Keynotes and sessions

Gamelab 2011 Opening Session. The videogame creative industry: challenges and opportunities

Raúl Escolano (moderator), Santos Castro, Félix Riera, Juan Miguel Márquez y Roberto Álvarez de Lara

Videogames have grown as an industry managing how to adapt their business model to the ongoing changes in market conditions and consumers habits. The experience in this industry is a clear referent for the rest of cultural industries which, plagued by piracy and other issues, are necessarily searching for new ways to make their contents profitable in a globalized, dematerialized world. At this debate, where the main financial and cultural Spanish institutions will be present, the main keys of the new digital business will be analyzed, drawing future outlooks that can be translated to the whole of cultural industries.

The Minecraft Story: How it All Started, and Where We Are Today

Daniel Kaplan

This talk is mainly about the development of how Mojang grew from one guy to the nine man working force it is now. What we are aiming for and how we are doing it is something that is going to be central in this talk too. There will also be room for QA.

Culture and digital world, a difficult marriage?

Gonzalo Suárez Girard, Juan José Millás y Miguel Bosé

The award-winning writer and columnist Juan Jose Millas, the popular singer Miguel Bosé and the charismatic game creator, Gonzo Suarez, keep a curious face to face which will discuss the many encounters and conflicts between cultural and digital world. An open dialogue and politically incorrect that surely will not leave anyone indifferent.

An American Journey East

American McGee

American McGee is known as one of the original members of id Software during the creation of Doom, as well as for his own original work, such as American McGee’s Alice. For the last several years, McGee has been running a studio in Shanghai, called Spicy Horse, which runs the gamut from AAA to social games. In this interview session conducted by Brandon Sheffield (Chief Editor of Game Developer Magazine), McGee will discuss his current and past endeavors, including the trials and tribulations (as well as benefits) of running a studio in China. Time will be left at the end for questions from the audience.

PlayStation VITA and Reality Fighters: The future of mobile entertainment

Daniel Sánchez Crespo

Discover the new generation of Sony VITA portable consoles from the hand of Reality Fighters, one of star titles, developed by Novarama from Barcelona. After the success of Invizimals, Novarama takes the new Sony console, and redefines something as classic as fighting games. The game will be shown at this conference, and will offer details on how it was developed inline with the console, and it will be the first chance to see the PlayStation VITA in Spain, exclusively for Gamelab.

The upcoming of digital, social and mobile contents

Trip Hawkins

We are undergoing the fastest and most substantial changes in the history of games. Digital media
is transforming media in general and will cause a dramatic shift from distribution business models to
innovations based on discovery principles. There are many things that developers can do to prepare for
these changes, notably in the areas of the browser as a platform and in free games that use virtual goods.

Self Publishing – The PlayStaion® Way

Agostino Simonetta

Agostino Simmoneta, Developer Relations DevNet Sony, will discuss the opportunities offered by Sony for small developers to act as “Self Publishers” in the digital distribution platform PlayStation Network. From the category “mini” games, small size and low price casual customer oriented, the publication of interactive elements for the virtual platform Playstation Home.

It also discuss other interesting topics, such as the facilities offered by Sony to the way in promoting products online through digital media such as PlaySation official sites, the PSN Blogs, feeds Playstation community (Facebook , Twitter, etc), the sections What’s new on the PlayStation Store, and so on.

360º View – The digital media as a hybrid

Félix Riera, Gonzo Suárez, Xavier Carrillo

We are experiencing some of the most rapid and important in gaming history. Digital media are becoming mainstream media, which will cause a radical change in the distribution business model innovations based on principles of discovery. There are many things developers can do to prepare for such changes, especially in regard to platforms and browsers such as the free games that make use of virtual goods.

HTML5, ¿viable for creating games?. Yes, of course

Ibon Tolosana

The evolution of computing environments has grown from native applications to the cloud, and now returns to the side of applications. In transit, many have changed little, except the original idea: ease of use and development platform. HTML5 is posited as a paradigm of development and future-proof the world’s leading technology companies have accepted de facto. Here are some of the reasons: CSS3 3D (3D transformations and hardware transitions in the browser), WebGL (OpenGL ES 2.0) and Canvas (2D graphics transformations and integrated into the browser as an element of the document and not as a plugin.

The target audience is anyone: people without any knowledge of web technologies with interest in knowing who is and who is not public until later in HTML5, with specific knowledge of these tecnlogías.

