GDC Europe adds talks from Fireproof Studios and Chris Roberts

In the wake of last week's announcement that GDC Europe 2014 will host useful sponsored sessions and a full Amazon developer day, we're excited to debut a fresh pair of noteworthy sessions for the major European game conference, which is being held in Germany this August. GDC Europe is programmed to cover topics spanning AAA through mobile gaming and indie, both technical and business-focused. The pair of talks we're announcing today offer insight on two notable indie success stories, and they should include learnings for the entire community. Organized by UBM Tech Game Network, GDC Europe, now in its sixth year in Germany, will run Monday through Wednesday, August 11-13 at the Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany, co-located with Europe's biggest video game trade and public show gamescom. We're excited to have veteran game designer Chris Roberts (pictured) joining us for a candid chat about his experience in the industry and his work on the upcoming Star Citizen. The interview session, appropriately titled "A Candid Interview With Star Citizen's Chris Roberts," will be hosted by Gamasutra editor Mike Rose and span some of the hottest topics surrounding Star Citizen -- from its remarkably successful crowdfunding campaign to the shifting economic landscape of game development to the importance of creating and maintaining a strong community around your work. Roberts will also share his thoughts on reviving the seemingly "left for dead" space sim genre, which he helped pioneer through his work on the Wing Commander space combat games. Also joining us is Fireproof Studios co-founder Barry Meade to give a talk "Making The Room: How We Got There And What We Learned." Meade plans to run down how the studio got its start working on game franchises like LittleBigPlanet, Forza and Killzone, then lay out how it transitioned into working on its own award-winning games. Meade also hopes to showcase how the studio wound up making its popular The Room series of mobile puzzle games, what his fellow developers can learn from Fireproof's travails, and what the future holds for this upstart indie studio. Of course, these are just some of the many exciting sessions that will be announced for GDC Europe 2014 in the coming weeks, and a full list of announced talks is now available. In addition, this year marks the GDC Europe debut of the Student Pass, a more affordable alternative to the All Access Pass created specifically for qualified students interested in learning and networking at GDC Europe 2014 - as well as the return of the Indie Games Summit pass. All GDC Europe passes also allow visitors to attend Gamescom from Wednesday to Friday. For more information, please visit the GDC Europe website. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech