Future Play

Some Thoughts on FuturePlays Past and Present

2009-04-06T16:40:00.002-04:00

I have been digging up some quotes from people about FuturePlay and I thought I would post them here... (Yes, I know that is a lame introduction...)

Chris Swain:
“Future Play @ GDC mixes cutting edge thinking from the world of research and academia with the frontlines of creativity from industry and the indie-scene. A powerful concoction indeed.”

John Nicol:
“Future Play is a very important forum for Acron to in which to participate and help shape the future of the industry. Future Play is more than just about the game and game-play, it is about the underlying technology, how we use it to learn, to visualize and apply these developments and research activities to advance the state-of-the-art and apply it to other industry and learning metaphors. We are excited to be part of Future Play 2009.”

Jim Parker:
"I have a high regard for the role of Future Play in the game research and development vista in Canada. I was an early participant in Futureplay, since 2004 in fact, when it was still named the Game Technology Conference, and have been enthusiastic ever since. It has been the home of many innovations, such as the game contest in 2007 and in acting as host for the Canadian Game Studies Association in its early stages. What I think is important is that it is a broadly based conference, having participation from academics and industry, game studies and technology. There is nothing else like it in Canada, and I am excited to see it connect with GDC Canada this year."

Gardner Condon:
“Future Play is one of those rare opportunities where a diverse group of thought leaders are brought together to focus on the games industry. “

Eric Gagnon:
"Serious games are a rapidly changing industry. Future Play gives professionals an opportunity to get up to speed on all aspects of the industry, meet partners, and find new opportunities. I would not want to miss it for the world."

Duane Dunfield:
"Future Play has proven itself to be a great showcase of the quality of research, ideas and people that exist in Canada. I feel it is a valuable place to network with academic institutions and researchers around innovative game concepts, philosophy, and methodology -- especially pertaining to games for learning"

These all seem much better than my quote used a couple of years back "I met a lot of really smart people" (though that is also true. Hope to see you in Vancouver in May!

Ben Sawyer to Speak at FuturePlay 2009

2009-02-20T13:39:00.002-05:00

Ben Sawyer, the co-founder of Digitalmill and the Serious Games Initiative, will be one of the keynote presenters at the Future Play 09 @ GDC Canada, this May 12th and 13th in Vancouver, British Columbia. Registration for Future Play 09 @ GDC Canada is now open.

Sawyer has long been a leading advocate for the applications of serious games, serving as the volunteer producer of the first Serious Games Summit that took place at GDC in 2004. He is currently the co-director of the Serious Games Initiative located at the Woodrow Wilson Institute for International Scholars in Washington, D.C. The chief aim of the initiative is to foster a new series of policy education, exploration and management tools by utilizing state-of-the-art computer game designs, technologies and development skills.

A prolific writer, Sawyer has authored more than ten computer trade books and a multitude of articles covering a wide swath of technology issues. He is a former contributor to Game Developer Magazine and its online counter-part Gamasutra. His expertise has made him a sought-after speaker and his observations have been important in formulating a better understanding of how the gaming industry's value chain functions.

Digitalmill, based out of Portland, Maine, is a technology project and software development company that was co-founded by Sawyer and Dave Greely in 1997. The firm is known for its strong focus on how new technologies, especially games, create new opportunities for businesses and organizations. Notable clients have included Lockheed Martin, Cisco Systems and the American Hospital Association. In his capacity as President of Digitalmill, Sawyer is responsible for strategy, business development and technology.

Sawyer last spoke at Future Play 2008 on the topic of serious games, building his presentation around the question, "Are We Learning Yet?" Sawyer has also been a member of Future Play's advisory committee for several years.

Abstract Submission Deadline Extended

2009-02-15T08:48:00.000-05:00

The deadline to submit your extended abstract or panel/seminar for Future Play 09 @ GDC Canada is now Feb 20. If you did not RSVP but still wish to submit, follow the guidelines on futureplay.org.

Submissions will be accepted until Feb 20 for extended abstracts for oral or poster presentation, seminars, panels and workshops relevant to the conference themes.

Deadline For Submissions is Fast Approaching.

2009-02-06T19:24:00.004-05:00

The deadline to submit your extended abstract or panel/seminar for Future Play 09 @ GDC Canada is Feb 10. If you did not RSVP but still wish to submit, follow the guidelines on futureplay.org.

Submissions will be accepted until Feb 10 for extended abstracts for oral or poster presentation, seminars, panels and workshops relevant to the conference themes.

Future Play is an annual conference hosted by Algoma University of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario with support from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, located in Oshawa, Ontario. The conference focuses on three major themes: future game developments, future game impacts and applications and future game talent.

Future Play is teaming up with the Game Developers Conference Canada (R) (GDC Canada) and will be held on May 12-13th 2009 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Registration is now open.

GDC Canada is a conference for Canadian game developers to share best practices for fostering ingenuity and quality games. The conference emphasizes studying the challenges and opportunities inherent in creating games with long-production cycles, large development teams and across multiple platforms.

Future Play 2009 at GDC Canada will provide the opportunity for leading intellectuals and industry researchers to present their findings before an audience that includes: students, game developers, government representatives, investors and academics.

We're Baack, and This Time We Brought GDC Canada WIth Us..

2009-02-02T21:30:00.002-05:00

After five years in Michigan and Southern Ontario, Future Play, the international conference on gaming and design, is heeding the advice popularized by Horace Greeley to "go west!" Future Play is teaming up with the Game Developers Conference Canada (R) (GDC Canada) and will be held on May 12-13th 2009 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Registration is now open.

"We're excited to be joining forces with GDC Canada," says Dr. Bill Kapralos of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and co-chair of the Future Play 2009 committee. "We feel that the new format we will be introducing will provide leaders from both the gaming industry and academia with a unique forum to discuss the future of games and gaming."

Future Play is an annual conference hosted by Algoma University of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario with support from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, located in Oshawa, Ontario. The conference focuses on three major themes: future game developments, future game impacts and applications and future game talent.

GDC Canada is a conference for Canadian game developers to share best practices for fostering ingenuity and quality games. The conference emphasizes studying the challenges and opportunities inherent in creating games with long-production cycles, large development teams and across multiple platforms.

Future Play 2009 at GDC Canada will provide the opportunity for leading intellectuals and industry researchers to present their findings before an audience that includes: students, game developers, government representatives, investors and academics. Over the years the Future Play conference has also featured many renowned keynote speakers from the gaming field including: Don Daglow of Stormfront Studios, Academy Award winner and inventor of Perlin Noise Dr. Ken Perlin and John Lester, the creator of Second Life.

This year's conference speakers will include: Duane M. Dunfield, President of Red Hot Learning; Eric Gagnon, General Manager of Cinetek Studio; Jerry Heneghan, Founder and CEO of Virtual Heroes Incorporated; Lucie Lalumière, Vice-President Interactive with Earth Rangers; Kevin McNulty, founding partner of Coole Immersive Incorporated; Kal Shariff, CEO of Project Whitecard Incorporated; and Kenton White, co-founder and CTO of DISTIL. Researchers from a number of universities from across North America and around the world, will be presenting their work as well.

Online registration for Future Play 2009 at GDC Canada is available now on the revamped Future Play website at www.futureplay.org.

New stuff coming soon

2008-11-09T21:02:00.001-05:00

I recorded both Ken Perlin and John Buchanan's talks at FuturePlay 2008. Instead of releasing the raw audio of these I will be turning them into two episodes of thunderbird six in the next few weeks. I of course will put them on the feed here.

Thanks to everyone at FP, it was great meeting everyone, and the talks were great. Plus, I got a bunch of new facebook and twitter followers...

Hard Rock Cafe Tonight

2008-11-04T16:46:00.002-05:00

I have been asked to blog this by the powers that be, which sounds ominous doesn't it?

Some folks are heading over to the Hard Rock Cafe around 6 pm for dinner and beverages...

Jackie Copland's Keynote: Living The Dream

2008-11-03T15:31:00.002-05:00

Jackie is from Electronic Arts and she is a member of the Global University Relations Team for EA.

Her talk focussed on life in the industry (specifically at EA). Her presentation included videos of EA emplyees talking about working at EA and what they expected and did not expect. My take on her talk, if you want to work in this industry be sure to know how to work with REALLY big code bases (like oh millions of lines of code) and learn to play with others. Indeed most of EA's projects involve huge teams. If you are designing a computer science curriculum that is intended to stream people towards the industry you might want to take this into account.

Enjoy Jackie's talk.

Ben Sawyer's Keynote: Are We Learning Yet?

2008-11-03T10:49:00.003-05:00

Ben Sawyer kicked off FuturePlay 2008 with his keynote about the serious games space and he asked the question "Are we learning yet?"

My impressions from his talk are that content and context are king, you can't teach oceanography with an FPS, and you can't use the America's Army model for every problem. (I am VASTLY oversimplifying the message here...) His talk was great, so I hope you enjoy it.

Ben's talk.

Tag Your Media, Tag Your Tweets

2008-11-03T10:45:00.001-05:00

Those of you at the conference, be sure to tag any blog posts, pics etc with "FuturePlay2008".

Oh and tag your twitter posts with #futureplay.

Just announced - One Day Registration Option

2008-10-24T15:08:00.002-04:00

Wow, just got this, the organizers have announced a special one day registration rate, so if you can only make it for one day, this might be the ticket for you. Seems like a good idea if you can only make it for a single day.

New this year, the first-ever three-day Project Management Course for Game Development, led by Heather Chandler

2008-10-22T20:51:00.002-04:00

This workshop session is ideal for anyone who leads a game development team of any size. Those new to the leadership role will leave with new tools to help them keep projects on track, motivate team members, and conduct risk analysis. More experienced producers will also benefit from learning the production techniques and methods discussed.Registration includes your copy of the Game Production Handbook, 2008 Edition.

Learn ways to keep projects on track, by using cross-functional teams, prototyping game features, and conducting a risk analysis. Develop new skills to build and motivate your team, and learn new strategies for improving developer and publisher relationships including how to define milestones and accommodate scope changes.

The game development course is 16 hours in duration. The course is worth 1.6 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits. Participants who complete the course will receive a certificate of completion and documentation of the amount of CEU's earned.

Jackie Copland of Electronic Arts to Deliver Keynote at FuturePlay 2008

2008-10-15T20:26:00.003-04:00

Jackie Copland is a member of the Global University Relations Team of Electronic Arts (EA), the world’s largest interactive entertainment software company (perhaps you have heard of them...). Jackie’s physical office is based at EA’s development studio in Burnaby, BC – but she works with all five of EA’s studios in Canada, and many post secondary institutions across the country. University Relations at EA is a centralized team that manages relationships with faculty, professors, staff, and students at colleges and universities worldwide.

Prior to joining EA in 2006, Jackie worked for with Co-op students and employers for five years in the Engineering Co-op Program at the University of British Columbia, building partnerships between academia and industry, and helping students to transition from school to work. She also has a scientific background, with 6 years in the mining industry as a research project manager working with new refining technologies. She holds a B.Sc. from McGill University, and an MBA from Queen’s University.

The idea of a University outreach program from a game company is something that newcomers to the gaming space may not be aware of. Of course at FuturePlay the idea of the interaction of the gaming industry and the academy is really a central theme. Companies like EA and Microsoft (to name just two) work closely with academics on research projects. I wonder if she can get me a copy of Madden 09 for free... Oh, did I say that out loud? Anyway, I really look forward to her talk. EA have been supporters of FuturePlay for quite a while now and I cannot wait to meet Jackie.

Woo Hoo! FuturePlay 2008 Conference Program Announced

2008-10-10T20:13:00.002-04:00

I just got an email announcing the FuturePlay 2008 Program. The keynotes look great (and I will be profiling more keynoters throughout the next couple of weeks) and I am pretty interested in the poster session. Some guy there will be presenting research that shows no relationship between trashtalk, violence in games and aggression... (ok that may be a little self serving, but, hey, it is my blog....).

It turns out that the hotel have extended the rate deal of 129 a night until the 14th, which is good news if you have not booked your room yet.

See you there!

Conference Rate at the Toronto Delta Chelsea Downtown Extended Until October 10

2008-10-09T11:40:00.002-04:00

Booking period extended! Toronto's Delta Chelsea Hotel is offering rooms at the guaranteed conference rate, starting at $129 until October 10. Don't miss this great offer. Visit www.futureplay.org now and follow the links to the Delta Chelsea booking page to make your reservation.

John Hopson's 2007 Keynote

2008-09-30T19:53:00.004-04:00

John Hopson is a pretty cool guy. He has a PhD in experimental psychology, whcih in my books already makes him cool. Then it turns out, his PhD work was done in a lab where they study animal cognition. OK, that is even cooler, as well, the cool kids take animal cognition. Then we got to talking and realized we had read each others' stuff. I know that has nothing to do with game design, but it is, to me, an indication of the serendipitous connections you can make at FuturePlay.

