Warren Spector To Keynote GDC Europe

Author: by Staff

Organizers of the leading Game Developers Conference series have announced that renowned game designer Warren Spector, creative director for Disney Interactive Studios' Junction Point, will open the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe on Monday, August 16. Spector's keynote address, titled, "What Video Games Can Learn from Other Media ... What We Can't ... And What We Shouldn't" will kick off GDC Europe, which returns to Cologne Germany August 16-18, 2010 for three days of learning, networking and inspiration. During his keynote, Spector will share with the audience his thoughts on video games as they compare to other media such as movies, television, theater, radio and comic books and explore the ways in which video games use techniques borrowed from those mediums. The Deus Ex co-creator will question the assumption that video games should be more like other media, and will discuss how valid these comparisons are while suggesting some new comparisons that may be more relevant for moving our industry forward. Using examples from a variety of media and a variety of games, Spector will examine what we have learned, what we still have to learn in the future and what may be holding us back from reaching our potential as the unique medium we must strive to become. Warren Spector is a game development veteran with 6 years in tabletop games with Steve Jackson Games and TSR, followed by 21 years in electronic games with Origin, Looking Glass Studios, Ion Storm and most recently Junction Point, a division of Disney Interactive Studios. "It is always a pleasure to welcome a long time friend of the GDC such as Warren Spector," said Frank Sliwka, GDC Europe Event Director. "Warren's breadth of work from Deus Ex to the highly-anticipated Disney Epic Mickey demonstrates innovative game design. His talk will inspire current and new generations of European developers." Spector joins a large GDC Europe line-up announced to date, including late additions from the creators of Limbo and Kane & Lynch 2, plus a Guerrilla Games/Killzone 3 keynote. Other lectures include a Rare-helmed lecture on Microsoft's Kinect, the BioWare co-founders on the Baldur's Gate franchise, a lecture from Another World creator Eric Chahi on his new title Project Dust, an ESA/G.A.M.E. panel on government intervention in games, and a Heavy Rain production talk. Also added are lectures and panels from Remedy art director Saku Lehtinen on Alan Wake, Ensemble co-founder Bruce Shelley on creating a design proposal, a keynote from Chinese online game powerhouse Tencent, significant lectures from Quantic Dream's David Cage, InstantAction's Lou Castle, and the creators of Crysis 2, and other lectures and keynotes from Sony, Playdom, and German gaming powerhouse Bigpoint (Battlestar Galactica MMO). The conference, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, aims to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals. The event will run alongside the major GamesCom event, to which free access is available for non-student GDC Europe passholders. To receive more information on GDC Europe -- part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network, as is this website -- for which online registration is still open until August 12th, and onsite registration will also be available, interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.