The final line-up for the 2012, tenth anniversary Edinburgh Interactive Festival has been announced. It’s a who’s-who of significant industry experts and innovative interactive loveliness.
This year’s keynote speaker is Seamus Blackley, who’s looking into “The Future of Fun”. This promises to be an informative and insightful discourse regarding the future we are launched into, by the present we fail to understand, and the past we failed to get right.
As well as setting the proposal for Xbox, Blackey has also worked with Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg, designed and programmed video games, worked as the head of the Creative Artists Agency’s video game division and is currently president and founder of mobile and digital studio Innovative Leisure.
Joining Blackey on the bill is Google’s UK industry leader Warren Mills. His talk will discuss how users are interacting with their platforms across search, YouTube and mobile from pre-launch of a game to the arrival of DLC. Mills joined Google from Bauer Media in October last year and works alongside games publishers and movie studio’s to develop advertising initiatives across Google’s network of mobile, social, YouTube and search options.
Also on the Edinburgh Interactive bill, you’ll find…
Brian Wong, Founder of Kiip, which has raised over $4.4 million in funding to date and is redefining the advertising industry through a “moments”-based model, versus the traditional attention-based screen estate model, will discuss a fundamental shift in the way brands can create a truly emotional connection with consumers, and explain how brands can start feeling and building the classic emotional engagements that was once the underpinnings of the world’s most successful advertising motifs but have been displaced by cold, technology-driven “solutions.”
Stephane Bura, Lead Designer at Namaste who has 25 years of role-playing game writing under his belt, will deliver a session in the Advances in AI and new opportunities for non-linear creative story telling and acting and new gaming experiences. Stephane, a proven veteren of the AI world of games, will also present his newest venture: Storybricks.
Struan Robertson, Product Director at NaturalMotion, who has held a variety of senior roles in production and design, will discuss the evolution of their thinking behind their newest freemium offering, CSR Racing, following the success of their first free-to-play game, My Horse.
The public side of the festival also promises to be interesting. There are workshops on game design and development, as well as Ian Livingstone talking about 30 years of Fighting Fantasy books and a character design and writing workshop (in which our very own Iain Lowson is participating), an insight into games journalism from the team at Edge and an intriguing session in which the audience will be turned into a human games console. You can register online for the public sessions.
There’s also a super secret special Scottish developer discount, which you can find on the Scottishgames Facebook page.
