GAME CAREER SEMINAR
October 3-5, 2008
Los Angeles Convention Center
Los Angeles, CA

Keynote Announced:

Keynote Speakers:

Andy Schatz
CEO & Founder (Pocketwatch Games)
Andy Schatz, CEO and founder of Pocketwatch Games, was the sole programmer, designer, and producer of Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa and Venture Arctic, the first two titles released by the company. Schatz is also a defender of the indie game-maker's lifestyle and hosted the 2007 and 2008 Independent Games Festival awards ceremonies. In addition to his work at Pocketwatch Games, Schatz recently served as executive producer on Green.com, an online virtual world, and as a game designer, programmer, and development director for game developers TKO Software and Presto Studios. He graduated from Amherst College with a degree in computer science and fine arts.

Dan Paladin
Artist (The Behemoth)
Dan Paladin is The Behemoth’s only artist and one of the company's three co-founders. The Behemoth's first title was Alien Hominid, released in 2004, which won more than 15 awards on the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance. The title was later reinvented in 2007 as Alien Hominid HD for Xbox Live Arcade. Castle Crashers, The Behemoth's second award winning title, was released on Xbox Live Arcade in late August of this year. Before helping build The Behemoth, Paladin worked for both Presto Studios and Gratuitous Games as an animator and designer.

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Session: Design By Committee
Date: October 3, 2008
Time: 10:00 - 11:00AM
Audienece Level: All
Description:
Dan Paladin of The Behemoth and Andy Schatz of Pocketwatch Games have different design sensibilities. Andy builds cerebral strategy games about animals. Dan builds gonzo-retro-arcade-style games. Using input from the audience, they’ll somehow find a way to agree on a game design -- and in the process illustrate their styles and processes in an open-ended art and brainstorming session.

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Game Career Seminar
September 17th, 2008
Austin Convention Center

Keynote Announced:

Keynote Speaker:
Harvey Smith, Game Director
(Arkane Studios)

Smith is a game designer and producer who has been making games professionally since 1993. At Ion Storm, he was lead designer of the award winning game Deus Ex, which received a BAFTA in 2000, and project director of Deus Ex: Invisible War. He has also worked at Midway Games (Austin) as studio creative director, Multitude as lead designer of Fireteam, and Origin Systems. Smith has spoken at various game conferences and won the Game Design Challenge at GDC 2006 with his concept "Peace Bomb," a game aimed at winning the Nobel Peace Prize. In his most recent venture with Raphael Colantonio at Arkane Studios, Smith has moved back into independent development and is working on an unannounced project.

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"Game developers are some of the luckiest people alive, says Harvey Smith, especially if they're entering the field
now."

Session: Luckiest People Alive
Date: Wednesday, September 17
Description:
In this session, Smith will discuss what he sees as an imminent explosion of change, creativity, and possibility within the interactive medium. The session will list emerging cultural and technological trends driving this potential revolution and will discuss the creative and collaborative values that will aid new developers the most in terms of capitalizing on the coming period of vital change. "The work of the next decade will be fascinating," Smith says.

To view sessions from Austin GDC 2008, click here.

For a list of speakers at Austin GDC 2008, click here.

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