Gamelab 2011 Kicks Off as a Must for Video Game Industry

MADRID - The 7th Spanish Games Conference and Expo Gamelab 2011 kicked off Wednesday with a full agenda of round tables, keynotes and networking events, designed to help industry insiders "stay at the top of their game."

Wednesday's schedule sees Minecraft's Business Director Daniel Kaplan talk about the development of Mojang, as well as American McGee--known as one of the original members of id Software during the creation of Doom--in an interview session conducted by Game Developer Magazine Chief Editor Brandon Sheffield discuss the challenges and benefits of running his China-based studio Spicy Horse.

Developer Relations DevNet Sony Agostino Simmoneta will discuss the opportunities offered by Sony for small developers to act as “Self Publishers” in the digital distribution platform PlayStation Network and Trip Hawkins-- reputedly one of the great visionaries of the industry and founder of one of the world's largest gaming multinational of the game, Electronic Arts and Digital Chocolate-- will discuss a vision for the future for the creation and commercialization of content in the digital world.

The 2000 expected attendees will also be able to try out new games in the exhibition area, where Nintendo, Xbox, Playstation and a range of others will have stands.

The finalists for the 7th annual National Gamelab Videogame Industry Awards  will announced Wednesday night, with MercurySteam's "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow" the favorite with 7 nominations, followed by Bitoon's "BasketDudes" and Pendulo Studios' "The Next Big Thing" both nominated in 4 categories.

James Armstrong, Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment for Southern Europe, will pick up the  Gamelab 2011 Honorary Award, presented to figures in the industry with a strong impact on video games in Spain.

Later this week, English computer game pioneer Peter Molyneux will be honored.

Gamelab is backed by the Spanish Culture Ministry, the Association of Videogame Developers of Spain, Spain's Foreign Trade Institute and the regional Catalan government. It will run in Barcelona from June 29-July 1.