[In the first of a series picking out the most notable Game Developers Conference 2009 lectures and reprinted here, sister website Gamasutra examines the Audio Track, which includes talks from the sonic creators behind LittleBigPlanet, Fable II, and the Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy series.]

Game Developers Conference 2009 (organized by Gamasutra parent company Think Services) is due to take place in San Francisco's Moscone Center from March 23 to 27, 2009.

With over 230 sessions already confirmed for GDC 2009, we'll be taking a track by track look at the conference's line-up over the next few weeks.

First up is GDC's audio track, which "looks at the game development process from the standpoint of developing dynamic video game sound, and offers direction for developers who wish to understand complex sound composition strategies."

Notable highlights thus far announced for this track, which takes place on the main Wednesday to Friday of GDC (March 25-27), are as follows:

- Media Molecule's Kenneth Young will present 'User Generated Content - LittleBigPlanet's Audio Approach', highlighting the unique challenges of the PS3's signature holiday 2008 title, and focusing on "the thinking and methodology that lie behind its use of sound and music in the challenging landscape that is user-generated interactive entertainment."

- In 'The Audio of Fable 2: Large Scale Collaboration for Next-Gen Games', Microsoft Game Studios' Kristofor Mellroth will discuss the creation of the audio for Lionhead's latest game, explaining how there were "teams in Guildford, London, Redmond, Tokyo, Dublin, and Los Angeles collaborating on the audio design", and discussing how developers can "leverage their publisher's capabilities to help them without losing control of the vision."

- Norihiko Hibino is the key composer supporting Harry Gregson-Williams, and behind much of the score for Metal Gear Solid 2, 3 and 4. In 'Metal Gear Solid Series Audio Postmortem', he'll focus on Metal Gear Solid 4's audio production, and the "specific challenges that were presented by the large size of the audio team and the 5.1 surround sound requirements."

- In 'Far Cry 2: Creativity and the Musical Challenge', Marc Canham will discuss the creation of the score for Ubisoft Montreal's signature 2008 title, explaining how, with a "string sextet recorded at Abbey Road, a legendary vocalist, live percussion and electronica we embarked on this challenging interactive soundtrack."

- Seminal Japanese composer Hitoshi Sakimoto is best known for his groundbreaking scores for Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII, and he'll be presenting 'Experiences and Rare Insights into the Video Game Music Industry', in which he'll talk about the past and present state of video game music - and just where we're going - from a Japanese perspective.

- In his lecture 'How High Dynamic Range Audio Makes Battlefield: Bad Company Go Boom', EA DICE's Anders Clerwall will discuss how "real-world sound level approximations and an adjustable dynamic range transformed the usually tedious and time-consuming act of mixing the game into an enjoyable play-through."

- Sony's Ken Felton and Slant Six's Paul Martin will speak on 'Audio Adventures on the PS3 - SOCOM Confrontation - Online Audio for 32 Players', particularly referencing first/third-party collaboration and the successes and challenges in creating audio for a 32-player multiplayer-only online game.

In addition, the full Audio Track line-up to date includes many more notable lectures and roundtables, including discussions on voice acting, runtime audio DSP, music copyrights, recording dialog, audio testing, and mixing techniques.

Posted by Staff at 8:33 AM | Permalink

The organizers of the Experimental Gameplay Sessions lecture at the 2009 Game Developers Conference are calling for submissions for their yearly showcase of innovative games.

This regular extended GDC lecture, which has taken place since 2002, is organized by Braid designer Jonathan Blow and friends.

It's notable for being an early showcase for a multitude of alternative games and game concepts, including a pre-launch Katamari Damacy and Portal.

As the official Experimental Gameplay Sessions website explains while issuing its call for submissions:

"The Experimental Gameplay Sessions are an annual gathering of innovation-minded game developers, hosted at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

If you’re pushing the boundaries of traditional gameplay, we encourage you to submit your work using the entry form. The submission deadline is Monday February 16, 2009."

Other notable projects showcased in early stages at various iterations of the Experimental Gameplay Workshop include Jon Mak's Everyday Shooter, Thatgamecompany's fl0w, Media Molecule co-founder Mark Healey's Rag Doll Kung Fu, Zoe Mode's Crush, and Dylan Fitterer's Audiosurf.

Posted by Staff at 8:01 AM | Permalink

Game Developers Conference organizer Think Services announced several speakers and sessions for next year's GDC event, to be held in San Francisco's Moscone Center from March 23 to 27, 2009.

As part of the Game Design track, Lionhead Studios CEO Peter Molyneux will present 'Lionhead Experiments Revealed', a lecture on a range of experimental ideas and technologies at his company, and how they might might be incorporated into new Lionhead projects.

