Organisers behind this year's GameHorizon conference have announced Eidos founder and life president Ian Livingstone will deliver the opening keynote speech at the event, taking a break from his five year long hosting role.

Livingstone's talk, entitled 'Life is a Game', will revisit his entrepreneurial struggles as co-founder of Games Workshop, launching Dungeons & Dragons, and publishing the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series.

He'll also touch upon general life within the games industry, and his recent work with UK Government.

Stand and deliver

The presentation will conclude with a walkthrough the history of one of videogames' most iconic heroines, Lara Croft, from her debut through to the upcoming reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise.

"Ian has been a huge part of the fabric of GameHorizon, contributing to its success over the years," said GameHorizon producer Nina Cliff.

"However, this year, we asked Ian to be a keynote and are thrilled that he has accepted."

Ian will joined by those already confirmed on the roster, including Unity Technologies's CEO David Helgason, NaturalMotion co-founder Torsten Reil, PapayaMobile's Oscar Clarke, Thumbstar Games's CEO Gareth Edmondson and PocketGamer.biz editor Jon Jordan, amongst others.

The GameHorizon conference will be held in Gateshead on 27-28 June 2012.

Those interested in attending should visit the GameHorizon website for more details.