The NLGD today announced that it has opened its call for papers for possible speakers at the NLGD Game Conference, June 18-20 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Potential speakers are invited to submit their ideas for lectures, workshops and roundtables over the next week. All lecture and session proposals should cover one or more of the Avenues of Exploration that the NLGD has set for the conference. The deadline for the call for papers is May 1, 2008.
The NLGD also confirmed the following speakers for its upcoming Game Conference: Heather Chandler (Executive Producer and founder of Media Sunshine, Inc.), Ben Sawyer (Co-Founder of Digitalmill), and Chris Swain (Professor, University of Southern California).
After several years in the trenches of video game production at Electronic Arts, Activision, and Ubisoft, Heather Chandler started her own development studio. During her eleven years on the front lines of the games industry, she has contributed to the production of over 35 games, including the first seven games in the Ghost Recon series.
Chandler will be leading a 2-hour work shop session focusing on the production cycle of a fictitious game, some of the problems it encountered, and how the production team solved them.
Ben Sawyer is the co-founder of Digitalmill. He has worked in, and covered game development, for over eight years.
Sawyer will talk about the serious games field, providing strong definitions and a well-built platform on what is needed to make serious games. He will also provide tools for attendees to better understand the serious games market.
Chris Swain is a game designer, educator, and co-author of the textbook Game Design Workshop. He co-directs the EA Game Innovation Lab at USC. His work has received many awards including Time Magazine's Best of the Web.
Swain will present best practices in game development processes. He will provide tools and metrics, in order to reveal different approaches to game development.
“When I was invited to speak at the NLGD Game Conference it did not take me long to say ‘Yes’,” said Swain. “It is an excellent opportunity to reach a new audience as I present Master Metrics 2.0 in Utrecht.”