Posted on - Comments Off on Ernest Adams – “Ghost in the Machine”
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Ernest Adams – “Ghost in the Machine”

Adams is back for lectures, workshops and feedback on your Gotland Game Conference projects. First up is a wednesday lecture titled Ghost in the Machine:

Just as poetry is the art of language, interactive entertainment is the art of artificial intelligence. One of our core goals is to create the impression that the player is competing with an intelligent opponent. AI is incredibly hard to do, so we cheat in a number of ways, taking advantage of the player’s suspension of disbelief. I looked at some of the ways we can cheat, and suggested a number of models for behavior from the animal kingdom.

Time: Wednesday, April 6th, 13:00
Location: B51

On thursday he’s doing a workshop called Accessibility in Games. There are two opportunities:

Time: Thursday, 7th April:
Pass 1 | 10:00 – 14:00 (30 students)
Pass 2 | 14:20 – 17:20 (30 students)
Location: B25+B27

Sign up in the student forums.

And on friday Ernest has a workshop in Character Design. It’s limited to 40 heads and primarily for 2nd and 3rd year students. Sign up in the forums!

Time: Friday, April 8th, 13:00
Location: B25+B27

Posted on - 1 Comment on What happened to the GGA?
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What happened to the GGA?

Gotland Game Awards has been re-fashioned as the Gotland Game Conference.

What has changed? The short story is that the amazingly extravagant awards ceremony of the past couple of years has been replaced with more meaningful content; lectures, discussion panels and industry collaborations. We’re modelling the event closer to the international Game Developers Conferences, rather than the Oscars. 😀 Our goal is to create a better space to learn, find inspiration, connect and network.

We still have a huge public exhibition of games and animations. We still bring in experts from all over the world to play, examine and give feedback to the students. We still have a great party planned for the last evening. But we’re also opening the exhibition floor to sponsors, partners and industry. We’re having jurors perform double duty – both spending quality time with our students and giving public talks and hosting discussion panels. The focus is no longer handing out awards but rather to talk, listen and learn.

Expect a more diverse jury than ever – more journalists, more publishers, more moving pictures people, more researchers and more diversity. It is still too early to start dropping names of all attending talent, the list is still very much in flux but we’re making good progress. The website is a timeline (scroll left to go back in time), publishing names and faces as we confirm speakers, exhibitors, partners and jurors.

Stay tuned and get in touch!

Posted on - Comments Off on Michael Sellers from Online Alchemy
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Michael Sellers from Online Alchemy

Michael Sellers is the Chief Executive Officer at Online Alchemy, a developer of computer games, artificial intelligence, and social networking software. He has been designing and developing online multiplayer games since 1994.

One of two co-founders of Archetype Interactive, Mike was Lead Designer on Meridian 59, the first 3D massively multiplayer online game, published in 1996. In 1997 he co-founded The Big Network and led the design for online family oriented social networking software (MyPlace).

After TBN was acquired by eUniverse in 1999, he led designs on SimCity Online, The Sims 2, and Ultima Online Trilogy in his role as Senior Game Designer at Electronic Arts. Mike has been a speaker and panelist at many industry conferences and written several articles on MMOG design and production. In 2002 he founded Online Alchemy in Austin, Texas, and is working on a next-generation MMOG based on proprietary advanced artificial intelligence.

Mike is coming here tuesday next week for an intense lecture on Game Design and AI, followed by Q&A. Due to limited space we have to prioritize programmers. Graphics and animation students are welcome if seatings allow. Sorry for the inconvenience. :/

Time: Tuesday, Mars 29th, 13:30 – 14:30
Location: E31