For those who don’t me, my name is Pratik Sapra and I work as a Gaming Consultant on the Developer Relations team at BlackBerry. In my role, I work with game developers on the technical side and help them bring awesome gaming titles to the BlackBerry platform. I am really looking forward to this weeks Game Developer Conference along with the rest of the BlackBerry gaming crew.

In that regard, I am very excited to share that we have a great set of in-booth sessions (Booth 1216) lined up at our GDC booth. We will be presenting a wide range of topics covering everything you need to know about game development on BlackBerry 10. You will be hearing directly from BlackBerry gaming experts on topics including Native Development, Cocos2dx, Unity, Scoreloop and many more. We will be kicking off each day with a general overview session followed by a set of how-to sessions focused on specific topics and technologies. Scroll down below for the full session schedule.

Wednesday, March 27^th

10:00 – 10:15AM            Native Game Development on BlackBerry 10

11:00 – 11:15AM            How to set up a native game in under 10 minutes on BlackBerry 10

1:15 – 1:30PM                  How to add gamepad support to BlackBerry 10 games

2:00 – 2:15PM                  How to write an HTML 5/ WebGL game on BlackBerry 10

2:30 – 2:45PM                  How to write an Adobe AIR application on BlackBerry 10

3:00 – 3:15PM                  How to write a multiplatform game on Blackberry 10

Thursday, March 28^th

10:00 – 10:15AM            Social Gaming on BlackBerry 10

11:00 – 11:15AM            How to bring your Unity 4 game to BlackBerry 10

1:15 – 1:30PM                  How to port your iOS game to BlackBerry 10, Tips & Tricks

2:00 – 2:15PM                  How to bring your Cocos2dx game to BlackBerry 10

3:00 – 3:15PM                  How to add Leaderboards and Achievements to BlackBerry 10 games using Scoreloop

Friday, March 29^th

10:00 – 10:15AM            Building your Gaming Strategy for BlackBerry 10

10:30 – 10:45AM            How to add in-game advertising to BlackBerry 10 games

11:00 – 11:15AM            How to add in-app payment services to BlackBerry 10 games.

1:15 – 1:30PM                  How to package, publish and distribute your BlackBerry 10 game on BlackBerry World

2:00 – 2:15PM                  How to save BlackBerry 10 game state in the cloud

2:30 – 2:45PM                  How to convert, build and debug BlackBerry 10 games with Visual Studio

Pre-event training courses, exclusive Market Insights session, and so much more – are you ready for BlackBerry® Jam Asia?

We’re counting down – exactly 30 days to BlackBerry Jam Asia 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand! Have you registered, or do you need more reasons to? Here are some updates that might nudge you to register now:

Pre-event Development Training

Don’t worry if you are new to BlackBerry® 10 development and think you may not be able to follow the sessions at the conference. Other than having sessions of different technical levels, we are offering complimentary one-day training courses where you will be able to learn the fundamentals of BlackBerry® WebWorks™ or the Native SDK/Cascades on the upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform before you head to the BlackBerry Jam Asia breakout sessions! Workshops – which will be held on November 27 and 28 – will be available in either Thai or English, and seats are limited. Sign up during the registration process to secure your seats, or check out more details about the training sessions here:
http://www.blackberryjamconference.com/asia/content/training

Market Insights Session to be announced

If you haven’t noticed, in the session catalog we have already announced 38 breakout sessions for the conference, with more to come. One upcoming announcement is the Market Insights session (you heard it here first!), where the RIM® Asia-Pacific Market Insights team will share consumer insights about smartphone users and their relationships with the mobile applications. Join us as we share what we found about consumer behaviors when it comes to applications, and how you can make sure your app speaks to them! Check back after your registration to see when this session is scheduled for.

Last chance for early bird registrations

With three days left for early bird registration, don’t miss the chance to gather with some of the greatest minds for BlackBerry 10 development at BlackBerry Jam Asia at low rate of $99 USD – register now, and we’ll see you there!

• Synchronized audio and slides
• Downloadable PDF files of session presentations
• Search capabilities across presentation titles and descriptions where applicable
• Full mobile access on BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets

We hosted more than 50 sessions at BlackBerry Jam Americas designed to help you build and sell apps for the upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform.  Head on over to BlackBerry Jam On-Demand now – no login/registration required!

BlackBerry® Jam Americas is less than three weeks away! As you may know, Day 3 is Unconference Day and we need your help creating the agenda. Here’s how it works:

We are now accepting submissions for session topics in two categories: sessions to be led by our Research In Motion® (RIM®) experts, and sessions to be led by you, members of the BlackBerry developer community. We have room on the schedule for eight sessions, of which four will be led by RIM experts, and four will be led by BlackBerry developers.

