hulst's talk at GDC Europe will examine how the Amsterdam-headquartered studio -- one of the leading European game developers, and employing 140 developers from 20 countries -- has matured, and which obstacles had to be overcome along the way.

He'll also focus on the company's technical focus on best utilizing console hardware, and what some of the ingredients behind the success of the Killzone series are, illuminating some of Guerrilla's emerging work on the PlayStation 3-exclusive title Killzone 3, due out in early 2011.

The announcements come with just five days to go before the July 21st early registration deadline for the show, which is created by the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website, and is now in its second year as the pre-eminent European game development event.

"We are excited to welcome to the GDC Europe stage such a prominent European developer and industry figure such as Hulst," said Frank Sliwka, GDC Europe Event Director. "The Killzone series and work produced from Guerrilla Games is exemplar of the ingenuity of European developers."

These latest announcements are part of a large GDC Europe line-up that includes a Rare-helmed lecture on Microsoft's Kinect, the BioWare co-founders on the Baldur's Gate franchise, a lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, an ESA/G.A.M.E. panel on government intervention in games, and a Heavy Rain production talk.

Also added are lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent, significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, and other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders.

With just five days to go until the early registration deadline, more information on GDC Europe, for which reduced price registration is in place until July 21st -- visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

2010 Game Developers Conference Europe organizers have announced a Rare-helmed lecture on Microsoft's Kinect, the BioWare co-founders on the Baldur's Gate franchise, plus an iPhone marketing lecture from Words With Friends' creator, with the early registration deadline looming.

These in-depth talks are the latest to be announced for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which will take place August 16th-18th, and is located in Cologne, Germany alongside GamesCom, the leading regional trade and consumer show.

The announcements come with less than two weeks to go before the July 21st early registration deadline for the show, which is now in its second year as the pre-eminent European game development event. The notable new speakers for this must-attend show for game developers throughout Europe consist of the following:

- In a lecture entitled 'Kinecting With A New Audience', Rare's Nick Burton and Blitz's Andrew Oliver -- respectively first and third-party developers for the Xbox 360's newly announced Kinect motion control system -- will talk about their recent experiences building Kinect launch titles and how this affected development in their respective studios.

Subjects will include "how Kinect fitted into their game engines.... how design was affected... how they built on top of changing technology", as well as many other notable areas that might be of interest to game creators considering how motion-controlled gameplay might work within their own titles.

- A special lecture called 'Baldur's Gate - A 10 Year-Retrospective' see BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk team up with Obsidian CEO and former Black Isle head Feargus Urquhart to present a retrospective lecture on the seminal PC role-playing game Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn - one of the highest-rated RPGs of all time. The Dungeons & Dragons-based title launched in 2000, and paved the way for successful BioWare RPGs like Dragon Age and the Mass Effect franchise - and three of the principals will discuss the game's creation in depth.

- In addition, 'Keys to Successful iPhone Game Marketing' sees Newtoy CEO Paul Bettner, creator of popular iPhone/iPad app Words With Friends, team up with Sidhe and PikPok's Jos Ruffell (Bird Strike, Flick Kick Football) to discuss how they created successful, best-selling iPhone titles. As the duo note, "from the effectiveness of advertising, to code giveaways and promotions, if you're creating a game for iPhone, this session will better prepare you for the task of marketing your game."

These latest announcements are part of a large GDC Europe line-up that includes a rare lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, as well as a ESA/G.A.M.E. panel on government intervention in games and a Heavy Rain production talk. Also added are lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, plus a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent.

Other talks in the packed line-up include significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, APB and Split/Second, plus other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders.

For more information on GDC Europe, which is created by the UBM Techweb Game Network, as is this website, and for which reduced price registration is in place until July 21st -- visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

GDC Europe organizers have announced a rare lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, also debuting an ESA/G.A.M.E. panel and a Heavy Rain production talk.

These lectures are the latest to be announced for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which will take place August 16th-18th, and is located in Cologne, Germany alongside GamesCom, the leading regional trade and consumer show.

The notable new speakers for this must-attend show for European game developers are led by Ubisoft's Eric Chahi, the creator of seminal adventure game Another World (also known as Out Of This World) in the early '90s.

Chahi has recently returned to the game industry, and is presenting a lecture with Ronan Bel of Ubisoft called 'Creating a High-Performance Simulation: A Dynamic Natural World to Play With'. In it, the duo will introduce Galileo, "a real-time simulator of flowing water, lava, erosion, sedimentation and vegetation", and its use as foundation for a fully dynamic world-based game, the just-announced Project Dust.

