GDC Austin opens its doors

The 7th annual Game Developers Conference Austin (or GDC Austin for short) returns to the Austin Convention Center today, kicking off 4 days of sessions focused on the connected gaming space, covering MMOs, virtual worlds and social networking games. New to GDC Austin this year is a lineup of two day of summits centered on Game Writers, Game Audio, iPhone Games and Independent Games development. 

GDC Austin serves up more than 130 lectures, panels, keynotes, and roundtable discussions, presented by 230 industry insiders and an expo floor with more than 80 exhibitors and sponsors. The event ends Friday, September 18.

Speakers include John Smedley, President, Sony Online Entertainment; J. Allen Brack, Production Director, Blizzard Entertainment and Frank Pearce, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President of Product Development, Blizzard Entertainment; and Sebastien de Halleux, COO & Co-Founder, Playfish.

Learn more at www.GDCAustin.com.

BioWare has teamed up with Tor Books to publish Dragon Age: The Calling, a new novel set in the world of Dragon Age: Origins, BioWare’s newest role-playing game franchise set for release in November of this year. Dragon Age: Origins lead writer David Gaider, follows up his debut novel, Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, with a new adventure set in the dark fantasy universe of Dragon Age: Origins. Dragon Age: The Calling is scheduled to release on October 13, 2009, for $14.99.

Dragon Age: Origins is scheduled to release on November 3, 2009 in North America and November 6, 2009 in Europe for the PC and Xbox 360, with the PS3 version coming later in November. The game is rated “M” for “Mature” by the ESRB mostly because of the sex BioWare has talked about - or at least that’s my guess.

Playfish founder to keynote GDC Austin

Sebastien de Halleux, chief operating officer and co-founder, of social games developer and publisher Playfish will deliver the keynote address at the 2009 Game Developers Conference Austin (GDC Austin). The keynote will take place the morning of September 18, 2009, at the Austin Convention Center.

Sebastien de Halleux’s keynote will focus on how these social platforms can be used to create engaging games and why developers should be looking at social networks as a burgeoning area of videogame design and business development. Playfish has succeeded by expanded its reach beyond traditional gamers and putting an emphasis on interaction between friends.

More than 100 million copies of its games across nine titles have been installed, after only 18 months since its launch in late 2007. Playfish’s games include the popular hits Pet Society, Restaurant City, Who Has The Biggest Brain? and Crazy Planets. Players access these games via web browsers through social networking sites including Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.

To register for GDC Austin, visit www.GDCAustin.com.

John Smedley to keynote GDC Austin

 John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, will deliver a keynote address Game Developers Conference Austin (GDC Austin. Smedley’s keynote, “From Dragons and Daggers to Kart Racing, Cooking and Concerts…It’s a Whole New MMO World,” describes in detail how SOE’s freely available tween and teen title Free Realms has worked to expand the base of players coming together in online worlds. Smedley’s keynote will inform attendees about the challenges and lessons learned when creating a full-blown MMO for younger audiences including the challenges and opportunity of creating connected games.

GDC Austin features three days of main conference content focused on connected games, online games, virtual worlds, and social networking game play - along with four two-day summits including the Game Writers, Game Audio, iPhone Games and Independent Games Summits. The event takes place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-18, 2009. Early registration discounts for the event will end on August 13. Find out more at www.GDCAustin.com

Blizzard headlines GDC Austin

The Game Developers Conference Austin will feature a keynote by Frank Pearce, executive vice president of product development and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, and J. Allen Brack, the production director on Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft. In a joint keynote, entitled “The Universe of World of Warcraft,” Pearce and Brack will talk about the challenges involved with operating one of the world’s most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing games.

Presented by Think Services, GDC Austin is a major event for game development, featuring three days of main conference content focused on connected games; online games, virtual worlds, and social networking game play and four two-day summits including the Game Writers, Game Audio, iPhone Games and Independent Games Summits. The event takes place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-18, 2009.

For more information on the event, check out www.GDCAustin.com.

The Rundown: April 16, 2009

A light day on The Rundown, but here are a few late night notes for you:

G4BOX and Wicked Interactive have launched SubaGames.com’s free military first-person shooter Cross Fire. Cross Fire is a free-to-play, persistent world, military shooter developed by SmileGate and Neowiz.

Think Services passed along word that the call for submissions for the 2009 Game Developers Conference Austin (GDC Austin) is now open. The submissions to present lectures, roundtables and full day tutorials will be accepted for review by the GDC Austin advisory boards through Friday, May 8th. GDC Austin is a four-day event taking place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-18, 2009.

Indie developer Spiders, a studio founded by the creators of Silverfall and Earth Awakening, have released the first video of their upcoming game - Mars, reflecting the dark and ambient mood of this new universe. This video, shot from the version shown on PS3 at the GDC in San Francisco this year, is revealed on the official web site.