Austin Game Conference Attendees Invade Downtown

The fourth annual Austin Game Conference kicked off this morning. Right about now, thousands of gaming industry developers are probably sitting through opening remarks by Game Initiative conference director Tonda Bunge, Mayor Wynn, and Blizzard Entertainment's Rob Pardo -- the guy who brought computer geeks around the world such escapist hits as StarCraft and Warcraft III.

Running through Friday, AGC includes an exhausting schedule of programming, with seminars focused on topics such as "The Joy and Pain of Running Your Very Own MMOG," "Where is Asia Going?," and "Video Games and the Age of Science Nonfiction." More interestingly, the conference will host keynote addresses by such luminaries of the computer, sci-fi, and film industries as Jon Landau, Producer and Chief Operating Officer of Lightstorm Entertainment (Dick Tracy, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, the Solaris remake); Michael Dell, youngest CEO ever on the Fortune 500; and Vernor Vinge, Hugo Award-winning author of novels like A Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness in the Sky."

For the rest of us, they're also hosting a few evening events that a friend of ours was kind enough to fill us in on, both of which are open to the public: tonight at Beerland, IGDA Austin is throwing a bash for the as-yet-unreleased Guitar Hero 2, the video game that (purportedly) "creates all the sensations of being a rock star!" And, tomorrow night, AGC is running a hosted bar over at Sky Lounge on Congress Ave. "Badge, smadge," says our buddy Robin.

Check out the Guitar Hero 2 Showdown flyer after the jump!

Image by brokenarts from stock.xchng