GDC Europe reminds on highlights, final 24 hours for early pricing

This year's GDC Europe is almost here, and if you're looking to attend, organizers are reminding there's just one day left to secure discounted passes for the August show. Those who register online before the July 18th deadline will save up to 200 Euros on individual show passes. Since those lower prices are about to expire, now's a great time to sign up for what promises to be the biggest and most exciting GDC Europe yet. As always, the show is bringing together some of the biggest names in the European and international game industries to discuss major practical takeaways for today's video game market, with presentations ranging from in-depth lectures, panels, case studies, postmortems, and more. GDC Europe will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 13-15, 2012 at the Congress-Centrum Ost Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany, just before the popular Gamescom trade show. In fact, a Gamescom ticket is included alongside all regular GDC content passes. Here are just a few of the major talks to be featured at this year's GDC Europe: - Robin Hunicke, formerly of thatgamecompany (and now of Tiny Speck) will host an in-depth postmortem on the critically acclaimed PSN-exclusive Journey. She'll pull back the curtain on the game's three-year development cycle, examining how the game lived up to its original vision and what the team learned along the way. - Elsewhere, attendees will get an inside look at the creation of the Nintendo 64 classic, GoldenEye 007. During this postmortem, former Rare director Martin Hollis (now of independent studio Zoonami) will showcase how this licensed movie title evolved from an on-rails shooter into the 8-million unit selling title that popularized the console-based first person shooter. - Wargaming.net's World of Tanks has grown into one of the industry's most popular online games, and at GDC Europe, Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi will outline the game's explosive growth, and argue why the free to play model could spell the end of the boxed retail game. - In addition, concept artist Tobias Mannewitz will discuss what video game artists can learn from HBO's hit fantasy show, Game of Thrones. Mannewitz worked on Season 2 of the George R.R. Martin-inspired epic, and at GDC Europe he'll share what he learned to help artists improve both their pipelines and the quality of their work. - For years, DICE's Battlefield series has stood out as one of the leading franchises in the first person shooter space, and at next month's show, DICE general manager Karl Magnus will reflect on the last 10 years of the successful series, noting how it changed, and how the studio has sustained the franchise's success. These are just a few of GDC Europe's notable sessions announced so far. The show will also include lectures covering CD Projekt RED's The Witcher 2, Epic Games' Infinity Blade, indie games like Love and Fotonica, and much more. For a full list of all GDC Europe sessions announced thus far, check out the show's official Schedule Builder. Those interested in attending GDC Europe have just one day to secure their discounted pass for the Gamescom co-located event via the show's online registration page, since early registration pricing will last only until July 18. For more information on GDC Europe, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. GDC Europe is owned and operated by Gamasutra parent company UBM Technology.