Game developers play in Austin

AUSTIN - A crowd gathers around a large screen in a corner of the Austin Convention Center.  The big attraction is a new online game, "Star Wars:  The Old Republic."  The game, yet to be released, is being developed by an Austin company, BioWare.  The people watching are game developers from all over the world who have gathered in Austin for the annual Gamers Developers Conference Austin.

Hundreds of companies involved in the gaming industry showcased their newest technologies at the conference.  It attracted game developers looking for work and those looking to trade advice.

"Unlike other conferences where we're talking to a lot of players, mostly we're talking to a lot of our colleagues here," said Bioware's Coomunity Manager Sean Dahlberg.  "There's a lot of sharing of notes, seeing what has worked and what hasn't worked with each other."

Another game, "DC Universe" is also being worked on in Austin by Sony Online Entertainment.  Both games are examples of a growing trend in the industry -- online gaming.  In the online games, players meet in an online universe.  Conference participants saw much more of online gaming at this year's event and less of games involving console systems.
 

Likely the online games gaining the most attention recently by players are those players join through social media sites like Facebook.

"Social networks like Facebook have a very viable quality of games, said Publisher of Game Developer Magazine Simon Carless.  "You see your friends are playing, and they want to enlist your help.  Then you start playing, and it kinda goes from there."

Facebook's Farmville has been tremendously popular.  It only took eight weeks for Farmville to grow to having 11-million users every day.

Whatever is the next big thing in gaming, Carless says expect creative minds in Austin to continue to be a growing part of it.