GDC Europe adds expert talks on Early Access, second screen apps

In case you missed it: earlier this week we announced that GDC Europe 2014 would be hosting its own #1ReasonToBe panel as well as a session on developing for Sony's Project Morpheus VR headset. Today, we're excited to reveal two more noteworthy sessions for the major European game conference, which is being held in Germany this August. GDC Europe is programmed to cover topics spanning AAA through mobile gaming and indie, both technical and business-focused. The pair of talks we're describing today provide fresh insight on the design and business of games, and they should include learnings for the entire community. Organized by UBM Tech Game Network, GDC Europe, now in its sixth year in Germany, will run Monday through Wednesday, August 11-13 at the Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany, co-located with Europe's biggest video game trade and public show gamescom. We're happy to have Bohemia Interactive creative director James Crowe speaking at the conference this year about the realities of Early Access development. Bohemia has been at the forefront of this new business model with games like DayZ and Arma 3, and during Crowe's talk -- "A Great Disturbance in Development: The Dark Side of Early Access" -- he'll offer a detailed rundown of the common challenges you can expect to face when making your next game an Early Access project. Using a range of examples from the development of Arma 3 -- from its public alpha to its beta, final release, and post-launch support -- Crowe will examine the failures and successes of Bohemia's Early Access strategy and offer some techniques you can use to perfect your own plans. Also joining us is Desmond Lee, an industry veteran with lots of experience designing game-complementing second screen apps. He'll be with us at GDC Europe 2014 this year to lead a session offering practical advice for building fun, meaningful second screen apps for your game. "Second Screen, Second Nature", Lee will share the personal story of his career and how it has shaped his unique views on this burgeoning market. As a project director at Finger Food Studios Lee has experience working on second screen apps for games like Titanfall and Dead Rising 3, and he's planning to share some of what he's learned during his career with developers to help them seemlessly integrate second screen app development into the earliest stages of their next big project. Of course, these are just some of the many exciting sessions that will be announced for GDC Europe 2014 in the coming weeks, and a full list of announced talks is now available. In addition, this year marks the GDC Europe debut of the Student Pass, a more affordable alternative to the All Access Pass created specifically for qualified students interested in learning and networking at GDC Europe 2014 - as well as the return of the Indie Games Summit pass. All GDC Europe passes also allow visitors to attend Gamescom from Wednesday to Friday. For more information, please visit the GDC Europe website. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech