1）据悉，LA Games Conference 2011大会将于2011年4月26日在加州洛杉矶举行，今年为大会第4年，大会主要讨论当前尖端商务话题。好莱坞、硅谷的一些先进公司将在本次大会露面，其中包括GameStop总裁Tony Bartel、Sony SCEA的PlayStation Home主管Jack Buser及Beefy Media（游戏邦注：其和Weinstein Company新成立的TWC Games部门是战略合作伙伴）总裁Adam Boyes。300多名颇具影响力的游戏领域决策人将汇集于此，相互交流，展开交易，就掌机、PC、在线和手机游戏的未来分享观点。

Trade Nations

2）新款社交游戏《Trade Nations》入驻iPad平台，玩家可通过建造、购买和出售活动发展自己的村庄。游戏的特别之处在于买卖环节（游戏邦注：玩家可以用1蒲式耳小麦交换饼干）。《Trade Nations》是款免费游戏，玩家一开始拥有14颗魔法豆。游戏的妙处在于玩家借助可以通过魔法豆下载应用获得免费魔法豆，避免玩家消耗完魔法豆后就退出游戏。玩家可以通过Facebook或twitter分享其在游戏中所取得的成就徽章，游戏画面为典型的村庄游戏风格。

trade nations

3）GDC Europe组织者日前宣布首场演讲内容，其中包括 Splash Damage谈《Brink》设计、Blue Fang（游戏邦注：其作品包括《动物园世界》）谈转战社交领域以及Crytek谈《孤岛危机 2》的多人模式。大会将于2011年8月15日-17日在Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost举行。此外，参加人员还将在设计跟踪会议“You Say You Want a Shooter R（evolution）”中学习如何通过管理实际实施方案实现伟大设计目标。

4）社交游戏《Yoostar》玩家可上传游戏片段至YouTube，玩家因此全球范围内显著增长。此举大大拓宽了《Yoostar 2》掌机玩家同Facebook、YouTube平台《Yoostar Playground》用户之间的社交网络。如今连接YouTube之后，新手演员就可以直接同众多批评者及粉丝分享自己的最新游戏进展。

yoostar2 playground

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

1）LA Games Conference 2011

LA Games Conference 2011 will be held on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 from 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM (PT) Los Angeles, CA.

LA Games Conference – now in its 4th year – features a lively and fun debate on timely cutting-edge business topics, demos as well unrivaled access to some of the most progressive companies in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and beyond. Keynote presenters include Tony Bartel, President of GameStop and Jack Buser, Director of PlayStation®Home for Sony SCEA and Adam Boyes, President, Beefy Media, strategic partner with The Weinstein Company’s recently formed TWC Games division.Over 300 of the most influential decision-makers in the games industry gather for the LA Games Conference to network, do deals, and share ideas about the future of console, PC, online and mobile games.

Topics of panel discussion:

1. Gaming in the Cloud: Exploring New Forms of Game Distribution

2. Selling Games in 2011 and Beyond – Payment Models that Work and the Analytics You Need To Track Them 

3. The Smartphone and Tablet Revolution – What are the Latest Trends in Games and Social 4. Networking for Portable Devices?

5. Money for Nothing? How To Succeed In Selling Virtual Goods for Games and Social Networks

6. Viral Gaming – Latest Trends in Marketing and Promoting Games Online

7. Brands Got Game? The Latest Opportunities for Advertisers To Connect with Millennials The Future of Gaming: 3D?

8. Gaming, Film and Television – How To Developing Successful Transmedia Franschises （Source：mmosite）

2）Trade Nations for iPad – Game Review

Trade Nations is another social networking game that allows you to grow your village by building, buying and selling.  What makes this game stand out from others is the trading part. You can trade your neighbor a bushel of wheat for some cookies, and so on.

Just like any other game like this, it is a “freemium” game. You start out with 14 magic beans and are immediately asked to use one up to “hurry” your logger to get the wood cut. These types of games are frustrating for me because there are very few ways to get magic beans (or Smurf berries, or carrots or whatever) without paying for them.

A nice thing about Trade Nation is that they offer ways of getting free magic beans by allowing you to download other apps through them. I think this idea is brilliant and keeps me from just quit the game after I run out. Plus, it is a great way to discover new apps that you may not have seen before. All parties benefit from it.

The game play is nothing special and is typical of every other game in its class. You build a farm and assign a villager to work on it. You build a bakery and earn gold by baking things. You unlock bigger items as you gain levels. You can decorate your village with plants and paths. You can expand your land as you go. All the usual features.

You earn badges for achievements that you can share on Facebook or twitter. You have to sign into Facebook or know exactly who is playing the game, in order to benefit from the trade aspects. When you want to trade, you visit your neighbors, but there is no access to unknown players. You have to add your friends by inviting them or searching for them if you know their username.

