Paul Tozour, Design Lead for Intel’s Project Offset, sat down to discuss design ideas in our second installment of inspirational interviews for the ScreenBurn at SXSW’s Game Design Competition. To submit your idea, click here, the deadline for entries is this Friday, December 5.

SXSW: What games have you previously worked on?
Paul Tozour: I've worked on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Thief: Deadly Shadows, Deus Ex: Invisible War, MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna, and WarBreeds. I'm currently the Design Lead on Project Offset at Intel.

SXSW: What do you use for inspiration?
PT: Inspiration can come from anywhere -- for me, I usually find I'm overwhelmed with ideas just as I'm trying to get to sleep, and I end up jumping out of bed and running to the kitchen to find something to write it down on so I can give it a try when I go in to work the next day. [Note from Michael T: this is why I sleep with a digital recorder on my nightstand]

My biggest problem is usually not in coming up with ideas in the first place but picking the best out of all the ideas and piecing them together into a coherent and unified whole. 90% of my best ideas have never made it into any of the games I've worked on -- not because there was anything wrong with those ideas, but because they didn't fit with the game we were making at the time, or they weren't technically feasible, or they would require us to redesign something else, or because there wasn't enough time in the schedule to make them happen.

Game development is much more about changing, molding, combining, and very often discarding ideas to create a single well-crafted experience than trying to find any one magical idea.

SXSW: Any suggestions for up and coming game designers and / or programmers?
PT: Stay humble and learn as much as you can. Force yourself to play a lot of games you wouldn't normally play. Read Joseph Campbell's A Hero With a Thousand Faces and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow and the proceedings of past Game Developers’ Conferences.

Remember that a skilled team is a million times more important than any individual. You will never succeed on your own.It's important to play games, but it's even more important to analyze them:

What makes them fun? Talk to your friends about the games you play, and when you find that you disagree about a particular game, drill down and find out why you disagree.

Did you play the game differently and end up with different experiences, or did you have different reactions to the same experience? If you had different reactions to similar experiences, why did one of you find it entertaining and the other not have the same reaction?

When you get an idea you think is good, build lots of prototypes, and be ready to be surprised when it works out differently in your prototype than it does in your imagination.

Don't try too hard to force a game to match the perfect idea you have in your mind -- games are a medium where the canvas doesn't just fight you, it sometimes starts to take on a life of its own, outside of anyone's control.

Be prepared for that, and be ready to throw away your preconceived notions of what it is you're building and listen to what the game is telling you it wants to be.

The traditional Black Friday has come to be followed by its little sister sale, Cyber Monday. While online retailers always get into the Black Friday action, they continue the push today with all sorts of unique online deals.

This year Cyber Monday has plenty going on in the way of gaming deals at Amazon to GameStop to Wal-Mart. It’s great time to get presents or to donate to gaming charities.

As an aside, don’t forget that Friday is the final day to submit your idea for the ScreenBurn Game Design Competition. We’ll have a ton more about the competition throughout the week, including interviews with some great programmers and designers!

ScreenBurn plans to interview the video game panelists on our way toward the festival in March. This is our first in the series with Dee Kapila, organizer of the "Gaming as a Gateway Drug: Getting Girls Interested in Technology" panel and Technology and Program Coordinator at Girlstart.

SXSW: Can you tell us a bit about Girlstart?
DK: Girlstart is a non-profit right here in Austin, TX. Our sole mission is to empower girls in science, math, engineering and technology (STEM). The organization was founded by Rachel Muir in 1997 in her apartment. She started with only $500 and a credit card.

In eleven years, Girlstart has empowered thousands of girls to explore these subjects.

SXSW: What inspired your panel topic?
DK: The panel topic was inspired by two forces: my own personal love of video games and my unique experience at Girlstart. My father was a devoted gamer who instilled in me a deep appreciation of games at an early age. He also needed a buddy to play with! And Girlstart is dedicated to remaining on the cutting edge in delivering technology programs to girls.

SXSW: You mention using video games to draw girls into STEM fields. What kind of game play attracts girls in your experience?
DK: Our girls have played both online and console games. But when they are new to gaming, it's important to remember how critical it is that girls feel supported and encouraged in an all-girl environment. That's exactly what Girlstart has always provided.
Girls are individual in their preferences and are interested in all kinds of games from Super Smash Brothers Brawl to Halo. We have girls who are passionate about Resident Evil’s latest release, girls that will come in one day asking me how to beat the frustrating water temple in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But in the beginning, they need to be in a place where game play can be explored without fear and competition.

SXSW: Any word on who will be on the panel, and can you tell us a little about them?
DK: We are striving for a nice balance of educators, gamers, industry experts, community representatives and others who have unique perspectives on girls and gaming. We will keep you updated on when those panelists are finalized.

SXSW: What are your favorite games?
DK: I am completely in love with the Zelda series. My wedding is coming up and the game, Windwaker, is the inspiration for my wedding cake (an example pictured, right) and has immense sentimental value for me. I very much believe in the Tri-Force and saving Hyrule. I even play Link in Super Smash Brothers almost exclusively.

SXSW: Any other video game favorites around the office at Girlstart?
DK: Our Operations Director Rosanna is super into her Nintendo DS and particularly favors the puzzle games likes Brain Age. Sharlym, our Program assistant is a Guitar Hero junkie and Julie our Deputy director says she’d have more time for video games if she wasn’t on second life all the time. Nicole our office assistant is quite old school and loves her Duck Hunt and Pac Man. Robin our Development director loves her Play station and cites SSX Tricky, Jax & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank games, Midnight Club as her faves. She and I both aren’t big into Guitar Hero so maybe Sharlym should give us some tips!

Ken Eklund, designer of the award-winning ARG WORLD WITHOUT OIL, sat down with us to discuss avenues of inspiration for those future game designers wanting to submit to the Game Design Competition at ScreenBurn at SXSW.

SXSW: What games have you previously worked on?
KE:My latest game was WORLD WITHOUT OIL (2007), a prescient, massively collaborative online "historical pre-enactment" of a global oil crisis. And that kind of serious, socially relevant alternate reality game is my project of choice these days – especially those that create playful “what if?” spaces that invite public participation.

Before ARGs, I had about 18 years' experience as a freelance game designer and writer. I worked on at least two-dozen titles, including a Star Trek game, some great kids' games, and some classic DnD RPGs.

SXSW: What do you use for inspiration when thinking up new game concepts?
KE: Fun. I have a little alarm bell that goes off in my head when I start engaging with someone or something in a fun way. When the alarm goes off I think: this is fun, can I make a game out of this?

SXSW: Any suggestions for up and coming game designers?
KE: Bring your whole self into the design process. It's a trope these days that too many games are by gamers for gamers. Games have roles to play in making people's lives better. And that will never happen if game designers don't bring their own morals and dreams for tomorrow into their games.

When I look at the world today, I see troubles ahead, which I think can only be avoided if we can find some way to get people organized in huge democratic collaborations that envision some other future and how to make it happen instead. And I think games are that organizing principle, the way in which this will get done.

The future is: play for a purpose!

SXSW: What’s your vision for the future of gaming?
Ever since WORLD WITHOUT OIL, there's been an explosion of interest in serious alternate reality games as a fun way to get people engaged with real-world issues and to explore alternative futures. So I think that players can look for more games like it in 2009, and I encourage them to add their narrative-building skills to these projects. ARGN, the Alternate Reality Game Network, is a great place to start.

Want to know what’s next in games and sports? Microsoft BizSpark’s party at Speakeasy had a few answers last Thursday. Along with a giant screen of Rock Band for the house music, a number of the start ups had some strong ideas for the future of technology-based fun. Here are some of their near-future products:

• Michael Agustin of Gendai Games revealed their new GameSalad design platform that allows users to create simple games by choosing templates and rule sets with no coding. You can even import your own images into your games and share those ideas via the iPhone.
• George Giannukos and Thomas Marriott showed off their Web site, GameWager. Using tokens as a kind of virtual currency, GameWager offers additional rewards for tracking how you do against your buddies in online competitions. It also contains some social networking elements by allowing users to share their gaming experiences and review those performances.
• Mark Phillips of RUWT? Sports has started tracking all the sports action televised across the country, from Texas-OU to Texas State-McNeese State. The idea is to eventually teach your Tivo how to start recording an event once it gets exciting. Say your favorite team is down 22-6 at half time and you turn off the television in anger. Well, when they storm back in 4th quarter, your Tivo will regain faith and record the ending. But for right now, the system will at least send an email or SMS message when the game gets exciting again.

For those looking for a little help with their Game Design Competition entry, we hear you loud and clear. Today we have some links to get the juices flowing in time to meet the December 5th deadline.

One classic reference comes from gamedev.net, which contains a list of several articles that help answer all the basic questions: What should the game do? Why is it fun? How does the player fit into the design?

Also found a great article at Game Career Guide, appropriately enough called, “On Game Design: The Designer.” The story covers enough history, interviews, artwork, and design theory to chew on for hours and hours.

And for the more visually inclined, abduzeedo.com offers a ton of awesome artwork from all sorts of old (classic!) SNES cartridges.

Veteran BusinessWeek reporter Stephen Baker came to BookPeople in Austin on November 19 to discuss his new release "The Numerati." He graciously granted SXSW a few minutes of interview time after this fantastic book reading.

SXSW: The idea of tapping into all this meta-data to better analyze our  patterns of behavior would have been completely inconceivable 20 years ago. Do you think future generations will be completely comfortable with this concept?

Baker: I think they will be increasingly comfortable with the idea. Right now if you think about how you look for information now, we have learned over the last decade to think in set theory. That’s how we search on Google, by looking for categories that have the least overlap and the smallest, most precise sets. And we learn to work that machine. Eventually, people will use this to understand how to work the machine best [for themselves and for searches] and sharing information in this way will become second nature.

SXSW: Is there a concern of open source versus industry owned information? Will businesses be inclined to share their information with the public to encourage more sharing of information by the public?

Baker: Data is going to be increasingly viewed as a strategic resource for companies; so they won’t be likely to share it. A company must make the data anonymous to have any willingness to share that data. Rayid Ghani at Accenture, who was on my recent panel at the University of Texas, is working on this. He says Accenture’s trying to figure which data they can afford to throw out so they can keep only the data that meets their business needs.

They want to get rid of all the data that might compromise an individual’s identity. Accenture is asking: Do we need to know where they live? How old they are? And if we don’t, let’s get rid of that datum. So they have a very thin layer of information, but it’s what they need. If companies can demonstrate this respect for our privacy, we’re going to trust them with even more data. That will lead to even more customized products and services.

SXSW: What makes the Numerati tick?

Baker: They really think just like us. If your neighbor comes and ask you for a loan, you evaluate a number of factors: Has he lied to you before? Is he of a similar religion or race as you? Did you go to grade school together? Do you have a romantic attachment to someone in his family? If he lied to you, has it been recent? You have all these things going on in your head. Each one of this a variable, and you’re deciding how much to weigh each of the variables. When the Numerati make these decisions they’re looking at all these different streams of data and deciding how important each one is. So when they described the process to me it seemed very familiar.

SXSW: Has Houghton-Mifflin used Numeati-esque techniques to market this release?

Baker: We have done some tracking. I cover it on my blog at thenumerati.net.

SXSW: Throwing the meta-data question back at you, what is the demographic profile of the typical reader of your new book?

Baker: They’re the ones that are attracted to the book at first and the ones to whom I want reach out. My typical reader now is someone who is interested in statistics, computer science, technology, numbers—and are drawn to a book called The Numerati. Some of those people are disappointed because the book has very little math in it. It describes what the math can do; it does not show how the math works and it doesn’t give lots of business case examples. The ones I want to read the book are people like my wife: college graduate, curious about the world, doesn’t specialize in technology, but wants to know where the power is going in the world and how the world is changing. But, really, I largely hope people think the book’s fun.