East Coast Game Conference Reveals Unreal University, Art of the Game Exhibit and More

The East Coast Game Conference, to be held April 13-14 at the Raleigh Convention Center, has announced details around its 2011 Portfolio Critique sessions, Career Lounge roundtables and an all-new “Unreal University” provided by Epic Games based on its industry-leading Unreal Engine 3 toolset. Also coming to ECGC is “Art of the Game,” an inaugural exhibit featuring a curated collection of video game artwork, from concept illustrations to 3D environments. Visit the ECGC YouTube channel to hear an update on the 2011 Career Fair and Expo Hall from conference operations director Troy Knight.

This year’s Portfolio Critiques offer one-on-one opportunities to obtain feedback and advice from art, design and programming professionals, and Career Lounge roundtables are designed to share best practices with those looking to advance their careers in the game industry. These sessions will be held within the Expo Hall where professionals from the gaming, design, immersive learning/eLearning and CGI animation industries will give attendees insight into their jobs and impart wisdom from decades of collective industry experience. Unreal University will feature Unreal Engine 3 presentations by developers who have been widely recognized for their talent and skills.

Timelines for the Career Lounge, Portfolio Critiques and Unreal University are posted at http://www.ecgconf.com/content/careerfair and http://www.ecgconf.com/content/learning_UDK, respectively.

Unreal University
Exclusive to the East Coast Game Conference, Epic Games is hosting special Unreal University sessions on working with Epic Games’ Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free version of the award-winning Unreal Engine 3 toolset. The sessions will feature instructors from various studios, including Teotl Studios, the developer of “The Ball,” the first commercial game release powered by UDK. James Tan and Markus Arvidsson will provide demonstrations and answer questions about working with UDK. 

Unreal University will also feature a presentation by the makers of Sp.A.I, a UDK-powered, third-person puzzle platformer, developed by Australia’s //No Comment. //No Comment, one of the most talented student UDK teams in the world, will explain how they ramped up production using specific UDK tools and techniques, overcame challenges commonly faced by new teams and ultimately shipped a fun game with commercial potential.

A third session, which will take place in the main keynote hall, will feature the technology behind the DirectX 11 Unreal Engine “Samaritan” Demo unveiled at this year’s Game Developers Conference. Epic Games’ Senior Graphics Architect, Martin Mittring, will discuss next-generation graphics features developed for the real-time Unreal Engine 3 “Samaritan” demo and how Epic’s engineers, in collaboration with NVIDIA, extended the engine to support Direct3D 11 as well as tessellation and displacement mapping. This talk will explain the bumps encountered and overcome along the way, with extensive details on how displacement mapping was leveraged in the demo. The talk will also explain in detail the many other new graphical features highlighted in the demo.

Attendees are welcome to bring their own laptops pre-loaded with UDK, downloadable for free at www.udk.com, to take full advantage of these sessions.

Engage and Connect
Under the theme, Engage and Connect, attendees will have the opportunity to engage with seven extensive tracks comprised of panels, lectures and discussions with industry talent from around the world. New this year, each track is geared toward a specific industry audience, whether that is technologists and artists developing games, individuals working with advanced learning technologies or social network games or professionals interested in sharpening their business acumen.

For a full listing of confirmed speakers and the conference agenda, visit www.ecgconf.com/content/conference. 

To register, visit http://www.ecgconf.com/apps/register/.