New keynote and sessions for GDC Europe
Talks include working with China, Popcap post-mortem and AAA shooter level design
This year's Games Developers Conference Europe has lifted the lid on more of its major discussions and panels.
The newly-announced track keynote at August's Cologne-based GDC will be "Bridging the East and West: The Tencent Games Story." Tencent's vice president of business development, Bo Wang, will document the history of what has become one of China's biggest games companies, as well as discussing the importance and benefits of the West and East working together.
Shenzen-based Tencent was formed in 1998, and has found great success with its QQ games portal and messaging app. Former Nokia man Wang will also detail the company's plans for the future, both domestically and internationally.
Further confirmed sessions for GDC Europe include Popcap's Jason Kapalka dissecting the success of Facebook and iPhone mainstay Bejewelled Blitz, and the casual developer's thoughts on cross-platform social gaming. Adittionally, members of EA DICE, Splash Damage and Remedy will host a discussion named "The Tao of Level Design," based around their most recent games.
Also holding talks are 2K Czech on Mafia II, CCP on player councils in MMOs and Digital Chocolate on viral strategies. This is in addition to previously-announced panels from the likes of David Cage and Instant Action.
More panels for the August 16-18 conference will be announced soon; a schedule-building tool for what is sure to be a busy show is already available.