In addition, a panel called 'Building Grassroots Video Game Activist Networks' sees Richard Taylor of the Entertainment Software Association and Stephan Reichart of G.A.M.E. (the German Games Developers Association) team with Crytek's Avni Yerli and additional, yet to be announced panelists to discuss how the industry can guard against censorship by using its biggest advocates - its fans.

Finally, one of Europe's key, critically acclaimed games of 2009 is examined in detail by Quantic Dream's Charles Coutier in his lecture, 'A Challenging Production: Heavy Rain'. The talk will focus on the French developer's iterative processes and adaptive management approach in making the atypical title, with plenty of specifics on asset management and outsourcing practices discussed.

These latest announcements are part of a large GDC Europe line-up that includes lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, plus a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent.

Other talks in the packed line-up include significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, APB and Split/Second, plus other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders.

For more information on GDC Europe, for which reduced price registration is in place until July 21st -- visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

Organizers have debuted the latest round of GDC Europe talks, with Remedy on Alan Wake's art direction, design wisdom from Age Of Empires co-creator Bruce Shelley, and a motion control-centric postmortem of Red Steel 2.

The lectures are newly announced for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe event, which takes place from August 16th-18th, and is -- for the second year -- located in Cologne, Germany. It takes place alongside the leading European consumer/trade GamesCom event, making the duo a must-attend for European and international game creators.

Some of the notable new speakers for the conference include the following:

- A lecture called 'Alan Wake: Light and Dark' has Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen discussing the multiple graphical techniques and work behind the Xbox 360 game's acclaimed atmosphere. As he notes: "How did the game's basic dualities of light vs. dark, sanity vs. insanity and real vs. supernatural echo in the design and visuals in order to support the story and create a memorable experience?"

- In 'Chilling Tales from Red Steel 2: How Motion Control Will/Won't Change The Future', Ubisoft creative director Jason VandenBerghe explains: "Red Steel 2 broke the mold, and proved that motion controls aren't just for the casual crowd... But sales were sluggish, and the team was confronted with extensive challenges in making real gameplay work with an entirely new input method." This honest lecture will explain what went right -- and wrong -- during the game's creation.

- Ensemble Studios (Age Of Empires) co-founder and design veteran Bruce Shelley is making a special appearance at GDC Europe to present 'Five Rules for Draft One of Your Game Design', and he'll share "five guidelines for the challenge of producing a complete first draft game design proposal, a road map to help designers focus their thoughts and get momentum on the process of 'getting it down.'"

These latest announcements are part of a major GDC Europe line-up that includes lectures and panels from 2K Czech talking Mafia 2, PopCap on Bejeweled Blitz, and an all-star Brink/Alan Wake/Mirror's Edge level design talk, plus a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent.

Previous announcements have included significant talks from Heavy Rain's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, APB and Split/Second, plus other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO).

Overall, the conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, is running alongside the major GamesCom event -- which non-student GDC Europe passholders will also gain free access to -- to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals.

For more information on specifics for GDC Europe -- for which reduced price registration is in place until July 21st -- interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

GDC Europe organizers have announced major new speakers for the August event in Cologne alongside Gamescom, with 2K Czech talking Mafia 2, PopCap on Bejeweled Blitz, an all-star level design talk, and a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent.

Following major recent talks announced from Heavy Rain's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, APB and Split/Second, the new talks further expand the leading European video game conference, which takes place on August 16th-18th in Cologne, Germany.

Some of the notable new speakers for the conference include the following:

- Level designers from major games Brink, Mirror's Edge and Alan Wake combine for the collaborative talk 'The Tao of Level Design: A Study of 3 AAA Games', with Splash Damage's Neil Alphonso, EA DICE's Elisabetta Silli and Remedy's Mikael Kasurinen posing the following question: "Are level design approaches for radically different games inherently similar, or do accepted methods need to be drastically altered to fit the unique nature of the project?"

- Talking in a notable technical lecture called 'The Living City In Mafia 2', 2K Czech lead programmer Jan Kratochvil will explain "creating a visually attractive city", with particular reference to 2K's much-awaited console and PC title. Facets discussed will include the algorithms for spawning and despawning pedestrians and cars, the AI for NPCs, and "examples and the most interesting issues we had to solve over the years of development of Mafia 2."

- In 'Postmortem: Bejeweled Blitz, Cross-Platform Social Gaming in Practice', PopCap Games co-founder Jason Kapalka discusses the acclaimed social puzzle game, which "gained over 10 million active players on [Facebook] before going on to be adapted for the iPhone and as a PC-downloadable product." The session will go over the important design and technical challenges that PopCap's teams faced, explain successes and failures, and discuss what lessons have been learned from the process.

