GDC Europe Keynotes
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Main Keynotes
Warren Spector
Creative Director
Disney Interactive Studios' Junction Point
"What Videogames Can Learn from Other Media...What We Can't...And What We Shouldn't"
Date/Time: Monday (August 16, 2010), 3:30pm-4:20pm
Keynote Description:
Videogames are always being compared to one medium or another.
- Most commonly, we're described as being like movies (or television or theater or radio) and many game developers harbor secret (or not so secret) aspirations to make movies.
- We turn to talent from other media to show us the way to mainstream acceptance. Film directors act as video game creative directors. Writers – from screenwriters to novelists to comic book scribes – are hired to put words in our characters' mouths.
- Techniques borrowed from film and television animation bring our characters to life. Visual effects development and audio design from film, television and radio are utilized to take our characters and worlds to new heights of believability and appeal.
Clearly, there's a case to be made for borrowing storytelling and lighting techniques from movies. Award-winning games have built on animation techniques from film and television. It makes sense to rely on approaches to audio pioneered in television or radio.
But just how far can, or should, this idea that we're "like other media" be taken? Do these constant comparisons actually make sense? Are we just like other media (or close enough to justify borrowing techniques and talent)?
Warren Spector, veteran game developer and current Creative Director for Disney Interactive Studios' Junction Point, will discuss how valid these comparisons are and suggest some new comparisons that may bear as much or more fruit. Using examples from a variety of media and a variety of games, he will examine what we have learned, what we still have to learn in the future and where we may even have learned things that hold us back from reaching our potential as the unique medium we must strive to become.
Biography:
Warren Spector is a 27-year game development veteran with 6 years in tabletop games at 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.
In addition to making games, Warren has been a novelist ("The Hollow Earth Affair," published in 1988), a film reviewer for the Austin Chronicle and an Assistant Instructor for film and television studies at the University of Texas-Austin. From 2000-2002, he served on the Board of Directors of the International Game Developers Association and served as co-chair of the IGDA's education committee. In 2007, Warren returned to UT Austin to teach a Master Class in Videogames and Digital Media.
Warren graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL with a B.S. in Speech and received his Master of Arts in Radio-Television-Film. He remained at UT to pursue a Ph.D. in Communications until the game business lured him away from academia just a dissertation short of a degree.
He is currently working on the Disney Epic Mickey video game available this holiday season, exclusively for the Nintendo Wii, offering gamers of all ages the opportunity to experience the world's most popular cartoon star, Mickey Mouse, as a true video game hero for the first time.
Hermen Hulst
Managing Director
Guerrilla Games
"Bottled Storm: Game Development Guerrilla Style"
Date/Time: Tuesday (August 17, 2010), 3:30pm- 4:20pm
Keynote Description:
Hermen Hulst will be providing an inside look at Guerrilla’s processes and practices in establishing the Killzone franchise. From the early days of Killzone 1 through to the still to be released Killzone 3, Hermen will talk about how there are always new challenges to overcome and Guerrilla’s way of dealing with these challenges.
Hermen will be sharing what is different and unique about Guerrilla’s approach, from the philosophy and studio culture to more specific day-to-day details or technical solutions, the audience will better understand how Guerrilla has matured in 3 key areas: creatively, technologically and from an organization standpoint.
Biography:
As Managing Director, Hermen Hulst is responsible for the company's direction and oversees its day to day management. He gained his first experience in the games industry during his student years at Ubisoft in the USA. After finishing his Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management, Hulst started his career at Philips Electronics in Strategic Marketing. He worked as a management consultant at Andersen Consulting before returning to the games industry. Hermen has been the Managing Director of Guerrilla since 2001.
Track Keynotes
Bo Wang
Vice President
Tencent Games
"Bridging the East and West: The Tencent Games Story"
Date/Time: Monday (August 16, 2010), 11:20am-12:10pm
Keynote Description:
Founded in 1998, Tencent today is a leading provider of Internet and mobile & telecommunications value-added services in China. Tencent aims to enrich the interactive online experience of Internet users in China by providing a comprehensive range of Internet and wireless value-added services, through its various online platforms, including Instant Messaging QQ, web portal QQ.com, QQ Game portal, multi-media social networking service Qzone and wireless portal. As at March 31, 2010, Tencent has more than 568 million active user accounts on its instant messaging QQ platform.
In his keynote address, Tencent Games Vice President of Business Development, Bo Wang will detail the success of one of China's leading game companies, its development plans for the future, and how Western developers and business can learn and work with major Chinese firms such as Tencent.
Biography:
Mr. Bo Wang is the vice president of Tencent Games responsible for worldwide partnership development. He joined Tencent in 2006 and held various management roles on corporate development and international business. Before that, he has over ten years experience in the telecommunication industry, serving companies like Huawei Technologies and Nokia in Asia and Latin America. Mr. Bo Wang earned his MBA from the University of Michigan in 2003 and holds a bachelor degree in computer engineering from a college in Beijing. He now lives with his wife and daughter in Shenzhen, China.
Heiko Hubertz
CEO and Founder
Bigpoint GmbH
Date/Time: Tuesday (August 17, 2010), 11:20am-12:10pm
Keynote Description:
Browser-based online video games, once thought of as limited casual experiences that offer consumers little in terms of gameplay and graphical quality, are pushing the boundaries of what has traditionally been possible within web-browsers. As a result, they are rapidly gaining preference among traditional gamers around the world and are redefining the industry. Driven by the advent of new technologies and more adaptive business models, development studios, publishers, and independent game-makers are all scrambling to compete in this rapidly evolving landscape.
Despite growing competition and stratification across the online games industry, European-based companies continue to maintain – and increase – their leadership position around the world. This leadership stems not only from Europe’s abundant creativity and innovative-spirit, but also its deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities that exist beyond its borders. Europe itself is home to a more diverse population than perhaps any other continent. Coupled with the increasingly complex global challenges presented by the emerging markets of Asia and North America, these European companies are far better equipped to deal with difficulties of penetrating new markets, languages, and cultural barriers than their counterparts housed within less complex regions of the globe.
Bigpoint CEO and Founder, Heiko Hubertz, will discuss the latest business and technological trends that are quickly revolutionizing online gaming. A strong emphasis will be placed on emerging opportunities in North America, including a brief look at some of the new technology that will help fuel growth in that key market. Relying on lessons learned during his tenure at Bigpoint as he built it into one of the top companies in this industry, Mr. Hubertz will also provide perspective on the myriad of challenges that European companies can expect to encounter should they attempt to enter, compete – and succeed – in the North American market.
Throughout the keynote address, Mr. Hubertz will enlighten conference attendees with valuable insights into the industry and anecdotes about the online gaming business, including the '10 percent' rule, analysis of typical development costs and ROI, the importance of marketing and maintenance, and how to effectively manage an online offering over an extended lifetime to ensure revenue continues to grow.
Finally, Mr. Hubertz will address the future of online gaming, and demonstrate how next-generation browser based games – titles that replicate the quality and consumer engagement normally associated with console and PC games – are not only coming sooner than expected, but are poised to permanently change the entire face of the video game industry – on or off-line. Mr. Hubertz will showcase some of the latest projects under development at Bigpoint, including an updated look into the development of Battlestar Galactica Online, among others.
Biography:
Heiko Hubertz is the founder and chief executive officer of Bigpoint. The company, which was founded in 2002 in Düsseldorf, is the world's largest portal for browser games and counts among the top 3 gaming portals in the world. Hubertz started Bigpoint – which now has locations in Hamburg, Berlin, Malta, and San Francisco – by developing the first game himself. Since then, the company has expanded to over 500 employees from 35 nations who develop and operate an innovative portfolio of online games, including Dark Orbit, Seafight, and Farmerama.
Back in 1999, Heiko Hubertz had already noticed the potential of these new technologies, and as the Managing Director of AASP GmbH, created the first telephone payment system. With the merger of AASP with eops AG and Coolspot AG, the native of Schleswig-Holstein was responsible for running Coolspot AG, the most successful payment solutions company in Europe, until October 2003.
In 2007, the successful entrepreneur, who jump started his executive career in 2000 as a "Champion Founder", received second place as Internet Businessman of the Year 2007, and in 2009 he received the International Business Award Stevie® as the "Executive of the Year in Europe" – and with the rapid growth of Bigpoint GmbH, he demonstrated how the development of technological innovations, the willingness to experiment and growing knowledge of the browser game industry could evolve into a valuable market segment which could even compete with other computer and console games.
As a business advisor and mentor, Heiko Hubertz is personally committed to promoting and supporting young start-up companies such as Young Internet GmbH (panfu.de), tamola GmbH (tamola.de) and Easybill GmbH (easybill.de).
