Three new keynote sessions for October’s GDC Online have been detailed by event organiser UBM TechWeb Game Network.
Raph Koster, VP of creative design as Playdom, will deliver the design track keynote. Titled ‘Classic Social Mechanics: The Engines Behind Everything Multiplayer’, it will focus on “the underlying mechanics and principles that drive sociable gameplay in everything from Facebook games to sports”.
Blizzard project director Greg Canessaa and technical director Matt Versluys will present ‘Battle.net: A Postmortem’ for the production track keynote, sharing lessons learned from building and launching the new online game service that connects and powers all Blizzard titles.
Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubertz’s business track keynote, ‘Europe: The Next Big Thing in Gaming’, will highlight the lucrative opportunities offered by the European game market to global-minded North American studios looking to broaden their audience, particularly focusing on developers making browser-based games outside Facebook.
Zynga's chief game designer, Brian Reynolds, will also keynote the event, which will feature speakers from Bungie, SOE, Bioware, Gaia Online and Spacetime Studios, among others.
GDC Online takes place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas from October 5-8, 2010.