On May 10th, at the Computer History Museum, UC Santa Cruz will host some of the world’s most exciting thinkers on interactive storytelling for Inventing the Future of Games 2013. Rather than focus on yesterday’s tips and tricks, our focus is on how the future of interactive storytelling is being invented now. There will be talks, panels, discussion, and live demonstrations — including, I am excited to share, the first-ever public demonstration of a major, not-yet-announced interactive storytelling technology being developed by UC Santa Cruz and multiple partner organizations.
The day will include a keynote from Warren Spector (Deus Ex, Epic Mickey) and closing remarks from Brenda Romero (Wizardry, Train). The first panel will discuss where current practice is going, featuring Clint Hocking (Valve), Kevin Bruner (Telltale), and Richard Rouse (Microsoft). The next panel engages next-generation tools and authorship, featuring Emily Short (Linden Lab), Asa Kalama (Disney), and Stéphane Bura (Storybricks). The last panel dives into immersive and transmedia storytelling, featuring Matt MacLaurin (eBay), Susan Bonds (42 Entertainment), and Tawny Schlieski (Intel) — with interactive storytelling field founder Brenda Laurel as moderator/interlocutor.
Finally, as with our last symposium, I expect the audience will contain a greater number of exciting thinkers and creators than the speakers list. For that reason we’ve built in lots of time for eating, drinking, and talking — including a long lunch and a closing cocktail party. I hope you can join us.
