Independent Games Summit

Sessions | Speakers | Advisors

Monday & Tuesday, March 23-24, 2009
Room 131, North Hall

The Independent Games Summit represents the voice of the independent game developer at GDC. It features lectures, postmortems and roundtables from some of the most notable independent game creators, including many former and current Independent Games Festival finalists and winners. The 2009 Independent Games Summit seeks to highlight the brightest and the best of indie development, with discussions ranging from game design philosophy, distribution, business, marketing, and much more.

Highlighted Sessions:

• CRAYON PHYSICS DELUXE Postmortem
  Speaker: Petri Purho (Frozenbyte Inc.)
• The Four-Hour Game Design by Cactus
  Speaker: Jonatan Soderstrom (Cactus Software)
• 2D Boy: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Going Indie But Were Afraid to Ask
  Speakers: Ron Carmel & Kyle Gabler (2D Boy)
• The Indie Advantage? A View From Both Sides
  Speaker: Rod Humble (Electronic Arts)

To view all the Independent Games Summit sessions, click here.

Independent Games Summit Advisors:

Matthew Wegner
CEO and Founder
Flashbang Studios

Matthew Wegner is CEO and founder of Flashbang Studios. Matthew's latest work can be seen on Blurst, Flashbang's destination for quirky, short form games. He acts as lead programmer and physics designer on Blurst projects like Off-Road-Velociraptor Safari and Minotaur China Shop. Matthew also edits Fun-Motion, a site about physics games, co-chairs the Independent Games Festival, and will be unicycling from Kenya to Tanzania in June.

Steve Swink
Game Designer
Flashbang Studios

Steve Swink is an independent game developer, author, and lecturer based in Tempe, Arizona. As a game designer and partner at Flashbang Studios, he's worked on games such as Off-Road-Velociraptor Safari, Jetpack Brontosaurus, and Minotaur China Shop, all of which are available on Flashbang's web portal, Blurst. Before joining Flashbang, he toiled in the retail game mines at Neversoft and the now-defunct Tremor Entertainment. He recently completed a book entitled Game Feel for Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann. He also co-chairs the Independent Games Festival, is an IGDA Phoenix chapter coordinator, and teaches the game and level design classes at the Art Institute of Phoenix.

Simon Carless
Chairman, Independent Games Festival
Editorial Director, Game Developer Magazine & Gamasutra.com

Simon Carless is the Chairman of the Independent Games Festival and Editorial Director of the Think Services Game Group, overseeing both Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra.com. He has previously worked as a writer/editor for tech site Slashdot, and as a game designer for companies such as Eidos Interactive and Atari.

Check back for session and speaker updates!

To register for the Independent Games Summit, you will need to purchase an All Access Pass or Summits and Tutorials Pass.