Highlighting new talks for March 9th-13th's Game Developers Conference 2010, organizers have added Rob Pardo on Blizzard's design philosophy, the Smithsonian Institute on embracing games, Chair's Donald Mustard on creating XBLA hit Shadow Complex, and sessions on OnLive's streaming tech and Sony's PS3 motion controller.

The new announcements come with less than a month to go until the event, which takes place from March 9th to 13th at San Francisco's Moscone Center, and includes two days of Summits and tutorials alongside three days of Main Conference content.

The highlights from this set of announcements include the following notable lectures:

- In a rare talk called 'Making a Standard (and Trying to Stick to it!): Blizzard Design Philosophies', Blizzard VP of game design Rob Pardo (pictured) discusses how the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo franchise creators "establish our own core [game design] values in the ongoing challenge to deliver a consistent, epic game experience", specifically referencing some of the successes and failures they've experienced along the way.

Miniclip, a Flash-based online game site, has partnered with online payment firm Social Gold to accept player payments from directly within its browser-based games.

The site hosts some 550 games, and says it receives 57 million unique users per month. It did not indicate how many of its games will feature paid content.

Social Gold, operated by San Francisco-based Jambool, provides an API available to all developers of online games, allowing developers to incorporate their own "white-label" currency based around the Social Gold framework.

"By incorporating Social Gold, Miniclip will continue to provide an immersive, premium entertainment experience for our global community," said Miniclip COO Jeremy Wadia in a statement today.

"Social Gold’s in-Flash solution removes all friction from the payments experience, allowing our players to make in-game purchases without ever leaving the game," he added. "This not only drives free to paid conversion, but also turns one-time purchasers into repeat purchasers."

Unity Technologies says it now has over 100,000 registered users for its browser-based, PC, Mac, Wii and iPhone-compatible game engine and development platform.

Unity is particularly designed to enable developers to author 3D content on the Web and for the App Store. It's been a fast-growing member of the engine world, recently closing $5.5 million in funding from investment groups including Sequoia Capital, and offering a free version of its popular development environment.

Already an indie-friendly platform that focuses on lower entry barriers, the free license in particular makes Unity an increasingly viable solution for independent and start-up developers.

The company says it now wants to expand its strategy and unveil "new opportunities for Unity users" in the weeks to come -- CEO David Helgason has told Gamasutra recently that Xbox 360 support is in the works for Unity. "It’s amazing we’ve reached this milestone so quickly,” says Helgason today.

"We remain laser focused on pushing the edge in interactive 3D development and expanding usability, power and platform reach so developers can continue to create breakthrough content and take advantage of all the opportunities out there.”

Simutronics, the company behind the HeroEngine that's used in MMOs including BioWare's upcoming The Old Republic, has reorganized in order to support growth of its engine business.

Simuntronics, founded in 1987, will now be home to two new divisions: HeroEngine and Simutronics Games. The company promoted Neil Harris to president of HeroEngine, overlooking licensee support, and Herb Marselas as VP of engineering. CEO David Whatley is taking over as president of Simutronics Games.

HeroEngine is used by a wide range of customers, including large and small studios that make anything from games to government applications, Simutronics said in a statement. Aside from BioWare's highly-anticipated MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, HeroEngine is also licensed by Zenimax Online Studios, the sibling studio to Oblivion developer Bethesda Softworks that's working on an unannounced online game.

Marselas said the company is currently hiring. A statement said that due to new licensees, Simutronics will be expanding its development teams near Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, MO.

HeroEngine's website said the engine features live collaborative development via online, real-time game creation that offers instant feedback, and middleware that includes SpeedTree, FaceGen, Scaleform GFx and others.

The HeroEngine was originally developed by Simutronics for the MMORPG Hero's Journey, which has been in development for several years and has yet to receive a firm release date. Simutronics is also the developer of games including GemStone IV, DragonRealms, Modus Operandi, Alliance of Heroes, and CyberStrike 2.

The Simutronics Games division will focus on social networks and iPhone game development, the company said. "I've always had a passion for creating games, and our new corporate structure lets us take what we've learned over the past two decades and focus exclusively on applying it to new gaming platforms," said Simutronics Games president Whatley.

Veteran Ultima creator, former NCsoft designer, and recent astronaut Richard Garriott has revealed what he's on to next: Facebook games.

According to Venturebeat, Garriott has founded Portalarium, a new company that, in its own words, is focused on "bringing premium games to the social web". He says he sees the same kind of opportunity in social gaming as he saw at the emergence of massively multiplayer gaming.

"I feel extraordinarily lucky to have been born at the right time to start the wave of game development in the 1970s," says Garriott. "I felt I had a second once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a significant figure in the emergence of massively multiplayer gaming. It was the fastest growing piece of the game industry in the last 10 years."

