Guest Speakers

            John Smith, Game Designer and Media Artist, Independent

Smith has lectured in various places around the world on topics such as level design, emergent gameplay, leadership, game unit differentiation, future trends and interactive narrative.

Presenting: ADVANCED GRAPHICS TECH: “D3D12 AND VULKAN DONE RIGHT” & “WAVE PROGRAMMING IN D3D12 AND VULKAN”

Stacie Hammermall, Engine Director, Insomniac Games

Insomniac Games has developed various games for PlayStations. The company also develops social
games.  As Engine Director, Stacie has played a major role in their animation advancements.  Her
talk will be about motion curves, eye control, critical eye for animation, and principles of animation.

Presenting: ANIMATION BOOTCAMP: ANIMATION MICROTALKS

Bob Murphy, Senior Narrative Designer, Eidos-Montreal

As an Art Director for graphic games, you are responsible for the overall visual aspects of an game. Mr. Murphy was the key person in enhancing the games visually.  It is not an one-person job.  Overseeing others and influencing heavily how things appear in the games, Mr. Murphy is a genius. Eidos-montreal development studio for a Square Enix company: Think Tomb Raider.

Presenting: ART DIRECTION BOOTCAMP: PANTALONES! THINGS I WISHED SOMEONE TOLD ME PRIOR TO BECOMING AN ART DIRECTOR

John Kirk, Graphics Architect, Oxide Games

Mr Kirk excels in promotions that work.  He talks about those that did not necessary meet his criteria and how he changed its approach so they will work!

Presenting: CRAFTING PROMOTIONS THAT WORK, AND HOW I CREATED ONE THAT DIDN’T (PRESENTED BY AMAZON)

Mariel Cartwright, Art Director, Lead Animator and Head of Story, Lab Zero Games

As the leadering at Lab Zero Games, Mr Cartwritght led the team success.  As  team leader, he mentor
junior staff into developing their own talent.

Presenting: How to make a good game a GREAT game!

Chae Dickie-Clark, AI Programmer, Ubisoft

An artificial intelligence programmer has to see “what is next”.  Chae shares with us his experience at Ubisoft.  Although never having fought in a war, he explored gaming as a beginner and wanting more in a game.  He helped developed some of the great programming in Far Cry and Price of Persia.

Presenting: Seeing what is next!  Even if is not present.

Jeff Casper, President, Mind Bullet Games

What Jeff loves about his crazy full-onslaught of lasers and bullets, aka DAKKA in Mind Bullet
Games is “What is next”.  He always finds himself wondering “what is the next thing!  The key
is “How to get it down”.  You get a great idea.  Ideas keeping exploding in your mind.  But you have
to keep it so it is understandable and “makeable”.

Presenting: Making your ideas into actions!  Seeing a outcome!

Stahl Cook, Senior Manager. Global R&D, Capcom

What makes Stahl different than other managers?  Seeing the bigger picture while not forgetting those
little, but utmost important details.

Presenting: How to remember all those details.

William Smith, Senior Software Engineer II, Blizzard Entertainment

When you think of Blizzard Entertainment, you think of WarCraft, Diablo and Starcraft.  How do you keep coming up with new ideas for future versions?  Bill talks about how they do this.

Presenting: New Ideas.  No idea is a stupid idea.

Sydney Hall, Senior Analytical Lead, Mobile Apps, Google

Sydney loves her phone.  She does not play games on her phone.  But she constantly watching how other people react to their games.  Her intuition on how people respond helps her make mobile apps that will retain the attention of the users.

Presenting: Mobile Apps for Phones:  How to keep their attention!

Catherine Johnson, Developer Technology Engineer, AMD

AMD is a chip maker.  Sounds simple.  BUT AMD is a leader in making chips that are faster and integrated with the computer.  How do you keep the speed going up?  Ms Johnson talks us through the mechanical and imagination used in development of chips.

Presenting: The key:  the microprocesser.  You can make a great game, but it does not good unless you have a great microprocessor

Amahad Doies, Lead Visual Effects Artist, Infinityward

Infinityward is the original studio behind the Call of Duty franchise.  How do they keep up with the challenges!  Amahad is one of the original visual effect artists.  He talks about the challenges of the visual effects with the new games.

Presenting: Games are exciting!  But without the Visual Effects, they are plain.

Kim Monotain, Creative Director, Playlines

Creative director is a position where there is never a null moment.  How do you bring real life games into fantasy sports?  Kim Monotain talks to us about the challenges they deal with every day.

Presenting: Fanstasy Sports:  Challenges