Weekly video games events agenda: GDC, British Academy awards, PAX East

(courtesy of GDC austin)

Among the video game events, expos and conferences of March and April 2010: The Game Developers Conference and its spinoff event the Independent Games Festival, the British Academy Video Game Awards, and Penny Arcade's expo opens its east coast iteration in Boston.

Game Developers Conference
March 9-13
San Francisco, California, USA

One of the biggest North American video games events of the year, along with June's Electronic Entertainment Expo and, these days, Activision's Blizzcon and Penny Arcade's Expos. The GDC is an extremely wide-ranging umbrella conference which also incorporates a series of other video gaming and digital industry events around San Francisco, such as the Independent Games Festival, the Serious Games Summit, and a One Button Games showcase. PlayStation's new motion controllers are due to make an appearance, Nintendo is expected to make an announcement about new hardware or accessories, and there'll be talks from the people behind Metroid, Deus Ex 3, Silent Hill, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Psychonauts, Civilization, FarmVille and Fable.
Tickets: From $75 (€55) for a student ticket to $2,000 (€1,465) for an all-access pass bought on the door.
http://www.gdcconf.com

ScreenBurn and Screenburn Arcade at South by Southwest
March 12-16
Austin, Texas, USA

Part of the South by SouthWest (SXSW) festivals, the interactive strand brings together video game demonstrations and hands-on sessions with a game design competition and seminars. Screenburn itself runs for five days, but there is also the Screenburn Arcade which offers free entry and runs from Friday, March 12 to Sunday, March 14. Screenburn Arcade includes the heralded Into The Pixel digital art exhibition, and presence from the Rock Band Network, concept artists Massive Black, Twisted Pixel (who made Xbox 360 hits 'Splosion Man and The Maw), and even the Texas LEGO Users Group.
http://sxsw.com/interactive/screenburn

British Academy Video Games Awards
March 19
London, UK

Thirty-nine of 2009's top games jostle for awards in 14 categories, while 10 of those titles face a public vote for the GAME Award. The ceremony will be broadcast live on the BAFTA website from 8:45pm GMT. The nominations are led by Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Assassin's Creed II. There is also a public vote to decide the winner of the GAME Award, chosen by visitors to the BAFTA website and picked from The Beatles: Rock Band, FIFA 10, GTA: Chinatown Wars, Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Street Fighter IV, or Wii Sports Resort, in addition to the four frontrunners.
http://www.bafta.org

PAX East
March 26-28
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

With the the Penny Arcade Expo usually held in Washington on the west coast of the USA, and covering tabletop, console and PC gaming, PAX East launches as a companion event for the east coast. The three-day pass sold out in early February due to the popularity of the original PAXes and excitement surrounding upcoming games and hardware, the possibility of freebies, and several concerts planned. At the door tickets cost $5 more than the online prices, but the event is expected to have sold out by then anyway.
Tickets: $30 per day
http://www.paxsite.com

Armageddon Expos
March 27-28, Christchurch, New Zealand
April 2-4, Wellington, New Zealand

The Armageddon Expos cover the realms of comics, TV, film, anime cartoons and gaming with these two family days out. This year, there will be screenings of the Ponyo and Storm Riders animated films, guest appearances with actors from Dr Who, Police Academy, Star Trek, Heroes, and anime and video game voice-over artists, British author Robert Rankin, a Street Fighter IV video game tournament, and a video games area run by NZGamer.com. In addition, there will also be an organized pillow fight, ice-cream- and sweet & sour candy-eating contests, a competition to replicate DragonBall Z's most famous special move, the Kamehameha.
Tickets: $8 NZD (€4/$5.5) for a one-day children / senior's pass, $45 NZD (€23/$32) for a family pass. VIP options available.
http://www.armageddonexpo.com/nz

Triangle Games Conference
April 7-8
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

The Triangle Games Conference takes place in an area known as the Research Triangle in North Carolina, eastern USA. The Research Triangle Park is a business park home to the offices of such video gaming luminaries as Insomniac Games (the Ratchet & Clank and Resistance series), Ubisoft Red Storm ( Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six series), Epic Games (the Unreal game development engine, Gears of War), and Emergent Game Technologies (the Gamebryo engine). The two-day Triangle Games Conference is intended for students and professionals and last year featured talks that covered programming, design, media, business, and even serious applications for video games.
http://www.trianglegameconference.com

Game Design Expo
April 10-11
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Hosted by the Vancouver Film School, the Games Design Expo is intended to act as both conference and mixer for students and professionals alike with talks from industry insiders. Speakers for Saturday's presentation and panel schedule include staff from BioWare ( Dragon Age, Mass Effect), Obsidian ( Fallout: New Vegas), United Front ( ModNation Racers), and Blue Castle ( Dead Rising 2). Sunday's event is an open house for the Film School's game development course.
http://www.gamedesignexpo.com