In Ideateca took about a year and a clear commitment to working with these technologies. Proof of this is our frame of animation opensource licensed MIT: CAAT a 2D scene graph with transparent support for WebGL, Sumon, a game about this library and the future framework for javascript-native integration we are developing.

We have money for your games

Volker Hirsch (moderator), Barry O’Neil, Javier Ulecia, Jan Vocke

In the discussion moderated by Volker Hirsh (Director of Strategy Scoreloop), an international group that represents the various players in the financial ecosystem of the game (Venture Capital, project-based funding and financial consultants) will present a series of alternatives to finance development video games and game companies. Do you play social, mobile, interactive TV? Also try the hot topics for investors, platforms, bubbles and opportunities in sight.

9,99 US$ vs free: investing in quality… and get your money back.

Maarten Noyons, Xavier Carrillo, Torsten Reil, Michael Schade

Three top European mobile games studios with award winning titles who are regularly featured in the top 10 best selling games, discuss their strategies on how to succeed in a commercial environment where free games is the dominant model and where production budgets are rising fast.

The panel will provide a unique insight in how to build products, with quality as the key feature and to get featured in App Stores across the main operating systems, to be embedded at the launch of new handset and sell the game at a high price.

BasketDudes – Strategies to Develop a Free2Play Title

Fernando Piquer

More and more companies are taking into account the Free2Play distribution model. Bitoon Games is one
of the Spanish companies to adopt this business model to create content. BasketDudes is the firm’s first
title, with an international projection. Fernando Piquer will explain the keys to develop a Free2Play title.
Taking BasketDudes as case study, Piquer will explain how to market a free product and the strategies for
production, design and launch.

Playstation local developments

Roberto López Yeste, Rob Rowe y Jay Ward

For the first time in our country, Gamelab visitors will be able to try the three PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) projects in whose production Sony Computer Entertainment Spain is collaborating. Tonika Games and Virtual Toys are the national studios in charge of the development of these three games that will be sold in Spain and Europe. Roberto López Yeste, Director of new developments at SCEE will introduce these new projects for the first time, together with two exceptional international guests: Director of Studio Relations (Pixar and Disney Animation Studios) and Jay Ward, Cars Franchise Guardian (Pixar Animation Studio)

Innovation in Games- Fable The Journey

Peter Molyneux

Video Games have seen massive innovation both technically and creatively since they first came into being. As they have become more polished, balanced and accessible they have moved from being niche and hobbyist to a fully fledged mass market form of entertainment. Excitingly they are still continuing to evolve; the invention of motion sensors has opened up massive potential for further innovation and the creation of new forms of games. Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Studios has seen a great many changes and developments in video games over the past 25 years and now looks forward to what we can expect in the foreseeable future. He will look at the impact new technology will have on how games evolve as well as look at the creative potential these new technologies offer. In particular he will explain in detail how Fable The Journey will use Kinect technology to create a compelling and well rounded entertainment experience. Speaking as both a gamer and game creator Peter will also be able to demonstrate these new innovations live during his talk.

Games or Gaming? How Social Games will become Games

Richard A. Bartle

The mechanisms currently used by social gaming to engage users have more to do with money than with the gameplay. Sooner or later the player will notice and be bored. However, because they have known games and instead of leaving them aside, they will feel more attracted to games “truth.” This talk will look at the social games of today and speculate about social games will be tomorrow.

Specialised training in the industry of videogames

Ignacio Pérez Dolset

Every day more and more young students wish to join a videogame company as professionals. The productions for interactive entertainment are cross-functional projects in which a number of different specialised pros take part : graphic artists, programmers, musicians, game designers, visual and sound engineers, etc. In this talk, Ignacio Pérez Dolset, one of the most successful businessmen in the digital world (LaNetro, PyroStudios, Zed, Illion…) will reveal which are the keys to train the kind of professionals that will be demanded by the industry in the future.

Develop for Kinect!

Lidia Pitzalis, José Vicente Perona y Boris Armenta (XBox Spain team)

At this short presentation, the Xbox Spain team will unveil how to create games for Kinect with their SDK. Plus you will be the first to know the rules to participate on a new app development contest. The prize is a trip to visit the Kinect lab and see first hand the most revolutionary applications for this platform. Don’t miss this chance!

The Evolution of Interactive Entertainment

Louis Castle

This session will explore the history and future of interactive entertainment and the importance of activating
social networks in games to engage new platforms.

