Vancouver Film School’s Game Design Expo 2011 to feature Angry Birds, World of Warcraft talks

A designer and a marketer behind the success of the iPhone game Angry Birds will kick off Vancouver Film School’s Game Design Expo in 2011.

The fifth annual expo is scheduled for January 22 and 23.

Saturday’s industry speaker day will take place at the Vancity Theatre. On Sunday, the VFS game-design program’s open house will be held at the school.

Angry Birds lead designer Jaakko Iisalo and Rovio Mobile marketing manager Matthew Wilson will give the opening presentation of the industry speaker day.

To close the day, Cory Stockton, lead content designer for Blizzard Entertainment, will talk about macro design in World of Warcraft.

Other presenters slated for the industry speaker day include Jeff O’Connell and Mike Skupa of United Front Games, Anton Mikhailov of Sony Computer Entertainment, and Jonathan Gallina of Propaganda Games.

At the open house, attendees will have an opportunity to play games made by students and take sample classes in Flash gaming, game theory, level design, and storytelling.

Tickets for the industry speaker day cost $125. The open house is free, but registration is encouraged.

You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.