What's happening at Future Play 2008

Plan to join a bunch of cool, smart people at Canada’s premier multi-dimensional computer games and digital media research knowledge transfer forum.

Keynote speakers for Future Play 2008 include:

Katie Salen: Writer, Editor, and Designer. Worked on a range of projects for clients including Microsoft, SIGGRAPH, the Hewlett Foundation, XMediaLab, the Design Institute, gameLab, and mememe Productions. Co-author of Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals and The Game Design Reader. Member of Playground which recently worked with areacode to invent a new genre of games. Currently working on two projects funded through the MacArthur Foundation focused on digital media, games, and learning, and is producing two new media works for the ZeroOne Festival. A contributing writer for RES magazine, and has worked as an animator on Richard Linklater’s critically acclaimed animated feature Waking Life. Partnered with screenwriter and director Hampton Fancher to develop an animated storytelling experience distributed through Xbox Live. Has curated programs at the Lincoln Center, Cinematexas, ZKM, Exploding Cinema, and the Walker Art Center on machinima.

Ken Perlin: professor in the Department of Computer Science at New York University. Founding director of the Media Research Laboratory and also directed the NYU Center for Advanced Technology. Research interests include graphics, animation, user interfaces, science education and multimedia. Received an Academy Award for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his noise and turbulence procedural texturing techniques, which are widely used in feature films and television, as well as the TrapCode award for achievement in computer graphics research, the NYC Mayor's award for excellence in Science and Technology and the Sokol award for outstanding Science faculty at NYU, and a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. Has also been a featured artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Don Daglow:  served as president and CEO of Stormfront Studios since founding the company in 1988.  At the 2008 Emmy Awards for Technology and Engineering, accepted the award for creating Neverwinter Nights, the first graphical Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), and in 2003 received the CGE Award for “groundbreaking achievements that shaped the Video Game Industry.”   One of only two game designers (with id Software's John Carmack) to be selected both for a Technical Emmy and to accept an Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Achievement Award.  Electronic Games has called him “one of the best-known and respected producers in the history of the field.”

Stormfront's major titles include the action-adventure The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (based on the film by Peter Jackson), EA Sports’ NASCAR Racing and Madden NFL Football, and the original Neverwinter Nights on AOL. 

Prior to founding Stormfront, served as director of Intellivision game development for Mattel, as a producer at Electronic Arts, and as head of the Entertainment and Education division at Broderbund.  Designed and programmed the first-ever computer baseball game in 1971 (now recorded in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown), the first mainframe computer role-playing game ("Dungeon" for PDP-10 mainframes, 1975), the first sim game (Intellivision Utopia, 1981) and the first game to use multiple camera angles (Intellivision World Series Major League Baseball, 1983).  Co-designed Computer Game Hall of Fame title Earl Weaver Baseball (1987) as well as the original Neverwinter Nights for AOL (1991-97).  Elected to the Board of Directors of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences in 2003 and again in 2007.  A past winner of the National Endowment for the Humanities New Voices playwriting competition.  A well-know and internationally respected speaker on the topics of game design, Interactive Media and the video games industry, and has delivered keynote addresses in Canada, Germany, the UK and the United States.  Holds a BA in Writing from Pomona College and an Ed.M. from Claremont Graduate University.

Rounding out the conference program will be a strong line-up of speakers touching on key emergent issues and trends.

Want to see what happened at Future Play 2007? Check out last year's program for an idea of the scope and quality of the discussions you'll find at this conference this year.