INDEPENDENT game designer and programmer as well as award-winning lead engineer of the game ‘Skulls of the Shogun’ Borut Pfeifer will take part in iTECH Gulf 2014, being organised by Hilal Conferences and Exhibitions (HCE).

He will conduct a session on “Gaming – Conceptualisation and Visualisation” at the iTECH Gulf Forum and Exhibition 2014.

“Unlike gaming workshops that focus on the technical aspects, Pfeifer will highlight the business aspects of gaming and how gaming goes hand in hand to complement business operations and how organisations can benefit from it,” HCE managing director Jubran Abdulrahman said.

Skulls of the Shogun is a turn-based tactics video game developed by 17-BIT. The game is inspired by Advance Wars and features turn-based combat between undead samurai.

According to Joystiq magazine, “Skulls of Shogun is an absolutely enjoyable experience – its fast-paced turn-based strategy inspired by Advance Wars and supercharged with fighting game flare”.

Working with companies like Sony Online Entertainment and Electronic Art and the skills gained, Pfeifer was the lead AI programmer on a game in development with Steven Spielberg. His published credits include Scarface and Dark Kingdom for PlayStation 2 and 3. Alongside 14 years of experience, Pfeifer has written a wide variety of game development articles on programming, design and business and in books such as the Game Programming Gems series, Secrets of the Game Business and industry websites including Gamasutra.

He has also taught technical game design at the Vancouver Film School.

HCE has welcomed all delegates to sign up for Pfeifer’s session scheduled for April 10. The iTECH Gulf 2014 Forum and Exhibition is to be held on April 9 and 10 at the Gulf Convention Centre, Gulf Hotel. Online registration is available at www.itechgulf.com.