Extended Play - Friday Keynote
The National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth
7pm - 4th November 2011

Ian Livingstone OBE - Life President Eidos

‘Life is a Game’  

Ian will give a very visual account of the struggles of an entrepreneur in the 1970s when he and Steve Jackson set up Games Workshop and launched Dungeons & Dragons. He will talk about devising and writing the multi-million selling Fighting Fantasy gamebooks in the 1980s. From interactive gamebooks to interactive software, Ian will give a brief history of computer games, past, present and future. He will give a detailed case history of Lara Croft:Tomb Raider, highlighting the value of intellectual property in a digital age.

Ian Livingstone is one of the founding fathers of the UK’s interactive games industry.

 In 1975 he co-founded Games Workshop and launched Dungeons & Dragons in Europe and the Games Workshop retail chain.  He published White Dwarf in 1977, the UK’s first interactive games magazine and was its editor for 5 years.

In 1982 he co-wrote The Warlock of Firetop Mountain with Steve Jackson, the first in the Fighting Fantasy series of interactive gamebooks with sales in excess of 16 million copies in 25 languages. He wrote more than 20 books in the series including Deathtrap Dungeon.

 In 1984 he invested in Domark, one of the first UK computer games publishers, and was the designer of the company’s first game Eureka. He joined the Domark board in 1992.

 In 1995 he was instrumental in the merger of Domark and Eidos Technologies. Following flotation he served as Executive Chairman of Eidos plc from 1995 until 2002, and subsequently as Creative Director.  At Eidos he helped to secure many of the company's major franchises including Lara Croft:Tomb Raider and Hitman.

 He is an angel investor in Indie games and technology companies including Playdemic, Appatyze and Mediatonic.

 He is Life President, Eidos, Trustee of GamesAid, Non-Executive Director of SocialGO plc, Non-Executive Director of UKIE, Chair of Skillset’s Computer Games Skills Council, Vice Chair of the BAFTA Games Committee and an advisor to the British Council.

 In 2011 in collaboration with NESTA he co-authored with Alex Hope Next Gen: Transforming the UK into the world’s leading talent hub for the video games and visual effects industries.

He has been awarded an OBE, a BAFTA Special Award, a British Inspiration Award, The Develop Legend Award and an Honorary Doctorate of Technology by Abertay University for his contribution and services to the UK video games industry.

6.30pm - 7.00pm
Arrival

7.00pm - 8.00pm 
Keynote and Q&A

8.00pm - 9.00pm 
Food, Drinks & Networking 

For travel and accomodation detials please visit -
http://explay.co.uk/location.php