It would be absurd just a few years ago to think that Facebook would be a major player at GDC, let alone the games industry. It makes it all the more surprising that not only were they at GDC, but they were engaging game developers on multiple fronts to think about developing for Facebook in new ways.
You may have missed all the announcements that Facebook made at GDC though. All the panels and talks that help developers use Facebook in new and exciting ways. If you were one of those people, Facebook has just recapped its GDC adventures on the developer blog.
The first event had Matt Wyndowe, product manager for the Facebook games team, talk about Facebook gaming and how they are going to focus more on Open Graph and high quality games in 2012.
The second talk focused on how developers can make their game successful on Facebook. It’s true that Zynga may strike fear into the small Facebook developer, but these tips should help to get you noticed. You never know, your game could take off like OMGPOP’s Draw Something, then get bought by Zynga for $200 million.
The third talk spent time on how developers can leverage Open Graph to get the word out about your game. It’s all about using Timeline, scores and achievements to get results.
So you’ve made a Facebook game and now you want to make some money for your hard work. The fourth talk went through the steps required to begin monetizing your games.
The fifth panel was on how Facebook drives traffics to mobile apps. It should give developers insight on how to use Facebook effectively to draw up hype for their game.
The final panel was by far the most interesting. Since Uncharted 2 incorporated Twitter into its campaign, it’s clear that social networking and console games would go hand-in-hand. The talk touched upon how social networking is helping to expand the appeal of games like Uncharted 3 and Kinect Sports 2.
Facebook is here to stay as far as game development is concerned. It’s great to see the company embracing the industry not just through social games, but implementing their technology into console games as well.