GDC 2012 to include lectures from Naughty Dog, Volition, PopCap

Organizers of GDC have announced three new developers sessions for the annual event in San Francisco, and those attending can look forward to lectures from Naughty Dog, Volition and Electronic Arts.

Lecture details are listed below.

• Game Design - 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.

• Production - 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.

• Visual Arts - 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.

Previously announced sessions for the conference include talks on: Diablo III, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Jetpack Joyride, Hitman: Absolution, Kinematics, and Dear Esther.

GDC 2012 runs March 5 through March 9.