The 2008 ScreenBurn Festival
March 7 - 11, 2008
Austin, Texas

Three gamers in Indiana set out on a special quest Friday afternoon: to marathon through seven Super Mario games while streaming a video of the process live onto the web in an effort to raise money for the charity, Child’s Play. The charity, created by the gaming community, donates books, toys, and games to children’s hospitals across America. That weekend, Brian Brinegar, Dan May, and John Groth decided to power through nearly 48 hours of the classic Mario games, from Super Mario Brothers to Super Mario Galaxy, ending at 2:47 PM, EST. While saving their princesses, the trio raised over $10,000, blowing right through their original goal of $1,500. With over 500 contributions and thousands of watchers, the Mario men won their viewers’ hearts and support by sticking to their goal, and doing it with style; even getting 120 stars at the strike of midnight in their “post-show” pushed the donations to over $11,000. Cheers to their successful trip through the evolution of Mario!

Do you have an idea you think would be a great panel discussion at next year’s SXSW ScreenBurn game conference? The online panel submission process for SXSW Interactive + ScreenBurn 2009 in in progress and we will continue to take submissions through Friday, July 11. Programming ideas submitted via this interface will be posted on the SXSW Panel Picker, thereby allowing our community to vote on which ideas they feel are most appropriate for 2009. Click here for more information on how to submit your gaming-related panel idea for 2009.

At the recent Social Gaming Summit, a panel led by Daniel James and Cary Rozenzweig from Puzzle Pirates and IMVU, respectively, discussed the importance of simpler interfaces for users to generate content (such as personal avatars and environments). “The more tools that you provide can lead to richer behavior, but often it’s the simpler things that people enjoy most,” said James, CEO of Three Rings. By providing the users the ability to easily manipulate their virtual world, massively multiplayer online games could draw in a larger demographic of people to participate. Whether players want to expand their creative ideas by playing for hours or simply to relax for a couple of minutes after work, developers should give all players the equal opportunity to build their ‘virtual space’ just the way they like it.

The estate of “Godfather” creator Mario Puzo is suing Paramount Pictures for breach of contract over proceeds from the video game based on the 1972 movie. According to document filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court Wednesday, Puzo’s son and estate executor, Anthony, claims the video game falls under a 1992 agreement struck between Paramount and Puzo that promised him a “significant share” of “audiovisual” products derived from his creation. “In material breach of the audio-visual products agreement, Paramount has failed and refused to pay the Puzo Estate the sums due it in respect of the Godfather game,” said the court filing. Puzo, who died in 1999, originally sold the film rights to his Corleone saga to Paramount for a relatively low sum because he was a struggling, unknown author at the time. In 2006 Paramount licensed Electronic Arts to create a video game based on the characters and story lines of the movie. The $1 million suit claims that , because the game uses character created by Mario Puzo, his estate is due a portion of the proceeds under the 1992 agreement. “You hear them. You see them. That’s audiovisual to me,” said the estate’s lawyer, Bert Fields.

Becoming the hero of your favorite game just got one step closer. DFKI, a team of programmers from Germany, successfully altered the Wii Balance Board to control game characters in the ever-popular online game, World of Warcraft. In the YouTube video demonstration, game characters are moved through the world by surfing on the board that senses the direction the player shifts his weight towards. Although only simple movements have been harnessed at the moment, The Gaming Dungeon sees this accomplishment as a “promising” crossover of console to PC; also, it allows the normal sit-down computer gamers to get on their feet. If Nintendo picks up on this innovative idea, gamers may soon be able to not only slash enemies with the Wiimote, but also run and jump through their favorite RPG and adventure game worlds.

