Make time for all the great VR-focused talks at GDC Europe this month

We're less than two weeks away from GDC Europe, and conference officials want to quickly let you know about some of the great VR-focused expert sessions that will be taking place at the event in Cologne, Germany.

For example, game designer and Exozet Berlin VR consultant Thomas Bedenk will deliver a talk on "Psychology of Virtual Reality: Presence, Agency, Social" that aims to explain, from Bedenk's perspective, the key outstanding elements of VR: its social possibilities and its capacity to foster feelings presence and agency among players.

During his talk, he'll share ideas for how to improve your VR productions by catering to players' perceptions and psychology, and offer concrete examples of how such improvements can be made. 

For hard data on where the VR game market is at right now -- and where it's headed -- check out EEDAR exec Patrick Walker's GDC Europe talk on "Data and Insights in the VR Market." 

Walker aims to present a prediction on the future of VR by examining consumer gaming motivations and engagement in early VR adopters in the context of other platforms and business models. What factors currently influence where VR fits into the ecosystem, and what factors are more innate to the experience? 

These questions will be explored with EEDAR VR data from a variety of sources, including their monthly global consumer tracker PlayerPulse and the EEDAR game database.

Plus, Roadhouse Interactive game director Kayla Kinnunen will be leading a smart session on how to best design humane, intuitive virtual- and augmented-reality experiences.

Her talk, "No Text, No Tutorial: Fully Embracing Human-Centered Design in VR," will showcase how VR -- especially tracked-controller VR -- demands a dramatic shift in UX (User Experience) development practices.

Many common UX constructs were built for a 2D screen and don't work in three dimensional space. At first glance this can present a huge challenge to VR developers. However, with careful thought, this change opens up whole new interaction models that are more intuitive and natural for players. Kinnunen's talk will review trailblazers in the field; discuss human-centered design principles and explain how to take these principles further in your own projects.

More details on these and all other announced talks are now available in the online GDC Europe 2016 Session Scheduler, where you can begin to build your conference week and later export it to the up-to-the-minute GDC Mobile App!

GDC Europe 2016 will also continue to offer business and matchmaking opportunities to all attendees with a developer-focused Expo Floor area and networking events throughout the show. For more information, please visit the GDC Europe website.

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