We are looking for work that describes or illustrates innovative research in videogame theory, practice and criticism. Video games are a singular technological medium, comparable in cultural impact to the telephone, television or the Internet. What are the creative, technological and commercial challenges facing this medium in the future? How do we relate great stories that leverage advances in technology? What is the continuing impact of this medium on individuals and society?

We seek original papers from the creative and technical communities that develop videogames and from academic researchers who study videogames and relevant technologies and disciplines. We also invite proposals for panel discussions. Selected papers will be those judged to have the greatest potential for impact on the practice of videogame development. All papers should meet the standards of their respective disciplines and will be peer-reviewed. For an indication of the conference's breadth, please visit www.sandboxsymposium.org for a look at last year's program.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Real-time animation and computer graphics for video games
• Distributed simulation and communication in multi-player games
• Game console hardware and software
• Psychophysics and user interfaces
• Artificial intelligence in games
• Interactive physics
• Uses of GPU for non-graphical algorithms in games
• Multi-processor techniques for games
• Speech and vision processing as user input techniques
• Development tools and techniques
• Procedural art
• Sound Design and music in games
• Mathematical Game Theory applied to video games
• Cinematography in games
• Game design and game genres
• Story structure (setting, plot, character, theme) in games
• Games (Casual, Serious, Mobile, Networked, Alternative Reality, Ubiquitous, Pervasive, etc.)
• Legal, political, and societal impacts
• Women and diversity in games
• Gamer culture and community; such as modding communities, LAN parties, creative gamer content and machinima
• Independent game developers
• Economics and business models in the game industry
• Game production and labor
• Tools and Middleware
• Interactive Fiction

Papers

Please submit full papers (max. 8 pages) not abstracts.

Hot Games

In addition we seek video previews of unreleased videogame titles. Previews should be two minutes in length and must show game play. Previews should be in QuickTime format, either NTSC (480p) or HDTV (720p) format.

Panel Proposals

Proposals for panel discussions should include a statement of purpose (1 page) and 3 to 5 participants. Each participant should provide a biography and a brief discussion (2-4 paragraphs) of the topic under discussion.

Submissions

The web site for submissions is http://esub.siggraph.org/cgi-bin/cgi/esForm.html&form=30380. The deadline for paper and panel submissions is March 23, 2007. The deadline for Hot Games submissions is July 1, 2007.

All submissions should be in .PDF or .doc format and should follow the SIGGRAPH style rules and the Instructions for Authors (http://www.siggraph.org/publications/instructions/).

Location

Sandbox 2007 will be co-located with SIGGRAPH 07 and will take place on 04 - 05 August 2007 in San Diego, CA.

Organization

If you have questions please contact the organizers:

• Conference chair: Drew Davidson (drew@waxebb.com)
• Program co-chairs: Alan Heirich (alan.heirich@playstation.sony.com), Doug Thomas (douglast@usc.edu)