The Game Developers Conference 2010 will take place at Moscone, San Francisco through March 9-13. Blizzard can be found at the Career Pavillion by Booth 2726. The GDC 2010 kicks off with two Blizzard Entertainment developers joining the speakers roster.

Brian Schwab is Senior AI/Gameplay Engineer II at Blizzard Entertainment. He has worked for Sony, Dreamworks Interactive, Radical Entertainment and The Collective among other studios. He’s credited for Medal of Honor: Underground (2000).

Erin Catto is a Principal Software Engineer and Physics programmer at Blizzard Entertainment. He has worked for Crystal Dynamics and Comergent Technologies as Senior Software Engineer.

The interesting part is they are working on a super-secret project at Blizzard. Could any of this info below offer any hints to extrapolate what this secret project is? Throw in your wild guesses.

Brian Schwab
Senior AI/Gameplay Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment

Brian has over 15 years industry experience, including 13 published titles. He has worked seemingly forever on making engaging and fun game experiences by using a MacGyver style combination of anything nearby: be it academic AI techniques, hand rolled state/tree hybrid systems, or multiplying his birthday with the sum of the jump button presses divided by the number of current extra guys. Brian has done work in AI, gameplay, game design, and has even been lead designer on a few titles. He s worked at companies ranging from three person start ups to SCEA. His projects have ranged from edutainment to location based thrill rides to his current gig on a super-secret project at Blizzard. When not cramming fun into a C++ compiler, he has also spent a good deal of time writing. His book AI Game Engine Programming recently released its second edition, and he s also been an AI editor for the Game Programming Gems books.

Session
AI Architecture Mashups: Insights into Intertwined Architectures
Speaker: Steve Rabin (Principal Software Engineer, Nintendo of America), Kevin Dill (Software Engineer, Lockheed Martin), Brian Schwab (Senior AI/Gameplay Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment)

Date/Time: TBD

Experience Level: Intermediate
Summit: AI Summit
Format: 60-minute Lecture

Session Description
AI programmers rarely use a pure architecture such as a State Machine, Planner, or Behavior Tree in isolation. Rather, several symbiotic architectures are mashed together, resulting in an overall architecture that is unique and powerful in its own way. This lecture is designed as a series of three mini-lectures where you will hear about several mashed up AI architectures along with intriguing lessons and insights.

Idea Takeaway
Insight into the pros, cons, and subtleties of combining various AI architectures.

Erin Catto
Principal Software Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment

Erin has been developing physics engines for the past 10 years. He is currently a physics programmer at Blizzard Entertainment. Previously he worked on dynamic simulation of proteins, mechanical simulation software for computer aided design, and modeling and control of flexible robot arms. Earlier in his life he programmed games on his HP48 calculator, including ANT and JOUST. He holds a Ph.D. in theoretical and applied mechanics from Cornell University.

Session:

Physics for Programmers
Speaker: Jim Van Verth (Senior Tools and Technology Engineer, Insomniac Games), Takahiro Harada (Senior Software Engineer, Havok), Erwin Coumans (Physics Simulation Team Lead, Sony SCEA US R&D), Marq Singer (Engineer, Red Storm Entertainment, Inc), Erin Catto (Principal Software Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment), Glenn Fiedler (Online Game Programmer, Sony Santa Monica)

Date/Time: Wednesday (March 10, 2010) 10:00am