Search Results
Your search for "ai" returned the below results for sessions and speakers.
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speakers: Jingshen Wei (Team Jade / Tencent Games), Lingjin Meng (Team Jade / Tencent Games), Qinfu Zhao (Team Jade / Tencent Games)
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Discovery & Marketing, Business Strategy
Sponsor Speakers: Catherine Hawayek (Google Cloud), Jeff Skelton (Electronic Arts), Adam Smith (Unity), Muneki Shimada (Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Yubo Kou (The Pennsylvania State University)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Product Management
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Speaker: Jac Carlsson (EA DICE)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Raphael Joffres (Sandfall Interactive), Maxance Playez (Sandfall Interactive), Olivier Penchenier (Sandfall Interactive)
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Audio, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Nate Heiss (Heiss Games LLC)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Cecile Hemery (Walayance)
Location: Room 207, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Career
Format:
Workshop
Speaker: Don Daglow (Sausalito Games Inc.)
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Martin Singh-Blom (Embark Studios), Alessandro Sestini (Electronic Arts, SEED), Alexis Rolland (Ubisoft, La Forge), Alexandre Moufarek (Google DeepMind), Zhen Zhai (Blizzard Entertainment), Julien Merceron (Orion Productions)
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Forum
Speaker: Albert Puertolas (Gameloft)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: A.J. Fairfield (Mojang; Microsoft)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Visual Development, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Natasha Miller (Blizzard Entertainment), Matthew Soeth (Thriving in Games Group), Weszt Hart (Riot Games), Josh Chapdelaine (Thriving in Games Group), Ariana Barcenas Kanemoto (Blizzard Entertainment)
Location: Room 3011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Workshop
Speaker: Alexis Denance (Ubisoft Da Nang)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Elaine Gomez (Midnight Hour Games)
Location: Room 304, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Dana Ware (Hidden Realities/The VOID)
Location: Room 215, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Forum
Location: Room 2014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: GDC Gardens, Yerba Buena Gardens
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Special Event
Sponsor Speaker: Qian Zhang (Team Jade / Tencent Games)
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Sponsor Speaker: Xiaoyu Zhou (Tencent Games)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speaker: Kat Tamburello (id Software)
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Speakers: Bo Crutcher (Blindlight), Jennifer Hale (Independent), William "Chip" Beaman (Halp Network), Patrick Michalak (Insomniac Games), Kal-El Bogdanove
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Audio
Format:
Panel
Speaker: Carol Mertz (Independent/Green Games Guide)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Dong Fang (LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS)
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Niina Fujioka (Playable Worlds, Inc.)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Business Strategy, Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Steven Margolin (Ivy Road)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Nicole Maiorano (Blizzard Entertainment)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Product Management
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Ryan Black (DLA Piper (Canada) LLP), Yan Perng (Blizzard Entertainment), Angelo Alcid (Microsoft Corp.), Brandon Huffman (Odin Law and Media)
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development, Business Strategy
Format:
Panel
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Audio
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speakers: Rachel Kowert (University of Cambridge), Mike Pappas (Modulate), Savannah Badalich (Discord), Maria Tamellini (GamerSafer), Matthew Soeth (Thriving in Games Group (TIGG))
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Educators
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speakers: Ivan Ramirez (Google Cloud), Targoon Siripanichpong (Google Cloud), Jamie Pourturk (Google Cloud), Alexandre Moufarek (Google DeepMind), Piermaria Mendolicchio (Google DeepMind)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Celia Hodent (Independent)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Design, Team Leadership
Format:
Workshop
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Design
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Ryan Black (DLA Piper (Canada) LLP), Yan Perng (Blizzard Entertainment), Angelo Alcid (Microsoft Corp.), Brandon Huffman (Odin Law and Media)
Location: Room 204, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Forum
Location: Room 306, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Star Victoria Power (Slide20XX), Ryan Ike (Independent), Akash Thakkar (Independent), Katherine Tole (Plant Based Audio)
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Audio, Career
Format:
Panel
Speakers: David Vega (The Digital Production Pipeline Association), Fran Zandonella Benjamin (The Digital Production Pipeline Association)
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Visual Development, Production
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Ezra Goss (Naughty Dog)
Location: Room 312, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Roundtable
Moderator: Nicole Lazzaro (XEODesign)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy, Independent Development
Format:
Panel
Speakers: David Johnson (Undertone FX, Inc.), Sandy Lin-Chiang (Insomniac Games), Eben Cook (Naughty Dog), Janne Pulkkinen (Remedy Entertainment)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Microtalks
Speakers: Grant Shonkwiler (Shonkventures), Kate Edwards (Geogrify/SetJetters), Seth Sivak (Bad Robot Games), Dave Ranyard (Dream Reality Interactive), Jess Case (Schell Games)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Team Leadership, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Sebastian Long (Player Research)
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Product Management
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Anna C. Webster (Independent), Alexa Ray Corriea (Gearbox), Ashley Poprik (Independent), Emma Kidwell (Independent), John Ryan (Independent), Laura Michet (Heart Machine), Sam Maggs (Critical Role), Alice Camp (Microfun), Aysha Farah (Independent), Karrie Shao (Pacific Drive), Kelsie Mhoon (Obsidian Entertainment), Nessa Cannon (Independent), Lis Moberly (20th Century Games, The Walt Disney Company), Books Schwartz, Sam Winkler (Gearbox Software)
Location: Room 215, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Career, Narrative & Performance
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Carl Varnado (Rancho Solano Prep), Pamela Illuore (Playstation), Jabari Ali (Hidden Genius), Jarory DeJesus (Coquito Games), Evan Narcisse (Brass Lion Entertainment)
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Panel
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Matt Ellis (JetBrains)
Location: Room 2011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Rui Mu (Team Jade / Tencent Games)
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Visual Development
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Visual Development
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Speaker: Jeremiah Dost (Respawn Entertainment (Electronic Arts))
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Team Leadership
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Alexis Rolland (Ubisoft, La Forge)
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 301, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Design, Team Leadership
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Rez Graham (Independent)
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Design
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Xin Ning (miHoYo)
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Hot Pink (HotPink Games), Adanna Nedd (Independent), Sarah Slovak (Lunacy Studios), Akash Thakkar (Independent), Jenny Jiao Hsia (Hexecutable), Ryan Ike (Independent), Claire L. Evans (YACHT), Jona Bechtolt (YACHT), Cass Riordan (No Goblin)
Location: Room 204, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Tulay Mcnally (Scopely)
Location: Room 312, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Career
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Dmytro Nebesh (Firaxis Games), Geoff Knorr (Knorr Music LLC), Finn Taylor (Firaxis Games), Kadet Kuhne (Firaxis Games)
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Audio
Format:
Microtalks
Speakers: Dean Takahashi (GamesBeat), Jeff Grubb (Giant Bomb), Nathan Grayson (Aftermath), Perrin Kaplan (Zebra Partners), Stephen Totilo (Game File)
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Business Strategy
Format:
Panel
Location: Room 213, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Audio, Game & Production Technology
Leveling Up with Google Cloud: PlayStation’s Global Migration to Spanner (Presented by Google Cloud)
Sponsor Speakers: Sailesh Krishnamurthy (Google Cloud), Shalin Shekhar (Sony Interactive Entertainment), Edward Chu (Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Reed Berkowitz (Curiouser LLC)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Product Management
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Audio
Format:
Fireside Chat
Speaker: Emma Smith-Bodie (Playstack)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Discovery & Marketing, Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Clayton Whittle (U.S. Green Building Council)
Location: Room 304, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Team Leadership
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Room 312, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio, Team Leadership
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Andrew Fray (Automated AF)
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Robert Hornbek (Thriving in Games Group)
Location: Room 3011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Special Event
Speaker: Xianzi Feng (Infold Games (Papergames))
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Career, Educators
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 306, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Audio
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Rui Hwang (Liminal Experiences)
Location: Room 204, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Team Leadership, Production
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Laine Nooney (New York University), Phil Salvador (Video Game History Foundation), TreaAndrea Russworm (University of Southern California), Jason Scott (Internet Archive), Wes Fenlon (PC Gamer)
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Microtalks
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speakers: Vytautas Katarzis (MachineGames), Antonio Vaz Figueiredo (MachineGames), Michael Tran (MachineGames)
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Location: Oracle Park, 24 Willie Mays Plaza, San Francisco, CA 94107
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 213, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Sponsor Speaker: Yang Hao (Tencent Games)
Location: Room 3014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Location: Room 2011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Location: Room 3009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: Chris Torne (Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.), Srihari Babu Alla (Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.), Yuhan Zhou (Infold Games)
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Panel
Speaker: Jack Buser (Google Cloud)
Location: Blue Shield of California Theater, YBCA
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Luminaries Speaker Series
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Benjamin Siders (Lewis Rice LLC)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy, Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Moderator: DJ Meadows (HNDCRFTD LLC)
Speakers: Adam Gubman (Moonwalk Audio), Justin Bell (Santa Monica Studio), Jay Weinland (Interactive Audio)
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio, Career
Format:
Special Event
Speaker: Robert Madsen (SynaptixGames)
Location: Room 301, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Independent Development
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Stan Minasov (AppMagic)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy, Product Management
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Fleur Marty (Gearbox), Dave Ranyard (Dream Reality Interactive), Brynley Gibson (Independent), Pamina Bou (Dream Reality Interactive)
Location: Room 204, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Production
Format:
Workshop
Speaker: Bryan Bornmueller (Asmodee)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Petr Smrcek (Warhorse Studios)
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Production
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Robin-Yann Storm (Independent)
Location: Room 306, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Roundtable
Location: GDC Gardens, Yerba Buena Gardens
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Speaker: John Spitzer (NVIDIA Corporation)
Location: Blue Shield of California Theater, YBCA
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Luminaries Speaker Series
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Issac Lee (NEXUS)
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speaker: Jay Villanueva (Epic Games)
Location: Room 3009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Zhongyuan Liu (Tencent Games)
Location: Room 3014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Design
Sponsor Speakers: Ben Kvalo (Midwest Games), Jen MacLean (Dragon Snacks), Stephen MacDonald (Magic Potion Games)
Location: Esplanade 158, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy, Independent Development
Format:
Forum
Sponsor Speaker: Yizhe Chai (Perfect World Games)
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speakers: Dilmer Valecillos (Meta), Joseph Carroll (Meta), Zac Bowling (Meta), Mike Geig (Unity Technologies)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Speaker: Yachen Bian (NetEase Games)
Location: Room 2014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Discovery & Marketing, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Brent Vincent (MoonRocketApollo) (Roblox)
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Robert Donovan (Obsidian Entertainment)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Nick Kaman (Aggro Crab)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Hiroaki Murao (Drecom Co., Ltd.)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Rosy (Rong) Fu (Naughty Dog)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Lucien Parsons (OpsCat)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Lukas Offerhaus (InnoGames GmbH)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Product Management, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Damian Kastbauer (Audiokinetic), Scott Selfon (Meta Reality Labs Research), Phillipe Bosher (Independent), Andy Martin, Guy Somberg (Blizzard), Jeffrey Brice (Independent), Edouard Brenneisen (EB Music LLC), Maclaine Diemer (First Name Maclaine, LLC)
Location: Room 3011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio, Special Event
Format:
Forum
Sponsor Speaker: Beralt Lyu (Everstone Studio, NetEase Games)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Production
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: Uthappa Kattera Chengappa (Microsoft), Mithuna Srinivasan (Valorem Reply), Rob Nelson
Location: Room 3009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: Zheng Jiang (Tencent Games), Dong Ye (Tencent Games), Yingpeng Zhang (Tencent Games)
Location: Room 3014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Visual Development
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Production
Format:
Forum
Location: Room 2011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speaker: Andy Michel, PhD (Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.)
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Sponsor Speakers: Andrew Hogan (Intorqa), Phillip Koskinas (Riot Games), Kyle Boerstler (Activision)
Location: Esplanade 158, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Design
Format:
Panel
Sponsor Speakers: Ashley Holinger (AWS), Trevor Moore (AWS), Aimee Munton (AWS), Jesse Sell (Twitch), Andrew Echanique (Electronic Arts (EA)), Ryan Bodlaender (Electronic Arts (EA))
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Moderator: Julien Merceron (Orion Productions)
Speakers: Bryan Catanzaro (NVIDIA), Alexandre Moufarek (Google DeepMind), Zhen Zhai (Blizzard Entertainment), Ross O'Dwyer (Meta)
Location: Blue Shield of California Theater, YBCA
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Luminaries Speaker Series
Format:
Forum
Speaker: Kadet Kuhne (Firaxis)
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio, Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Stone Librande (Riot Games)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development, Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Ryan Canuel (Petricore)
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy, Team Leadership
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Room 207, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Career
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 306, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Brian Bautista (Roseville Joint Union High School District)
Location: Room 312, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Educators, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Fleur Marty (Gearbox Montreal), Dave Ranyard (Dream Reality Interactive), Brynley Gibson (Independent), Ella Vance (The New York Times), Daphné Moyal (Virtuos Montréal), Zachary Beaudoin (T-Minus Zero Entertainment), Shelby Martin (2K), Pamina Bou (Dream Reality Interactive), Krystal Cooper (Rochester Institute of Technology)
Location: Room 204, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Production
Format:
Workshop
Speaker: PR Peng (Infold Games (Papergames))
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Product Management, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Matt Oztalay (Epic Games)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Forum
Speakers: Seth Marinello (Double Fine), Cameron Williams (Absurd Ventures), Dan Qiao (Obsidian Entertainment), Miles Tost (CD Projekt RED), Scott Warner (Natural Motion Games)
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Panel
Speaker: Nick Maksim (Double Fine Productions)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Visual Development, Design
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 301, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Audio
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: Rakesh Mistry (Helpshift, A Keywords Studios Platform), Erik Ashby (Helpshift, A Keywords Studios Platform)
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Sponsor Speaker: Chong Ahn (Meta)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speaker: Elvis Liu (Tencent Games)
Location: Room 3014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Visual Development
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speakers: Zac Liew (Coda), Daria Berdnikova (Coda), Junichi Sakishima (Digital Garage, Inc.)
Location: Room 3009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Business Strategy, Discovery & Marketing
Sponsor Speaker: Andrei Krovopuskov (Faceform)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Mahncy Mehrota (Meta)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speakers: Hege Tokerud (Aiba), Karin Johnson (Magic Potion Games), Christina Camilleri (Netflix Games), Colin Cragg (Blue Scarab Entertainment)
Location: Esplanade 158, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Lecture
Location: Blue Shield of California Theater, YBCA
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Luminaries Speaker Series
Format:
Fireside Chat
Sponsor Speakers: Kevin Hawkins (Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.), Rob VanReenen (Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.), Matthew Hoffman (Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.)
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speaker: Cheng Ge (Tencent Games)
Location: Room 3014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Speaker: Stone Librande (Riot Games)
Location: Room 3016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Design
ai Psychosis Roundtable: Reclaiming the Female Voice in an Algorithmic World (Presented by the IGDA)
Location: Room 301, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Team Leadership
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Josh Samuels (Raindrop Games)
Location: Room 304, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Team Leadership
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Monica Fan (Pipework Studio), Ian Schreiber (Independent), John Ryan (Independent), Michael Jones (Independent), Lauryn Ash (Stealth Startup)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Carl Schmidt (Zynga)
Location: Room 306, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Team Leadership, Production
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Nick Lives (Night Signal Entertainment LLC), Jon Perry (Quibble Media, LLC), Adam Pype (BEESWAX GAMES), Lucas Immanuel (Glootschke Games, LLC), Jonny Hopkins (boshi's place), Flan Falacci (Flan Falacci), Juan Hernandez (Recurring Dream), Gurn Group (boshi's place), mut moochi (boshi's place)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Ryan Juckett (Hypersect)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Emily Pitcher (SonderingEmily)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Discovery & Marketing, Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Natalie Checo (Black Tabby Games/Sunset Visitor), Sarah Helen Slovak (Lunacy Studios), Emma Kidwell (Independent), Ashley Poprik (Independent), Samantha Low (Neon Noroshi/Yotsuba Interactive)
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Career, Narrative & Performance
Format:
Panel
Speaker: Adam Hobbs (gamingcareers.gg)
Location: Room 312, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Career
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Marlena Abraham (Steel Wool Studios/Bit Bridge), Michael Lee (Another Axiom), Daniel Lin (Schell Games/Bit Bridge), Laia Bee (Pincer Games)
Location: Room 207, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Forum
Speaker: Liza Dobrovoljc (King)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Product Management, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 203, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Sponsor Speakers: Tomáš Barák (Warhorse Studios), John Parsaie (Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.), Carlos Dominguez Caballero (Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.)
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Location: Room 3014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Sponsor Speakers: Michail Greshishchev (Amazon Game Studios), Tom van Dijck (Embark Studios), Andreas Ullmann (Denuvo by Irdeto), Niels Haverkorn (Denuvo by Irdeto)
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Nathan Chen (Tencent Games)
Location: Blue Shield of California Theater, YBCA
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Luminaries Speaker Series
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Tianlong Ruan (Infold Games)
Location: Room 2011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Production
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Speaker: Keith Self-Ballard (PlayStation Studios)
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Visual Development, Team Leadership
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Simon Zhu (Independent)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Mathieu Nayrolles (Supercell)
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Celia Schilling (Yacht Club Games)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development, Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Monica Fan (Pipeworks Studio), Nina Kim (Rare Ltd.), Leyla Lacombe (Santa Monica Studios), Nahir Fajardo (Dreams of Heaven Games), Michael Jones (Independent), Lyn Dang (Studio Citrus)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Career, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Jan Richter (Sixteen Tons Entertainment)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Product Management, Design
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Todd Castillo (Blizzard Entertainment)
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Audio
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 203, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Sponsor Speaker: Jiayi Chen (Tencent)
Location: Room 3014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Product Management
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speakers: Guihong Xu (TiMi Studios), Walker Wang (TiMi Studios), Jane Tian (Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.)
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Location: Room 2011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Partner Developer Summit
Sponsor Speaker: Muqing Li (Tencent Cloud)
Location: Room 3014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Production
Speaker: Austin Wintory (Independent)
Location: GDC Main Stage, North Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 3020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Sponsor Speaker: Jason Ronald (Microsoft Xbox)
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Sponsor Speakers: Val O'Donnell (Google Play), Simon Cooke (Google Play), Steven Moreland (Google Play), Mark Dochtermann (Google), Emil Kjæhr (Funday Games)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Panel
Sponsor Speaker: Chris Pruett (Meta)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 301, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Room 207, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Business Strategy
Format:
Forum
Speaker: Greg Mc Guinness (University College London)
Location: Room 304, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Career
Format:
Forum
Speaker: Phillip Black (Game Economist Consulting)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Business Strategy
Moderator: Nick Hartman (Sound Lab)
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Narrative & Performance, Audio
Format:
Special Event
Location: Indie & Education Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Narrative & Performance
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Rez Graham (Independent)
Location: Room 3011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Team Leadership
Format:
Workshop
Speaker: Rebekah Saltsman (Finji)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Adam Myhill (Black Eye Technologies), Erin Olorenshaw (Pull Focus Consulting), Cory Williams (Daydream Studios), Nick Romick (RetroPixel Digital)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Narrative & Performance, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Microtalks
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Fireside Chat
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Cole Wehrle (Leder Games/Wehrlegig Games), Tom Lehmann (Independent), Jon Perry (Quibble Media, LLC), Bryan Bornmueller (Asmodee), Geoff Engelstein (Mind Bullet Games)
Location: Room 3016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event, Design
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Team Leadership, Production
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Richard Rouse III (FarBridge), Xalavier Nelson Jr (Strange Scaffold), Ashley Ruhl (Broadsword Online Games), Theresa Duringer (Temple Gates), Joel Burgess (Soft Rains), Steve Meretzky (PeopleFun)
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Design
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Justin Sousa (Roblox)
Location: Blue Shield of California Theater, YBCA
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Luminaries Speaker Series
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Joanna Wang (SuckerPunch Productions)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 203, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Moderator: Beth Elderkin (GDC Festival of Gaming)
Speaker: Sam Carlisle (XDS)
Location: GDC Commons Stage
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event, Business Strategy
Format:
Fireside Chat
Location: GDC Gardens, Yerba Buena Gardens
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Sponsor Speaker: Christopher Nuland (Red Hat)
Location: Future Tech Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Power Talk
Sponsor Speaker: Samantha Williams (Testronic)
Location: International Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Production
Format:
Power Talk
Location: Monetization & Player Engagement Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy, Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Power Talk
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Production
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: Vitalii Vashchuk (EPAM), Francis Hart (SEGA), Ryan Valenza (PlayStation Studios), Haiyan Zhang (Microsoft Xbox)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Panel
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: Jacob Dini (Perkins Coie LLP), Steven Guris (risk3sixty), Joel Emans (Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Digital Games), Eugene Marder (Pocket Entertainment)
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Panel
Sponsor Speaker: Mark Frumkin (Modulate)
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Product Management
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Guangyun Chen (NetEase Games)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Dominic Law (Neopets)
Location: Room 2014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Business Strategy, Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Lecture
Location: Monetization & Player Engagement Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Alanna Cervenak (PlayStation Studios Creative Arts), Matt Redway (PlayStation Studios Creative Arts)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Discovery & Marketing, Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Eyram Tawia (Leti Arts)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: David Lorenzo (DALOAR Studios), Juan Manuel Freire (1st Level), Jaime Pichardo (Odders Lab), David Carrasco (Vermila Studios), Pablo Barea (Embassy of Spain - Trade Commission in Los Angeles)
Location: International Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Power Talk
Speakers: Mitu Khandaker (NYU Game Center), Phil Stuart (PRELOADED), Irena Pereira (Infinite Realms/Unleashed Games)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Team Leadership, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Michael Lewis (OFC Ads)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Carey Littlefield (Blizzard Entertainment)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Team Leadership, Production
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Chris Zukowski (HowToMarketAGame.com)
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Independent Development, Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Lecture
Location: Future Tech Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Power Talk
Location: GDC Commons Community Space 1
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Speakers: Rebekah Saltsman (Finji), Jason Della Rocca (Execution Labs), Justin Woodward (Media Indie Exchange), Sylvain Sechi (New Tales)
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event, Business Strategy
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Sponsor Speaker: Leroy Sikkes (NVIDIA)
Location: Room 3020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Speakers: Kabir Ahuja (McKinsey & Co.), Ichiro Otobe (McKinsey & Co.), Itamar Benedy (Anzu.io), Moritz Baier-Lentz (Lightspeed Venture Partners)
Location: Blue Shield of California Theater, YBCA
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Luminaries Speaker Series
Format:
Panel
Speakers: Laia Bee (Pincer Games), Jay Justice (Independent), Samantha Halloran (Unseen Inc.), Irene Cortes (Gata Games), Briana White (Strange Rebel Gaming), Elaine Gomez (Midnight Hour Games)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Martin de Ronde (Vertigo Games)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Production
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Andrew Fray (Automated AF)
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Roundtable
Sponsor Speaker: Alex Liu (Silverjay Studio)
Location: Indie & Education Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Team Leadership, Production
Format:
Power Talk
Speaker: Dan Qiao (Obsidian Entertainment)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Design, Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Joshua Howard (OtherSide Entertainment)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Team Leadership
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 301, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Special Event
Speaker: Martin Singh-Blom (Embark Studios)
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 304, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Phillipe Bosher (Independent), Yuri Lowenthal (Independent), Cissy Jones (Ethovox), Elias Toufexis (Independent), Courtenay Taylor (Independent)
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio, Narrative & Performance
Format:
Panel
Speakers: Tyler Coleman (Ludo Systems Inc.), MJ Johns (University of California Santa Cruz), Colleen Macklin (Parsons School of Design), Jo Cronk (DigiPen Institute of Technology), Graeme Devine (GRL Games), Ian Schreiber (Independent)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Educators
Format:
Microtalks
Sponsor Speaker: West Barnwell (Snap Inc.)
Location: Future Tech Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Narrative & Performance
Format:
Power Talk
Sponsor Speaker: Andreas Rodman (Lingotion)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Fireside Chat
Sponsor Speaker: Troy Batterberry (EchoMark)
Location: Room 3014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Production
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Business Strategy
Location: International Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Power Talk
Location: Indie & Education Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Power Talk
Speaker: Ichiro Lambe (Totally Human Media Corp)
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Business Strategy, Product Management
Moderator: Beth Elderkin (GDC Festival of Gaming)
Location: GDC Commons Stage
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Panel
Location: Indie & Education Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Audio
Format:
Special Event
Speaker: Al Yang (Neobards Entertainment)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Keith Self-Ballard (PlayStation Studios)
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Visual Development, Team Leadership
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Juniper Dev (Independent), Nick Kaman (Aggro Crab), Jordan Ottesen (O. and Co. Games), Emily Pitcher (SonderingEmily)
Location: Monetization & Player Engagement Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Discovery & Marketing, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Panel
Speaker: Gillian Smith (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
Location: Room 312, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Roundtable
Sponsor Speaker: Osian Williams (COPA Gaming)
Location: International Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Power Talk
Speaker: Fae Raitt (Code Cozy Studio)
Location: Room 304, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Design
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Ariadna Martinez (Sucker Punch Productions)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Narrative & Performance
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Jane Perry (Independent), Debra Wilson (Independent), Tom Keegan (Independent), Damien Goodwin (Independent), Adele Cutting (Soundcuts Ltd)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Narrative & Performance, Audio
Format:
Panel
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Microtalks
Location: Room 2014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Future Tech Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Design
Format:
Power Talk
Location: Room 204, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Product Management
Format:
Workshop
Location: Room 203, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Independent Development
Format:
Fireside Chat
Location: Room 213, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Sponsor Speaker: Anthony Nguyen (Microsoft Xbox)
Location: Room 3001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Sponsor Speakers: Tom Jacques (Discord), Mason Sciotti (Discord), Emory Irpan (Discord), Mark Mandel (Discord), Sota Proffitt (Discord)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: Josiah Clark (Blizzard Entertainment and CWA Local 9510), Juniper Dowell (Bethesda Softworks and CWA Local 2108), Carolyn Jong (United Videogame Workers CWA Local 9433), Aurelia Augusta (United Videogame Workers-CWA)
Location: Room 2011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Design
Sponsor Speaker: Chris Nelder (Twisted Mountain Animation)
Location: Future Tech Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Production, Product Management
Format:
Power Talk
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Kate Edwards (Geogrify/SetJetters)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Ray Chase (Sassy Chap Games), Logan Burdick (Sassy Chap Games), Matthew Cohen (Creative Artists Agency (CAA))
Location: Monetization & Player Engagement Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Moderator: Ben Starr (Independent)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Panel
Speaker: Brent Bushnell (DreamPark)
Location: Future Tech Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Forum
Speaker: Rez Graham (Independent)
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Room 306, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Audio
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Indie & Education Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Narrative & Performance
Format:
Microtalks
Speakers: Amber Samdahl (PBS Wisconsin), Chad Davis (Nebraska Public Media), Danielle Broza (PBS Nature), Jacob Schwitzer (Nebraska Public Media)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Educators
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Theodore Fishman (Sucker Punch Productions)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Design, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Ella Vance (The New York Times)
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Production, Team Leadership
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Caio Braga (Embark Studios)
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Production, Team Leadership
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 203, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Location: International Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Fireside Chat
Location: GDC Commons Community Space 2
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Sponsor Speakers: Thomas Keane (Meaning Machine), Ben Ackland (Meaning Machine), Dr. Richard Cole (University of Bristol), Dr. Chris Bevan (University of Bristol)
Location: Room 3020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Design
Location: GDC Main Stage, North Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Speaker: Rob Pardo (Bonfire Studios)
Location: GDC Main Stage, North Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Team Leadership
Format:
Keynote
Location: Room 3024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Location: Podcast Studio, GDC Commons
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Sponsor Speakers: Ethan Hu (Meshy AI), Fouad Jeniani (Technicolor Games: a TransPerfect Gaming Studio), Chris Kruger (Jars AI), Josh Loveridge (Stratton Studio Games)
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Sponsor Speaker: Yachen Song (Tripo AI)
Location: Room 2011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Monetization & Player Engagement Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Power Talk
Speaker: Dennis Mathews (Revelation Interactive LLC)
Location: Room 304, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Career
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Ben Sunshine-Hill (Havok)
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Narrative & Performance
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Amanda Farough (Strange Scaffold)
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Samuel Holley (Sucker Punch Productions)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Design, Narrative & Performance
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: James Collins (Double Fine Productions)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Independent Development, Career
Format:
Roundtable
Moderator: Jason Hayes (Another Axiom Inc.)
Speakers: Mason Lieberman (Interleave Inc.), Nadia Wheaton (Independent), Paul Lipson (Arrival), Maclaine Diemer (First Name Maclaine, LLC)
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio, Career
Format:
Special Event
Sponsor Speaker: Timothy Lu (Discord)
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 204, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Design, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Workshop
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Moderator: Dean Takahashi (GamesBeat)
Speaker: Marcus Liassides (Mattel)
Location: Blue Shield of California Theater, YBCA
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Luminaries Speaker Series
Format:
Fireside Chat
Location: Room 2014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Visual Development, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Akash Thakkar (Independent), Ryan Ike (Independent), Charlie Harper (Ironwood Studios/Co-op Kitchen/Lucky Tree Studios), Jess Erion (Hampshire College), Ziyad Duron (Schell Games/Co-op Kitchen)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Career
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Jonaya Kemper (UCSC)
Location: Room 3016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Workshop
Sponsor Speaker: Troy Batterberry (EchoMark)
Location: Future Tech Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Power Talk
Speaker: Robin-Yann Storm (Independent)
Location: Room 306, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Roundtable
Location: GDC Gardens, Yerba Buena Gardens
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Location: Future Tech Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Power Talk
Sponsor Speaker: Simon Schneider (PGDA)
Location: Indie & Education Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Power Talk
Sponsor Speaker: Lígia Gonçalves (WALKME MOBILE SOLUTIONS)
Location: International Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development, Business Strategy
Format:
Power Talk
The Algorithm Broke Entertainment: Why Hollywood and Games Are Losing Gen Z and How to Win Them Back
Speaker: Sharon Tal Yguado (Astrid Entertainment)
Location: Blue Shield of California Theater, YBCA
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Luminaries Speaker Series
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Celine Tricart (COVEN)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: BING XUE (LightSpeed Studios), WANG CHEN (LightSpeed Studios), JIAXIN ZHANG (LightSpeed Studios)
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: Ke Jing (PICO Immersive US Inc./ Bytedance), Hogan Mastanduno (PICO Immersive US Inc./ Bytedance), David Campos Rodríguez (PICO Immersive US Inc./ Bytedance)
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: Austin Kinross (Microsoft), Budi Purnomo (AMD), Steven Tovey (Intel), Kevin Hawkins (Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.), Aurelio Reis (NVIDIA)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Moderator: Beth Elderkin (GDC Festival of Gaming)
Location: GDC Commons Stage
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Fireside Chat
Speakers: Peer Schneider (IGN Entertainment), Ryan McCaffrey (IGN Entertainment), Justin Davis (IGN Entertainment), Miranda Sanchez (IGN Entertainment)
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Panel
Location: Room 3020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Panel
Sponsor Speakers: Xalavier Nelson Jr (Strange Scaffold), Andrea Rene (Vivrato), Matt Jeffery (Rebellion), Marcus Morgan (Obsidian Entertainment)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Adam Saltsman (Finji)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Ildar Valeev (KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Team Leadership, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Location: Future Tech Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Power Talk
Location: International Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Power Talk
Speaker: Sheng Feng (MoreFun Studios, Tencent Games)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Visual Development, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Asim Tanvir (Kinetic Games)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Chang Liu (NetEase)
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Design, Product Management
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Yuning Yang (Yeariver)
Location: Indie & Education Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Power Talk
Speakers: Stephanie Boluk (University of California, Davis), Patrick LeMieux (University of California, Davis), Rogelio Cardona-Rivera (University of Utah), Frank Lantz (Everybody House Games), Gillian Smith (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Yuqian Sun (Ada Eden), Samuel Pizelo (University of Toronto, Mississauga)
Location: Room 2014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Educators, Design
Format:
Microtalks
Sponsor Speaker: Noman Ahsan (GameLyft AI)
Location: Monetization & Player Engagement Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Power Talk
Location: City View @ Metreon
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Location: GDC Commons Community Space 2
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Speakers: Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir (Behold Ventures), Jason Della Rocca (Execution Labs), Walter Paleari (Makers Fund), Jakob Longer (Griffin Gaming Partners)
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event, Business Strategy
Format:
Special Event
Sponsor Speakers: Zeyu Hu (LightSpeed Studios), Shengju Qian (LightSpeed Studios), Jingwei Xu (LightSpeed Studios), Keyang Luo (LightSpeed Studios)
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: Max McMullen (Microsoft), Hisham Chowdhury (AMD), Steven Tovey (Intel), Don Brittain (NVIDIA)
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Panel
Location: Room 213, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Moderator: Scott Edwards (Fox Entertainment)
Speakers: Brenda Cruz (AEG World Wide), Justin Scarpone (SEGA), Rhett Reese (Deadpool & Zombieland Film Franchises), Dante Simpson (Producer Call of Duty: The Film)
Location: Blue Shield of California Theater, YBCA
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Luminaries Speaker Series
Format:
Panel
Location: Room 203, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event, Culture & Sustainability
Location: Future Tech Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Power Talk
Speaker: Eric Wohllaib (Sucker Punch Productions)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Andrew Maximov (ImagineMore.Art)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Visual Development, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: David Daubitz (Ubisoft Mainz)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Narrative & Performance
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Independent Development, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Chip Thurston (FastSpring)
Location: Monetization & Player Engagement Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Power Talk
Location: Room 304, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Audio
Format:
Forum
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Independent Development, Career
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Room 301, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Naama Frenkel (SciPlay)
Location: Room 2014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Product Management, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Alexa Ray Corriea (Gearbox), Diandra Anne Lasrado (iwot games), Jennifer Svedberg-Yen (Sandfall Interactive), Evan Narcisse (Brass Lion Entertainment), Whitney Beltran (CD Projekt RED)
Location: Room 216, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Narrative & Performance, Design
Format:
Forum
Sponsor Speaker: Mason Sciotti (Discord)
Location: Room 2011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Team Leadership
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3024, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Production
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Panel
Sponsor Speaker: Eunkyong Han (Project Moon)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Narrative & Performance
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Michael Wallen (Testronic)
Location: International Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Power Talk
Sponsor Speaker: Christopher Ramirez (Game Over Productions Inc.)
Location: Indie & Education Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Power Talk
Speaker: Lane D. Koughan (University of Washington)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Educators
Format:
Lecture
Location: Blue Shield of California Theater, YBCA
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Luminaries Speaker Series
Format:
Fireside Chat
Sponsor Speaker: Feng Zhu (LightSpeed Studios)
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Doug North Cook (Creature)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Meena Mutha (Discord)
Location: Room 2011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Eoin O'Grady (Black Shamrock - A Virtuos Studio)
Location: Room 3009, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Fireside Chat
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Aaron Scherzinger (Ubisoft Mainz)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Taylor Rohrig (Half Mermain), Sole Gonzalez (Super Spline Studios), Chandrahas Tanguturi (Firaxis Games), Matt Lake (Independent), Frank Gordon (Compulsion Games), Nathaniel Winckler (That's No Moon)
Location: Future Tech Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event, Visual Development
Format:
Special Event
Speakers: Ryan Black (DLA Piper (Canada) LLP), Yan Perng (Blizzard Entertainment), Angelo Alcid (Microsoft Corp.), Brandon Huffman (Odin Law & Media)
Location: Room 216, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Forum
Speaker: Carl Schmidt (Zynga)
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Team Leadership
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Monetization & Player Engagement Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Power Talk
Speaker: Taichiro Miyazaki (CyberConnect2 Co.,Ltd.)
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Independent Development, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Career, Narrative & Performance
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Benjamin Carcich (Building Better Games), Ryan Scott (2K), Shaina Grade (Obsidian Entertainment), Serge Knystautas (Stealth Gaming Company)
Location: Room 2014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Team Leadership, Production
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Michael Schade (ROCKFISH Games GmbH)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Product Management, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Location: GDC Commons Community Space 1
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Speaker: Jason Eppink (Elmhurst University)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Educators, Design
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 2011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speakers: Ander Bergstrom (Qualisys), Vivek Kandasamy (Film Engineers), Alastair Macleod (Peel Software Development LLC), Rob Fernandez (Gearbox Software)
Location: Room 2000, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Panel
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3020, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Blake Barbosa Gama (Questborne Studios)
Location: Indie & Education Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Power Talk
Speakers: Dave Berol (Surfaceink Product Design & Development), Pat Scandalis (moForte Inc), Steve Horowitz (Game Audio Institute and SFSU), Kurt Heiden (Independent), Alexander Brandon (Funky Rustic, LLC)
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event, Audio
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Keith Self-Ballard (PlayStation Studios)
Location: Room 304, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Visual Development, Team Leadership
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Bruce Straley (Wildflower Interactive)
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Moderator: Steve Rabin (Electronic Arts)
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Fireside Chat
Speaker: Jon Moore (Iron Galaxy Studios)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Sebastian Long (Player Research)
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Product Management
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Hot Pink (HotPink Games), Colin McInerney (Pedalboard Games), LewdLogic (Critical Bliss), KiwiBoxers (Critical Bliss)
Location: Room 3005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Microtalks
Location: Room 301, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Narrative & Performance
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Austin Wintory (Independent), Stephanie Economou (Independent), Joe Henson (The Flight), Alexis Smith (The Flight), Simon Landry (Ubisoft)
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio, Career
Format:
Panel
Speaker: Sam Glassenberg (Level Ex)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Lecture
Location: International Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Fireside Chat
Location: Room 203, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Location: GDC Main Stage, North Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Speaker: Xin Ning (miHoYo)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Seth Rosen (Ironwood Studios)
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Ben Li (Scopely)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Verda Munir (Robert Gordon University)
Location: Room 216, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Educators, Design
Format:
Workshop
Speaker: Jennifer Estaris (Estaris Works)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Design
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Marc LeBlanc (Riot Games), Stone Librande (Riot Games), Eleanor Todd (Fablegate), Marcus Montgomery (Cornerstone Interactive Studios), Jeb Havens (Jeb Havens Games), Eben Myers (Relevate Health Games), Geoff Marsi (Riot Games)
Location: Room 3016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design
Format:
Workshop
Moderator: Greg Foertsch (Bit Reactor)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Career
Format:
Panel
Location: Room 211, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Format:
Special Event
Speakers: Ben Cloward (Independent), Nicholas Burkhard (Meta), Matt Lake (Independent), Sen Lei Deng (EA Criterion), Camille Kay (Epic Games)
Location: Room 2014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Panel
Speaker: Noah Falstein (The Inspiracy)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Shawn Alexander Allen (NuChallenger)
Location: Indie & Education Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Sponsor Speaker: Chubak Temirov (High Technology Park Kyrgyzstan)
Location: International Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Power Talk
Speaker: Crystal Lee (Schell Games)
Location: Room 312, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Audio
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Room 304, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Design
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Andrew Fray (Automated AF)
Location: Room 306, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Jose Angulo (Teravision Games)
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Audio, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Lewis Burnell (ICO Partners)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development, Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 213, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Speaker: Nick Ballou (University of Oxford)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Brian Cronin (Chugga Chugga LLC)
Location: Room 2014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Independent Development, Design
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Team Leadership, Production
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Hannah Gallagher (Meta)
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Product Management, Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Rachel Kowert (University of Cambridge)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Richard Duck (Meta)
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Business Strategy, Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Microtalks
Location: GDC Gardens, Yerba Buena Gardens
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Format:
Special Event
Moderator: Beth Elderkin (GDC Festival of Gaming)
Speaker: Jennifer Svedberg-Yen (Sandfall Interactive)
Location: GDC Commons Stage
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Fireside Chat
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Visual Development
Format:
Fireside Chat
Speakers: Areej Al-Wabil (Alfaisal University), Hanan Makki (School of Gaming - Saudi Digital Academy), Mashael Abualnaja (Dev, Play, Go!), Rema Alyahya (Merak Capital), Meaad Aflah (Starvania Studio), Bayan Mashat (Blue Tango Street Studio), Jawharah Alabdulqader (Nomadroid Studio)
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Independent Development, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Microtalks
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Independent Development
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Baqir Shah (Pipeworks Studios)
Location: Room 3018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Career
Format:
Special Event
Speakers: Jordan DeVries (Respawn Entertainment), Darren Bacon (Bungie), Eli Tuttle (Bit Reactor), Jeff Skalski (Yellow Brick Games Inc.), Jeff A. Johnson (inXile Entertainment), Ashley Sparling (K9 Digital), Greg Knight (Lucasfilm Games), Cutlar Nordyke III (Keywords Studios), Gary Riley (Raven Software), Greg Foertsch (Bit Reactor), Rembert Montald (Lightspeed LA), Sarah LeBlanc (Bit Reactor), Jade Law (Wardog Studios), Jeff Parrott (Blizzard), Inmar Salvatier (Maxis), Gaurav Mathur (gamedevmap), Piero Macgowan (Bit Reactor)
Location: Room 215, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Career
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Product Management, Production
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Salome Gozalishvili (King)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Discovery & Marketing, Product Management
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Zhen Zhai (Blizzard Entertainment)
Location: Room 2014, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Visual Development, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: International Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Educators, Business Strategy
Format:
Power Talk
Location: Monetization & Player Engagement Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Advanced
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Neville Spiteri (Wevr)
Location: Future Tech Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Forum
Speakers: Andrea Lucco Borlera (Independent), Andy Wallace (Hypnogenesis), Allen Riley (Hypnogenesis), Laureline Chiapello (NAD-UQAC (Université du Québec à Chicoutimi)), Isaac Cohen (Cabbibo), Nathan Leigh (cirqueSaw), Nicole Orabona (cirqueSaw), Tristan Hilaire (KMLO), Carol Mertz (Independent), Stefano Sanitate (Santa Ragione), Liz Ryerson (Independent), Cí Malone (The Crayon Eating Company), Bjarke Alexander Larsen (Independent), Mark LaCroix (Noble Robot), Cory O'Brien (Independent), Tommy Maranges (Independent), Hanwen Xu (Games for my Computer LLC), Hatim Benhsain (Games for my Computer LLC), Ben Landon Elliot (Bonk Interactive)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Special Event
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Discovery & Marketing
Format:
Fireside Chat
Speaker: Aaron Keller (Blizzard Entertainment)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Business Strategy
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: John Hopson (Sensemitter)
Location: Room 304, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Design
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology, Audio
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Fireside Chat
Speaker: Jeffrey Waldron (Gearbox Software)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Track:
Career
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Grey Davenport (Sucker Punch Productions)
Location: Room 2003, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Audio, Game & Production Technology
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Stefano Sanitate (Santa Ragione), Ben Landon Elliot (Bonk Interactive), Hatim Benhsain (Games for my Computer LLC), Hanwen Xu (Games for my Computer LLC), Tommy Maranges (Independent), Cory O'Brien (Independent), Mark LaCroix (Noble Robot), Bjarke Alexander Larsen (Independent), Cí Malone (The Crayon Eating Company), Liz Ryerson (Independent), Andrea Lucco Borlera (Independent), Carol Mertz (Independent), Tristan Hilaire (KMLO), Nicole Orabona (cirqueSaw), Nathan Leigh (cirqueSaw), Isaac Cohen (Cabbibo), Laureline Chiapello (NAD-UQAC (Université du Québec à Chicoutimi)), Allen Riley (Hypnogenesis), Andy Wallace (Hypnogenesis)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Special Event
Speaker: Rez Graham (Independent)
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Game & Production Technology
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Cari Watterton (Scopely)
Location: Room 308, South Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Career
Format:
Roundtable
Location: Room 2018, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Special Event
Format:
Special Event
Speakers: Jakin Vela (International Game Developers Association), Parker Wallace (International Game Developer Association)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Special Event, Culture & Sustainability
Format:
Special Event
Speaker: Baqir Shah (Pipeworks Studios)
Location: Room 3011, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Design, Career
Format:
Special Event
Speakers: Paul Kilduff-Taylor (Mode 7), Ian Hardingham (Oxford Brain Diagnostics), Gina Jackson (Pitchify), John Graham (Elbow Grease Games), Oscar Clark (Arcanix)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Business Strategy
Format:
Microtalks
Location: Room 2001, West Hall
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Audience Level:
All
Track:
Narrative & Performance
Format:
Lecture
Title: Technical Director
Company: Meaning Machine
Ben Ackland is the Co-Founder and Tech Lead at Meaning Machine, a creatively-driven game tech start-up unlocking all-new gameplay experiences through generative AI. With 20 years of experience in innovative software development, Ben specializes in creating deep, meaningful NPC interactions through Meaning Machine's proprietary Game Conscious™ technology - empowering both developers and creatives to explore bold new storytelling possibilities, while respecting privacy and enhancing accessibility.
Title: VP, Corporate Affairs
Company: Coda
Liz Adam is VP, Corporate Affairs, at Coda. Liz is responsible for Coda's communications, reputation, policy, and stakeholder engagement to support Coda's business strategy and long-term value.
Title: CEO
Company: Mindstorm Studios
Babar Ahmed is the CEO and Founder of Mindstorm Studios, one of Pakistan’s leading game development companies and a pioneer of the country’s gaming industry. With over two decades of experience in game development and interactive entertainment, he has led the creation of globally recognized titles and has played a key role in building Pakistan’s reputation as a growing hub for game development.Under his leadership, Mindstorm Studios has developed successful games for international audiences and collaborated with global publishers and platforms. Babar is widely recognized for mentoring emerging talent, strengthening Pakistan’s game development ecosystem, and promoting the country’s capabilities on international platforms.At GDC, he will share insights on the rapid rise of Pakistan’s gaming industry, the country’s talent advantage, and why Pakistan is poised to become the next global powerhouse in game development.
Title: Head of Games Growth & Monetization
Company: Meta
Chong Ahn is a senior, multicultural executive at the cross-section of entertainment and technology, with management experience developing, producing and operating amazing experiences for mobile & online platforms while being responsible for the optimization of acquisition, engagement and monetization models.
Title: Senior Partner
Company: McKinsey & Co.
Kabir is a Senior Partner in McKinsey's Technology, Media and Telecom Practice, focusing on growth strategies, sales and marketing, and digital innovation. He is an AI scientist by training and is serving both AI solution providers and companies using AI to drive transformative growth.
Title: Professor of Software Engineering and Director of the HCI Lab
Company: Alfaisal University
Scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. Areej is the Founder and Director of Alfaisal's AI Center, a Center of Excellence for AI research, teaching, theory, and practice. She joined Alfaisal University in 2020 after serving as the Executive Director of IP Enablement in the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property, where she spearheaded the national network of technology and innovation support centers (TISCs). Prior to this, she was Principal Investigator at the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) within the Center for Complex Engineering Systems at KACST and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is currently a Research Affiliate with MIT's Media Lab and the Director of the Masters in Applied AI (MAI) in the College of Engineering and Advanced Computing at Alfaisal Computing, with a teaching focus on Human-Centric AI in Extended Reality and Generative AI for Creativity and the Arts. She held a series of leadership positions of increasing responsibility in various academic and research institutions within the Kingdom, particularly in the scope of research and development.
Areej holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science, with a Postdoc from (MIT)'s School of Engineering and received her MSc degree in Computer Graphics and Multimedia from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at George Washington University. With over 15 years in research and development, she has led humanistic co-design programs across the public, private, and non-profit sectors and has been an industry champion for diversity and inclusion. She is involved in several professional and civic organizations, including the Advisory Board of the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) for women and
the national IEEE Women in Engineering Affinity Group in Saudi Arabia and serves on the jury for the pre-collegiate National Olympiad for STEM; and was formerly the founder and president of the chartered chapter of the Arab Women in Computing for Saudi Arabia.
Areej's research experience includes extended reality (XR), AI in health, neurotechnology and brain-computer interfaces (BCI). Her current work focuses on human-centric AI and the impact of AI-generated art on defining art, the dynamic between artists and their tools, the process of digital curation, and the question of whether AI systems can match human creativity. In her research leaders roles, director of the AI Center and HCI Lab at Alfaisal University, her research strategies focus on driving organizational and societal transformation by strengthening the role of science and promoting innovation through strategic initiatives, academic alliances, and governance processes.
Title: Founder and CEO of Nomadroid
Company: Nomadroid Studio
Nomadroid is an indie game studio established in late 2021 and one of the first PC and console studios in Saudi Arabia. The studio aims to break stereotypes and set its own industry standards in MENA by developing premium, single-player games of the highest quality. Jawharah is a graphic designer and game artist.
Title: Senior Corporate Counsel, Gaming
Company: Microsoft Corp.
Angelo is an in-house attorney at Microsoft, but unlike the very exciting areas of work within the company like Microsoft Office, Windows, and Azure, Angelo toils daily in the Xbox mines, supporting their first-party game development studios. He currently provides legal support for 343 Industries (Halo), The Coalition (Gears of War), and Ninja Theory (Hellblade). With an engineering background and some experience as a software developer, he understands the technical aspects of game development (while also having enough self-knowledge to acknowledge that he no longer has the coding chops to do it himself), and spends what free time he has left after raising his two young children playing whatever games he can get his hands on (while justifying it to himself as market research). Prior to his role at Microsoft, Angelo has spent time in the legal departments of Google, Yahoo!, and Bandai Namco Entertainment America. Angelo frequently speaks about legal issues affecting the video game industry at legal conferences as well as game industry events such as GDC, PAX, TwitchCon, and SXSW.
Title: Vice President of VC Portfolio Management at Merak Capital
Company: Merak Capital
Title: Principal Machine Learning Engineer
Company: Rovio
Ignacio Amaya leads AI initiatives at Rovio, working on machine learning and generative AI for games, advertising, and user acquisition. He has a background in data science and data engineering and focuses on building AI solutions that deliver real business impact.
Title: CEO/Founder
Company: Warped Worlds
Justin Andarza is a designer, producer, and creative director whose work merges storytelling, interactivity, and emerging technologies. He has built a career producing award-winning immersive experiences and games that blur the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds, earning recognition at the Game Developers Conference, IndieCade, and the Independent Game Festival.
Justin has helped lead the creative development and production for a range of experiential projects, with companies including Warped Worlds, Two Bit Circus, Fever, and Meow Wolf. His portfolio spans original IP and branded activations, with cross-disciplinary teams delivering activations for clients including Meta, Complex, and Vans. His approach unites scenic design, technology, performance, and storytelling into cohesive experiences that surprise and delight audiences.
In addition to his production work, Justin is an accomplished educator. As an educator at ArtCenter College of Design and other academic institutions, he has mentored students to industry acclaim, with projects winning top honors at alt.ctrl.GDC and IndieCade. His teaching emphasizes hands-on prototyping, immersive storytelling, and innovative worldbuilding, equipping the next generation of creators with industry-ready skills.
Justin's creative philosophy emphasizes interactivity as a catalyst for dialogue, community, and active engagement. Whether through gamified escape-room-style encounters, experimental alt-controllers, or large-scale activations, he views play as a powerful medium to connect people and transform environments.
Title: Senior Character Artist
Company: Embark Studios
Currently a Senior Character Artist at Embark Studios, Björn started as a Technical Artist before moving into Character Art at DICE on the Battlefield and Battlefront franchises. At Embark, he focuses on developing the character pipeline and smoothing out workflows to bridge technical and creative goals, while remaining hands-on with character asset creation.
Title: Head of Product Research
Company: Helpshift, A Keywords Studios Platform
Erik Ashby, as head of Product Research with Helpshift, A Keywords Studios Platform, is pushing forward AI innovation and technology with a deliberate focus on how AI can impact the player experience to both increase player engagement while optimizing cost for brands. Erik has spent over 30 years leading product innovation across the enterprise, consumer and now player experiences. He has always been on the leading edge of technology, including AI, specifically interested in how it can be leveraged to improve the human experience. Preferred Game: Still Halo 2
Title: Partner; Head of Gaming & Interactive Media
Company: Lightspeed Venture Partners
Moritz is a senior partner and the head of gaming & interactive media at Lightspeed, a globally leading VC firm with 13 offices, $43 billion in assets, and over 200 exits across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. An advocate for world models, he is also a founding member of General Intuition, a research lab that trains spatiotemporal agents on proprietary video game data and raised a $133.7 million Seed round in 2025.
Prior to that, Moritz founded and led the firm’s global gaming practice at Goldman Sachs. A lifelong gamer, he spent his teenage years competing in Blizzard’s Diablo II, culminating in a #1 ranking among over 12 million players in 2003.
Title: Music Licensing Executive
Company: Universal Production Music
Beau was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Began playing guitar and drums in bands and producing music when he was 15. Turned his passion for gaming into a PA job working events for Activision. Spent 5+ years after that at Activision working in licensing and partnerships before coming to Universal Music in 2024 to lead the gaming sector of the Production Music department. Favorite games of all-time are Goldeneye, Halo 3, and Fallout: New Vegas.
Title: Postdoctoral Researcher
Company: University of Oxford
Nick Ballou is a research psychologist at the University of Oxford and one of the world's leading young experts in how media usage affects mental health—for example, effects like stress relief, displacement, and nostalgia. He develops creative methods to collect detailed behavioral data from platforms (e.g., Xbox, TikTok), and use this data to understand the key ingredients in a healthy digital diet with a focus on causality, not correlations. A broader goal of Nick's work is to make psychological research more rigorous, trustworthy, and actionable as part of the science reform movement. He is a postdoc at the Oxford Internet Institute, having recently finished his PhD at Queen Mary University of London.
Title: Research Scientist
Company: Blizzard Entertainment
Ari is a research scientist at Blizzard Entertainment. A 4-year vet of the studio, her work in research and design primarily for the Overwatch franchise contributes to the missions of 1) deliver a healthy player experience by promoting prosocial play and 2) mitigate disruptive behaviors. When she's not working, she's trying out new games, taking care of her dogs, or indulging in random interests she picks up along the way.
Title: Head of Department
Company: Embassy of Spain - Trade Commission in Los Angeles
Pablo Barea leads the Audiovisual Department at the Trade Commission of the Embassy of Spain in Los Angeles.
In the video game space, Spain operates under the brand Games From Spain: an initiative to increase awareness of the Spanish video game industry; and connect studios with publishers, investors, and media from all over the globe.
Title: Chief Executive Officer
Company: Testronic
Sharon Baylay-Bell is a global business leader with over 20 years of experience helping companies grow at the intersection of culture, technology, and business. She has held senior roles at Microsoft, where she received the Chairman's Award from Bill Gates, and at the BBC, where she served as Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Board Director. Her career spans global tech, media, and consumer businesses, with a focus on navigating cultural complexity to build brands that resonate across markets. She is currently the CEO of Testronic, a global provider of quality assurance and language services for the game industry.
Title: Co-Founder and CEO
Company: Halp Network
William "Chip" Beaman is CEO and co-founder of The Halp Network, where he champions diversity by connecting underrepresented talent with opportunities in games, animation, and media. With over 30 years in entertainment, he's contributed to major titles like Uncharted and Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Chip is a member of MPSE, BAFTA, and serves as Chairman of the Governing and Advisory Board for Kollab Youth. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and enjoys music, travel, and storytelling.
Title: Actor
Company: Independent
Samantha Béart is a classically trained actor known for their work on stage and in video games.
Stage includes Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern (Off-Broadway), The Call of Cthulhu (UK Tour), and as Random in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Originated on BBC Radio 4, UK national theatre tours). Games include: Darth Nul in Star Wars: The Old Republic, Cider in Absolum, Alisa in Cabernet, Player Character in Demon's Souls, Gina in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and Oracle in Tron: Catalyst.
Samantha is also a BAFTA nominee, a D.I.C.E. awards finalist, and a GANG winner for their performance as Karlach in the seminal Baldur's Gate 3. As Thomasina in The Excavation of Hob's Barrow they were awarded a BAFTA Breakthrough - the first actor to enter the initiative on a video game. Their next announced project is as the leading role of One in Fading Echo, a desert punk action-adventure RPG.
Additionally, Samantha is the creator and host of It Takes A Village, a talk show on YouTube. The series is a celebration of the people who make games, with themes of collaboration, co-advocacy and community.
Samantha is a frequent world-traveller but hangs their hat in the UK.
If you want to connect, I am @samanthabeart on Instagram, Twitter and Bluesky
Title: CEO & Executive Producer
Company: T-Minus Zero Entertainment
Zachary Beaudoin is an accomplished video game producer with over 18 years of experience in the interactive entertainment industry. Known for his innovative vision and ability to lead diverse teams, he’s been instrumental in the creation of several critically acclaimed and commercially successful titles. Zac believes in pushing the boundaries of interactive entertainment through excellence in execution. He is passionate about crafting experiences that resonate deeply with players, leaving a lasting impact beyond the game. His approach emphasizes a focus on the player experience, collaboration, being pragmatic but flexible, and empowering team members to contribute their unique talents to a shared vision.
Title: Co-Founder
Company: Pincer Games
Laia Bee is a Uruguayan indie dev, co-founder of Pincer Games, part of the Game Awards Future Class, and helps coordinate the Latam Video Games Federation. She organizes the #1reasontobe panel at GDC and was named one of the 100 Game Changers by GamesIndustry. She promotes the creation of scholarships for Latam studios to attend major events, and advocates for underrepresented devs in the region. Ex-president of the Uruguayan Game developers Association, she continues to volunteer in different initiatives to help her local dev community.
Title: Senior DevTech Engineer
Company: NVIDIA
Xiangshun Bei is a Senior DevTech engineer at NVIDIA, working on real-time ray tracing technologies including character rendering and RTX Remix. He is a primary contributor to the RTX Character Rendering SDK, with a focus on path-traced hair rendering and subsurface scattering. His work spans rendering algorithms, engine integration, and production pipelines. Prior to NVIDIA, he was a graphics engineer on the Frostbite Engine, contributing to the SurfelGI global illumination system and the Battlefield franchise.
Title: Audio Director
Company: Santa Monica Studio
Justin Bell is a storyteller with a palette made of music and sound, and a canvas made of pixels. Driven to express humanity through art, Justin is a Composer, Audio Director, and Sound Designer with 18 years of in-depth experience in every aspect of game audio development across a diverse range of genres. Born on October 22, 1977 in Oakland, CA, Justin is best known for writing and producing the scores for the critically acclaimed RPGs Pillars of Eternity and The Outer Worlds. Each year, RPG fans worldwide stream his music millions of times to accompany them on their adventures. This widespread appreciation is deeply humbling for Justin. Each chapter of Justin’s career has been a stepping stone. He currently serves as an Audio Director at Santa Monica Studio, the developer of God of War. From 2021 to 2023, he was a Supervising Sound Designer on the PlayStation Studios Sound team, where he had the honor of working on projects such as Horizon: Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarök. Prior to that, he was the Audio Director and Composer at Obsidian Entertainment from 2013 to 2021, working on beloved games like Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and Grounded. He earned a B.A. in Music Composition from UCLA in 2007 and an A.A. in Music from Los Angeles Valley Community College in 2004, where he studied classical guitar and composition.
Title: Senior Quest Designer
Company: CD Projekt RED
Whitney Beltrán is a multiple award-winning Mexican-American Narrative Director with over 12 years of experience in narrative design and professional writing. She was previously the Narrative Director at Hidden Path Entertainment, where she headed the narrative on a AAA Dungeons & Dragons video game project in partnership with Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast. Whitney is known for her gripping work on internationally celebrated titles like Bluebeard's Bride and HoloVista, as well as State of Decay 2, Beyond Blue, Raccoon Lagoon, Dungeons & Dragons (tabletop products), and myriad other video game and tabletop RPGs.
She has a track record in leading narrative teams, developing immersive narrative gameplay, and managing cross-departmental collaboration. Whitney is recognized for exceptional communication, organizational skills, and innovative contributions to narrative design. She has developed for AAA, AR/VR, mobile, PC and console.
Title: Game Dreamer
Company: Games for my Computer LLC
Hatim Benhsain makes experimental videogames and comics. He's interested in swimming, speculating, nonsense, plundercore and plunderludics, and using non-expressive tools to express. He's part of the collectives boshi's place and Games for my Computer. He was raised in Morocco. Hatim & Hanwen started working on coalescent || tidal rapture because of their dissatisfaction in how both sex and swimming as portrayed in videogames, and finding a primal, sensorial connection between the two.
Title: 3D Technical Lead
Company: UbiSoft
Lionel Berenguier is a 3D Technical Lead at UbiSoft. He's been working in the video game industry for 25 years, mainly developing rendering technology. He worked in particular on Assassin's Creed Shadows, Rainbow6-Extraction, For Honor, Prince Of Persia(2008), Assassin's Creed and Ryzom.
Title: Market Director
Company: Qualisys
Ander Bergstrom brings comprehensive understanding of the motion capture ecosystem from his experience as studio owner, producer, and technology vendor. As founder of Mocap Now, he built relationships with top-tier game studios before the company was acquired by StretchSense in 2020. His career includes roles as Senior Producer on Xbox's Advanced Technology Group at Microsoft and as animation producer on AAA titles including the UFC franchise at THQ. This diverse background gives him unique perspective on motion capture from multiple angles: creative demands, technical requirements, business considerations, and technology capabilities. Now serving as Market Director and Entertainment Sales Manager at Qualisys, he helps game developers, film studios, and educational institutions find motion capture solutions that fit their creative vision and production realities.
Title: Director
Company: Curiouser LLC
With over 30 years of experience, Reed Berkowitz has designed award-winning interactive experiences for global entertainment leaders including Universal Studios, Paramount, Cartoon Network, and Sanrio. A pioneer in the field, he created the first Alternate Reality Game (ARG) and continues to innovate across immersive theater and large-scale art installations. For the past four years, he has been at the forefront of generative AI and gaming, contributing to landmark projects like Latitude's AI Dungeon and consulting for a16z Speedrun recipients. His work extends into serious gaming and cross-disciplinary simulations developed in association with organizations such as the CDC and the Qualcomm Institute. A recognized expert on the intersection of play and technology, his insights have been featured by The Washington Post, The New Yorker Radio Hour, NPR, and PBS.
Title: Composer/Technical Music Designer
Company: Chase Bethea/Independent
Chase Bethea, a distinguished freelance Composer/Technical Music Designer for video games, has clinched prestigious awards like NYX and Global Music, alongside a nomination from VGMO (Video Game Music Online). He has been working professionally in the industry for over a decade and has shipped over 25 games thus far. He is known in the industry as one of the most prolific and omnipresent composers in the video game industry today (according to IlIO) and the Swiss Army knife of video game composition. In his beginning career, Chase worked as an intern at Mobotory Games in 2011 while simultaneously going to school for his AA in Music Theory and Composition. He graduated with his AA from Audio Engineering from Los Angeles Recording School , his AA in Music Theory and Composition from Moorpark College and his BM in Media Composition from California State Northridge all with Honors. Chase has received many accolades throughout his career. In 2010, he won Best Music in Motion Graphic and Poetry Award. In 2013, Chase's score from the successful flash Horror game, I Can't Escape (developed by Fancy Fish Games) received an honorable mention in the Indie Game Magazine. His second soundtrack for the game Cubic Climber earned a Noteworthy on Destructoid.com. In 2016, Chase was nominated for the 2015 Annual Game Music Awards – Artists of the Year – Independent Composer by VGMO (Video Game Music Online) in the entire industry. In 2021, he won an award for the AGROUND soundtrack from the NYX Game Awards. In 2023, Chase Bethea won another NYX Award for the remarkable video game score, On the Peril of Parrotsand garnered two Global Music awards, one for the same score and the other recognizing his excellence as a composer. Two of these pieces are featured in NYC Jam Sessions VGM Real Book Vol. II. In March 2024, Chase was honoured with one of the industry's most prestigious awards: the Excellence in Artistry Award from the Black in Gaming Foundation. This recognition serves as a testament to his consistent dedication and remarkable contributions to video game music within the industry. In 2025, NYX Game Awards honoured Chase Bethea with his 2nd prestigious Gold Winner award in the Game Audio & Radio – Original Game Soundtrack category for his outstanding work on the video game Aground Zero. Chase has also scored Aztec Ride, a highly addictive fun mobile game that shipped on Google Play in October 2020 and was nominated for a Pocket Gamer Mobile Award. His music has been featured on multiple podcasts such as NEXT LEVEL PLAY (on Sling TV/ ESR TV Gaming Network), Pixelated Audio, Level with Emily, Sound of Play, Shure: LOUDER, Everybody's Talking at Once, Games X Music, Super Gamer Podcast and Audio Modeling's MIDI Talk. Much of his discography can be heard on many streaming platforms such as Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, Deezer, Tidal, iHeart Radio, Bandcamp and more. Chase was selected to perform live at Indiecade (2019) and from 2020-2021 streamed on IndieCade's Twitch channel weekly bringing his show Game Audio Life to that platform. Chase's music was also performed live by the Virtual Video Game Orchestra at MAGWest 2022 /2023 / 2024 as well as the Helix Collective in 2023 / 2024. More of Chase's accomplishments include being Game Revolution's first team streamer as well as first Game Audio professional to be featured on a Gaming Website for his Behind the Scene composing series. He used to be a co-host of Game Audio Hour for three years. Chase was the first minority American Video Game Composer to be featured in the Museum of Making Music MIDI at 40 exhibit at the NAMM Museum in San Diego [2023 -2024]. In 2024, Chase made history as the first video game composer to join the prestigious Mogami Cable roster, further solidifying his impact in the industry. He is the first minority American video game composer to write an article on adaptive music in games for Recording Magazine—the first article on video game music published in the magazine in 20 years [2024]. His work and insights have also been featured in the books Global Histories of Video Game Music Technology [2024] by Karen M. Cook, William Gibbons, and Fanny Rebillard, as well as The Theory and Practice of Writing Music for Games [2024] by Steve Horowitz and Scott Looney. In addition, Chase was the IASIG (Interactive Audio Special Interest Group) Chair (2022-2024). In 2024, Chase was celebrated for U.K. Black History Month featured on October 4th among some of the greatest icons in history. This year's Black History Month calendar showcases legends like Herbie Hancock, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, Queen Latifah, and many more. The calendar has previously highlighted monumental figures such as Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington, Lord Kitchener, Isaac Hayes Lauryn Hill, James Brown, Ray Charles, Nina Simone, Wynton Marsalis, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and others who have shaped music and culture. As a video game composer, Chase has brought his special signature sound to big libraries and has worked with written demos for Spitfire, Reason Studios and Soundiron, curated selections for Native Instruments Sounds.com, been added to the artist roster of the legendary, ILIO and Q Up Arts . Chase has also collaborated with Shure Microphones and Mojave Audio, further expanding his influence in the industry. In addition, he has made two article debuts on the website of the music gear conglomerate, Sweetwater. Chase also contributed music to the 2023 Set 10 Team Fight Tactic Remix Rumble Soundtrack and scored The THING (Remastered) Trailer by Nightdive Studios.
Title: Director of Technology
Branka Billante is an engineering leader with experience in managing large-scale teams to achieve business goals in diverse software industries. Her specialty is implementing quality strategies that emphasize automation and integrating quality into development processes, reducing time to market, and enhancing product quality, while promoting continuous improvement, organizational changes, and sustainable software products.
She is passionate about delivering appropriate quality levels, fostering innovation, building professional relationships, and enabling autonomous teams and individuals to deliver to their potential. Her experience over the last 30 years has been in various industries from eCommerce, fin tech, healthcare, as well as gaming.
Title: Game Economist
Company: Game Economist Consulting
A failed real‑world economist who read too many Yanis Varoufakis VALVeconomics posts and thought fake economics was way more fun. He worked at Scopley before moving onto Battlefield at DICE, then new projects at Amazon Game Studios. Phillip has been consulting at Game Economist Consulting for the past year and yelling into the void on the Deconstructor of Fun and Game Economist Cast podcasts.
Title: Voice Over Director
Writer/Director Kal-El Bogdanove has crafted dozens of the world's most popular AAA videogames, including Steam record-breaker Helldivers 2, global smash Honkai Star Rail, Horizon Forbidden West, MultiVersus, Diablo 4, Diablo Immortal, Overwatch 2, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, League of Legends, Convergence, the BAFTA-winning Fallout 4, and more. Kal-El was the creator and showrunner for The Walt Disney Company's entire suite of interactive audio, a whopping 2000+ pages of fully-voiced content across Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar, earning Disney $30 million first year net in this previously unexplored space, and generating an incalculable number of guest impressions. Bogdanove also created Dug In Real Life, the most successful viral video in TWDC history, with 28 million views in 24 hours. Together with his business partner Adrienne Arno, Bogdanove wrote Exoprimal for Capcom, and an unannounced AAA title for Warner Bros. Arno and Bogdanove also partnered with horror legends John Carpenter and Sandy King to create Terraformed, an eight-part graphic sci-fi miniseries, and The Haloperidol Files, a psychological mystery.
Title: Innovation and Sourcing Director - Tabletop Playtype
Company: Asmodee
Bryan Bornmueller has worked in tabletop games his entire career at world class publishers, distributors, and retailers including Asmodee, Fantasy Flight Games, the Fantasy Flight Games Center, Mayhem Comics and Games, Games by James, PSi (Publisher Services Inc), and Office Dog. He is the designer of The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game and The Two Towers: Trick-Taking Game. Over the 20 years of his experience he has engaged with the entire life cycle of games: conception, development, production, sales, logistics, pitching, merchandising, and marketing. He lives in Minneapolis, MN with his wife and daughter.
Title: Actor
Company: Independent
Phillipe Bosher is an actor and director who has appeared in Baldur's Gate 3, Lies of P, and Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, and has worked with Tony-Award winning director Ivo Van Hove on 'Network' at the National Theatre of Great Britain, and Audie-award winning Dirk Maggs on the BBC's 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'.
Title: COO
Company: Dream Reality Interactive
Pamina is Chief Operating Officer at London based indie studio Dream Reality Interactive, where she leads studio operations, production strategy, and the growth of the company’s web games business. With over 16 years of experience building and running businesses, she brings a strong commercial and finance perspective to game development.After beginning her career in finance in London, Pamina transitioned into the games industry in 2020. Since then, she has focused on helping independent studios scale sustainably, improve production processes, and build resilient business models in an increasingly competitive market.As a workshop facilitator, Pamina shares practical insights on production workflows, studio operations, and the realities of running an indie game business.She is also Director of games fund Factortech, where she works on the financing of game development, and an active angel investor in media and interactive entertainment.
Title: Staff Software Engineer
Company: Meta
Zac Bowling leads AI developer tooling within Reality Labs at Meta, where he focuses on accelerating and modernizing how VR applications are built. His work helps teams experiment faster, reduce friction, and ship production-ready immersive experiences with confidence.
Over his 21-year engineering career, Zac has built new operating systems, programming languages, and AI infrastructure at companies including Google, Modular and Texas Instruments. At Apportable, Zac was lead architect of a mobile game engine and porting SDK that was used by over 21 titles that reached the Google Play Top 100.
Today, his work centers on giving VR developers AI-powered super powers by building reliable tooling that integrates directly into the workflows teams already use, enabling them to move from idea to market faster.
Title: CEO
Company: Funky Rustic, LLC
Alexander Brandon is a game audio veteran with thirty years of experience and over one hundred titles to his credit, among them the soundtracks for such hits as “Unreal” and “Deus Ex”, and more recently music, sound and voice for such games as “Stormgate”, “Wasteland 3, Oddworld: Soulstorm, Aven Colony, Wasteland 2”, “Alpha Protocol”, the “Neverwinter Nights” series, “Bejeweled 3”, Skyrim, and “DC Universe Online”. Alex has skills in music composition, sound design, voice acting, voice direction, audio direction and game audio technology. He has written the award winning book “Audio For Games: Planning, Process and Production and written columns for Game Developer and Mix magazines. He has also lectured at UCLA Extension, Texas State University and Berklee School of Music. He now owns his own audio production house in Seattle, Washington, “Funky Rustic”, and distributes music through Bandcamp, releasing an album every now and again.
Title: Casting & Voice Director
Company: Vox Point LLC
Khris Brown (they/she) has been working in games VO since it began. From Monkey Island to Grim Fandango at Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts and directing ADR for Skywalker Sound, Khris established their client services company (Vox Point LLC) in 1998. Khris founded the Voice Department at Double Fine Productions in 2000 and the Narrative Talent Group at Ubisoft Montreal during the AC: Black Flag era, and their projects have been recognized with Oscar, BAFTA, Peabody, AIAS, VGA, WGA, and many other awards. A lifelong advocate for equity-based, representative, ground-breaking performances, they continue to cast, direct, and mentor projects that pull the industry forward.
Title: Head of Digital, PBS Nature
Company: PBS Nature
Danielle Broza is the Digital Lead for PBS Nature, where she oversees all aspects of content development, digital production, audience engagement, and social strategy. Danielle and her team share a single mission: to future-proof one of public media's longest-running and most acclaimed series by transforming Nature from a legacy television program into an enduring, multiplatform brand reaching more audiences than ever before.
Title: Studio Head & Creative Director
Company: Soft Rains
Joel Burgess is the Studio Head and a co-founder of Soft Rains. He has previously contributed in studio and design leadership roles for Bethesda Game Studios, Capybara, and Ubisoft Toronto. He has led teams of all sizes, and is well-known for his contributions to open world and level design through articles, lectures, and mentorship.
Title: Senior Communications Manager
Company: ICO Partners
Lewis Burnell (@PersistentWorld on BlueSky) has over 15 years of experience in the video game industry, with the past six focused on senior marketing roles. He is currently Senior Communications Manager at UK-based self-publishing agency ICO Partners, where he has helped launch dozens of titles over the last three years.
His portfolio spans a wide range of projects, from breakout successes by solo developers like The Operator and Big Ambitions, to major releases including Baldur's Gate III, Lies of P, and Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream. Prior to joining ICO, Lewis worked on notable titles such as Manor Lords, Against the Storm, Medieval Dynasty, Rogue Legacy 2, and The Wandering Village. He has regularly led campaigns with budgets exceeding £250,000 and has overseen the full marketing lifecycle for numerous successful launches.
Before transitioning to game marketing, Lewis worked in Ministerial Correspondence for the UK government and freelanced as a journalist for outlets like Rock Paper Shotgun, Kotaku, and MMORPG.com. To date, he has contributed to over 100 game projects, delivering award-winning campaigns.
Title: Head of New Content
Company: Skillz
Robert Burnett is Head of New Content at Skillz, where he leads strategy and development to expand the company’s competitive gaming portfolio. A seasoned gaming and product executive with more than two decades of experience, he has held senior leadership roles across gaming and interactive entertainment, including Chief Operating Officer at Hashbang Games and VP of Product at Wynn Interactive Gaming. Over the course of his career, Robert has also founded and led multiple game studios, driving product innovation, live operations excellence, and scalable growth across competitive and real-money gaming platforms.
Title: Director for Games, Strategic Industries
Company: Google Cloud
Jack brings over 25 years of game industry experience to his current role as Global Director for Games, Strategic Industries, Google Cloud. He has built numerous game platforms at Google and PlayStation, bringing joy and excitement to millions of players all over the planet. Most recently, Jack built the Ecosystem for Living Games at Google Cloud, bringing together live service technology with generative AI to shape the future of games. Prior to that, he spent five years creating Stadia from the ground up, securing partnerships with the world's leading game publishers and developers. Before joining Google, Jack spent nearly a decade at PlayStation, building a variety of platforms including PlayStation Now, PlayStation Home, and PlayStation Plus. In his free time, he enjoys playing games on his extensive collection of game consoles and computers.
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer
Company: DreamPark
Brent Bushnell has been building attractions, viral stunts, learning experiences and large-scale productions for 25+ years. He's led multidisciplinary teams of engineers, artists, and storytellers to design and produce experiences for brands, venues, and events both in real life and virtually in VR/AR/XR. He’s cofounder of DreamPark deploying downloadable theme parks. He's cofounder of Two Bit Circus, a live entertainment incubator that builds and exhibits all-ages, social attractions. Brent is passionate about using games and play as a catalyst for learning. He is Chairman of Two Bit Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit that deploys play-based programs to inspire students about invention. Brent is a Sir Edmund Hillary Fellow, a Shark Tank alumnus, founding board member of LEXRA.org, a mentor in entrepreneurship, and a supporter of Clowns Without Borders. Many projects he’s participated in have garnered awards, including Cannes Lions, Clio, AUREA, a World Record, TripAdvisor’s Top 10% of Global Attractions and Fast Company's Most Innovative Game Company. He publishes on social media @brentbushnell.
Title: R&D Director
Company: Creative Assembly
Duygu Cakmak is the R&D Director at Creative Assembly, where she leads the studio's research and AI strategy. She actively contributes to the wider game AI community, such as co-organising Europe's largest AI and Games developer conference in London, advising the GDC AI Summit, and chairing the IGGI industry board. She also collaborates closely with academia and research organisations to advance innovation in AI and games.
Title: Associate Writer
Company: Escape Velocity Entertainment
Zoe Calamar is a game writer and narrative designer based in Southern California. She is currently working at Escape Velocity Entertainment and has worked on titles such as Borderlands 4 at Gearbox Software and Insomniac's upcoming game Marvel's Wolverine.
Title: Trust & Safety
Company: Netflix Games
Christina leads Trust & Safety at Netflix Games where she's dedicated to creating a fair and safe gaming platform. With her background in security engineering and penetration testing and her passion for immersive video game experiences, Christina works to bring more attention to the importance of building safer player interactions in online gaming.
Title: Founder/CEO
Company: Building Better Games
Benjamin Carcich began his career as a military officer before transitioning to game development at Riot Games, where he spent over eight years contributing to multiple game titles and teams as well as developing the production discipline.
Over the last 15 years Ben's worked on content pipelines, engineering teams, live service games, R&D products as well as tools and back end tech.
In 2020, Ben founded a consultancy dedicated to elevating leadership across the game industry. He partners with producers, studios, and publishers to foster healthier teams, stronger leadership, and better games.
A certified Co-Active Coach and ICAgile trainer, Ben has been teaching agility, production, and game development leadership since 2015. He also hosts the Building Better Games podcast and has shared insights at industry events including GDC and IGDC.
Title: Assistant Professor
Company: University of Utah
Rogelio Cardona-Rivera is an Assistant Professor in the Entertainment Arts and Engineering Program and in the School of Computing at the University of Utah, where he directs the Laboratory for Quantitative Experience Design. His research focuses on computationally modeling how game players think and act inside video games, as well as developing tools that use these models to help game designers design. Cardona-Rivera has interned as a computational narratologist at Sandia National Laboratories and Disney Research, and his research has been supported by the GEM Ph.D. Fellowship, the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects' Agency, Oculus VR, and Activision | Blizzard.
Title: Game Designer
Company: EA DICE
Jac Carlsson is a Gameplay Designer at DICE, where he leads the Firefight sub‑team within the Combat Experience team on Battlefield 6. Specializing in "Game Feel," Jac focuses on the responsiveness and physicality of aiming, firing, and the overall audiovisual feedback loop that defines immersive gunplay and FPS gameplay fundamentals. Before game development, Jac spent over 15 years as an international ballet and contemporary dancer, choreographer, and creative consultant in the music, arts and events industry. He was nominated for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative and has received multiple grants recognizing his contributions to the performing arts. Jac holds formal training in dance, choreography, and game design, and is fluent in both Swedish and English.
Title: CEO
Company: Vermila Studios
David Carrasco, CEO and Co-Founder of Vermila Studios and Executive Producer of "Crisol: Theater of Idols", a UE5 first-person survival horror adventure that was launched last February 10th with universal praise and excellent global user reviews. With a career spanning over 25 years, David has worked internationally in major game companies like Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Atari.
Title: Software Engineering Manager
Company: Meta
Joseph Carroll is an Engineering Manager at Meta, leading a team that builds AI tools which accelerate Horizon OS development workflows. Previously at Amazon and in fintech, he focuses on creating developer tools that streamline complex technical processes and improve productivity for engineering teams.
Title: Senior Sound Designer II
Company: Blizzard Entertainment
Todd Castillo is a senior sound designer and composer with over a decade of experience in the game industry. He began his career in 2015 working at Hex Entertainment and Six Foot as an in-house composer and sound designer. He went on to contribute to multiple titles at MobilityWare before founding his own audio company in 2020, working with studios like Mythical Games on Blankos Block Party.
In 2023, he joined Blizzard Entertainment full-time as a senior sound designer on Diablo Immortal, where he leads the sound design and voice over pipeline. His work on Diablo Immortal helped earn a 2024 G.A.N.G. Award for Best Audio in a Casual or Social Game.
Title: Graphic Engineer
Company: Perfect World Games
Yizhe Chai is a graphic engineer at Perfect World Game, specializing in UE5 mobile development and performance optimization. He has extensive experience optimizing high-fidelity mobile games on Snapdragon platforms, with a strong focus on mobile rendering and performance optimization. His work on NTE includes custom UE5 mobile rendering pipelines and collaborates with the teams to integrate technologies such as Adreno Tile Memory Heap, super-resolution, and frame interpolation to ensure stable and
Title: Chief of Staff
Company: Thriving in Games Group
Josh Chapdelaine is the Chief of Staff at Thriving in Games Group, a digital media producer and strategist, podcaster, educator, and writer, whose work is focused on digital culture, media, games, technology, and podcasting.
Title: Voice Actor and Co-Founder
Company: Sassy Chap Games
Chief Creative Officer of Sassy Chap Games, Ray Chase is a voice actor turned game developer responsible for the 2025 indie hit Date Everything! as Lead Designer, Lead Writer, Narrative Designer, Producer, and programmer. His hundreds of voice over roles span heroes like Noctis in Final Fantasy XV, Tengen Uzui in Demon Slayer, Neuvillette in Genshin Impact, and Cyclops in Marvel's award winning X-men '97, to iconic villains like Sukuna in Jujutsu Kaisen, Silent Salt Cookie in Cookie Run: Kingdom, and Gendo Ikari in the classic Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Title: CEO & Founder
Company: AviaGames
Vickie Chen is the CEO and Founder of AviaGames, a mobile game company headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. She leads Avia's strategy across product, growth, and platform development for skill-based competitive games including Solitaire Clash, Bingo Tour, and 8 Ball Strike, scaling a player-first ecosystem that combines engaging gameplay, fair competition, and performance-driven growth. Under her leadership, Avia has grown to millions of players worldwide and earned industry recognition for innovation, diversity, and leadership.
Title: Audio Director
Company: Tencent Games
Merle Chen, Lead of Group 3 at TiMi Audio Lab, specializes in shooter game audio with 15+ years of experience. Has shipped titles including Jade Dynasty: War, Against Fire, CrossFire Mobile, Contra: Return, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Delta Force. Established cross-studio technical standards for FPS audio and currently leads R&D on multi-platform AAA audio pipelines.
Title: Head of Technology
Company: Tencent Games
Joined Tencent Games in 2008 and played a key role in establishing a comprehensive business security framework spanning the entire game lifecycle, delivering a reliable and secure digital gaming experience for players worldwide. Led the development of a unified data foundation for Tencent Games, providing robust core support for data-driven operations and strategic decision-making. Currently spearheading the systematic integration of cutting-edge gaming technologies to build an AI-powered efficiency toolchain. This initiative is advancing intelligent production of digital assets, deep in-engine integration with real-time generation, and AI-driven intelligent NPCs, thereby driving an intelligent transformation in game R&D methodologies.
Title: Head of Product, Compute & Storage
Company: Alibaba Cloud
Alex Chen is Head of Product for Storage and Compute at Alibaba Cloud, overseeing a portfolio of 70+ products—including Elastic Compute, Container Services, AI Infrastructure, and Block/Object/File Storage. His team drives product strategy, go-to-market, and solution architecture globally.
Before joining Alibaba Cloud, Alex spent 19 years at IBM in leadership roles across storage and M&A, including leading the acquisition of Texas Memory Systems (2012) and the divestiture of System x to Lenovo (2014).
Title: Principal Cloud Solution Architect
Company: Microsoft
Uthappa is the lead architect on the Microsoft Azure Gaming team that supports some of our most prominent gaming customers and partners. He specializes in enabling Azure cloud solutions for business-critical gaming workloads, whether they involve developing games on the cloud, using AI for game development, or hosting dedicated servers to reach millions of players worldwide.
Title: Professor in Game Design
Company: NAD-UQAC
Laureline Chiapello is a professor of game design at NAD, the School of Digital Arts, Animation, and Design affiliated with the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC). She leads the Digital Creativity research axis within the Chair in Creative Economy and Well-Being, supported by a $1 million grant from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC). Her experimental games have been exhibited at major international events such as MUTEK (a festival dedicated to digital creativity and electronic music), ISEA (the International Symposium on Electronic Art), and the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal. Since 2010, she has been teaching video game creation and conducting research on Quebec's game industry. She has collaborated with designers from various local studios as well as with game design students, striving to highlight and value the diverse forms of knowledge that shape professional game development.
Title: Gameplay Engineering Leader
Company: Independent
Brie Chin-Deyerle (she/her) is a senior lead gameplay programmer with ten years of experience working in the gaming industry. She has worked on Project Spark, prototypes for HoloLens, Halo 5: Guardians and now is the leading engineering efforts for Bots & Academy in Halo Infinite's multiplayer, which is her first title primarily working with AI. In her spare time, you'll usually find her gaming, cooking, or subjecting people to terrible puns.
Title: Founder, Creative Director UI/UX
Company: XAMA
With 12+ years of experience in games, Steph Chow is a UX Specialist and Creative Director dedicated to creating exceptional digital products and games for a global audience in the free-to-play (F2P) market. As the founder of XAMA, a creative UI/UX consultancy, she helps teams build and refine high-quality experiences for AAA game studios, Fortune 500 companies, and startups. At Disney Games, she combined creative direction with UI/UX for mobile titles featuring brands such as Pixar, Disney, and Marvel. She later broadened her experience as a Marketing Art Director at Supercell, where she developed localized creative strategies to strengthen Clash of Clans and Clash Royale's presence in the Japan market, focusing on retention and acquisition. She also provided UI/UX insight and creative consultation to Supercell teams regarding new games' global appeal and approachability in the Japan market. Steph previously spoke at GDC's UX Summit in 2018 about immersing creative worlds into usable UI, and returned in 2019 to discuss conveying player growth through UX strategy and in-game visuals. She now volunteers as a UX Summit Chair to help curate the GDC UX Summit.
Title: Fellow Software Development Engineering
Company: AMD
Hisham is a lead architect for AI and machine learning software within the AMD Radeon GPU organization. He leads the architecture and development of key ML enablement layers—including ONNX, WindowsML, DirectML, and related components—optimized for AMD Radeon GPUs. He also drives the end to end ML strategy for AMD’s client GPU portfolio, working closely with architects, internal stakeholders, and customers to deliver a cohesive and forward looking ML software roadmap.
Title: Author
Company: Arcanix
Oscar is a pioneer in online, mobile and console social games services since 1998 working on PC, Console and Mobile experiences. Renowned for his deep understanding of game design, operations and market strategies and in particular live-operated games. Very well connected veteran in the industry who literally wrote the book on Games as a Service and more recently Playing With Balance: Game Economy Design. He is a trainer and advisor and mentor as well as a Chief Strategy Officer for LiveOps Strategy Platform, Arcanix. Oscar
Title: Narrative Designer and Union Organizing Committee Member
Company: Blizzard Entertainment and CWA Local 9510
Title: Game Writer/Editor/Partner
Company: Talespinners
Michelle Clough is a game writer, editor, narrative designer, and professional fangirl with over ten years of experience in the game industry, from AAA games to small indie projects. Her game writing and editing credits include Destiny 2, Destruction All-Stars, Purrfect Date, EverReach, and Scheherazade at the Library of Pergamum. Her particular interest and expertise is in depicting and designing compelling romances, sexual relationships, and attractive characters, and she regularly gives highly-acclaimed lectures and panels about romance, sex, and diverse sex appeal, as well as writing Passion and Play: A Guide to Designing Sexual Content in Games. She is co-founder and chair of the IGDA Romance and Sexuality Special Interest Group, as well as its independent spin-off community FERIM (Forum for Erotic and Romantic Interactive Media).
Title: Artist
Company: Cabbibo
Isaac Cohen ( Cabbibo ) is a Game Developer / Artist who is doing their best to make math dance! They have made games ranging from audio visual music blogs to interactive story books to VR pillow forts, viz for concerts and more! They have collaborated with artists like SOPHIE, Olafur Elliason, Jonsi and Oneohtrix Point Never. They have participated in AiR programs at Dynamicland, Google, Adobe, and Unity. Their work focuses on physical embodiment, induced synthesia, and failing to describe the sublime.
Title: Agent, Games
Company: Creative Artists Agency (CAA)
Matthew Cohen is an Agent in the Games department at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Based in the Los Angeles office, Cohen works with leaders in interactive entertainment and has brokered deals on behalf of such clients as Obsidian, Brass Lion, AdHoc Studio, Summerfall Studios, Critical Role, and Gamefam, among others. Prior to joining CAA in 2017, Cohen served as CEO of Core Mobile, a mobile game discovery and content platform. He was previously Vice President of Content Strategy at Machinima. Additionally, he held positions at Digital Development Management (DDM), Temple Hill Entertainment, and was COO of a Los Angeles-based startup game developer. Cohen graduated as an undergraduate College Scholar at Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and received his Master’s from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.
Title: Lecturer - Digital Futures
Company: University of Bristol
Dr. Richard Cole is Lecturer in Digital Futures at the University of Bristol, where he also co-programme directs the MA Games Design (Narrative). His research investigates how video games, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence open up new avenues for humanistic inquiry. He has published widely on games, from inquiries into gameplay structures and immersion, to worldbuilding, paratexts, and gender representation. He has coined key terms for game analysis and has led ground-breaking player studies into AI-native games. As co-Director of the Bristol Digital Game Lab, a pioneering hub connecting academia with the games industry, he aims to unlock the power of play for cultural, educational, and civic transformation.
Title: Producer & Professor
Company: Rochester Institute of Technology
Krystal Cooper is a technical production leader with 15+ years of experience architecting scalable systems across AAA games, XR, VFX, Animation and AI platforms.She entered game production in 2016 through the development of social impact games, applying systems engineering principles to interactive storytelling and community-driven design. Since then, she has led multidisciplinary teams across engine development, real-time rendering, audio systems, and immersive XR production. Her work spans Rhythm & Hues, Apple, Industrial Light & Magic, Disney, Unity Technologies and Adobe. As Founder of Diversity in Gaming and CEO of Optical Creatures Game Studio, she focuses on building sustainable, technically rigorous studios and inclusive production cultures. In parallel, she serves as an adjunct professor at Rochester Institute of Technology mentoring the next generation of technical creators at the intersection of systems architecture and interactive media.
Title: Cofounder and Creative Director
Company: Millions of Monsters
Peet Cooper is the Co-Founder and Creative Director at Millions of Monsters. Peet is a versatile game dev veteran with over 20 years of experience as an art generalist and game designer. He has worked with many leading companies in the industry, including Blizzard, Riot, EA, Nintendo, Activision, and Airship, on big game franchises such as League of Legends, Diablo, World of Warcraft, Star Wars, Call of Duty, and more. As an Art Director at Riot, Peet helped to define the visual quality and style of League. He has contributed to over 50 games, wearing many hats. Concept art, Animation, 3D Character art, 2D and 3D Environment art, Illustration, Art Direction, Game design, Level design, and Consultant. Peet is currently a Co-Founder at Millions of Monsters.
Title: Expert Writer
Company: Gearbox
Alexa Ray Corriea is a writer and narrative designer with a decade of experience writing across various media. She has experience across many video game genres -- including role-playing, first-person shooter, third-person action-adventure, multiplayer and live services -- and with major IP, including Marvel and Call of Duty. Her credits in games include AZTECH: FORGOTTEN GODS (2022), single-player and multiplayer stories for CALL OF DUTY: VANGUARD and the CALL OF DUTY: WARZONE PACIFIC (2021) live service game, indie darling BUGSNAX (2020), and critically-acclaimed The Lord of the Rings based MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF WAR (2017). She has also published a book about Kingdom Hearts under the Boss Fight Books publishing label. Alexa is a seasoned speaker, giving talks at many conferences including the Game Developers Conference, DICE, PAX, and more, and was the host for the 2025 Game Developers Choice Awards. She mentoring within the games industry through the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and The Game Awards Future Class program, and is also a host of the AIAS Game Maker's Notebook Podcast and a member of IGDA and BAFTA.
Title: Founder, Gata Games
Company: Gata Games
Irene Cortes founded Gata Games after an abbess in Mongolia rejected her ordination—a stunning reversal after decades training in bodhicitta, a formal invitation to join the nunnery, and traveling halfway across the world to begin her life as a nun. To process the grief of losing the life she believed she'd have, she began creating operas exploring her contemplative training. After building an audience across six staged performances, she received an investment to adapt her opera, The Gata, into a video game. Eight years of R&D—voice tech, ML, various gameplay styles, thousands of hours of playtesting—produced FLOWR: a game that clinically reduces mind-wandering and depression. Validated through health outcomes research, she's realized why she was rejected: to bring these teachings into the modern world, delivering measurable relief of suffering through games.
Title: Environment Artist
Company: Sandfall Interactive
Mathieu Costat is an Environment Artist at Sandfall Interactive, where he has spent the past three years working on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. He focuses on creating evocative and detailed environments that shape the game's unique atmosphere and visual identity.
Title: Head of Partnerships
Company: Behaviour Interactive Inc.
Mathieu Côté was destined to work in games.
An avid gamer, Mathieu originally thought gaming was an obstacle to his studies and future career as a teacher until the day he realized that his true passion could actually turn into a real career path: "I had an epiphany!" the Head of Partnerships for Behaviour Interactive recalls.
A video game graduate of Montreal's NAD Centre, he started in the industry in 2005 as an animator. It only took minutes before he took on a producer role, rallying teams around common goals. He joined Behaviour Interactive in 2011, where he first shipped games for other studios, actively participating in work for hire.
His life changed when he was tasked with bringing Dead by Daylight to life with a small team. There were jump scares, a lot of work, many interviews, and well, history is still being written today as the horror game boasts more than 50 million fans globally.
On a day-to-day basis, Mathieu's role is to spearhead the partnerships with top entertainment IP owners to integrate their universe into the Dead by Daylight realm. Among other resounding successes, Mathieu has led the adaptation of internationally acclaimed characters and franchises such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, Ghost Face, Hellraiser, Michael Myers, Resident Evil, SAW and Silent Hill.
Title: CEO & Founder
Company: Blue Scarab Entertainment
Colin Cragg is a 20-year veteran and pioneer in the creation and growth of online game communities. His past projects Star Stable Online, Anarchy Online, and Age of Conan have entertained millions of users around the globe. He is currently releasing his next online community adventure Equinox: Homecoming with Blue Scarab Entertainment in Sweden.
Title: Head of Studio
Company: Blindlight
Bo Crutcher has worked in entertainment for over 20 years. He played Skippy on The Suite Life of Zach and Cody and wrote for the Comedy Central show Trip Tank. In addition to his tv and film work, he contributed his production talents to music videos for Andy Grammer, John Mayer and One Direction. Bo came to Blindlight in 2017 to explore the connection between Hollywood and video games. He has cast and produced VO on dozens of games including Guild Wars 2, Destiny 2, Deathloop, Starfield, Fallout 76, Man Eater, and many, many more.
Title: Sr. Director of Global Partnerships OOH
Company: AEG World Wide
Brenda Cruz is Senior Director of Global Partnerships, Out-of-Home at AEG, where she leads OOH advertising strategy and revenue across L.A. LIVE and AEG’s portfolio of world-class entertainment and sports properties. With more than 14 years of experience in the OOH industry, Brenda specializes in developing high-impact, lifestyle-driven brand integrations that connect advertisers with fans through premium live experiences.At AEG, she drives innovation across dynamic media platforms including digital LED networks, marquee signage, and immersive campus activations, helping position L.A. LIVE as a premier destination for brands. Her work supports major global moments such as the Super Bowl, FIFA World Cup, and the LA28 Olympic, delivering strategic partnerships that elevate brand visibility and audience engagement.
Title: CEO / Creative Director
Company: Brightskull
Michael Csurics is a director specializing in video game voiceover and performance capture. He is the founder of the Brightskull Entertainment Group, a production company providing casting, VO/Face/P-Cap Production, and creative localization solutions. His notable works include: Marvel Rivals, Infinity Nikki (无限暖暖), Bugsnax, Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, Tacoma, and Bioshock 2. Throughout the video game industry Michael is a well-known crusader for pushing the bar in dialogue and voice performance. He is a leading expert in the art of capturing ensemble performances as well as in adapting Chinese source material for English speaking audiences.
Title: Video Game Designer and Computer Programmer
Company: Sausalito Games Inc.
Don Daglow is a three-time Inc. 500™ CEO, a pioneering game designer and 2008 Technical Emmy® Award recipient whose career spans the history of Silicon Valley. Teams have shipped over $1 billion in game products under his leadership. In addition to working with publishers and game developers, Don serves as Sr. Director for Industry Relations at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY (home of the largest collection of video games and related documents and artifacts in the world), as an Advisor at the Founders Space accelerator in San Francisco (rated in the Top Ten by Inc. Magazine), and as the volunteer President of The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Foundation, the charitable wing of the Academy. Daglow has delivered keynotes and speeches at The Smithsonian Art Museum in Washington D.C., BAFTA in London, the Biennale in Frankfurt, Medientage in Munich and many international games conferences. He is the only executive in the history of the games industry who has held leadership and/or creative positions on every generation of video game consoles, from 1980 to the present day. In 2003, he received the CGE Award for "groundbreaking achievements that shaped the Video Game Industry." Along with John Carmack of id Software and Mike Morhaime of Blizzard Entertainment, Daglow is one of only three game developers whose work has been honored at both the Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards and at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences DICE Awards. As an engineer working on mainframe computers, Daglow also created key early milestones in the development of chatbots (ECALA, 1972) and the machine translation of natural language (Spanish Translator, 1977).
Title: Narrative Lead
Company: Ubisoft Mainz
David Daubitz is a Narrative Lead, Headwriter and creative with over 15 years of experience across games, TV, audio, and interactive formats. He has worked with studios like Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, RTL Disney and Audible, and specializes in building story systems that scale across media without losing emotional depth or coherence.
Title: Chief Innovation Officer
Company: Nebraska Public Media
Chad Davis is an award-winning content and technology innovator with expertise in content and digital strategy, content creation, strategic planning, and emerging technologies. Chad has served as senior staff at both institutional and start-up organizations, and his specialty is inhabiting and defining newly created roles within an organization. As the Chief Innovation Officer and Head of Labs at Nebraska Public Media, Chad advocates for a solutions-oriented, futurist perspective on strategic issues, a 'new and next' approach to ideating and creating content, and the development of grounded applications for groundbreaking technologies. Through Labs, Chad leads a team in the creation of products and experiences that evolve the definition of "public media" through AI tools, spatial media, and video game production.
Title: Vice President, Editorial and Commerce
Company: IGN Entertainment
Justin Davis is VP of Editorial and Commerce at IGN, overseeing the editorial and affiliate commerce content teams, as well as IGN Store. In this role Justin leads IGN’s overall editorial strategy, and manages the intersection of content, product, and monetization. He joined IGN as an Editor in 2011.
Justin is a media veteran with more than 20 years of experience in games and entertainment publishing. Before IGN, Justin co-founded and successfully sold IndustryGamers, a leading games industry trade publication. Earlier in his career, Justin wrote for GameDaily Biz, GamePro Magazine, and EGM, among others.
Title: Founder and Director
Company: Coquito Games
As a game developer who specializes in narrative design, implementation, and programming. Jarory inspires his colleagues and next generation developers through collaborative projects and teaching game development. As a developer, he has worked on properties such as Madden, Marvel, and Star Wars as both a Narrative and Technical Designer. He dedicates his spare time to a Hip-Hop RPG, which he describes as a passion project. He has participated in multiple game jams including global game jam and train jam. As a developer of color, he seeks to amplify minority voices through inclusive design, unique perspectives in narrative, community service, and activism. Jarory is also a community organizer for Black in Gaming (BiG) and a member of the Latinx in Gaming community, as well as President of the Board for Global Game Jam. His current studio, Coquito Games, is the culmination of his years of experience and passion for telling stories from under-represented voices.
Title: UI/UX Director
Company: Respawn Entertainment
Jordan DeVries built their first interface, a website, over 20 years ago. Since then, they've crafted concert sites for pop stars, led UX projects for some of the biggest names in Tech, and now leads UI/UX on the Jedi team at Respawn Entertainment, most recently for the release of STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor. Jordan is steadfast in the belief that video games are for everyone, and that accessibility requires every discipline and department to do well.
Title: Principal Analyst
Company: Omdia
Liam leads Omdia's games tech coverage with his research focusing on the technology and services that power the video games market and exploring the value chain connecting games development to tech vendors to consumers.
Title: Game Designer
Company: GRL Games
Graeme is a 40+ years industry veteran who has worked on everything from TRS-80 to Xbox 360. In the early nineties he pioneered CD-ROM gaming with the breakthrough title 'The 7th Guest'. He later went on to become the lead designer on 'Quake III Arena' and 'Halo Wars'. Graeme started GRL Games in December 2010 to focus on bringing entertaining titles to the iPhone, iPad and Mac Desktop. Recently he was working as the Chief Game Wizard of Magic Leap but can now be found at his new company QXR Studios working on new narrative worlds.
Title: Composer
Company: First Name Maclaine, LLC
Maclaine Diemer is a Los Angeles based composer for interactive and traditional media. After graduating from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he entered the rock and roll rat race, climbing speaker towers and playing to sold out crowds across the U.S. and Canada with several bands before entering the game industry. Now, with 15 years of experience in games, he has worked on some of the highest profile titles across multiple game console generations as well as PC. An insatiably curious musician and multi-instrumentalist, he works in a wide variety of styles. Whether performing stripped down arrangements of his Guild Wars 2 score at the first Twitchcon or conducting a full orchestra in Boca del Rio, Mexico, Maclaine lives to carry the torch for game music all over the world.
Title: Co-chair (AAPIIG)/Director of Community (GGP)
Company: AAPI in Gaming + Gay Gaming Professionals
Mika is Director of Community at Gay Gaming Professionals and co-chair of AAPI in Gaming. They are actively involved in building communities through DEI&B efforts across the industry and helping developers feel welcome in spaces. They previously worked on Throne & Liberty, Bit Heroes and held global events for games such as Insurgency Sandstorm. They graduated from California State University, Northridge (CSUN) with a BA in Anthropology.
Title: Counsel
Company: Perkins Coie LLP
A seasoned intellectual property (IP) litigator, Perkins Coie Counsel, Jake Dinifocuses on trademark, copyright, and trade secret law in federal courts. Jake Dini often represents clients in the gaming, technology, and retail industries in their IP matters. He implements programmatic IP enforcement initiatives to identify and address policy violations and other enforcement priorities. Jake also has extensive experience implementing and managing trademark and copyright enforcement programs, including Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown requests and domain name claims before the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) arbitration panel. As a trusted adviser, Jake helps businesses protect their IP and maintain the integrity of their platforms. He designs and leads comprehensive enforcement programs that strategically safeguard clients' IP rights and prevent exploitation by bad actors. Additionally, Jake’s experience extends to general commercial litigation matters, including breach of contract disputes.
Title: Senior Systems Designer
Company: Obsidian Entertainment
Rob Donovan is a game developer with 20+ years in the industry, 14+ years as a game designer, and 3+ years as a combat designer at Obsidian Entertainment.
Title: Senior Community Manager
Company: Behaviour Interactive Inc.
Video Community Manager & Livestream Host for Behaviour Interactive for Dead by Daylight - based out of Montreal, QC. Dork has more than 6 years of applicable social media and digital marketing experience. Passionate about building up player communities with fresh ideas and organizational skills to create innovative social media campaigns that increase player acquisition, retention, engagement, and community sentiment. She is excited to grow within a team of creative individuals. Let's create together.
Title: Senior II QA Tester, Mobilizing Committee Member, & Union Steward
Company: Bethesda Softworks and CWA Local 2108
Juniper is a Senior II QA Tester at Bethesda Softworks (ZeniMax Media, Inc.). She is a member of the QA union at ZeniMax and supported her union in winning the first collective bargaining agreement in a Microsoft subsidiary.
Title: Executive Director
Company: Take This, Inc.
Kelli Dunlap, PsyD, MA is the executive director at Take This, the original mental health and games non-profit. She brings on over a decade of experience working at the intersection of mental health and games, including esports, community management, and game design, and uses this experience to inform and drive Take This' mission. In addition to her work at Take This, Dr. Dunlap is a licensed clinical psychologist, holds a Masters in Game Design, and serves as a researcher-in-residence at American University's Game Center. She is an award-winning game designer and has collaborated on game design projects with organizations including the National Institute of Mental Health, UNESCO, VOX Media, and U.S. Congressional staffers. Dr. Dunlap is an internationally recognized researcher and speaker on the intersection of games and mental health, especially pertaining to mental health representation in games and ethical game design.
Title: Associate Director of Gaming
Company: GLAAD
Blair Durkee is the Associate Director of Gaming at GLAAD, the world's largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization. She has a M.S. in Computer Science from Clemson University, where she also began her career in advocacy. Since joining GLAAD in 2018, she has led the expansion of GLAAD's programmatic work in the video game industry and has consulted on a wide range of LGBTQ-inclusive titles like Tell Me Why from Xbox Game Studios and Apex Legends from Electronic Arts. Blair is based in South Carolina, as a lifelong tech-enthusiast and gamer, she is passionate about harnessing the power of video games to create a better world for LGBTQ people.
Title: Sr. Manager of Franchise Strategy for Madden NFL
Company: Electronic Arts (EA)
Andrew Echanique is a passionate leader and gaming enthusiast with a proven track record across sports, live events, and entertainment. He currently serves as Sr. Manager, Franchise Strategy for Madden NFL 26 at Electronic Arts, helping strengthen Madden's position as a leader in interactive football experiences.
Previously, Andrew led American Football Esports at EA, helping build and shape the Madden Championship Series in partnership with the NFL. A proud University of Florida alum (Go Gators!), Andrew resides in Orlando with his wife (Jasmine), daughter (Penelope), two guinea pigs (Anna and Elsa), and puppy (Berlin).
Title: EVP, Head of Creative Advertising
Company: Fox Entertainment
Entertainment marketing executive with experience across four theatrical agencies, one movie studio, one television network, and countless campaigns. From genre titles to indie movies, from big budget theatrical to network juggernauts, has overseen all aspects of marketing entertainment content.
Title: Content Marketing Manager
Company: GDC Festival of Gaming
A homeschooled middle child who played 'Titanic: Adventure Out of Time' when she wasn't touring California bars as part of her all-sister rock band: Beth Elderkin is an engaging and skilled multimedia professional who’s proud to be weird, nerdy, and unique. Beth is currently the content marketing manager for the GDC Festival of Gaming. She serves as Project Lead for GDC's annual State of the Game Industry report, GDC Trends Report, and the GDC Side Quest Podcast. Her knowledge and passion for the video games industry gives her a unique perspective in engaging with developers and players alike. She spent a decade of her youth as lead singer and guitarist of the all-sister rock band Third Eclipse. She's classically trained as a mezzo-soprano and currently performs at the Carolina Renaissance Festival. She loves playing video games and GMing tabletop roleplaying games, and looks forward to the day when her 5-year-old son wants to try Dungeons & Dragons.
Title: CEO & Founder
Company: Playstack
Harvey Elliott is the founder and CEO at Playstack, a leading light in indie game publishing. Playstack supports developers to create innovative and captivating games that are enjoyed by players worldwide. Playstack prides itself on putting developers at the heart of everything it does and works tirelessly to maximise the work of its developers and help them realize their full potential. An early interest in development and a hunger to gain more knowledge about gaming led to Harvey being offered a role with Acclaim Entertainment in 1996. At Acclaim, Harvey worked his way from European Product Development Coordinator to general manager of three game studios. In 2003, Harvey joined EA, where he led development teams across a variety of well-known brands including Burnout 3, the Harry Potter games series, numerous Hasbro titles and SimCity. In 2011 Harvey left EA and took the leadership role at Marmalade Technologies; an innovative technology platform and integrated game development studio, continuing his work with Hasbro and partnerships with Google, LG, Samsung, Activision Blizzard, Intel and many more. From 2012 to 2016 Harvey became chair of the Games Committee at BAFTA joining its Board of Trustees; and helping to celebrate the work of the games industry within the creative industries as a whole. Harvey brought all of his experience together to form Playstack in 2016, with the aim of publishing exceptional and inventive games.
Title: Developer Advocate
Company: JetBrains
Matt Ellis is a developer advocate at JetBrains. He has spent over 20 years shipping software in various industries and currently works with IDEs and development tools, having fun with abstract syntax trees and source code analysis. He also works on the Unity support in Rider.
Title: Staff Engineer
Company: Modulate
Guy Elsmore-Paddock is a Staff Engineer and software architect with over two decades of experience building scalable, performance-critical systems for real-time and live-service environments. His work focuses on the intersection of distributed systems, machine learning, and player experience, with an emphasis on low latency, reliability, and systems that hold up under real-world load.
At Modulate, Guy leads development of the APIs behind the Modulate Platform and ToxMod, partnering directly with studios that include Rockstar Games and Activision to support online player safety at scale. He specializes in architecting backend services and developer-facing platforms that integrate cleanly into modern game stacks without getting in the way of shipping.
Prior to joining Modulate, Guy held multiple CTO and Principal Architect roles across the entertainment and retail sectors, building cloud-native asset management systems for large-scale interactive fan engagement experiences used by millions. His work has supported global artists including Bon Jovi, Metallica, and Def Leppard.
Guy holds a B.S. in Software Engineering from RIT and brings a systems-level perspective to every project, blending creative domain fluency with rigorous technical execution.
Title: VP Legal
Company: Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Digital Games
Joel Emans is VP and head of Legal at Wizards of the Coast - the iconic gaming company and digital games division of Hasbro. At Wizards, Joel oversees legal for Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, a growing stable of first and second-party video game studios, and digital out-licensing for all Hasbro brands. Previously, Joel led the US-based commercial legal team at the Pokémon Company International, Inc. and was an associate at Hughes Media Law Group where he provided outside general counsel services to a number of well-known game studios in the (then) emerging world of mobile gaming. Joel teaches video game law at the UW School of Law, is the current chair of the WSBA Corporate Counsel Section and serves as a Trustee of the Make-A-Wish Washington and Alaska chapter. Joel received both his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Washington.
Title: Lead Character Artist
Company: Compulsion Games
Chad Emond is the Lead Character Artist at Compulsion Games. On South of Midnight, he worked as the Principal Character Artist for the project, helping shape the game's characters and creatures while advancing the studio's character pipeline.
Chad brings over 15 years of industry experience, including 5 years at Ubisoft Toronto in both Lead and Senior roles, where he contributed to iconic franchises including Splinter Cell, Far Cry, and The Division. His diverse career spans both studio and freelance work, contributing to 13 titles, including Dragon Age 2, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Torchlight 3.
Beyond production, Chad serves as a Character Supervisor and Mentor at Think Tank Training Centre, mentoring aspiring character artists in sculpting, modeling, texturing, and preparing them for successful careers in videogame industry.
Title: Chief Revenue Officer
Company: Amber Studio
Andreea Enache is the Chief Revenue Officer at Amber Studio and a veteran Gaming and Digital Media Executive with extensive experience in driving strategic growth for some of the industry's most recognized brands, including Marvel, Sony Pictures Digital, Sony Online Entertainment, Namco, and Konami. As the former Senior Vice President of Marvel Entertainment's gaming and digital distribution business, she played a key role in launching major titles such as Avengers Alliance, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, and War of Heroes. She has also held leadership roles as Chief Business Officer at Secret Dimension and Head of Global Business Development & Strategy at Blind Squirrel Games, where she was instrumental in the studio's rapid expansion. A respected thought leader, Andreea has extensive expertise in licensing, business development, production, marketing, and digital distribution and has led high-profile negotiations with partners such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, iTunes, PlayStation, Xbox, and Hulu. In addition to her work at Amber, she is the founder of Digital Monk, LLC. and serves on various industry advisory boards. Before transitioning into gaming, Andreea spent over a decade in print, radio, and TV journalism in Bucharest, Romania. She holds a Financial Management certification from Cornell University, a Diploma of Excellence from the Romanian Academy of Radio & TV, and degrees in Linguistics & Foreign Languages from the University of Bucharest and Communication Studies from California State University, Northridge (Magna Cum Laude).
Title: Assistant Professor
Company: Elmhurst University
Jason Eppink is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media at Elmhurst University. He is an artist, curator, and educator, who creates playful, collaborative interventions in online and offline spaces that offer glimpses of a world of expansive possibilities. His core strategy is the use of surprise–a physiological experience that requires an urgent re-evaluation of one's beliefs–to create contexts for participating audiences to imagine radical alternatives and co-create meaningful experiences together. Eppink's transdisciplinary practice manifests across many forms including urban interventions, augmented reality physics puzzlers, escape rooms, text-based interactive fiction, installation games, websites and browser plugins, activist Twitter bots, algorithmic video, and immersive theater. His work has found international acclaim and been presented by such esteemed institutions as New York City's New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Venice Architecture Biennale, and the Come Out and Play Festival. It's also all available online for free at jasoneppink.com. Previously, as the Curator of Digital Media at Museum of the Moving Image, Eppink founded two arts commissioning programs and organized events and exhibitions about animated GIFs, video games, and internet cats that garnered major press from Artforum, The New York Times, the BBC, The Guardian, NPR, Wired, and The Wall Street Journal.
Title: Director, Research & Insights
Company: 2K
Paula Angela Escuadra (She/Her) is the founder and co-chair of the International Game Developers Association Climate Special Interest Group (IGDA Climate SIG) and a member of the UN Playing for the Planet Alliance’s Research working group. She currently serves as the Director, Research & Insights at 2k. Previously, Senior Societal Topography UX Research Lead at Google, and she led games research for Stadia Games & Entertainment’s Publishing division. Paula holds a dual MBA and MPA degree from Presidio Graduate School of Sustainable Management, and uses her experience in games to enable positive outcomes in education, 21st century skills development, workforce development, climate action, resiliency building, and social justice.
Title: Founder, Creative Director
Company: Estaris Works
Jennifer Estaris is an award-winning game director, designer, and sustainability advocate whose work bridges play and purpose. She currently consults on games and sustainability with companies including Netflix and is developing a civic-engagement game inspired by Citizens' Assemblies. Jennifer directed Monument Valley 3, a nature-infused reimagining of the beloved series told through a story of flood recovery, which launched in December 2024. Featured in The Guardian, The Verge, and Polygon for her hope-punk approach, the game went on to win UKIE's Best Mobile Game and TIGA's Best Casual Game, and is nominated for 3 BAFTAs. She also directed the forest-conservation chapter The Lost Forest for Monument Valley 2, as well as Subway Surfers, the 4.5B-download global hit where she championed green liveops. At UNEP's Playing for the Planet, an alliance of 50+ game companies collaborating on sustainability, Jennifer serves as Storytelling Committee Co-Chair. She is also a board member of the IGDA and Co-Chair of the IGDA Climate SIG. A Filipina creative leader with roots at SYBO, Disney, and Nickelodeon, Jennifer has helped shape some of the industry's most iconic and socially conscious games. Thanks to support from Games London's Game Changers cohort, Jennifer is building her own studio, Estaris Works, where she is developing a game about healing from personal and planetary grief. Through talks at conferences and festivals such as GDC, Gamescom, and Games for Change, and as a co-author of The Game Needs to Change, Jennifer brings playtivism into practice, most recently by curating eco-punk experimental role-playing theatre. She invites others to create experiences that matter and to believe, with playful conviction, that the world can sail toward a joyful future. Games can change the temperature of the world… literally and emotionally.
Title: Blippo+ Writer
Company: YACHT
Claire L. Evans is a writer and musician in Los Angeles. She is the writer of the experimental video game Blippo+, published for Nintendo Switch and Steam by Panic Games, for which she won the 2025 Herman Melville Award for Best Writing from the New York Game Awards.
In her other life, she is the singer of the Grammy-nominated pop group YACHT, co-founder of VICE’s imprint for speculative fiction, Terraform, and co-editor, with Brian Merchant, of the accompanying anthology Terraform: Watch Worlds Burn (MCD Books, 2022). Her 2018 history of women in computing, Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet, published by Penguin Random House, has been translated into six languages and was named one of the Top 10 Best Nonfiction Tech Books of All Time in 2023. Her award-winning journalism has appeared in MIT Technology Review, Quanta, WIRED, The Verge, and The Guardian, among many others.
She has given invited talks at the Hirshhorn Museum, Sónar Festival, Walker Art Center, TEDx, Google I/O, The New Museum, XOXO Festival, SXSW, Gray Area, Neural Information Processing Systems, the Association for Computational Linguistics, and the Decentralized Web Summit, among many others. She is a 2024 MacDowell Calderwood Fellow for Journalism.
Title: Principal Software Engineer
Company: Mojang; Microsoft
A.J. Fairfield has been working on graphics at Mojang Studios for over 8 years, focused on elevating the rendering capabilities of the game. Prior to Mojang he contributed to the development of D3D12 and PIX at Microsoft. Physical accuracy and real-time rendering have been his passion for years, and working at Mojang has provided him with the opportunity to deliver exciting visual experiences to gamers on practically every modern platform.
Title: Freelance Designer of Transformational Games
Company: The Inspiracy
Noah Falstein has been a professional game developer since 1980. He is known for his work as a game designer on his early notable games including Sinistar, The Secret of Monkey Island (1 & 2), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. He has consulted on many types of games ranging from casual and social games to games for health and AAA titles. More recently Noah served for four years as Chief Game Designer at Google, has worked on VR and AR games, and dozens of games for healthcare including the first to win FDA clearance to be prescribed by doctors. More info available on Wikipedia.
Title: Senior Foley Artist
Company: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Joanna Fang MPSE is an Emmy award winning Foley artist and sound editor. An alumna of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Joanna developed a passion for Foley while studying Film and TV production. Graduating with several made for TV horror films under her belt, Joanna started an apprenticeship with lead Foley artist Leslie Bloome at New York’s Alchemy Post Sound and worked there for 7 years. In 2021, she joined Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Creative Arts Studios Sound Team as their senior Foley artist co-leading the development of their interactive Foley studio with senior Foley mixer Blake Collins.
Throughout her career, Joanna has cultivated a body of work spanning triple A video games, independent cinema, documentary film, installation art, television, and radio. She focuses on supporting unique storytellers through novel and empathy driven applications of performed sound. She has crashed a bus for This American Life’s Ira Glass, sprinted in heels for Celine Song’s The Materialists, and climbed mountains for Kojima Production’s Death Stranding 2. Her Foley is playable on several PlayStation titles including Helldivers 2, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, God of War Ragnarök, and Ghost of Yōtei.
In 2016, the Television Academy recognized Joanna as the first openly transgender woman of color to win a Primetime Emmy for her Foley work on A&E’s Cartel Land.
Title: Principle Technical Artist
Company: MoreFun Studios, Tencent Games
Sheng Feng is a Principle Technical Artist at MoreFun Studios, Tencent Games and has been working in the game industrial for about 20 years.With around 12 years of experience in game engine development, he began to learn art and started his journey as a technical artist.He has worked at companies such as Giant Network, Changyou, and NetEase. After joining Tencent Games, he has mainly focused on the development of open-world games, with an emphasis on stylized rendering, the development of open-world art production pipeline, performance optimization and lighting solutions, etc. Currently, he is focusing his efforts on developing the project "Roco Kingdom: World."
Title: Art Director
Company: Infold Games (Papergames)
Xianzi is the lead Art Director of Love and Deepspace and heads Art Direction at Papergames (internationally known as Infold Games). Joining the company as a fresh graduate in 2014, she quickly became a key creative force, serving as lead artist during the pivotal early development (0-to-1) phases of Mr. Love: Queen's Choice and Shining Nikki. She played a critical role guiding the art team through the challenging transition from 2D to 3D projects. Additionally, Xianzi significantly contributed to the art direction of Love Nikki and Nikki UP2U.
Currently, she leads an art team of over 200 professionals responsible for the visual direction of Love and Deepspace. Alongside this, she oversees artist training and mentorship programs at Infold Games, committed to continuously elevating the skills and creative growth of the company's passionate art teams.
Title: Senior Editor
Company: PC Gamer
Wes Fenlon has been an editor at PC Gamer magazine since 2014, and got his start in the blogging days of the internet writing about tech for Tested and later The Wirecutter. As a senior editor he spends much of his time managing PC Gamer's coverage of the year's biggest games and cooking up special projects like PC Gamer's series of developer roundtable interviews, though he'd spend a lot more time playing Dark Souls if he could get away with it. He once had to stand on a stage in front of his whole company to explain why he's been pressing the WASD keys on his keyboard wrong his entire life. A particular passion for old and obscure Japanese games and preservation led him to create Read Only Memo, a free biweekly newsletter focused on emulation.
Title: Motion Capture Stage Lead
Company: Gearbox Software
Robert Fernandez is the Motion Capture Stage Lead at Gearbox Software, bringing over eight years of expertise in designing, implementing, and optimizing end-to-end motion capture pipelines. A seasoned leader in team management and technical strategy, Robert specializes in Vicon systems, facial capture, and high-fidelity post-processing.Beyond the stage, Robert spearheads departmental R&D to ensure Gearbox remains at the cutting edge of performance capture. His most recent achievement includes the successful integration of markerless motion capture into the studio’s existing infrastructure. By implementing this technology, he has enabled widespread adoption across production teams, specifically revolutionizing the animation prototyping workflow to allow for faster, more agile creative iteration.
Title: Narrative Designer/Game Writer/Editor
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. Over her career, she has published more than 80 works of fiction, nonfiction, comics/manga, and games. Toiya has over 20 years of experience writing in a range of genres, tones, styles, and voices. She gained editorial experience interning at Henry Holt's imprint, Owl Books. At Binghamton, she founded the literary journal Harpur Palate and served as its managing/fiction editor. In 2011, she co-founded the Game Writing Tutorial at GDC Online with Tobias Heussner and served as an instructor in 2011 and 2012. In videogames, 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. Her recent work includes writing visual novel Siren Song (Stardust Works), copyediting for Destiny 2 (Bungie), developmental editing on Insecure: The Come Up Game (Glow Up Games), writing/editing on Ritual of Raven, and editing Our Brilliant Ruin. As 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 co-authored with Jennifer Brandes Hepler, Ann Lemay, and Tobias Heussner, was published in 2015. 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 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.
Title: Responsible AI Advisor & Manager
Company: Accenture
Paul Fischer is a game-design and diplomacy practitioner whose work has bridged public policy, cultural heritage, and community-centered game development worldwide. Most recently, he organized and managed multimillion-dollar programs that used game jams and interactive experiences to build cognitive resilience to disinformation, protect cultural heritage, and strengthen civic solidarity — including support efforts around Ukraine. He has worked closely with governments, NGOs, and global game communities to transform games into tools for public diplomacy, civic engagement, and global collaboration.
Title: CEO/Creative Director
Company: Bit Reactor
Greg is a veteran of the game industry with more than 25 years of experience. He is currently the Co-Founder/Creative Director of Bit Reactor where he is working on the next generation of strategy games set in the Star Wars Universe. Previously he was the Art Director at Romero Games. Earlier in his career Greg was one of the original members of the Firaxis Games team and has directed and created visual content for more than twenty games, including the Sid Meier Civilization series, Pirates! and Railroads!. Greg is best known for his role as the Art Director of the critically acclaimed XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2. Additionally, Greg enjoys building teams and has been responsible for the education, training, and advancement of young game developers by creating internship programs, as well as teaching college level courses at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Title: Test Automation Consultant
Company: Automated AF
Andrew is a BAFTA-winning games programmer, lead and automation consultant with over two decades of experience in the industry. He's worked on both AAA and indie titles, on genres from racing to puzzle, shipping on PC, console, and mobile. Notable titles include Rollerdrome, Alphabear and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. Since writing his first shipping test in 2010, Andrew has implemented processes, created build servers, trained teams and written tests, both as a lead and as a consultant. Andrew has been the Chair of Automated Testing Roundtables at GDC, since founding them in 2015, and spoken around the world on test automation in video games.
Title: Co-Founder/Fmr CTO
Company: Ramen VR
Lauren Frazier is the co-founder of Ramen VR, a startup making advanced AI game development tools like Aura, an assistant for Unreal developers. Their previous project, Zenith, is a best-selling JRPG/anime inspired VR MMO. Prior to Ramen VR, she held engineering leadership roles at Unity and Google. In her spare time she enjoys playing D&D and chasing after her unruly French Bulldog. To date she has raised $46M ($1M seed, $10M A, $35M B)
Title: CEO
Company: 1st Level
Juan Manuel Freire is CEO & Co-Founder of Final Frontier Media Group, an international creative and production company operating across animation, gaming, and emerging digital ecosystems. He leads the group's strategic expansion into original IP development, interactive entertainment, and Web3-native storytelling
With a background in global animation production and brand partnerships, Juan Manuel focuses on building scalable, transmedia universes that combine narrative depth, community engagement, and sustainable monetization models. His work bridges traditional entertainment and next-generation digital platforms.
Title: Developer Evangelist
Company: Arm
I am a Content Creator and Developer Evangelist in Arm's performance tools team, where I help to show developers how to make more efficient mobile games using Arm's profiling and analysis tools. I started my career in the games industry as a composer and asset publisher, before moving into content creation after writing articles about my work on audio systems in Unity. Before joining Arm in 2025, I spent 5 years teaching game development basics on YouTube, where I specialized in making C# scripting easier for new developers. Passionate about challenging best practice with real research, I aim to bring my deep-dive approach to content creation to my work at Arm in an effort to make performance optimization easier, and more accessible, to developers of all skill levels.
Title: CEO/Founder
Company: soundBOX:Studio Group
Tim Friedlander is a voice actor and studio owner based in Los Angeles, known for his talent and advocacy within the industry. Tim is known for his contributions to popular titles such as Hunter x Hunter, One Punch Man, and his portrayal of Long Caster in Ace Combat 7. Additionally, his performance as the English voice of Ares in the Netflix series Record of Ragnarok and as the English Voice of Daigo Dojima in the new Like A Dragon video game series have garnered attention, showcasing his versatility and skill. As founder of the soundBOX:Studio Group, Tim operates out of his studio, soundBOX:LA and continues to bring his work to audiences everywhere with his compelling performances and unwavering commitment to his craft. With 4 locations in the US, the soundBOX Studios have become the go-to location for such clients as Sony, Ubisoft, Nintendo, CBS, Amazon, and Netflix among many others. With a talent-focused approach, soundBOX has become known for their ability to provide the highest quality services to clients and producers while also providing as a safe, comfortable, artist forward environment. Tim has been quoted in such outlets as the LA Times, WIRED, the NY Times, and the BBC. Represented by Atlas Talent in Los Angeles and New York, as well as ACM Talent Management in LA and New York, Tim remains a driving force in the world of voice acting, leaving an indelible mark on the industry with his talent, passion, and dedication.
Title: General Partner
Company: 1Up Ventures
Ed Fries created his first video games for the Atari 800 in the early 1980s. He joined Microsoft in 1986 and spent the next ten years as one of the developers of Excel and Word. In 1996 he left the Office team to pursue his passion for interactive entertainment and created Microsoft Game Studios. Over the next eight years he grew the team from 50 people to over 1200, published more than 100 games including more than a dozen million+ sellers, co-founded the Xbox project, and made Microsoft one of the leaders in the video game business. In 2004, Ed retired as a Microsoft Vice President and began working as a board member and advisor with entrepreneurs in the video game business as well as serving on the board of several non-profit organizations including the International Game Developers Association Foundation and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In 2019 Ed and Kelly Wallick launched 1Up Ventures, a venture fund to support independent game developers. Since then, 1Up Ventures has made more than 80 investments in game development companies around the world.
Title: Assistant Professor
Company: Utrecht University
Julian Frommel is an Assistant Professor in Interaction/Multimedia at Utrecht University. In his work, he studies the design and implementation of interactive digital systems that provide enjoyable, meaningful, safe, and healthy experiences for users, often focusing on the benefits and harms of games and game technologies such as artificial intelligence, streaming, and XR. He teaches courses on AI for Game Technology and Serious Games, has given presentations at international conferences (e.g., CHI, CHI PLAY, FDG), and PAX Australia. He has consulted for and worked with game companies like &ranj, Roblox, and ESL FACEIT. He is a member of the CHI PLAY Steering Committee and the Thriving in Games Group (previously Fair Play Alliance).
Title: Head of Model Solutions, Qwen Model Lab
Company: Alibaba Cloud
Jeff Fu is Head of Model Solutions at Alibaba Cloud Qwen Lab, Senior Technical Expert. Responsible for large model solutions development for the enterprise clients including E-gaming customers, state-owned enterprises, financial institutions, and multinational corporations. Has extensive experience in the vertical model training and the design/development of large model applications in the enterprises.
Prior to joining Alibaba Cloud's Qwen Lab, Jeff served as the head of solution architects across multiple business units at Alibaba Cloud. He has also held various technical leadership roles including CTO, R&D Director, and Algorithm Engineer in other companies. He possesses extensive experience in applying large models within industry-specific contexts.
Title: Vice President of Operations
Company: Playable Worlds, Inc.
Niina is the VP of Operations at Playable Worlds, where she leads operations across finance, HR, marketing, revenue, and project execution. She plays a key role in building and aligning cross-functional teams, ensuring that strategic goals translate into measurable outcomes across the business. With experience co-founding startups and running successful brick-and-mortar ventures, Niina brings both a founder's mindset and operational depth to her leadership. She is known for driving momentum in fast-paced environments, leading key revenue initiatives, and launching scalable systems and teams. Her focus on execution is matched by a strong commitment to community-driven development, ensuring that players remain central to both product direction and business strategy.
Title: Vice President, Film TV & Advertising - Creative
Company: Universal Music Publishing Group
Mandy Gabriel is the Vice President of Advertising at Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), where she is responsible for the company's efforts to place its extensive song catalog in U.S. advertising campaigns and other media. With more than 15 years of experience in creative services, music supervision, licensing, and deal negotiation, she has built a strong reputation in the sync and branding world. Gabriel has been recognized by Billboard as a "Top Branding Power Player," "Women in Music honoree", and a member of its "40 Under 40" list, reflecting her impact in music publishing and media placement. In her role at UMPG, she drives high-profile sync deals and major brand campaigns, expanding the reach and visibility of the company's songwriters and artists while supporting UMPG's position as a global leader in music. Prior to joining UMPG, Gabriel spent several years at Kobalt in roles spanning licensing, income tracking, and rights management, and earlier in her career she held positions at Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Title: Product Policy
Company: Meta
Hannah leads Product Policy work at Meta's Reality Labs and supports Quest, Horizon, and AI Wearables. She comes from a background of Trust & Safety. Prior to working in tech she led aviation safety for the US Military drone programs.
Title: Head of Design
Company: Amber
As Head of Design at Amber, Maxim Garber leads Play With Fire, a studio building multiplayer and party games that enable expressive, unscripted social play through AI powered conversational and improvisational systems. With 23 years in games, he has led design and production across mobile, PC, and console. His credits include Disney Magic Kingdoms, a top grossing mobile tycoon game with tens of millions of players, and Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank and Resistance franchises, which have sold tens of millions of units worldwide. Following the launch of Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg, Maxim and the Play With Fire team are actively developing AI driven games that advance character realism, interaction, and emergent play, producing memorable moments of laughter, surprise, and creativity.
Title: Dialogue Designer
Company: SIE - Playstation - Creative Arts
Monet Gardiner is a Sound Designer with 12+ 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.
Title: Director of AIGC Dept.
Company: Tencent Games
2005-2011 Senior Engine Engineer, Ubisoft Shanghai
2011-2017 Lead Principal Engineer, Tencent Games
2017-now Director of AIGC Dept., Tencent Games
Title: Executive Producer
Company: Independent
For 23 years Brynley Gibson has worked in video games as a producer, holding roles including Executive producer, Studio head and Game Director and sitting on both boards and in the C-suite. His career has taken him across a huge range of experiences, working in AAA to mobile, for corporations and independents, from first party to work for hire to self publishing and even publishing itself. Studios he has worked at include Lionhead, Headstrong Games, Zoë Mode, Sony PlayStation, Curve, Avalanche Studios and Sharkmob Games. Brynley got his break in the industry after three things came together. A number of years of experience organising all sorts of things with creative people from club nights to websites, a degree in film and a passion for playing video games. That led to an opportunity at Lionhead studios to make a game all about making movies. That was the BAFTA winning The Movies and from there he took on his first leading role with its expansion disk and remained a producer from then on. Since then and working on many games along the way, personal career highlights include being the series producer for Nintendo’s Art Academy series, releasing PlayStation’s VR World as the launch title for Sony’s PSVR and setting up Avalanche Group’s Malmö studio. For the last few years, he has been the Executive Producer for the extraction shooter Exoborne at Sharkmob Games.
Title: Global Head of Transformation
Company: Keywords Studios
Jon Gibson is the Global Head of Transformation at Keywords Studios, where he leads strategic change initiatives across the group to help studios, teams, and clients adapt and thrive in a rapidly evolving games industry. His role focuses on driving sustainable growth, operational excellence, and the adoption of new ways of working across Keywords Studios global network.
Previously, Jon was Head of Studios at Electric Square, one of Keywords Studios development studios. Following its acquisition in 2018, he oversaw Electric Square's expansion across the UK, Singapore, Malta, and Ireland, helping to build its reputation as a trusted AAA co-development partner to leading publishers. Under his leadership, the studio earned multiple Best Places to Work awards and recognition for its commitment to social mobility, education, and DEI.
With nearly 30 years' experience in the games industry, Jon brings a rare combination of creative leadership, operational insight, and transformation expertise. Passionate about innovation, emerging technologies, and people-first change, he now works across Keywords Studios to ensure the organisation remains resilient, relevant, and ready for what's next.
Title: Senior Executive Editor: Global Technology
Company: Bloomberg L.P.
Tom Giles has more than 30 years of newsroom experience in San Francisco, New York, London and Eastern Europe, focusing primarily on global technology. His work spans a broad range of tech topics for Bloomberg and Businessweek—from AI and cybersecurity to startups and the largest and most powerful tech providers, including Apple, Google, Nvidia and OpenAI. Tom is currently senior executive editor of the award-winning global technology team for Bloomberg, based in San Francisco, where he manages more than 90 reporters and editors responsible for the technology, media and entertainment industries in the US, Asia and Europe. Tom is also a lecturer in business reporting at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and graduated cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in Politics and certificate in Latin American studies.
