GDC 2010 Covers Major Platforms In Mobile, Handheld Summit

Author: by Staff

GDC 2010 organizers have revealed GDC Mobile/Handheld Summit sessions, with Google, Nintendo, Sony, Palm, and Apple (via the sister iPhone Games Summit) perspectives all represented at the March 9th-10th Summit. The reconfigured Summit, taking place on the first two days of Game Developers Conference 2010 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, is intended to be the premier professional conference for the creators, publishers, and distributors of portable games, both for consoles and mobile/smartphones. Filled with hands-on information, case studies and debates, 2010's GDC Mobile/Handheld Summit will cover both successful business strategies and the nuts and bolts of development on mobile phones (Android, BREW, Windows Mobile, Java and more), as well as newly added support for portable consoles (PSP/PSP Minis, DS, DSi). Some of the notable GDC Mobile Summit advisors from the world of handheld games include Capy's Nathan Vella (Might And Magic: Clash Of Heroes for DS), former Vodafone and EA exec Tim Harrison, and G3 Studios' Guido Henkel. A number of significant talks have already been revealed on the Summit homepage. These include: - In 'Bootstrapping Games on Android', Google's Chris Pruett will "delve into the nitty gritty details of Android game programming using a full-fledged action platformer game as a case study." Topics include common pitfalls, performance characteristics of popular devices, dealing with hardware variations, and writing games in Java and C++. - In 'Application Stores: What You Should Know Before You Get Started', Gamevil's Kyu C. Lee "will cover a list of things that you should be aware of before approaching each application store: Apple's AppStore, Google's Android Market, Blackberry's AppWorld, Microsoft's Marketplace, Nintendo's DSiWare, PSN Mini and Zeebo", with real-world experiences creating games for each of the platforms. - One of the best-selling under the radar titles of 2009 for Nintendo DS was Club Penguin DS: Elite Penguin Force, and in a detailed postmortem, Patricia Pizer discussed how she helped to make "an experience that really conveyed the look and feel of the CP world, feeds back into the online game to allow the player to advance from non-online play, and provide multiplayer play beyond mere competition combined to create a formidable challenge." - A talk named 'Coop On The Go: Taking Army of Two to the PSP' will feature EA Montreal's Joe Khoury discussing an adapted version of the co-op action franchise for Sony's handheld, "examining how they created an original title for the system, but incorporated key elements of the franchise such as Aggro, Weapon Customization, and full co-op play" along the way. Outside of the Summit -- but also notable for those wanting to know more about current smartphone operating systems -- is Palm's Sponsored Session on Friday. In this talk, attendees can "learn how to take full advantage of the advanced hardware capabilities of Palm's webOS devices, including full OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0 support, using the recently announced Plug-in Development Kit (PDK)." More information on the GDC Mobile/Handheld Summit, which can be attended via All-Access or Summit-specific GDC 2010 passes, is available on its official webpage. Attendees can also attend the iPhone Games Summit -- space permitting -- with the same pass, and both of these Summits are eligible for a complimentary Android phone from Google if attendees register before the February 4th early deadline.