Game Industry Professionals Gather to take a Glimpse into the Future of the Evolving Landscape of Game Development

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The Austin Game Developers Conference (Austin GDC) returns to the Austin Convention Center for three days of learning, networking, and inspiration with sessions focused on connected games, game audio, writing for games, and virtual worlds. This year's theme, "Evolve to Win," speaks to the expanded, progressive content including over 150 lectures, panels, keynotes, and roundtable discussions aimed with arming game developers the skills to succeed within their craft and businesses to gain new insight on the changing digital entertainment space. Austin GDC presents perspectives from over 200 industry leading speakers as well as a sold out expo floor with more than 130 exhibitors and sponsors.

The conference is led each day by top visionary keynotes pushing the boundaries of game development including:

     --   Monday keynote: Lane Merrifield, Executive Vice President, Walt
          Disney Internet Group, Co-Founder and General Manager, Club Penguin
          Keynote address: At Their Service: Making a Difference by Putting
          Players First
     --   Tuesday keynote: Bruce Sterling, American Science Fiction Author &
          Futurist
          Keynote address: Computer Entertainment 35 Years from Today
     --   Wednesday keynote: Audio Manager, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
          R&D
          Keynote address: That It? Next Gen Audio

"The 2008 Austin GDC marks a very current and important direction in connected games," says Izora Garcia de Lillard, Austin GDC Conference Director. "In the past few years we've seen so many emerging opportunities within the online space for both developers and business folks to take advantage. From the changing landscape of virtual worlds and games, to in-your-garage start-up MMOs, to next gen audio tools, to different techniques of game story-telling, the Austin GDC creates a community for all developers new or seasoned to learn, network, and inspire each other to get to that next level in their craft ... or should I say Evolve to Win in the game industry."

New to this year's conference is the Worlds in Motion Summit and the Independent Games Festival (IGF) Showcase. Keeping true to the future-focused spirit of Austin GDC, the Worlds in Motion Summit will cover the intersection of games, business, and entertainment in online spaces and virtual worlds with a keynote address from Mel Guymon, Product Manager for Lively by Google, addressing "Google's first Real Talk on Lively Since its debut." The IGF Showcase will debut titles from local developers representing exciting, new and creative gameplay and graphical ideas within this space The conference also marks the return of the Game Career Seminar geared for students, graduates, and aspiring developers interested in careers in the game industry.

Austin GDC 2009 will return to the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. The industry-leading event will take place September 14-18, 2009. For a complete list of GDC 2008 event information, please visit http://www.AustinGDC.net and http://www.GDConf.com/.

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Web site: http://www.AustinGDC.net/
http://www.GDConf.com/
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