Author: by Staff

Following first day highlights, the second day of GDC Austin 2009 included major online keynotes and lectures, alongside Writing, Indie and other summits. Once again, we think it's important to leave a lasting record of what these speakers have to say, and tell those who can't be present about some of the useful advice and stats that they have. So we are continuing to write up the sessions for Gamasutra (part of Think Services, as is GDC Austin), and here are some of the highlights from Day 2: GDC Austin Online Conference GDC Austin: Free Realms And The Attention Span Challenge "Sony Online Entertainment is now moving from the hardcore to the kid market. President John Smedley revealed a PS3 Free Realms debut in 2010, and admitted that "making games for kids is hard" in his GDC Austin keynote." GDC Austin: Mythic's Hickman Shares Warhammer Online's Biggest Mistakes "At GDC Austin, Mythic's Jeff Hickman delivered spoke frankly about mistakes the company has made, particularly in the last "interesting year" since the launch of Warhammer Online -- and looked to the future." Game Writers Summit GDC Austin: Half-Life, Portal Scribes Talk Writing Process "Valve writers Marc Laidlaw and Erik Wolpaw delivered a talk at GDC Austin about the processes and principles of video game writing, drawing from their experiences with the Half-Life and Portal games." GDC Austin: Heroes and Villains In DC Universe Online "Veteran comics scribe and DC Universe Online writer Marv Wolfman teamed up with his Sony Online colleagues to discuss writing for heroes and, more especially, villains at a GDC Austin talk." GDC Austin: Writing for MMOs: You're Doing it Wrong "Is the MMO genre is a bad fit for traditional storytelling methods? At GDC Austin, Tracy Seamster of ZeniMax Online and Steve Danuser of 38 Studios discussed examples of how to do it right -- and how not to." Indie Games Summit GDC Austin: 2D Boy's Carmel On 'Beyond The Finish Line' "In an intriguing GDC Austin lecture, World Of Goo co-creator Ron Carmel examined the world 'beyond the finish line', discussing what happens after your indie game is released and how to deal with it." GDC Austin: Twisted Pixel Talks 'Splosion Man Postmortem "Mike Henry and Sean Riley from Austin-based indie Twisted Pixel used their Independent Games Summit talk to postmortem the six-month XBLA project and 'Summer Of Arcade' title 'Splosion Man.." GDC Austin: Swink, Wegner On Blurst's Rapid Prototyping Madness "At the Independent Games Summit on Austin in Wednesday, Flashbang's Matthew Wegner and Steve Swink explained how their rapid prototyping of web games like Off-Road Velociraptor Safari gave them larger life lessons." GDC Austin: Lost Garden's Cook On Why Premium Flash Games Rock "Talking at the Indie Games Summit at GDC Austin on Wednesday, Bunni co-creator and Lost Garden blogger Daniel Cook explained why he believes charging users for more complex Flash games is the wave of the future." Other GDC Austin: PSP Minis Drop Features To Hasten Approval Time "Sony confirmed at GDC Austin that PSP Mini games will not be allowed to have wireless multiplayer functionality, downloadable content, or software updates, in order to quicken the approval process."