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Bosslady Blog: The Latest GDC 2009 Additions!

[In her latest Bosslady Blog update, Game Developers Conference event director Meggan Scavio discusses the newly announced Nintendo keynote, as well as the GDC Vault and new Dead Space, LittleBigPlanet and Flagship Studios lectures.]
Hopefully by now, the news of GDC 2009's first announced keynote has made the rounds as far as... you. But if you happen to live on the planet formerly known as Pluto, let me bring you up to date.
Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo Co., Ltd, will deliver the opening keynote at this year’s GDC, titled “Discovering New Development Opportunities.” Mr. Iwata has spoken at GDC twice already and always manages to surprise and inspire. Can’t wait to see what he’s got to say this year!
For anyone who happens not to be a morning person, please take note: Iwata’s opening keynote on Wednesday, March 25th will begin at 9:00 am. GDC keynotes have historically started at 10:30 am, but we thought it would be nice to open the main conference with everybody gathered in one room. Expect bonding - hand holding not required.
Another neat new thing we’re doing this year is the GDC Vault. This new site will host video/slide/audio sync-ed recordings of all GDC Summits, Lectures and Panels, and will be available for online streaming one week after GDC this year. Not only is this quite a task (we’re recording 250 sessions), but it's free to GDC 2009 All Access pass holders. You need never miss another GDC session again - like I said, neat.
Browsing the website, I found a lot of intriguing new sessions that have popped up since my last update. Sister website Gamasutra has kindly been posting their top picks by track, but here are some new announcements even they haven't picked up on:

- EA Redwood Shores senior producer Chuck Beaver is going to be presenting “Dead Space: How We Launched the Scariest New IP.” In a year of sequels, find out how EA brought this new title to market. Expect to hear their “successes and stumbles”, as well as what it takes to create a horror-genre title. It's a more difficult question than you'd think - how do you make things scary?
- You first learned about this game at Game Developers Conference, and now, six months after the launch, GDC attendees can hear from the creators what went wrong and what went right, in: “Media Molecule: 'Winging It' - Ups, Downs, Mistakes, Successes in the Making of LittleBigPlanet.” Alex Evans, technical director, and Mark Healey, creative director, share their experience as a small development team launching their first game.
- To get a wider picture of the critically acclaimed PS3 title, check out the other LittleBigPlanet sessions newly announced at GDC 2009: “The LittleBigPlanet Jam” will discuss their 'jamming style' of game production, and “The Art of LBP: From Conception Through to Finishing” will look at how the game's art and visual direction was developed. And let’s not forget one of my favorite lecture titles so far - “How Sackboy Learned to Love Physics” - where MM will talk about “the conflicts between the physical consistency demanded by the physics engine and the player's expected behavior of the character.”
- Finally, anyone currently working at a start-up or independent developer may want to attend “My Lessons Learned from Flagship Studios.” This lecture will follow the life of the Hellgate: London developer - from their peak in 2007 to their demise 8 months later. Former director of business development and general counsel Stephen Goldstein will provide his personal list of the 10 lessons he learned the hard way from the company's demise.
GDC 2009 has also got some more amazing sessions that will be popping up in the next week or two, as well as the second keynote announcement. It’s so good that I wish I could tell you now, but... can't. Don’t you hate it when people do that?

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