As online reg ends, Ubisoft, mobile talks added to GDC Europe 2013

With discounted online registration for GDC Europe 2013 ending tomorrow, organizers have announced several more notable sessions from online and mobile game developers. These include Ubisoft Blue Byte on avoiding pay-to-win in free-to-play, PerBlue's free-to-play design and production tips from Parallel Kingdom, Scopely's VP on mobile player retention, and AppLift's business analytics. GDC Europe will take place Monday through Wednesday, August 19th-21st at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost in Cologne, Germany -- just ahead of (and co-located with) the massive 275,000 person Gamescom event, with all GDC Europe passes also guaranteeing entrance to Gamescom. In 'Getting Past Pay to Win,' senior online game supervisor at Ubisoft Blue Byte, Teut Weidemann [The Settlers Online (pictured), Anno Online] will explain how to avoid pay-to-win design in free-to-play games. He will also share how Ubisoft designs monetization methods that its players accept as not being too aggressive nor unfair. In 'Turning One-Time Visitors into Lifetime Players: Building Retention in Mobile Games,' Scopely VP of game development Darion Lowenstein will explore how they design game mechanics and position messaging to retain mobile players. Also drawing on experience from producing and directing hits at Electronic Arts, Activision, and Rockstar Games, Lowenstein will explain when teams need to find the right partner to take their game to the next level, too. PerBlue's co-founder and CEO Justin Beck will share their secrets behind their thriving free-to-play game Parallel Kingdom, in 'Creating and Maintaining a Thriving Mobile, Virtual RPG World,'. He will review over four years of lessons learned along the way, as the game grew from requiring a team of two to a team of 35 full-time employees. Finally, in 'Platform Evolution - Implications for the Future of Mobile Games,' mobile games marketing platform AppLift CEO and co-founder Kaya Taner will analyze the development patterns in browser and social games and their surrounding ecosystems, highlighting upcoming trends in the mobile space. Said trends will include user acquisition, monetization, investments, platform regulation, and changes in competition. Organizers are also reminding that online registration for GDC Europe ends tomorrow, Wednesday August 14th, with individual savings for VIP and All Access Passes available, and the Indie Games Summit Pass also still 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.