GDC Next adds fresh talks on F2P design and app store conquest

The organizers of GDC Next 2014 featuring ADC are working hard with the best and brightest people in the game industry, and today they're excited to announce two more great talks that will take place at this year's November conference. To wit, YetiZen co-founder Japheth Dillman will share his company's long-secret strategies for optimizing your mobile game's presence on the app stores, while monetization expert Ethan Levy will offer tips on building ethical, sustainable and successful free-to-play games. GDC Next and ADC, which aim to highlight practical ways for developers to increase the creative and financial success of their projects, are taking place simultaneously on November 3rd-4th, 2014 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This year the conference adds a cutting-edge Discoverability track that will host a number of great talks, including YetiZen co-founder Japheth Dillman's session on the "Secret Sauce of the App Stores." Dillman will share advice on how developers can take advantage of the algorithms on the ranking system of the app stores, based on data that has never before been released to the public. The goal is to better educate developers so they can compete smartly in an ever-more crowded mobile marketplace. Those who attend will walk away with effective distribution channel strategies for their games, as well as advice on optimizing your game's app store presence so that it can be easily found by the players who will enjoy it most. Experienced game industry consultant Ethan Levy is giving a talk on the GDC Next Design track about how developers can build free-to-play games that are responsible, ethical, and fun for players. His presentation, "New Approaches for Game Design," goes in-depth on four concrete tools for designing a game's monetization from day one. Using the design methods in this talk, a game team can ensure that they are building a F2P game that has both a sound business foundation and proven fun factor. Attendees can expect to learn concrete methods for designing free-to-play mechanics from the inception of a project, a method for designing better first time player experiences, a mental model for approaching player types and the importance of player-first design in monetization design. Conference organizers look forward to announcing more talks in the months before this year's GDC Next featuring ADC, which takes place November 3rd-4th, 2014 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. For additional details about GDC Next and ADC or to register for the event, visit the conference homepage. Gamasutra, GDC and ADC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech.