Thief 4 sneaks into GDC schedule

The next installment in Eidos' stealth action series Thief is nearly ready to emerge from the shadows. The organizers of the Game Developers Conference today unveiled another wave of talks, including one that marks the first time a developer from Eidos Montreal will be able to publicly speak about Thief 4.

The talk, titled "Stealing Sound: Generative Music in Thief," will be presented by Paul Weir, who is fulfilling the roles of audio director, sound designer, and composer on the project. According to the session description, Weir will espouse the benefits of using a live generative music system instead of pre-scripted tracks for a game with the goal of creating "a musical aesthetic that pushes away from the shadow of film."

In addition to the Thief 4 session, the GDC schedule received a handful of other notable sessions today. There will be a pair of sessions about the anticipated EA DICE first-person shooter Battlefield 3, although they're fairly technical in nature. "SPU-based Deferred Shading in Battlefield 3 for Playstation 3" is intended for advanced programmers, while "Lighting You Up in Battlefield 3" assumes that attendees will have a basic understanding of lighting systems and rendering technology.

Another new addition to the docket requires no special understanding of anything but failure. With a panel including George Fan (Plants vs. Zombies), Chris Hecker (Spy Party), and Kyle Gabler (World of Goo), "The Failure Workshop" will have the developers of hit games sharing stories of their misses, and what helpful lessons they learned from the experience. According to the description, all GDC-goers are encouraged to sit in, "especially attendees who are interested in learning how to fail better."

The 2011 Game Developers Conference is scheduled to take place in San Francisco from February 28 through March 4.