On May 10th, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, UC Santa Cruz will host some of the world’s most exciting thinkers on interactive storytelling for “Inventing the Future of Games 2013” (http://ifogevents.com). 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 of new and in-development projects — including the first unveiling of a major new interactive storytelling technology being created by UC Santa Cruz.

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 second 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 the last IFOG symposium, the audience will contain a greater number of exciting thinkers and creators than the speakers list. For that reason the schedule includes lots of time for eating, drinking, and talking — including a long lunch and a closing cocktail party.

Event Link (including registration): http://ifogevents.com

Twitter Info: If you can’t join us, please follow along on Twitter. Event-related announcements will come via @playableUCSC and the event’s hashtag is #IFOG2013

Past IFOG: Videos from the prior IFOG symposium (featuring Will Wright, Rod Humble, Robin Hunicke, and more) are here:
http://games.soe.ucsc.edu/videos-ifog-2011