Abstract

The talk will look at the current state of the games industry, both in terms of released games and those currently in development, and will also look at aspects of rendering and character behaviour currently in use and being planned or researched for the future. The games industry has continued to change and grow rapidly over the past decades, and there is every indication that the change and growth will continue for at least a further decade or more. This continues to present major challenges to those in the industry.

Mini-bio: David Braben has been in the games business for 24 years, and was first known for “Elite” (with Ian Bell) and the “Frontier” series of games. He is the Chairman and principal founder of Frontier Developments Ltd, a major UK games developer whose recent titles include “RollerCoaster Tycoon 3”, “Dog’s Life” and “Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit”, the game of the film from Dreamworks and multiple Oscar-winning Aardman Animations. “RollerCoaster Tycoon 3” entered the US PC charts at #1 (according to NPD ) in November 2004 and continues to sell well throughout the world. Frontier employs around 120 people, and has offices on the Science Park in Cambridge, currently developing for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP , Xbox, Xbox 360. Recently announced projects include the soon-to-be-released game “Thrillville” with LucasArts and Atari, and “The Outsider”.