As less than 48 hours remain for Game Developers Conference 2010's early registration, organizers have revealed a surprise lecture from Metroid creator Yoshio Sakamoto, discussing design over his almost 30-year career at Nintendo.
In his first-ever Western lecture, Nintendo's Sakamoto will present a talk called 'From Metroid to Tomodachi Collection to WarioWare: Different Approaches for Different Audiences', spanning his seminal multi-decade contribution to video games.
As the lecture description explains, Yoshio Sakamoto has been here from the start. In 1982 he joined Nintendo a year before the arrival of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in Japan. He's worked as a developer for the entire history of the modern video game era, and is perhaps most noted for the Metroid franchise, where he has directed or supervised nearly every game in the series.
However, his development credits span a wide range of projects, with titles as diverse as WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ and Rhythm Heaven. At times he and his teams juggled multiple notable projects such as these simultaneously.
Last year, while hard at work helping to supervise the upcoming Metroid title for the Wii system, titled Metroid: Other M, he also produced the Nintendo DS hit Tomodachi Collection. In this game Mii characters converse, sing and dance, and even dream. To date, it has sold more than 2.5 million copies in Japan.
In an industry that frequently draws a bold line between core and casual games, Sakamoto develops for both worlds. He challenges himself and his teams to find ways to satisfy every type of user, no matter what type of taste, or level of experience. At Game Developers Conference 2010, Mr. Sakamoto will talk about his thought processes and techniques on game designs that have allowed him to find market acceptance for his expansive portfolio of titles.
Sakamoto joins a blockbuster line-up that includes just-announced lectures by Pixar notables, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, Double Fine's Tim Schafer, Final Fantasy XIII's director Motomu Toriyama, and fantasy writer R.A. Salvatore, plus a keynote from Civilization creator Sid Meier.
The Moscone Center, San Francisco-based conference spans nine notable Summits (from Social/Online through Indie to iPhone and beyond) and tutorials set up for March 9th-10th. In addition to a large Expo floor with the world's leading game tool companies exhibiting, six major Tracks, from design through production to programming and art, in the Main Conference from March 11th-13th.
In order to lock in prices up to 35% off the regular rates, prospective attendees must register by Thursday, February 4th at midnight EST. In addition, select attendees who register for All-Access or Summits/Tutorial Passes will receive free Nexus One and Verizon Droid by Motorola phones, thanks to GDC and Google.