Israel Connect, Media & ICT (Information day)

Mariona Sanz from ACC1Ó, Daniel Yosev from MATIMOP-Israel, Javier Echavarri from CDTI and Sergi Sagàs from Mediapro

ACC1Ó launches CONNECT-Israel program, Media and ICT objective is to support the Catalan companies in finding partners in Israel, leading country in these sectors to develop collaborative technology projects.

CONNECT-Israel program has the support of MATIMOP (industrial center of Israeli R & D) to open the market for technology companies in Israel and work schedules Catalan individual participant, which will take place during the trip to Israel the end of November. It also has the support of CDTI (Centre for Industrial Technological Development) funding programs for projects of cooperation between the Catalan company and country of destination.

To learn firsthand the CONNECT program and resolve any questions that you may have about it, we invite you to attend the information day.

Here are the parts of the conference:

10:15 am Presentation Connect-Israel
Mariona Sanz, Area Manager R & D International ACC1Ó
10:30 am Media and ICT Sector in Israel
Daniel Yosev, Enterprise Europe Network Coordinator in MATIMOP (Israeli Industry Centre for R&D)
10:50 am Funding programs for technological cooperation projects
Javier Echavarri, Department of Telecommunications, Electronics and Computer DMIG CDTI
11:15 am Cooperation experiences in R & D
Sergi Sagàs, Scientific Director of Mediapo Research
11:35 am Networking Sessions

The game production: pure choreography

Siobhan Reddy

The video game industry is evolving and are increasingly people who try various games. It’s an exciting time. In this talk we will discuss how production can foster creativity and innovation projects.

Castlevania LoS: Enric Álvarez Unplugged

Enric Álvarez

Enric Alvarez, director and writer of Castlevania Lords of Shadow dissects the development of the latest
MercurySteam game. Why and how was one of the best games of its generation made here; ideas and
feelings of its director.

How to become a videogames professional?

Universidad Pompeu Fabra

Seminar for students organized by the Master in Videogame Creation by Universidad Pompeu Fabra.

The videogame industry employs professionals with different profiles, within four main roles: programmers, designers, artists and producers.
In this session, a professional from each profile will share their experience first hand: their studies and training, how they got into the industry, and discuss the overview of their daily tasks. A useful set of advice for the new generation of professionals.
Would you like to work in the videogame industry? Come meet a programmer, a producer, a gameplay designer and an artist first hand, who will share their experience and tips on how to break into the industry.

LIMBO: How to create big things on a small budget.

Dino Patti

Dino Patti, CEO and co-founder of Playdead, will share some of the thoughts that went into the production of LIMBO from beginning to end. He’ll talk about some of the values that helped the founders through times with hard decisions. He’ll cover how these values applies to everything in the company and how this will be applied to the future projects.

The rise of creative power in games

Cliff Bleszinski

Cliff Bleszinski discusses the rise of the “Power Creative” in games, from the PR and Marketing side of
things through the Business side of things. A fun, informative, and frank discussion that sometimes exposes
truths about the business we all know and love.

RTVE.es’s Desafio Champions, the first Free2Play football game right on your Browser

RTVE.es and Kotoc

RTVE.es and Kotoc will present Desafio Champions, a free fantasy football MMOG played right on your browser with incredible 3D graphics, developed under Unity.
Let’s you create a football team in an ever growing fantasy universe. As players keep advancing through the game they will be able to access new improvements for their team, like armors and powerful skills, in order to win over harder rivals each time in a global ranking and official championships. The social network integration allows to challenge our list of friends, play as we chat and share the experience of the game. Desafío Champions joins one of the RTVE’s featured audiovisual contents, as the Sports is, with the interactivity and the entertainment. Also, it is the first release linked to the Desafío Champions animated series TVE is going to broadcast in the next months.

Sex, Disruption and Agility: Exploring the evolution of game industry

Jason Della Roca

Changing demographics and consumer behavior along with the mass production of games and new methods of monetization lead to a change in the epic video game business performance. These changes directly affect the nature of economic risk to create games and, in turn, decide what kind of titles are created and who take advantage of new opportunities.

Make your vision a reality (by Autodesk)

Autodesk invites you to an evening where you can meet as developers and animation studios manage to improve its pipeline with new software, Autodesk Media & Entertainment.

You will have:

- Virtualization 3D workstation – remote graphical desktop systems. For Azken Muga and PNY / Nvidia.
- New features V-Ray2.0 for Max / Maya.
- Case studies of major Spanish companies in the entertainment market.
- Cocktail-networking and drawings at the Museum of Rock (cc. Las Arenas de Barcelona) from 19:30 pm