"I think that I am fortunate for a third once-in-a lifetime opportunity in social media," he adds. Although the company's first game is Sweet @$! Poker, a social poker title developed by an external developer, Portalarium's first project will actually be a browser plug-in, the Portalarium Player, that effectively creates a gaming platform within social networks.

On competing with market-dominant gaming firms like Zynga, Garriott acknowledges it'll be tough thanks to all the funding they've got behind them, but he also says he feels existing social games are fairly crude and suffer from quality issues.

"I fundamentally believe that quality rules the day. There is no question that us old fogies in the industry have learned some very important lessons that are sorely needed in the social gaming space," he says.

In a formal statement announcing Portalarium, he said: "The Portalarium mission is exactly what I want to be doing next in games. This really takes me back to my roots in the game business – small development teams, low barriers to entry, affordable budgets for quality projects, and unlimited new interactive frontiers to explore together with our customers."

Stardoll, an avatar-based fashion site aimed at young women and girls, says it has reached 50 million unique user registrations.

The site, which launched in its current form in 2006 after growing from an original GeoCities fan page about paper dolls, is now offered in 17 languages and 230 territories around the world. In celebration of its registration milestone, it is offering a variety of free and paid themed in-game items.

Stockholm, Sweden-based Stardoll AB is privately held, with investment from venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. The company says the site now reaches 12.5 million unique visitors per month, with around 45,000 new registrations per day.

"It's exciting to see that Stardoll continues rapid growth through keeping a tight focus on our demographic of young women," said CEO Mattias Miksche. "With the virtual goods industry expected to reach $1.6 billion in 2010 and social gaming contributing $835 million of that total, we believe this is just the start for us and that the business is poised for tremendous growth."

GMG Entertainment, a United States-based provider of virtual currency cards for online games, has expanded its retail partnerships to Canada and the United Kingdom.

The company is offering a selection of prepaid currency cards for online games and sites like AdventureQuest, SubaGames, and Stardoll -- the latter of which just reached 50 million users -- through "key retailers" in Canada and the UK.

Retail chain WHSmith was the only specific outlet mentioned in the announcement. In a statement, the chain's commercial development director Ian Sanders said, “We are delighted to be able to add the GMG cards to our Gift Card Shop offer. The inclusion of PC and online gaming cards will enhance the overall range and help drive further sales growth within this category.”

There has been a recent string of companies looking to make their mark in the retail-based currency card market, and that virtual gold rush is generating new approaches. A recent Zeus Research program allows its partners to sell virtual currency by way of phone cards.

“We are fortunate to begin to offer our digital partners meaningful distribution outside the United States,” said GMG CEO Rob Goldberg. “With this initiative we also offer for several partners an expanded footprint internationally and we look forward to growing our presence in several other countries in the coming months.”

Moonshoot, a startup focused on teaching the English language to children worldwide through online gaming, announced that it has raised $6.6 million in venture backed financing.

The company also announced the appointment of Tom Kalinske as Executive Chairman. Kalinske previously served as president and CEO of console games publisher Sega of America from 1990 to 1996, and was later appointed CEO of educational toy company LeapFrog.

"With my work leading Leapfrog, Knowledge Universe, Sega, and Mattel, I have built a career creating compelling, useful products and services for children," said Kalinske. "I believe deeply in the power that rich, interactive content can have in helping children build a solid educational foundation."

Kalinske continues: "English increasingly is the world’s 'global language.' It is also a difficult language to learn for non-native speakers. This makes learning English one of the most important and challenging educational priorities facing educators, parents, and children around the world. Moonshoot makes learning English fun and exciting for children, and will deliver an innovative, effective approach to building this important skill."

Moonshoot's executive staff includes former Sega of America executive vice president Shinobu Toyoda, who joins the company as Chief Marketing Officer. Moonshoot co-founders Koji Kato (CEO) and Jay Jamison (president) are former Microsoft managers. Dai Sakurai, previous managing director of Sanrio and Sega Toys, has joined Moonshoot's Board of Directors.

Moonshoot will launch its service later this year in Japan, with future expansion planned for China, Taiwan, and Korea.

Avalanche Studios, developer of the Just Cause series of open-world action games, has acquired from Emote Games the full franchise rights to The Hunter, a browser-launched hunting simulator whose engine the studio developed.

Prior to the acquisition, London- and Derby, England-based Emote Games handled development and publishing of the game, built on Avalanche's Avalanche Engine, but now Stockholm-based Avalanche will assume all development and publishing of the game.

Avalanche plans to update the game with new content, and says it hopes the changeover will result in "as little downtime of the game as possible."

"We are very happy that the discussions were concluded in our favor," said Avalanche CTO Linus Blomberg in a statement. "The game has unfortunately suffered from the extremely tough business climate during 2009."

