WN Media Group has revealed the program for its two upcoming events in the USA. Between the two conferences, 40 talks are planned. Here are some of the topics that have caught our editorial team’s collective eye.
A little reminder for those just tuning in:
- a digital event WN North America Online’21 takes place on November 15-19;
- an on-site conference WN Seattle’21 takes place on November 16-17.
Both events are centered around the current state of the game industry. The talks will be broadcast via the WN Hub platform for free.
Now, to the program itself.
November 15
- New Ways to Monetize Mobile Gaming
Representatives of NumberEight, Miniclip, AudioMob, and Frameplay will discuss the new advertising solutions available to developers in addition to the traditional ones. The speakers will also attempt to forecast the future of these newly available tools.
- Opportunities in China’s Video Game Market
Lisa Hanson, President of Niko Partners, will present Niko’s findings on the Chinese gaming market. Besides that, she’ll outline the opportunities it presents for foreign companies.
November 16
- Lessons of the Xbox 20
Lead Writer for GamesBeat Dean Takahashi wrote a book on the making of Xbox. Together with Ed Fries, who used to oversee Microsoft Game Studios back in the early 2000s, Dean will walk the audience through the lessons of Xbox’ 20-year history that today’s game industry has to remember.
- Building Universes around Creators — beyond the NFT drop
Benny Giang helped launch two of the most popular and successful blockchain games — CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot. He’ll share his insights into the NFT gaming space.
November 17
- Building a Scale-Up Financial Model
Martin Macmillan of Pollen VC will cover how to build a robust financial model for a gaming company preparing to scale.
- Building Production Pipeline for LiveOps
Playrix’s Marianna Shilina Vallejo will discuss building and growing a production team and adopting it for a rapid development cycle. She’ll compare project management and development in indie studios and giant mobile game developers. Spoiler alert — the methods are the same.
November 18
- NFTs in Games — Lessons from this Year and the Way Forward
Jakub Trancik, Head of Business Intelligence & Game Design at SuperScale, will overview the history of NFTs in games and how they impact the free-to-play space. He will also highlight what developers should look out for when entering the blockchain-based gaming market.
- Are Audio Games the Future of Video Games?
Christian Mahnke from EarReality will reveal the opportunities for gaming studios to reach new audiences through voice games.
November 19
- Influencer Marketing: How To Promote A Mobile Game And Not Mess It Up?
Julie Shilnikova and Mark Levin from HypeFactory and MY.GAMES will share their experience of working with influencers when promoting mobile titles. They will specifically discuss how to launch influencer marketing campaigns, measure their results, and what pitfalls to watch out for.
- How to Determine the Art Style for the Overseas Market?
Sue Huang, the Art Director of GameVision, will explain the differences between the US market and the Asian market in game art styles.
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The lecture broadcasts are available for free, but to fully use the conference’s online networking opportunities, you should purchase a ticket. The prices start from $99. You can get your ticket here.
More details on the program can be found on the conference website. By the way, if you are developer, you can still apply for the online developer showcase. Submit your application here.