Anyway most of you will know John from his work on a little text called "Behavioral Game Design" which applies the psychological literature to game design. See I knew I liked this guy...

John gave a keynote at FuturePlay 2007 which I recorded with my little iRiver (this year I will use a Zoom H2 which is MUCH better). So some of the audio is a bit shall we say messy. You will also notice someone (who I will not name...) picking up my recorder and looking at it and you will hear me say "That's my recorder" when she asks what she is holding....

John basically described his work at Microsoft, working with various studios to make better games. Tell me that isn't a cool job.

This talk should give you an idea of the quality of speaker at the conference.

I hope you enjoy John's keynote from the 2007 FuturePlay conference.

This Week It Is An Oscar Winner: Ken Perlin To Speak at FuturePlay 2008

2008-09-18T20:41:00.003-04:00

In last week's Keynote Speaker Profile (I have made a command decision to capitalize that...) I talked about Don Daglow, well, this week I thought I would mention another luminary coming to FuturePlay 2008. Ken Perlin.

Ken Perlin is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at New York University.He is the founding director of the Media Research Laboratory and also directed the NYU Center for Advanced Technology. Ken's research interests include graphics, animation, user interfaces, science education and multimedia. OK, now this is pretty cool, he received an Academy Award for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (that is an Oscar for those of you scoring at home...) for his noise and turbulence procedural texturing techniques, which are widely used in feature films and television, as well as the TrapCode award for achievement in computer graphics research, the New York City Mayor's award for excellence in Science and Technology and the Sokol award for outstanding Science faculty at NYU, and a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation.

He spoke at FuturePlay 2006 where he showed some software that models emotions and then maps them on to faces. This technology has been used to help teach autistic kids how to read emotion. (Take that Jack Thompson).

Oh yeah, he has also been a featured artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

I can tell you as well that he is a great speaker, and frankly he is funny as hell too. You do not want to miss ths

Don Daglow to Speak at FuturePlay 2008 (and I am psyched...)

2008-09-10T18:55:00.003-04:00

In my second profile of a conference speaker at FuturePlay 2008 I am going to shine the spotlight on Don Daglow.

Man, where to begin.... Don has been designing games since 1971. Yes, that is not a typo, 1971. He designed the first graphical MMORPG (Neverwinter Nights), he designed the first computer baseball game, he designed what is, to me, the best baseball game ever (Earl Weaver Baseball). What about Utopia for the Intellivision? Yeah, that was him too. This was the first sim game, or god game if you will.

He is also the founder of a little outfit called Stormfront Studios.

Awards? Oh he has awards.. How about an Emmy and an award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (oh he is the only guy to have those two).

I could go on, and on... but I want to mention personally how huge this is for a gamer like myself. I have played four entire Major League baseball seasons (playing every single game myself) using Earl Weaver Baseball. I got interested in baseball stats and the history of the game through the statistical modeling used in Earl Weaver Baseball. I found out about Cool Papa Bell, and Amos "the Hoosier Thunderball" Rusie and Josh Gibson and Honus Wagner because of a great video game. When I was younger I had a copy of Utopia for the Intellivision. While playing that game with my buddy Brent in high school I learned that the military is not the only way to gain power and be prosperous (like it was in most games, and often still is). Running an economy and keeping people happy was NOT just about getting more land in this game. It was about providing service. Oh, I learned that in a video game, imagine that. Adventure Construction Set taught me directly about design. It introduced me to the idea of modding, and to the idea of story in a game. ACS came out in the mid 80s, who was modding in the mid 80s? Well, those of use with ACS were, and we have Don Daglow to thank.

I can't wait for his keynote. I might bring my old Earl Weaver disks and get him to autograph them...

If you have not registered yet, you should, the price is about to go up...

2008-09-07T18:10:00.003-04:00

Future Play is the international conference on the future of game design and technology. It is the place to discover new directions in computer game technologies and explore groundbreaking visions for the future of game development. Don't miss out.

Register today to take advantage of the current early bird price. Registration fees will increase September 26th.

The same thing is about to happen to the room rate at the Delta Chelsea in Downtown Toronto. Currently conference attendees get a room for 129 (CAD) a night. This is frankly a killer price, but the rate won't last forever, indeed, in about four weeks time it is gone. So sign up to come to the conference today, and book your room too.

Katie Salen to give FuturePlay 2008 Keynote

2008-09-03T07:47:00.002-04:00

The keynotes at FuturePlay are always great, and I will be profiling each speaker, a different on each week. Man I just used 'week' twice in the same sentence...

Katie Salen will speak at FuturePlay 2008 at the Delta Chelsea Hotel in Toronto in November. Katie is a writer, editor, and eesigner. She has worked on a range of projects for clients including Microsoft, SIGGRAPH, the Hewlett Foundation, XMediaLab, the Design Institute, gameLab, and mememe Productions. Katie is of course the co-author of Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals and The Game Design Reader. She is a member of Playground which recently worked with areacode to invent a new genre of games. Currently she is working on two projects funded through the MacArthur Foundation focused on digital media, games, and learning, and is producing two new media works for the ZeroOne Festival. A contributing writer for RES magazine, she has worked as an animator on Richard Linklater’s critically acclaimed animated feature Waking Life. She partnered with screenwriter and director Hampton Fancher to develop an animated storytelling experience distributed through Xbox Live. Finally, she has curated programs at the Lincoln Center, Cinematexas, ZKM, Exploding Cinema, and the Walker Art Center on machinima. Not a bad start eh...

FuturePlay 2008, Book Your Room Early

2008-08-21T15:46:00.001-04:00

Future Play 2008 will be held at Toronto's Delta Chelsea Hotel. Reserve your hotel room at the special conference rate today. It is quite the savings vs. the regular rate BTW (rates start at 129 a night)....

Project Management Course For Game Developers at FuturePlay 2008

2008-08-21T15:40:00.003-04:00

This is a new expanded version of the popular course taught by Heather Chandler. Last year's reviews of this course were very positive, and this is your chance to take advantage of Heather's experience and expertise.

Please register online as space is limited and walk-in registrations may not be accepted.

This is a three-day workshop. Participants must attend all sessions to receive the completion certificate. Participants will be included in Future Play 2008 keynote presentations, meals and breaks, so you will be able to network in between learning sessions.
Looking for ways to demonstrate your commitment to professional development and education?

The CEU is a nationally recognized uniform unit of measurement in the United States. It is designed to permanently record an individual's non-credit continuing education accomplishments in increments of one CEU per 10 contact hours of instruction. All participants who complete the class will receive a certificate of completion that documents the CEUs earned by taking the course.

T6 Episode 57 - An Interview with Diane Devenyi

2008-01-29T15:00:00.000-05:00

Yeah I know, I said that I had interviewed her a few posts back, well, here is the interview. This is a really cool project and I really hope there are some people out there that will share their game stories with Diane.

Music by Battery Life and Jet Pin Army.

Listen and Enjoy

Interview With Eitan Glinert - Accessibility in Games

2007-11-21T18:17:00.001-05:00

During the conference I recorded a couple of interviews, so besides the keynotes I got to hang out with some cool people and talk games. One of those cool people was (well is, I am sure he is still cool...) Eitan Glinert. Eitan and others have been working on a game that is equally playable for sighted and visually impaired people. Having low vision myself, this game is pretty interesting to me. The game is called Audiodyssey, it is available now as a free download, check it out.

He is also getting going on a startup in May called Fire Hose VIdeo Games, so if you need a job in May or so, perhaps you should contact Eitan....

Music in this episode is from Uncle Seth, (whose bass player I hung out with at the Toronto Podcast Meetup on Thursday, November 15) and The Mark Harold Band.

Listen Now.

T6 Flashback 12 - Mia Consalvo

2007-11-16T15:44:00.000-05:00

I did not get a chance to go to Mia's talk yesterday, as I was off to the Toronto Podcast Meetup (which was cool BTW, thanks to Scarborough Dude, John Meadows, Mark Blevis et al). However, I interviewed Mia on T6, episode 52, so I thought I would post that.

Enjoy.

John Lester's Keynote

2007-11-16T15:26:00.000-05:00

John Lester spoke yesterday at lunch (so you will hear some plates etc in the background...)

John is Linden Lab's Boston Operations Director and Academic Program Manager, oh and his SL name is Pathfinder Linden.

His talk was a lot of fun, check it out.

Constance Steinkuehler's Keynote

2007-11-15T17:25:00.000-05:00

Constance Steinkuehler opened the show today, WOW. (I mean WOW both as like 'wow' and the gaming way....).

It turns out the playing MMO RPGs helps kids with literacy and scientific reasoning!

Enjoy the talk

Share Your Game Stories

2007-11-15T13:48:00.000-05:00

Diane Devenyi, an MA student in education at York is distributing flyers around the conference. I just interviewed her for T6, and it sounds like a cool project. Basically she is trying to put a book together on the 'Chicken Soup' model.

Do you have game stories? Has gaming changed you? Has it changed your friends? Let Diane know at fearlessmaster@hotmail.com.

Don't forget to tag your posts and photos...

2007-11-15T11:17:00.000-05:00

Well I gave a few introductory remarks at FuturePlay, asking everyone to tag their posts and photos. (Sadly I forgot my camera cable...).

Listen Now

Let's Make FutrePlay More Social

2007-11-12T20:12:00.001-05:00

FuturePlay is a great event, and I know I always have a great time meeting new people, be they academics or industry types. One of the greatest things about FP (and frankly any other conference) is the social part. You meet new people, you end up going for a beer or a coffee, you go for dinner, or you just hang out between sessions.

OK, so it is social too, let's use this whole new fangled web 2.0 to be more social. How you might ask.. Well, I have learned a few things from some buddies of mine at events like Podcasters Across Borders, Podcamps, Barcamps etc. First off we have twitter. Let's twitter where we are going for a beer, where we are hanging out, or even just simple things like 'I want to go for dinner in Chinatown, anyone interested?' On twitter I am dbrodbeck So we can track tweets from each other, why don't we put FP07 at the start of each post?

I have the same name on Pownce (which has the added bonus of file sharing and friends lists).

We have a facebook group (two actually..) so feel free to post on the wall there or start some threads.

Another cool thing to do is to upload your pics to flickr and your vids to youtube. Please add the tag FuturePlay2007 to all pictures and videos from the conference. Oh yeah, if you are blogging or podcasting from the conference or about it, add that same tag.

As it has been said before, welcome to the social, and let's have a great conference.

T6 Flashback 11 - Clint Hocking Keynote from 2006

2007-11-12T16:53:00.001-05:00

As promised, here is Clint Hocking's keynote from FuturePlay 2006. This should give you a taste of what we have had in the past at FP.

Clint talked about getting a demo beyond the Male 18-34 bracket, there are a lot of other humans out there that could get entertained, and perhaps more from video games.

(As a side note, I think I was the only one in the room that did not fall for the 'look under your chair for you 3D glasses' bit).

Listen and enjoy

Paper Sessions - An Example

2007-11-12T07:58:00.000-05:00

Now we have keynotes (I will post one of them later today) at FuturePlay each year and then there are the paper sessions. I recorded some guy presenting a paper on experimental psychology and game design last year in London at FuturePlay 2006.

This talk should give you a good feel for the paper sessions.

If you check this dude's blog you can get the paper and the powerpoint slides....

Listen Now.

T6 Flashback 10 - Interview with CLint Hocking of Ubisoft

2007-11-09T07:29:00.000-05:00

Episode 41 of T6 is flashback number 10.

From FuturePlay 2006 an interview with Clint Hocking. Clint has been working for Ubisoft in Montréal for five years. Most recently he worked as scriptwriter, lead level designer and creative director on SPLINTER CELL: CHAOS THEORY. Before games he worked in the web industry and experimented with independent filmmaking while earning a masters’ degree in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. He lives happily in Montréal with his fiancé and his dog.

Clint and I talked about the future of game design and the fact that games need not just be fun, they could also be what Clint calls 'engaging'. There is a whole other market out there beyond the 18-34 year old males.

Clint is working on a project currently for Ubisoft, but I could not get it out of him. Perhaps Sam Fisher knows....

Music in this episode from The Rantings of EVA and Battery Life.

Listen and enjoy....

50 Bucks off Your Registration, and a 30 Dollar Gift Certificate (and that is in Canadian Money...)

2007-11-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

OK, this just came across the tubes to my email....

The Future Play Conference 2007, November 15-17, at the Novotel in Toronto, Ontario, is just a week away. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to improve your skills, expand your business, leverage academic research for game design, and network with potential partners and prospective employees.