"We are fully committed to the development of The Hunter and to the continued investment in the IP," he continued. "We will reach out to the community as soon as possible as we are transferring the operations and development of the service to our premises."

Added creative director Christofer Sundberg, "The Hunter presents us with very exciting opportunities, and we have high ambitions for this game. Having control over all aspects of the service puts us in a good position to cooperate closely with the community and improve the experience even further."

PlaySpan, a firm that offers various monetization services to online games, is expanding the reach of its retail-based Ultimate Game Card pre-paid virtual currency card to several additional countries including South Africa, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan.

Taiwan in particular is an area of focus for PlaySpan. The company cited figures pegging Taiwan as one of the fastest-growing online markets, with $350 million in 2009 revenue for its online game industry and a market that is outpacing traditional console game revenue.

In July of last year PlaySpan, which is based in Santa Clara, California, underwent its first round of global expansion, which brought the Ultimate Game Card to retail locations in Brazil, Turkey, and various other territories. This latest round brings the total number of retail locations hosting the UGC to about 70,000.

PlaySpan says the UGC is compatible with some 700 Facebook and MySpace social games, as well as 300 other multiplayer games and virtual worlds.

“All of these countries present monetization challenges for game developers and publishers,” said PlaySpan CEO Karl Mehta in a statement. “Our entrance into these new markets significantly expands our reach and enables our partners to generate new revenue streams while introducing their premium content to new customer bases. This significant expansion further solidifies our position as the global leader in enabling microtransactions and digital goods e-commerce.”

Organizers of the Social & Online Games Summit at GDC 2010 have rounded out their line-up for the March 9th-10th event, with Facebook and Playfish keynotes and three tracks of sophisticated content on what's next in this exciting space.

The major new Summit, taking place on the first two days of Game Developers Conference 2010 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco in just three weeks, has been designed to educate and inspire on the rise of socially connected gaming.

Summit advisors include notables like Metaplace's Raph Koster, Habbo's Sulka Haro, and Playdom's Steve Meretzky, and the Summit homepage has now revealed the two event keynotes and a complete line-up for the event.

The first confirmed keynote is 'The Relentless March Toward "Free"... And What it Means to the Video Game Industry', by Playfish VP and GM Kristian Segerstrale, the co-founder of the EA-acquired social game firm will "critically examine what the future holds for the creation, distribution and consumption models in video games -- and suggest what your company needs to do to prepare for the era of free."

The other keynote comes from Facebook platform manager Gareth Davis, who will speak on 'How Friends Change Everything', in which the social network "at the forefront of massive disruptions in who plays games, how games are discovered, distributed, designed and operated" discusses their view on where the social game space is headed.

With almost 40 other major sessions in the social and online game space, including speakers from Zynga, Playfish, Playdom, Habbo, Mind Candy, Schell Games, IMVU, PopCap, and many other major companies, the Summit is packed full of relevant, concrete information.

Notable new talks include a major VC panel including Trinity Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners about how to get funded in the social game biz, Diner Dash's creator on how to break out of the 'clone wars' of designing games, and Jesse Schell on parents and kids playing games together.

In addition, two extended sponsored sessions elsewhere at GDC present insights into the market, with Live Gamer's V-Con 2010 presenting a March 10th sponsored event with major players in the space, from EA Online's Nanea Reeves to SOE's John Smedley, and Offerpal's social and mobile sessions on March 12th including execs from Digital Chocolate, Crowdstar, 6 Waves and more.

The GDC 2010 Social & Online Games Summit -- part of UBM Techweb's Game Group, as is this website -- can be attended via All-Access or Summit-specific GDC 2010 passes, available online until March 4th -- and then onsite at the event thereafter. (Sponsored sessions are attendable by any GDC ticket holder able to attend lectures on that particular day.)

In our latest employment-specific round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Tencent, Epic Games and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

BlackRock Studio: Lead Animator
"When a company the size of Disney steps into European development, it's pretty big news. Disney employs over 100,000 staff. It’s one of the biggest Entertainment companies in the world and it's getting serious about original games. We're a strong studio of just over a hundred people, based at the heart of beautiful and cosmopolitan Brighton, UK. Just a quick train ride away from London in an office where pretty much everyone gets a sea view. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly but focused and our role is to create original racing game franchises."

Tencent Boston: Composer/Sound Designer
"Tencent Boston is a premier game development studio led by industry veterans that are driving the creation of world class online games for a global audience. We are a division of Tencent Inc., one of the largest internet companies in China. For more than 400 million people Tencent is the internet encompassing portal, shopping, community and entertainment services. We are right in the middle of one of the most dynamic and fast growing game markets in the world and we are looking for outstanding individuals with passion, talent and a team focused mindset."