- In a Design Track highlight, Digital Chocolate's noted social game designer Aki Jarvinen will present 'Viral Mechanics Uncovered', a design lecture "combining psychological concepts such as persuasion with game design principles" to look at case studies of popular Facebook/social games' viral features -- pinpointing how viral loops have been successfully created via specific mechanics.

In addition to these major announcements, GDC Europe organizers have announced a keynote for the event from Bo Wang, Vice President of Tencent Games. In his keynote, 'Bridging the East and West: The Tencent Games Story', Wang will address -- in Tencent's first ever lecture to Western game creators -- the success story of one of the largest online gaming companies and virtual currency providers in China, and its development plans for the future.

Tencent was founded in 1998, and is particularly well known for its instant messaging system QQ, which has 568 million registered users in China as of March 2010, as well as the major QQ Game portal, which runs and operates a host of casual games and MMOs to one of the biggest worldwide audiences.

These talks add to an already packed GDC Europe line-up that includes additional talks from Sony, Playdom, Crytek, and a keynote from German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO), with multiple keynotes and more major conference content still to be announced.

Overall, the conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, will once again run alongside the major GamesCom event -- which non-student GDC Europe passholders will also gain free access to -- to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals.

For more information on specifics for GDC Europe -- for which registration is now open -- interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

GDC Europe organizers have revealed major new speakers for its August 2010 event in Cologne, including a Heavy Rain postmortem from David Cage, plus detailed talks from the creators of Crysis 2, APB and Split/Second.

The latest announcements follow details of a keynote from Bigpoint and initial lectures from notables from Playdom, Sony, and Playfish. These begin to flesh out the schedule for the major three-day European game development event, taking place for the second year on August 16th-18th in Cologne, Germany.

The notable new speakers for the conference, which is created by the UBM Techweb Game Network, include the following major new talks from leading video game creators:

- In 'Heavy Rain: How Far Are You Prepared to Go to Develop an Original Project?', David Cage "will be driving the audience through a detailed postmortem on the hurdles Quantic Dream had to overcome to produce a game such as Heavy Rain", looking at making the "babylonian production while trying to keep creative control."

- InstantAction's Lou Castle is debuting a notable Business Track lecture called 'Baggies, DVDs and Bitstreams: How to Reinvent Yourself in a Dynamic Market', and the Westwood co-founder (Command & Conquer) will showcase thought-provoking opinions, "offering several specific methods of retaining and refocusing your personal outlook and, therefore, your professional career in games."

- 'The Art and Visual Styling of Crysis 2' is the title of a lecture by Crytek senior art director Frank Kitson, discussing the process of defining and shaping the visual styling the much-awaited action title. It will "offer practical techniques of defining color space and getting to the core of building a compelling visual image, as well as how to define key visual requirements and build a unique visual language that is consistent across an entire game."

- Black Rock's Matthew Rubin presents a lecture called 'Rigged to Blow: Powerplay Pipeline for Split/Second', looking at authoring set pieces and destructible environments for the acclaimed Disney racing game. Each stage of the data-driven pipeline will be discussed, including early prototyping, fracture modeling, rigging and animation, collision attachment, timeline and game event authoring, layering of audio and visual effects, real-time previewing and in-game play testing.

- Realtime Worlds' Joshua Howard will present 'APB's Beta Postmortem (And How We Changed Realtime Worlds Along the Way)', honestly discussing -- with regard to the PC MMO beta from the co-creator of Grand Thef Auto -- "what... worked and didn't work, what we learned along the way, and how the drive to go live served as a forcing function for a variety of changes that needed to be made."

The second GDC Europe event takes place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, alongside the major GamesCom public/trade event. All non-student GDC Europe passholders will receive a four-day pass to attend GamesCom, which includes hardware and game exhibits from all of the industry's biggest names, from Sony and Nintendo through EA, Ubisoft and beyond.

For more information on specifics for GDC Europe -- for which registration is now open -- interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

GDC Europe organizers have announced major new speakers for the August event taking place in Cologne alongside Gamescom, with notables from Sony, Playdom, Crytek and Playfish speaking on social games, budget balancing, game metrics controversy and beyond.

Following the recent announcement of a keynote from browser game giant and Battlestar Galactica MMO creator Bigpoint, the new sessions reveal significant breadth to the leading European video game conference, which takes place on August 16th-18th in Cologne, Germany.

