Extra Credits Innovation Awards at LOGIN 2011
The LOGIN Conference, in partnership with The Escapist and the Extra Credits crew, will host the first Extra Credits Innovation Awards on May 17, 2011, at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. Unlike many industry awards given to successful and hit games, the Innovation Awards seek to recognize forward thinking and risk-taking in design that is exemplified by many of today's indie development teams.
Extra Credits was created by Daniel Floyd, James Portnow, and Allison Theus and publishes a weekly video episode on The Escapist each Thursday. Episodes discuss game industry topics, such as gamification, narrative design, and game metrics. James Portnow, writer of Extra Credits and one of the visionaries behind the awards, says that there is a lot of innovation being overlooked by the industry.
"There are a lot of great developers out there who are going to bring the games industry to the next level; the only problem is, most developers don't have the monetary availability that high-end development studios do," Portnow said. "This can lead to very few people ever being privy to some great inventive development that is being produced all around us that could really benefit the industry."
Development teams, regardless of size, are encouraged to enter their games via the official submission page. Games must be PC, Flash, or Web-based and should demonstrate new ideas that "improve gaming." The submission deadline is April 20; finalists will be announced May 2, and the winning teams will be announced at the awards ceremony at the LOGIN Conference.
Awards will be given in the following categories::
- Innovation in Game Design
- Innovation in Narrative Delivery
- Most Unbelievable Awesome Fun
- Genre Buster Award
- Positive Impact Innovator
- LOGIN Special Award for Innovation in Multiplayer
The full list of rules and description of each category can be found here.
The full list of rules and categories can be found here. In addition to the awards ceremony at LOGIN, Extra Credits will be hosting a set of panels targeted toward indie developers on topics related to design innovation. The awards ceremony and panels are open to all LOGIN Conference attendees, but the conference is also offering specially priced passes (only $50 via online registration) for accessing just the Extra Credits Innovation Awards and panels. Attendees will also be able to get hands-on play and talk to the development teams of each of the awards finalists.
Interview With LOGIN Conference's Peter Freese
Mathew Anderson, with Events for Gamers, crafted an interview for Peter Freese, the conference director for the LOGIN Conference. The interview touches on where the conference has been and a tease at what to expect from LOGIN 2011, including the new venue in Bellevue, Washington, and some of the topics driving the industry that will be discussed at the event:
E4G: The game industry changes so fast, how has the conference been updated to adapt?
LOGIN: When we started the conference five years ago, the focus was really on massively multiplayer games. That's still a vital part of the conference, but we also look at online social games as well as mobile games. This year a lot of the attention will be on Facebook games, and we're dedicating an entire track-day as a Facebook Game Development Bootcamp — essentially giving experienced game developers everything they need to know to make a successful Facebook game in a single day.
We also try to look beyond the current trends to pick up on the Next Big Thing before it happens. Last year Scott Dodson gave a gamification talk before it became the latest buzzword. Two years ago, we were covering viral distribution of social games.
Read the full interview at Events for Gamers. New Speakers Announced
The LOGIN team has been busy reviewing speaker submissions. We are extremely pleased to announce more speakers. We will be announcing more speakers and sessions over the coming months, so stay tuned for the complete list.
