2012 Call for Submissions
The call for submissions is closed.
Deadline: Wednesday, May 2, 2012 @ 11:59PM PT
Speaker Expectations | Submission Guidelines | Submission Phases
Session Formats | Track & Summit Descriptions & Topics | FAQs
The Game Developers Conference® Online has finished soliciting lecture, roundtable, panel and full day tutorial proposals from local and international speakers with deep industry expertise and a fresh and unique perspective on the state of the online games industry.
GDC Online focuses on development of connected games including social network titles, free-to-play web games, kid-friendly online titles, large-scale MMOs, and beyond. In its 10th year, this event is the international hub for industry professionals looking to take full advantage of the opportunities of connected gaming in one of America's most creative and independent cities — Austin, Texas.
Please take a few minutes to read the submission guidelines, track/summit descriptions, and what is expected from you if you are accepted as a GDC Online speaker. We are seeking submissions for the following conference tracks and summits for the 2012 event:
GDC Online Tracks
Business & Marketing
Customer Experience
Design
Production
Programming
GDC Online Summits
Game Narrative Summit
Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit
GDC Gamification Summit
Game Dev Start-Up Summit
Speaker Expectations
Conference attendees expect excellence from our speakers. They are industry veterans and will evaluate your class based on delivery, knowledge on the topic addressed, and the visuals presented. Please consider the following when proposing to speak:
- The proposed outline must match the talk you present at GDC Online.
- We suggest that you commit AT LEAST 25 HOURS to prepare for your session.
- Review the submission phase process described below. You will need to follow all of the instructions in order to be accepted.
- We strongly encourage that you rehearse the delivery of your session for it to be effective; preferably in front of your peers or video record and review your performance.
- Have adequate visual accompaniment to your speech.
- Allow GDC Online to record and distribute copies of your presentation.
- The submitter also agrees to be available to present his/her session during any day of the event October 9-11, 2012.
Submission Guidelines
All presentations must be submitted by the original authors.
We currently only accept submissions by original authors of the presentations. PR firms, speaking relation firms, and all other parties who are not direct authors of submitted presentations are discouraged from submitting a proposal on behalf of their clients/speakers. We require direct contact with presenters to expedite questions during the submission review process.
Vendor Specific Proposals
The Game Developers Conference does not accept product or vendor-related submissions. If your talk is a thinly-veiled advertisement for a new product, technology or service your company is offering, please do not apply. If you would like to publicize a product, please contact our sales team for information on exhibiting and other vendor opportunities, including sponsored sessions.
Submission Phases
This year we will introduce the three phase submission process similar to the GDC (San Francisco).
Phase I: April 5-May 2, 2012
Prepare & Submit Session Proposal
- Speaker Contact Information
- Session Title (10 word max): Provide a concise and descriptive title.
- Summary for Advisors: You have 500-words to describe to the advisors what your talk will be about, and why it will be interesting to GDC Online attendees. This is not the description of your talk for the website, it is not meant for attendees to read, it is not a teaser, and it is not a place for cute wordplay. It is for you to describe concretely and succinctly what is compelling about your talk to the Advisory Board, a group of people who have probably read 250 of these descriptions by the time they get to yours. Do not tease with something like, "My lecture will reveal amazing findings about how people play puzzle platformers", instead say, "We have found 90% of people only play puzzle platformers while eating pepperoni pizza," or whatever your amazing finding actually is. If you need more than 500-words to describe your lecture in this way, you can upload supplemental materials (.doc, .pdf, .txt) to your submission.
- Session Description (100 words max): A description of your presentation as you would have it appear on the website.
- Session Takeaway (50 word max): Summarize the key learnings in a few sentences.
- Track, Format, and Audience Level
- Speaker Biography, Game Credits, History of Past Speaking Engagements, and Twitter username
- Supporting material: Submit supplemental information that supports your session proposal. Additional materials may include white papers, code, demos, videos, images, proof of concept, etc.
See a sample production track submission from GDC here.
See a sample programming track submission from GDC here.
Phase II: (Late May - Mid June 2012)
Session Proposal Review, Notification
- Advisory Board review submissions
- Submitters are notified of their status: Declined or Phase 2 Conditionally Accepted
- Phase 2 submitters may be required to prepare the complete presentation for review by the advisory board*
- Phase 2 submission details are due early July. Details will be emailed to those submitters. An advisory board mentor will be assigned as needed to discuss ways to improve the submission.
