Sessions Listing
 All Tracks
 Business
Community
Design
General
Intelligence
Legal
Monetization
Programming
Social
Facebook
Extra Credits
|
Lecturer: Jonathan Knight, RockYou
Jonathan Knight, SVP of Games at RockYou, will discuss trends in social gaming, addressing the shifting landscape of social game design. His talk will cover the creation of higher-quality social games as prominent traditional developers enter the field. Knight will apply his personal and professional background in traditional gaming to the social space, and examine the need for expanded support towards independent developers.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Social
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 9:00 AM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Jon Radoff, Disruptor Beam, Inc.
How is social media being changed by the explosion in online games? How are games being changed by social media? This session will review best practices in a wide range of social technology to help conference attendees understand how to build better games and better businesses. Attendees will leave with a checklist of 8 specific ideas they can put to work in their companies.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Social
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 10:45 AM,
Room: 401
|
|
Lecturer: Henry Stern, Zynga
Multivariate testing, often called a/b testing, is common in the web world, but is a new tool for game designers. What can multivariate testing teach us about user behavior and preferences? How do you set up the experimentation systems and what are the best metrics to measure? In this session one of Zynga’s Product Managers explains how and when they use multivariate testing to gather insights into their users and fine tune their games.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Facebook
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 3:15 PM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Lecturer: Anthony Castoro, Heatwave Interactive
To successfully launch a game, developers must leverage their Beta program to not only solicit invaluable feedback from its participants, but also to build buzz and advocacy for the game in the period leading up to its launch. The approach to get this feedback can come in many different forms and this session will gather a cross section of leaders from the development community to discuss the different strategies to managing successful Beta trials. They will answer the tough questions facing developers as they plan their Beta program discuss topics, including incentivizing the community, evangelizing loyal players and more.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Community
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 10:45 AM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Don Alvarez, Cynergy Systems
The next generation of Flash and Silverlight will finally bring robust, cross-platform, hardware accelerated 3D graphics to the web. Just like Unity has been doing for years. Or will they? This isn’t the first time that Adobe and Microsoft have announced browser-based 3D graphics support. This talk compares the major new and competing plugins to help you understand the decisions you will be making in the next 12 months.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Programming
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 3:15 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: David Edery, Fuzbi
For the past several months, Spry Fox has been experimenting with bringing F2P, mcirotransaction-based games to traditional Flash game portals (most recently, with the critically-acclaimed "Steambirds: Survival.") This lecture will share what we've learned thus far.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 4:30 PM,
Room: 401
|
|
Moderator: Yuanzhe Cai, Interpret LLC
Panelist: Frank Cartwright, K2 Network / GamersFirst
Panelist: Michael Zhang, ZQGame Inc. (Public listed gaming company in China)
Panelist: Kevin Xu, IGG.com
Panelist: Nikolaus Davidson, Critical Hit Consulting
Will browser-based games completely replace client-based games as a result of their huge benefit to accessibility? If so, what impact will this have on the quality, level of complexity, fraud and hacking, and development costs? Freetoplay publishers are on the forefront of this transformation and therefore work to answer these questions every day. Nearly all currently publish both browser and client-based games but very few have had success with both. The panel will discuss the benefits and drawbacks to each approach and provide insight and direction enabling game developers to create the best games on the right platform at the right time with the best technology.
Format: Panel
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 3:15 PM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Lecturer: S. Gregory Boyd, Davis & Gilbert
Lecturer: Randall L. Price, ArenaNet, Inc.
This session looks at the most common errors encountered building and running a game business. The speakers will draw on their experience to look at four key areas (1) management, motivation, and hiring; (2) negotiation skills and errors; (3) legal documentation and process;(4) raising money and its relationship to slavery. The speakers will draw on their experience working with game companies with the goal that the audience might all learn from the mistakes the speakers have seen and made themselves.
Format: Lecture
Track: Legal
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 9:00 AM,
Room: 401
|
|
Moderator: Shane M. McGee, SNR Denton
Panelist: J. Michael Monahan, Pattishall, McAuliffe, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson LLP
Panelist: Don McGowan, The Pokémon Company International, Inc.
Panelist: Marcus Eikenberry, Markee Dragon Inc.
Panelist: Christina Alejandre, 38 Studios
The Ninth Circuit's decision in MDY v. Blizzard goes a long way towards clarifying how courts are likely to enforce customer contracts. This session will use that and other cases to clarify for game developers and legal staff alike the roles of EULAs, Terms of Service and Codes of Conduct. We will also discuss the distinction between license limitations and contractual restrictions, and the significant differences in the remedies available to gaming companies for breaches of these provisions.
Format: Panel
Track: Legal
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 9:00 AM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Lecturer: James E. Dunstan, Mobius Legal Group, PLLC
As computer games migrate from shrinkwrap boxes to digital downloads and online services, significant legal issues arise. Depending on where the service provider and user are located, there are basic jurisdictional issues as to which laws apply. IP protection, security, and privacy take on a sharper focus in “the cloud.” Even the “safe harbors” of COPPA, the DMCA “take down” provisions and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act need to be reexamined when service providers themselves are spread out among “the cloud.” This lecture will address these and other issues as the future rushes toward the game industry.
Format: Lecture
Track: Legal
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 4:30 PM,
Room: 401
|
|
Lecturer: David Hoppe, Gamma Law
Attendees will learn about a number of non-traditional and emerging financing options, will hear benefits, difficulties of different options, and comparisons to more traditional funding approaches, and will be armed with new ideas for financing their next game.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 2:30 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Erin Hoffman, Zynga
In seeking large audiences online, businesses often restrict content decisions on the basis of what is and is not assumed to be "mainstream". The problem with this is that "mainstream", abstractly defined as the "current thought of the majority", is constantly in flux; what is "mainstream" at greenlight is no longer "mainstream" by the time development starts, much less launch. This presentation discusses how blockbuster mass media properties instead tap the universal -- as revealed by psychology and storytelling -- to generate lasting media properties. From Harry Potter to Avatar to Super Mario, true value lies in defining, not mimicking, the "mainstream".
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 4:30 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Hubert Thieblot, Curse, Inc.
Gain insight into MMO gamers' demographics, non-MMO gaming habits, and then delve into their MMO gaming tendencies in detail. Research highlighting core, casual and free-to-play gamer segments is presented.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Community
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 5:00 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Nick Berry, DataGenetics
How much do you know about your Facebook gamers? How old are they? What do they play? What are their other activities on facebook? What do they spend? What brands do they follow? Over that last couple of years, DataGenetics has analyzed millions of datapoints collected about Facebook gamers. Learn the brands of trainers preferred by players of Bejewelled™, or the TV shows watched by players of Farmville™. The more you understand about your customers, the better you can monetize them.
Format: Lecture
Track: Facebook
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 4:30 PM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Lecturer: Linda 'Brasse' Carlson, Sony Online Entertainment
Community loves when Developers post on forums. Players love to read Developer posts on forums. The latter sentiment is not always benevolent and given opportunity, players can eat these posts up… literally, red in tooth and claw. We’ll share the Sony Online Entertainment Community Team’s best practices developed for forum posting by Development and other internal partners. We’ll illustrate with actual examples of what happens when things go very wrong (and they will), accompanied by guidelines to post by and advice on identifying and avoiding the many pitfalls that await in the mini-game of communicating with players.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Community
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 12:00 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Geoffrey Zatkin, EEDAR
This session is an in-depth, data driven analysis of Downloadable Games on the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 presented in three parts:
• Part I: Overview of the Downloadable Games Market on the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360
• Part II: Market Sizing, Estimated Growth and Purchase Behavior for the Downloadable Games Market
• Part III: Current and Future Business Models
Those attending the session will come away with a better understanding of current and historical platform based downloadable games, downloadable game data and trending, and a look to what the future might hold.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Intelligence
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 5:00 PM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Monday, May 16, 3:00 PM,
Room: 2nd Floor
|
|
Lecturer: Nikolaus Davidson, Critical Hit Consulting
In this session, veteran MMO designer Nik Davidson covers the three types of economic transactions that a game will have with its players; The Gain/Loss, The Deal, and The Gamble, and how use (and misuse) of these transaction types within your game can help or hinder fun and profitability.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 2:00 PM,
Room: 401
|
|
Lecturer: Rahul Sandil, GamersFirst
Do you remember what it was like to market and operate a game before Facebook and Twitter? Or developing a game for Windows 98? GamersFirst was able to make Knight Online one of the most successful Free2Play MMOs of the last decade by evolving with the times and staying tuned into their player community. Knight Online, which debuted in 2004, maintains its place as one of the leading Free2Play MMOs globally with more than 4.5 million active players. GamersFirst will dive into the data it’s mined and share the lessons learned from running a successful online game for the last eight years.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 2:00 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Atul Bagga, ThinkEquity
In this session, we will discuss emerging trends and market size estimates for various segments of video game market (social, mobile, online, consoles); business models (subscription, free-to-play, download); geos (China, Europe, Japan, Korea, US and the emerging markets). We will also discuss key lessons/observations from the matured markets (lessons from free-to-play markets in China, online markets in Korea, Mobile in Japan).
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 3:15 PM,
Room: 401
|
|
Lecturer: John K. Bates, Mindark, PE AB
People think they know how Entropia Universe works and yet they're surprised by the World Records being set every year or two. That's because everything you think you know, from monetization to virtual property management is totally wrong. Come find out why Entropia Universe is still setting World Records and what you can learn from their decidedly different slant.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Monetization
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 2:00 PM,
Room: 401
|
|
Moderator: Ed Fries
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 8:00 AM,
Room: Business Lounge
|
|
Moderator: Mona Ibrahim, Law Offices of Mona A. Ibrahim
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 8:00 AM,
Room: Business Lounge
|
|
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 6:00 PM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Lecturer: Erik Brudvig, Electronic Entertainment Design and Research
Video game reviews can have a very real effect on a consumer’s intent to purchase and a game’s overall success, but are often one of the least understood parts of the marketing and public relations process.
In this lecture veteran game critic Erik Brudvig will provide an inside look into how video games get reviewed and answer some oft asked questions. How are scores awarded? How long does a reviewer play a game before writing his or her assessment? How are media outlets adapting to the changing face of games and the increasing importance of online play?
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 10:15 AM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Moderator: Quinn Wageman, TriplePoint
Panelist: Jennifer Bartlett, Sometrics
Panelist: Lee Clancy, IMVU Inc.
Panelist: David Kaye, Summerlight
Panelist: Stephen A Pladson, 5th Planet Games
There are now more people gaming and more online games available than ever before, with thousands accessible through Facebook, gaming portals and mobile devices. With all this competition and heavy hitters like Zynga ever-present, what can online game developers and publishers do to get noticed without spending a fortune? The answer – make it fun and easy for gamers to discover new games. This panel session will uncover the various new ways, tools and mechanisms that can be implemented to help drive game discovery for all, from the indies to the triple-As.
Format: Panel
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 2:00 PM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Lecturer: Toby Ragaini, Novel, Inc.
Methods of game distribution and monetization have rapidly changed in the past 5 years, but too often the role that game designers imagine for themselves has not kept up to date with these changes. To insure the greatest possible chance for success of their products, game designers must adapt to this brave new world. In this lecture, MMO veteran Toby Ragaini will provide empowering forward-looking advice for game designers, along with real-world examples from his own career that highlight these changes.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 5:00 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Mark Neufurth, Gameforge Productions
Web games have been a success long before the rise of social networks or even the Farmville era. Even though there has been a long evolution from the early beginnings to the games of today, millions of players love hit games such as OGame or Ikariam and companies like Gameforge built their success largely by being the first to earn money from them. This talk will give insight into web games and explain, why platform-independency is so important. With social networks being elusive and user-acquisition increasingly expensive I will demonstrate why - literally - a farmer should not fall for monocropping. In monocultures few companies make big bucks while the rest will be reaping bad harvests only.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Social
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 5:00 PM,
Room: 401
|
|
Lecturer: Steve Klebe, BilltoMobile
Keeping players excited and engaged in a game is one of the most effective ways for developers and publishers to build loyalty and convert visitors to paying players. One of the best ways to do this is by giving players the ability to make purchases with a choice of alternative payments, as this expands their involvement and deepens their connection to the game. This session with Steve Klebe, vice president of business development and strategy at BilltoMobile, will discuss how providing alternative payment options helps game developers and publishers drive game loyalty and expand user retention, while bolstering the bottom line.
Format: Lecture
Track: Monetization
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 10:15 AM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Scott Dodson, Bobber Interactive
Like the explosive growth of a strain of virulent bacteria, gamification has gone from a tiny spark to a powerhouse trend in the blink of an eye—tens of thousands of tweets, hundreds of thousands of search results, and millions of VC dollars pouring into the space.
But can simply adding some points, levels and badges really create the kind of sustained lift in acquisition, loyalty, and engagement it’s most ardent advocates believe? Not likely—but the potential is there as gamification grows beyond its behavioralist & marketing roots and embraces solid game design. Come explore the nature and potential of “Gamification 2.0.”
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 10:15 AM,
Room: 401
|
|
Lecturer: Noman Ali, Peanut Labs INC
Using proprietary research technology, Noman will survey a mix of gaming industry luminaries/executives, industry press and end-users (parents of children who play games and children who play games) to gauge the temperature on a variety of issues related to ethically monetizing children. This data will be exclusive to LOGIN attendees and a draft of these questions available upon request.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Monetization
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 9:00 AM,
Room: 401
|
|
Moderator: Geoffrey Zatkin, EEDAR
Panelist: Jim Ying, 6waves
Panelist: John S. Coligan, EA2D, EA
Panelist: Linda 'Brasse' Carlson, Sony Online Entertainment
In 2010, hardcore-style play patterns came to Facebook. From City of Wonder’s tech trees and PVP mechanics to the robust RTS Kingdoms of Camelot, Facebook developers and players moved beyond FarmVille. Then, BioWare announced that their popular hardcore RPG, Dragon Age, would be coming to the platform. The business models and social elements of Facebook games borrow heavily from MMOs, but can Facebook games really offer hardcore gamers an alternative to blockbuster hits like World of Warcraft? This panel discusses what led hardcore games to Facebook, the platform’s technical and design challenges and what’s next for hardcore gamers.
Format: Panel
Track: Social
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 3:15 PM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Lecturer: Josh Fraser, RightScale
In the fast paced casual gaming industry, development teams must have the business and technology agility to stay ahead of the curve. This session will discuss the use of cloud computing among casual gaming companies throughout the gaming lifecycle -- from concept and development to end-of-life. The audience will learn best practice architectures for casual gaming in the cloud and discover how industry leaders including Zynga, Playfish, and Crowdstar are using cloud computing to grow their infrastructure.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Programming
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 3:45 PM,
Room: 401
|
|
Lecturer: Immad Akhund, Heyzap
Facebook viral channels are constantly changing but understanding and using them is of vital importance for any game developer wishing to succeed. In this talk I am going to go through some tricks to optimize your viral channels quickly, along with the ones to avoid. With the examples I'll show you will walk away with action points to instantly boost your viral k-factor.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Facebook
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 2:00 PM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Lecturer: Jesse Stay, Facebook Application Development For Dummies
Learn the basics of integrating your game with the Facebook Graph API. This session will cover creating and understanding Canvas Pages, how to register your app with Facebook, and how request users to authorize your app with the permissions interface.