The overwhelming popularity of play along games like Rock Band (MTV Games/Harmonix) and Guitar Hero (Activision) isn’t just a boon for the video game industry, it seems to be breathing a little life back into the music business as well. These games not only provide a new, and younger, audience for older, established rock acts like Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones and Metallica, newer acts like Coldplay and Radiohead are also utilizing the platform to reach broader markets. In addition to the song downloads for the games themselves (”Rock Band” recently passed the 12 million mark), since downloads cannot be transferred to a CD or mp3 player, players are going to other sources to download copies for their personal use. With almost one third of surveyed players reporting that they purchased songs featured on Rock Band and Guitar Hero, all this is adding up to big money for the music business.

Do you have an idea you think would be a great panel discussion at next year’s SXSW ScreenBurn game conference? The online panel submission process for SXSW Interactive + ScreenBurn 2009 has begun, and we will continue to take submissions through Friday, July 11. Programming ideas submitted via this interface will be posted on the SXSW Panel Picker, thereby allowing our community to vote on which ideas they feel are most appropriate for 2009. Click here for more information on how to submit your gaming-related panel idea for 2009.

Variety announced Sunday that Paramount Pictures has snatched up the rights for a biopic about Atari creator Nolan Bushnell. You remember Pong? That was him. Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star and will also serve as the movie’s producer under his Appian Way shingle. When asked in a recent interview with MTV Multiplayer if he ever thought he would be portrayed in a movie by the kid from Titanic, Bushnell laughed, “No. I’m very, very thrilled and honored that would be the case.”

This isn’t the first time Bushnell has been approached for the rights to his story, but when approached by writers Brian Hecker and Craig Sherman he said he “felt that these guy got it in a very, very real way and [knew] what Atari stood for.” He said always thought a movie about his life might happen. “I kind of thought that it wouldn’t happen until maybe after I was in the ground for a little while. [laughs]”

CEO Ignacio Cavero of LemonQuest, a Spanish firm seriously investing in iPhone game development, predicts iPhone games will cost about 17 to 18 Euros per game (running around $28 USD per game). PockerGamer.biz further confirms “Apple has remained tight-lipped about its pricing policy for iPhone games, in advance of the launch of its Application Store next week, at its WWDC Show. Cavero says LemonQuest will be presenting its first iPhone game at the show. “I can’t say much about it, but it’s very exciting,” he says. “We’ve got a big UK licence, and we’re using all the capabilities of the iPhone.” This initially seems to be a steep price to pay for games on an iPhone, but the reasoning is due to costly platform development. Cavero forecasts, “In the end, the market’s going to pay for it. At the same time, we will see some publishers and developers who won’t be able to make this step forwards, so it will be limited to a small group of companies. But we have some other developers coming from PC games and getting into this new generation of mobile games.”

Here are some disturbing statistics from a National Constitution Center survey: more American teenagers know the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air than know the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (94.7% to 2.2%), know which city has the zip code “90210″ than the city in which the U.S. Constitution was written (75% to 25%), and more American teenagers know the star of the motion picture “Titanic” than know the Vice President of the United States (90% to 74%). “Only one-third of Americans can name the three branches of government, but two-thirds can name a judge on American Idol,” said Sandra Day O’Connor during her closing keynote address for last weekend’s 5th annual Games For Change Conference hosted by Parsons The New School For Design. The former Supreme Court Justice took the opportunity to talk about a project she has been working on to change those rather sad facts, an online digital game called “Our Courts”, geared at teaching civics to middle-schoolers.

Acknowledging the educational power of video games, O’Connor worked with University of Wisconsin-Madison professor James Paul Gee to create “Our Courts.” The effort is composed of two parts: an online curriculum for educators and an online video game for students to use in their free time. Both services will be free to the public. According to the “Our Courts” website, the game “will create problems that will challenge students to think critically, and debate rationally and respectfully, about important issues of the day in light of the lessons of history.”

“We can’t forget that the primary purpose of public schools in America is to produce citizens who have the skills and knowledge to sustain our form of government,” said O’Connor. “Public education is the only longterm solution to preserving an independent judiciary and constitutional democracy.”