Title: Vice-President/Co-Founder
Company: National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA)
Carin Gilfry is an award-winning voice actor who has voiced thousands of commercials, documentaries, video games, instructional videos, IVR systems, eLearning programs, audiobooks, and more. Her past and current clients include FedEx, Citibank, Adobe, Estée Lauder, CVS, Pfizer, Nickelodeon, Nintendo, and Disney, among many. Carin was named Female Voiceover Artist of the Year at the 2024 One Voice Conference USA Awards.
Carin is a master of multiple genres of voiceover. Her video game credits include roles in Starfield, Saints Row, Call of the Dragon, Voice of Cards III - Beasts of Burden, and Warframe. She is also the narrator of two acclaimed true crime shows on the Oxygen Network; Final Moments (produced by Dick Wolf) and Sleeping With Death.
As the vice-president of the National Association of Voice Actors, Carin is also a community leader and advocate for the rights of creators. In 2019, Carin co-founded the VOcation Conference, a conference dedicated to teaching voice actors how to run their small businesses.
Carin Gilfry began her career as a singer. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from USC Thornton School of Music and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School.
Title: Voice Actress and Concept Artist
Company: Warped Worlds
Stella is a concept artist and storyboarder working across games, entertainment, and education. With a background in Entertainment Design and Creative Writing from ArtCenter College of Design, she focuses on character-driven storytelling and expressive visual development. At Warped Worlds, Stella served as character designer, writer, and voice actor for Kitchen Kauldron, shaping its eccentric cast and comedic narrative arc. The project won the alt.ctrl.GDC Audience Award and earned recognition at IndieCade. In addition to her studio work, Stella teaches advanced visual arts and storyboarding, emphasizing performance, collaboration, and bold, personality-forward design for both classrooms and creative teams.
Title: Software Engineer
Company: Netflix
Henry Golding is a 15+ year games industry veteran with broad experience in gameplay, tools, and test automation. He has helped some of the biggest live service games in the world restructure their development processes to ship frequent updates safely and cost effectively. Henry specializes in leveraging modern technical practices to pave the way for sustainable and humane game development – eliminating the need for crunch and fostering an environment where creativity and innovation flourish. With experience at industry-leading companies including Microsoft, Mojang, Rare, Epic Games, and now Netflix, he has been instrumental in transforming how game development teams approach quality and testing. Henry has worked to raise awareness of the benefits of test automation in games for many years - speaking at conferences (GDC, Develop) on podcasts, sharing resources via the Game Automated Testing Resource Hub (bit.ly/gathub) and the Game Devs Can Test channel on YouTube. He also mentors and coaches industry practitioners.
Title: Creative Director
Company: Midnight Hour Games
Elaine Gómez is a Borikua (Puerto Rican) and Kiskeyan (Dominican) game designer with nearly a decade of experience in game design and development. She is an enrolled tribal member of Higuayagua Taino of the Caribbean. In 2023, she founded independent game studio, Midnight Hour Games, who is currently developing their second title. Elaine is also co-founder and President of Latinx in Gaming, an award-winning 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to increasing representation, building community and providing resources to Latine game developers, creators and students across the US, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Title: Senior Vice President, Global Head of Sync, Classics, Jazz & Screen
Company: Universal Music Group
An accomplished music executive with over a decade of experience in sync creative and licensing, Fran Goncalves has been pivotal in driving the global success stories for Global Classics, Jazz & Screen and UMP Classics & Screen divisions in film, television, gaming and advertising. Fran Goncalves underscores UMG's expanding global footprint in elevating Classical, Jazz & Screen repertoire — particularly classical and score music — into mainstream culture through impactful sync opportunities. She has played a central role in pushing the genre's boundaries, connecting heritage and innovation, and opening new pathways for these works to resonate with audiences worldwide.
Title: Animator
Company: Super Spline Studios
Sole began her animation career producing explainer videos for Business Insider, where she developed a love for visually representing ideas in creative ways. In 2020, she made the leap into the video game industry as an Animation Intern at Super Spline Studios. Since then, she's worked her way up to mid-level Animator, contributing gameplay and cinematic animations to a variety of titles. Sole's passionate about character animation, focusing on creating work that feels natural, engaging, and plenty of personality.
Title: Co-Founder and CEO
Company: WALKME MOBILE SOLUTIONS
Lígia Gonçalves is the co-founder and CEO of WalkMe Mobile Solutions, a Portuguese game studio with over 40 million downloads worldwide. With a background in Computer Engineering, she began her journey by creating the most widely used hiking app in Madeira, later expanding into globally distributed mobile games.
Today, she leads the company's transition into immersive technologies, including the development of an innovative virtual reality quiz experience. Passionate about sustainable growth and long-term vision, Lígia advocates for building global impact from local roots — powered by belief, resilience, and continuous reinvention.
Title: Voice Actor
Company: Independent
Morla Gorrondona has been working in video games as an actor (voice/performance capture/creatures) for over 15 years on award-winning titles such as Destiny and Destiny 2. Moss: Book 1 and Book 2, God of War: Ragnarok, The Last of Us 2, The Death Stranding, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, 4, Cold War and 7, Spider Man 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn and New West.
She is a member of SAG-AFTRA, NAVA, IESD, founding member of the Game Audio Network Guild Voice Actor Coalition (GVAC) and founding co-chair of the GANG Awards Dialog Committee.
Title: Creative Technology Lead
Company: Keywords Studios
This talk targets studio leaders, producers, art/technical directors, pipeline engineers and developers who want to integrate AI into active production. It assumes familiarity with modern game development pipelines but requires no machine‑learning expertise, focusing instead on practical workflows, cross‑disciplinary collaboration and management considerations.
Sergei Gourski is a Creative Technology Leader and game developer with over 24 years of experience shipping games across PC, console, and mobile platforms. He ran a studio as Head of Development and Lead Animator at Subatomic Studios, where he led the Fieldrunners franchise, including the original Fieldrunners, one of the top-grossing iOS games of 2009, and Fieldrunners for iPad, a launch title featured in Apple's 2010 iPad keynote. At Subatomic, he also served as Creative Director on Autodesk's highly downloaded TinkerBox.
Throughout his career, Sergei has built and scaled multidisciplinary teams with a developer-first mindset focused on tools, UX, workflows, and real-world production constraints. Now at Keywords Studios (AI Solutions), he designs and deploys production-ready AI pipelines spanning diffusion models, ComfyUI, generative 2D/3D/video, and NeRFs, delivering high-fidelity assets and personalized video at scale. His earlier credits include Spider-Man 2, Empire Earth, Star Trek Fleet Command, and Aliens: Colonial Marines, reflecting a career grounded equally in hands-on craft, leadership, and shipping real products.
Title: Knight Chair
Company: University of Miami
Dr. Lindsay Grace is Knight Chair in Interactive Media and a full professor at the University of Miami School of Communication. He is Vice President for the Higher Education Video Game Alliance and the 2019 recipient of the Games for Change Vanguard award. Lindsay's book, Doing Things with Games, Social Impact through Design, is a well-received guide to game design. In 2020, he edited and authored Love and Electronic Affection: a Design Primer on designing love and affection in games. In 2021 he published the Amazon best seller, Black Game Studies, an Introduction to the games, game makers and scholarship of the African diaspora His work has received awards and recognition from the Games for Change Festival, the Digital Diversity Network, the Association of Computing Machinery's digital arts community , Black Enterprise and others. He authored or co-authored more than 95 papers, articles and book chapters on games since 2009. His creative work has been selected for showcase internationally including New York, Paris, São Paulo, Singapore, Chicago, Vancouver, Istanbul, and others. Lindsay curated or co-curated Blank Arcade (2014-2016), Smithsonian American Art Museum's SAAM Arcade (2014-2017), the Games for Change Festival (2017, 2022, 2023) and others. He has given talks at the Game Developers Conference, SXSW, Games for Change Festival, the Online News Association, the Society for News Design, and many other industry events. He has had appearances on domestic and international television and radio and written editorials published by CNN and others. Between 2013 and 2018 he was the founding director of the American University Game Lab and Studio. He served as Vice President and on the board of directors for the Global Game Jam™ non-profit between 2014-2019. From 2009 to 2013 he was the Armstrong Professor at Miami University's School of Art. Lindsay also served on the board for the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) between 2013-2015.
Title: Senior Producer
Company: Obsidian Entertainment
Shaina Grade is a game production leader based in California. She has spent her career doing everything from AAA PC/Console games at Blizzard to educational games at Filament Games, where she led studio operations/production leadership.
She currently works at Obsidian Entertainment as a Senior Producer shipping The Outer Worlds 2.
Title: Founder
Company: Elbow Grease Games
John Graham is the founder of Elbow Grease Games, an accelerator which aims to improve the early-stage ecosystem for game businesses. Prior to EGG, John co-founded and served as COO of Humble Bundle, which participated in the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator, secured Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital and was successfully acquired by Ziff Davis in 2017. He was also COO of the indie developer Wolfire Games, creators of Overgrowth, Receiver and Lugaru. He is a member of Indie Fund.
Title: Technical/Creative Director
Company: Independent
David Rez Graham is a senior AI programmer currently working independently on a self-funded unannounced project. He is also the Director of Game Programming at the Academy of Art University's School of Game Development where he built the entire Game Programming curriculum from scratch. He has worked in the games industry as an engineer since 2005 spending most of that time working on various kinds of AI, from platformer enemy AI to full simulation games. Most recently, he was the Lead AI Programmer on The Sims 4 at Maxis. Prior to that, he worked at PlayFirst, Slipgate Ironworks, Planet Moon Studios, and Super-Ego Games. He is the co-author of Game Coding Complete, 4th Edition, has multiple articles in the Game AI Pro series, and regularly speaks at The Game Developers Conference. Rez spends his free time acting, performing magic, and running tabletop RPGs.
Title: Head of Game Security at Amazon Game Studios
Company: Amazon Game Studios
Michail Greshishchev (Head of Game Security, Amazon Games) builds the invisible walls that keeps multiplayer fair and cheaters poor. He has led the development of anti-cheat, anti-bot, and anti-fraud systems protecting Throne and Liberty, Lost Ark, New World, Rainbow Six Siege, and XDefiant, enforcing more than 300 million bans worldwide. In another life, he solved game piracy at Denuvo, and wrote secure operating systems for automotive platforms. When he's not policing virtual worlds, he's surfing and reverse engineering cars for fun.
Title: Creative Director/Owner
Company: Moonwalk Audio
After Gubman’s first game in 2006 (Pirates of the Burning Sea), he went on to score over 1200 video games helping to establish the sound of many iconic downloadable, mobile, and casual titles while maintaining a solid career composing for various media projects. Gubman’s work can be heard in projects for notable clients like Disney (Tokyo Disneyland, Disney Anaheim, WDW), Zynga, HyperGryph, Blizzard (Overwatch 2, Hearthstone), Sony, Dream, King, Atari, Warner Brothers Games, GameHouse, NBC Today, and Warner-Chappell. He is most known for his pop-broadway style songwriting for the games HEARTHSTONE and ARKNIGHTS, and most recently took over as composer for SKY CHILDREN OF LIGHT (thatgamecompany). In casual and mobile, top selling match-3 title ROYAL MATCH helped them redefine the quality standards for this genre. His speed, creativity, and memorable melodic voice that brings unique branding to the projects he works on - he is passionate about all the projects that he touches, and delivers AAA quality no matter the project scope. Co-Owned with Alex Cox, Moonwalk Audio prides themselves on creating top quality sound while offering opportunities to folks from all race, class, and gender identity. As an arranger and orchestrator, Adam has worked on additional music and orchestration for various TV and Film projects, including Sausage Party, Galavant, Ride Along 2, Smurfs: Lost Village, Baywatch, and he provided orchestration for EDM superstar BT’s album ‘Electronic Opus’. His award winning production work on Greatest Showman (This Is Me) granted him a triple platinum record. Online streams have yielded over 100 million views. Gubman is also known for re-branding the NBC Today Show theme with Warner-Chappell Music Group, and has done numerous licensing and custom audio packages for TV News programs all over the world. Orchestration clients have included collaborations with Alan Menken, Chris Lennertz, Austin Wintory, Tom Salta, Pasek and Paul, BT, Warner-Chappell, Disney, and many more. An avid songwriter, Adam is a composer for Disney Parks, and writes, arranges, orchestrates, and produces music for parades and entertainment. He has shipped over two dozen shows and attractions for Disney Imagineering and Tokyo Disney, including the Baymax Happy Ride that opened in 2021, Star Wars Galaxy Edge, and the Star Wars Hotel project. He also recently scored the Manta Coaster for Sea World Dubai, which opened summer 2023. Adam’s musical ideology can be wrapped up in the slogan “Imagine the Sound of Your World”. His passion is finding the music culture in the games he works on, and he strives to give every project it’s own identity and musical thumbprint that includes source and songs.
Title: Co-founder and CTO
Company: Sandfall Interactive
After completing an engineering degree in computer science and software architecture, Tom Guillermin joined Ubisoft in 2016 as a gameplay programmer through the Graduate Program. He worked in France and then in Sweden on the franchises: The Division, Ghost Recon, and Beyond Good & Evil. It was in Sweden that he met Guillaume Broche and began helping him with what was, at the time, just a personal project using Unreal Engine. In 2020, with the arrival of François Meurisse, they founded the studio Sandfall Interactive together, with Tom taking on the role of Technical Director and leading gameplay programming. The project then became Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Title: CEO
Company: Pipeworks - A Virtuos Studio
Lindsay has been developing games for over 30 years. He has led Pipeworks since 2011, and previously he was VP of North American studios at Foundation 9 Entertainment, studio head at Amaze Entertainment, president of Human Code, and partner at Design Edge.
Title: Threat Intelligence Lead
Company: risk3sixty
Steven Guris, Threat Intelligence Lead at risk3sixty, is known for leading complex cyber investigations and litigation support efforts for the video game industry. He has directed precedent-setting anti-cheat enforcement investigations, including work supporting Bungie, Inc. in landmark cases that shaped legal approaches to video game cheating and online misconduct. Steven has delivered expert witness testimony on cheating technologies, player behavior, and digital evidence, significantly influencing judicial outcomes in high-profile lawsuits. A cybercrime threat intelligence analyst by training, he specializes in advanced data collection methodologies and translating technical findings into clear, courtroom-ready intelligence.
Title: SAG-AFTRA Performer
Company: Independent
Jennifer Hale is a highly acclaimed, BAFTA nominated voice actress, with an extensive career in game franchises including Mass Effect, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Metal Gear Solid, overwatch and many more, as well as animated shows like Marvel's X-Men 97, The Powerpuff Girls, Bad Batch, Totally Spies and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, to name a few. She holds a Guinness World Record for the most prolific female video game voice actor and was recently honored with the SOVAS Industry Icon Award. The New Yorker Magazine dubbed her 'A kind of Meryl Streep of the form, reflecting her talent and impact on the voice acting industry.
Title: Principal Engine Programmer
Company: id Software
Philip Hammer is a Principal Engine Programmer working at id Software. He's been working in the video game industry for almost 20 years, mainly developing custom engine and rendering technology. Most recently he worked on idTech 8 and DOOM: The Dark Ages. Before that he worked on Starfield, DOOM Eternal, Lords of the Fallen and The Surge 1 & 2.
Title: Principal Engineer
Company: Tencent Games
Current Position: Team Lead of the Internal Ongoing Project Tool Group at Tencent's Photon Creative Center, member of the Game Expert Group, and Technical Review Committee Member.
Expertise: Over 10 years of experience in the gaming industry, specializing in game server technology, User-Generated Content (UGC) technology, and the application of Generative AI technology in game development.
Current Work Focus: Exploring how AI technologies can enhance and optimize game development workflows.
Title: CTO
Company: Oxford Brain Diagnostics
Ian Hardingham is a multi-award-winning Game Designer and Director best known for his work on the classic strategy game Frozen Synapse and its critically-acclaimed follow-ups. Following a successful career in games he moved into the technology sector, becoming Chief Technology Officer of Oxford Brain Diagnostics, a breakout medtech business specializing in pioneering brain analysis techniques to support drug development and aid clinical interventions. Ian recently led the technical component of OBD's successful FDA 510(k) submission for their groundbreaking CDM Insights software.
Title: Producer/Designer
Company: Ironwood Studios/Co-op Kitchen/Lucky Tree Studios
Charlie Harper is a Game Designer and Producer based in the Greater Pacific Northwest. Since entering indie development in 2013, Charlie has donned numerous roles, demonstrating adaptability and a comprehensive understanding of game creation. Her journey began as a 2D artist at Whimsy Games, and most recently, they contributed to the successful launch of Wizard with a Gun at Galvanic Games Inc as a Producer.
Currently, Charlie is a producer at Ironwood Studios and divides their extra time between artistic duties for Co-op Kitchen and design work for Lucky Tree Studios. Over the past decade, they have cultivated a diverse skill set spanning multiple disciplines, with a particular focus on production. Harper's passion lies in pushing the boundaries of gaming, aiming to evoke new emotions, craft compelling narratives, and overcome emerging technological hurdles.
With a career marked by versatility and innovation, Charlie continues to be a dynamic force in the indie game development scene, consistently seeking to expand the medium's potential.
Title: VP of Data & AI
Company: SEGA
Francis Hart is VP of Data & AI at SEGA Europe, leading data platforms, analytics, and applied AI across the business. With more than two decades at NCSoft and SEGA, he focuses on building scalable data capabilities and responsible AI practices, translating complex insights into practical outcomes that empower teams and drive long‑term, data‑driven growth.
Title: Advisor & Director
Scott Hartsman is an advisor, independent board director, and angel investor for companies making great games for core gamers. In his previous career he specialized in running live game teams, studios, and companies and has shipped or ran 40+ massive & live games and platforms. He currently works with a dozen groups as an advisor or board director, from startups to large public companies, and enjoys helping them with fundraising, building, shipping, thriving, and navigating the often strange worlds of investors and publishers.
Title: SVP Gaming at Irdeto
Company: Denuvo by Irdeto
Since 2018, Niels has held the position of Senior Vice President of New Markets at Irdeto, a global leader in digital platform cybersecurity. In this role, he oversees board responsibilities for Irdeto's Gaming and Connected Transport businesses. With a diverse career spanning leadership positions in Cybersecurity and Technology markets, Niels has gained valuable international experience across Asia, North America, and Europe. Outside of his professional achievements, he enjoys memorable gaming moments with his sons, engaging primarily in sports and first-person shooter games.
Title: Head of Google Cloud for Games
Company: Google Cloud
Catherine Hawayek is the Head of Google Cloud for Games, where she directs a team focused on empowering leading game companies to develop and deploy their titles at a global scale using Google Cloud's infrastructure. In her role, Catherine is committed to bringing the necessary resources and expertise to her customers to pioneer new experiences and to leverage data and AI to unlock unprecedented player engagement and new developer workflows.
With over a decade of experience at Google, Catherine has been instrumental in guiding the digital transformation of major players within the games sector. Her expertise lies in forging strategic, long-term partnerships and leveraging Google's technology to help game developers and publishers innovate and succeed.
Catherine lives in Austin, TX with her husband, two children, and their dog Blaze.
Title: Studio Art Director
Company: Another Axiom Inc.
A multiple award-winning composer, Jason Hayes is well known for his long-standingrelationship with Blizzard Entertainment, contributing music to their games set in thepopular worlds of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. He was the original lead composer ofWorld of Warcraft, the most successful massively multiplayer online game of all time.Jason's music has been performed by symphony orchestras all over the world in variousconcerts including the show Video Games Live, which debuted at the Hollywood Bowlwith the LA Philharmonic, and continues to tour internationally. He's also been a featuredspeaker for UCLA, USC, the Film Music Network, ASCAP, the Society of Composers andLyricists, the Game Developers Conference, and the Pacific Northwest Film ScoringProgram. Currently he lives in Orange County, California and is the Studio Audio Director ofAnother Axiom Inc.
Title: Audio Director
Company: Independent
Specializing in sound design, composition and voiceover, Kurt Heiden is a game audio veteran who worked on classic Interplay games including Bard's Tale II, Bard's Tale III, Bard's Tale IV, Dragon Wars, Battle Chess and Neuromancer. At 7th Level, Kurt won a Software Publisher's Association award for Best Sound Design & Music for his sound design work on Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail. He also has worked on game titles from Ion Storm, Old Sküül Games and Sierra's Return to Krondor. Kurt's day job is in marketing and from 2004 to 2021 he served as Chair of the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (ain=iasig.org" data-mce-href="https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/JbrACERZP5fgwX3vlHpiLH7BBZS?domain=iasig.org" style="outline: none;" data-mce-style="outline: none;">www.iasig.org), serving all members of the game audio industry.
Title: Founder and Managing Director
Company: Walayance
Cecile Hemery is an inclusive leadership coach who helps professionals reclaim their confidence and impact, leading authentically while lifting others up - never "taking the blanket for themselves." With 15 years in gaming and tech leadership, Cecile combines coaching, psychoanalysis, hypnotherapy, and mindfulness with deep understanding of workplace dynamics in fast-paced, data-driven environments. She supports clients as they navigate the curveballs of career progression, leadership challenges, and life transitions; bringing clarity, confidence, and calm through her Becoming Process.Her approach blends practical structure, emotional insight, and gentle challenge, always delivered with empathy and the occasional dash of humor, helping human-centered leaders create positive ripple effects on their own terms. Her mission is simple: to help human-centered leaders show up with authenticity and have impact in their careers, and in their lives.
Title: CEO & Co-Founder.
Company: METATAILOR
Graham Henry founded METATAILOR with a singular mission: to simplify the developers' workload. Driven by the belief that technical hurdles should never stifle creative expression, his vision focuses on automating the most tedious aspects of character production. Drawing from his extensive experience at Epic Games on iconic titles like Gears of War, Infinity Blade, and Fortnite, Graham is uniquely positioned to address industry-wide inefficiencies. By replacing manual, repetitive tasks (specifically the skin-weighting bottleneck) with intelligent, automated systems, he empowers developers to move faster and focus on what truly matters: building immersive worlds and compelling characters.
Title: Composer
Company: The Flight
Ivor Novello award-winning duo Joe Henson and Alexis Smith began collaborating in 2005. After realizing they had a similar approach to life and wildly divergent musical tastes, they formed a creative partnership that quickly encompassed songwriting, production, and composition. The duo have worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry as well as being renowned composers for triple A video game titles. In 2014, they saw the release of hit survival horror title Alien: Isolation, and they followed this up with Horizon: Zero Dawn, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Horizon Forbidden West, and WB Games Montréal's Gotham Knights. The Flight's television projects include the NETFLIX Series Lockwood & Co; BAFTA-nominated BBC documentary series, Drugsland; and Kids on the Edge, produced for Channel 4 by Century Films. Their most recent project is the duo returning to the popular Assassin's Creed franchise with Assassin's Creed Shadows. The game takes place in 16th century Japan and follows two new characters in the creed's fight against the Templar order. Assassin's Creed Shadows is out now on Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Title: Founder of Loading Law
Company: Loading Law
Ross is the Founder of Loading Law, a Chicago-based law practice, and provides legal counsel to video game developers and entrepreneurs in the tech sector. Ross is also the Organizer of the Chicago Video Game Law Summit and an Adjunct Professor of Video Game Law at DePaul University. He speaks frequently on hot topics in law and technology. Ross also serves as the Chair of IGDA Chicago, Chair of the CBA YLS Creative Arts Committee, and Associate Board Member of Lawyers for the Creative Arts.
Title: Designer
Company: KMLO
Tristan, known online as Kham or Kaemelo is a non-binary game designer and solo game developer. They have been making games for 10 years, and worked at DigixArt on the critically acclaimed game Road 96. They also conceptualized DigixArt's new title : Tides of Tomorrow. Tristan is now working full-time on games with experimental game mechanics, such as Under the Bed, Dungeon Tourists, and The Salt Order which will be presented at ExGS this year.
Title: Game UX Strategist
Company: Independent
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has fifteen years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft, LucasArts, and as Director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, member of the Foresight Committee at CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, an independent French administrative regulatory body). She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful. Celia also provides guidance on the topics of playful learning, ethics (founder of ethicalgames.org), unconscious bias, and inclusion in tech. Celia is the author of The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design (2017), The Psychology of Video Games (2020), What UX Really Is: Introducing a Mindset to Great Experiences (2021), and co-editor of Game Usability: Advice from the Experts for Advancing UX Strategy and Practice in Videogames (2022).
Title: Principal, Pan-Amazon for Games
Company: AWS
Ashley brings the power of Amazon to the gaming industry, leading strategic initiatives that unite Amazon's capabilities—including AWS services and AI innovation—to deliver industry-leading experiences for gaming partners worldwide. Drawing on her deep expertise in advertising, brand partnerships, and strategic roles across Amazon, she is uniquely positioned to bridge the physical and digital worlds of gaming, creating 360 fan experiences across Amazon retail, Twitch, Luna, Prime Video, and Amazon Devices that connect players, consumers, and communities across every touchpoint. Prior to her current role, she drove business and monetization innovation for Amazon Luna and led a team of AWS Partner Development Managers responsible for driving co-innovation with top strategic AWS customers.
Before AWS, Ashley spent over eight years at Zynga, where she helped build the ads business, led major game launches partnering with strategic brands for in-game integrations, and brought to market new ad offerings. Her work earned recognition from the Mobile Growth Fellowship for Best Ad Product Integration.
Ashley is committed to empowering women in technology and gaming, serving on the Advisory Board for Women in Games International (WIGI) and was a Champion for Change with the Ad Council. She believes in the transformative power of gaming to connect communities and create meaningful experiences that resonate with players around the globe.
Title: Lead Gameplay Engineer & Designer
Company: Sucker Punch Productions
Samuel Holley is a lead gameplay programmer and designer at Sucker Punch Productions, where he co-leads a cross-disciplinary group of coders and designers developing core gameplay systems. He focuses on fantasy-fulfilling and narrative mechanics, AI, and player experience. Samuel joined Sucker Punch in 2015. Before that, he was a software engineer at Iron Galaxy Studios. Samuel enjoys hiking, experimental pizza, and time travel stories.
Title: Founder and Faculty
Company: IASIG/GAI/SFSU
Critically acclaimed as One of the foremost figures in the field, Composer Steven Horowitz is the current chair of the IASIG and teacher at San Francisco State University. Horowitz is also a long standing Audio Director at Nickelodeon/Parmount where he has worked on scoring hundreds of beloved video games as well as garnering him Webby, Kid Screen and BDA awards. Well known for his original score to the Academy Award nominated film Super Size Me, he is also the author of two books, The Essential Guide to Game Audio: The Theory and Practice of Sound for Games, and The Theory And Practice Of Music For Games.
Title: COO
Company: OtherSide Entertainment
Joshua Howard is the COO of OtherSide Entertainment, a studio focused on building original immersive sims, as the founders have been doing for many years. His focus extends beyond creating great games; he fosters positive team cultures, cultivates future leaders, and prioritizes employee well-being as the foundation for exceptional player experiences. Joshua's experience spans leadership roles in companies like Microsoft, Crytek, and Big Fish. He actively consults, coaches, and writes on leadership and management within the video game industry. A passionate board gamer himself, Joshua believes the principles of game design can be effectively applied to real-world management challenges.
Title: Independent
Jenny Jiao Hsia is an independent game developer, designer, and co-director of Consume Me, an award-winning narrative game that combines systems-driven gameplay with painfully honest storytelling. Consume Me received both the Nuovo Award and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at IGF 2025, along with nominations for Excellence in Design, Narrative, and Visual Art.
Since releasing Consume Me, Jenny has committed to posting one TikTok every day until the game sells one million copies. When not making games or TikToks, she studies ballet and machine-knits tiny hats for her two Pomeranians, who have not asked for this.
Title: Economy Manager
Company: Supercell
Charlie Hsu is a Game Economy Manager at Supercell with over a decade of experience designing and optimizing in-game economies for globally successful mobile games. He began working in the games industry in 2013, taking on roles in game design and economy design before joining Kabam. At Kabam, he served as Lead Game Designer and Lead Game Economy Designer on Marvel: Contest of Champions for ten years. At Supercell, Charlie is currently working on Clash Royale, bringing his expertise to crafting fair, engaging, and sustainable game economies.
Title: Senior Developer Technology Engineer
Company: NVIDIA
Calvin Hsu is a GeForce Developer Technology Engineer at NVIDIA, where he has been supporting Japanese game developers since 2021. Specializing in real-time path tracing, he is a main contributor to the RTX Mega Geometry SDK. Prior to his current role, Calvin spent 10 years working directly in game development, including a five-year tenure as Lead Render Engineer at Crystal Dynamics on Marvel's Avengers. He now leverages this decade of production experience to help studios push the boundaries of visual fidelity on modern hardware.
Title: CEO and Founder
Company: Meshy AI
Ethan Hu earned his Ph.D. in CG and AI from MIT. He is the CEO of Meshy—a generative AI tool that creates fully textured 3D models from images or text in under a minute. According to SimilarWeb and a16z's survey of 650 game developers, Meshy is the No. 1 3D GenAI tool for game developers. Ethan is based in Silicon Valley, and his favorite animal is the llama.
Title: Senior Researcher
Company: LightSpeed Studios
Zeyu Hu is a senior researcher at LightSpeed Studios Singapore, specializing in computer vision and generative models. He earned his Ph.D. from the Vision and Graphics Group in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he worked with Prof. Chiew-Lan Tai and collaborated with Profs. Long Quan and Hongbo Fu. His research spans generative models, 3D scene understanding, and deep learning for semantic segmentation, with multiple publications and open-source projects in these areas.
Title: Senior Systems Designer II
Company: Blizzard Entertainment
Scott Hwang is a System/Technical Design-oriented Game Designer who specializes in multiplayer experiences. He is currently a Senior Game Designer II on the Overwatch team at Blizzard Entertainment. Prior to this role, he was a Lead Systems Designer for an unannounced game project at Blizzard. Scott holds a MET degree from Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center.
Title: Sound Designer/Composer/Vocalist
Company: Ludogram/Independent
Katelyn Isaacson is an American sound designer, composer, and vocalist based in Paris, France. She was on the audio team at ArenaNet where she worked on season 4 of Guild Wars 2's Living World before relocating to France to be the studio sound designer at Ubisoft Nadeo for Trackmania. Now freelance, she's sound designing, composing, translating, and directing VO for various European indie studios. As a vocalist, Katelyn started singing in her first choir at the age of 9 and never stopped. Classically trained at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music, she enjoys singing in a variety of genres. She sang backup for Elton John at the 2013 Emmy Awards, in the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra World Tour, and on video games such as Tap My Katamari and Elsinore. She's currently singing soprano in l'Ensemble Vocal Syllepse and Soli Tutti, for a number of lyricists and composers, and regularly performs in cover bands and as a backup singer.
Title: Director
Company: Cicero
Damián Isla is an engineer, designer, educator and entrepreneur who has been working on and writing about games and game AI for two decades. He is the co-founder of two indie studios: Moonshot Games (Third Eye Crime) and The Molasses Flood (The Flame in the Flood). TMF, where he served as Creative and Design Director, was acquired in 2021 by CD PROJEKT RED. Before going indie, he worked in the AAA space as the AI lead at Bungie on Halo 2 and Halo 3, and contributed to other iconic titles like Destiny and Bioshock: Infinite. Before joining the industry, Damián earned a Masters Degree at the MIT Media Lab. He holds a BS in Computer Science, also from MIT. He is an Adjunct Professor at Northeastern University where he teaches Game AI.
Title: Co-Founder
Company: Pitchify
Gina Jackson OBE is a veteran of the UK games industry, with 30+ years of experience working on around 300 games across platforms from SNES to PS5.
She founded her consultancy Skillfull in 2011 and co-founded Pitchify, a marketplace that connects developers with investors to speed up game funding. An advocate for diversity, mental health, and skills development, she is driving positive change for sustainable growth in the industry.
Title: Head of BD for Gametech Services
Company: AWS
Michael Jackson is the Worldwide Head of Business Development for Amazon GameLift Services, focusing on game server and game streaming solutions at Amazon. He brings 10+ year background in managed hosting and cloud technologies tailored for the games industry. Michael has helped some of the world’s most innovative studios modernize their infrastructure, reduce operational risk, and launch globally at scale.
Title: Audio Director
Company: EA DICE
Experienced Audio Director with over 12 years experience at DICE specializing in immersive sound design and audio direction for AAA titles. A Battlefield and Battlefront veteran. Winner of AIAS, G.A.N.G, MPSE, Develop and other awards.
Title: Head of Gameplay, Candy Crush Saga
Company: King
Romain Jemma is Head of Meta for Candy Crush Saga at King, where for the past 10 years he has led product strategy and cross-functional teams, driving growth, innovation, and the long-term success of one of the world’s most iconic mobile games.
Title: Senior Game Client Development
Company: Tencent Games
Zheng Jiang is a Senior Game Client Developer at Tencent, previously worked at Gameloft. He is the creator of LuaPerfect, a Lua IDE widely adopted across the Chinese game industry. He led the architecture design and development of the editor for Tencent's in-house engine CrossEngine, and developed several advanced rendering features for the Digital Great Wall project, including Hybrid dynamic shadow rendering, Monte Carlo-based physical sky lighting, and massive light source shadow rendering. He also contributed to the Tencent-CSAIR flight simulation visual system. Currently, he is responsible for PCG and AI-related development in the Genesis Scene system.
Title: Game Designer
Company: Metacore
Heikki Joas is a Game Designer at Metacore, currently working in new games development. With over a decade of experience in the games industry, Heikki has previously taken on roles such as Game Lead, Mobile Product Manager, and Monetization Designer at companies including Paradox Interactive and Madfinger Games. His expertise lies at the intersection of design and economics – Heikki specializes in game monetization, economy design, and aligning gameplay with sustainable business models.
Title: Head of Discovery
Company: Playstack
Since joining in 2022, Patrick has become a key force behind some of Playstack's biggest successes, including the breakout hit Balatro. With a sharp eye for quality and a deep respect for games as an artform, Patrick spends his time scouring Steam, attending events, and building meaningful relationships with developers to identify and champion standout indie titles.
In a time when discoverability is one of the biggest challenges facing developers, Patrick is committed to helping unique games cut through the noise and reach players. His growing voice in the indie game scene reflects both his industry insight and his dedication to a more supportive, sustainable games ecosystem.
Title: Lead VFX Artist
Company: inXile Entertainment
Jeff spent the first part of his career in the world of feature film and animation, being part of such franchises as Lord of The Rings, Star Wars, The Matrix, Shrek, and Planet of the Apes, where he served in senior and supervisor positions in compositing, lighting, crowd simulation, and FX animation. He made the move to game development a decade ago, with game credits that include Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Gears Tactics, Return to Moria, and Marvel's Spider Man 2. He is currently VFX Lead at inXile Entertainment, part of Xbox Studios.
Title: Founder
Company: Ethovox
Cissy Jones relishes using both sides of her brain. From her beginnings working in Silicon Valley startups and venture capital firms, to winning a BAFTA for her performance in Firewatch, recurring on Disney's The Owl House, playing in 100+ universes that span the spectrum from Naruto to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or founding Ethovox, an AI company whose mission is to establish the ethical coexistence of AI and voiceover, she thrives in using her experience, passion, and knowledge to bring stories she believes in to life.
Title: Sr. Software Engineeer
Company: Electronic Arts (EA) Canada
Michael Jones is a Senior Software Engineer at EA and has over 20 years experience working on the FC/FIFA franchise. His current responsibilities include leading the FC Gameplay Team Fundamentals group and the Advanced Features/Tech group. He is an avid soccer player and uses his real-world experience to create software systems that model the strategies, decisions and physical nature of the sport. Through his career on the franchise he has developed many core systems including: CPU AI, player positioning, passing, set pieces, career mode, Academy, and Rush amongst others. Michael is also a champion of test driven development and has established practical methods to verify complex heuristics and ML systems in game.
Title: Narrative Writer, Consultant and Editor
Company: Independent
Jay Justice is an award-winning narrative writer, consultant and editor from NYC, based in Bangkok, Thailand. Her work has been featured by SyFy, Star Trek, BBC America, and Marvel Comics. Her most recent work includes consulting on Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, Read Only Memories: Neurodiver & Mass Effect Legendary Edition. As an outspoken POC, LGBTQIA+, and disability advocate, Jay is dedicated to creating positive change within her community & encouraging others to do the same.
Title: VP, Game Economy
Company: Star Atlas
Chris is the Co-president and co-founder of the Game Economics SIG, Co-host of the Game Economist Cast, and the Game Economist at Star Atlas. He has a PhD in economics from Purdue where he originally studied labor market discrimination. These days, he uses his economics training to make better game experiences.
Title: Partner and Co-Founder
Company: Zebra Partners
Perrin Kaplan is a global marketing and communications executive known for her award-winning work in emerging tech, entertainment, and gaming. She is a principal of Zebra Partners, which opened doors following her role as vice president of marketing and communications, as well as company spokesperson, growing Nintendo's corporate brand and overseeing notable global phenomena such as the Wii; Pokémon; DS; and the brand ambassador movement.
Kaplan's clientele includes innovative companies and brands, from indies to Fortune 500s, such as Meta/Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, Sony Pictures VR, DreamWorks, Aspyr, Reddit, Qualcomm, Gearbox, Samsung, NCSOFT, Wizards of the Coast, and many more. She started in the newsroom at Seattle's NBC affiliate with stints in political communications.
Considered one the best in her field, Kaplan is profiled in several books (Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play, The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 2: Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and the Billion-Dollar Battle to Shape Modern Gaming, Console Wars), articles and documentaries and is an active speaker for top events and organizations. She has been honored for her continued roles in female leadership growth.
Perrin also serves on board and strategic advisory roles for Women In Games International (WIGI), GamesBeat, and Didimo Inc., as well as formerly for VidCon.
Title: Technical Artist, Developer Relations
Company: Epic Games
Camille Kay is a Technical Artist on the Developer Relations team at Epic Games, where she works to empower developers through specialized support and guidance. With a background in animation, digital art, and interactive entertainment, her passion is at the intersection of art and technology. Throughout her career, Camille has led the creative development of original award-winning virtual reality content and provided technical art leadership on a wide variety of games and experiences with indie, AA, and AAA studios.
Title: Creative Director
Company: Meaning Machine
Tom is a game designer whose work focuses on turning speech and language into gameplay mechanics. He co-founded Meaning Machine in 2022 - a game and technology studio which explores the creative potential of author-directed AI characters & quests. In his role as Creative Director, he oversees the development of a range of internal and partner projects that all use generative AI in their core mechanics. Dead Meat, "the interrogation game where you can ask anything", is the studio's debut.
Title: Vice President and Senior Game Director, Overwatch
Company: Blizzard Entertainment
Aaron Keller is Game Director of Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch.
Title: Assistant Teaching Professor of Performance, Play & Design and Creative Technologies
Company: UCSC
Title: CEO
Company: VFX Apprentice
The visionary and chief pixel pusher of VFX Apprentice, Jason Keyser is a renowned FX artist, as well as a devoted VFX educator and student advocate. Jason has worked in entertainment as both a 2D FX and 3D VFX artist for 13 years, animating for the Powerpuff Girls, Arlo on Netflix, and multiple titles for Riot Games - including League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and several R&D projects. While working full-time at Riot, Jason created over 60 FX and VFX education videos on his YouTube channel; designed and taught courses for artists internally at Riot; mentored prospective FX artists; facilitated the VFX Bootcamp at GDC; and spoke at conferences to students and pros alike. Jason ultimately left Riot to commit full-time to VFX Apprentice, training and lifting up FX artists across the world. He has been doing so for the past 5 years, working with studios and students alike to provide top-tier VFX training.
Title: Writer
Company: Independent
Emma Kidwell is a writer and narrative designer who most recently worked at Firaxis on Civilization VII and Marvel’s Midnight Suns. The game she wrote on, Hindsight, was nominated for several awards citing its emotional impact on players. Kidwell has consulted on and freelanced for several NDA projects that she'd love to tell you about (but can't). Some say she still posts on ain=emmkid.itch.io/" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" data-ogsc="" data-mce-href="https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/BQcRCn5YzpcKvKW40F9fjHJ0XGD?domain=emmkid.itch.io/">her ain=itch.io/" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="1" data-ogsc="" data-mce-href="https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/uzdoCpYRz0uvmvwgrSYijHGQ-RX?domain=itch.io/">itch.io, but there’s only one way to find out.
Title: Clinical Psychologist
Company: Respec Psychological Services
Elizabeth Kilmer, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist dedicated to education and research in the use of applied games and resilient gaming communities. Dr. Kilmer developed a comprehensive training program on the use of applied games, with tracks for educators, therapists, and community members. She co-authored the book Therapeutically Applied Role-Playing Games: The Game to Grow Method and has supported the use of digital games like Minecraft in interventions with neurodivergent youth. Dr. Kilmer has extensive teaching and public speaking experience, with talks featured in conferences in the US and internationally. In her clinical practice, Dr. Kilmer uses games like D&D, Minecraft, and Animal Crossing to support insight, growth, and change with her clients.
Title: AI Companion Team Lead, Deep Learning Researcher
Company: KRAFTON AI
Hyunseung Kim is the AI Companion Team Lead and a Deep Learning Researcher at KRAFTON AI, where he leads the development of PUBG Ally, KRAFTON's co-playable character (CPC) initiative for PUBG. His work focuses on building LLM/SLM-based embodied agents capable of intelligent, real-time interaction within complex game environments. He is also a Ph.D. candidate at KAIST.
Title: Co-founder and CEO
Company: Apolo.us
Bill Kleyman is an award-winning data center, cloud, and digital infrastructure leader with a 20-year career at the forefront of technology. Ranked globally by Onalytica as one of the leading executives in cloud computing and data security, Bill is focused on advising organizations, training young talent, and educating global audiences around AI, machine learning, sustainable data center design, colocation architecture, cybersecurity, DevOps, and more. Today, Bill is CEO of Apolo, an AI platform and infrastructure company, and Chair of the Education Committee at Infrastructure Masons, Board Advisory Member of Nomad Futurists, and the AFCOM Data Center World Program Chair. Bill is also a regular guest lecturer at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering for graduate and undergraduate courses.
Title: Brand Art Director
Company: Lucasfilm Games
Greg Knight is a Brand Art Director for Lucasfilm Games working with Development teams on the content and art of Lucasfilm properties. With over 25 years in concept art and Art Direction, Greg has developed content for Star Wars: Republic Commando, Battlefront I&II, Squadrons, Jedi: Fallen Order, Galaxy of Heroes as well as a few animated features for Disney. Greg loves Comic books, trail running and café doodling.
Title: Software and Game Entrepreneur
Company: Stealth Gaming Company
Serge Knystautas is a game-tech and engineering leader based in Los Angeles, best known for building and scaling engineering organizations for online/live-service game teams.
He served as Head of Engineering at Gardens Interactive, where his mandate included rebuilding the engineering org, resetting how the team works, and hiring. Previously, his background includes senior engineering leadership (including Director of Software Engineering at Riot Games) and Head of Engineering at Singularity 6, where he cites scaling culture/team and helping launch an MMO with over 1M monthly active users. He also speaks publicly on rapid multiplayer iteration and backend/platform approaches (e.g., an Unreal Fest talk), and on game-dev process trends and AI.
Title: Senior Community Manager
Company: Broadsword Online Games
Jackie I. Ko has thrived as a community manager in the entertainment and gaming spaces for the past decade. In her current role, she manages the community and communications for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Alongside her love of connecting with her culture through food, getting through her gaming backlog, and hanging out with her tripod dog, Parfait, she has a passion for uplifting the voices of fellow Asian Americans and other BIPOC creators and professionals.
Title: Principal Engineer
Company: Schell Games
John Kolencheryl (he/him) is a Principal Engineer at Schell Games, serving in an Engineering Director capacity where he leads the engineering team on projects. His role involves close collaboration with Project Directors to define engineering scope and mitigate risk. Furthermore, he collaborates with the VP of Engineering to strategically shape the entire engineering department, focusing on establishing coding standards, frameworks and department processes.
With over 15 years of experience, John is an expert in engineering game software and building pipelines and tools that support content creation. Before joining Schell Games, he served as a Software Engineer at Larsen & Toubro Infotech, an IT consulting firm. Academically, John holds a master's degree in Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University, USA, where he was also the distinguished recipient of the 2nd Annual Randy Pausch Scholarship. He earned his bachelor's degree in Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering from Cochin University of Science and Technology, India.
Title: Narrative Editor
Company: Ape Law LLC
Marissa Koors is a narrative editor and designer with over a decade of experience making stories sharper across book publishing and interactive media. As a book editor, she worked for major publishing houses including Hachette Book Group and John Wiley & Sons, where she edited Kate Cooper's “Queens of a Fallen World”—a Finalist for the Cundill History Prize—among other titles, including major IP tie-ins from Marvel to “The Expanse.” She continues her work in the book industry as a literary agent for the Curious Minds Agency while focusing on interactive editorial and narrative design. Her credits as a game editor include “Alice's Lullaby” (2024), IndieCade nominee “Puckish” (2023), and “Zohran’s Run” (2025), in addition to editorial work for other interactive storytelling formats ranging from immersive theatre (“Disrememberance,” 2025) to ARGs ("MagStock Presents: Camp Gemstone Pond,” 2025). She has also edited and developed original epic and dark fantasy serials at Tapas Entertainment, and numerous indie TTRPGs. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Title: Director of Anti-Cheat
Company: Riot Games
Originally a cheat developer himself, Phillip Koskinas switched teams at the last second in an attempt to avoid sentencing, ultimately helping carve the very first League of Legends banwaves from the collective meat of the guilty. Once he completed the punishment of writing 300 million ETLs, Phillip ascended to lead Riot Games’ Vanguard team, a PC anti-cheat product that causes VALORANT cheaters to experience a variety of emotions. Shortly thereafter, he briefly served in Amazon Games' 32nd regime to delay an uprising of semi-autonomous smart toasters in Lost Ark, and Phillip now once again manages a portfolio of competitive integrity products for Riot Games, spanning all titles and platforms. Whenever we try to fire him, something howls in the basement.
Title: VP, Engineering
Company: Google Cloud
Sailesh Krishnamurthy is Vice President of Engineering at Google where he leads engineering for all Databases at Google Cloud and for all of Google’s services. He is an innovator and entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience in databases and the cloud. Before Google, Sailesh was GM for Aurora and RDS MySQL at Amazon preceded by a stint at Cisco Systems via the acquisition of Truviso, a real-time streaming data analytics software company that he co-founded. Sailesh is an authority in data management and is an author of over a dozen academic papers and several issued U.S. patents. He earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley in 2006.
Title: CEO
Company: Faceform
Andrei is the co-founder and CEO of Faceform, where he oversees the development of Wrap, Wrap4D, and WrapAI - products that help artists and studios create digital characters based on 3D scans of real actors. Passionate about digital humans, Andrei is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of character realism in games and films.
Title: Teacher/Coach
Company: The Kugler Company, LLC
41 years of coaching and teaching executives and professionals how to treat each other better in and through human conversation. Deeply rewarded and satisfied Dad of two strong, loving, and successful women. Continuing to find contentment and fulfillment in a marriage of over thirty years. Sustainably fascinated and inspired by the inextricable linkage between all three
Title: Programmer
Company: Nintendo Co., Ltd.
Mr. Kurihara joined Nintendo Co., Ltd. in 2014, contributing to the development of 3D action games in the Entertainment Planning & Development Department.
He served as one of the programmers for Super Mario Odyssey and Donkey Kong Bananza.
Title: Co-founder & Studio Director
Company: League of Geeks
Trent Kusters is the co-founder and studio director of Melbourne's League of Geeks, and co-creator of Armello, Jumplight Odyssey, and Solium Infernum. He also currently serves as a member of the GDC Advisory Board, and host of the AIAS Game Maker's Notebook podcast.
Beyond his influential studio and creative leadership, Trent has twice hosted the IGFs (Independent Games Festival), chaired the Freeplay Independent Games Festival through its strongest growth period, and was the inaugural videogame lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts, where he wrote and taught their renowned games writing curriculum.
Trent is a Forbes, MCV, and Develop '30 Under 30' honoree (though no longer under 30!), and was honoured at the 2023 Australian Game Developer Awards with the Adam Lancman Award (Excellence in the Industry), its youngest recipient ever.
Title: Founder & CEO
Company: Midwest Games
As founder of Midwest Games, Ben Kvalo has pushed forward a new publishing model in the industry, Shadow Publishing, providing more flexible and sustainable support. Ben is an entertainment and video games leader, most recently having built out films and games while at Netflix. Previously, Ben has worked at two of the largest global video game companies, 2K and Blizzard, working across various roles in publishing, marketing, and technology on both video games and Esports.
Ben has worked on some of entertainment's biggest brands including Bird Box, Extraction, Army of the Dead, and over 50 other titles. In video games, he has worked on major franchises like NBA2K, Borderlands, BioShock, Civilization, Mafia, and all of Blizzard's Esports brands, having helped to publish over 100 titles. Ben is proudly Midwestern, originally from Wisconsin, having graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Title: Director
Company: Noble Robot
Mark LaCroix is a multidisciplinary artist who runs the indie media outfit Noble Robot, working on video and tabletop games as well as developer tools and resources. He is also the co-host of the weekly game development podcast Nice Games Club, and the board chair of Nice Games Alliance, a nonprofit organization supporting independent game development in the Twin Cities. His prior work as a filmmaker and visual artist/animator has appeared in international film festivals, on municipal utility boxes, and as part of multiple Emmy-winning television productions. Mark lives in Minneapolis with his wife and three computers.
Title: Independent
American-British composer, Mike Ladouceur, is among the most exciting and significant talents emerging today, with many high-profile film, TV, game and live event projects to his name. Renowned on both sides of the Atlantic, his musical style blends orchestral and ambient electronic textures, and has been described by Grammy nominated conductor and orchestrator, Jeff Atmajian, as like listening to a beautiful impressionist painting. Most recently, Mike worked with Chromatic London as music team lead to compose the bespoke music and sound design for the internationally broadcasted show 1001 Seasons of Elie Saab. Under the music Direction of Daniel Thibaut, Mike and their team wrote the finale for Celine Dion and worked closely with Jennifer Lopez's team to orchestrate her set. They recorded their score at the world famous Abbey Road studios. Mike has composed and arranged music for many high profile private events for major designer brands and Royal events. Mike composed the music for a VR game, Trailblazer, with the EMMY Nominated Singer Studios; starring and Executive produced by Daisy Ridley. His debut feature film, How I Faked My Life With AI, had it's premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2024 to great acclaim. Just before this, he completed Mizu, a documentary series about Japanese culture in Italy, produced for TaTaTu which was written up in Rolling Stone. Mike's debut album, Between Worlds, was recorded at Angel Studios with a 42-piece orchestra and was launched at an immersive art installation at London's Hospital Club with bespoke visuals. He has written additional music and arrangements for His Dark Materials (HBO/BBC), Marcella (ITV/Netflix), Love. Wedding. Repeat (Netflix), and for Master Moley (Nottage Productions) starring Gemma Arterton, Charles Dance, Julie Walters, and Warwick Davis. He has also worked as Orchestrator on The Outer Worlds 2 (Obsidian) and Honor of King's (Tencent) as well as many major film projects including Black Widow (Disney), Mission Impossible: Fallout (Paramount), Ad Astra (Plan B), Gemini Man (Skydance/Paramount), 6 Underground (Netflix), Looking Up (Tianjin Chengzi Yinxiang Media), Where's My Roy Cohn? (Sony) and Nae Pasaran (BBC Scotland). Mike is a passionate educator, holding faculty positions at both Cambridge University and Royal College of Music teaching composition for visual media. He has created his own online course which has helped over 150 students as well as a 6-week intensive in orchestral writing; where he led participants through the process of writing and recording their pieces for full orchestra with multiple large-scale recording sessions.
Title: Product Manager
Company: Meta
Mike Lamprinos is a Product Manager at Reality Labs, working on Meta Quest SDKs and Developer Tooling. He is working on tools that developers use every day like Meta Building Blocks, Runtime Optimizer, Immersive Debugger and AI tools. Mike enjoys to learn how developers use Meta Quests unique capabilities to reimagine immersive experiences and he’s committed to making Horizon OS development more accessible to a wider set of developers.
Title: Music Supervisor
Company: Ubisoft
Simon Landry has been working in the music industry for the last 20 years, as a music supervisor, a music producer and a music composer. Since 2008, as part of Ubisoft Music, he has been delivering industry-leading music supervision, design, production, implementation, and trailer music services for many Ubisoft studios, on AAA videogame franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six and Avatar. Simon's main Awards & Recognitions include working on the Grammy-winning Score of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök by Stephanie Economou, the Grammy-nominated Score of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora by Pinar Toprak, and the BAFTA-winning Score of Far Cry 4 by Cliff Martinez.
Title: Co-Founder
Company: Everybody House Games
Frank Lantz is a game designer, game design educator, and writer. He is Chair Emeritus of the NYU Game Center, the co-founder of Area/Code Games, and the co-founder of Everybody House Games. He taught game design for over 20 years at New York University, Parsons School of Design, and the School of Visual Arts and has created many influential talks and writings on the subject of games. His book The Beauty of Games was published by MIT Press in 2023. He is the co-creator of numerous games including Universal Paperclips, Drop7, Babble Royale, and Q-UP.
Title: CEO
Company: Neopets
Dominic Law, Neopets CEO, is a serial entrepreneur with a track record for creating successful and long-lasting digital experiences. His passion for Neopets began in childhood after moving to Hong Kong from Canada where the platform, as an early form of social media, offered him ways to stay connected with friends and fond memories of whimsical gameplay. Dominic focuses on the revitalization of Neopets' IP – from gameplay to real-world interactive brand experiences as well as licensing partnerships and retail merchandising strategy. As a firm believer in the need to infuse modernity into Neopets without sacrificing core tenets of the brand. He aspires to revive the game to its 2000s cultural phenomenon status.
Title: CEO and Founder
Company: XEODesign
President and Founder of XEODesign Nicole Lazzaro has 30+ years in Player Experience Design and over a decade in XR. Lazzaro's model "The 4 Keys to Fun" has influenced millions of designers on games such as WOW, Halo, and Assassin's Creed. Lazzaro has helped create emotion-driven experiences for giants like Disney, EA, DICE, Meta, and Ubisoft on Myst, The Matrix, Diner Dash, TRIPP, Flow Immersive, and more. From advising LucasArts on Star Wars and Will Wright on The Sims 2, to designing the first iPhone game and being the first to measure facial emotions in games, Lazzaro continues to innovate. In the XR Hall of Fame (for XR Design Language and Spatial Audio Innovation), no one understands XR design better than Nicole. Lazzaro can be spotted on the keynote stage at MWC, AWE, GamesBeat, and GDC. Currently developing (design & code) "Follow the White Rabbit Tales" an episodic XR Mystery Adventure about a Magician whose magic one day suddenly works. Now soft launched on Apple Vision Pro she is fundraising to bring it to new platforms.
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nicolelazzaro.bsky.social
Title: Principal Software Engineer
Company: Riot Games
Marc LeBlanc has been working in the game industry since 1992, and lecturing about game design since 1999. He has contributed to notable game titles such as Thief: The Dark Project, System Shock, NBA2K and League of Legends: Wild Rift. In 2004 he won the grand prize at the Independent Games Festival for Oasis, which he developed with Andrew Leker. Throughout his career, Marc has passionately explored the intersection between technology and play, and advanced our understanding of game design. He is the original creator of the Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics (MDA) framework, a foundational tool developed for his annual Game Design Workshop at the Game Developers Conference. He has bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from MIT. He can sometimes be found on Twitch, streaming remakes and mods of games he made twenty years ago, or on YouTube, explaining how video games use math concepts.
Title: Associate Professor
Company: University of California, Davis
Patrick LeMieux is a media artist, game designer, electronic musician, and associate professor in the Cinema and Digital Media Department at the University of California, Davis. His research and teaching engage game studies, media theory, and art making to explore the material practices and community histories of play, from speedrunning, modding, and esports to installation art, modular synthesis, and alternative control. He is the co-author of Metagaming with Stephanie Boluk and the creator of small games like Footnotes, Triforce, and the Octopad, an eight-player controller for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Title: Head of Game Audio Division
Company: POSTRED
Luka Lebanidze leads the Games Division at POSTRED, where he builds long-term partnerships with studios and supports audio teams with scalable, artist-led production. His work spans audio co-development, business development, and creative supervision, aligning artistic vision with sustainable production systems.
Under his leadership, POSTRED has contributed to titles including Path of Exile II, Wuthering Waves, Naruto Mobile, Delta Force, and Roco Kingdom.
POSTRED is an audio co-development partner known for performance-driven sound design and cinematic worldbuilding. With a team of 20+ sound designers and dedicated creature, Foley, and implementation specialists, the studio focuses on original performance and collaborative pipelines that support large-scale game production.
Title: Head of AI and Blockchain
Company: NEXUS
Issac Lee is Head of AI and Blockchain at NEXUS, where his team shipped the first games built for autonomous AI agents in early 2026. With 8 years investing and building in blockchain — from Web3 game economies to DeFi infrastructure — he now focuses on the intersection where AI agents, digital ownership, and gaming converge. He believes the people who build worlds will define the next era of human experience.
Title: Lead Generative AI Analyst
Company: NVIDIA
As a pioneer of network culture research, an early explorer of VR, and a longtime community advocate, Matthew Lee uses the power of games to change the world and improve people's lives. He serves as Chair of the IGDA Serious Games SIG, which promotes inter-disciplinary collaboration, connects serious game communities around the world through events and meetups, and advocates for greater awareness about serious games in the general game education curriculum. Additionally, he consults on serious games projects for the healthcare industry, works on integrating design and innovation curricula into healthcare education, and designs games and environments that promote well-being.
Title: Co-Founder
Company: cirqueSaw
Nathan Leigh is the co-artistic director of cirqueSaw and the inventor of the Familect programming language. His stop motion animations The House On Stilts, The Immortan Joe Memorial Highway, and Washashores have been recognized by Newark International Film Festival, Geek Fest Toronto, and Manhattan Rep's STORIES among others. With partner Nicole Orabona, Nathan co-founded cirqueSaw in 2020 and created the remote interactive pieces labRats (NarraScope 2025 Featured Showcase), Void Main and POV: You Are An AI Achieving Consciousness (RnD Immersive Production of the Year 2023, No Proscenium Special Editor's Award 2024).
Title: Engineering Manager
Company: Riot Games
Anran Li is an Engineering Manager & Product Lead at Riot Games, working on their fighting game 2XKO. She started her career as a Software Engineer at Microsoft, where she helped ship Halo 5, Halo Wars 2, and Halo Infinite. Anran first became a leader while working at Twitch, helping streamers make a living doing what they love, on eSports, Subscriptions, Bits, and Emotes. Anran is a product-minded engineering leader, with technical speciality in around game systems and online services. Anran's personal mission is to help demystify games and tech, and make it more welcoming for underrepresented groups. She volunteers with organizations like the IGDA Foundation, AIAS DICE Foundation, and UCLA. She has also been a speaker at PAX, San Diego Comic Con, Game Access, and SINFO conferences.
Title: Professor
Company: University of the Incarnate Word
Jingtian Li is an Associate Professor and the Department Chair of the 3D Animation and Game Design department at the University of the Incarnate Word. He specializes in Game Programming and Tech Art, and has a wide skill set range from programming languages like C/C++, C#, Python, to DCC tools like Maya, Houdini, ZBrush, Substance Painter and Designer - he is also specialized in Unreal Engine programming, GAS, and Multiplayer game dev. As an educator, Jingtian has been teaching since 2015, and has taught many classes in the department, including Game Programming I, II, III, IV, Rigging, Technical Direction, Procedural Modeling, and Senior Thesis Production I & II. Jingtian also worked on commercial advertising and participated in XR projects professionally.
Title: Engineering Manager
Company: Playstudios
University of Michigan alumni and software engineering human with 10+ years of experience, most recently as a founding engineer at a telehealth addiction treatment startup. Vicki's love for gaming and working with cool people brought her to Brainium, where she now gets to do her favorite thing - making her team happier, healthier, and more effective on a day-by-day basis. Outside of work, Vicki is usually found enjoying arts & crafts, playing piano, making spreadsheets, or instigating shenanigans while gaming with friends.
Title: Senior Researcher
Company: Tencent
Haoming Li is a Senior Researcher at Tencent Interactive Entertainment Global. Before joining Tencent, he was a PhD student at USC working on TinyML. He has published in leading AI conferences such as ICML, AAAI and IJCAI.
Title: SR. Solutions Architect
Company: NVIDIA
John is a Solution Architect focusing on the Media & Entertainment industry, who has a wealth of experience designing and deploying GPU accelerated virtualization platforms for artists, AI researchers, and game developers. He has worked with many game publishers and developers on modernizing and centralizing their enterprise infrastructures for better management, data security, and maximizing utilizations.
Title: Director of Commercial Globalization
Company: Tencent Cloud
Eric Li is Director of AI Global Commercialization at Tencent Cloud, leading the productization and global adoption of AI technologies across interactive and real-time applications. His work focuses on agent development platform(ADP), Tencent PalmAI, and HY 3D that help teams build faster, automate workflows, and scale intelligent experiences.
Previously, he helped build Tencent Youtu Lab's commercialization team and served as Chief Solution Architect and Chief AI Architect, delivering more than 100 AI projects across industries. He now works closely with developers and partners worldwide to bring production-ready AI from research into real-world products.
Title: Head of Business Development for US Online Business
Company: Ant International - Antom
Sandra Li is the Head of Business Development for US Online Business at Ant International, where she drives Antom's expansion across North America and builds next-generation cross-border payment solutions for global merchants.
She previously led Ant's US Travel & Ecommerce business, accelerating the adoption of seamless international payment experiences across airlines, retailers, and digital platforms.
Before joining Ant, Sandra spent over a decade at Nielsen advising Fortune 500 brands on consumer insights and market growth. She holds an MBA in International Business from the Schulich School of Business and brings a deeply global perspective to the future of payments and digital commerce.
Title: Senior Composer/Music & Audio Director
Company: Interleave Inc.
Mason Lieberman is an award-winning composer, audio director, and producer known for his contributions to the gaming and anime zeitgeist. He prides himself on being a problem-solver whose biggest passion is always to connect people through music. Beginning his professional journey as a freelance composer, he got his start composing on anime series like Rooster Teeth's RWBY and Beyblade Burst Evolution, amongst many others. His music has enhanced the heroics of franchises like Spider-Man, Mobile Suit Gundam, Ultraman, and Neon Genesis Evangelion, while lending epic gravitas to titles like Overwatch 2, League of Legends: Wild Rift, PUBG Mobile, Apex Legends Mobile, Teamfight Tactics, EVO, DC Metal Force, Omega Strikers, Unico, Eden, Game for Peace, Mobile Legends Bang Bang, Devil Engine, Soundfall, Bread & Fred, and many others. As a cellist, guitarist, and vocalist, Mason has had the great pleasure of working with a wide variety of film and gaming franchises, with personal favorites including Pokémon, Death Stranding 2, Kaiju #8, Stars Wars: Visions, The Rising of the Shield Hero, Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. franchise, Riot Games' League of Legends, Guild Wars 2, AMC's The Walking Dead, Made in Abyss, Arknights, Tower of God, Warhammer: Vermintide, the Grammy-nominated Stray Gods, Sega's Sin Chronicle, Hell's Kitchen, and God Eater. As a public speaker, Mason Lieberman has addressed passionate audiences on subjects related to film scoring, anime music production, video game scoring, and music theory. He has lectured academically at acclaimed academic programs like Harvard University, UCLA, Musicians Institute and Berklee College of Music, industry-leading conferences like NAMM, SXSW, GDC, and GameSoundCon, and many others. He is a member of faculty at the University of Southern California, where he lectures on video game audio for the School of Cinematic Arts' Interactive Media and Games department. He is also a member of faculty at Berklee College of Music, where he teaches in the Screen Scoring program on subjects surrounding video game scoring, film scoring, and the business of being a composer in the modern media landscape. In 2019, he partnered with Asia Pacific government officials as an international ambassador to Australia representing the video-game music industry. He was thrilled to present the official Cowboy Bebop charity single, 'The Real Folk Blues', in collaboration with Funimation, Sunrise, featuring special guest artists like Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts, Steve Blum, and many, many more. This original arrangement hit #6 on Billboard global Digital song sales chart, as well as #1 on rock charts in Japan. In 2021, he shared the 'Best Score' award at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards with the rest of the team of 'Tower of God'. He also received the 2020 GANG award for Best Casual or Social Game Audio for his contributions to Tencent's wildly-popular 'Game for Peace' soundtrack. He was honored to be a part of the Forbes 30 under 30, Gaming category for the 2022 list. In 2023, he won the Hollywood Music in Media award for Best Game Score - Mobile for his work as a composer and music director for Game for Peace. For six years, Mason served as a senior composer and game audio supervisor for Tencent. In this position, he had the indescribable honor of working with many of the best audio professionals in the industry on a daily basis. Today, Mason is the Music and Audio Director at Interleave, one of the most highly-regarded music and audio companies in the world. He leads a team of expert audio veterans on a path that has intersected with many of the top franchises of all time. Mason endorses Kiesel Guitars, NS Design, and Auralex Acoustics.
Title: Creative Director
Company: Derek Lieu Creative
Derek Lieu is an indie game trailer producer from Boston, MA who has helped make over 100 trailers for games including: Among Us, Half-Life: Alyx, Psychonauts 2, Firewatch, Spelunky 2, The Long Dark, Noita, Dead Cells, Subnautica, Ooblets, Stray Gods, and more. He studied film production at NYU, worked as an assistant at the prestigious movie trailer house Giaronomo Productions in New York City and as an editor for AAA games at Hammer Creative in Los Angeles. He's made game trailers independently for nearly 10 years and currently resides in New Jersey with his partner and their two cats Uni and Ebi.
Title: UX Director
Company: Ubisoft
David has been working professionally in the games industry for over 25 years. He has spent the majority of his career focused on the user experience of game development tools, and works to inspire others via his acclaimed conferences all around the world. David is an Autodesk Master Award recipient and recently completed the second edition of his book "Designing the User Experience of Game Development Tools". He currently holds the position of User Experience Director at Ubisoft Montreal.
Title: Art Director
Company: Insomniac Games
Sandy is a creative team leader with decades of industry experience as a video game developer. As an Art Director, she is well experienced in articulating artistic visions with clarity, meaning and purpose. Sandy supervises the visual directions across all the art disciplines worldwide ranging from concept art, character design, environment, set dressing, VFX, lighting to cinematics. Her role is to steer production pipeline and hire quality developers. She finds opportunities to partner with other development disciplines to constitute creative pillars, drive toward a singular vision, and strategize through technical and artistic lenses. Sandy is an energetic leader who values and fosters an open, inclusive and collaborative team dynamic that provides creative freedom within set boundaries to ensure her team reaches the highest level of innovation, productivity and quality. Sandy's past experience as an individual content contributor on various game genre has provided solid foundations for her to become an intuitive and well-rounded art leader and manager in the video game and entertainment industry. She seeks growth both professionally and personally, and constantly adjusts to lead with courage, compassion, integrity and honesty. Sandy cares greatly about her community both at work and outside. She volunteers as a mentor and a coach to students, peers and women leaders in other organizations. Her hope is that positive influences will bring more diversity to the video game and entertainment industry. In her spare time, she stays physically active with her children who inspire her mindfully as they grow old together.