Format: Lecture
Track: Facebook
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 10:15 AM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Lecturer: Aaron Huang, Kontagent
Kontagent will present insights into the metrics that top social game developers are using to grow their games. Backed by the companies own benchmark data, discussion will center around key factors affecting virility, retention, monetization and the social game life-cycle.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Intelligence
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 4:30 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 12:30 PM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 12:30 PM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Lecturer: Matthew Wilson, Detonator Games
The number of options for monetizing Facebook games is somewhat shrinking, since by July 1st, 2011, all Facebook games must use Credits as their exclusive payment method. Still, users have additional options for acquiring Credits, including offer-based payments. This session explains how to design your game to take advantage of Facebook Credits, including Frictionless Payments and Buy With Friends. In this ever changing world of monetization, how do you make sense of the options, and how to you maximize your revenue.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Facebook
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 2:30 PM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Lecturer: Brian Robbins, Riptide Games
This session will educate attendees on methods and strategies to create profitable free titles on the app store. Examples and reference will primarily be from Riptide Games' own free titles, but other examples will be used where appropriate. Attendees will leave this session with an idea of how to utilize these ideas and methods in their own business.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Monetization
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 2:30 PM,
Room: 401
|
|
Lecturer: Paul Furio, Novel, Inc.
Online Gaming is undergoing a paradigm shift as we move from a traditional client-server model to a more distributed Servers + Services model. Social games, like the Facebook offerings from Zynga and Playdom, and massive player/simultaneous experiences like XBox Live's 1 vs. 100, are using new systems such as NoSQL, Cloud Computing, and Big Data processing to bring engaging experiences to new audiences. This talk will describe the architecture of several existing titles, as well as provide a preview to how we see the tech being utilized to deliver massive fun in the near future.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Programming
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 3:15 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Kate Edwards, Englobe Inc.
As game publishers and developers have rapidly moved to distribute their content as quickly and widely as possible, they often overlook the challenges related to the comprehension and acceptability of their content in new markets. While localization has always been a necessity with game publishing and plays a key role in linguistic accessibility, the relatively newer task of "culturalization" is increasingly required to ensure that game content is adapted for a broader, more diverse audience. Given today’s dynamic online game worlds and instantaneous global exposure, this lecture delivers strategies for designing content for multicultural audiences and for mitigating potential risks.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 2:30 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Monty Kerr, hi5
Often, the act of "preventing" fraud hides it – making it more difficult to identify, measure and manage. The goal of this discussion is to provide useful tools for distinguishing the good fraud from the bad fraud, to highlight the benefits of fraud in social gaming and to leave you with a realistic view of risk management in an industry where the principal product is pixels.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Monetization
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 9:30 AM,
Room: 401
|
|
Lecturer: Jim Ying, 6waves
Lots of best practices around mechanics for facebook games have emerged. Adding some simple features and mechanics can help improve a game’s performance, satisfying the business needs of the game while freeing up game designers to take more creative risks with the core design. Looking to 6waves’ portfolio of games from developers around the world, Jim Ying will highlight some notable features that changed trends in key success metrics around monetization, retention and virality. He’ll be providing hard examples, complete with screenshots and charts, that any developer can replicate.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Facebook
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 3:45 PM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Lecturer: Graham Kays, Smart Bomb Interactive
Numerous market successes demonstrate that the free-to-play business model works. But with increasing competition, you can't solely rely on a business model for success. In the future, only the games with the most users, highest revenue per user, and best paying rates will survive. In this lecture, Graham will reveal design strategies and techniques to help you maximize returns for your micro transaction based games.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Monetization
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 9:30 AM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Moderator: Peter Freese, LOGIN Conference
Panelist: Scott Dodson, Bobber Interactive
Panelist: Jamil Moledina, Electronic Arts
Panelist: Rick Lambright, Motiga, Inc.
Panelist: Greg Bear
What will the online games space look like in five years? What new technologies, social revolutions, and cultural shifts will bring about transformations in the way people play and pay for online games? What changes are already taking place? This panel of visionaries all share their views of what we might expect in the year 2016.
