Thursday, March 22, 2007

Game Developers' Conference '07 special

This week we join David Cameron at the 2007 Game Developers' Conference in San Francisco.
Dave talks to self-described "industry cockroach" Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts and now a leading innovator in the design of games for mobile phones. We also hear highlights from keynote presenters including Sony's Phil Harrison, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, alternative reality gamer Jane McGonigal, and game designer Warren Spector. The program wraps up with a visit to a video game museum and a chat with Stanford University's Henry Lowood about the need to develop an archive of classic computer games.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Trip Hawkins interview

(image from www.gdconf.com)

For more than three decades, the video game industry has been an arms race of new technologies and designs aimed at creating the most immersive entertainment experiences possible.

At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, much of the talk was about the latest competing technologies behind the new high-powered games consoles on offer from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

But some industry insiders are looking to the mobile phone as the next big games platform. Trip Hawkins is a video game pioneer. He founded software company Electronic Arts and he’s now tackling the mobile games market as the boss of his new company which is called Digital Chocolate.

His keynote speech to game designers was titled 'Making mobile phones the ultimate game platform'.

You can download the full homepage interview with Trip Hawkins (.mp3, 3.19Mb).
You can also subscribe to occasional Homepage radio specials by copying the following URL to your podcast software such as iTunes: http://feeds.feedburner.com/homepageradio

We don't need no education...

In this week's Homepage, Dave investigates the Gecko Phone- a mobile phone targeted at young kids in Gadgets and Gizmos.
Bron looks at a 'Virtual Classroom' emerging in the Orange area in central-west NSW. Five schools in this area offer resources and subjects online to high-school kids who may not have certain classes or materials at their school. Bron interviewed Orange Schools Director Pam Ryan about what it means to have a 'virtual classroom' and how it benefits high-school kids in regional areas.
In Hotsites, Bron speaks to the NSW Director of HSC Online, Bob Dengate. Bob explains how HSC Online can benefit year 12 students by providing extra resources, past exam papers and a glimpse at what to expect during the HSC exam period.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Homepage at GDC 07, San Francisco

Homepage will be at the annual Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco March 5 - 9.
Keep an ear out for reports during future episodes.