Miyamoto to keynote GDC

Shigeru Miyamoto, the man dubbed "the Spielberg of Video Games" by Time magazine, will be putting in a rare public performance at this year's Game Developers Conference.

Miyamoto originally joined Nintendo back in 1977 as an artist and was tasked with designing one of Nintendo's first coin-op arcade games, Donkey Kong, which was first released in 1981. Since then, he has worked on more than 100 Nintendo games, including Wii Sports, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Nintendogs, Metroid Prime, Luigi's Mansion, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

He was also the creator of Nintendo's best-known character and mascot--Mario, originally called Jump Man. Miyamoto currently holds the position of Nintendo's senior managing director and general manager of its entertainment analysis and development division. His next release, Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii console, is expected later in 2007.

In the keynote address, called "A Creative Vision," Miyamoto will be discussing how a singular creative vision drives his work both in software and in developing hardware technology and will then "challenge the audience to apply his approach in their own distinctive style."

Other confirmed speakers include Nintendo's software development manager and producer, Eiji Aonuma. In "Twilight Reflections in the Hourglass," the Nintendo veteran of 19 years will discuss the evolution of the Zelda series, the challenges posed by his most demanding Zelda game to date--Twilight Princess--and also his current project, Phantom Hourglass.

Also speaking will be Mario and Zelda composer Koji Kondo with "Painting an Interactive Musical Landscape." Square-Enix's chief strategist, Ichiro Otobe, will be providing the keynote address for the Serious Games Summit, while maverick Suda-15 (Goichi Suda), the boss of Grasshopper (Killer7, Contact), will be talking on the topic "Punk's Not Dead."

GDC 2007 will take place March 5-9 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.