This May, Don Daglow, former President and CEO of Stormfront Studios and a game-design legend, will be in Vancouver to return as a keynote speaker for the Future Play 09 @ GDC conference at GDC Canada.

For almost forty years, Daglow has been one of the gaming world’s true pioneers. He programmed the world’s first computer baseball game in 1971 before he had even reached his twenties. Other important firsts include Dungeon, the first true role-playing game, Utopia the first sim game, and Intellivision World Series Baseball, the first sports game that displayed game-play in three dimensions. Daglow is one of only two game designers (with id Software’s John Carmack) to be selected both for a Technical Emmy and to accept an Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Achievement Award.

In 1988 after stints with Broderbund, Electronic Arts and Mattel, Daglow launched Stormfront Studios, where he served as President and CEO. Notable Stormfront titles include Tony La Russa Baseball, Neverwinter Nights (the first graphical MMORPG), Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Daglow was elected to the Board of Directors of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences in 2003 and again in 2007. He also is a past winner of the National Endowment for the Humanities New Voices playwriting competition. He speaks extensively on the topics of game design, Interactive Media and the video games industry, and has delivered keynote addresses in Canada, Germany, the UK and the United States. He was one of the keynote speakers at Future Play 2008 in Toronto. Daglow holds a BA in Writing from Pomona College and an Ed.M. from Claremont Graduate University.

Since its beginnings in 2002, Future Play has provided a home for cutting-edge researchers, game developers and theorists such as Ben Sawyer to share their ideas with an audience that includes industry-experts, students, investors and government officials involved in the digital media and games industry. Future Play focuses on the three major themes of future games development, future games impacts and applications and future games talent.

Additionally, for developers looking to address the emerging challenges of game development, the Future Play Conference @ GDC Canada, an annual conference hosted by Algoma University, will enable academic, industry and government interests to present and promote research in the area of video game development.

More information about Future Play 09 @ GDC, including registration and submission guidelines for Abstracts and Panel Discussion Proposals, is available online at www.futureplay.org.