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South By Southwest ScreenBurn 2007 Coverage
“And across the hall attendees and visitors can hang out at the Screenburn Arcade, where you can experience all of the latest first-person shooter PC games…while standing up! Or the thrill of jamming along with Guitar Hero…while sitting on a couch!” – The Morning News
“This year’s ScreenBurn not only saw an expansion of its game panel track, but also hosted a huge arcade with many companies showing off new toys and wares. I had an opportunity to play Ubisoft’s new DS game JAM: Sessions before anyone out there. I also had a chance to see some of the industry’s greats like Warren Spector and Will Wright. ScreenBurn also played host to the EVO Evolution Championship Southern Qualifier. Hordes of fast-twitch, custom controller-toting, trash-talking fighters huddled around each other to see who would come out as king of the fighters. Pre-competition saw small groups huddled around hand-carried TVs preparing for war.” – WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd
“I don’t usually tend to be bias, but the Dorkbot Party, sponsored by IGDA and Make Magazine, at SXSW was the place to be. I mean, come on, anyone can have alcohol, music and food. But we had alcohol, circuit bending techno and robots; it doesn’t get any cooler than that. You name one party anywhere else at SXSW where you could purchase metal bras. No dice! There happened to be another party right next door and our line to get in was around the corner messing with theirs. The only tense moment was when the fire marshal made his way through an extremely packed house. The Austin chapter of the IGDA or International Game Developer’s Association hosted an absolutely awesome party along with Make Magazine and Dorkbot Saturday during SXSW’s ScreenBurn Festival. ScreenBurn is a section of SXSW’s Interactive portion that is dedicated to gaming. There were several music providers of the evening. The Geek Group and their singing tesla coils as well as a solo John Funk of www.bleep.labs and one of his creations took center stage during Open Dork microphone. The main music of the night was provided by Three Wave and DJ Greg Most. Even after the evening beverage supply had dwindled, many still hung around to speak geek and deliberate time-old quandaries like who was the best starship captain, Kirk or Picard. Yes, I was actually front row for this debate for a while. Eventually, the night wound down, and people filtered away to other venues. I suspect that next year we will need twice to three times the room to pull it off again. Great work to all of the people and volunteers of SWSX, ScreenBurn, IGDA, Make Magazine and Dorkbot for making it an awesome evening.” – WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd
South By Southwest Interactive Introduces
ScreenBurn Festival to the Lineup
ScreenBurn Festival allows attendees to interact with the
newest technology in the gaming industry in this four-day event.
Austin, Texas: September 14th - The 2007 ScreenBurn Festival: The Rise of The Independents will be held from Saturday, March 10th through Tuesday, March 13th at the Austin Convention Center in conjunction with the annual South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival. The ScreenBurn Arcade will give consumers the opportunity to play with the newest video games and gaming systems, as well as experience the hottest developments in gaming-related culture.
“We’re very excited about the new gaming component of SXSW Interactive,” says SXSW Interactive Event Director Hugh Forrest. “The video game industry continues to grow — and there are some great tie-ins here with the different kinds of things we do at SXSW. I am confident that ScreenBurn will help bring even more energy to SXSW.”
ScreenBurn Festival occurs on the same days of the SXSW Interactive Festival (March 10-13). Platinum, Gold, Interactive, and Film badge holders all have admittance to ScreenBurn. ScreenBurn attendees will register for an Interactive badge and will be able to attend the Interactive conference as well. SXSW Interactive is an incubator of new, cutting-edge technologies, the SXSW Interactive Festival is ground zero for the world’s most creative web developers, designers, bloggers, wireless innovators and new media entrepreneurs. 2006 keynotes included Heather Armstrong (dooce.com), Burnie Burns (”Red vs. Blue”), Jason Kottke (kottke.org), and Craig Newmark (craigslists). Panels cover topics such as blogging, business models, content creation, digital convergence, e-learning, entrepreneurism, open source, ubiquitous computing, web design, web hacks and web standards.
For more information on ScreenBurn visit: http://www.screenburnfest.com or contact Lindsay Muse at lindsay@sxsw.com for exhibitor information.
SXSW Interactive Festival
Scheduled March 9-13, the SXSW Interactive Festival brings together uber-geeks and digital creatives from around the world for four days of keynote speeches, panels, SXSW Web Awards, the iF! Trade Show & Exhibition, and numerous exciting evening activities. Speakers from 2006 included Jim Coudal (Coudal Partners), Jason Fried (37 Signals), Heather Armstrong (dooce.com), Jason Kottke (kottke.org), Craig Newmark (Craigslist), Burnie Burns (Red vs. Blue) and hundreds of other innovative industry leaders. For more information on SXSW Interactive, visit: http://www.sxsw.com/interactive.