GDC 2010 Reveals New Social Game, iPhone Summits, Opens Call For Submissions

Author: by Staff

Game Developers Conference organizers have announced that the call for submissions is open for the 2010 event’s suite of Summits, which take place on the first two days of GDC in San Francisco, March 9th-10th 2010. This year’s GDC Summit line-up includes two new events in the form of the Social & Online Games Summit and iPhone Games Summit, alongside the GDC Mobile/Handheld, Independent Games, and Serious Games Summits, which are all accepting submissions through November 13th. The multi-track Social & Online Games Summit is focused around current and new opportunities for games on social networking services such as Facebook and MySpace. The Summit brings together leading thinkers and businesspeople to examine how social games have expanded the audience of gamers to encompass tens of millions of mainstream users, many of whom are not conventional gamers. It will also cover how online worlds have conquered the children’s gaming market, and how the casual gaming space is also feeding in to the next generation of mass market multiplayer games. The iPhone Games Summit, first held at Game Developers Conference Austin 2009 to significant acclaim, marks its San Francisco debut at GDC 2010. This Summit will bring together top iPhone and iPod Touch developers from around the world to share key information and discuss the future of Apple’s increasingly important game platform. The Summit will include a first day dedicated to detailed sessions from some of the iPhone game industry’s top technical architects, with the second day of the iPhone Games Summit focusing on vital business and marketing strategies behind successful game companies in this extremely competitive market. "GDC is in a constant state of evolution, just like the game industry itself," says Meggan Scavio, event director of the Game Developers Conference. “This year's exciting slate of summits speaks to the rapid growth of online & social network games, and the increasing importance of the iPhone as a gaming platform." The two new summits represent a notable addition to the already comprehensive selection of GDC 2010 Summits, which take place immediately before the three-day GDC 2010 main program. Other Summits also held at GDC 2010 will include one or two-day events on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Game Localization, and the IGDA Education Summit. GDC 2010 Summit submissions can be entered at the official submissions page. More information and registration specifics on the 2010 Game Developers Conference can be found at the official GDC 2010 website.