Timetable for Edinburgh games festival announced

The organisers of the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival, which will take place next month, have announced the full timetable of the public Game Screening events at the festival.

EIEF opens on Wednesday August 10 with a presentation from Eidos' Ian Livingstone on the evolution of videogames over the past thirty years - and some "extra special news for Lara Croft fans" is promised. Livingstone's speech will be followed by a demonstration of Sony's Eye Toy: Kinetic, a new health and fitness game developed in co-operation with Nike.

The following day, NVIDIA will showcase its latest graphics technology with the help of Epic Games, who will present images from the new Unreal Engine 3. Also on show will be Strangelite's Starship Troopers and 2K Games' Serious Sam II.

Then at 6.30pm Lionhead Studios' Gary Carr will present the worldwide premiere of The Movies, a film-making sim that puts the player in the role of Hollywood movie mogul.

On Friday the first of three Made in Scotland will focus on DC Studios, creator of the Bratz and Tour de Force games, and Sony Cambridge's Mark Green will offer an insider's look at the making of 24: The Game. Three game premieres are scheduled - Introversion's Darwinia and Multiwinia, Buena Vista Games movie tie-in Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, to be presented by Frontier's David Braben and Rachael Carpenter of Aardman Animations.

A second Made in Scotland session is planned for Saturday, along with a presentation on Machinima and a look at the sim phenomenon by Deep Red's Clive Roberts. There will also be a session on the top 20 games for mobile phones, and what will for many prove to be the highlight of EIEF - UK premieres of Nintendo's Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Nintendogs.

On the final day of the event, Channel 4's Rebecca Thompson will conduct a session on getting a job in the games industry. Kuju Entertainment will present the Battalion Wars premiere, and EIEF will close with a Made in Scotland session showcasing the work of entrants in the Dare to be Digital game design competition.

"With the enthusiasm of publishers and developers participating in the 2005 Games Screenings programme, this is an exclusive opportunity for the public of all ages and tastes to discover and see what these amazing creative people bring to the most exciting industry in the world - and one in which Scotland has excelled," said director of screenings Matt Carroll.

"We've brought the creators - now we need the people to come judge for themselves! Find out what it is all about and get yourself to a game screening!"

Tickets for game screenings are priced at UKP 3 per 45 minute session. To book places call 08700 600 100 or visit ticketweb.co.uk. More information about EIEF is available from the event website.