Thomas Was Alone, pop-up arcade, public play talks added to GDC Europe

Organizers have highlighted several notable talks for next month's Independent Games Summit at GDC Europe in Cologne, with talks on Thomas Was Alone; indie arcade postmortems from Zo-ii, Wild Rumpus, and Glitchnap; and an international collaborative project by the Copenhagen Game Collective to create simple games in public spaces of Male, the capital of the Republic of the Maldives. These talks are part of GDC Europe 2013's Independent Games Summit, which will take place Tuesday, August 20th, during the three-day conference at Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the 275,000 person Gamescom event. All GDC Europe attendees may access the Independent Games Summit, either with a reduced-price Independent Games Summit pass or any other pass. The Independent Games Summit Pass will also include a two-day pass to the Gamescom event itself, including admission during the business day on Wednesday, August 21st -- a significant additional perk. Zo-ii's Zuraida Buter (Playful Arts Festival), Wild Rumpus's Marie Foulston, and Glitchnap's Jonatan Van Hove will speak about their efforts organizing and curating pop-up indie game events in 'Pop-Up Arcade: Postmortems on Indie Arcades and Events.' The talk will range from details on building a DIY arcade machine without a budget, to their views on the impact and importance of these events on game and play culture. Elsewhere, Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell will talk about what he learned while making "a pretentious platforming game about friendship and jumping" in a session called 'The Dumb Hobby Project: Lessons Learned Making Thomas Was Alone'. Lastly, Patrick Jarnfelt of the Copenhagen Game Collective (B.U.T.T.O.N., Spin The Bottle for Wii U) will share his experiences of designing games in the streets of Male in 'Playmakers in the Maldives.' Game designers from different countries came to the Maldives to work with artists, thinkers, and organizers to create playful events in the public spaces of Male following the military coup in February 2012 -- some of which involved waterproofed PlayStation Move controllers, remote-control drones, and more. Previously announced Independent Games Summit talks include creating Steve Jackson's Sorcery!, the Indie Megabooth, and Canabalt and Super Crate Box Commodore 64 ports, along with postmortems for Ridiculous Fishing, Badland, and Wii U day-one release, Chasing Aurora. The vast majority of the 80-plus talks for GDC Europe 2013 are now live in the schedule builder, along with the Expo floor plan. Online registration for GDC Europe is still available. Along with lower-priced Independent Games Summit passes, individual savings for VIP and All Access Passes are available online until August 14. Group admission discounts are also available. For all the latest news on GDC Europe, subscribe for updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech.