Nobel for game designers?

Jayanta BhattacharyaMar 25 2006

Game Design Challenge 2006

At the GDC 06 in San Jose, California, GameLab CEO Eric Zimmerman, 'Katamari Damacy' creator Keita Takahashi, Epic Games lead designer Cliff Bleszinski and 'Deus Ex' lead designer Harvey Smith presented game concepts which they believed could win the Nobel Peace Prize!

gdc photo

Last year, Zimmerman gave the competitors the task of designing a game built on Emily Dickinson's poetry. The previous year it was to create a game about love.

Now, Zimmerman said that his yearly theme is based on a hot topic in the game industry. Thus, last year's theme came from persistent buzz about game titles built on licenses of other material, such as films just like the theme in 2004 came from talk about narrative interactivity.

Zimmerman, talking to the packed ballroom, said,

The goal of the Game Design Challenge is to think about what it means to wrestle with complex game design challenges. Why was (the Nobel Peace prize concept) selected this year? Because there is a lot of talk about serious games, those games that are not just for entertaining but for some function other than entertainment and pure fun.

Good innovative thinking Zimmerman, we appreciate that very much, notwithstanding the fact that it may sound really outlandish for some.

What do you say?

Read more on this story in CNet News.com. Thanks!