Game Developers Conference 2017 officials are excited to announce that an educational game industry veteran is coming to the big show next year to deconstruct the development of one of the most influential educational games ever made.
Don Rawitsch, the lifelong educational software developer best known in the game industry for being a leading force in several educational software companies, including the influential Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation, will be delivering a Classic Game Postmortem of the groundbreaking game The Oregon Trail at GDC 2017!
Rawitsch had a hand in creating the earliest version of The Oregon Trail in 1971, over a decade before he helped bring it to classrooms around the world by co-developing it at MECC. In his talk at GDC next year, Rawitsch will discuss the serendipitous invention of the game, its simulation model, how it maintained popularity for a period of over 20 years, and its influence on other educational software.
It promises to be a fantastic and informative session, one that's more important than ever now that The Oregon Trail has became the first educational game inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame of the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY.
As always, this Classic Game Postmortem will be an hour-long session, so we figured you might appreciate the heads-up so you can keep this exciting talk on your radar. In the months ahead, conference officials look forward to announcing many more GDC 2017 sessions spanning a diverse array of game industry issues.
Also, don't miss your opportunity to save money by registering early -- the deadline to register for passes at a discounted rate is January 25, 2017. GDC 2017 itself will take place February 27th - March 3rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
For more information on GDC 2017, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.
