GDC 2024 Session Viewer

Ventura, Sara M.E.

Title: Senior Producer / Neurodiversity ERG Global Lead

Company: Zynga

Sara M.E. Ventura (She/Her) is a Senior Producer at Zynga passionate about spreading knowledge, uplifting diverse voices, and prioritizing accessibility. She also leads the Neurodiversity at Zynga employee resource group and co-leads zPride's LGBTQIA2S+ Learning & Development Committee. In her 9 years of games industry experience, she's worked as a Producer at Microsoft, Mobile Writer/Editor at Nintendo, Partner Marketing Digital Sales Ops. Associate at Ubisoft, and writer/consultant on various indie games. Additionally, Sara has taught for the University of Washington's Game Design program, worked as a freelance digital illustrator, and voice acted in games and advertisements.

Baldwin, Elise

Title: Senior Audio Lead

Company: Netflix Games

Elise Baldwin has been fortunate to work in game audio for more than 20 years. She is currently employed as a Senior Audio Lead within the Games group at Netflix Inc. Prior to that, she had been an audio director on the Publishing team at Xbox, where she collaborated closely with external studios to develop first-party games for the Xbox platform. She also served as a lead of the diversity and inclusivity team for the studio and co-led the Game Audio @Microsoft group for three years. Elise worked at Electronic Arts for over a decade, mainly as an Audio Director within the Sims division. While there, she contributed quality audio experiences on over a dozen games, and directed audio for the MySims franchise and Sims Medieval among other award-winning titles. In addition to creating, directing, mixing and authoring content, she was a senior team leader and a core contributor to audio development and pipeline innovations. With a background in film, experimental music and sound design, Elise is extremely passionate about creating entry points for women and LGBTQIA+ folks in the fields of audio production and interactive media.

Boersma, Sasha

Title: Co-Founder/Producer

Company: Sticky Brain Studios

Carmona, Sabrina

Title: VP Head of Farm Heroes Saga

Company: King

Sabrina Carmona is the Head of Farm Heroes Saga at King. With an established reputation and well regarded by her peers, Sabrina is one of King’s leading innovators, helping to oversee growth and deliver results as part of the company’s mission of Making the World Playful. Prior to King, Sabrina worked at Square Enix, as well as at her very own studio in São Paulo, MangoLab Studio. Sabrina joined King in 2016 as a critical member of our studio team based in Stockholm where she was responsible for development, testing and implementation of learnings for a portfolio of King’s games. After trailblazing through a number of fundamental projects for this team, she made the move to King’s London studio where she held essential leadership and development responsibilities before taking on her current role as Head of Farm Heroes Saga, one of King’s well-loved casual mobile games. Sabrina is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion, believing that the best games are built with a diverse team and that people should add to our culture, and not just simply fit. Sabrina’s goals for 2023 include continuing to foster growth within her team, while pushing the organization to continue to perform ahead of the curve. Outside of her role at King, Sabrina enjoys traveling, food, playing with her dog and of course, video games.

DeVries, Jordan

Title: Lead UX/UI Designer

Company: Respawn Entertainment

Jordan DeVries built his first interface, a website, over 20 years ago. Since then, he’s built concert sites for pop stars, given design talks to spies, and led UX projects for the likes of Royal Caribbean and Deloitte, and now leads UI/UX on the Jedi team at Respawn Entertainment. As the oldest son of a biracial immigrant family, he advocates for diversity, equity and inclusion, both within the game development industry and beyond. Outside of work, his passions include elaborate custom Lego cities, and retrieving stolen Lego pieces from his mischievous black cat, steeped in the humidity of Washington, DC.

Eiche, Andrew

Title: CEOwl

Company: Owlchemy Labs Inc

Andrew Eiche is the CEOwl for Owlchemy Labs. He has helped lead the company through major growth and numerous successful product launches. Under Andrew’s tenure as COOwl (and also CTOwl) the company expanded from approximately 20 employees to over 65. Throughout that time he has strengthened the company’s culture and grown the development practice from a very successful tight-knit independent studio to an award-winning AA Studio. He led the push on diversity and inclusion at Owlchemy, helping to revamp hiring practices and develop HR within the company. He also is a fierce advocate for Accessibility in VR. He has been seen as an industry leader in the space— some of the highlights include him co-chairing the Accessibility Working Group within the XRA and being a plenary speaker at the XR Access conference. Andrew provided business and product leadership for Vacation Simulator and Job Simulator. He assisted in the business development activities, including bringing those titles to the Oculus Quest and PSVR. He played a key role in marketing the top-rated new IP Cosmonious High. Andrew’s strategic leadership has contributed to the continued success of Owlchemy Labs with Job Simulator as a consistent top 5 title on Oculus Quest and the #1 and #2 title on PSVR, and Vacation Simulator as a consistent top 20 title on Oculus Quest and top 5 title on PSVR. Andrew joined Owlchemy in late 2015 as a producer. He assisted the team in finalizing Job Simulator. He then led the development of the Emmy Nominated Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality as the Executive Producer on the project. He served as producer on the popular Job Simulator: Infinite Overtime and Vacation Simulator: Back to Job expansions. Andrew became CTOwl in 2018, and his title was changed to COOwl in 2020 to better reflect his role at the company. In 2023 Andrew took over the role of CEOwl. Prior to his time at Owlchemy Andrew worked for North Star Games on the Evolution: Flight board game and the Evolution digital edition. Before that Andrew was a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton developing games and apps for government and commercial clients. Fun fact: Andrew’s voice has been in every Owlchemy game since Job Simulator: Infinite Overtime.

Finley, Toiya Kristen

Title: Game Designer, Narrative Designer, Editor, Consultant

Company: Schnoodle Media, LLC

Nashville native Toiya Kristen Finley, Ph.D., has been a freelancing writer and editor her entire adult life. She earned a doctorate in literature and creative writing from Binghamton University. In video games, she has worked as a game designer, narrative designer, game writer, editor, and diversity/narrative consultant (or some combination of the five) on everything from AAA titles to mobile games to games for children to small indie projects. Recent work includes writing visual novel Siren Song (Stardust Works), copyediting for Destiny 2 (Bungie), consulting and writing on Destruction AllStars (Lucid Games), and developmental editing on Insecure: The Come Up Game (Glow Up Games). A presenter at conferences throughout the year, she has lectured on freelancing and storytelling and led workshops on narrative design and game design. She is a member of the IGDA Game Writing Special Interest Group's Executive Board. The Game Narrative Toolbox (CRC Press), a book on narrative design she coauthored with Jennifer Brandes Hepler, Ann Lemay, and Tobias Heussner, was published in 2015, with a second edition published in 2023. Narrative Tactics for Mobile and Social Games: Pocket-Sized Storytelling (CRC Press), which she edited and contributed to, was published in 2019. Her latest books are Freelance Video Game Writing: The Life & Business of the Digital Mercenary for Hire (2022) and Branching Story, Unlocked Dialogue: Designing and Writing Visual Novels (2023) both from CRC Press. Of late, she has been working on her own visual novel series, beginning with Incarnō: Everything Is Written.

Gardiner, Monet

Title: Dialogue Designer

Company: Sony Interactive Entertainment PlayStation

Monet Gardiner is a Sound Designer with 10+ years of experience in video games, film, television, music, and multimedia. As a Sound Design graduate from Savannah College of Art and Design, Monet has worked with 343 Industries at Microsoft on Halo Infinite and Electronic Arts on NBA Live 19 and NBA Live 20. Noteworthy achievements include Production Mixer & Supervisor on Emmy award-winning live sitcom “The BUZZ”, multiple MPSE Golden Reel Nominations for Sound Editing, and Dialogue Designer on 2023 BAFTA Best Audio and EE Game of the Year “God of War:Ragnarok”. Recently in addition to her work on God of War: Ragnarok, Monet has been working on titles such as The Last of Us 2 Remastered and Death Stranding 2 as a Dialogue Designer with Sony Interactive Entertainment PlayStation. Monet's impact continues to reverberate through the industry through her commitment to giving back to the game audio community by fostering diversity and inclusion as a proactive board member of the Game Audio Diversity Alliance, a non-profit charity which aims to provide career advancement opportunities for underrepresented voices through education, mentoring, and financial support.

Gittins, Renee

Title: CEO / Creative Director

Company: Stumbling Cat

Renee leads Stumbling Cat, an indie studio based in Seattle, and is a multi-disciplinary leader with expertise in business operations, software engineering, and creative direction. Previously, she was the General Manager of Phoenix Lab - Vancouver and the Executive Director of the IGDA. She is a passionate advocate and connector for developers and diversity in the game industry. She is also the Chair of the IGDA Alumni Board, consults for numerous organizations, and is outspoken about initiatives to increase diversity both within the game industry and gaming overall to help the game industry grow and improve for everyone.

Heineman, Rebecca

Title: CEO / CTO

Company: Olde Skuul Entertainment, Inc.

Rebecca Ann Heineman, a pioneer in the gaming industry, is renowned for her groundbreaking contributions to video game development and competitive gaming. She began her journey with gaming in the 1970s, quickly rising to prominence as a skilled programmer. Heineman made history as the first person to win a national gaming championship, triumphing in the 1980 Atari Space Invaders Championship. Throughout her career, she has created iconic titles such as Bard's Tale III and Dragon Wars. Her influence extends beyond her programming prowess, advocating for diversity and inclusivity in the gaming community. Heineman continues to inspire future generations.

Jackson, Mackenzie

Title: CEO

Company: Alliance Studios

Hailing from an education, design, and gaming background, Mackenzie has first-hand experience with effective player immersion. In July 2019, Mackenzie's work in Fortnite Creative caught the eye of the E-sports organization 100 Thieves. Mackenzie created their vision launching the first external branded experience within Fortnite Creative. Following her own creative growth and seeing an opportunity, She established Alliance Studios shortly after, alongside her business partner Simon in 2019. Alliance Studios has worked with many commercial clients, Epic Games, and collaborated with the community on many experiences, including recently, The Kid Laroi’s Wildest Dreams, Coachella Island, Fortnite, Football Club, Tones and I’s Music Experience, Samsung, AT&T, Adidas, Doritos, Maybelline and more! Mackenzie now co-runs a team of 13. She is passionate about fostering a creative space where like-minded creatives can share visions, support ideas, and grow together. Mackenzie is passionate about bringing diversity into gaming, providing support to fellow developers, and creating unique, fun experiences for all players to play.

Johannesson, Martina

Title: Senior Technical Product Manager, AI/ML

Company: Unity Technologies

Kyle, Mari

Title: Senior Game Producer

Company: Oculus Studios

Mari Kyle is a Senior Game Producer with Oculus Studios at Meta whose titles include Asgard’s Wrath 2 (IGN 10/10, 2023 “Best VR/AR Game” at NYGA) and Resident Evil 4 for Meta Quest 2 ("VR Game of the Year" at The Game Awards 2021, "VR Game of the Year" at SXSW 2022). She was named on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for 2024 in Games. Previously, on the Oculus publishing team she reviewed over 1000 VR apps. She has a master's degree in game design and advocates for diversity and accessibility in games.

Lagumbay, Emmanuel

Title: Audio Designer

Company: Lagumbay Audio

Larsen, Ginger

Title: Game Producer

Company: Meta

Ginger’s current focus is building VR gaming experiences for the metaverse. With a background in making mobile and online social games (Zynga, Digital Chocolate, Storm8), she loves creating experiences that encourage people to have fun together. Ginger is dedicated to broadening the reach of games to make them accessible to a diverse audience and she considers diversity, representation, and inclusion in everything she does.

Lau, JC

Title: Senior Advanced Producer

Company: ProbablyMonsters

In addition to being a senior advanced producer at ProbablyMonsters, with experience developing multiple award-winning video games, Dr. JC Lau (she/they) is a speaker and advocate for diversity, inclusion, equity, and representation in the games industry. She is the 2022 recipient of the Individual Diversity Advocate award at the Women in Games Global Awards, and a member of both the 2022 IGDA Foundation's Next Gen Leaders and The Game Awards Future Class. JC was also featured as one of 2021's Game Changers by GamesIndustry.biz, and is a member of the #ShePlaysGames list and inaugural #QueerInGames list. JC is the creator of #WhatAGameDevLooksLike, an online movement to celebrate and amplify diversity in game development and challenge stereotypes about game developers, and aspires to build a sustainable games industry where everyone regardless of their background or experience can have a fulfilling and healthy career. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Global Game Jam.

Mansell, Kayla

Title: Senior Brand Marketing Manager

Company: Lilith Games

Kayla is a lifelong gamer who turned her passion into her craft. She is currently a Senior Brand Marketing Manager at Lilith Games and has years of experience working in the digital marketing spaces. In her journey through the gaming industry, Kayla has been involved in various projects, most recently she has been featured in LEGO 2K DRIVE as a Manager of Global Influencer Marketing and Zorya: The Celestial Sisters as a Social Media & Community Manager. Kayla is not only a digital marketing professional, but also has a passion for advocating for diversity and inclusion in the community. She has shared her insights and enthusiasm on several PAX panels and can often be found in various Discord servers helping share ways for the gaming space to be more inclusive for all. Beyond her career, she is dedicated to exploring the positive impact of video games through her doctoral studies where she uses gaming as a catalyst for positive experiences. When she's not immersed in the gaming world professionally or academically, you can still find her playing some Monster Hunter or Tekken cozied up with her dog.

