GDC 2013 adds key smartphone and tablet talks on virality, scalable cloud tech

GDC 2013 organizers are showcasing multiple new Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit talks for its March conference, including Applifier on making players your biggest advocates, bitHeads on building scalable cloud tech, and Capy on making it as a paid app in the F2P era. The Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit is just one of eight Summits to be held Monday-Tuesday, March 25-26 during the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. In 'Supercharging Word of Mouth: Best Practices in Virality,' Jussi Laakkonen, founder and CEO of Applifier and creator of replay share tool Everyplay, will provide insights on how to encourage players to be the biggest advocates of your game. He will also analyze how and what players want to share most, such as achievements, high scores, screenshots, and video replays. With 'Building Scalable Cloud Tech for Mobile and Social Games,' bitHeads' Paul Winterhalder will discuss what features to push into the cloud, what pitfalls to avoid, and how to have it all ready for the publisher pitch. Winterhalder will tap into his expertise as chief development officer of bitHeads (which provided back-end solutions for Trade Nations on Facebook) and Playbrains (Sideway: New York on PS3 and Steam). Finally, 'Still Kicking: The Viability of Paid Apps in the Era of F2P' will see Nathan Vella, president of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP & Critter Crunch creator Capy, discuss the risks of free-to-play as a small studio and how to leverage the opportunities in the paid app space. The rest of a packed Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit line-up includes a talk from TouchArcade's Eli Hodapp on why 'There's More to Life Than Press Releases and Promo Codes', a lecture from Tiny Tower and Pocket Planes co-creator Ian Marsh, and a talk on transitioning from console to mobile with Disney's Avengers Initiative. GDC representatives are also reminding that multi-tiered Summit sponsorships for GDC 2013 are still available, offering pre-event and on-site exposure for those interested in reaching developers and decision makers in targeted markets. GDC still offers over $100 discounts to select pass purchases made by March 20th, at 11:59pm EST, with prices increasing for onsite registration. 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. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech.