Game Design Expo is an annual event in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 for video game industry professionals and enthusiasts, hosted by Vancouver Film School

Vancouver Film School

Vancouver Film School is a private entertainment arts school located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1987, it has achieved international recognition. The Vancouver Film School has campus locations around Downtown Vancouver and comprises six buildings...

's Game Design

Game design

Game design, a subset of game development, is the process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in a game as...

 program. The inaugural event in 2007 was the first of its kind in Vancouver. Game Design Expo has presented such industry speakers as Ron Gilbert

Ron Gilbert

Ron Gilbert is an American computer game designer, programmer, and producer, best known for his work on several classic LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. Gilbert was also co-founder of Humongous Entertainment and its sister company Cavedog...

 and Eric Zimmerman

Eric Zimmerman

Eric Zimmerman is a game designer and the co-founder and CEO of Gamelab, a computer game development company, which is known for the game Diner Dash. Each year Zimmerman hosts the Game Design Challenge at the Game Developers Conference...

, and designers and producers from companies like Bungie

Bungie

Bungie, Inc is an American video game developer currently located in Bellevue, Washington, USA. The company was established in May 1991 by University of Chicago undergraduate student Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones after publishing Jones' game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of...

, Activision

Activision

Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...

, Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...

, BioWare

BioWare

BioWare is a Canadian video game developer founded in February 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. BioWare is currently owned by American company Electronic Arts...

, and Mythic Entertainment

Mythic Entertainment

BioWare Mythic is a computer game developer in Fairfax, Virginia which is most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role-playing game Dark Age of Camelot...

.

History

Tickets to Game Design Expo 2007 sold out, and the event has occurred annually since then. It takes place at Vancity Theatre at the Vancouver International Film Centre

Vancouver International Film Centre

The Vancouver International Film Centre houses the 175-seat Vancity Theatre, along with a production room and offices for the Vancouver International Film Festival...

 and at Vancouver Film School's Game Design campus.

Notable Speakers

Don Daglow

Don Daglow

Don Daglow is an American computer game and video game designer, programmer and producer. He is best known for designing a series of pioneering simulation games and role-playing games, as well as the first computer baseball game and the first graphical MMORPG, all between 1971 and 1995...

Ellen Beeman

Ron Gilbert

Ron Gilbert

Ron Gilbert is an American computer game designer, programmer, and producer, best known for his work on several classic LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. Gilbert was also co-founder of Humongous Entertainment and its sister company Cavedog...

Eric Zimmerman

Eric Zimmerman

Eric Zimmerman is a game designer and the co-founder and CEO of Gamelab, a computer game development company, which is known for the game Diner Dash. Each year Zimmerman hosts the Game Design Challenge at the Game Developers Conference...

Jay Weinland and CJ Cowan, two of the team leads behind Bungie

Bungie

Bungie, Inc is an American video game developer currently located in Bellevue, Washington, USA. The company was established in May 1991 by University of Chicago undergraduate student Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones after publishing Jones' game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of...

 Studios' blockbuster Halo 3

Halo 3

Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. The third installment in the Halo franchise, the game concludes the story arc begun in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued in Halo 2...

Clint Hocking, creative director at Ubisoft

Ubisoft

Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....

 Montreal, was the keynote speaker and a draw for Game Design Expo 2009.

In 2010, William Ho of ModNation Racers

ModNation Racers

ModNation Racers is a kart racing game developed by United Front Games for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. User generated content will be a central aspect of the game, such that it uses the same "Play, Create, Share." adage as LittleBigPlanet to convey its basis in online user-generated...

 spoke to Game Design Expo audience members about video games and user-generated content. Level Director Josh Bridge and Creative Director Jason Leigh also walked the audience through their process in bringing Dead Rising 2

Dead Rising 2

is an action-adventure horror-comedy video game, developed by Capcom in partnership with Blue Castle Games, and was distributed by Capcom. It was released on September 24, 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and September 28, 2010 for Microsoft Windows. The Dead Rising staff returned to create...

 from concept to console.

The 2011 Game Design Expo included speakers from the makers of Angry Birds

Angry Birds

Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Mobile. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for Apple's iOS in December 2009...

 and Cory Stockton from Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded on February 8, 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by three graduates of UCLA, Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce and currently owned by French company Activision Blizzard...

 speaking about World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...

Highlights

At the 2009 event, Vancouver Film School offered a new scholarship to encourage women to consider a career in the video game industry. The $30,000 Women in Games scholarship was awarded to a female student entering Vancouver Film School's one-year Game Design program.

In 2010 Vancouver Film School announced that they would be presenting a $30,000 Women in Games Scholarship for the second straight year.

In 2011 Vancouver Film School announced a Women in Games Scholarship for a third time. The 2011 scholarship was increased to a value of $50,000.