GDC 2007 Casual Games Summit Expands To Two Days

The CMP Game Group (which also operates Gamasutra.com), has announced that it has expanded the upcoming Casual Games Summit into a two-day series of sessions focused on the growing casual games market. The event will take place March 5-6, 2007 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco as part of the larger 2007 Game Developers Conference. Organizers note that the first day of the summit, titled "Casual Games Summit 101," aims to educate those new to casual games about getting into the industry with introductory sessions on design principles, art direction, technology, business models, the key publishers and more. Particularly interesting sessions scheduled for the first day include “Art Direction for Casual Games” to be presented by PopCap Games' Tysen Henderson and PlayFirst's Kenny Dinkin, as well as a presentation by Gamelab's Nick Fortungo titled “Design Principles for Casual Games.” The following day, "Casual Games Summit 201," will provide an venue for sharing and debate among casual game industry veterans on a variety of topics, including downloadable games on the consoles, the evolving relationships between developers/publishers and portals, the use of licenses, increasing revenue through international opportunities, and design innovation. The second day will play host to sessions such as “International Opportunities - Making $$$ Outside the U.S”, presented by James Gwertzman (PopCap), Erik Goosens (Real/Zylom), Erik Bethke (GoPets), and Lee Crawford (Twofish), and a presentation by PlayFirst's Heidi Perry, who will address “ways to leverage existing casual game intellectual property to turn a hit title into a hit franchise.” In addition to those mentioned, the Casual Games Summit will feature a number of other speakers from within the casual games space, including representatives from Adobe, Shockwave.com, Big Fish, Funkitron, Gamelab, GoPets, Her Interactive, iWin, JoJu Games, Kongregate, Oberon, Microsoft, MuddyC, Nickelodeon, PlayFirst, PopCap, Real, Reflexive, Sandlot Games, Sony Online Entertainment, Sun, Three Rings, Twofish, Wild Tangent, Yahoo and Zylom. "The casual game market has grown to be an integral part of the videogame industry, making gamers out of anyone with a PC, a mobile phone or an iPod," commented Meggan Scavio, senior conference manager of the Game Developers Conference. "The GDC is here to help the entirety of the game industry come together and grow, and we felt the expansion of the Casual Games Summit to be the natural step as this segment of the market matures." For more information regarding the Casual Games Summit or the larger Game Developers Conference, including session descriptions and registration details, visit the official website.