Format: Panel
Track: General
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 2:00 PM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Master of Ceremonies: Pat Cashman
At LOGIN, we can't give you clairvoyance, but we can offer the next best thing when it comes to our agenda: the LOGIN Session Preview on Monday evening with Master of Ceremonies Pat Cashman. Imagine a speaker being given just 30 seconds to tell you about their session and why you should attend. Now imagine speakers from each of nearly sixty sessions doing their pitches in rapid succession, and you've got the basic idea behind the LOGIN Session Preview. Maybe you'll be able to decide between two or three sessions you've been having difficulty choosing between. Or maybe you'll get interested in a talk that you hadn't realized was so relevant to your work. In any case, we think you'll enjoy the preview - it will be fun as well as informative.
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Monday, May 16, 7:30 PM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Moderator: James Portnow, Rainmaker Games
Panelist: Kate Edwards, Englobe Inc.
Panelist: Geoffrey Zatkin, EEDAR
Panelist: Ellen Beeman, The Amazing Society
Everyone seems to agree that we need to rethink how we portray women in games…but no one seems to be doing it; at least no one from the AAA world. On this panel we will discuss how big budget titles might better portray women without losing any of their current appeal. We’ll look at how the casual and social sectors of the industry currently portray female characters and we’ll ask the tough question of whether or not more fully realized female characters have a place in many today’s popular game types.
Format: Panel
Track: Extra Credits
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 5:00 PM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Lecturer: Brett G. Durrett, IMVU, Inc.
IMVU uses A/B testing, instant customer metrics and a sophisticated continuous deployment process to release new software live to production up to 50 times per day. This reduces the learning and reaction cycle from months to hours, minimizes investment in bad features and helps ensure the business is on the right path. This session will expose the inner-workings of IMVU’s experiment and Continuous Deployment systems, as well as provide you with a framework to achieve the same at your company.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Intelligence
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 10:45 AM,
Room: 401
|
|
Lecturer: Brian Giaime, The Amazing Society
For many modern MMOGs, retention is a great challenge. Increasing player retention leads to a more dedicated, more consistent fan base. These players, in turn, not only play for longer, but monetize better on a per user basis.
Retention in MMOGs is achieved through many methods - the most effective of which is solid content design, but for hard-to-relate-to demographics, such as young children, this holds some unique challenges.
In this Mini-Lecture, we'll cover a rapid-fire series of observations, lessons, techniques, and conclusions drawn from building and testing content on Marvel Super Hero Squad Online.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 3:15 PM,
Room: 401
|
|
Lecturer: Brian Tinsman, Wizards of the Coast
As new gamers develop into veterans, player retention becomes an increasingly important challenge. The challenge is multiplied when designers are tasked with generating content for players of a different generation, culture, or mindset. What are the differences between capturing and keeping the imagination of a 10-12 year old American boy versus a Japanese boy? How do you think like someone from another culture or mentality?
Brian Tinsman shares insights on content design from his experiences with tabletop and online games, such as Duelmasters and Magic: the Gathering, and how retention mechanics differ between cultures and psychographics.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 3:45 PM,
Room: 401
|
|
Moderator: Quinn Wageman, TriplePoint
Panelist: Ted Sorom, Rixty
Panelist: Josh Fraser, RightScale
Panelist: Seth Gerson, AltEgo
Panelist: Alan Miller, GamesAnalytics
This panel is intended for less-experienced developers looking to launch a new game or monetize an existing one. Each of the four panelists represents a different aspect of establishing a successful online game, including monetization through microtransactions and alternative payment methods such as prepaid cards; behavioral analytics and strategies for in-game marketing to maximize revenue; infrastructure and the seamless up-scaling of servers to handle unpredictable growth; and in-game avatars and the potential for avatar processing across multiple games and platforms. This panel is a great starting point for any inexperienced developer.