How do you participate? It’s simple. From now through Friday September 14th, you can propose a session topic via Twitter®, Facebook®, or in the comments below. If you want to send us a tweet, be sure to mention @BlackBerryDev, and remember to include the #BBUnconference hashtag.

Once we collect your suggestions, we’ll put it to a vote. The winning entries will become part of Unconference Day at BlackBerry Jam Americas – and four lucky community members will be invited to host their own sessions!

(If you miss the online voting, don’t worry. You can still propose sessions on-site in San Jose using the Unconference Schedule whiteboard.)

We’re committed to you, the BlackBerry developer community. Let’s work together to build an unforgettable Unconference Day that covers the topics you want to hear about the most.

So, what do you think? What sessions do you want to see on September 27th? Let us know on Twitter, on Facebook or in the comments. We’ll be listening.

BlackBerry Jam Americas – Sept 25-27, San Jose CA

BlackBerry® Jam Americas 2012 is a showcase for the bold, new direction BlackBerry is heading with the upcoming BlackBerry® 10 platform. The event attracts developers and industry leaders who understand the power of BlackBerry and want to build their success with the platform. Whether you’re a Native, Web, or Android™ developer, don’t miss this opportunity to explore the powerful, game-changing BlackBerry 10 platform.

Join us, September 25-27 in San Jose, California. Register Now and use promo code DJAA45 to register for only $299.00

Here’s William from our BlackBerry Developer Relations team in EMEA to report on the most recent BlackBerry® 10 Jam tour stop! – Ed.

The London BlackBerry 10 Jam was our largest event to date, attracting developers looking to see what the BlackBerry 10 development tools are capable of. This was another great event to experience, as both the sheer number of developers and their positive attitudes alone were amazing. The venue, Vinopolis (a massive wine bar/conference center home-extension project bunker), was somewhat odd in its complex levels and floors and winding passages, but we didn’t lose one developer all day. They came, they saw, they enjoyed what they saw of BlackBerry 10 – now they want more!

Stephen Bates, Managing Director Europe, kicked off the proceedings with an excellent keynote job that covered all the points effortlessly and gave the day an energetic buzz that kept building after each presentation. Andy Tipton was our MC for the day and kept the flow going on schedule.

Vivek Bhardwaj presented a seamless “Experience of BlackBerry” presentation, generating ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the audience when they saw the demos of the photo correction app and new virtual keyboard UI. Michael Weitzel continued with an animated trek through the BlackBerry 10 architecture and was assisted by Luca Sale on the demo device showing Cascades™. Later, Nick Smith of Marmalade provided his magical demonstrations of games running on both a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device.

Rana and Suavek both introduced what they were going to cover in the afternoon breakouts, and following their brief introductions we stopped for lunch and managed to move the almost 500 developers through the labyrinth to be fed and return for the lightning pitches.

The afternoon split into its native and web tracks, and we repeated the formula of Suavek being assisted by Nick from Marmalade. Yet again, this combination provided a lot of information and excitement. At the end of the day, we’d given out the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha prototype devices to a delighted audience of both new and established developers.This was another wildly successful day, and I was excited by the developer comments on Twitter®.

We generated a huge level of interest through this one-day event, but don’t take my word for it – take a look at what our developers are saying:

@BlackBerryDev I've already sat down to work on BB10 app today after yesterday's London #BB10Jam! Excited by range of development options!—
Kate Glover (@lifson) June 15, 2012

@Derrickerrol Surprisingly tiring! So much good information and guidance! With #BB10Jam BB are really showing they care about devs – I did!—
Julian Clark (@B1uehoo1igan) June 15, 2012

Yesterday's WebWorks session at #BB10Jam was awesome and even got my 14 year old inspired to create apps. @BlackBerryDev—
DJ Reyes  (@djr3yes) June 15, 2012

@ardiri I did, thanks to all the staff at #BB10Jam today! They sorted out us devs who are keen to get apps out. Appreciate this opportunity.—
Matt (@blackberry_matt) June 14, 2012

@blackberrydev I love using my BlackBerry dev alpha thanks to #BB10Jam thanks —
Ben Smith Bortey (@BensmithB) June 14, 2012

My BlackBerry 10 hands on fun. Pure sweetness! crackberry.com/hands-blackber… #BB10Jam—
James Richardson (@j4mes73) June 14, 2012

Next stop, New York City (sold out!) on Tuesday June 19th.

On June 12th, it was BlackBerry® 10 Jam World Tour stop #5, 300 meters a way from the fabulous Eiffel Tower.

We showed a technically engaged audience of developers what it was like to create apps on our new platform and what a bright future was in store for them all. The day was kicked off by Christophe Lefort, Research In Motion® (RIM®) France Managing Director, and was followed by great technical content presentations. Nick Smith from Marmalade showed how they ported several games over to both the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha.