We only have a few spots left at Future Play 2007, and we really want a full house, so help us help you (…and we’ll show you the money):

Already registered? Tell a friend, and when they register before the deadline (and type your name in student id number slot on the registration form) we’ll refund $50 of your registration fee, or give you a $30 gift card from Future Shop, or email you

a $25 electronic gift certificate from Chapters. Get five friends to register and you have some nice spending money coming your way for Christmas!

Not registered yet? Register before the deadline and we’ll refund $40 of your registration fee or email you a $25 electronic gift certificate from Chapters.

Get out of your office or cubicle and we’ll see you at Future Play! Who else will you meet? Game development experts and researchers from across Canada, the US, the UK, Sweden, Norway, and New Zealand. You’ll meet people from Microsoft, Garage Games, Groove Games, MIT, UOIT, Western, the MARS Discovery District, Carleton University, Michigan State University, Silicon Knights, Artificial Mind and Movement, and many other keen minds from in and around the gaming world.

Special note: a Pre-Conference Seminar, on November 14, geared towards game production professionals, will teach attendees about ways to improve their production processes and management skills, will allow for networking with other like-minded professionals, and will provide participants their personal copy of "The Game Production Handbook". (Sponsored by the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre). Details are on the website.

Don't miss out. Register Now (this offer expires 9 am Friday Nov 9th)! http://www.futureplay.org

Constance Steinkuehler Keynote

2007-11-04T09:12:00.000-05:00

As our (why do I say that, there is just me typing these things...) coverage of the upcoming Keynotes at FuturePlay 2007 continues, let's move on the talk by Constance Steinkuehler. Constance's talk can be summarized below (from an abstract of one of her papers).

"For those with a vested interest in online technologies for learning, the knowledge and skills that constitute successful participation in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) places them squarely among the most promising new digital technologies to date. In this paper, I broadly outline the qualitative results of a two and a half year cognitive ethnography of the MMO Lineage and describe the current trajectory of research we are now pursuing, based on those findings: (a) the empirical investigation of focused research questions in order to document and analyze those core practices that constitute gameplay in virtual worlds, and (b) the development of educational activities for after school clubs that capitalize on those capacities found throughout our research. This essay concludes with a reflection on the multiple relationships between games and education, highlighting the potential for such technologies to transform not only the means of education but also perhaps the goals."

This one sounds very cool, as a psychologist, and a gamer, I am not missing this one.

T6 Flashback 9 - Interview with Linden Lab VP of Product Development and FuturePlay 2007 Keynote Speaker Cory Ondrejka

2007-10-30T16:52:00.000-04:00

If you are coming to FuturePlay 2007 you probably know that one of our keynotes will be Cory Ondrejka of Linden Lab

Episode 23 of t6 featured am interview with Cory Ondrejka, VP of Product Development for Linden Lab of San Francisco, the creators of Second Life.

Glyn Heatley and I sat down via Gizmo (to phone) with Cory Ondrejka and talked about everything Second Life. We discussed academic applications of this virtual world, research applications, and even UFO abductions (virtual ones...).

The folks at Linden lab are visionaries, no question about it and you can tell talking to a guy like Cory.

This is just another example of how games are not only entertaining but can have emergent properties of their own. Thanks Cory!

(note: Glyn had some mic problems, he may have actually turned off the mic... so Dave had to do a lot of signal processing to get this one out, so there may be some points that are a bit rough).

Enjoy the interview.

Frans Mäyrä Keynote

2007-10-29T20:14:00.000-04:00

The paper sessions are great at FuturePlay, and so are the keynotes. Over the next week or so I will shine the spotlight on the different keynote speakers. Here is a short summary of Frans Mäyrä's upcoming keynote at FuturePlay 2007, his title is"The Role of Digital Play in a Society: The Case of Finland"

During the last few decades, we have witnessed fast-paced changes taking place in contemporary societies, much of them related to the adoption and use of information and communication technologies. Digital games often appear to play a particular role in this development, taking the everyday use of computers beyond the more restricted work-related functions and opening ways for interactive media to become a truly popular cultural, global phenomenon. Yet it is hard to make any precise claims about the exact role computer and video games currently hold in a society. Many of the most commonly quoted demographic figures are produced by entertainment industry organisations and are not based on reliable academic studies. As the methodologies used in producing such core data are not open for peer-review, it is difficult to say whether our perception of games and digital play in a wider societal context is tilted or accurate.

In his Future Play conference keynote professor Mäyrä will present some of the findings from a nation-wide survey carried out in Finland by the University of Tampere Games Research Lab. Focusing on such fundamental issues as how many and what sort of people are actually playing digital games, what kind of playing styles or use of time for gameplay are common among them, and which games are most popular in different age and > gender groups, he will paint a picture of a Western, late industrial society and its involvement in digital play. Mäyrä will also discuss the methodological challenges related to gathering and analysing such data, and point out further directions for study into the socio-cultural research of games and players.

T6 Flashback 8 - An Interview With Jim Parker

2007-10-28T15:20:00.000-04:00

For episode 20 of t6 I interviewed FuturePlay attendee Jim Parker.

Dr. Parker is a specialist in computer perception (vision, hearing) for intelligent interfaces. His special interest is the use of perceptive interfaces in interactive video games, especially for teaching. His research includes vision and hearing, gesture, and gaze, and he has designed and built computer games for teaching. Jim initiated the computer games concentration and the computer game programming class at the University of Calgary.

Two of his current projects are the I'powahsin project. (Teaching aboriginal langauges using computer games) and Turtle Island a Massively Multiplayer online game (virtual universe) modeling the aboriginal world of a thousand years ago.

Dr. Parker heads the digital media lab at U of Calgary.

Enjoy.

Arcademy Games Awards Prize Packages Annoucned

2007-10-25T20:22:00.000-04:00

This stuff just keeps on showing up in my inbox, and, well, I am passing it on to you, cuz well, that is just what I do...

Category: Future Indie Games
Arcademy Games Awards 1st prize: Total value more than $5,000
A one-day usability session and analysis by the Microsoft Games User Research group, just like that used for games such as Halo 3 and Mass Effect. Your game will benefit from the same scientific testing techniques in Microsoft Game Studios’ state-of-the-art research labs.
An analysis of game ergonomics and playability provided by Bug-Tracker, providing proven quality assurance and testing for functionality, localization and compatibility.

