Game Design Expo is an annual event in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, British Columbia, Canada, for

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

industry professionals and enthusiasts, hosted by

Vancouver Film School Vancouver Film School (VFS) is a private entertainment arts school located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1987, it has achieved international recognition. The Vancouver Film School has campus locations around Downtown Vancouve ...

Game Design Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, Wargame (video games), war ga ...

program. The inaugural event in 2007 was the first of its kind in Vancouver. Game Design Expo has presented such industry speakers as

Ron Gilbert Ronald David Gilbert is an American video game designer, programmer, and producer. His games are generally focused on interactive story-telling, and he is arguably best known for his work on several LucasArts adventure games, including '' Man ...

and

Eric Zimmerman Eric Zimmerman (born 1969) is an American game designer and the co-founder and CEO of Gamelab, a video game developer, computer game development company based in Manhattan. GameLab is known for the game ''Diner Dash''. Each year Zimmerman host ...

, and designers and producers from companies like

Bungie Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington, and a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones (programme ...

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

BioWare BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated Doctor of Medicine, medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. Since 2007, the company has been owned by American ...

, and

Mythic Entertainment Mythic Entertainment (formerly BioWare Mythic, EA Mythic, Inc., and Interworld Productions) was an American video game developer based in Fairfax, Virginia that was most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role ...

History

Tickets to Game Design Expo 2007 sold out, and the event has occurred annually since then. It takes place at Vancity Theatre at the Vancouver International Film Centre and at Vancouver Film School's Game Design campus.

Notable speakers

* Don Daglow * Ellen Beeman *

Jay Weinland and CJ Cowan, two of the team leads behind

Studios' blockbuster ''

Halo 3 ''Halo 3'' is a 2007 first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. The third installment in the ''Halo'' franchise following '' Halo: Combat Evolved'' (2001) and ''Halo 2'' (2004), the game's story centers on th ...

''.

Clint Hocking Clint Hocking (born 18 September 1972) is a Canadian video game designer and director. He has primarily worked at the Canadian divisions of Ubisoft, where he developed three titles, and briefly worked at LucasArts, Valve Corporation, Valve, and ...

, creative director at

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

Montreal, was the keynote speaker and a draw for Game Design Expo 2009. In 2010, William Ho of ModNation Racers spoke to Game Design Expo audience members about video games and user-generated content. Level Director Josh Bridge and Creative Director Jason Leigh also walked the audience through their process in bringing Dead Rising 2 from concept to console. The 2011 Game Design Expo included speakers from the makers of

Angry Birds ''Angry Birds'' is a Finnish media franchise created by Rovio Entertainment, and owned by Sega. The game series focuses on the titular flock of colorful angry birds who try to save their eggs from green-colored pigs. Inspired by the game ''Cr ...

and Cory Stockton from

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the h ...

speaking about

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of War ...

Highlights

At the 2009 event, Vancouver Film School offered a new scholarship to encourage women to consider a career in the video game industry. The $30,000 Women in Games scholarship was awarded to a female student entering Vancouver Film School's one-year Game Design program. In 2010 Vancouver Film School announced that they would be presenting a $30,000 Women in Games Scholarship for the second straight year. In 2011 Vancouver Film School announced a Women in Games Scholarship for a third time. The 2011 scholarship was increased to a value of $50,000.Women in Games Scholarship Creating Opportunities for Female Game Designers - IGN
Games.ign.com (2010-12-15). Retrieved on 2014-05-22.

References

External links

Game Design Expo official site
{{Video Game Trade Shows Video game development Video game trade shows Recurring events established in 2007 Vancouver Film School