There were developers in attendance not just from France, but also coming from overseas. Salma and Sana, both university professors from Tunisia, didn’t want to miss the BlackBerry 10 Jam day in Paris, as they are introducing BlackBerry development in their mobile computing course starting this September.

Lunchtime was a mix of need for food and great conversations, then back in to listen to the apps pitches with amazing energy in the room. There were 13 awesome lightning pitches – all the applications we saw were amazing. The audience voted for Romain Dubuc and his funny fluid innovative game Celluloid. Congratulations Romain!

There was a pretty even-steven split between the web and native tracks in the afternoon sessions. The great audience was completely attentive to what our presenters had to say, with each one trying to out do the other in level of applause.  We also presented guidelines, code snippets and did many live demos.

At the end of the day, we distributed the long awaited BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha devices and enjoyed those happy developer faces. I really enjoyed it being here in France and meeting a lot of new and already known faces. Thank you Paris, and thank you to all the great developers who jammed with us.

I can hardly describe the feeling that you get after a day like the one we just had. Milan, you have blown us away!

As the BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour attendees in Milan streamed into the event hall, you could feel a buzz in the air. There was excitement for what the day would hold: sneak peeks at the BlackBerry 10 platform, technical sessions, and of course the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha.

Behind the scenes we were all waiting for THE moment — doing last minute checks and ensuring everything was flawless. We are perfectionists and we wanted you to enjoy the day as much as we were going to!

And when the signal finally was given – “Open the door!” – that was THE moment.

Throughout the event, you could tell that the developers here were excited about BlackBerry 10, and excited about Research In Motion® (RIM®). The BlackBerry 10 platform previews received applause on multiple occasions. The Native and Web sessions also saw a lot of developer involvement as the attendees sought to soak up as much knowledge as they could.

For some of you, the moment to shine was during our “lightning pitches”. You had 3 minutes to show us your application, tell us why it’s the coolest thing and gain your fellow developers’ vote. The judges (who were also your fellow developers!) acclaimed MeshLab the winner, with their application that rotated a 3-D model and rendered it in real-time. A big round of applause goes to the developer who did a great job pitching their creation.

So it wasn’t just a day of learning — it was also a great opportunity to share experiences and knowledge, have a laugh with a fellow developer, ask the hottest questions to us, and get immediate feedback. For us it was a priceless occasion to hear your voice and listen to what you have to say and also get some awesome stickers! (Yes, our laptops have now been customised with these stickers, offered by @Dandandin.)

Day 1 of the BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour concluded as it began — with excitement in the air. Get ready for our recap from the next tour stop – Barcelona – coming soon!

Now that we’ve filled you in on the Unconference at BlackBerry® 10 Jam and compiled all your great ideas for possible sessions, we wanted to open the floor to you to tell us which sessions you’d like to see the most. Out of all the submissions, we chose the most requested topics and set them up in handy poll format. Click here to take a look at the list and VOTE on the session you’d like to attend.

You’ll see the top 5 sessions at the conference, and we’ll announce those next week. Don’t worry, we’ve got more sessions coming your way every day!

BlackBerry 10 Jam is just 2 weeks away and we couldn’t be more excited to build this conference for you. You have until 11:45pm EST on Monday April 23rd to cast your vote, so spread the word!

(editor’s note: title image was made using Meme Generator from the original at hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com)

Great people may be able to do great things – but great developers under one roof can achieve even more!

We’re thrilled to be a part of the Great Indian Developer Summit in Bangalore, India on April 17-20, 2012. We’ve got some exciting BlackBerry® Jam sessions, social media contests, and cool giveaways planned to keep developers happy throughout the event. Look for us on all the .Web, .Java and .Workshop days. Check out our speakers and their sessions at the event to learn more:

• Sarim Aziz
• Alan Wong
• Christopher Saunders

BYOSC (Bring Your Own Source Code), come by our booth to meet our speakers, and learn how you can get a BlackBerry® PlayBook tablet to start building right away!

Register now for GIDS 2012.

Can’t make it to GIDS 2012? Check out our events page for a BlackBerry Developer event near you.

Are you a mobile developer in the Middle East? Are you developing mobile apps for the Middle East market? Then this one-of-a-kind opportunity is for you: Don’t miss the upcoming Middle East Summit on Mobile Computing on April 11th & 12th in Dubai, UAE. It’s your chance to learn about the BlackBerry® mobile app development ecosystem and to meet leaders from the industry and academia in this space.

We have planned keynotes, panel sessions and hands-on labs to introduce students and interested developers to the rich universe of the BlackBerry development ecosystem. This conference will have everything from Java® development for BlackBerry® 7 OS to cross-platform development with HTML5. You can also learn how to integrate BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) into your app and considerably increase your downloads. There is also an introduction to BlackBerry native development, the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and the future BlackBerry® 10 platform.

Check out the program agenda and register today. We hope to see you next week in Dubai!