GDC 2011's Indie Games Summit Adds Talks From Monaco, Retro City Rampage Creators

Author: by Staff

This year's Independent Games Summit, which will run from February 28 to March 1 alongside the 2011 Game Developers Conference at San Francisco's Moscone Center has just added a number of new lectures, including from IGF Grand Prize winner Andy Schatz (Monaco), Eliss/Faraway designer Steph Thirion and industry veteran Luke Schneider (Radiangames series). Monaco's Schatz will be presenting a lecture called 'How to Win the IGF in 15 Weeks or Less', explaining how the acclaimed co-op heist game was "entered into the IGF after 6 weeks of work by only one person. It became a finalist in the Grand Prize and Excellence in Design after 11 weeks of work. And it won both after 15 weeks." Along the way, one-man team Schatz "will show how design-by-brownian-motion can not only lead to a better finished product, but a faster schedule as well", as "Monaco's fanciest tech tricks and failed experiments will be revealed." Elsewhere, Radiangames' Schneider will join Vblank Entertainment's Brian Provinciano, Copenhagen Game Productions' Dajana Dimovska, and Nonchalance's Jeff Hull in a talk titled "The Next Steps of Indie: Four Perspectives", which gives attendees "a glimpse into their unexpected paths in the past, and what we can expect from [them in] the future". The four sequential 15 minute lectures will cover Radiangames' one-game-per-month strategy on Xbox Live Indie Games, Vblank's development of a compelling NES/GTA homage with Retro City Rampage, Copenhagen Game Collective's approach on "making the monitor the mediator" with IGF finalist B.U.T.T.O.N., and Nonchalance's Jejune Institute ARG, "the best real-world game you've never played, happening right underneath our noses". In another new lecture, Thirion, creator of 2009 Independent Games Festival Mobile finalist Eliss and 2011 IGF finalist Faraway, will deliver a lecture on "Game Design By Accidents". He'll address how "coding has gradually become a fundamental instrument in every stage of video game creation, and how code is not just a tool to materialize an idea, but can also be the thing that invents the idea itself." The full list of IGS lectures includes a plethora of high-profile already announced lectures, including Derek Yu and Andy Hull on the making of Spelunky XBLA, Wolfire's John Graham on creating the massively popular Humble Indie Bundles, plus Spyeart's Michael Todd on the unique subject of "Turning Depression into Inspiration". Also previously added are Klei's Jamie Cheng on the journey to creating Shank, plus a detailed look at Drop7 success and plans for a sequel from Area/Code's Kevin Cancienne and Osmos co-creator Andy Nealen, as well as a practical lecture on long-term indie stability from Last Day Of Work's Arthur Humphrey (Virtual Villagers). More information on GDC 2011's Indie Games Summit -- part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website -- which can be attended via All-Access or Summit-specific passes, is available on its official webpage. Early registration for GDC 2011 ends on January 24th.