Come out to GDC, learn to maximize player engagement and avoid disaster!

Registration is open for the 2017 Game Developers Conference, and we already have some great talks from top minds in the game industry that you should know about! 

Live games are a critical part of the modern game industry, and time is the core currency for live games -- but humans are notoriously bad at projecting long-term outcomes over time. Thus, MaxPlay creative director Chelsea Howe is coming to GDC next year to deliver a fantastic talk on "The Design of Time: Understanding Human Attention and Economies of Engagement."

This talk covers patterns of human attention and engagement over time and concrete ways to design for those phases, including how to surface time components, approaching engagement with a relationship lens, transitioning from hand-crafted experiences to procedural and social systems, and balancing permanent progress with maintenance mechanics.

Check it out to gain an elegant understanding of human adaptation to stimulus and what constitutes new/varied stimulus for long-term engagement. You'll have specific examples for integrating time into core loops, transitioning from content treadmills to social/algorithmic engagement, finding patterns of sustained engagement in data, and creating durable social structures.

Also, Execution Labs cofounder Jason Della Rocca will be at the big show next year to give a great presentation about "Advanced Entrepreneurship: Avoiding Total Studio Disaster."

Everyone generally agrees that entrepreneurship is an important thing, but what does that mean in the context of the business of games and running a studio? Being an entrepreneur means way more than just being willing to do the "business stuff". In many ways, taking entrepreneurship more seriously and adopting advanced techniques will give you a leg up.

Thus this talk will cover everything from leadership skills, funding, studio vision and roadmap to marketing strategies, pitching approach, and mental state. Jason Della Rocca has invested in over 20 studios, so concrete lessons will be shared from backing these entrepreneurial teams.

And just wait -- this is only the beginning. Conference officials look forward to announcing more GDC 2017 sessions spanning a diverse array of game industry issues in the months ahead.

For now, don't miss the opportunity to save money by registering early -- the deadline to register for passes at a discounted rate is January 25, 2017. GDC 2017 itself will take place February 27th - March 3rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

For more information on GDC 2017, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

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