ATLANTA, GA. (July 14, 2015) – The Georgia Game Developers Association announced today that award-winning game designer and educator Warren Spector will keynote the Southern Interactive Entertainment and Game Expo (www.siegecon.net) Oct. 9. Spector has also established one of the world’s most acclaimed university programs for game developers.

“There is no one else who has had such a profound impact on so many different parts of the game development universe,” said SIEGE Director Andrew Greenberg. “In addition, few people have such a great sense of the place games have both as a creative medium and an artistic endeavor.”

A 2012 recipient of the game industry’s highest accolade, the Game Developers Choice Awards Lifetime Achievement award, Spector is best known for his work on the Deus Ex and Disney Epic Mickey games. He also worked on several entries in the groundbreaking Ultima and Underworld series, as well as developing computer games including Martian Dreams, Wings of Glory, System Shock and Thief: Deadly Shadows. He began his career in 1983 in tabletop games, working on such classic roleplaying games as Toon, Paranoia and Top Secret/SI.

“It’s an honor to be invited to speak at the 2015 SIEGE conference,” Spector said. “The games medium is growing all the time in artistry, financial impact and cultural influence, and conferences like SIEGE are where creators, fans and students of media in general get together to talk about how we continue to move forward in those areas. I’m currently thinking a lot about the relationship of games to traditional media so my talk will focus on that. I look forward to a spirited dialogue about the things games can, can’t and shouldn’t learn from other media in order to flourish as the unique medium I know we can be.”

In addition to his game work, Spector is a published novelist (The Hollow Earth Affair, 1988) and comic book author (Ducktales: Rightful Owners, 2012). His work has been shown at the Australian Center for the Moving Image and the Smithsonian Institution (as well as at Disneyland and Disneyworld!). He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award at the Cartoons on the Bay conference in 2011 and an Honorary Doctorate from Columbia College of Chicago.

Spector now directs the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy in the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin.The Denius-Sams Gaming Academy focuses on teaching leadership and management skills within the video game industry. It attracts students who are already experienced game developers, looking to significantly enhance their game production abilities.

Taking place in Atlanta, GA, the Southern Interactive Entertainment & Game Expo [SIEGE] is the largest professional game development conference in the Southern United States. Since 2007, SIEGE has featured leading figures from the industry and has hosted panels reflecting a wide spectrum of the game production industry including artists, programmers, designers, investors, writers, teachers and business executives. The event also showcases a College Fair for high school students and a Game Studio Investment Conference.