Feature: 'Event Wrap Up: Deathmatch in the Stacks'

In this event wrap-up and today's main Gamasutra feature, we look at the New York-based Deathmatch In The Stacks book launch, which featured game-related academics and professional developers, from Valve's Ken Birdwell to Adventure creator Warren Robinett, dueling over game design ideas. As the introduction to the piece explains: "It's 7:05 pm, December 9, 2005 and Katie Salen is onstage at an amphitheater, with Eric Zimmerman not too far from her side. In front of her is a packed house that has braved the rather dreary New York winter weather to make it to the Parsons School of Design for an evening of game-related talk. Katie is running a PowerPoint presentation set to music from the game Katamari Damacy. Along with pictures from various games, the audience was visited with images of city streets splashed with Space Invaders-inspired graffiti and children from an African tribe. They also read in bold white letters set to a pleasing blue backdrop: "When no one was looking.... games changed the world." Thus kicked off "Deathmatch in the Stacks," an event celebrating The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology, the follow-up to The Rules of Play, a textbook on the subject of game design, which also received a similar celebration a little over two years ago. And like that event, Salen and Zimmerman played host to a number of game design luminaries who gathered to discuss their thoughts, experiences, and passions. But it was a bit different this time around..." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject, which also includes plenty of information on the rest of the evening's fun (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).