GDC 2011 - Our Lecture Recommendations For Press - by Simon Carless

      Posted 02/18/11 12:18:00 pm  

Since we're rapidly coming up on Game Developers Conference 2011, which Gamasutra parent UBM TechWeb Game Network organizes, and I help to run, there's a wealth of info out there about the show.

Obviously, we tend to use the official GDC news blog and its related RSS feed and Twitter/Facebook pages to highlight most of the goodness going on at the show, but every year there's one or two things that end up being more suitable to highlight elsewhere.

Last year, among other things, it was the stealth appearance of Phaedrus, eventually revealed to be the quixotic and mysterious Will Wright. This year, it's a bit easier, since Wright's lecture is listed on the schedule in non-ARG-like manner, heh.

But there was something I wanted to pass along here. We've gone to a fairly strict invite-only media policy to GDC to make sure we do allow press to attend. But the developers who make up the bulk of the attendees - and the learning results - are the main focus.

Nonetheless, every year, our press liaison firm FortySeven Communications works with us to put together a list of some of the most interesting lectures that could work well when written up for a larger audience.

We haven't actually published these in public before. But both for the benefit of press that might not have spotted them yet, and for those people who want to see some of the 'newsier' (and some of the worthwhile and less news-y) talks at the show this week, here it is.

(However, massive disclaimer again - these are not ALL necessarily the talks that you will get the best takeaway for if you're a developer looking for solid takeaway from the show. This is especially true if you want to attend technical talks based around programming, art, audio, etc. Please carefully persue our full highlights list and overall session list and make a schedule that's right for you.)

 

Game Developers Conference 2011 Session Recommendations for Press

For full session descriptions, and for details on the entire GDC schedule, please visit www.gdconf.com

Times and locations are subject to change.  Please check the website and look for updates on site.

The Keynote:

·     Video Games Turn 25: A Historical Perspective and Vision for the Future

Speaker: Satoru Iwata (President, Nintendo Co., Ltd.)

Date/Time: Wednesday (March 2, 2011)   9:00am — 10:00am

Location (room): North Hall D, Lower Level

GDC Favorites:

·     No Freaking Respect! Social Game Developers Rant Back

Speakers: Scott Jon Siegel (Playdom), Chris Hecker (definition six, inc.), Eric Zimmerman (Independent), Trip Hawkins (Digital Chocolate), Brenda Brathwaite (Lolapps), Ian Bogost (The Georgia Institute of Technology), Brian Reynolds (Zynga), Jason Della Rocca (Perimeter Partners) and Steve Meretzky (Playdom)

Date/Time: Thursday (March 3, 2011)   12:00pm — 1:00pm

Location (room): Room 3014, West Hall, 3rd Fl.

·     Experimental Gameplay Sessions

Speakers: Robin Hunicke (thatgamecompany), Richard Lemarchand (Naughty Dog) and Daniel Benmergui (Independent)

Date/Time: Thursday (March 3, 2011)   1:30pm — 3:30pm

Location (room): Room 303, South Hall

·     The Game Design Challenge 2011: Bigger than Jesus

Speakers: Eric Zimmerman (Independent), Jenova Chen (thatgamecompany), John Romero (Gazillion Entertainment) and Jason Rohrer (Independent)

Date/Time: Friday (March 4, 2011)   12:30pm — 1:30pm

Location (room): Room 3014, West Hall, 3rd Fl.

Classic Game Postmortems:

·     Prince of Persia

Speaker: Jordan Mechner

Date/Time: Wednesday (March 2, 2011)   10:30am — 11:30am

Location: Room 3014, West Hall 3rd Fl.

·     Elite

Speaker: David Braben (Frontier Developments)

Date/Time: Wednesday (March 2, 2011)   3:00pm —4:00pm

Location: Room 304, South Hall

·     Pac-Man

Speaker: Toru Iwatani (Namco)

Date/Time: Wednesday (March 2, 2011)   4:30pm — 5:30pm

Location: Room 135, North Hall

·     Out of This World

Speaker: Eric Chahi (Ubisoft)

Date/Time: Thursday (March 3, 2011)   9:00am — 10:00am

Location: Room 3014, West Hall 3rd Fl.

·     Bejeweled

Speaker: Jason Kapalka (PopCap Games)

Date/Time: Thursday (March 3, 2011)   10:30am — 11:30am

Location: Room 134, North Hall

·     Marble Madness

Speaker: Mark Cerny (Cerny Games)

Date/Time: Thursday (March 3, 2011)   1:30pm — 2:30pm

Location: Room 3007, West Hall 3rd Fl.

 

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