Some of the notable new speakers for the conference include the following:

- In 'Intuition vs. Metrics: The Big Debate', Playfish's Jeferson Valardes will explore the controversy about the social game space's metrics-driven approach to design and development. Valardes, at the Electronic Arts-owned leading social network game firm (Restaurant City, Pet Society), promises "take this controversial subject by the neck and leave no stone unturned" in discussing it.

- Crytek producer Bernd Diemer (Crysis) is presenting a thought-provoking design lecture from the leading German firm, 'Imaginary Places, Strange Maps, and How Pop Culture Resonates Past Media Borders', discussing how inspiration for games can be taken from the strange, compelling miasma of pop culture through our earliest experiences.

- In a key production track lecture from Seb Canniff of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, 'Budgets - The Bermudan Part of the Production Triangle', the SCEE manager will provide hands-on advice on how to build, track and stick to a video game project budget, looking at "what most often goes wrong, and providing tools and tips on how to avoid these pitfalls". - Discussing 'The Year in Social Games', Playdom's Steve Meretzky & Dave Rohrl -- both recognized creators recently moved to the social game space -- point out the most interesting social games of the year - both the popular and hidden gems, while making "bold predictions about what to expect in social gaming during the coming year."

 - Finally, industry veteran Don Daglow, formerly of Stormfront Studios (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) presents a notable business talk, 'All These Platforms and Business Models: How do I Target My Game?' In it, he will use his decades of industry experience share "how to look at platforms, distribution methods, business models and audiences and answer the critical question, 'Where will people play my next game, and how will they buy it?'"

In addition to these major announcements, GDC Europe organizers have announced a focus on 'Games & Movies/TV' for a track taking place on the first day of the event (Monday, August 16), in partnership with IHK Koln, the City of Cologne and Mediencluster NRW.

The first announced speaker for this track is BreakThru Films' Jorg Tittel, who is working for the Oscar-winning UK based film company (Peter And The Wolf) on several transmedia projects, including an animated and live action feature, The Flying Machine, with a simultaneously created game. In addition, he'll be discussing an anticipated major new sci-fi TV series which is planned to have multiple associated video games.

Overall, the GDC Europe conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, will once again run alongside the major GamesCom event to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. For more information on specifics for GDC Europe -- for which registration is now open -- interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

GDC Europe organizers have announced the first keynote for the August event in Cologne, with Heiko Hubertz, CEO of dominant German online game firm BigPoint discussing elements likely to include the company's NBC backing, the Battlestar Galactica MMO, and pointers for business success.

BigPoint, which was founded in 2002, now employs 340 employees in Hamburg, Germany. Its runaway financial success in the browser game marketplace led to NBC taking a 35% stake in the firm in 2008.

As a result, the company recently opened a U.S. office, announcing a major partnership with engine firm Unity and an MMO based on NBC Universal's Battlestar Galactica property along the way.

Company founder Hubertz is likely to discuss the firm's history, trends in the industry, and tips to succeed in the competitive online game business as a major keynote for GDC Europe, which is ramping up announcements for its second event.

The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, will once again run alongside the major GamesCom event to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals.

By once again pairing GDC Europe with GamesCom, Europe's leading consumer and industry show, the conference can offer content to address the development community at a central location in the heart of Europe and command the critical mass of the European games sector. In 2009, its first year, GDC Europe saw more than 1,500 participants, including 130 international speakers, 40 exhibitors and 240 media representatives.

For more information on GDC Europe, including location and how to purchase passes -- for which registration is now open -- interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

2010 Game Developers Conference Europe organizers are reminding potential speakers that submissions are still open for the August event, with a final deadline at the end of Friday, April 23rd.

The event, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, will once again run alongside the major GamesCom event to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals.

The event is asking for session proposals beginning now, through via the official GDC Europe website. Lectures and panel proposals are being solicited from the international game developer community for all five of this year's conference tracks, which include Business & Management, Game Design, Production, Technology, and Visual Arts.

The event marks a return for the successful conference, which in 2009, its first year, saw more than 1,500 participants, including 130 international speakers, 40 exhibitors and 240 media representatives.

With the expansion of European developers focused on online and browser-based games, GDC Europe will focus one day of the event, August 17th, to cover social networks and online games, as well as key emerging markets in the region.

By once again pairing GDC Europe with GamesCom, Europe's leading consumer and industry show, the conference can offer content to address the development community at a central location in the heart of Europe and command the critical mass of the European games sector.

For more information on GDC Europe, for which registration is now open, interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.