Phase III: (July-early August 2012)
Presentation Review & Confirmations
- Advisory Board reviews Phase 2 presentations in early July
- Phase 2 submitters are notified of their status by early August: Declined or Accepted
- Submitters who miss the deadline to submit their presentation plans for review will be automatically declined.
- Submitters who sent in their presentation by the deadline but were not accepted to speak will receive a discount on a conference pass.
Session Formats
We are seeking sessions in the following categories, please select the duration that you feel is most appropriate for your lecture.
Format |
Duration |
Description |
Lectures |
60 or 25 minutes |
Lectures are issue-oriented, provide concrete examples, and contain both practical and theoretical information. We generally prefer only one speaker but we may accept two if you can demonstrate the second person is necessary. Postmortems and case studies are included in this category. |
Panels |
60 minutes |
Panels take many different viewpoints on a topic or issue and combine them in one debate session with a moderator. Debate among panelists (with very different opinions) is welcome and audience participation time should be accounted for. We prefer 60 minute time for this format and no more than 5 panelists. Include all of the panelists you will confirm in the proposal. A very limited number of panels will be accepted. |
Roundtables |
60 minutes |
GDC Roundtables are small peer discussion groups led by one moderator and limited to a maximum of 75 attendees. The moderator will facilitate conversation and keep the flow of discussion moving. They do not lecture or dictate. Constructive controversy and debate are welcome in roundtables. Topics that are open-ended in nature and promote an exchange of ideas generally work best in this format. |
Tutorials |
Full Day (5 hours) |
Day-long tutorials must teach attendees new skills. It should be interactive; you can have them work in teams; you can give them challenges; you can include competitions. The result of the time period MUST be that they'll feel they've learned something truly useful in the world of game development. It can be a skill, ability, a method or even the mastery of a tool. This long format is for hands-on learning and should fill 5 hours. |
Track & Summit Descriptions & Topics
We are seeking submissions in five tracks for the main conference dedicated to online game development. We are also seeking submissions to four Summit programs in specific emerging areas of the game industry.
GDC ONLINE TRACKS
Business & Marketing
The Business and Marketing Track will focus on best practices for successful online game promotion, monetization and merchandising, emerging distribution models, minimizing fraud, hacking, and gold farming. A global view of evolving publishing models and emerging platforms for online games will also be explored.
- Best practices in internationalization & localization
- Examples of leveraging analytics successfully
- Platforms: We are facing platform overload? How do we select and bet on platforms? Is transmedia important or overhyped?
- Optimizing your player funnel
- Share the impact of hacking
- Postmortems about moving your game from subscription to free-to-play
- The current user acquisition landscape; data and numbers required
- Is the social games Mergers & Acquisitions boom over?
- Where are the new markets for social games?
- Can social games break away from Facebook?
- Are gamer's preferences changing?
- How is the economy affecting the price elasticity of gamers?
- Cross platform acquisition and cross promotion
- The business of eSports
- Summary & opportunities in growing markets: Brazil, South East Asia, Middle East, etc
- How to get your product noticed in an increasingly competitive market
- Is ARPU increasing or decreasing?
- Building a corporate culture with high retention
- Successful monetization strategies using virtual goods
Customer Experience
The Customer Experience Track will discuss successful strategies to attract, retain and effectively monetize your players. Industry shifts in the last few years have led to a wide array of new techniques and technologies that can help increase profitability and retention by increasing player satisfaction and engagement. Topics in this track will include metrics-driven post-launch development, design patterns for expansion content, building and managing communities, policing user-generated content and managing community channels, valuable tools, scale management approaches, anti-fraud tactics, security safeguarding and more.
- Role of community management and player expectations in an online world
- Customer service best practices; the benefits of tickets, phone support, wikis, self help and more.
- How to manage hacked accounts, banned players, escalation and VIPs.
- Explore the role of fan &community sites
- Balancing global vs. regional game experiences
- Safeguarding player accounts
- User centered design, engaging players to better understand their needs to design a better product/service.
- How to successfully shut down a social game
- Cross Platform customer service challenges and strategies
- When and how will the social and mobile platforms merge?
