F2P Summit returns to GDC with dev-focused talks from experts

The field of free-to-play game design is here to stay, and GDC officials will once again host a series of frank talks on the topic from leading experts as part of the F2P Summit -- one of eight that will take place Monday, March 2nd and Tuesday, March 3rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco during the first two days of GDC 2015. Contemporary developers grapple with the creative implications of a world in which gameplay and monetization are intimately intertwined. Seasoned F2P game design consultant Ethan Levy believes the key to ethical monetization lies in how you first approach your game's design, and he'll be running down some concrete methods for doing so in his GDC 2015 F2P Summit talk "New Approaches to F2P Game Design." Check it out if you're curious to learn practical methods for designing free-to-play mechanics from the start of a project, a method for designing better first-time player experiences and a model for categorizing player types in order to make a monetization system that puts your players' needs first. If that's not for you, don't worry -- conference officials will be announcing more GDC 2015 sessions covering a diverse array of topical game industry issues in the months ahead. A list of all announced talks is available in the online GDC 2015 Session Scheduler, where you can begin to build your conference week and later export it to the up-to-the-minute GDC Mobile App, coming soon. For now, don't miss the opportunity to save money by registering early -- the deadline to register for passes at a discounted rate is January 21, 2015. GDC 2015 itself will take place March 2-6 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. For more information on GDC 2015, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech.