Passes for the Game Developers Conference 2014 are going fast, and today we're announcing even more sessions for the Main Conference that you'll want to check out. Today’s highlights include an explanation of how Crytek built the rendering technology in Ryse, a guide to using Kickstarter as a tool for community engagement from Colossal Kaiju Combat developer Sunstone Games, and a code review roundtable for programmers led by Insomniac Games' engine director. Audience participation on that last one is mandatory, and lively debate is encouraged. Now in its 28th year, GDC is the world's largest and longest-running professionals-only game industry event, and will once again take place at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California during March 17-21, 2014.

The rendering technology of Ryse

If you're a graphics programmer looking for practical tips on rendering better faces or getting your game ready for the Xbox One, Crytek has a GDC session just for you. Ryse senior rendering engineer Nicolas Schulz explains how the studio adapted its rendering pipeline to optimize the game for next-gen hardware and shares some general tips for reducing aliasing and improving overall visual fidelity in his talk Moving to the Next Generation: The Rendering Technology of Ryse.

Kickstarting your community

Sunstone Games founder Simon Strange takes the stage at GDC 2014 to explain why developers ought to be looking at Kickstarter not just as a source of funding, but as a full-fledged platform for building and interacting with a community of fans. His talk, entitled Kickstarting Your Company, Your Game and Your Community, will include specific examples of how the communities that coalesce around Kickstarter projects can be employed as a resource to enhance game development rather than distract from it. Strange is expected to draw heavily from his own experiences raising over $100,000 for the studio's current project, Colossal Kaiju Combat, on Kickstarter.

Bringing code back from the dead

Mike Acton serves as engine director at Insomniac Games, and he's taking a break from working on Sunset Overdrive to lead a unique code review roundtable at GDC 2014. He's calling it Code ER: Let's Bring Some Code Back from the Dead, and attendees are expected to actively participate in a lively debate about the quality of publically available game code samples that were submitted for review. It's a unique opportunity for attendees to share and garner knowledge from everyone in the room, not just Mike, and suggested changes will be edited in and critiqued on the fly.

More essential GDC details

Earlier GDC 2014 announcements include a call for submissions to the Experimental Gameplay Workshop, Bungie's Scott Shepherd explaining how the art team generated all the assets for the character customization systems in Destiny, and Gree’s Alex Rosen (@alexmr) doing a postmortem of the mobile publisher’s hit Android social casino game Jackpot Slots. Developers on Infamous: Second Son, Rift, and Bioshock Infinite will also be giving talks. All of the announced talks are now available in the online GDC 2014 Session Scheduler, where you can begin to build your conference week and later export it to the up-to-the-minute GDC Mobile App, coming soon. GDC 2014 itself will take place March 17-21, 2014 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. You can register for the event by visiting the info page on the official GDC 2014 website. Early Bird pricing, with discounts up to 30 percent, will remain in effect until January 31st. Some passes have limited amounts, and with the Independent Games Summit pass already sold out, interested parties should register now. For more information on GDC 2014, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech