Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2008

Friday 8th August/... Looking to get into the video games industry? Want to check out the latest games and listen to some of the most influential people behind those titles? This year’s Edinburgh Interactive Festival screenings programme has a stellar line-up of speakers, amazing games screenings and workshops designed to help open the door to arguably the most creative industry in the world.

The latest games to be added to an already impressive roster being showcased at this year’s legendary screenings programme include: Ubisoft’s revolutionary real-time strategy game, EndWar™, David Braben’s LostWinds™ and a must-see unveiling of Introversion’s brand new multiplayer game, Multiwinia.

On Sunday 10th August Introversion, famed creator of the critically acclaimed Darwinia, will unveil for the first time to the general public an exclusive screening of its next highly anticipated PC title, Multiwinia: Survival of the Flattest, hosted by the developers themselves. Members of the public lucky enough to be attending will be privy to a sneak preview of the latest game modes, view exclusive secret footage from in-game and delve behind-the-scenes of this infamous indie studio.

Continuing a strong Scottish presence for Sunday’s screenings programme, Chris Wright of Dundee development studio Proper Games will unveil their first title ‘Flock’. First announced by Capcom at E3, this will be the first UK public showing. In the game, the player controls a giant UFO and the aim of the game is to herd a group of animals such as a flock of sheep or herd of cows and steer them through obstacles and landscapes.

Also on Sunday, the ‘WeeWorld’ screening will explore how to use and navigate WeeWorld ( www.weeworld.com), the most popular interactive avatar community and trusted site for dynamic self]expression, creation and communication. Through an expansive palette of features, clothes, accessories, hobbies, and more, WeeWorld users can create their personalized WeeMee avatar, connect with friends, decorate their own visual space, send animated messages, play games and more. See why more than 23 million WeeMees worldwide are redefining avatar demographics and establishing the WeeMee as the world’s most widely used and recognized avatar.

Rounding off Sunday’s screenings programme, Travellers Tales will be unveiling a specially created showing of Lego Indiana Jones: The Movie! This 35-minute screening is an amalgamation of all of the game’s cut-scenes lovingly crafted together.

On Monday 11th August, Rebecca Thompson is chairing the ‘Talent Arcade’ day, which is aimed at people interested in getting into the games industry, new developers, indie developers, or people who want to establish their talents in the games industry. Talent Arcade has been created by Channel 4’s ‘4Talent’ initiative, which encourages and fosters new talent.

Also part of the screenings programme, Chris White, Head of Glu Mobile’s London studio, will be presenting ‘Get Glu'd to Mobile’ where he’ll be talking specifically about developing for mobile games and the games he will be discussing include: Transformers G1: Awakening, Vegas Hustler, Get Cookin, Virtua Fighter and Age of Empires 3.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s Sandy Spangler, a designer for EyeToy, will be presenting ‘Drop That Controller! - The World of EyeToy’. The presentation is a rough guide to the world of the EyeToy USB camera for PlayStation. It will cover the history of EyeToy, the challenges in creating games without a controller, and the creation of a new genre - physical social gaming. The presentation at 14.30 on Tuesday August will also include a sneak preview of two new groundbreaking EyeToy titles with get-up-and-play demos, so be prepared to get out of your seat!

About Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2008

Now celebrating its sixth year, the Edinburgh Interactive Festival is powered up to showcase the continued popularity, growth and influence of video games. And this year, the Interactive Festival is more synchronised with the world famous Edinburgh Festival than ever, appealing to the press, public and professionals from film, television and interactive media backgrounds alike, offering a bigger event for delegates, more consumer focusing – an overall spectacle for all.

New to Interactive Festival 2008 will be Features, Exhibition and Recruitment areas specifically tailored to cater for the public - allowing them access to the latest games and job opportunities in games.

As ever, the three-day Interactive Festival wouldn’t be complete without the cornerstones of conferences, keynotes, panel sessions, debates, games screenings and even more people than ever jostling to get through the doors.

Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2008

Edinburgh International Conference Centre

150 Morrison Street, Edinburgh EH3 8EE

UK

Sunday 10th August

Game Screenings

Dare ProtoPlay

Public games area and retail site

Monday 11th August

EIF Conference

Game Screenings

Dare ProtoPlay

Public games area and retail site

Conference Networking event

Tuesday 12th August

EIF Conference

Game Screenings

Dare ProtoPlay

Public games area and retail site

Digital Interactive Symposium

Edinburgh Interactive Festival will also play host to the Digital Interactive Symposium, the games event aimed at academics and games industry professionals. It takes place on the afternoon of Tuesday 12th August.

Registration is open now at www.edinburghinteractivefestival.com

There is also a Facebook Group in 2008 at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12251081247

Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2008 registration details:

Full delegate pass - £149 (ex VAT)

Scottish based developers and companies - £99 (ex VAT)

Students - £75 (ex VAT)

Delegates can also register for the Digital Interactive Symposium.

You can see more of Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2007 at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YktZnm_eRlQ

Edinburgh Interactive Festival has also forged a number of key relationships with partners and sponsors that will be announced shortly.

If you are interested in getting involved with Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2008 – through partnerships, sponsorship, the Friends of the Festival programme or simply to find out more about the commercial opportunities at EIF 2008, please contact Sales and Sponsorship manager, Jodie Holdway: Tel +44 (0) 1462 456780 ; jodie.holdway@bhpr.co.uk. For press information please contact PR Manager, Sarah Hartland: Tel +44 (0) 1462 456780; sarah.hartland@bhpr.co.uk.

Editor Note:

EIF08:

The Edinburgh Interactive Festival is managed by a committee drawn from all areas of the games industry, including publishers, developers and the two industry trade bodies: The Independent Game Developers Association (TIGA) www.tiga.org and the Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) www.elspa.com.

About Introversion

Heralded as 'the last of the bedroom programmers', Introversion Software is one of the UK's most-respected and successful independent game developers and publishers. Founded in 2001 by three university students, and starting out with an initial personal investment of just £600, Introversion went on to produce three critically acclaimed titles; Uplink, Darwinia and DEFCON. Their second title Darwinia was awarded three prizes at the 2006 Independent Games Festival Awards, including the Seumas McNally grand prize, and Introversion was recently voted one of the top 50 Best Games Companies in the world. The Introversion developers are currently hard at work on their next title Multiwinia: Survival of the Flattest, due out in September 2008. For more information on all of Introversion's projects please visit www.introversion.co.uk

About Chris White, Head of Glu’s London Studio

As head of Glu's London studio, Chris White oversees game development for the EMEA region. He works in tandem with Glu's San Mateo and Beijing studios to generate and evaluate game concepts for original titles as well as licensed games, and manages the creative and development processes.

In his five years at Glu, Chris has been involved in the creation of more than 50 games, including some of the company's most highly regarded titles such as 'Age of Empires 3', 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire', 'Brain Genius' and 'Stranded'.

Chris holds a BSc in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from the University of Birmingham."

LostWinds

For more information on LostWinds visit www.frontier.co.uk/games/lostwinds

“LostWinds” is a trademark of Frontier Developments Ltd. All rights reserved.

Frontier Developments Ltd.

Frontier, headed by founder David Braben, co-author of the seminal “Elite”, employs over 170 people in Cambridge, UK, and has an outstanding track record of gameplay innovation, critical acclaim and commercial success.

About Ubisoft

Ubisoft is a leading producer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products worldwide and has grown considerably through a strong and diversified line-up of products and partnerships. Ubisoft has teams in 27 countries and distributes games in more than 55 countries around the globe. It is committed to delivering high-quality, cutting-edge video game titles to consumers. For the 2007-08 fiscal year Ubisoft generated sales of 928 million euros. To learn more, please visit www.ubisoftgroup.com.

© 2008 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Endwar, Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, Splinter Cell Double Agent, Sam Fisher, the Soldier Icon, Ubisoft, Ubi.com and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the US and/or other countries.