Other highlighted design sessions include "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: Design Lessons Learned from Rock Band" with Harmonix senior designer Dan Teasdale, and "Player's Expression: The Level Design Structure Behind Far Cry 2 and Beyond?" with Ubisoft's Jonathan Morin.

Other notable speakers in the Production track include Maxis producer Caryl Shaw on 'Spore: Fulfilling the Massively-Single Player Promise - How'd We Do?', Bungie producer Allen Murray presenting "a brutally honest look at the evolution of production at Bungie from Halo-s 1 to 3".

In addition, the Business & Management track features Demiurge Studios CEO Bill Reed and studio director Albert Reed on "proven strategies that can help small studios run a stable business in an unstable industry", and a number of other newly announced lectures.

Elsewhere, Electronic Arts' International Development Services VP Jaime Gine will deliver a keynote at GDC09's Localization Summit, while alternate reality game specialist Jane McGonigal will do the same at the conference's IGDA Education Summit.

For more information on the scheduled speakers and sessions, or for details on registering for Game Developers Conference 2009, please visit the event's official site.

Posted by Staff at 3:15 PM | Permalink

[The organizers have just opened nominations for the 2008 Choice Awards, so if you're a developer and would like to vote on the best games of the year, with winners showcased at the big GDC ceremony in March - now's the time.]

The 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards has now opened nominations for the best games of 2008, with awards given out at GDC 2009 and Gamasutra members able to help decide nominees.

Next year’s 9th Annual Award Ceremony, will be hosted on March 25th, 2009 in the Esplanade Room in the South Hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Center, as part of Game Developers Conference 2009.

The Choice Awards, the most prestigious honors in video game development, are now available for you to nominate, after logging on with your main Gamasutra.com user ID. (You can register for free if you do not currently have one.)

The Game Developers Choice Awards recognizes excellence in the art of game creation in any genre or platform. Last year's event saw Valve's Portal the recipient of three major honors, including Game of the Year, with three awards also going to 2K Boston/2K Australia's BioShock.

The 2009 award categories currently open for nominations until January 5th, 2009, are:

- Best Audio
- Best Debut Game
- Best Downloadable Game
- Best Handheld Game
- Best Game Design
- Best Technology
- Best Visual Arts
- Best Writing
- Innovation Award
- Game of the Year

In addition, the first part of this year's voting process, three special Choice Awards - the Ambassador Award, the Pioneer Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award - is still open for nominations for a limited time. Ralph Baer (Pioneer), Jason Della Rocca (Ambassador), and Sid Meier (Lifetime) were the Special Award winners for 2008's ceremony.

The Game Developers Choice Awards are unique in that nominees and winners are voted on entirely by game professionals, and there are no entry fees. It is produced by the Game Developers Conference and presented by Gamasutra.com and Game Developer Magazine.

The nomination ballot and further details about the Choice Awards are now available online at the official Game Developers Choice Award website. For further information and to register for GDC, please visit the official GDC website.

Posted by Staff at 7:24 AM | Permalink

The 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards has launched a call for nominations for its three Special Awards, including Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer, and Ambassador Awards, with nominating power for Gamasutra members.

Voted on entirely by game professionals, next year’s 9th Annual Award Ceremony will be hosted on March 25th, 2009 in the Esplanade Room in the South Hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Center, as part of Game Developers Conference 2009.

As the first part of this year's voting process, three special Choice Awards - the Ambassador Award, the Pioneer Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award - are available for nominations after logging on with your main Gamasutra.com user ID. (You can register for free if you do not currently have one.)

These special awards honor individuals whose achievements have made an impact on games and the game community as a whole, and not necessarily only over the past year:

- The Ambassador Award honors an individual (or group of individuals) who has helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games to help further the art.

- The Pioneer Award (the successor to the First Penguin award) celebrates those individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept or gameplay design at a crucial juncture in video game history, paving the way for the myriad developers who followed them.

- Finally, the Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of a developer who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development.

2008's G4-televised Choice Awards, which saw Portal win the Game Of The Year award, gave out the Ambassador Award to the IGDA's Jason Della Rocca, the Pioneer Award to Magnavox Odyssey and original Pong inventor Ralph Baer (pictured), and the Lifetime Achievement award to legendary Civilization creator Sid Meier.

The Game Developers Choice Awards is presented by GDC, and the voting process is overseen by the editors of Game Developer Magazine and Gamasutra.com, the leading media outlets for game industry professionals. All game professionals with a Gamasutra.com user account will be able to nominate and vote in the 2008 Choice Awards.

