Fun & Serious confirms online talks by Warren Spector (System Shock, Deus Ex) and Harvey Smith (Dishonored, Deus Ex) at its tenth edition

The Fun & Serious Game Festival maintains its winter appointment in 2020 with the key names of the video game industry, and after confirming the celebration of its tenth edition – this time in online format from December 10 to 12 – and revealing the first names (Tim Willits and Marc Merrill) it is now adding two new talents to the chat schedule.

Warren Spector (Fun and Serious Honorary Award 2016), a well-known producer and ideologue of video games such as System Shock, Deus Ex and Thief: The Dark Project has been a pioneer in this industry for more than 30 years, and Harvey smith (Fun and Serious Avant-Garde Award 2016), who was design director under Spector for Deus Ex and is now creative co-director of Arkane Studios, responsible for the game that won over 100 “Game of the Year” awards and the BAFTA 2013 for Dishonored, as well as the subsequent installments of the saga.

Warren Spector was the pioneer creator of System Shock, the 1994 video game that changed the rules when it comes to first-person games. Mixing action and role-playing games in an innovative way, it placed emphasis, for the first time in history, on letting players solve problems in their own way and each player having their own unique gaming experience, a real first at a time when games were much more linear. Spector would later direct another iconic game, Deus Ex (winner of several GOTY awards and a BAFTA).

Spector has been a board member of the International Game Developers Association and co-director of its education committee, devoted to forging positive relationships between the video game industry and academic institutions around the world. In 2012 he was awarded the prestigious Game Developers Choice Award and received an honorary doctorate from Columbia College in Chicago for his landmark contributions to the digital entertainment industry. A retrospective of his work and life experience has been on exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution.

Harvey Smith has worked in the world of video games professionally since 1993. Today he is co-creative director of Arkane Studios and responsible, together with Raphael Colantonio, of the game that won more than 100 “Game of the Year” awards and the BAFTA 2013 for Dishonored, and for the subsequent installments of the saga.

He also worked for Deus Ex, where he was lead designer, coinciding with Warren Spector, director of the title. This game won the BAFTA in 2000 and several “Game of the Year” awards, and it made history by becoming a title that redefined the shooter genre, being the first to introduce role-playing elements and character evolution. That feature has become apparent in subsequent Harvey games, where the character’s ethical and moral decisions make the game experience and the story differ greatly from player to player.

He was also involved in the development of System Shock and Super Wing Commander. He has written several books on video game design and has been an advisor to the prestigious Game Developers’ Choice Awards. In addition to participating in large productions of entertainment video games, in 2016 Smith won the Game Developers Challenge for Peace, for the design of a serious game that facilitates social and political action, which he called Peacebomb!

The tenth edition of the festival, taking into account the current health circumstances, has opted for the online format, and it will be a celebration of these ten years, with talks and interviews with some of the honorary winners and most important participants who have passed through the festival during the last decade, and thanks to the online format they will be accessible live from anywhere in the world.

The event will appeal to a widely varied audience, from video game fans, who will be able to learn more about the creation of their favorite titles, to professionals, as well as video game design and creation students. The talks of these key names in the industry will be moments to learn, know and delve into the creative process and the business strategy of the great titans of the sector.

About Fun and Serious Game Festival X Edition (2020)

The Fun & Serious Game Festival, to be held from 10th to 12th December 2020 in Bilbao (Spain), is the largest video-game festival in Europe and a key meeting-point for the industry as a whole. Last year, more than 40,000 people attended the different activities at the festival in Bilbao.
The event’s mission is to recognize and promote the work of video-game producers, directors, artists and developers, based on a comprehensive program of conferences, roundtables, networking and activities, aimed at both companies and the general public. As is customary each year, the Festival will conclude with an exclusive Grand Prize-Winning Gala for the best video-games of the year.
The Fun & Serious Game Festival has the support of Bilbao City Council, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the Basque Government – SPRI. The sponsorship of BBK and the collaboration of the Spanish Association of Video Games (AEVI), GAME, BBVA and UTAD. https://www.funandseriousgamefestival.com/