GDC Europe 2012 kicks off – What to see

Europe’s largest developer-focused conference, GDC Europe, begins today.

This year’s event has dedicated summits for smartphone, tablet, social and indie games.

Some of the notable sessions that GDC Europe organisers have picked include:

Business, Marketing and Management
– Levelling Up Your AAA Game – BioWare’s Post Release Content Insights (Fernando Melo, Bioware)
– Financing Options for Smaller Games (Nicholas Lovell, GAMESbrief; Patrick O’Luanaiagh, nDreams; Ciaran O’L”eary, Earlybird; Jonathan Newth, Tenshi Ventures)

Production
– Mafia II Postmortem (Jarek Kolar, 2K Czech)
– The Long Journey (Robin Hunicke, formerly of thatgamecompany)

Game Design
– Track Keynote: Assassin’s Creed: Maintaining Momentum on a Blockbuster Franchise (Alex Hutchinson, Ubisoft Montreal)
– Ambiguity and Abstraction in Game Writing: Lessons from Dear Esther (Dan Pinchbeck, thechineseroom)
– Classic Postmortem: GoldenEye 007 (Martin Hollis, Zoomani)

Programming
– Track Keynote: Bringing AAA Graphics to Mobile Platforms (Niklas Smedberg, Epic Games)
– Love Engine Postmortem: Lean and Mean C Engine Design (Eskil Steenberg, Independent)
– Crowds in Hitman: Absolution (Kasper Fauerby, IO Interactive)
– Cheaters, Hackers, Script Kiddies – The Dark Side of Online Games (Stephan Payer, CipSoft GmbH)

Visual Arts
– You Want How Many Animations When? Getting Large Amounts of High Quality Animation Quickly (Floyd Bishop, Sony Online Entertainment)
– Concept Art Learnings From Game Of Thrones To… Games! (Tobias Mannewitz, Karakter)

For more information sessions and locations visit the GDC Europe website.

The conference is taking place at the Congress-Centrum Ost Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany, 13th to 15th August 2012.

Develop, and sister publication MCV, will be in attendance at GDC Europe from tomorrow, as well as Gamescom later this week.