In addition, for the purposes of picking recipients of the Ambassador, Pioneer and Lifetime Achievement Awards following the public nominations, and to help adjudicate on the awards process in general, the editors of both outlets have set up an Advisory Committee of distinguished industry veterans.

As well as the Ambassador, Pioneer and Lifetime Achievement Awards, Choice Awards will be given in the following categories:

• Best Audio
• Best Game Design
• Best Technology
• Best Visual Arts
• Best Writing
• Best Debut Game
• Best Downloadable Game
• Best Handheld Game
• Innovation
• Game of the Year

These particular categories will be both nominated and voted on by the development community. The call for nominations period for these categories begins in late December.

For further information, and to submit a nomination for one of the three Special Awards through December 17th, please visit the official Game Developers Choice Awards website.

Posted by Staff at 9:44 AM | Permalink

[In her latest Bosslady Blog update, Game Developers Conference event director Meggan Scavio discusses the announcements of GDC China and GDC Europe, and reveals the first lectures from GDC, including Braid's David Hellman, MGS' David Wu and FF Tactics composer Hitoshi Sakimoto.]

There is so much going on around here these days, I don’t even know where to start. I know…reverse chronology!

Let me take you on a journey to the future. Picture it: October 11, 2009, Shanghai. Do you see it? Are you there? You’ll know because you’re at GDC China. That’s right -- we launched GDC China back in 2007, ran into, let’s call them 'hurdles' in 2008, and are forging our way back in 2009. Keep your ears and eyes open for more information. The first GDC China exceeded all expectations -- and without sounding too cheerleadery, I predict the second one will be even better.

OK, now stay in the future, just in the not-as-distant one. Picture it: August 17, 2009, Cologne. That’s right, GDC Europe. Now this gets a little complicated, see if you can stay with me. GCDC, run by Frank Sliwka, was the developer event that was co-located with Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. Frank is now going to run GDC Europe, which is being presented in conjunction with gamescom in Cologne and is supported by BIU, the largest European publisher trade body. GDC Europe will be a truly pan-European developer conference and will follow the model of the GDC in San Francisco.

Last but by no means least is GDC Canada. Vancouver. May 2009. Be there!

New Sessions Announced!

Now we arrive at GDC in San Francisco. March, 2009. Today, we announced our first round of conference sessions, and there are some real gems:

One of the highlights, and a session I’ll be in for sure, is 'The Art of Braid', presented by David Hellman. Braid was a two-man show. Jon Blow, the man behind the Experimental Gameplay Sessions at GDC, among other things, designed it, and David Hellman made it really freaking pretty. Everything Jon touches has multiple layers and deeper meanings, and it will be really interesting to hear (and see!) how David visually translated Jon’s philosophies.

Another one to mention is 'Momentum vs. Character Animation' presented by Microsoft Game Studios' David Wu. David, who you might know from Pseudo Interactive (Full Auto) and the XNA 'Crash' demos, is one of those really smart guys who’s been there, done that and mastered the other. In the world of game physics, he is The Man -- and not in the bad stop-holding-me-back kind of way, more like in the I-want-to-top-the-universe kind of way.

In his own words: “This lecture will cover techniques designed to accomplish the following goal - characters that preserve the personality and style of their animations, seamlessly interact with a physically simulated world and take orders from the gamepad of abusive players and confused AIs.” All in one hour.

Hitting out of the ballpark early are the audio guys scoring (see what I did there?) a talk from acclaimed composer Hitoshi Sakimoto. A pioneer of live orchestra (hi Tommy!), Sakimoto is best known for his amazing scores for Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII.

In his lecture, 'Experiences and Rare Insights into the Video Game Music Industry', Sakimoto will talk about the past and present state of video game music, from a Japanese composers point of view, as well as where he thinks the industry is heading. Expect a real behind-the-scenes look into his long and inspiring career.

Neat stuff, huh? Stay tuned for more updates!

[Meggan and her colleagues will be posting regular updates from behind the scenes through the lead-up to next March's Game Developers Conference 2009, including content reveals and other helpful information. You can subscribe individually to the GDC News blog via its RSS feed.]

Posted by at 8:29 AM | Permalink

Think Services Game Group, producers of the Game Developers Conferences, Game Developer Magazine, and Gamasutra.com, has announced it will present the second Game Developers Conference China (GDC China) in Shanghai from October 11th-13th, 2009.

Supported by an advisory board that includes representatives from Shanda, Epic Games China, 9you and DJL International and endorsed by key government agencies associated with the industry, GDC China will once again bring the GDC’s authoritative content and global reach to the region.

GDC China aims to advance the state of China’s game industry by featuring top-quality content and incorporating the GDC’s global development community perspective. The 2007 inaugural event was produced “by developers, for developers,” offering unique learning, sharing and networking opportunities for the Chinese market.

