Game worlds with touch interfaces are everywhere, but is it possible to build a world you can FEEL with your fingertips? We've built a touchy-feely world out of paper. A digital papercraft adventure that you can hold in …

Intermediate

Presenters

Rex Crowle

Raise your hand if you agree with any of these statements: - Gamers are primarily by young or teen boys. - Games are usually played alone in the home on game consoles. You may be surprised at how many people would have…

Intermediate

Presenters

Bill Hopkins, David Berkowitz, Susan Borst

For the past three years, The Art of Akira Exhibit has travelled the globe educating and entertaining fans with original cels, backgrounds and sketches from the legendary anime Akira. Exhibiting selections from the over …

Beginner

Presenters

Joe Peacock

Linear narratives and static written words no longer dominate communication. New forms of communication are fundamentally changing the way interactive media producers, including game developers, engage audiences. Success…

Intermediate

Presenters

, , Amy Barbee, Warren Spector

Do app and mobile game developers from the West stand a chance in China? The country now leads the world in new iOS/Android phone activations, with a market forecast to have over 200 million smartphone owners this year. …

Intermediate

Presenters

Andy Lee, Henry Fong, Lisa Cosmas Hanson, Patrick Hudson

By the time you read this, Minecraft will have surpassed 33 million registered users, and with ports to Xbox and iPad, it’s poised to hit the mainstream big this year. Combining elements of sandbox games, MMOs and First…

Intermediate

Presenters

Mike Langlois

Over the last 15 years, J Todd Coleman has been a successful entrepreneur and game developer, acting as the creative lead and product head of three large-scale MMOs (Shadowbane, Wizard101 and Pirate101) and founding nume…

Beginning

Presenters

J Todd Coleman

Tomb Raider is being rebooted for a modern audience and, as such, requires a modern soundtrack. This talk will focus on the score for Tomb Raider. Every aspect will be covered from the music’s creative direction, compos…

Intermediate

Presenters

, Jason Graves

Peter Sagal of NPR’s "Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me!" and host of new PBS series, Constitution USA, leads a “Wait Wait” style conversation on reinvigorating dreaded civics lessons through gaming. More Americans can name the…

Intermediate

Presenters

, Dan Norton, Peter Sagal

You are on the verge of an entertainment revolution in your own living room. Convergence of mobile and tethered devices will continue to play a fascinating role in the growth of the entertainment industry. This session…

Intermediate

Presenters

Neil Sharma, Steve Carlin

Representatives from some of the hottest independent game companies share the secrets of their success. Get an inside glimpse of starting small to making it big. Learn how they manage the pressure to "sell out," and what…

Advanced

Presenters

Aaron Thibault, Chris Avellone, Gary Brubaker, Harter Ryan

Cloud computing is becoming the go-to delivery model for games and media. Hear how three companies are using Infrastructure-as-a-Service to speed up development, lower costs, and deliver successful applications. We will …

Intermediate

Presenters

The video game business is currently undergoing an upheaval similar to the one that shook the movie business in the 1970s. Enabled by new technologies and new platforms, independently produced and distributed games are …

Intermediate

Presenters

, Jenova Chen, Mitch Lasky, Roy Bahat

Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities and Pach Attack, will discuss the state of the game industry, including the emergence of mobile and social games, the rise of online multiplayer, what to expect from the next generat…

Intermediate

Presenters

Michael Pachter

Get together with members of the Facebook team and the startup and developer community for an hour of brainstorming, idea-building, and networking.……

Beginner

Presenters

Doug Purdy

Hold a discussion covering the benefits of using outsourced resources and how to improve going forward • Cost savings • Increased quality of next generation titles • Immediate availability of resource ramp up for full p…

Intermediate

Presenters

Sergio Rosas, Tom Marx

While the game industry regards realism as a key characteristic of AAA games, research suggests we may be wasting our money. Perceived realism is far more important, varying on dimensions of authenticity, freedom, presen…

Intermediate

Presenters

Amy Adcock, Bob De Schutter, Richard Van Eck, Steven Malliet

Few games can match the ubiquity and legacy of Doom, the seminal first-person shooter that ushered in thousands of mods, clones, and successors. Nearly every significant FPS, from Resistance to Half-Life, Call of Duty to…

Intermediate

Presenters

John Romero

What does it mean that kids are requesting iPads over train sets for Christmas? Or that one of the fastest growing segment of iPad users are kids under age 12? Kids today interact with digital devices by 6 months and ca…

Advanced

Presenters

Mike North, Rodger Raderman

Video games are part of pop culture. Millions of people game every day. But the process of making a game remains a mystery to most people. The work often comes down to a clash between two opposing forces: logic and emoti…

Intermediate

Presenters

Susan O'Connor

This panel will present an incubator program that helped high school students start game companies and prepare for careers in the game industry. During the summer of 2012, twenty Pflugerville ISD high school students wo…

Intermediate

Presenters

David Conover

From early on in the careers, three-star Michelin chefs - a rarified 106 in the world at present - have a nearly tyrannical hold on their kitchens. They insist on perfection in every ingredient, in temperature, in presen…

Intermediate

Presenters

Brenda Brathwaite Romero

Go behind the scenes with the developers of Shadowrun Returns, the Kickstarter crowdfunding phenomenon. Shadowrun Returns is a story-based tactical role-playing game for PC, Mac, and Android & iOS Tablets.……

Presenters

Jordan Weisman, Mitch Gitelman

Go behind the scenes with Harebrained Schemes, the developers of Shadowrun Returns, the Kickstarter crowdfunding phenomenon. Shadowrun Returns is a story-based tactical role-playing game for PC, Mac, and Android & iOS Ta…

Beginning

Presenters

Jordan Weisman, Mitch Gitelman

Approximately 55% of women are playing social games online, but what about the men? The social games genre has typically been geared towards the female player, but a new era of social games is expanding from "pink" games…

Intermediate

Presenters

, , Amer Ajami, Doug Scott

What happens when you combine the visions of advertising agency, W+K and game designer, Graeme Devine. Advertisers have discovered games: they can be cheaper than TV spots, produce lots of engagement and people play the…

Intermediate

Presenters

Dan Hon, Graeme Devine, Michelle Childs, Mike Giepert

In the 1990s space sims and high end PC games were synonymous with the name, Chris Roberts. Roberts made his mark in the games industry with legendary and groundbreaking computer game series like Wing Commander, Privatee…

Intermediate

Presenters

Chris Roberts

In the 1990s space sims and high end PC games were synonymous with the name, Chris Roberts. Roberts made his mark in the games industry with legendary and groundbreaking computer game series like Wing Commander, Privatee…

Presenters

Chris Roberts

With the rise of mobile devices, especially tablets, the opportunity in mobile gaming is taking center stage. As mobile continues to heat up in the gaming industry, many believe that mobile will soon bypass the success o…

Intermediate

Presenters

Sean Uberoi Kelly

The indie game developer/designer meetup will be a forum for indie game developers from all over the world to meet and discuss the state of the art in building indie games. It will be a chance to meet other indie game de…

Intermediate

Presenters

Brandon Wiley, John Warren

Everyone wants to be fitter. The trouble is making yourself exercise. Some systems use 'gamification' to turn exercise into points, and set targets and 'win' conditions. Zombies, Run! takes a different approach. We combi…

Intermediate

Presenters

Adrian Hon, Alex Macmillan, Matt Wieteska, Naomi Alderman

RSVP Required - Epic Games is hosting an all-day workshop to help SXSW Interactive attendees make great mobile games using the award-winning Unreal Engine technology. The Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of…

Intermediate

Presenters

Zak Parrish

RSVP Required - The founders of Modit will discuss their vision for a future in which game development is democratized by turning game players into game creators. Browser-based game development and distribution will emp…

Intermediate

Presenters

Alex Sutherland, Alexander Sheive, Sam Workman, Shantanu Dhaka

Creative media work can be done anywhere, particularly in our internet age. But it is clear that some areas of the world have higher concentrations of talented creative people, which are labeled Creative Clusters. This…

Beginner

Presenters

Gordon Walton, Richard Vogel

Puzzle Clubhouse is Schell Games' grand experiment in crowdsourced game development. In this talk, Jesse Schell will explain what his team has learned about voting, community management, and how to produce episodic video…

Beginner

Presenters

Jesse Schell

For mobile game developers and publishers, this Meet Up at SXSW Interactive is the perfect opportunity to mix and mingle with like-minded pros and discuss the hottest topics and trends in the mobile gaming industry. Wh…

Intermediate

Presenters

Bryan Kim

10 years ago, voice talent waited by the phone for auditions, drove to cattle calls at recording studios, to be recorded by an engineer, directed by a producer, followed by more waiting for a booking. Today, casting site…

Advanced

Presenters

David H. Lawrence XVII

Jesse Schell will appear at the South by Bookstore to sign copies of “The Art of Game Design” following his Solo session. Jesse Schell is Professor of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University and CEO of Sc…

RSVP Required - Unity 4 demonstrates the platform's AAA push that levels the playing field between the largest and the smallest studios. It enables anyone, from the most indie game designer to the biggest multinational …

Intermediate

Presenters

Carl Callewaert, Corey Johnson

Today consumers have an unprecedented number of options when it comes to playing games. In addition to home and handheld consoles, people are now always connected to games through common mobile devices like smartphones o…

Advanced

Presenters

Chris Harvey, Jack Buser

The gaming console has done more to evolve TV than any other technological innovation in a generation, with Xbox Live, PS3 and Nintendo Wii U providing gateways into the home and a yet unrivalled interactive TV experienc…

Intermediate

Presenters

Bing Gordon, Julia Boorstin

General partner at KPCB and former COO of EA Bing Gordon will discuss the evolution of entertainment, the future of TV and lessons learned from the gaming industry. Bing will discuss the development of community, downloa…

Presenters

Bing Gordon

Ever since the pioneering Origin Systems germinated in Austin during the mid-1980's, this city has grown to become a recognized global hub of creative, technical and business talent in the games industry. Over the years,…

Advanced

Presenters

Fred Schmidt

The largest demographic of online game players are women over 35. And, this demographic is more social than ever; they’re willing to purchase virtual goods and boosters, while spending more time playing across multiple d…

Beginner

Presenters

AJ Glasser, Allison Rynak, Cara Ely, Rachel Bernstein

No amount of process can fix culture. Decisions core to a startup affects how it executes moving forward: Principles, Team, Culture, Strategy, Customer, Product, Pricing, Funding, Process, Tactics, Marketing. Learn to ge…

Intermediate

Presenters

Dustin Clingman, Margaret Wallace, Michael Agustin