Game Developers Conference 2006--The Programming Track

The Game Developers Conference 2006 (GDC:06)will be held March 20-24 in San Jose, California at the San Jose Convention Center. Next-gen game development will revolutionize every aspect of the gaming industry. From increased production complexity, team sizes, and budgets to new ways to reach the mass market, GDC:06 will answer the questions critical to the industry's success. There will be eight tracks: Vision, Audio, Business & Management, Game Design, Production, Programming, Visual Arts and IGDA.

Today we focus on the Programming Track. As new platforms emerge and existing platforms evolve, programmers face an ever increasing challenge to produce games that capture the attention of the public and the media. The Programming Track focuses on these challenges and the opportunities presented by next and current generation development.

Programming Track Highlights:

• Building Project Gotham Racing 3: An Xbox 360 Postmortem--Gareth Wilson & Paul Kerby (Bizarre Creations)
• LucasArts and ILM: a Case Study of the Convergence of Games and Film--Steve Sullivan (Industrial Light & Magic) & Chris Williams (LucasArts Entertainment)
• Ritual: Next-Gen Visual Effects on Direct3D 10--Douglas Service (Ritual Entertainment) & Sam Glassenberg (Microsoft)
• The Next Generation Animation Panel--Ken Perlin, Victor Zordan, Okan Arikan, Leslie Ikemoto & Lucas Kovar
• Three States and a Plan: The AI of F.E.A.R.--Jeff Orkin (Monolith Productions and MIT Media lab)
• Backwards Is Forward: Making Better Games with Test-Driven Development--Noel Llopis & Sean Houghton (High Moon Studios)

A complete descriptions of all sessions is available from this GDC:06 Web page. [Bill Fox]