The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), in partnership with Video Games Intelligence (VGI), is pleased to announce new speakers from Kabam, Firaxis, and Google’s Niantic Labs.
The latest speakers to join the DICE Europe roster include:
- Kent Wakeford, COO, Kabam, who will discuss “Bridging West to East, Managing the Complexities.” In this session, Wakeford will look at the rapidly growing Asian mobile device and mobile games markets and address the reasons why Western developers should be diving in, if they aren’t already. Using Kabam as his case study, he’ll tackle the various challenges that come with breaking into the Asian gaming market.
- John Hanke, vice president, Niantic Labs, and Flint Dille, lead writer, Niantic Labs, will present “Designing Living Fiction” as a follow-up to the attendee and player experience they crafted for the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas earlier this year. In part two, Hanke and Dille will focus more deeply on the storytelling aspect and reveal more about how the Ingress and the Niantic platform has enabled a new way to approach narrative to develop a living story/universe.
- Will Miller and David McDonough, co-lead designers at Firaxis, will present “Designing Beyond Historical Constraints,” exploring why Civilization games are about the story of humankind. Using examples from their own game, Civilization: Beyond Earth, they will discuss how a world itself becomes the lead character, while nations, leaders and climactic events are the playing pieces.
Niantic Labs (with speakers Hanke and Dille) are presenting a three-part series, a developing story that started at the 2014 D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas with “Adventures on Foot” where Hanke introduced the notion of turning the real-world into an interactive social game. At D.I.C.E. Europe, they will present the second chapter in the series in London, with the finale at the 2015 D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas. As in Las Vegas, the Niantic Labs team will also be hosting a custom designed, hands-on Ingress experience where hundreds of 'Ingress agents' - including newly minted agents from D.I.C.E. attendees - will battle for control of Kensington Park.