GDC Online Keynotes
Playing Well With Others – How PopCap Creates Compelling Social Game Experiences
Speaker: John Vechey (VP of Internal Business Development, PopCap Games)
Date/Time/Location: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at 9:30am, Ballroom A
PopCap wrote the book on casual games. And in this session, PopCap founder John Vechey will explore how the company is adapting its catalog of some of the most successful single player games of all time to social platforms. How have mobile and social platforms impacted the design philosophy of the PopCap team? What makes a great single player game? What makes a great social game? Heck, what just makes a great game?
About John Vechey: John Vechey co-founded PopCap Games with Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka in 2000, and has been instrumental in driving nearly every aspect of the company's operations at one time or another. Vechey served as PopCap's interim CEO until 2003, heading up business development and securing some of PopCap's largest partnerships with major Web portals and game publishers. Vechey built PopCap's direct-to-consumer experience as Director of PopCap.com, overseeing all aspects of the company's Web site and online presence while directing PopCap's e-commerce, privacy/security and online games services. Vechey then worked in both the Business Development and Game Studio to establish PopCap's social games business. In 2009 he helped launch and grow Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook which went from zero to 25 million users in its first twelve months. Vechey manages PopCap's strategic investments and acquisitions, and helps shape and guide the global business and product strategy.
Game Narrative Summit Keynote
Music, Movies, Microcode & High-Speed Pizza Delivery: A Conversation with Neal Stephenson
Speaker: Neal Stephenson (Author of Snow Crash)
Date/Time/Location: Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 11:00am, Ballroom C
Summit: Game Narrative
Few writers are dearer to the hearts of gamers and the people who make games for them than Neal Stephenson. The author of Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, Zodiac, and the three-volume Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World), he has redefined genres from cyberpunk to the historical epic with a lacerating intellect and the soul of a jacked-in Romantic poet. Now, to celebrate the publication of his new novel REAMDE -- set against the backdrop of the games industry -- Stephenson comes to the Game Narrative Summit at GDC Online for a unique conversation led by renowned video game journalist and "GameTrailers TV" host Geoff Keighley.
Book signing immediately follows at 12:30-1:30pm, in Expo Hall 1, Booth 728. Book available for pre-purchase at the Official GDC Online Bookstore located in 1st Floor Palazzo.
About Neal Stephenson: Neal Stephenson is the author of Anathem; the three-volume historical epic the Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World); Cryptonomicon; The Diamond Age; Snow Crash, which was named one of Time magazine's top one hundred all-time best English-language novels; and Zodiac. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
About Geoff Keighley: Geoff Keighley is a video game journalist. His work spans on-line, print and TV outlets, and he has been writing about games since the year 1992. He is most well known as the host of the Spike TV video game show Game Head, which is consistently the highest rated video games show on television. Keighley is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Business 2.0, Electronic Gaming Monthly and Entertainment Weekly, among others. Currently, besides hosting Game Head, Keighley can still be seen as a correspondent on another G4 show, The Electric Playground, and his work can be read in monthly columns in the Official Xbox Magazine and on the Gamefly website. He is known for not just writing reviews and previews, but going behind the scenes of the game industry for in-depth business profiles and lengthy feature pieces. In 2005 GameDaily named him as the best journalist of the year, and in 2004 NewsBios.com named him one of the best 30 business journalists in the world under 30. He is also only one of two journalists -- the other being 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace -- profiled in the Harvard Business School press book "Geeks and Geezers" by noted leadership expert Warren Bennis.
GDC Online Track Keynotes
Chaos in Motion: Transmedia as a Living Community Experience
Speaker: David Calvo (Creative Director, Ankama)
Date/Time/Location: Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 11:00am, Room 6
Track: Customer Experience
Secondary Track: Game Design
From the trenches of the transmedia warfare, Ankama has pioneered an approach qualified both as innovative and impossible: creating a sprawling, versatile universe from user feedback and strong community involvement. Starting in the nexus of DOFUS, then Wakfu, Ankama's world model has evolved beyond all known media boundaries. Presenting the company experience, from its inception in the suburbs of northern France, to its international position as a key transmedia player, this talk will unveil some of the most secret recipes of its successes, some lessons from the failures, and deliver a bold statement about the future of the entertainment industry.
About David Calvo: Writer, Narrative designer and cartoonist, David Calvo has worked at Ankama for 4 years, on the front lines of the transmedia conception. Taking its inspiration from mythopoetic and improvisational play, he has been testing the limits of any medium he's been working on, video games, novels, comic books and cartoons. Adding a whimsical touch to everything he stands for, he's the proponent of a new, affectionate anarchism to lead our new creative ways.
