Feature: 'GDC: The Game Design Challenge: The Nobel Peace Prize'

Only in its third year here at the Game Developers Conference, the annual Game Design Challenge is already one of the highlights of the lecture series. Like years previous, the contestants presented their ideas before a packed house. Unlike year previous, one of those contestants was not Will Wright. Will, explained host Eric Zimmerman of gameLab, insisted that he be able to step quietly out of the challenge for this year rather than defend his title, as he did successfully last year in a challenge involving licensing Emily Dickinson's poetry. While Eric had little problem granting that request, he couldn't let Will be totally out of the limelight during this year's challenge: the sight of Will being crowned with a shiny tiara garnered roars of applause from the appreciative crowd. This year, three new contestants had a shot to take the tiara away from Will. First was Harvey Smith, Studio Creative Director at Midway, most famous for his work in the Deus Ex and Thief series of games. Next was Cliff Bleszinski, Lead Designer at Epic Games who continues to work on the Unreal series. Third was Keita Takahashi of Namco, creator of the hit Katamari Damacy series. You can read the full Gamasutra feature, including descriptions of the three entries and, of course, the revelation of this year's winner (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).