Format: Panel
Track: Social
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 10:15 AM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 7:30 PM,
Room:
|
|
Moderator: James Portnow, Rainmaker Games
Panelist: Scott Dodson, Bobber Interactive
Panelist: John Williamson, Zombie
Panelist: Vance Wallace, Tagged.com
To date gamification has mostly been a buzz word bandied about to attract investors, but today we’re going to take a deeper look at what it means to Gamify something and why we’d do it. How can we go past mere ‘achievements’? How can we use gamification to actually provide real value and a better experience to our customers or end users rather than just using it to addict? How can we expand past the business realm and use these techniques to help in the broader scope of life?
Format: Panel
Track: Extra Credits
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 4:30 PM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Lecturer: Rajat Kongovi, hi5
hi5 will discuss data collection, logging and analysis best practices with actual case studies - particularly focusing on techniques that are easy to implement and allow developers more analysis on their games. hi5 will also share new opportunities in data analysis and business intelligence, such as using predictive algorithms to maximize monetization.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Intelligence
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 10:15 AM,
Room: 401
|
|
Lecturer: John Hawkins, Detonator Games
The dominant game style for Facebook games is asynchronous multiplayer. This presents some challenges but also great opportunities for optimizing the client-server architecture. This session will cover “better practices” for architecting both the client and server. Maintaining richness and responsiveness in the client while making the server both scalable and spoof-proof will be discussed.
Format: Lecture
Track: Facebook
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 11:30 AM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Lecturer: Ted Sorom, Rixty
This lecture targets less-experienced game developers who are looking to make a major push for monetization in an existing game. Rixty CEO Ted Sorom will give first-hand tales from the virtual payments space. He's been working in the alternative payments industry since well before the birth of Zynga, and will discuss the credit card industry, prepaid game cards and other ways to monetize online games & entertainment.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Monetization
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 9:00 AM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Alex St. John, hi5
Generating the best advertising- and commerce-based business models is the elusive holy grail of online monetization, and yet, has proven to be possible and effective under very well defined circumstances. hi5 will discuss successful ways for online game developers to mix advertising with commerce.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Monetization
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 4:30 PM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Moderator: James Portnow, Rainmaker Games
Panelist: Nikolaus Davidson, Critical Hit Consulting
Panelist: James Ernest, Cheapass Games
On this panel a group of top designers describe the games they’ve always wanted to make but have never gotten the chance to.
Format: Panel
Track: Extra Credits
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 3:15 PM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Moderator: James Portnow, Rainmaker Games
Panelist: Jeff Pobst, Hidden Path Entertainment
Panelist: John Sutherland, VidGameStory.com
Panelist: Tom Abernathy, Microsoft Game Studios
Panelist: Stephen Notley, PopCap Games
As games evolve, narrative becomes an increasingly important part of what we do. Today we see gaming expand into the social, mobile, online space and even the real world through ARGs and gesture based controls. This panel will examine the future of narrative and how we have to adapt our understanding of storytelling to deliver compelling narrative experiences in all of these fields.
Format: Panel
Track: Extra Credits
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 2:00 PM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Lecturer: Jude Gomila, Heyzap
In 2007, Facebook opened up their platform for social game developers to build upon, but over the past 2 years, numerous restrictions, policy changes, and the over-crowded competitive landscape has necessitated the need for game developers to expand their operations to maintain growth and economic viability. Ultimately, game developers must pursue other distribution channels in order to fulfill a healthy user acquisition strategy. Simultaneously, while driving distribution is critical, it is equally important to understand the future of cross-platform convergence and how this will play a role in building successful distribution and growth strategies.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Social
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 3:45 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Brayden William Blaine Olson, Novel, Inc.