Title: Chief of Staff
Company: Keywords Studios
Nicolas Liorzou is the Chief of Staff at Keywords Studios, where he leads the execution of the Group's highest-priority strategic initiatives. In his current role, Nicolas ensures that Keywords Studios remains at the forefront of the industry's evolution, accelerating the adoption of emerging technologies and leading the Group's strategic Consulting offering to help global clients navigate the complexities of modern game development.
At Keywords Studios, Nicolas previously served as Chief Innovation & Consulting Officer, where he spearheaded the Group's efforts to build value through technological advancement and new service models. His tenure at Keywords Studios also includes roles as Chief Shared Services Officer, streamlining global resource access, and Regional Managing Director for the Americas, where he established a foundational platform for the Group's expansion in the region.
Before joining Keywords in 2014, Nicolas built a reputation for operational excellence in the industry, notably at WB Games Montreal. With a career-long commitment to growth management and value creation, he now combines his institutional knowledge with a passion for AI innovation, ensuring Keywords Studios is uniquely positioned to empower creators and lead the next generation of technical and creative services.
Title: President
Company: Arrival
Paul is an award-winning executive and creative leader whose career spans the globe, establishing him as a leading figure in innovation and advocacy within the games and interactive entertainment industry. As the President of Arrival, Paul is the driving force behind the company’s global operations, fueling strategy, content development, and creative pipelines across teams in Los Angeles, Seattle, and the UK.
Prior to leading Arrival, Paul served as SVP Interactive Worldwide at Formosa Group and was Senior Audio Director at Xbox Game Studios. He has managed extensive AAA teams and pipelines for industry giants including Activision, EA, SEGA, Ubisoft, PlayStation Studios, Electronic Arts, LucasArts, 2K Games, Nintendo of America, Harmonix, and many more.
His portfolio includes credits on some of the industry’s most successful properties, including the God of War franchise, The Last of Us franchise, Halo, Call of Duty, Genshin Impact, Resident Evil, Fortnite, Borderlands 3, Sunset Overdrive, Forza Motorsport 5, Iron Man 2, and BioShock 2. Paul and his teams have achieved global recognition, winning multiple MPSE Golden Reel Awards, DICE Awards, G.A.N.G. Awards, SXSW Awards, BAFTA Awards, and Golden Joystick Awards. In 2023, Paul was honored with the prestigious Game Audio Network Guild Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Conference.
A passionate advocate for the industry, Paul served a six-year term as President of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.)—the world’s largest organization of game audio professionals. As an active member of the Board of Directors, he helped originate the industry-first Program Partnership Initiative, the Guild Scholarship Award, and the worldwide advisor network. He was also a founding member of G.A.N.G. 's Pro Branches, including the Interactive Entertainment Sound Developers (IESD) and the Voice Actor Coalition (GVAC).
Paul is also a patent holder, having co-invented a first-of-its-kind Pre-Cognitive Interactive Music System with Microsoft colleague Robert Ridihalgh. An active speaker, he has conducted master classes and panels at MIT, Yale University, Berklee College of Music, Georgia Tech, SIGGRAPH, GDC, and the GRAMMY Soundtables.
Paul holds a BM and MM with summa/highest distinction from the world-renowned New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. A jazz and classical musician of twenty-five years, he has performed and recorded with legends such as Mick Goodrick, John Abercrombie, Clark Terry, George Russell, Cecil McBee, and Bob Moses.
Title: Technical Product Manager
Company: NVIDIA
Jonathan Litt is a technical product manager in the NVIDIA Developer Tools group, where his primary aim is to improve and evolve graphics tools in alignment with the day-to-day needs of graphics engineers, performance experts, and technical artists. He has been a practitioner of real-time and offline computer graphics for over 20 years, having previously worked as a 3D artist and software developer.
Title: Test Lead II
Company: Blizzard Entertainment
Carey Littlefield is a QA Lead at Blizzard Entertainment with 7 years in the games industry, leading strategic quality efforts on World of Warcraft. He also serves as a Global Lead for Microsoft's Black in Gaming, where he champions equity, mentorship, and representation. Outside of the office, Carey is a dedicated cosplayer and lifelong fighting game enthusiast, passionate about storytelling, community, and creative expression.
Title: Game AI designer
Company: NetEase
Chang Liu is game AI designer at NetEase's ThunderFire Studio, developer of Sword of Justice Mobile. After two years in NetEase's Fuxi AI Lab, Liu moved to ThunderFire four years ago to place large-model technology directly inside a live MMO. She now leads all AI-powered systems in Sword of Justice—including QuickShoot Stage and StageHub, the game's 3-D short-video platform, plus the Intelligent NPC network and open-world Bounty Board. Her focus is turning AI features into evergreen live-ops content that keeps players engaged well beyond launch. This session marks Liu's GDC debut.
Title: IEGG AI Algorithm Lead
Company: Tencent
Dr Wenqiang Liu is a Lead Researcher at Tencent Interactive Entertainment Global, overseeing the research, development and application of LLMs in Tencent's international games. He has published in leading NLP conferences such as ACL, NAACL, NeurIPS and AAAI.
Title: Art Director
Company: Netflix Games
After 17 years of game industry experience across both large established companies and small indie studios, Grace still often marvels at getting to make games with great human beings who share the same passion. Her other hobbies include gardening, board and tabletop gaming, and plein air painting.
Title: Senior AI Researcher and Game Developer
Company: Tencent Games
Lock (Zhongyuan) Liu is a Senior AI Researcher and Game Developer at LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS, and formerly served as the algorithm and product lead for scene placement in Tencent Games' frontier technology team. He holds a Ph.D. in Computational Mathematics from the University of Science and Technology of China and has a background in interior architecture, landscape design, and digital installation art. His research and practice focus on multi‑agent and multimodal AI for 3D scene design and procedural content generation, with work published at venues such as SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia, AAAI, and IEEE TVCG.
Title: Principal Engineer
Company: Tencent Games
Dr. Elvis Liu is a Principal Engineer at Tencent Games, where he leads multiple R&D teams focused on distributed virtual environments and AI technologies. He has spearheaded several groundbreaking projects that are reshaping the future of game AI. Most notably, he led the development of sparring AI agents for Naruto Mobile—the first commercial fighting game to integrate deep reinforcement learning—which has powered over two billion human-AI matches. The design of this machine learning system was presented by Dr. Liu at the GDC 2024 Machine Learning Summit. More recently, he introduced F.A.C.U.L.—the world's first FPS AI companion capable of seamless interaction with human players through natural language—unveiled at GDC 2025 Core Concepts.
Title: Co-Founder/Creative Director
Company: Night Signal Entertainment LLC
Nick is an award-winning independent game developer of 11+ years, having served as the lead writer, artist and "marketing guy" on cult hits such as Home Safety Hotline, We Need To Go Deeper, Doodle Date and more. Nick's work has been praised across his career as "imaginative", "wildly funny" and "twisted" by outlets such as NPR, Kotaku and Bloody Disgusting, among others. Nick has also voyaged into other creative endeavors through the years such as writing for comedy websites and acting/puppeteering at terrible fantasy theme parks. In his free time, Nick enjoys watching the worst films ever put to celluloid and spending time with his cosplaying actress wife Kortney and their two pet gremlins.
Title: Senior PMM, Enterprise Game Development
Company: NVIDIA
Paul Logan is a senior product marketing manager at NVIDIA, where he leads go-to-market for enterprise game development across hardware, software, and AI. He works with studios, ISVs, and researchers to surface and connect emerging technologies, such as world foundation models, to real production workflows. Drawing on a background in developer relations, technical marketing, and storytelling, he specializes in distilling fast-moving innovations into clear, actionable insights for creators and technical leaders.
Title: Technical Director
Company: ROCKFISH Games GmbH
Sven Lohse is Technical Director at ROCKFISH Games, where he leads development on systems and infrastructure for the EVERSPACE series. With a strong background in computer science and almost two decades of experience in game development, Sven specializes in localization, UI/UX, tooling, combat AI, and game physics. Since joining ROCKFISH in 2015, he has been instrumental in shaping the studio's technical pipeline, with a focus on scalability, quality, and cross-platform support.
Title: Investor
Company: Griffin Gaming Partners
Jakob Longer is an Investor at Griffin Gaming Partners, one of thelargest venture capital funds globally focused exclusively on thegaming industry, with over $1.5B in assets under management. AtGriffin, he sources and evaluates investment opportunities acrosscontent, infrastructure, and platforms. Previously, Jakob workedacross Play Ventures, Wargaming, and Rovio Entertainment (AngryBirds), where he led M&A strategy including the Ruby Gamesacquisition.
Title: CEO & Creative Director
Company: DALOAR Studios
David Lorenzo is the founder and CEO of DALOAR Studios (Valladolid), a 32-person studio established in 2021 and focused on developing original IPs in Unreal Engine 5. He has led the production of The Occultist (a narrative horror title) and previously directed VR/AR projects for major brands. In 2014, he founded a video game school that has trained hundreds of students. His work sits at the intersection of studio leadership, production, and business development with publishers and investors.
Title: Publishing Director
Company: Neon Noroshi/Yotsuba Interactive
Samantha Low is a publishing director and narrative designer. She brings both business acumen and creative flair to her work consulting for indie developers and to her passion, crafting personal stories in games. Low is best known for her work championing indie games from Southeast Asia and Japan. In 2025, she co-founded the Southeast Asian Games Showcase, the first global showcase for the region to partner with Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest. In 2023, she was inducted into The Game Awards Future Class.
Title: Director and Trade Commisioner
Company: Essential Costa Rica
Maykool Lopez is the Trade Commissioner of Costa Rica in the United States and Director of PROCOMER's New York office. With more than 25 years of experience in global business development, he specializes in expansion strategies, competitive intelligence, and international market entry.
A passionate advocate for entrepreneurship and innovation, Maykool has led successful go-to-market strategies across North America. He connects global companies with high-value Costa Rican exporters in sectors including videogames, technology, animation, and more, driving trade growth and sustainable international partnerships.
Title: Founder & CEO
Company: Magic Potion Games
Stephen MacDonald is the Founder and CEO of Magic Potion Games, where he creates the product vision and long-term company strategy for Imagine Island, a kid-focused virtual world built with safety at its core. With 25 years of experience in the games industry, Stephen has held leadership roles across major entertainment companies including EA, Ubisoft, and Disney, helping build and scale interactive experiences for global audiences.
Drawing on deep experience designing social games and online communities for games like Club Penguin, the largest kids virtual world of its time, Stephen brings a clear vision on how to create age-appropriate, playful, engaging virtual worlds for today’s kids without compromising safety or trust. At Magic Potion Games, he leads the studio’s mission to set a new standard for safe online play at a time when families and regulators are demanding safer digital spaces.
Title: CEO & Co-Founder
Company: Dragon Snacks
Jen MacLean is the CEO and Co-Founder of Dragon Snacks Games. She got her start in the games industry as a playtester at legendary game studio MicroProse, and from there she built her lifelong love of video games into a successful career managing development of award-winning games, leading partnerships worth billions of dollars, and creating ground-breaking entertainment strategies. Most recently, Jen was the General Manager of Creator Partnerships for Xbox, where her team managed Xbox's largest partner relationships and Jen co-led content strategy for new initiatives.
Title: Professor
Company: Parsons School of Design
Colleen Macklin is a game designer and a Professor in the school of Art, Media and Technology at Parsons School of Design. They are the founder and co-director of PETLab, a design research lab. PETLab projects include disaster preparedness games with the Red Cross, the urban activist game Re:Activism and the fiscal sport Budgetball. She is a member of Local No. 12, known for the videogame Dear Reader (Apple Arcade). With John Sharp they have co-authored Games, Design and Play: A detailed look at iterative game design (Addison Wesley Professional, 2016) and Iterate: Ten Lessons in Design and Failure (MIT Press, 2019).
Title: CEO
Company: Peel Software Development LLC
Alastair Macleod has been working in motion capture since 1998, bringing over 25 years of experience as supervisor, consultant, and software developer. As CEO of Peel Software Development LLC, he created PeelSolve and PeelCapture, motion capture tools that have become widely adopted across the game and film industries. His career spans iconic productions from The Matrix trilogy and The Lord of the Rings to cutting-edge AAA games. Beyond commercial work, Macleod conducts motion capture technical workshops that train the next generation of mocap professionals in practical production skills.
Title: CEO
Company: SynaptixGames
Robert Madsen began his coding career in 1979. Robert started a software firm in 1992 and completed his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in 1998 from California State University. Robert entered the game industry in 2004, working for MumboJumbo in Dallas, TX in 2008. In 2009 he moved to Other Ocean Interactive in Charlottetown, PEI. Robert founded SynaptixGames, in 2011 where he continues as CEO and Studio Director. Robert is a member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and Chair for the IGDA Indie SIG. Robert is also adjunct faculty at Northeastern University and teaches game economics.
Title: Senior Manager, Brand & IP Strategy
Company: Critical Role
Sam Maggs is a New York Times Bestselling and Eisner-nominated author of books, comics, and video games. Her novels include Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars and The Unstoppable Wasp: Built on Hope; she’s written for games like Call of Duty: Vanguard, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and Marvel’s Spider-Man; and her comics and graphic novels include Marvel Action: Captain Marvel, Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins, and Tell No Tales: Pirates of the Southern Seas. She is also on-air talent for networks like Dropout and the Nerdist. A Canadian in Los Angeles, she misses Coffee Crisp and bagged milk.
Title: Program Consultant, Gaming
Company: GLAAD
Sabrina Mah is a multidisciplinary game developer working as a Program Consultant on the Gaming team at GLAAD, a nonprofit organization harnessing the power of media to accelerate understanding and acceptance of the LGBTQ community. Her past roles in game development include work in Production, QA, and Narrative at studios The Coalition and Respawn Entertainment.
Sabrina utilizes her broad industry experience to improve character representation effectively within the unique challenges of game development. Whilst also acting as Narrative Producer, she led the award-winning authenticity efforts on Catalyst, Conduit, and Alter from Apex Legends. In her free time, she studies computer science, and is currently learning C++.
Title: Senior Game Designer
Company: Blizzard Entertainment
Nicole Maiorano is currently part of the Diablo Immortal development team at Blizzard Entertainment. She has worked on several areas of the game, including design of zone content, limited-time gameplays, and dungeon content. Prior to working at Blizzard Entertainment, she worked as a game designer on mobile titles at A Thinking Ape, and at Glu Mobile. She has a BA in Game Design from DigiPen Institute of Technology. Outside of games, she enjoys anime, escape rooms, and attending concerts of varying genres.
Title: Principal Developer Technology Engineer
Company: NVIDIA
Evgeny Makarov has been a Developer Technology Engineer at NVIDIA since 2006, with a long history of helping studios improve visuals and performance in PC games. Recently, he has expanded his technical focus to include Generative AI, specifically working on the first integrations of Large Language Models (LLMs) for real-time, local inference in gaming environments.
Title: Head of Strategy and Business Planning
Company: Midwest Games
Cisco Maldonado is a publishing and franchise strategist working across global entertainment and games. He has held senior leadership roles at NetEase Games, Bandai Namco and DC Comics/Warner Bros., shaping go-to-market strategy, portfolio positioning, and long-term IP growth across multiple AAA franchises. Cisco specializes in the intersection of product, fans, and business strategy; helping studios translate creative vision into scalable ecosystems that drive engagement, retention, and lifetime value.
Title: Staff Developer Advocate
Company: Discord
Hailing from Australia, but now living in San Francisco, Mark Mandel is a Staff Developer Advocate improving developer experience on Discord's platform for game developers. He is also often known as the founder of two open source projects - Agones, a dedicated game server hosting and scaling platform and Quilkin, a UDP proxy for large-scale multiplayer game server deployments, both of which he founded while Tech Lead for Developer Relations at Google Cloud for almost 10 years.
When not working, Mark spends his time pottering on open source, looking for new and interesting things he can do with cloud native technology and games, being distracted by dogs, and practicing too many martial arts.
Title: Canada Research Chair in Digital Gaming Experiences and Immersive Social Technologies, Professor
Company: University of Victoria
Regan Mandryk is a Canada Research Chair in Digital Games and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Victoria, Canada. In her research, she innovates games that offer social connections and emotional benefits for players, and combats what undermines those benefits (e.g., toxicity, obsessive passion). Regan teaches game design and player experience evaluation, and led Canada’s first graduate program on games user research. She regularly gives keynotes and presentations at game and technology conferences. She has consulted with various game companies, (e.g., Electronic Arts, Tencent Games, Ubisoft, Roblox), game incubators (e.g., Execution Labs), and indie studios, as she is passionate about making academic research actionable for players, policymakers, and industry professionals.
Title: Staff Machine Learning Engineer
Company: Modulate
Rachel Manzelli is a Staff Machine Learning Engineer at Modulate. Her work focuses on leading the technical direction & development of audio-native, cost-effective machine learning models that support Modulate's Platform, ToxMod, and other product lines.
Rachel holds almost a decade of machine learning research experience, alongside several peer-reviewed publications at the intersection of machine learning and audio. Her work has previously been featured at top venues such as NeurIPS, ICML and ISMIR.
Rachel is passionate about creating spaces for researchers to share ideas; she loves to help organize audio-related events at major machine learning conferences, including workshops at NeurIPS ("Machine Learning for Audio" in 2023) and ICML ("AI Heard That!" in 2025, "Machine Learning for Audio Synthesis" in 2022). She regularly brings Modulate's researchers to machine learning conferences & events to share and discover cutting edge research.
Before Modulate, Rachel worked at Macro (acq.) as a machine learning engineer, where she developed audio source separation models used in remote coworking spaces. She earned her B.S. in Computer Engineering from Boston University in 2019.
Title: General Counsel
Company: Pocket Entertainment
Eugene began his career working at several large law firms helping tech clients from start-ups to enterprises solve their IP concerns, most frequently as a patent litigator. Following a move in-house to Twitch, Eugene focused on products and regulatory issues, working through a superset of issues encountered by companies working at the intersection of technology, games, and entertainment. Serving next as the head of Twitch's APAC legal function, Eugene built up further experience in commercial matters, as well as global regulatory issues, before returning to the US to lead Twitch's product integrity legal team. He now serves as the General Counsel of Pocket Entertainment.
Title: Co-Founder
Company: ComfyUI
Yannik is a Co-Founder at ComfyUI, a professional-grade AI creation engine built for people who care about their craft.
Title: Principal Designer
Company: Double Fine
Seth Marinello is a game designer most recently working on Psychonauts 2 for Double Fine Productions. After graduating from California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo, he moved into professional software development for a short time, before beginning a transition to his lifelong passion, interactive entertainment. While studying at the Centre For Digital Media in Vancouver, Canada, he began to regularly speak about narrative, gameplay, and interactivity. Seth is an outspoken advocate of video games as the artistic medium of the future.
Title: Field Recordist and Sound Designer
Title: Lead Producer
Company: 2K
Shelby Martin is a Lead Publishing Producer at 2K, focused on titles developed with Gearbox. He’s spent the past decade in the games industry – all with 2K – starting as a Production Assistant fresh out of college. Over the years, he’s contributed to the Mafia, Civilization, WWE, Borderlands, Wonderlands, and Risk of Rain franchises, building a reputation for direct communication and strong, candid partnerships with development teams. Shelby is an avid roller skater, loves trying out Friendslop games, and became a father in January!
Title: Senior Writer and Narrative Designer
Company: Sucker Punch Productions
Ariadna 'Ari' Martinez is an Argentinian writer and narrative designer currently typing away amongst the majestic mountains of Vancouver, British Columbia. With prior experience in film, she's forged an eight-year career in the games industry from small startups to AAA studios such as Capcom; Guerrilla (Horizon Forbidden West); and her current home, Sucker Punch Productions (Ghost of Yōtei). She's even briefly delved into theme park writing, another creative love of hers. In her spare time, she teaches Game Writing at Vancouver Film School hoping to pass on her passion and knowledge of narrative design to the next generation of writers.
Title: Executive Producer
Company: Gearbox Montreal
Fleur Marty is an Executive Producer at Gearbox Montreal, where she leads a team working on an announced AAA title. Fleur has been a producer for over 20 years and has led teams for big AAA studios like Ubisoft Montreal, WB Games Montreal or Eidos Montreal, working on beloved franchises like Far Cry, Tomb Raider or Deus Ex. While she started her career as a programmer, she quickly got propelled into project and production management because of her ability (and passion) for problem solving and making people come together. Throughout her career, Fleur has had a particular focus on building inclusive teams and maintaining a culture of openness, mutual trust, and respect, allowing creativity to thrive in a safe space. Since 2021, she has been serving as an Ambassador for Women in Games. Originally from Paris, France, Fleur established herself in Montreal, Canada in 2013. Aside from being an avid gamer, she has a passion for CrossFit (and especially Olympic weightlifting), archery and cooking.
Title: Co-Founder & CEO
Company: Hidden Door
Hilary Mason is the co-founder and CEO of Hidden Door. Prior to Hidden Door she was General Manager of the Machine Learning business unit at Cloudera. She previously founded Fast Forward Labs, an applied machine learning research and consulting startup which Cloudera acquired in 2017. Additionally, she was Data Scientist in Residence at Accel Partners, co-founded HackNY, and was Chief Scientist at bitly. Hilary delights at living in the magical space around an emergent AI capability and the opportunity to build new product and game experiences around it.
Title: Professor
Company: Northeastern University
Nathalie Mathe is a pioneer Virtual Reality creator, producer, consultant, and educator. She is currently Professor of Practice in the Game Science and Design Master program at Northeastern University. She founded NativeVR, an independent VR studio focused on creating immersive experiences with a transformative and social impact. Her VR film Uturn on gender bias was nominated for best interactive experience at the Raindance and FIVARS festivals and screened at a dozen international film festivals. She has contributed to dozens of VR projects for JauntVR, Google, Facebook, etc., and created visual effects for feature films like Skyfall and Dark Knight Rises.
Title: Founder & CEO
Company: Revelation Interactive LLC
Dennis Mathews is the Founder and CEO of Revelation Interactive and CTO at Codicast Interactive. Recognized by Black Enterprise as one of the top 10 African American game developers, he brings over 25 years of experience programming games, websites, hardware, and custom business applications. Dennis specializes in evaluating and integrating emerging technologies across AR/VR, gaming, entertainment, casino, and oil & gas industries. As a creative systems architect, founder, and product strategist, he builds scalable, real-time systems while mentoring and empowering Black technologists, advocating for inclusive pipelines, and shaping the future of interactive and immersive technology.
Title: Founder & President
Company: gamedevmap
ail-msonospacing" style="margin: 0in;" data-mce-style="margin: 0in;">Gaurav Mathur is the President and Founder of gamedevmap, the world’s first living map and catalog of game development organizations. A portfolio review panelist since 2019, he brings 30 years of experience across AAA and indie projects, including individual contributor work on Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, and Skylanders in prop, environment art, and level design. Drawing on his art and creative direction experience on virtual reality therapy games, he advises indie studios and startups in the wellness space. Gaurav has served as a Judge for the Independent Games Festival for four years, including two years as a Juror for the Excellence in Visual Arts category.
Title: Founder
Company: ImagineMore.Art
Andrew is the founder of ImagineMore.Art, the living archive of timeless human inspiration, and the founder of Promethean AI, a premier creative technology company serving Fortune 50 clients. With extensive experience in the gaming industry, he previously served as Technical Art Director at Sony Interactive, where he advanced cutting-edge art technology for some of the world's most renowned entertainment franchises like The Last of Us and Uncharted. An accomplished artist, programmer, consultant, and entrepreneur, Andrew has been recognized in the 30 Under 30 lists by both Develop and Forbes magazines. Dedicated to education, he has taught art, technology, and production at universities and computer graphics events worldwide, including in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Montreal, Tokyo, Seoul, Barcelona, Malta, Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal and Uganda. Distinguished in both art and technology, Andrew has been co-organizing the Art Direction Summit at the Game Developers Conference for over a decade and served on the jury of SIGGRAPH Realtime Live. Throughout his career, his unrelenting focus has been on democratizing the creative process, supporting artists, and empowering creativity within every individual.
Title: Researcher
Company: University College London
Greg is a doctoral researcher, experienced second-level teacher and Chair of the IGDA LGBTQ+ Special Interest Group. His research revolves around recognising and documenting queer gaming experiences, with a particular interest in monstrosity, Irish Gothicism and memoir as methodology. In his work as Chair of the LGBTQ+ SIG, Greg has overseen the development of support for queer game developers, including multiple game jams, career development opportunities and an international network. Currently, he is looking at how intersectional approaches to activism can support members further.
Title: Senior Product Marketing Manager
Company: FusionAuth
Brad McCarty leads Product Marketing Manager at FusionAuth, where he turns authentication challenges into competitive advantages for gaming studios. He's helped companies reduce player abandonment by 60% while actually improving security (yes, both are possible).
Brad spends his time reverse-engineering how top studios handle identity, tracking authentication patterns across platforms, and explaining why your login flow is probably killing your game. Before FusionAuth, he built competitive intelligence and go-to-market strategies for B2B SaaS companies, with a focus on developer tools that actually work.
Title: Partner Director, Software Engineering
Company: Microsoft
Max is the engineering manager for Microsoft's Silicon, Graphics, Media and AI Group, where he leads teams working on the hardware and software that power modern graphics, AI and media experiences on Windows.
Title: Sr. Director, Inclusive Design Strategy
Company: Scopely
Tülay McNally is a transformational leader with over two decades of experience in the games industry, known for driving inclusive change through systems thinking and cultural strategy. Currently serving as Senior Director of Inclusive Game Design at Scopely, she leads PlayForAll, a company-wide initiative that embeds accessibility, representation, and prosocial design across game development. Tülay specializes in building frameworks, programs, and studio practices that make inclusive design actionable and sustainable. A certified ICF and EMCC coach, she mentors game developers navigating change and reinvention, and serves on the advisory board of the Game Developers Conference. Her work is grounded in a global perspective shaped by living across Turkey, Germany, Sweden, Canada, and Spain.
Title: Art Director
Company: Sumo Digital
Lukáš Medek is an artist and game developer with more than 20 years of experience in 3D and 2D art, animation, game design, and multimedia. With an education in the arts,he has created the complete visuals for five released games, contributing to many others as a 3D artist and art director. His credits include acclaimed psychological horror Someday You'll Return, souls-like The Last Oricru, and sci-fi adventure J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars. Lukáš also develops content for multimedia performances, performs as a VJ, and teaches 3D graphics.
Title: Product Manager
Company: Meta
Mahncy is the lead Product Manager for the VR Store. She's spent 8 years at Meta -- focusing on driving better outcomes for creators & developers across FB App and VR. Mahncy & her team focus on bringing a fun & relevant content discovery experience in the VR Store while enabling developers to build a growing & sustainable business.
Title: Founder
Company: GoodDay Solution
Bo Mei is a veteran game-industry leader with more than a decade of experience across development, publishing, and investing. He founded a strategy consultancy that partners with top-tier gaming venture funds, providing product evaluations and production support for global titles. Bo also launched an AI-driven game studio and previously served as Executive Producer at an AI startup and Senior Manager of Product Management at Riot Games. He holds an MBA from Cornell University and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering. A sought-after keynote speaker, he has addressed audiences at Chinajoy, the World AI Conference and leading venture-capital forums, with insights featured by Bloomberg, Global Times, and Al Jazeera.
Title: Principal Evangelist,Game Tech
Company: AWS
Chris Melissinos is the Principal Evangelist for Video Games and Immersive Technologies at AWS, where he helps influence the next generation of game technology and offerings from AWS while also acting as a developer advocate, ensuring that the needs of game developers are met. Prior to AWS, he was the Chief Gaming Officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc., creator of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's "The Art of Video Games" exhibition, Executive Director of Media and Entertainment for Verizon. He is also a voting BAFTA member and sits on the advisory panel for the Women in Games International (WIGI) organization, Community Clubhouse, and is a founding board member of the Video Game History Foundation.
His "The Art of Video Games" exhibition explored the 40-year evolution of video games as an art form, demonstrating its impact on American culture, and traveled to 10 additional museums across the US. For this work, he received the industry "Ambassador Award" at the 2013 Game Developers Choice Awards at the Game Developers Conference. He co-authored the book, "The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect", and has contributed to or been featured in numerous other works.
A frequent speaker at major industry events and universities around the world, he has been featured in more than 30 news outlets including CBS, ABC, BBC, NPR, Wired, Time Magazine, National Geographic, Nintendo Power, Game Informer, and TEDx. He is also the host of the weekly "Boss Rush" video game industry news livestream on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitch, and Spotify.
Title: Trust & Safety Associate
Company: Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT)
Title: Research Quality Lead
Company: Google DeepMind
After working at PlayStation for over 12 years, starting in the R&D department, moving into the Developer Technology Group and Third Party Relations, Piermaria is now a Senior Technical Program Manager at Google DeepMind, working on Data and Product Quality for Gemini, the Sima team and other AI applications and research.
Title: VP of Design
Company: PeopleFun
Steve Meretzky got his start at the legendary adventure game company, Infocom, where his titles included Zork Zero, Planetfall, Leather Goddesses of Phobos, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (a collaboration with Douglas Adams). He also co-founded Boffo Games, and has worked at THQ, GSN Games, and King. He has also done consulting for numerous companies including Google, Activision, EA, Harmonix, Draft Kings, Blizzard, and Playable Worlds. Steve is currently VP of Design for PeopleFun, extending its successful Wordscapes franchise with the release of Wordscapes Solitaire. Steve has been a long-time GDC advisor, is co-founder of the Game Designers Workshop, and a former board member of the International Game Developers Association.
Title: Programmer
Company: Double Jack
Samuel Metters is the Lead Developer at Paris-based studio Double Jack. An Unreal Engine specialist with 10 years of experience in gameplay, VR, editor tools and technical design. Over the past few years, he has been working at Double Jack on their latest title Maestro, an orchestra conductor rhythm game available on Quest, Pico, PSVR and Steam.
Title: Senior Narrative Designer
Company: Obsidian Entertainment
Kelsie Mhoon is a narrative designer and game writer based in the Pacific Northwest. During her 7 years in the industry, she has worked on a number of projects including Pixelberry Studios' Choices: Stories You Play and most recently, Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds 2.
Title: Game AI Product Management Lead
Company: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Dr. Andy Michel leads Game AI product management at Qualcomm, bringing on‑device generative AI to Snapdragon. His career spans engineering, research, and product leadership, including mission‑critical systems in aerospace, real‑time simulation, and supercomputing. Today his work focuses on GenAI inference at the edge to power immersive gaming experiences. He's actively exploring architectures for autonomous agents and AI safety in interactive systems.
Title: Audio Designer
Company: thatgamecompany
Caio Jiacomini is an Audio Designer at thatgamecompany, where he strives to enhance players' experiences by creating delightful sound effects to listen to, as well as systems and tools to support the audio team. He is currently working on dynamic soundscapes for group meditation experiences in the game, bringing his expertise in generative ambient music to the world of Sky.
Title: Lead Research Scientist
Company: Blizzard Entertainment
Natasha is a lead research scientist at Blizzard Entertainment, working on the Player Interactions and Trust team. An 8-year veteran of the studio, she leads the 'Behavior by Design' initiative, using behavioral science to support all the game teams at Blizzard in promoting more respectful, resilient, and inclusive player communities. Natasha previously worked at Square Enix as a games' user researcher. She is also on the Thriving in Games Group Executive Board and has been a part of that organization since 2017.
Title: Program Host/Producer
Company: Classical KUSC-Arcade
Jennifer Miller Hammel is a vocalist, recording artist, and voice-over talent with over 20 years of experience. Career highlights include leading roles in opera and musical theatre, recordings for League of Legends, Rift, Dream Theater’s The Astonishing, and the film Nerdland. Since 2017, she has hosted mornings on LA’s Classical California KUSC, produced the nationally syndicated Opera Show and LA Opera On-Air, and launched the game music stream Arcade. She lectures on gaming music, hosts POPeracast, and collaborates with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Title: CPO (Chief Product Officer)
Company: AppMagic
CPO (Chief Product Officer) at AppMagic with a special love for games, education, AI, and coffee. Stan has worked both in large corporations and small start-ups, developing mobile games and gamified apps for hundreds of millions of users. Gladly chats about mobile app intelligence, competitors analysis, game deconstructs, and live ops. If this is your cup of tea, hit me up, and let's meet!
Title: 3D Programmer
Company: UbiSoft
Jack Minnetian is a 3D Programmer at Ubisoft, primarily focusing on developing Micropolygon for the Anvil engine. Prior to joining Ubisoft in 2021, he completed a master's thesis on Differentiable Volumetric Rendering under the supervision of Derek Nowrouzezahrai.
Title: CEO/Founder, Former Tech Artist
Company: Terrible Posture Games, Inc.
Joe Mirabello is a 15 year industry veteran, having contributed to 14 different games. In 2012 Joe left AAA game development to form Terrible Posture Games, where he solo-developed Tower of Guns, directed Mothergunship, co-directed "3 out of 10", Mothergunship: Forge, and Battle Train, narrative-directed The Walking Dead: The Last Mile, and has worked on many many other things.
Title: Head of Product
Company: Helpshift, A Keywords Studios Platform
Rakesh Mistry is a leading voice in AI, strategy and conversational design. As head of Product with Keywords Studios, he's focused on player centric AI and the Helpshift platform. With a career spanning enterprise AI, customer experience, and ethical automation, Rakesh brings a proven, pragmatic and visionary lens to how AI can truly serve—and scale with—player communities. He's all about turning buzzwords into real-world impact.
