AIIDE’05

AIIDE 2005 News

AIIDE 2005 in the press

Our invited speakers' talks are now available on-line

AIIDE 2005 Invited Speakers

DOUG CHURCH

Bio coming soon!

CHRIS CRAWFORD

Chris Crawford earned a Master of Science degree in Physics from the University of Missouri in 1975. After teaching physics for several years, he joined Atari as a game designer in 1979. There he created a number of games: Energy Czar, an educational simulation about the energy crisis, Scram, a nuclear power plant simulation, Eastern Front (1941), a wargame, Gossip, a social interaction game, and Excalibur, an Arthurian game.

Following the collapse of Atari in 1984, Crawford took up the Macintosh. He created Balance of Power, a game about diplomacy, Patton Versus Rommel, a wargame, Trust & Betrayal, a social interaction game, Balance of the Planet, an environmental simulation game, and Patton Strikes Back, a wargame. In 1992, Crawford decided to leave game design and concentrate his energies on interactive storytelling, a field that he believed would become important. He created a major technology for interactive storytelling systems, patenting it in 1997. He continues to refine his technology to this day.

Crawford has written five published books: The Art of Computer Game Design, now recognized as a classic in the field, in 1982; Balance of Power (the book) in 1986; The Art of Interactive Design in 2002; Chris Crawford on Game Design in 2003; and Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling in 2004.

He created the first periodical on game design, the Journal of Computer Game Design, in 1987. He founded and served as Chairman of the Computer Game Developers' Conference, now known as the Game Developers' Conference.

Crawford has given hundreds of lectures at conferences and universities around the world, and published dozens of magazine articles and academic papers. Crawford served as computer system design and observer for the 1999 and 2002 NASA Leonid MAC airborne missions; he also has done some analysis of the resulting data. He lives in southern Oregon with his wife, 2 dogs, 12 cats, 3 ducks, 3 burros, and a pig.

DAMIAN ISLA
Bungie Studios

Damian Isla has been at Bungie Studios for 3 years as the engineer in charge of AI for Halo2. Before coming to Bungie, he earned a M.Eng. at the MIT Media Lab with Bruce Blumberg's Synthetic Characters Group, where he did research on learning and behavior for artificial creatures. His master's thesis, "The Virtual Hippocampus", dealt with useful spatial representations for learning, navigating and conceptualizing space. He has a B.S. in Computer Science, also from MIT. In his spare time he travels, writes plays and plays soccer badly.

W. BINGHAM (BING) GORDON

Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, Electronic Arts. Father, husband, founder, marketer, developer, mentor - Bing Gordon has been a lot of things to a lot of people. As a founder of Electronic Arts and as Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, Bing brings a lifetime of experience and insight to every person and project he touches.

One of the industry's most experienced executives, Bing has been involved in design and production on more than 20 different award-winning game franchises including John Madden Football, Need For Speed and The Sims. Prior to his appointment as Chief Creative Officer in 1998, Bing served as Executive Vice President of Marketing, overseeing EA teams in California, Texas, Florida, Vancouver and London. Before that, Bing earned his stripes in development as Executive Vice President of EA Studios and Senior Vice President of Entertainment Production, responsible for the design, development and production of entertainment titles and creative properties.

After founding EA with a group of colleagues in 1981, Bing played a vital role in the launch of EA's first game in 1983 and in development of the company's first brand, EA SPORTS. While leading and contributing to the development of many blockbuster games and franchises, Bing pioneered educational programs at EA, including the Emerging Leaders, Creative Leaders and the EA Executive Development program. He is a leader in EA's college outreach program which brings summer interns to the company from top colleges and universities around the world.

In October of 2004, Bing was appointed the Endowed Faculty Chair at the University of Southern California School of Film, Television and Digital Entertainment.

Bing received a B.A. from Yale University in Literature and Drama and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. He is a trustee at the Urban School of San Francisco and is a board member for the US Ski and Snowboard Team. Gordon launched and co-taught "Videogame Prototype Design" class at Stanford University.

Revered as much for his leadership as his creative contribution, Bing has had a profound and enduring role in shaping the history of EA and the game industry.

WILL WRIGHT
Chief Designer and Co-founder, Maxis

Will Wright, Maxis' Chief Designer, co-founded Maxis in 1987. Wright began working on what would become SimCity-The City Simulator in 1985. SimCity was released in 1989, and has since won 24 domestic and international awards. Wright co-designed SimEarth-The Living Planet in 1990. In 1991, Wright co-designed SimAnt-The Electronic Ant Colony. SimCity 2000 and SimCopter are also part of Wright's recent repertoire. SimCity 3000 Unlimited, the definitive version of 1999's best-selling game SimCity 3000, continued in the tradition. The long-awaited 4th generation, SimCity 4, was released in January 2003. SimCity 4's first expansion pack, SimCity 4 Rush Hour, and SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition were shipped in September 2003.

Wright's ground-breaking game The Sims, puts players in charge of the lives of a neighborhood of simulated people. Released in February of 2000, this wildly popular title has become a cultural phenomenon. The Sims has inspired six expansion packs. Livin' Large, House Party, Vacation, Unleashed and Superstar allow players to put their simulated families into new extreme situations and settings. The final expansion pack, Makin' Magic, was released in October 2003. Taking its bow in December 2002 was Wright's much anticipated The Sims Online(tm), which was featured in a cover story in Newsweek Magazine. The next generation of The Sims PC products debuted in September 2004 with The Sims 2, which became the fastest selling PC game ever selling more than a million copies in the first ten days worldwide.

In 1999, Will was included in Entertainment Weekly's "It List" of "the 100 most creative people in entertainment" as well as Time Digital's "Digital 50", a listing of "the most important people shaping technology today." In 2002, he was #35 on Entertainment Weekly's Power List and was also inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame. In 2003, Will was features in Game Informer's 'Top 10 Developer List of 2003'. Each year Wright, along with his daughter Cassidy, takes part in the annual Battlebot competition which was broadcast nationally on Comedy Central. His interest in plastic models of ships and airplanes during his childhood in Georgia eventually led to his designing computer models of cities, ecosystems and ant colonies.

AIIDE’05

AIIDE 2005 Invited Speakers

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