Last Straw Productions today announced the keynote speakers for both days of the Indie MMO Game Developers Conference 2.0, to be held March 29th – 30th, 2008 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Indie themed keynote speaker on March 29th is Indie Evangelist Jay Moore. Jay was previously Dir. of Business Development, Marketing Director & Evangelist for GarageGames, an online tool dev and game publisher. He joined GG in 2002 when they were 5 guys crammed into a one-room office. When he left, they were a team of 30+. While at GG he launched IndieGamesCon, oversaw the online publishing of independent games, and worked to establish Torque as the game engine platform of choice for independent game developers.

The MMOG Design themed keynote speaker on March 30th is industry guru and founding father of virtual worlds Dr. Richard Bartle. Dr. Richard A. Bartle co-wrote the first virtual world, MUD, in 1978; he has thus been at the forefront of the MMO industry from its very inception. He divides his time equally between being an industry consultant and an academic (he's Professor of Computer Game Design at the University of Essex, UK). His 2003 book, Designing Virtual Worlds, is the standard text on the subject, and he is an influential writer on all aspects of virtual world design and development.

Learn more about the event at www.last-straw-games.com .