Games Vet Chris Hecker Joins IGDA Leadership Forum Keynote Lineup

Games industry veteran Chris Hecker is the latest keynote addition to this year's International Game Developers Association's Leadership Forum, the organization announced this week. Hecker was most recently a significant contributor to EA and Maxis' game Spore, but after falling victim to recent layoffs at the publisher, he has found himself with more time to spend on his own indie projects, including one dubbed SpyParty through his company, Definition Six. The IGDA Leadership Forum is scheduled for November 12 and 13 this year in San Francisco. The IGDA website describes Hecker as "an outspoken advocate for pushing the current boundaries of design and interactivity." An active member of the game development community, he has also been a contributor to Gamasutra's sister print publication Game Developer magazine, a regular speaker at the Game Developers Conference, and a long-time member of the GDC advisory board. Also confirmed as a keynote speaker for this year's IGDA Leadership Forum is Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment SVP of development and production Samantha Ryan. She's also CEO of WBIE-owned Fear developer Monolith. Former CTO of Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business Chris Satchell is also delivering a keynote at the event. Currently, he is CTO at International Game Technologies. For more information on the IGDA Leadership Forum, visit the official website.