GDC Vault Adds Ngmoco, Moshi Monsters Emerging Market Lectures

Author: by Staff

Continuing their Game Developers Conference 2010 free video lecture series, show organizers have debuted well-received lectures on social/free to play games by Ngmoco's Neil Young and Moshi Monsters' Michael Acton Smith. The two new lectures, both highly rated by GDC attendees, are part of a free bi-weekly update published at the GDC Vault website, and feature video technology that allows users to simultaneously view a presenter's slides alongside video and audio of their presentation. Firstly, organizers are presenting Neil Young's Business & Management Track keynote from GDC 2010, 'Things to Unlearn Moving From Traditional Development to the New Digital World'. Young, who is CEO & founder of iPhone/iPad centric publisher/developer ngmoco (TouchPets, We Rule, Rolando) "talks candidly about the challenges that traditional game developers face" in this new market. Young, who was previously a long-time EA executive (Majestic) discusses "transitioning from long development cycles, packaged goods and the one time sale to the essential new models of games as a service, virtual goods, data driven design & minimum viable products" in this highly-rated GDC lecture. The second lecture available for free is from the popular Social & Online Games Summit, and features Mind Candy's Michael Acton Smith discussing 'Lessons Learned Building Moshi Monsters to 15 Million Users'. The highly successful webbased game in question, Moshi Monsters, is a social online game for kids (7-11 year olds). As Acton Smith explains in his lecture description, the title is "an unusual mix between Tamagotchi, Brain Training and Facebook." The game launched in April 2008, and "hit its tipping point in 2009, when 9 million more players joined." The session then goes into detail about what the team learned during this intense period of growth -- also discussion how traffic was acquired, and which acquisition channels have been most effective. In addition to these lectures, GDC Vault's free videos section includes talks from Zynga, Ernest Adams, and NCsoft, plus highly rated lectures featuring 2D Boy's Ron Carmel and Bungie's Brian Sharp and Brenda Brathwaite plus geoDefense's creator Doug Whatley. The free recordings available are a fraction of the content currently being flowed into the GDC Vault. Full GDC Vault access, including synchronized video recordings for over 200 of GDC 2010's sessions and hundreds of historical video and audio recordings, is available to GDC 2010 All-Access Pass holders, as well as All-Access Pass holders for other GDC events during the year. In addition, development studios and schools who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available by contacting Suzanne Cunningham or viewing an online demonstration. Individual Vault subscriptions not tied to All-Access passes are being considered for a 2011 launch.