- When will (or how can) social games drive real socialization?
- The customer hierarchy of value (how do we value customers beyond those that pay?)
- Does community exist on Facebook?
- Driving loyalty among hypercasual users
- Managing social media presences
- CRM initiatives that help retain customers
- Analytics to predict churn
- Ways of measuring social consumer sediment
- How do you measure engagement?
- Why is the bar for service so much lower for social games? Is this a good thing?
- Managing an eSports game
- Building a community from an non-game media brand
- How to protect your users
Design
Creating compelling, immersive games requires understanding, visualizing, demonstrating, and tuning the interactions of an ever-increasing number of game tools and systems. While online game designers need to understand and exploit the possibilities of new technologies and integrating social graphs, they must also continue to master the traditional disciplines of drama, game play, and psychology. The Design Track explores the challenges and ramifications of the interaction between new technologies and established techniques.
- How to best design to extend the life of a game? Often developers feel like they are on a race to keep their content pipeline ahead of their players, but players always catch up faster than we think. Share techniques to extend a game's lifespan.
- Innovations in location based gaming
- Asynchronous or synchronous multiplayer game design on mobile devices
- Tips for designing virtual goods
- Building & sustaining your game's economy
- Designing a game against botters, farmers and hackers
- Designing transplatform... Create the same experience on all devices? Or different roles for the same game using different devices?
- "Hardcore" social games design
- The future of synchronous play
- Designing for a tablet-driven world: where do our old genres go?
- Social mechanics for large connected communities
- Best practices for creating sticky game designs with better reward systems
- Integrating social graphs into game design
- Designing a game for single player vs. multi-player vs. massively single-player vs. social mulitplayer
- Linear narrative structure in MMOGs
- Designing cross platform gaming ecosystems
- Social mobile has been touted as the next big thing, examples of how to crack it.
Production
Regardless of your platform or approach, the 2012 Production Track will provide you with tools and insights for managing your team in the demanding feedback oriented world of social and online game development. Sessions in this track will address strategies for developing games with rapid timelines for launch, content additions, scalability for startup teams, metrics driven design, creating sustainable games as a service while working with teams spread across the globe and keeping your teams engaged in the product long term.
- Advanced analytics for product managers
- Applying web analytics to non-social games
- Managing large teams spread across the globe
- Leveraging outsourcing for asset development and programming.
- Lean vs Agile vs Waterfall, which one is right for your project?
- Best practices for developing leaders
- Why is every MMOG late?
- The emergence of the Product Manager role - what is it, why has it become important, how to find the right person?
- Balancing art and commerce during development - as marketing becomes more integrated with product, how do you get your marketing team and game design team to collaborate effectively?
- What is a Minimum Viable Product? How much is enough? What are the must-have features?
- A/B testing 101. What is it? Is it necessary?
- Monetization designers. Who are they? How do you find them? How do they work with traditional game designers?
Programming
In online game development, the programmers are the unsung heroes that determine whether a game is a smashing success or a dismal failure. The Programming Track at GDC Online will provide a comprehensive review of the technologies and skills necessary to deliver a successful online gaming experience. In 2012, the programming track will include in-depth technical talks on scalability for social games, integration tools and strategies, development engine comparisons, graphics and rendering, microtransactions, online security, and more
- Developing for cross-platform play
- Unified backends for mobile and social games
- Is 3D hitting the social market?
- HTML5
- Scalability in a multimillion player world
- Next generation tools and tech for both social and online games
- Where are the social game engines?
- How to use SMART goals to achieve engine performance/scalability?
- Best practices in generating good, scalable code.
- Innovative Flash games
- Security safegaurds
- Coding for cross platform mobile/web development
- Creating next generation graphics technology for web and mobile
GDC ONLINE SUMMITS
Game Narrative Summit
The Game Narrative Summit is the most prestigious global event for state-of-the-art storytelling in videogames. This summit covers interactive narrative in all its forms, from AAA blockbusters to casual gaming. The event features an all-star lineup of speakers from every aspect of the field, with sessions ranging from the advanced and theoretical to hands-on workshops for writers, designers and others seeking to hone their narrative and gamewriting skills. Now in its 7th consecutive year at the GDC Online in Austin, the Game Narrative Summit attracts attendees from all over the world with a passionate interest in how interactive storytelling is evolving as a driving force in the future of entertainment.
Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit
The Smartphone & Table Games Summit at GDC Online brings together top game developers from around the world to share ideas, introduce best practices and discuss the future of gaming on established and emerging smartphone and tablet platforms, including the iPhone, iPad, Android OS phones, tablets and an abundance of similar new handheld devices.
This program will highlight the nuts and bolts of great game design and reveal successful business strategies behind this new breed of popular smartphones and tablets, exploring emerging business models, what it takes to break through App Store clutter on any given platform, community and marketing tips to succeed in the market, and design tips and tricks for handheld-length play sessions and touchscreens.
GDC Gamification Summit
The new Gamification Summit at GDC Online will discuss the debatable and sometimes problematic process of building game-like incentives into non-game applications, to address issues like productivity, health, marketing, and customer engagement. The day long program will include lectures and panels for game developers and other tech creators to exchange ideas, introduce best design practices and learn how to best serve the player to meet your organization's needs. This summit will bring fresh discussions about the integration points between games and technology and highlight inspired, successful case studies from today's forward-thinking businesses.
Game Dev Start-Up Summit
Starting up a new game development business is the first step to independence and increased creative freedom. But starting up any business is complicated. The new Game Dev Start-Up Summit presents a comprehensive step-by-step look at the issues, challenges, and realities of a new game dev as it forms and gets off the ground -- starting from pre-formation considerations and continuing through the necessities all businesses face. The growth of social games, on-line, download, free to play, and other niches and genres have created unprecedented opportunity for new talent. This day long program will identify the challenges and arm you with knowledge that can, together with your creativity and passion, help your new venture succeed.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is the Phase I submission deadline?
- What makes a good submission?
- How does the selection process work?
- Who will review my submission?
- What are the benefits of speaking?
- What topics are we looking for?
- Who should I contact with additional questions?
Q: When is the Phase I submission deadline?
A: Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at 11:59pm PT
Q: What makes a good submission?
A: Some guidelines for a good submission include:
- Incomplete proposals or proposals that are commercial or marketing in nature will not be considered.
- Write your proposal so that it is easily understood. Concise, precise language and a discernable thesis will also help your chances in the review process.
- The advisors will read hundreds of submissions. Get to your point as quickly as possible. Consider what the proposal is about. Why is it interesting? How is it important to game development? What will game developers get out of the session?
- Review and follow the submission guidelines on this page.
Q: How does the selection process work?
A: Please review the 3-phase process described in detail here.
- We will email you a confirmation when we receive your proposal. If you do not receive this confirmation, contact Jen Steele at jen.steele@ubm.com.
- The advisors will review all submissions in the coming months and score them on the criteria below.
- This composite rating along with past GDC session evaluation scores (when applicable) and advisor feedback will determine the status of every submission.
Concept: This is the basic idea of your proposal. Is it interesting? Is it relevant? Will it be beneficial for game development professionals to hear? There's room for innovative ideas and the tried and true.
Depth: Has the idea in your proposal been well considered and fleshed out? To what extent will the audience gain insight? The more in-depth, the better.
Organization: Are your ideas organized in a fashion conducive to presentation in front of an audience? Will the Advisory Board "follow" what you are trying to say? Organization is a must!
Credentials: How do your credentials qualify you to speak on the topic you've proposed? ?
Q: Who will review my submission?
A: The GDC Online Advisors are distinguished industry professionals who volunteer their time to help develop the numerous sessions at GDC Online. They work to ensure that the quality of the content provided to attendees is high-level, relevant, and timely. The summits and main conference have unique advisory board members. Advisors to the specific program you select will review your proposal.
Click here to learn about the GDC Online Advisors
Q: What are the benefits to speaking?
A: The benefits to being a speaker include:
- Complimentary All Access Pass
- Extensive exposure: Your name and presentation featured in our conference program and web site
- The opportunity to influence your peers and community
- Invitation to the GDC Online Speaker Party
- GDC Vault membership
Q: What session topics are we looking for?
A: Please view the track and summit descriptions and topics section here.
Q: Who should I contact with additional questions?
A: Please contact Jen Steele at jen.steele@ubm.com with any additional questions.
