Blizzard VP To Keynote Austin Game Conference

Austin Game Conference 2006 organizers announced that Blizzard Entertainment's vice president of game design Rob Pardo will deliver the Wednesday, September 6th keynote address at the event. Pardo is the lead designer for Blizzard's World of Warcraft, and he also supervises the progress of Blizzard's PC and console titles in development. Leading a group of talented and highly experienced development teams, Pardo supervises the overall design and implementation of gameplay features for every Blizzard game, including the PC MMORPG World of Warcraft. Pardo has been contributing to Blizzard since 1997, when he joined the company as a designer and strike-team member on StarCraft for the PC. He also worked as the lead designer on StarCraft: Brood War. Organizers also announced that Hugo Award Winning Science-Fiction Author Vernor Vinge will deliver the Friday, September 8th keynote address. Vernor Vinge is best known for his science-fiction stories, which include "True Names", "A Fire Upon the Deep", and "A Deepness in the Sky". The Austin Game Conference 2006 will take place September 6-8, and will feature a selection of lectures and tutorials on online and networked game development, including massively multiplayer online games, casual games, online PC and console games. More information on the line-up for this year's set of conferences is available at the official Austin Game Conference website.