Software package from Groove Games, a unique Internet publishing label for independent games and game makers. “We are a band of professional game makers committed to publishing truly original and exciting titles on our own terms. We want to give any and all game makers the opportunity to publish their games, find their audiences - and perhaps make their fortunes.”
SSMIC – ½ day consultation and review of business plan by the award-winning IT Incubator and Algoma U partner. SSMIC is an internationally recognized catalyst for growth in the information technology (IT) and knowledge based sectors.
Copy of the Game Production Handbook, written by the lecturer Heather Chandler.

Arcademy Games Awards 2nd prize
Copy of the Game Production Handbook, written by the lecturer Heather Chandler.
Hardware prize package from University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Algoma U.

Category: Future Serious Games
Arcademy Games Award 1st prize: Total value more than $5,000
An analysis of game ergonomics and playability provided by Bug-Tracker, providing proven quality assurance and testing for functionality, localization and compatibility.
Software package from Groove Games, a unique Internet publishing label for independent games and game makers. “We are a band of professional game makers committed to publishing truly original and exciting titles on our own terms. We want to give any and all game makers the opportunity to publish their games, find their audiences - and perhaps make their fortunes.”

SSMIC – ½ day consultation and review of business plan by the award-winning IT Incubator and Algoma U partner. SSMIC is an internationally recognized catalyst for growth in the information technology (IT) and knowledge based sectors.
Copy of the Game Production Handbook, written by the lecturer Heather Chandler.
Arcademy Games Awards 2nd prize
Copy of the Game Production Handbook, written by the lecturer Heather Chandler.
Hardware prize package from University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Algoma U.

Category: Future Student Games
Arcademy Games Awards 1st prize: Total value more than $5,000
An analysis of game ergonomics and playability provided by Bug-Tracker, providing proven quality assurance and testing for functionality, localization and compatibility.
Software package from Groove Games, a unique Internet publishing label for independent games and game makers. “We are a band of professional game makers committed to publishing truly original and exciting titles on our own terms. We want to give any and all game makers the opportunity to publish their games, find their audiences - and perhaps make their fortunes.”

SSMIC – ½ day consultation and review of business plan by the award-winning IT Incubator and Algoma U partner. SSMIC is an internationally recognized catalyst for growth in the information technology (IT) and knowledge based sectors.
Copy of the Game Production Handbook, written by the lecturer Heather Chandler.
Arcademy Games Awards 2nd prize
Copy of the Game Production Handbook, written by the lecturer Heather Chandler.
Hardware prize package from University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Algoma U.

The Arcademy Games Awards at Future Play 2007

2007-10-25T20:12:00.000-04:00

Future Play 2007 is proud to host the first annual Arcademy Games Awards, to recognise new and emerging talent in game design.

The Arcademy Games Awards will be awarded to the first and second place selections in the Future Play 2007 International Games Competition, in the following categories:

Future Indie Games-- this category is for games that experiment with new game technologies or design concepts.

Future Serious Games-- this category is for games that are not necessarily built for pure entertainment purposes (i.e. Serious Games), such as games that are for learning purposes.

Future Student Games-- this category is for students who have built an original, entertainment game title and wish to show off their talents, earn publicity for their school, gain personal recognition, and perhaps even find a publisher for that game.
Thanks to new sponsors who have offered generous support, Future Play 2007 is pleased to offer the Arcademy Games Awards to participants in the Future Play 2007 Games Competition.
Winners will be selected at the International Judging Reception on Friday, November 16th, at the Novotel Toronto.

More On The Student Experience at FuturePlay

2007-10-21T20:28:00.000-04:00

Gavan Acton is a graduate of Algoma's Computer Science programme and has been to each and every edition of FP. He has also been a frequent guest on T6. I emailed Gav the other day and asked him a few questions about his experiences at FP 05, 06 and his hopes for the 07 conference in Toronto. Currently, Gav is a grad student in Computer Science at UWO.

Dave Brodbeck: Gavan what are your best memories of past FuturePlay conferences?

Gavan Acton: My first Futureplay experience was completely insane. Futureplay 2005 - I went down not really knowing what to expect from the speakers. I was blown away by the keynotes. Their depth of knowledge, clarity of ideas and perspectives really got me thinking. When I left the conference, my head chewed on their ideas for weeks.

I still remember the ride home after the conference vividly, I sat in the back seat of the van thinking of how to apply so much of what I had heard over the last couple days into a new gaming experience. The result was some of the fundamental game mechanics that we later used in a game called Flux( that won a few awards at Dare to Be Digitall and Futureplay 2006.

Presenting and pitching a game to Clint Hocking was pretty dam cool. I also really enjoyed the games competition and not because I had a game in it. There is always so many interesting games that make you look at gaming differently. Last year there was this one game made for the blind that blew me away. You basically had to ski down this mountain only using your ears to guide you. I found the experience very visceral and left me thinking about a whole set of new game mechanics that could make use of senses other then the visual. Very interesting stuff and definitely not conventional.

DB: What are you looking forward to this year?

GA: What you are looking forward to

More of the same from the last two years. That would be spectacular. I am really looking forward to the panel "Players Gaming the Play, Toolsets, and Creativity in and around Games". I love the possibilities of new online worlds that seriously engage a player with a gameplay but also with content provide by both the game studio and players themselves. Online gaming communities have so many possible avenues of interesting entertainment, it's future is exciting. This panel looks to talk about some of these issues. I am also reading a fantastic book by one of the panelists(Katherine Isbister), it should be interesting to hear her speak.

The other panel that looks awesome is "Games for Immersive Learning in other Subjects". The panelist line up looks fantastic. The conversations will definitely be interesting.

Did I mention Keynotes? I am pumped.

DB: Do some name dropping, who have you met at FuturePlay?

GA: Ha. I am terrible with names. Let me dig up some business cards. ;-)

Clint Hocking (Ubisoft - Splinter Cell anyone?)
Micheal Mateas ( Co-Creator of Fascade - Ranked third most influential AI game according to aigamedev.com )
Ernest Adams ( The man with the insane hats! and a ton of game design books)
Ken Perlin ( Inventor of Perlin Noise - used in Half Life 2 a so many other games for NPC character motion and emotion expression).
Ricardo Rademache (Insane Physicist meets creator of WOW type learning world)

I really could keep going but wont. Futureplay has always pulled amazing people from both the industry and Academe. Luckily not many of them have rabies, so you can just go talk with them. Its not like GDC were its almost impossible to talk with anyone because your all crunched like sardines. It definitely has a relaxed feel.

DB:What was your experience like as an undergraduate at FuturePlay 05 and 06?