See the complete list of speakers  |
James Portnow
James Portnow received his master's degree from Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, went on to work for Activision as a designer on the Call of Duty series before raising funds to start his own company, Divide by Zero Games. Recently he's opened Rainmaker Games a design and narrative consulting firm that has worked with partners from Warner Bros. to Zynga. James has written for every major trade publication, including Gamasutra, The Escapist, and Edge. He is currently the writer on the hit consumer facing series about game design: Extra Credits. |
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Brian Green
Brian Green, often known by the online pseudonym of "Psychochild," is an experienced online game developer. In his six years of hobbyist and many years of professional game development, he has done programming, designing, writing, and administrating. He is the co-editor of "Business & Legal Primer for Game Development" and has a professional blog at http://psychochild.org/ |
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Corvus Elrod
Corvus Elrod is a semionaut and narrative designer. He is the co-founder of Zakelro Story Studio and designer of The HoneyComb Engine, an open and extensible RPG framework. He has been designing participatory experiences for the better part of two decades, beginning with his exploration of improvisational theater. As he incorporated more and more game mechanics into his performances, he turned his attention to how video game mechanics communicate meaning. He occasionally contracts for a broad spectrum of clients, from major game studios to installation artists, and is currently working on several small game projects in collaboration with independent developers and artists. |
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Brian Robbins
Brian Robbins is the Founder of Riptide Games, an iPhone and next-gen mobile game development studio based in Denver. He has spent most of his career pushing the limits of emerging tech markets and is frequently evaluating new technology and markets for unique ways to entertain people. Brian has programmed more than 100 games and still finds time to dig into coding whenever he gets a chance. Brian is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is heavily involved in volunteering within the game industry, primarily through his work with the International Game Developers Association. He currently serves as chair of the IGDA's Board of Directors and as a trustee for the IGDA Foundation. |
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David Edery
David Edery is manager of Fuzbi, an independent consulting firm focused on the business and design of digitally distributed and online games, and CEO of Spry Fox, a game development studio focused on making the world a happier place. David is also a director on the board of IGDA and a research affiliate of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program (MIT CMS). Previously, David was the Worldwide Games Portfolio Manager for Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service and the MIT CMS Program's Associate Director for Special Projects before Microsoft. |
Interview With Kate Edwards
Strategies for Online Content Culturalization
Kate Edwards has invested many years into understanding how players from around the world relate to games and how the games, in turn, interact with the players. In Kate's talk at LOGIN 2011, Maximizing Domains and Managing Mobs: Strategies for Online Content Culturalization, she will address the themes of localization and culturalization within online games. Before she delivers her talk, Kate shares some observations about the game industry and how it does — and should — handle language and cultural adaptation.
PAUL PHILLEO: Kate, we appreciate your time to address this interview for LOGIN News. Could you give us a little background about what attracted you to geopolitical and cultural studies, especially as these topics relate to games?
KATE EDWARDS: The root of my interest goes way back, as I had originally aspired to be a storyboard artist for Lucasfilm and took the steps to pursue that direction. However, in the industrial design program in which I was based, I got tired of being told what to draw (none of which was sci-fi or fantasy-related), so I switched majors to geography and cartography. I had always had a keen interest in the topic and often had my nose buried in an atlas as a kid, so I took off in that direction, and it went extremely well. My work in geopolitics and cartography took me into Microsoft for a 13-year career, where I served as the company's "Geopolitical Strategist" in the Geopolitical Strategy team I created and managed. My function was to help the company avoid making grievous geopolitical and cultural errors, and that included all the content coming out of the MS Game Studios once it was up and running. Now, I had always been a gamer since the first Pong machine showed up in our local Sears store (seriously) and sustained that interest all along. Between 1995 and 2005, I performed a "geopolitical quality review" on virtually every first-party title from Microsoft (PC and Xbox) and many non-first-party stuff, too. This was a perfect melding of my creative side, twinge of geekness, and my interest in geopolitics and cultures.
Read more and post your comments at LOGIN News
LOGIN 2011 Wants You!
Attend the LOGIN Conference by becoming a volunteer! Participation in the Volunteer Program will give you a backstage look into the inner workings of LOGIN while contributing to the success of this event. In your free time, you will have the opportunity to meet and mingle with industry professionals, as well as attend conference sessions and events.
Volunteers get full access to the conference in exchange for part-time volunteer work. We need volunteers to assist with registration, bag-stuffing, room usher, and runner duties. The Volunteer Program is a great way to experience LOGIN on a budget. It's also the only way to get a cool LOGIN staff shirt!
Volunteers are expected to be available for a total of eight hours of work over the course of the conference. All volunteers, regardless of discipline or area of interest, are encouraged to apply. No prior experience with the game industry is required. We are looking for reliable, hard-working, self-starting, independent, enthusiastic volunteers who are excited about the conference and who want to be among the next generation of industry leaders and professionals.
Take the first step to becoming part of the team that makes the LOGIN Conference run. Learn more about the Volunteer Program, and fill out the online application by May 1, 2011.
