Wraps off of GDC 07

Months after the reshaping of the Electronic Entertainment Expo left gamers wondering if another show could possibly step into the old show's shoes as the undisputed biggest event on the game industry's calendar, the CMP Game Group is offering a first glimpse of the Game Developers Conference 2007.

Returning to San Francisco after a year in San Jose, GDC 2007 will take place March 5 through March 9 at the Moscone Convention Center and will feature a larger show floor, an expanded Casual Games Summit, and a host of integrated events like GDC Mobile, Serious Games Summit GDC, the Independent Games Festival, the Game Developers Choice Awards, and Game Connection. This year's theme for the event is "Take Control."

The event's official Web site has gone live and offers plenty of details for attendees and exhibitors, including a schedule of conference sessions. Already announced for the event are Gears of War lead designer Cliff Bleszinski discussing the processes used to design the game, Sony Online Entertainment vice president of development John Blakely and DC Comics vice president Jim Lee talk about their work together as licensor and licensee on the developer's upcoming DC-based massively multiplayer online game, and the return of the popular Game Designer Challenge session.

Each year, a trio of respected developers is charged with designing a game around a unique twist. In 2004, Will Wright, Warren Spector, and Raph Koster got cozy with the idea of building a game around a love story. In 2005, Wright defended his crown against Ubisoft's Clint Hocking and Lionhead's Peter Molyneux in a challenge to use the license of Emily Dickinson's works. Last year, Bleszinski, Harvey Smith (Deux Ex, System Shock), and Keita Takahashi (Katamari Damacy) were asked to design a game that could win the Nobel Prize.

This year's challenge is a little smaller in ambition than last year's, as the three yet-unnamed panelists will be asked to "design a game with a highly unorthodox input device: a square of fabric, a needle, and some thread." The challenge is meant to explore what kind of gameplay can be made possible with new game controllers, as well as how designers work new forms of interaction into their titles. The discussion will be moderated for the fourth year running by GameLab CEO Eric Zimmerman.