DICE 2011: The Gamasutra Coverage Round-Up

Author: by Staff

Last week's annual DICE Summit 2011 concluded late last week from Las Vegas, Nevada, and Gamasutra had extensive on-site coverage of the event, which included talks from gaming-related companies like Polyphony Digital, BioWare, Zynga, NPD, 5th Cell and more. The event, run by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, also hosted the Interactive Achievement Awards, where BioWare won Game of the Year for Mass Effect 2, and Rockstar San Diego's Red Dead Redemption walked away with five awards. At the end of the week, the Indie Game Challenge featured professional and non-professional categories -- Playdead's Limbo won the professional prize, and Team Hermes' Inertia won the non-professional prize, each worth $100,000. Here's Gamasutra's complete DICE Summit 2011 coverage -- we'll be publishing a wide range of DICE interviews from notable game industry figures in the days and weeks to come. DICE 2011: How Tradition Is Coexisting With New Gaming Trends "At the 2011 DICE Summit, industry figures from Nexon, PopCap, Zynga, Schell Games, Sony and Intel hit hot topics such as 'gamification,' new controllers and free-to-play, which turns out not to be some 'crazy Asian thing.'" DICE 2011: AIAS Hall of Famers Talk Industry Change "The DICE Summit's opening keynote comprised a panel featuring five winners of the AIAS' Hall of Fame award, each of whom had some different perspectives on the rapid changes affecting the industry." DICE 2011: NPD's Frazier Sees Tech Driving New Experiences, Growth "Speaking at the 2011 DICE Summit, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said new technology is driving growth in the game market. But she argued that technology for its own sake is not enough to excite consumers." DICE 2011: Ubisoft's Raymond Says Games Are 'Becoming The Water Cooler' "Jade Raymond, onetime producer on the Assassin’s Creed franchise, is now leading Ubisoft Toronto as managing director, guiding the studio's direction. But this time the studio is looking further into the social space." DICE 2011: Kung Fu Panda’s John Stevenson On Love Driving Work "In one of the few DICE Summit talks not explicitly focused on game development, Kung Fu Panda co-creator John Stevenson shared film industry lessons that he hoped would inspire the audience to do their best work." DICE 2011: Richard Garriott Talks Space Flight, Carmack Team-Up "Richard Garriott is helping fund John Carmack of id Software's drive to popularize private space flight, alongside making social games, which will represent his 'new empire.'" DICE 2011: EA's Boatman Busts Five Mobile Gaming Myths "The video game industry is widely misunderstood," according to EA Mobile VP of Worldwide Studios Travis Boatman, who sought to bust what he called five myths of the burgeoning mobile game sector at DICE 2011." DICE 2011: Mark Cerny On The Death Of The $50 Million Game "With the console industry contracting, Mark Cerny used a DICE Summit talk to address how the industry is going to have to learn how to reduce project budgets from current historic highs." DICE 2011: Polyphony Digital’s Yamauchi On Mimesis, Creating History "More than simply designing games that people enjoy, Polyphony Digital CEO and Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi says he’s driven by the idea of mimesis pushing the industry forward." BioWare's Mass Effect 2 Wins Game Of The Year At Interactive Achievement Awards "BioWare won the game of the year award for the blockbuster RPG Mass Effect 2 at the AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards in Las Vegas, as Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption won five categories." DICE 2011: How 5th Cell Generates Million-Selling Original IP "With millions in sales for original series Drawn to Life and Scribblenauts, 5th Cell Co-Founders Jeremiah Slaczka and Joseph Tringali discuss the process they use to create games at a DICE Summit 2011 talk." DICE 2011: Bill Budge Discusses His Software Origins "Bill Budge, AIAS Pioneer Award winner and father of user-generated content in games with his famed Pinball Construction Set, discusses his software origins and love of software tools." DICE 2011: Futurist McGonigal Says Gaming 'Single Most Productive' Way To Spend Time "Author and futurist Jane McGonigal sought to break the misconception among the general public that playing video games is a waste of time -- rather, 'we are powering up our real lives when we play them,' she said." DICE 2011: Bing Gordon Puts The Mother-In-Law Above Moore’s Law "In a speech at the 2011 DICE Summit, Bing Gordon said the ability to push more polygons has affected modern game design much less than a number of less technology-dependent design innovations over the years." Limbo, Inertia Win Top Prizes At 2011 Indie Game Challenge "Playdead's Limbo won Best Professional Game and Team Hermes' Inertia won Best Non-Professional Game at this year's Indie Game Challenge, each receiving over $100,000 from the challenge's sponsors."