// About SBGames 2009:

Thinking About Convergence

SBGames is the annual symposium of the Special Commission of Games and Digital Entertainment of the Computing Brazilian Society (in Portuguese: Sociedade Brasiliera de Computação - SBC) dedicated to Research, Development, and Innovation in computer games, real time simulation, and new forms of digital entertainment. Since 2002, the symposium has been congregating scientists, artists, designers, entrepreneurs, educators, and students from universities, research centers, and industry. Nowadays, digital entertainment has become more and more interactive, emotionally immersive, and full of special effects. SBGames is a perfect venue to understand and contribute in this new digital world.

This was the eighth edition of SBGames and, in its current form, it is composed by 4 tracks (Computing; Arts & Design; Culture; Industry), 2 festivals (Art Exhibition; Indie Games Festival), and an Industry Exhibition.

The Computing Track, the Arts & Design Track and the Culture Track presented papers and posters.
The Industry Track offered panels, seminars, and an industry exhibition.
The Tutorials covered a wide range of themes and represent an opportunity for the participants of SBGames 2009 to acquire technical knowledge in Game Development and Digital Entertainment.
The International Keynote Speakers Sessions were common to all tracks in the Schedule of the Symposium's Program.

The festivals presented prototypes, drafts, pieces of electronic art, new interaction devices, and experimental games.
Moreover a pre-event program took place a day before in Oct 7th, 2009.

SBGames 2009 was organized by the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and took place in the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro – the capital of TV, cinema, and entertainment – from 8th to 10th of October, at PUC-Rio's Campus.

This year, the theme of the conference was “Thinking about Convergence”, reflecting the importance of bringing together all the medias and platforms (TV, cinema, computer, mobile devices), the impact of digital contents is becoming ubiquitous (i.e. in any object), and the implications of sharing solutions between several sectors (entertainment, defense, simulation industry, and education). Also, this year, SBGames starts a campaign towards environmental, economic, and social sustainability.

SBGames 2009 (Oct 8th – Oct 10th) occured jointly with SIBGRAPI 2009 (Oct 11th – Oct 14th), both at the PUC-Rio Campus. Since its first edition in 1988, SIBGRAPI has been recognized as the main academic meeting on Computer Graphics, Image Processing, and Computer Vision. The activities at the SIBGRAPI 2009 were complementary to most of the topics presented in SBGames 2009.