GDC 2006 Grabs Wada, Mizuguchi, Garriott, Concert

Following the release of initial details on the Game Developers Conference 2006, to be held at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California from March 20-24, 2006, a new preview guide available alongside the February issue of Game Developer magazine has revealed more information on speakers and events. Joining already announced speakers such as Will Wright and Peter Molyneux are Ultima creator Richard Garriott, presenting a session on "Designing Tabula Rasa: Lessons From The World Of MMOs", Square Enix president Yoichi Wada, making a rare Western appearance to discuss "Taking Games Beyond Consoles", and Epic Games president Tim Sweeney, discussing "Building A Flexible Game Engine." In addition, Q Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Phantagram's Sangyoun Lee will combine for 'Living 99 Nights: An Xbox 360 Postmortem', Wideload's Alex Seropian will discuss "Creating Stubbs The Zombie with the Wideload Model', and Namco's Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi is confirmed to reprise his role in the 'Game Design Challenge', following his virtuoso appearance at a similar event during GDC Europe 2005. Other now confirmed events at GDC 2006 include the traditional Game Developers Choice and Independent Games Festival awards, a reappearance for the invite-only East Meets West cross-cultural event, and a card game-based 'massively multiplayer god game' named Pantheon which has been designed by Diner Dash creator gameLab specifically for attendees of GDC 2006. In addition, a Video Games Live concert has been confirmed for Friday, March 24 at 8pm at the San Jose Civic Auditorium, marking the first in a new set of concerts to be announced by composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, who are putting together a program of music from both modern and classic games alike, in this case accompanied by the Symphony Silicon Valley orchestra. More information on tickets and availability for this and other events will be available in the near future, according to organizers. [GDC 2006 is presented by the CMP Game Group, organizers of the Game Developers Conference Europe and Serious Games Summit, and publishers of Game Developer Magazine and Gamasutra.com.]