GDC 2013 adds talks on bugs, mobile strategy, audio for March event

Game Developers Conference organizers have announced new talks for the upcoming March 2013 conference, including Ubisoft's time-saving ideas on bug management, Activision partner Flurry's analytics-derived mobile game strategies, and AudioGaming's AAA audio lessons applied to indie mobile development. These lectures are part of the Production, Business, and Audio tracks in GDC's main conference, taking place March 27-29 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, CA. For the Production track, Ubisoft tools team leader Raphael Saint-Pierre will provide an overview of the platform and workflow that teams rely on during development in 'Spend Time Where it Matters: Friction Free Bug Reporting.' Time not spent on bugs can be used to create games. Saint-Pierre will offer time-saving ideas for reducing the overhead of bug management while raising the value of each bug report. For the Business track, Dan Laughlin of analytics firm and Activision partner Flurry will provide extensive, genre-specific data while answering the question 'Which Comes First: Your Business Strategy or Your Choice of Mobile Game Genre?' Using analytics data from over 500 million mobile app gaming sessions per day, Laughlin will share genre-specific metrics that developers "should aim to achieve on their mobile titles, and how these performance characteristics should impact their business decisions." For the Audio track, AudioGaming's Amaury La Burthe will offer tips on pushing interactive audio design on modern mobile platforms in 'Audio: AAA Audio Quality in a Mobile Indie Game: Holy Shield Case Study.' The former Sony researcher and Ubisoft audio designer will provide examples from conception to production of the upcoming DogBox and Bulkypix mobile game, Holy Shield. He will explain "methodologies for effective, but simple, real-time mixing and bus design, music systems and in-tempo events, asset management, simple procedural audio, real-time special effects, and the methods used to produce original assets." For more information on these or others in the show's growing lineup, check out GDC 2013's official Schedule Builder, which continues to add new talks every week. Discounted Early Bird registration for all passes, including the Main Conference Pass and Audio Track Pass, is now open on the show's official website, and GDC 2013 itself will take place March 25-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. For more information on GDC 2013, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.