GDC 2012: Naughty Dog and EA join speaker list

Organisers of the twenty-sixth edition of GDC have announced the next three developers due to speak at the March event.

Representatives from Naughty Dog, THQ studio Volition and Electronic Arts will each take stage in San Francisco to discuss a broad range of subjects.

A preview of all three talks can be found below.

The announcement comes after the event’s first trio of speakers was announced last week, with Blizzard Entertainment, Halfbrick Studios and Slant Six Games all on board.

GDC 2012, which is expected to host hundreds of talks from game development professionals, runs from March 5th to 9th.

Develop will be out in force at event, providing extensive on-site coverage.

Early bird rates can save attendees as much as 35 per cent, providing tickets are booked before February 2.

Visit the event’s updated webpage for more

How I Got My Mom to Play Through Plants vs. Zombies
George Fan, Senior Game Designer, EA
The final boss of Plants vs. Zombies has been conquered by gamers of all ages as well as people with no gaming background whatsoever. George Fan, designer of Plants vs. Zombies, will walk you through how he managed to get his Mom to play through a full-blown strategy game while not alienating hardcore gamers. He will present 10 techniques he uses to better teach game mechanics to players, using specific examples from Plants vs. Zombies to illustrate these concepts.

The Last 10, Going From Good To Awesome
Benson Russell, Senior Game Designer, Naughty Dog
Naughty Dog is known for the level of polish that we apply to our shipping titles. We believe it is one of the most important aspects of the game development cycle, yet it also seems to be one of the most marginalized in our industry. This talk will go over the approach and principles that we use to make our games as polished as possible. We’ll go over the methods we use internally, the approach to scheduling that we take, the level of detail that we look for, and how we strike the balance of making the game awesome while still shipping on time.

The Art Direction of Saints Row: The Third
Frank Marquart, Project Art Director, Volition
It all started with an internal joke and a word that inexplicably caught on…Exaggereal. Exaggereal became the internal name and catchword of the new art style for Saints Row: The Third. In this presentation, Frank Marquart, the art director of both Saints Row 2 and Saints Row: the Third will chronicle the development and discuss the details of this new style and the visual leap made from SR2 to SR:TT. This talk will reveal large project goals and how exactly they filtered down to Exaggereal art goals and the seven art pillars. See concrete examples of how each pillar translated into style rules and how final art assets were affected across art disciplines. In the chaotic, over the top world of Saints Row, only one word could hope to contain it…Exaggereal.