To deepen this connection between China and the worldwide game development community and enable an infusion of creative ideas and strategic partnerships, the GDC is coming to China again in October of 2009.

GDC China will serve as the last global event in 2009 for the GDC’s global event calendar which includes the main GDC in San Francisco in March, GDC Canada in Vancouver in May, GDC Europe in Cologne, Germany in August, and Austin GDC in Austin, Texas in September. The GDC and GDC China are not affiliated with any other event operators in China.

“We are excited to return to Shanghai in October to repeat the success of our launch event in 2007”, said Meggan Scavio, Event Director. “In true GDC spirit, this event will present attendees with the knowledge, skills and networking opportunities to help them get a head start in the burgeoning Chinese games industry.”

For more information on the 2009 GDC China event, please visit China.GDConf.com.

Posted by Staff at 3:03 PM | Permalink

The organizers of the inaugural AI Summit at the 2009 Game Developers Conference have announced initial speakers and sessions for the landmark two-day artificial intelligence summit, including notables from EA Maxis, Ubisoft Montreal, Rockstar Leeds, Nintendo and more.

The event, which is taking place on March 23rd and 24th, 2009 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco as part of Game Developers Conference, promises to give attendees an inside look at key AI architectures and issues within successful commercial games.

Key speakers already announced for the Summit include EA Maxis' Soren Johnson, AI programmer/designer for Spore and AI professionals from EA Montreal and Ubisoft Montreal, as part of a panel "exploring ways to manage the gap between designers and AI programmers to help establish better practices for this important (and inevitable) collaboration."

Another notable lecture features Rockstar Leeds' Brett Laming, discussing 'From the Ground Up: AI Architecture and Design Patterns', and focusing on the "multi-title, multi-genre architecture that now adds GTA Chinatown Wars to its history."

Other sessions include Crystal Dynamics' Daniel Kline alongside EALA's LMNO lead AI programmer Borut Pfeifer and others, discussing "practical approaches to pushing the boundaries of character AI, past successes and ideas for the future", plus former Halo 3 AI lead Damian Isla and MIT Media Lab's Peter Gorniak on 'Beyond Behavior: An Introduction to Knowledge Representation'.

The principal advisor and a speaker for the AI Summit is Nintendo's Steve Rabin, who explains of this inaugural summit: "What's truly exciting is that AI has the greatest potential of any technology to create brand new gameplay experiences and to broaden the market. With unparalleled AI industry experience, the AI Summit at GDC is an insider's look at how AI will impact the future of game development."

More information on the full line-up for the Summit will be available at the official Game Developers Conference AI Summit webpage in the near future.

Posted by Staff at 6:53 AM | Permalink

Think Services has announced its flagship European event, Game Developers Conference (GDC) Europe for August 17th-19th 2009, alongside new German consumer games event GamesCom, with former GCDC head Frank Sliwka joining Think Services to run the event.

Think Services also runs game industry events including next March's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and September's Austin GDC, as well as the recently announced GDC Canada, while also operating Gamasutra.com and Game Developer magazine.

Frank Sliwka, who formerly worked at GC organizer Leipziger Messe, where he was conference director for the GC Developers Conference (GCDC) and national/international advisor, will join the Think Services Game Group as Vice President of European Business Development and Event Director, GDC Europe.

In association with the announcement, Think Services is acquiring the business of Global Games Media (GGM), the Sliwka-headed organization specializing in marketing, business development, and event management for the international game industry.

Sliwka will lead the management of GDC Europe, bringing with him years of game industry conference and event management experience. The event will take place August 17-19, 2009 in Cologne, Germany, alongside the GamesCom event, which recently changed its dates to August 19-23, 2009.

“We are thrilled to present GDC Europe during gamescom,” Kathy Schoback, Executive Vice President, Global Events, Think Services, said. “A world class game developer event belongs at the premier European game industry event. With the support of Koelnmesse, BIU (the German Trade Association of Interactive Entertainment Software), and the City of Cologne, Europe’s most significant games gathering will definitely be a great success, and we couldn’t be more excited to have Frank Sliwka bring his deep experience to helping deliver GDC Europe.”

"We are pleased to welcome the European development community to GDC Europe during gamescom,” noted Oliver P. Kuhrt, Executive Vice President of Koelnmesse GmbH. “The team in charge of GDC Europe, Think Services and Frank Sliwka, are professionals who are renowned for organizing internationally respected developer events and who have deep industry experience, strong networking connections, and know how.”

More information on GDC Europe will be unveiled in the near future via the official GDC Europe website.

Posted by Staff at 3:29 PM | Permalink