Our world is changing and, as you are probably already well-aware, the publisher model is no longer the only option available to videogame developers. Our industry is starting to become important to the rest of the non-entertainment world, and that provides new opportunities for creativity and innovation for the savvy designers and developers who take advantage of it early. If you are looking to start or grow your videogame studio then this session is for you. The potential partners available to startup, small and mid-sized videogame firms may surprise you.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Business
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 2:00 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Michael Austin, Hidden Path Entertainment
In December, Valve brought 9 indie studios together to participate in an experiment which became the largest ARG ever created, and one of the most interesting experiences of my career. This presentation will go over what happened, what went well, and what we learned.
Format: Lecture
Track: Design
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 4:30 PM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Lecturer: Richard Garriott, Portalarium
Richard Garriott will talk about how the new era of online social games can benefit from reflection about the two grand eras which came before. Solo player games ruled in the 1980's and 1990's, MMO's ruled in the 2000's. We are now in a new era of gaming, defined by cheap or free to play, virally spread, casually begun game play. Each grand era has grand era has grown the market by 10X! Solo player games sold to millions, MMO to 10's of millions, we are now reaching (at long last) a truly global audience of both genders an all ages. What lessons of history are useful, what truly new challenges await us. What will "casual online games" look like in 5 years? Richard asserts that if you are not trying to solve this problem, you will be left behind.
Format: Keynote
Track: General
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 11:30 AM,
Room: Theatre
|
|
Lecturer: Ralph Barbagallo, PresencePlay
Learn how to use location data and location based service APIs in your games. Primarily a mobile technology, LBS is a hot area of investment and innovation. See how you can store location data, design for location, and use Facebook Places, Foursquare, and other APIs to add location elements to your games.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Programming
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 3:45 PM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Moderator: Geoffrey Zatkin, EEDAR
Panelist: Brian Green, Namaste Entertainment
Panelist: Corvus Elrod, Zakelro! Story Studio
Panelist: Jon Radoff, Disruptor Beam, Inc.
In a fight between wannabe farmers and pretend mass-murderers, who will win? Are social games here to stay, or will they go the way of bell-bottoms? Could they even lead to a radical change in how we define a computer game? Come listen to three industry veterans discuss the future of social games and their status as a fad.
Format: Panel
Track: Social
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 10:15 AM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Format: Special
Track:
Date/Time: Monday, May 16, 8:30 PM,
Room: 4th Floor
|
|
Moderator: Kirk Soderquist, Perkins Coie LLP
Panelist: Neal Black, Sandbox Legal Advisors, PLLC
Panelist: Susan Lyon, Perkins Coie
Panelist: J. Dax Hansen, Perkins Coie LLP
Panelist: John Smith, Detonator Games
A panelist of legal and industry experts will examine the multiple legal issues associated with the transfer and assignment of online game properties in connection with a corporate acquisition or an asset sale, with particular attention to the advance planning required at the outset of game design.
Format: Panel
Track: Legal
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 9:00 AM,
Room: 404-406
|
|
Lecturer: Dan Fiden, Gazillion Entertainment
Dan Fiden, former GM of Playfish US and current VP of Publishing of Gazillion Entertainment, will discuss how to get past social gaming’s mass market themes and simple interactions to apply its innovations to the hardcore game space.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: Social
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 17, 9:30 AM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Keith Fuller, Fuller Game Production
Being more efficient is a Good Thing. But "efficient" means different things depending on the constraints of your situation. This session will use examples of generalized best practices in AAA development as a guideline for determining what "efficient" means for your project. It will also define Situational Efficiency and propose the existence of Absolute Efficiency in game development.
Format: Mini Lecture
Track: General
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 11:30 AM,
Room: 402-403
|
|
Lecturer: Ilja van Sprundel, IOActive
This presentation will cover the lessons learned from doing security reviews of 3rd party iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) applications over the last year or so. It will take the format of: "here's a list of very common things I've seen in iOS applications, here's where things go horribly wrong if you don't watch out, and here's how to fix or mitigate the issue". The presentation is very iOS specific and dives into uses of api's and what possible security issues could arise.
Format: Lecture
Track: Programming
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 18, 11:30 AM,
Room: 401
|
|