The graphics are fairly typical of this type of game. However, there is a lot of detail in each little item, from the grain on the wood to the bricks on the chimney. There is a pleasant song playing in the background that gets annoying very fast.

What I liked: It is easy to play and the villagers just go to sleep if you don’t take care of things. Your crops don’t burn down and your cows don’t run away. I really like the “earn free magic beans” feature.

What I didn’t like: You can’t randomly visit a neighbor’s house. You can’t turn off the music in the background. The game is just like all of the other social networking, Farmville-style games.

To buy or not to buy: If you like these types of games, it’s as good as the rest of them, maybe even a little bit better. And, since its free, you should give it a try.（Source：Padgadget）

3）GDC Europe 2011 Reveals Brink, Blue Fang, Crysis 2 Talks

(Media-Newswire.com) – GDC Europe organizers have announced first lectures for the show, including Splash Damage on Brink’s design, Blue Fang ( Oregon Trail ) on its move to social, and Crytek on Crysis 2′s multiplayer.

Taking place Monday through Wednesday, August 15-17, 2011 at the Cologne Congress-Centrum Ost, GDC Europe 2011 – taking place alongside the major gamescom trade show – will again provide the essential pan-European perspective of game development and business trends.

As part of the first announced Main Conference sessions, attendees can learn how to preserve ambitious design goals through managing practical implementation solutions in the game design track session “You Say You Want a Shooter R( evolution )”.

In the talk, British studio Splash Damage’s Neil Alphonso will discuss how his team tackled these design challenges during the development of much-awaited shooter Brink .

With Blue Fang Games ( Zoo Tycoon, The Oregon Trail ) as the case study, discover what it takes to transition from the traditional games space into the social realm in Hank Howie’s business track talk “From Console to Facebook: Blue Fang Games and the Big Pivot”.

Finally, two studios and over 100 programmers contributed to the development of the multiplayer component of Crysis 2. Crytek’s Peter Hall will speak in depth about the development process, and how to manage challenges that arise with working with large programming teams in his programming track session “Crysis 2 Multiplayer: A Programmer’s Postmortem.”

Many more sessions are due to be revealed over the next few weeks for the event. This year, GDC Europe has added notable Summits on social games, smartphone and tablet games, and indie games to the existing line-up of learning and inspiration.（Source：media-newswire）

5）Yoostar Now Allows for Direct YouTube Uploads

Yoostar’s social “movie karaoke” performance video game boosted its worldwide audience today by adding the ability for users to upload their performances directly to YouTube. Now the world can watch anyone act, ad-lib or stand-in for the greatest actors, in their most memorable roles, on the site that defined video sharing.

The move dramatically expands a social network that already unites Yoostar 2 game players on consoles with the free Yoostar Playground game on Facebook and YouTube, ranked as the top online video content property in December with 144.8 million unique viewers*. Through the power of Yoostar’s social video platform, viewers can access tens of thousands of Yoostar videos on the Yoostar Playground and YouTube without a console game. Now, with YouTube connectivity, emerging actors can share their performances directly with the largest audience of critics and fans ever assembled.

In addition to the YouTube connection, Yoostar Playground on Facebook is adding several frequently requested features during the next two weeks:

Players will be able to post performances on Facebook user walls;

A new “boost” power up will amplify earned activity points in different scenarios so players can move up the leaderboard faster;

The Store will alert players to fresh downloadable content as soon as it hits the Xbox Live and PlayStation networks;

New video tutorials will help players move from beginners to pros on Yoostar 2;

A news feed delivered directly to Facebook user pages will alert fans to everything from the latest tips and tricks, to who was seen using Yoostar or is making a meteoric rise in the standings

How it all plugs together:

Yoostar Playground is a free Facebook game and owning the console game is not required to participate. Players rate, share, comment on, and “mash-up” performances produced by Yoostar 2 console game performers. In-game activities earn points that help players grow from struggling actors to A-list celebrities. As players gain “fame,” they are awarded Badges and paid Yoobucks. Yoobucks can be used for power ups and boosts that accelerate achievements in both Yoostar Playground and Yoostar 2.

The Yoostar Network is a growing web of interconnected social networks that link Yoostar performers across Facebook user pages, Yoostar Playground, Twitter, Yoostar.com, Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network and YouTube. The goal of the Yoostar Network is to make it easy to connect with anyone interested in social performance games regardless of where their net-presence resides.

Yoostar 2 is currently available at all leading retail outlets throughout the United Kingdom for an RRP of £39.99. Yoostar Playground is live on Facebook and can be played for free.（Source：gamersdailynews）