GDC announces keynote speakers for 2004 conference

The line-up of sessions and events for this year's Game Developers Conference has been revealed, with keynote speeches from industry luminaries including John Carmack, Dave Perry and John Gaeta on the bill.

Carmack is set to give the keynote for the Programming track of the conference, while Shiny Entertainment president Dave Perry will give the Production keynote, discussing the company's experiences in the creation of Enter the Matrix.

John Gaeta, the visual effects genius known best for his work as visual effects supervisor on the Matrix movies, will give the Visual Arts keynote, which promises to be a "stream of consciousness style" discussion with the intriguing title of "From Visual Anti-Establishmentarianism to Ubiquity and Back".

The General Interest keynote at the conference will be given by SCEA's executive VP of third party relations and marketing, Andrew House, while the Game Design keynote is to be delivered by EA's VP in charge of production, Neil Young, who will discuss the design process behind the Return of the King videogame.

Last, but certainly not least, a second Visual Arts keynote will be delivered by another film industry luminary - with Phil Tippett, visual effects supervisor on films ranging from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi to Jurassic Park and Starship Troopers, and two-time Oscar winer, giving an address on "The History of Animation".

The Game Developers Conference runs from March 22 to 26 in the San Jose Convention Centre in California. Further information on the keynote speeches, and on all other aspects of the convention, can be found at the conference website, www.gdconf.com.