GA:My experience as an undergrad was fantastic. I walked around like a tourist, taking in as much as I could and all the while being a little awestruck. Although I have played video games my whole life, I had no idea the depth of creative thought that goes into them. Everything from the player experience, to the economics, to the legal, psychological and moral issues are all discussed. Futureplay definitely got my feet wet to the gaming world.

DB: Now you are a graduate student, do you expect your experience to be any different this time around?

GA: Ha good question. It will definitely be different in that I have much more experience in games now. Having been had the opportunity at Dare to be Digital to apply what I learned at Futureplay, I can listen with the experience of real game development. This will help me get a better understanding of the possible application of the speakers ideas. More then that, now that I have a very specific research area in AI for games, I will definitely be attending specific research presentations within my field.

Other then that, my guess is that I will be as blown away as I have been previous Futureplay conferences.

DB: At FuturePlay 2006 you spoke about your experience at Dare to Be Digital, was that a little scary?

GA: Public speaking can be scary. I always try to use coping mechanisms like drinking and/or dressing up in a Halo Master Chief suit. For whatever reason, I find imagining the crowd naked to be terrible distracting...Honestly, having presented the game 200 times over the course of 10 weeks at Dare, speaking in public becomes much easier. My nervousness fades after the first 20 seconds or so and then... i just look awesome in an armor suit. ;-)

T6 Flashback -7 Video Games Are Good For You

2007-10-14T20:12:00.000-04:00

After the FuturePlay 2005 Conference in Lansing Michigan I was fortunate enough to interview Dr. Jim Gee, who presented at FP 05.

Dr. Gee received his Ph.D in linguistics from Stanford University in 1975. He started his career in theoretical linguistics, working in syntactic and semantic theory, and taught initially in the School of Language and Communication at Hampshire College in Amherst Massachusetts. He went on to do research in psycholinguistics at Northeastern University in Boston and at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Holland.

As his research focus began to switch to studies on discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and applications of linguistics to literacy and education, he took a position in the School of Education at Boston University, where he was the chair of the Department of Developmental Studies and Counseling. From Boston University, he went on to serve as a professor of linguistics in the Linguistics Department at the University of Southern California and, later, served as the first Jacob Hiatt Professor of Education in the Hiatt Center for Urban Education at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

In 1998, he became the Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. From 1989-1992, Prof. Gee was a co-director of the Mellon Foundation funded Literacies Institute in Newton, Massachusetts, an organization that sponsored joint teacher and researcher research on language and literacy. From 1995-1998, he was co-director of a Spencer Foundation funded research project at Clark University that ran a community-based after-school science project for culturally diverse urban middle-school children.

Prof. Gee’s work over the last decade has centered on the development of an integrated theory of language, literacy, and schooling, a theory that draws on work in socially situated cognition, sociocultural approaches to language and literacy, language development, discourse studies, critical theory, and applied linguistics. Prof. Gee’s recent work has extended his ideas on language, literacy, and society to deal with the so-called "new capitalism" and its cognitive, social, and political implications for literacy and schooling.

More recently, he has engaged in research on learning and literacy in video and computer games. He has published widely in journals in linguistics, psychology, the social sciences, and education and is a member of the editorial board of twelve journals. In 1989, the Journal of Education, one of the longest running journals in education in the United States, published a special issue devoted to reprinting his early essays on literacy.

His books include Sociolinguistics and Literacies (1990, Second Edition 1996); The Social Mind (1992); Introduction to Human Language (1993); The New Work Order: Behind the Language of the New Capitalism (1996, with Glynda Hull and Colin Lankshear); and An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method (1999); and Power Up: What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (to appear in 2003).

Direct Download Link

T6 Flashback -6 - The Student Perspective

2007-10-10T20:09:00.000-04:00

Of course, FuturePlay is not just for people in the industry and academics, it is for students too. Each year we have many students, grad and undergrad, present papers and posters and/or enter the game competition.

After FuturePlay 05 I sat down at the Speakeasy with Algoma University students Gavan Acton, Glen Hamilton-Brown, Darren Schnare and Mack Khairi. These guys were at FuturePlay 05 and did a heck of a lot of work behind the scenes, but they also managed to take in a lot of the conference.

We talked about video game design and what they learned at the conference. They also talked about what games they currently play.

I told Darren that he would be pwned on xbox live. As he has never added me to his friends list I assume he is afraid of me, and not that he just does not like me...

Direct episode download

T6 Flashbacks- 5 - Sex, Lies and Video Games

2007-10-04T07:01:00.000-04:00

From the Future Play conference 2005 in Lansing, Michigan.

Right after the Henry Jenkins/Ernest Adams sit down some folks gathered around and started just talking. Isabelle, Glyn, Henry Jenkins, Ernest Adams, Amanda Flowers, Andy Gilgallon, Patrick Schaffer, Keith Schaffer, Brenda Brathwaite and I discussed sex in video games. Andy and Amanda are from MSU while the Schaffer boys are from Ferris State.

Brenda is a 22-year veteran of the games industry, Brenda has worked on 20 published titles including the award-winning Wizardry series of role playing games and the award-winning Jagged Alliance series of strategy role-playing games. Most recently, she was lead designer on Playboy: The Mansion for Cyberlore as well as Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes for Atari. She has been interviewed extensively on women in the games industry and, most recently, on sex in games.

Brenda recently hosted the "Sexuality in Games" Roundtable at the 2005 Game Developers Conference and has been a guest lecturer at numerous colleges and universities. In her role as Senior Designer at Cyberlore Studios, she is frequently called upon to produce concept and proposal documents for all kinds of IP from the mild to the wild.

Brenda resides in western Massachusetts, home to the Indian Motorcycle Museum, the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Volleyball Hall of Fame none of which she has ever visited. Not surprisingly, Brenda spends her free time playing games and reading books about games.

She is also an avid collector of Playboy magazines and owns over 500 issues.

Direct Download

T6 Flashbacks- 4

2007-09-29T16:45:00.000-04:00

The beauty of a conference like FuturePlay is that sometimes you just get lucky enough to meet two people in somewhat different fields that are just talking about the issues. I know I often say that sometimes you learn more during the conference breaks than at the talks (not that the talks aren't awesome). Whether it is having a beer or coffee with someone, or just hanging out between sessions, you can meet some cool people.

At Future Play 2005, I had the opportunity to sit down with Ernest Adams and Henry Jenkins.

Ernest Adams consults on game design for many clients across the world. He is widely published (co-author of two of the industry’s required-reading list "Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design" and "Break into the Game Industry: How to Get a Job Making Video Games" and numerous articles, papers and columns) and spends much of his time lecturing on game design at conferences and universities in Europe and North America. He is the founder of the International Game Developers’ Association (IGDA) and a 16-year industry veteran. Clients have included Ubisoft, THQ, Elixir Studios, Guinness World Records, Sorrent, Terraplay, and A2M. Ernest is currently on the Program Review Board of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) Annual Conference and also on the Editorial Board of ACM Computers in Entertainment Magazine. He has a BA in Philosophy from Stanford University.

Ernest’s current projects include consulting on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for THQ, and working on a textbook edition of "Rollings and Adams on Game Design."

Henry Jenkins is Professor of Literature and Comparative Media Studies & Director, Comparative Media Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

His books and articles have been major contributions to existing fields of inquiry such as film history (What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic; Classical Hollywood Comedy), Political Communications (Democracy and New Media) and Children’s Studies (The Children’s Culture Reader); his works have helped to establish new fields such as media ethnography (Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture; Science Fiction Audiences: Dr. Who, Star Trek and their Followers), and game studies (From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games).

His current book project, Convergence Culture: Where New and Old Media Intersect, examines contemporary trends in the entertainment industry, online culture, and audience participation. He is the principle investigator for the Education Arcade, a MIT-University of Wisconsin-Madison collaboration to explore the pedagogical use of computer and video games. He is the co-editor of the Media in Transition series at the MIT Press. He writes monthly columns on media and technology for Technology Review Online and Computer Games Magazine. He has testified about youth and violence before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, about media literacy before the Federal Communications Commission, and about copyright before the Governor’s Board of the World Economic Forum.

Jenkins is also heading an new research collaboration, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, focused on understanding the skills children need to learn and communicate in the coming decades.

We talked video game ratings, violence in games, the GTA Hot Coffee controversy among other things.

Direct episode download.

Enjoy.

T6 Flashbacks- 3

2007-09-25T17:33:00.000-04:00

Our third T6 Flashback features an interview with Victor Lucas of the Electric Playground and Judgement Day.

I managed to connect with Victor Lucas of the Electric Playground and Judgement Day TV series while I was at the University fair in 2005, recruiting students. Victor is the co-host and executive producer of these two shows that can be seen on G4, G4TechTV Canada, Razer, Space and well all over the place.

We talked about Vic's favourite games, his favourite all time games, about next Gen consoles and about the convergence of video games and other media forms.

While Vic could not make FuturePlay it is still gaming content so, hell, I thought I would repost this one.

Enjoy.

Direct Download

T6 Flashbacks- 2

2007-09-23T16:51:00.000-04:00

In the runup to FuturePlay 2005 I interviewed gaming industry luminary Greg Costikyan.

Greg joined me on the phone from New York where he works as a developer and commentator as well as a science fiction and fantasy writer. Greg is on the editorial board of Gamestudies and is the chief creative officer of Unplugged Inc.

We talked about the future of the industry, the effects of the convergence of gaming and other media forms (movies etc) and Greg shares his passion for World of Warcraft.

Greg also gave a preview of what he talked about in his keynote at FuturePlay 2005.

Note, there are some audio problems in this episode, and they are completely my fault.

Direct Episode Download.

T6 Flashbacks- 1

2007-09-18T16:34:00.000-04:00

If this is your first time at FuturePlay you might want to know a bit about some of the past conferences.

Well, I have a little (13 000 subscriber, pats self on back) podcast called thunderbird six that covers FuturePlay each year (and other cool stuff, like interviewing other podcasters, people at Algoma University, bands and people that I frankly find interesting like Cory Doctorow or astronomer Seth Shostak).

I thought it might be cool to start a series of T6 flashbacks, basically re post old interviews and content from the conference. In our second episode I interviewed Jeb Havens back in 05 before FuturePlay 2005 in Lansing Michigan.

Jeb is a Lead Designer for 1st Playable Productions near Albany, NY. and was Lead Designer on Marvel Trading Card Game for the DS, and is now Lead Designer on Disney Princess: Magical Jewels DS. Before that, he was a designer on Playboy: The Mansion and was Lead Designer on the Private Party expansion pack for that game.

Enjoy.

Direct Episode Download

Pre Conference Seminar Wednesday November 14

2007-09-17T19:19:00.000-04:00

Emails are coming in with abandon...

Pre-Conference Seminar: Wednesday November 14

Project Management Training Seminar for Game Development Professionals – Heather Chandler

Registration: 8 am

Please pre-register online as space is limited and walk-in registrations may not be accepted

Training Seminar 9 am – 5pm Refreshments and Lunch included

What Is It? A full-day practical and essential training in leading production teams through all phases of game development.

Who Should Attend? This day-long session is ideal for anyone who leads a game development team of any size. Those new to the leadership role will leave with new tools to help them keep projects on track, motivate team members, and conduct risk analysis.

Cost is $350 for the full, one day seminar and includes lunch, refreshments, and your personal copy of "The Game Production Handbook".

Location: Novotel Room TBA

FuturePlay 2007 Schedule Confirmed

2007-09-17T19:03:00.000-04:00

I just received an email from the FP organizers saying that the schedule is posted. Check it out here.

Why Are We Here?

2007-09-17T18:27:00.000-04:00

Hey look, first post...

Well, the purpose of this blog is to get information about FuturePlay 2007 out to the community. I promise lots of content on the blog, and the frequency of posting will ramp up as the conference approaches. I will also live blog from the conference.

Of course, there will be content from the thunderbird six podcast, including interviews with past conference attendees, and a couple of past paper presentations.

The Future Play Conference focuses on three main themes. The first theme, future game development, addresses academic research and emerging industry trends in the area of game technology and game design. The second theme, future game impacts and applications, includes academic research and emerging industry trends focused on designing games for learning, for gender, for serious purposes, and to impact society. Finally, the third theme, future game talent, is designed to provide a number of industry and academic perspectives on the knowledge, skills, and attitude it takes to excel in the games industry.

Future Play addresses these issues through exciting and thought-provoking keynotes from leaders in academia and industry, peer-reviewed paper sessions, panel sessions (including academic and industry discussions), workshops (including design, technology, and career workshops), and exhibitions of posters, games, and the latest game technologies and supports from industry-leading vendors. The highlight of the games exhibition is a peer-reviewed competition of games in three categories: Indie Games, Serious Games, and Student Games.

For Future Play 2007, Algoma University College teams up with the University of Ontario Institute of Technology to bring you some of the most thought provoking and talented people in the gaming world today.