Protasio, Arthur

Title: Founder & CEO

Company: Fableware

Arthur Protasio is a Latin American Emmy-nominated writer-director with over 10 years of experience renowned for his narrative-driven projects across more than 20 games, VR, comics, film, and TV. His work on indie titles and AAA franchises, including Disney's Mickey Mouse, Asimov’s Foundation, Dreamworks' Trolls, and Netflix’s Cobra Kai, has garnered international accolades such as Best Game, Best Narrative, and Best VR awards. As the founder and CEO of the creative studio Fableware, Arthur and his team specialize in narrative development and cultural authenticity, assisting clients worldwide in crafting engaging stories for varied platforms. With a background in Law and Design paired with his experience as a creative writing professor at the University of British Columbia, Arthur is a community leader dedicated to creating modern-day fables that inspire diversity, critical thinking, and social change.

Vela, Jakin

Title: Executive Director

Company: International Game Developers Association

Dr. Jakin Vela (he/him) serves as the Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). He is a sociologist and researcher focused on socio-technical cultures, minority stress, stigma, and diversity inclusion in tech (especially games and the games industry). His work highlights the effects of marginalization, group solidarity, and inclusion in virtual gaming spaces and organizational structures, especially among underrepresented groups. He also serves as CEO of Astral Interactive, a small indie studio focused on highlighting player empathy in gameplay, as well as MagiTech Management Solutions, a consulting firm on project management and process efficiency.

Vela, Jakin

Title: Executive Director

Company: International Game Developers Association

Dr. Jakin Vela (he/him) serves as the Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). He is a sociologist and researcher focused on socio-technical cultures, minority stress, stigma, and diversity inclusion in tech (especially games and the games industry). His work highlights the effects of marginalization, group solidarity, and inclusion in virtual gaming spaces and organizational structures, especially among underrepresented groups. He also serves as CEO of Astral Interactive, a small indie studio focused on highlighting player empathy in gameplay, as well as MagiTech Management Solutions, a consulting firm on project management and process efficiency.

White, Maura

Title: Snr. Director, Gaming & Community

Company: AARP

Maura White, Senior Director, Gaming and Community, is an innovative leader at AARP, leading the growth of AARP Games, the prioritization of gaming for the enterprise and advocating for the 50-plus gaming audience in the industry. Ms. White's has 25+ years' experience with start-ups to Fortune 100 companies delivering strategic planning, digital and product marketing. Since 2018, she has strategically doubled AARP's casual games business through delivering high value and exclusive experiences for its 2.0M players each month. Ms. White is also a creative force behind AARP's original games, Right Again! Trivia, SongTheme and Throwback Thursday Crossword puzzle, with Right Again! Trivia a 2024 Anthem award-winner for its innovative experience created by to raise awareness for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion causes. She also created the AARP Games Summit in 2023 for the video gaming companies, educational institutions, associations and media, shining the spotlight on AARP Research's findings that the 52.4M gamers in the U.S. ages 50 and over are growing in numbers, increasing their engagement, and are powerful economically, but do not feel the industry is designing games with them in mind. Ms. White has led the effort at AARP to advocate for this audience and has been interviewed by News Now, Axios, NPR Marketplace and other media outlets. At GDC, Ms. White and Dr. De Schutter's presentation will include new AARP research which helps identify the accessibilities priorities of the 50-plus gamers to help the industry better understand how to reach this lucrative audience.

Yang, Xinhui

Title: Senior Project Manager

Company: NetEase

Xinhui Yang (Julia) is currently a senior project manager at NetEase, and is responsible for game localization, including multilingual translation, cultural adaptation and audio dubbing. She graduated from the University of Manchester, UK, majored in Audiovisual Translation & Interpretation Studies. Having over 6 years of industry experience, she has worked in many countries, including the UK, Switzerland and Japan. She has a deep understanding of the differences between cultures and is very open-minded. She specializes in analyzing the in-game sound needs of players from different cultures to better enhance the user immersion experience. She is also fluent in 6 languages and has her own unique perspective on creating diverse and international games, and hopes that through music and language diversity, she can help promote Chinese games to the world and Eastern culture to overseas players.