CMP’S Game Developers Conference(R) Reveals Content for 2008 Lineup of Summits Examining Industry’s Emerging Trends
Posted on November 29, 2007
Filed Under Gaming, News, TechShowWIRE
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 29 /PRNewswire/ — CMP’s Game Developers
Conference(R) (GDC), the world’s largest industry-only event dedicated to
the advancement of interactive entertainment, has revealed session details
for its newly-expanded lineup of single-track summits that take a closer
look at the industry’s emerging trends. Information on the content for the
Casual Games Summit, the Independent Games Summit, the Serious Games Summit
and, new for 2008, the Game Outsourcing Summit, the Worlds in Motion
Summit, and the IGDA Education Summit is now available online at
http://www.gdconf.com/conference/summits.htm. GDC returns to San
Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center February 18-22, 2008, with the
summits taking place the first two days of the conference.
“The game industry is experiencing radical change and growth in several
key sectors at once, so we at GDC are actively adapting our previously
tutorial-oriented pre-conference schedule to feature pioneering developers
in highly targeted summits,” said Jamil Moledina, Executive Director of the
Game Developers Conference. “By integrating each of these emerging
microcommunities into the curriculum, the GDC is well-positioned to remain
the central hub of information and business for the entire game industry.”
The six focused summits at GDC08 are designed to foster and facilitate
community-building within emerging influential sectors of the game
industry:
— The Casual Games Summit aims to present a global vision of the key
forces driving the sector’s growth, with sessions including a
discussion with Rebel Monkey’s Nick Fortugno and Joju Games’ Juan Gril
about the key innovations of 2007, “The Year in Casual Game Design,”
and a talk about the rising variety of markets for casual games with
rmbr.com’s Gabe Zichermann entitled “The New Demographics of Casual
Games.”
— The IGDA’s Education Summit is the only two-track summit, with one
track aimed at novice educators just entering the game education genre,
the second for more experienced educators looking for additional
teaching tools. The summit features keynotes by the International Hobo
Design Group’s Ernest Adams and by Persuasive Games’ Ian Bogost.
— The Independent Games Summit aims to help all independent developers
think about the critical needs for launching and marketing a game from
game design to distribution methods to guerilla marketing concepts.
Sessions include a sit-down with 2007 IGF Grand Prize winners Bit Blot
(Alex Holowka and Derek Yu) discussing the development of their award-
winning Aquaria, and a postmortem with Q Games’ Dylan Cuthbert on the
PixelJunk series for the PlayStation 3.
— The returning Serious Games Summit continues to lead the dialogue for
the rapidly-growing sector that features use of interactive games
technology for non-entertainment purposes. One highlight of this
year’s summit finds Ben Sawyer of DigitalMill and Peter Smith of the
University of Florida presenting “Serious Games Taxonomy,” aiming to
develop a stronger definition of the entire field of serious games,
including categorization and specific labeling within the large gamut
of activity. Another session highlight spotlights Robert J. Stone of
Human Factors Integration Defense Technology Center, Stephane de Buttet
of Agence Rhone-Alpes Numerique - Lyon Game, and Jim Parker from
University of Calgary/CPSC presenting their “Serious Game World
Report.”
— The Worlds in Motion Summit, launching at GDC08, will explore the cross
section between gaming and interactive networking tools like online
worlds, player-generated content, social networking and general
personalization. Aiming to be the definitive event for the growing
number of industry professionals and Fortune 500 companies developing
interactive online spaces for entertainment and commercial purposes,
the summit will provide insight for developers of all backgrounds into
how the game industry is building personalization and socialization
into games, and how web and networking tools are looking to the games
industry for inspiration. Highlights include SOE veteran, Areae co-
founder and noted industry figure Raph Koster discussing the ways
virtual worlds are increasingly relevant to the ways we play, and a
discussion with Relic Labs’ Adrian Crook on the free-to-play business
model and how it is evolving the face of online play.
— The new-to-2008 Game Outsourcing Summit, incubated with GDC’s
successful standalone summit in Los Angeles in 2006, was created for
those industry professionals looking to increase development resource
awareness, expand their knowledge of the outsourcing sector, hone
existing relationships and establish new partnerships. The content for
this summit, to be available at gdconf.com soon, will offer in-depth
business-oriented seminars supported by research and market analysis
from every region in the world. Speaker highlights include Xin Chung,
founder, and Steve Gray, CTO and executive producer, of Shanghai-based
Vykarian, as well a talk from Aaron Pulkka, senior director of
outsourcing at Vivendi Games.
For further information and to register for GDC and all of the GDC08
summits, please visit http://www.gdconf.com.
About the Game Developers Conference (http://www.gdconf.com)
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the world’s largest
professionals-only game industry event. Presented every spring in San
Francisco, it is the essential forum for learning, inspiration, and
networking for the creators of computer, console, handheld, mobile, and
online games. The GDC attracts over 16,000 attendees, and is the primary
forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio
professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the
development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas and shape the
future of the industry. The GDC is produced by the CMP Game Group, a
division of CMP
About CMP (http://www.cmp.com)
CMP is a marketing solutions company serving the technology industry.
Through its market-leading portfolio of trusted information brands, CMP has
earned the confidence of more technology professionals than any other media
company. As a result, CMP is the premier provider of access, insight and
actionable programs designed to connect sellers and buyers in ways that
yield superior return on investment. CMP Technology is a subsidiary of
United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com), a global
provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a
market capitalization of more than $3 billion.
SOURCE CMP Game Group
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