Title: Creative Lead
Company: 20th Century Games, The Walt Disney Company
Lis Moberly is the Creative Lead of 20th Century Games at Disney. She has worked as a game writer and narrative designer with companies such as Obsidian Entertainment, WB Avalanche, and Chuhai Labs.
Title: Senior Audio Designer
Company: Zynga
Sonia Mokhtari is a French-American composer and sound designer, recognized as one of the few women leading audio and composition in the video game industry. Based in San Francisco since 2010, she currently works full-time at Take-Two/Zynga, specializing in audio design and music composition for live mobile games. Her previous experience includes roles at Meta, VGW, CALM, and Electronic Arts (The Sims). Sonia's background combines rigorous musical training—including classical, jazz, and world music—with advanced studies in composition and sound design for film, television, and games at Berklee College of Music. She brings a rich, diverse musical palette to her game audio work, blending orchestration with adaptive sound design to create immersive player experiences. In addition to her professional work, Sonia teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and actively mentors emerging talent through programs like Genheration and Reel Stories. She is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in the gaming and audio industries. A member of SACEM, Sonia composes for games, films, and interactive media, continuously pushing creative and technical boundaries in game audio.
Title: Creative Director
Company: Cornerstone Interactive Studios
Marcus Montgomery is an accomplished video game designer, with over 20 years of contributions across console, mobile, VR, and PC. Marcus has held pivotal leadership roles at Backbone Entertainment, Oculus/Meta, Xbox Game Studios Publishing, and is currently the Creative Director of the studio he founded, Cornerstone Interactive Studios.
In 2014, Marcus joined Gameheads—an Oakland-based nonprofit that uses video game design, development, and DevOps training to prepare low-income youth and youth of color for careers in tech and the games industry—as both an instructor and advisory committee member.
Title: Senior Technical Producer
Company: CD Projekt RED
Shayna Moon is a Technical Producer at Meta's Sanzaru studio, recently shipping the critically acclaimed Asgard's Wrath 2. Her previous work includes engine production on Gears of War: E-Day, the Unity DOTS Spotlight group, and cinematic and audio production on Sony Santa Monica's God of War (2018) and God of War: Ragnarok (2022). She also has worked to support up and coming game developers through volunteer and mentoring opportunities such as Amplifying New Voices and the GDC Conference Associates program. Shayna graduated from Ferris State University in 2014 with a degree in Digital Animation and Game Design. She later attended the University of Texas at Austin Denius-Sams Gaming Academy, completing the program with honors. She began her career in games as a Quality Assurance tester in her home state of Michigan.
Title: Founder
Company: High Vibe PR
Kalie Moore is an angel investor and the Founder of High Vibe PR, a boutique agency that specializes in working with companies and brands building the future of entertainment, with a focus on gaming.
Kalie previously founded an esports PR firm, supported the launch of leading gaming venture capital fund BITKRAFT Ventures, and started her tech PR career at Rocket Internet, a German company builder. In recognition of her leadership in the industry, Kalie was named to AdAge's Women to Watch list in 2020. In addition to her agency work, Kalie founded PRCoverage.AI, a SaaS tool designed for the AI era that tracks media visibility with custom metrics, including AI-specific benchmarks.
Title: Principal, Strategic Account Manager
Company: AWS
Trevor Moore is a Principal Account Manager at Amazon Web Services. Trevor currently leads the relationship between AWS and Electronic Arts, where he partners across EA’s Entertainment, Experiences, and CTO-organization to help them build, scale, and operate high-performance player experiences in the cloud. With deep expertise in cloud infrastructure, strategic account leadership, and digital transformation, Trevor works closely with developers and business leaders to align technical innovation with long-term growth. He is excited to share insights at the Game Developers Conference on how cloud technologies are shaping the future of game development.
Title: VP, Operations
Company: Obsidian Entertainment
Marcus Morgan is the VP of Operations at Obsidian Entertainment, which mostly means he's the person people go to when they're not sure who to go to. His past lives include roles across the industry including EA, Activision Blizzard, and Xbox. In his current role at Obsidian, he's helped guide the studio's shift to a first-party studio, worked to bring Obsidian's games to more platforms so more players can enjoy them, and dabbled in the world of streaming television with The Outer Worlds 2 episode in Prime Video's "Secret Level" series. He's contributed to the success of games like The Outer Worlds, Pentiment, and Grounded, the latter of which grew into a 25-million-player surprise hit—and now also serves as Executive Producer for its sequel Grounded 2.
Title: Global Test Automation Architect
Company: Softtek
Rodrigo Morteo is a Mexican Global Test Automation Architect, educator, and researcher with over 25 years of experience in the IT industry. Specializing in Software Quality Assurance and AI-driven automation, he has led numerous enterprise initiatives focused on Agentic AI adoption and the transformation of test automation to accelerate modern Software Development Life Cycles. Rodrigo combines deep technical expertise with innovation in gamification, holding a Master's degree in Computer Science and pursuing doctoral studies in Education with a focus on gamification.
Title: Product Lead, Inception
Company: Google DeepMind
Alexandre Moufarek is the Product Lead for the Inception team at Google DeepMind, a team of creatives, designers and engineers working alongside research to explore breakthrough experiences that wouldn't be possible without Al. At Google DeepMind, Alexandre has contributed to frontier research projects such as Project Astra, SIMA, Genie and Gemini. Passionate about gaming and the power of AI to augment people, Alexandre Moufarek has 15+ years of experience spanning casual and AAA games (Ubisoft - Ghost Recon Future Soldier, Watch Dogs), consumer robotics (SoftBank Robotics - Pepper Robot B2C) and AI Research & Development.
Title: Head of CE: Audio and Home Entertainment, Amazon Ads
Company: AWS
Aimee Munton is a Sales Manager at Amazon Ads, where she leads the Video Games vertical, helping brands connect with one of the most engaged and fast-growing audiences in media. A Southern California native and UCLA alumna, Aimee brings over two decades of digital advertising expertise to her role, with a career defined by building and scaling high-performing ad sales organizations across both global enterprises and dynamic startups.
Before joining Amazon, Aimee held leadership positions at industry-defining companies including Yahoo, Criteo, and RPA, where she developed deep expertise in programmatic advertising, brand strategy, and revenue growth. Her experience navigating the evolving digital landscape — from the early days of online advertising to today's data-driven ecosystem — gives her a unique perspective on what it takes to drive results for clients and teams alike.
Now in her eighth year at Amazon, Aimee continues to champion innovative advertising solutions that deliver measurable impact for brands in the gaming space and beyond.
Title: Manager of Global Business
Company: Drecom Co., Ltd.
Hiroaki Murao has over 10 years of experience in game development at the Japanese game development and publishing company, Drecom Co., Ltd. Drecom is recognized as one of Japan's leading companies specializing in the development and operation of IP-based games, having successfully collaborated with numerous prominent Japanese IP holders. Starting his career as a game planner during the dawn of the Japanese mobile game era, he later served as a director and producer for multiple titles as the smartphone app business expanded. His experience also extends to cutting-edge fields, where he has been involved in game design for blockchain games. Currently, he leverages this extensive knowledge and experience to handle international relations and localization for Drecom's global expansion, with a primary focus on the overseas growth of Wizardry Variants Daphne.
Title: Chief Creative Officer & Founder
Company: Continuum
With over a decade of experience in virtual reality, animation/VFX, augmented reality, and media production, I have consistently delivered innovative solutions that engage audiences and drive creative storytelling. As the Chief Creative Officer at Continuum XR until July 2023, I led the development of cutting-edge projects across AR, VR, and interactive media, aligning creativity with client goals to foster impactful user experiences. My mission is to empower teams to explore novel ways to entertain, educate, and inspire, while maintaining a commitment to collaboration and results-driven execution.
At Continuum XR, I contributed to hundreds of projects, leveraging skills in producing, leading, innovating and designing to create immersive content for diverse audiences. By blending technical expertise with a passion for storytelling, our team delivered innovative media solutions, from VR games played by millions, to augmented reality campaigns and more. Prior to this, as CEO of Murdock Motion, I managed high-end motion graphics and visual effects, pioneering AR/VR applications and ensuring projects met deadlines and budgets without compromising quality.
Title: Principal Technical Artist, Developer Relations
Company: Epic Games
Chris Murphy is a Principal Technical Artist with over 9 years at Epic Games, a Bachelor of Computer Science, and a Bachelor of Multimedia, culminating in a broad skillset across a range of game development disciplines. Chris' role in the Technical Developer Relations team at Epic Games is to help Unreal Engine developers build successful projects with Unreal Engine through support, training, and education.
Title: Game Director
Company: Relevate Health Games
Eben serves as Game Director at Relevate Health Games (formerly Level Ex), building games that advance the practice of medicine through play. Eben directs design across the studio’s projects from diagnosis puzzle games for rare diseases to hyper casual games about drug efficacy. Previously serving as Vice President of Design at Simcoach Games, Eben has designed games for a broad range of partners and players addressing diverse topics such as ergonomics, heavy equipment operation, heart failure, ethics, tech aptitudes, and nuclear weapons. Eben developed and taught a course on the Design of Educational Games at Carnegie Mellon University and maintains an occasional practice in blacksmithing. He holds a BA in Studio Art (Sculpture) from Swarthmore College and a Master’s from the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University.
Title: Rendering and Graphics Lead
Company: Enduring Games
Kevin Nappoly is a Rendering and Graphics Lead at Enduring Games, an independent studio in Austin, TX. Kevin focuses on low-level graphics pipelines, platform specialization, early technology assessment & proof-of-concepts, and optimization & data-driven profiling. With a strong background in rendering paradigms, extensive experience in console and PC development, and expertise in customizing game engines, Kevin works to advance the state of real-time graphics in interactive digital games. Games include Borderlands 4, Risk of Rain 2, Immortals of Aveum, Redfall, and more.
Title: Senior Writer
Company: Brass Lion Entertainment
Evan Narcisse is the Senior Writer at Brass Lion Entertainment. He's worked as a screenwriter, producer, and narrative design consultant in video games, comic books, film, and TV, often focusing on the intersection of blackness and pop culture. As a journalist and critic, he wrote for The Atlantic, Time Magazine, Kotaku, and The New York Times, in addition to teaching game journalism at New York University and appearances as an expert guest on CNN and NPR. He's also the author of the Rise of the Black Panther graphic novel, Marvel Black Panther: Wakanda Atlas, and The New Day: Power of Positivity. As a narrative design consultant, he's worked on Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Redfall, Marvel's Avengers, Gotham Knights, and the award-winning Dot's Home. He also served as story producer on the HBO Max documentary Milestone Generations, documenting the rise, fall, and rebirth of the groundbreaking black-owned comics company Milestone Media.
Title: Creative Director
Company: Computer Lunch
Former Studio Art Director at Dots (makers of Two Dots) and Global Creative Director at The Economist, Kati co-founded Computer Lunch with Andrew. Her BFA in studio arts comes in about as handy in her daily life as her fascination with the human mind. ENFP, 4-with-3-wing, Aquarius
Title: Principal AI/ML Engineer
Company: Supercell
Mathieu Nayrolles is an AI and ML architect working at the intersection of real-time systems, game development, and advanced AI. He recently joined Supercell’s AI team, where he contributes to advancing applied AI across production, research, and incubation initiatives.
Previously, Mathieu played a central role in bringing AI and ML from research into large-scale, player-facing systems at Amazon Game Studios and Ubisoft. His work spans real-time conversational agents, multimodal AI, and performance-critical tooling used by game teams across multiple studios.
Mathieu is an active contributor to the research community, a frequent speaker at international conferences including ICSE, ICPE, and ASE, and a co-organizer of workshops at the intersection of games and software engineering. He focuses on turning advanced AI into practical, creative systems that can ship, scale, and meaningfully impact players and developers.
Title: Founder & CEO
Company: Twisted Mountain Animation
Chris Nelder is the Founder and CEO of Twisted Mountain Animation, bringing over 20 years of experience across TV, film, and games. With a background as an animator, rigger, 3D generalist, technical director, and pipeline supervisor, Chris combines hands-on expertise with a passion for innovation. He is driven to transform how studios support artists, streamline pipelines, and harness tools and data to make production faster, smarter, and more scalable, helping creative teams focus on what matters most — making great content.
Title: Practice Lead- Engagement
Rob Nelson is an Engagement Management Practice Leader at Valorem Reply, where he oversees technology strategy services and solution implementation for clients across North America. He brings more than 15 years of experience in high-tech and cybersecurity, with a career focused on helping organizations adopt emerging technologies in ways that improve performance and enable new product possibilities.Rob has guided strategic programs for major technology companies, including spatial computing initiatives, VR training solutions, embodied AI experiences, and large-scale go‑to‑market transformations. He has served as a featured speaker at global conferences such as the Milan OnMetaverse Summit, Augmented World Expo, the Dubai Metaverse Assembly, and multiple industry leadership forums, where he is known for translating complex technology trends into practical strategies that drive measurable business value.As part of Valorem Reply’s management team, Rob focuses on helping clients navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-driven and immersive solutions—ensuring they adopt innovation in ways that are grounded, responsible, and aligned to real outcomes.
Title: Studio Head
Company: Strange Scaffold
Xalavier Nelson Jr. is a BAFTA-nominated studio head, writer, actor, and Forbes 30 under 30 luminary, with over 100 titles under his belt, including I Am Your Beast, Magic: The Gathering, Borderlands 4, and El Paso, Elsewhere. He also makes strides in a storytelling career outside of game development, with releases such as the cult hit comic Sherlock Holmes Hunts the Moth Man and a starring voice role in the upcoming Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival.
Title: Product Director, Substance 3D
Company: Adobe
Jérémie Noguer has been a member of the Substance 3D team for nearly 20 years. He began his career as a Technical Artist and later transitioned into the role of Product Manager for Substance 3D Painter, helping shape the product's direction and evolution. He is currently leading the development of Substance 3D Stager, a staging and rendering application.
Title: Associate Professor
Company: New York University
Laine Nooney is an Associate Professor of Media Industries at New York University, specializing in historical, cultural, and economic analysis of the U.S. video game and computer industries. They are the author of The Apple II Age: How the Computer Became Personal (University of Chicago Press, 2023), and have talked and written about games and computing for venues such as The Atlantic, Motherboard, The Verge and NPR. They are the co-founding and managing editor of ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories, the first hybrid-audience, peer-reviewed journal of game history.
Title: 3D Outsourcing Art Director
Company: Keywords Studios
With over two decades in game development, Cutlar Nordyke brings deep experience in world building, environment art, and team-focused art direction. He currently supports external co-development efforts across Keywords Studios’ Mindwalk and Red Hot teams, collaborating with partners and clients worldwide. His past experience includes roles at Mythic Entertainment (EA), Vigil Games (THQ), CCP, and Traega Entertainment.
Title: Technical Marketing Manager
Company: Red Hat
This talk shows how we turn a suboptimal reinforcement learning exploration agent into a route seeking speedrunner by pairing PPO with a panel of model judges orchestrated by llm-d and served with vLLM. The agent plays normally while a narrow planner handles dialog and puzzle moments, then llm-d routes short clips to a vision judge, a state checker, and a rule judge to produce preferences that train a small reward model. The next PPO burst learns with shaped rewards, improving coverage, reliable dialog completion, and key speedrun metrics. We keep it practical for game developers with YAML first deployment on OpenShift AI using KServe and vLLM, plus a reusable kit of prompts, rubrics, and metrics. We will showcase Double Dragon and Zelda: Oracle of Seasons on the original Nintendo Gameboy, but the same pattern applies to any game for automated testing or optimal route discovery for speed running.
Title: Acting Managing Director
Company: Swedish Games Industry (Dataspelsbranschen)
Johanna Nylander is Head of Analytics and Deputy CEO at the Swedish Games Industry association where she leads the work of their analytics department writing and publishing reports on the local industry and its eco systems, using data to work for a better framework with policy makers together with the local games industry and to raise awareness around what the industry need for innovation, IP-development and investments. In the recent year, she led a data project for the Swedish ministry of culture to create an updated statistics for the culture and creative industries in the country, including developing a new method to better estimate its size and importance for the Swedish economy. Also Bachelor’s degree in game art with industry experience in marketing. Ex-Gameloft, published author and op-ed columnist.
Title: Director Of Engineering, Oculus VR
Company: Meta
Ross O’Dwyer is a software engineer and technical leader at Meta. He brings a career spanning game middleware, real-time physics, VR platform engineering, and large-scale developer ecosystems. Ross spent 14 years at Havok leading Developer Relations and Professional Services, partnering with studios worldwide and helping advance ragdoll and physics-driven character technology across the industry. He later joined Oculus in 2014, where he built the DevRel Engineering function and went on to lead major portions of the Rift and Quest software stack through multiple product launches. More recently he returned to an IC role to lead Generative AI technologies for Meta's Horizon platform.
Title: CEO
Company: Olebe Media Group
Leo Olebe is a global games executive whose 20+ year career spans leadership roles at Xbox, YouTube Gaming, and Facebook/Meta. As VP of Global Partnerships at Xbox, he drove initiatives that strengthen and expand the Xbox ecosystem worldwide. He previously led YouTube's gaming business, supported creators and communities at massive scale, and held earlier posts at Zynga, BioWare, and Warner Bros. Games.
Today, Leo also serves as Chair of Games for Change, championing games as a force for positive impact. A lifelong believer in representation, access, and community, he brings a multicultural perspective and a passion for helping creators thrive in every corner of the industry.
Title: Co-Founder
Company: cirqueSaw
Nicole Orabona (they/she), is an actor, producer, zine maker, and committer to the bit. With partner Nathan Leigh, they co-founded cirqueSaw Productions to produce remote work at the intersection of live performance, film, and games. Together, they created the interactive pieces labRats (NarraScope 2025 Featured Showcase) Void Main and POV: You Are An AI Achieving Consciousness (RnD Immersive Production of the Year 2023, No Proscenium Special Editor's Award 2024). TV credits include Fleishman is in Trouble, Poker Face & recurring as Det. Arielle Lehan on Law and Order. @knuckle_sando
Title: CEO
Company: Bitpart AI
Dr. Jeff Orkin is an AI researcher, serial entrepreneur, and game industry veteran. Jeff is currently Cofounder / CEO of Bitpart AI, a startup developing advanced NPC technology that combines Machine Learning with Automated Planners. Previously Jeff founded Giant Otter Technologies, a conversational AI venture that grew out of his Ph.D research at the MIT Media Lab. Giant Otter was acquired by Drift conversational marketing, where Jeff led the AI team for 4 years building products that learned from billions of chat messages. Jeff began his career as an AI specialist in the game industry for 10 years, at Sierra and Monolith Productions. His work on No One Lives Forever 2 (NOLF2) and F.E.A.R. won awards for the best AI in the industry. F.E.A.R. was the first commercial video game to ship with a goal-oriented action planner (GOAP), inspired by STRIPS planning from robotics research. Jeff has served as a co-Author of the AI Game Programming Wisdom book series, Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games, and has presented at GDC, AIIDE, IEEE CIG, MIGS, AAAI, AAMAS, ICAPS, and SARA. Prior to MIT, Jeff earned a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Washington and Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Tufts University with a minor in Studio Art.
Title: President/CEO
Company: IDG Intelligence
As President/CEO of IDG – a leading research, consulting and analytics firm in the games industry – Yoshio Osaki has been a trusted advisor, investor, and thought leader in the gaming space for 20 years, partnering with more than 300 clients across 50 countries. IDG has been named an Inc. 5000 company for each of the last two years as one of America's fastest-growing and most successful companies. IDG's global client roster includes the leading game platforms, publishers, and developers; 4 of the top 5 tech companies; 4 of the top 5 media companies; leading investment firms; prominent Fortune 100 brands; and key retailers, as well as indie developers and fast-growing startups. This client base has a combined market cap/valuation of over $12 trillion.
Combining deep experience from Fortune 500 management consulting, II-ranked sellside research, and hedge fund investing, Yoshio's core focus areas include game development and publishing, transmedia, AI, game B2B tech stacks, web3, AR/VR, M&A + commercial due diligence, cloud streaming, xDevs, and esports. He has helped take startups from Day Zero to AAA success, employing a holistic tool kit of strategy, analytics, forecasting, and Wall Street finance to advise companies across C-Suite, publishing, studios, and corporate development. He is also an angel investor in 10+ startups.
IDG has been leveraged as a data and analyst source in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Barron's, and the Asahi Shimbun. Yoshio has also been a keynote speaker at a wide variety of international conferences and summits over the past 20 years.
Osaki graduated from Stanford University, with a BA in International Relations and a BA in Political Science, and has been a guest lecturer at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
For more information, please go to http://idgintel.com.
Title: Sr. Client Advisor
Company: McKinsey & Co.
Ichiro is a Senior Client Advisor at McKinsey & Company, where he advises game and entertainment companies worldwide. He brings decades of industry leadership experience, having served as President of Square Enix U.S.A. and Japan Country Manager for Riot Games.
In addition to his work in gaming, Ichiro was a Partner at Advantage Partners and COO of ZMP Inc., an autonomous driving technology company. He has also contributed to the industry as a member of the GDC Advisory Board.
Title: CEO
Company: XR Bootcamp
Ferhan Ozkan is leading the mission to create a global ecosystem of XR innovators and utilize it to solve the industry's challenges. As elected Vice-Chair of the IEEE VR/AR Standards Group, he works on bringing the industry closer while focusing on empowering major stakeholders with his expertise and global network. He also co-founded VR First, a global program seed supporting XR labs worldwide. Since 2020, he's been heading XR Bootcamp, an international online academy offering cutting-edge VR/AR development courses to experienced developers and researchers. The masterclasses are engaging and reinforce deep learning through hands-on, real-world projects developed by professionals and taught by the world's XR masterminds. XR Bootcamp alumni work at organizations and companies like Accenture, Samsung, Snap, HP, Autodesk, Harvard, and Carnegie Mellon University.
Title: Principal Technical Artist, Developer Relations
Company: Epic Games
Matt Oztalay is a Principal Developer Relations Technical Artist at Epic Games, helping users of the Unreal Engine push the boundaries of what's possible with real-time interactive experiences. Matt graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design with a BFA in Game Art and Design. He has worked in the games industry for 15 years, and in that time he has contributed to the Saint's Row, Darksiders, Halo, Call of Duty, Crackdown, and World of Tanks franchises.
Title: Senior Business Development Manager
Company: GOG
Head of Business Development at GOG, specializing in strategy and data focused on retro game audiences and monetization. Brings over 15 years of experience in retro games preservation across technical, legal, and business domains.
Title: CEO
Company: Modulate
Mike is CEO/co-founder of Modulate, which builds voice-native conversational intelligence for content moderation, fraud prevention, CX, and more. Mike leads Modulate's commercial segment, working particularly with Modulate's gaming customers including Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto Online, and Rainbow 6 Siege, and sits on a number of boards and working groups related to compliance and online safety, including a board seat with the Family Online Safety Institute in D.C. Outside of work, his passions include creating themed cocktail lists, long-distance running, and playing Nintendo games.
Title: Co-Founder & CEO
Company: Bonfire Studios
Rob Pardo is the co-founder and CEO of independent video game development company Bonfire Studios. He is a renowned designer, best known for his influential career at Blizzard Entertainment, where he spent 17 years, ultimately serving as its Chief Creative Officer. During his tenure there, he was a key figure in the development of some of the most celebrated video game titles, including StarCraft II, Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. His significant contributions to the video game industry led to him being named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2006. In 2016, Pardo co-founded Bonfire Studios with a philosophy centered on creative independence and a passion for making games that the team itself loves to play. The studio’s first title is Arkheron, a team-based, competitive PvP game currently in an Alpha phase of development. As CEO, Pardo leads Bonfire with a goal of creating games that combine the thrill of competition with the warmth of community.
Title: Director of Operations
Company: National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA)
Matthew "Slim da Reazon" Parham is a Los Angeles based voice actor, photographer, poet, and musician born from Cincinnati, Ohio. His interest in Black literature, spoken word, rock, hip-hop, and jazz blend to become a language and lifestyle Parham calls AfroGrunge™. Duality, double consciousness, and the alternative Black experience are themes Parham explores across genre-blending visuals and performance mediums. Visually, this edgy style is replicated behind his lens through a photographic portrait approach, which relies heavily on darkness and light, black and white, and most often focuses on Black subjects or like-minded creatives. Parham is also a sought-after voice actor, nominated for a Society of Voice Art and Sciences Award in 2022, the VOA Unicorn Award and two One Voice Awards in 2024, with a client list including Marvel, MTV, MGM, PBS, Nike, and DSW. Matthew is most notably the Director of Operations for the National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA), where his advocacy includes lobbying on Capitol Hill and national panel appearances, while also serving as Community Liaison with the South Los Angeles arts gallery Range Gallery. Since 2017, Parham has been the MC in a 15-piece jazz hip-hop ensemble called The Urban Renewal Project, with whom he has toured nationally in 100+ shows. When he's not serving the voice-over community with NAVA, voicing projects, performing poetry, or making music, Matthew is finalizing a photography certificate at UCLA.
Title: Gameplay Animator
Company: That's No Moon
Euna Park is a Gameplay Animator at That's No Moon. She started her career in the games industry as a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, where she had her first exposure to the creative chaos that is game development and became absolutely hooked. Previously, she worked on God of War: Ragnarök at Santa Monica Studio and Until You Fall at Schell Games.
Title: CEO
Company: Bezi
Julian Park is CEO and Co-founder of Bezi, an AI development tool built specifically for game studios. Prior to founding Bezi in 2021, Julian led software development at Oculus VR, where he focused on product strategy, design systems, and rendering optimization for VR experiences. He previously worked at Facebook on core infrastructure and performance.
Title: Art Director
Company: Blizzard
Jeff is an Associate Art Director at Blizzard Entertainment, where he works with the World of Warcraft art team to help them create the environments, creatures, and characters of Azeroth. Over the past 15+ years, he has worked in multiple art roles across the game industry, contributing to more than 25 projects. He has also taught art and lectured at universities. As part of his role at Blizzard, Jeff also gets to help with the World of Warcraft Student Art Contest, which just wrapped up its 9th year.
Title: Sr. Staff Engineer
Company: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
John Parsaie is a Sr. Staff Engineer at Qualcomm Technologies Inc., and rendering programmer with ten years of expertise targeting desktop and console hardware. At Qualcomm, John focuses on improving the Snapdragon system-on-a-chip for PC gaming and its developer ecosystem. Before Qualcomm, John was a primary contributor to the Unity Engine's rendering architecture, and a tech lead for multiple award-winning short films.
Title: Fractional COO
Company: OpsCat
Lucien Parsons is an operations and investment strategist in the games industry, known for aligning creative vision with financial discipline. He co-founded ZeniMax Online Studios (Bethesda), led global games partnerships at AWS, sold a venture to Gartner, and helped scale or restructure multiple startups—some successful, some instructive. As a fractional COO and advisor, he brings a pragmatic, systems-driven approach to product, team, and go-to-market strategy for companies navigating launch and growth phases. Lucien's work focuses on monetization strategy, business models, product/market fit, and funding readiness. He has advised founders, joined boards, and helped secure millions in revenue and investment. As AWS's Global Games Partner Leader, he built a worldwide ecosystem of over 300 partners, generating hundreds of millions in cloud and service revenue. He also chaired the IGDA, championing sustainable and inclusive careers in games. With degrees from Wharton (MBA) and Johns Hopkins (MA, International Economics), and certifications in Scrum and cloud infrastructure, Lucien blends creative insight with operational rigor. He frequently speaks on the future of games, immersive tech, and the intersection of virtual and physical worlds, and continues to support emerging studios with hands-on execution and strategic guidance.
Title: Dialogue Designer
Company: Independent
Charles Pateman is a game audio voice/dialogue specialist with 20 years experience working in audio professionally. Moving into the games industry in 2015, he has worked at Lionhead, OMUK, Creative Assembly, and has most recently worked as Lead Voice Designer at Massive Entertainment on Star Wars Outlaws.
Title: Associate QC Director
Company: Ubisoft
Aniruddha is an Associate QC Director at Ubisoft with 15 years of experience leading quality teams across multiple titles in Ubisoft's portfolio. Alongside core functionality testing teams, he heads a QC Tech team that's focused on building automation, tools, and AI/ML solutions that empower smarter testing and data-driven decision-making.
Title: Founder & CEO
Company: Infinite Realms/Unleashed Games
Irena Pereira is a game industry veteran with over 25 years of experience building live service games and production pipelines across PC, console, and mobile. As Founder and CEO of Infinite Realms and Unleashed Games, she leads teams applying generative AI to real-world game production as a creator-first force multiplier—speeding development while maintaining authorship, creative intent, and player trust.
Her work centers on ethical, canon-faithful uses of GenAI to support worldbuilding, live operations, and scalable content creation without replacing human creativity or eroding creative voice. Irena speaks internationally on responsible AI adoption in games, focusing on practical production workflows, governance models, and how small teams can build ambitious worlds with clarity, cohesion, and care.
Title: Director, Legal
Company: Blizzard Entertainment
Yan Perng is Director, Legal, at Blizzard Entertainment, where she supports the legal and business affairs of Blizzard Entertainment. Prior to joining Blizzard, she was senior counsel at Netflix Games, Tencent America and NCSOFT West. Yan received her JD from the University of Washington, her BS from from National Taiwan University, and is now based in Los Angeles.
Title: Game Designer
Company: Quibble Media, LLC
Jon Perry began his game design career making and releasing freeware games in the late 90s with Derek Yu under the label Blackeye Software. Together they made games such as Quibble Race (1998), Diabolika (1999), and the full-length metroidvania Eternal Daughter (2002). After a decade-long hiatus from games, Jon reemerged as a tabletop game designer, publishing evergreen titles like Air Land & Sea (2019) and Spots (2022). In 2024, Jon Perry returned to video game design with the commercial release of UFO 50 (2024), a collection of 50 video games spanning a wide variety of genres.
Title: Actor
Company: Independent
Jane is a London based North American actor, with over 25 years of extensive experience
in film, TV, theatre and voice work. She is an award-winning voice artist, having won Best
Performance in a Leading Role at the 2022 BAFTA Games Awards for her work as Selene
in Housemarque's/Sony Interactive's Returnal.
Jane has worked as a voice actor and performance capture artist on over 60 titles, from
independent projects to numerous AAA critically acclaimed IPs. Selected credits include
Mystra in Baldur's Gate III, Diana Burnwood in the Hitman, Rogue in Cyberpunk 2077,
Sharon Holt in As Dusk Falls and Karen Bowman in Ghost Recon: Wildlands.
Jane also holds a Master's Degree in Actor Training & Coaching and supports actors in
their work in the voice over studio, as well as on stage and screen. Jane also consults
with game developers who wish to learn more about working with actors in their projects.
Title: Member of Technical Staff
Company: Decart
Ethan is a staff member at Decart with a focus on API and Platform development. Previously, he was a Staff Software Engineer for Managed AI at Crusoe and before that the technical cofounder of a startup developing AI products for USSOCOM.
Title: Director of Creative Strategy and Enablement, Create Division
Company: Keywords Studios
Tara is Director of Creative Strategy & Enablement at Keywords Studios' Create Division. She works with global teams to validate and integrate emerging technology into game production in ways that support artistic authorship and collaboration rather than replace them. Drawing on experience as a game artist, art director, and external development leader, Tara focuses on the practical and cultural impact of AI — how it changes communication, responsibility, and trust inside real production teams.
Title: Chief Strategy Officer
Company: Odders Lab
As the CSO at Odders Lab, Jaime drives fitness and innovation. Since 2019, Odders has launched over 6 titles, reigning on gamified fitness with titles such as OhShape and Les Mills BODYCOMBAT, crowning the highest rated fitness app in XR in the world. Now, Odders has embarked on the mission of building the future of fitness through AR & AI.
Title: Game Developer
Company: HotPink Games
HotPink has been making cute lewd games since 2018 and SFW games for a number of years before then. HotPink strives to push the boundaries for quality in Adult Games, and hopes to inspire others to do the same. They aim to tackle sensitive topics in a pleasurable way that they hope the player can always enjoy.
Title: Founder & President
Company: Fair Play Labs
Founder and President of Fair Play Labs, Costa Rica's leading video game development studio, Claudio is a pioneer in the region's interactive digital entertainment industry with more than 20 years leading and shaping the country's game development ecosystem. Under his leadership, Fair Play Labs has developed both licensed and proprietary intellectual property while providing high-quality outsourcing services in software development, 2D and 3D digital art, animation, and music for the global gaming and edutainment markets.
The studio made history by publishing Color Guardians, the first Costa Rican video game released for major consoles, including PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, a milestone that helped position Costa Rica on the global gaming map. Fair Play Labs has since expanded its international footprint with high-profile titles such as Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, nominated for Best Fighting Game of the Year.
In addition to leading Fair Play Labs, he serves as LATAM General Manager at HatchWorks Technologies, driving innovation and growth across the region. His academic background includes studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and executive education at MIT Sloan School of Management, where he completed the program Building, Leading and Sustaining the Innovative Organization.
A visionary entrepreneur, he is committed to advancing Costa Rica's position as a global hub for creative technology, innovation, and digital entertainment.
Title: Owner
Company: Ideaplatz, LLC
Cheryl Platz is an internationally renowned interaction designer, author, and actress best known for her work on cutting-edge games, products and platforms including Amazon's Alexa, the Echo Look, the Sims family of games, the Riot Games platform and 2XKO, Marvel Strike Force, and Microsoft's Azure platform. She is the host of Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast and author of The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive (Rosenfeld Media, 2025). She is currently Creative Director for the Game Studio at The Pokémon Company International, focused on Pokémon TCG Live - past employers include Riot Games, Scopely, Electronic Arts/Maxis, Amaze Entertainment/Griptonite Games, Microsoft, Amazon, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Cheryl is also a repeat adjunct faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University's Masters of Entertainment Industry Management program, teaching the craft of video game design and production. Cheryl's first book, "Design Beyond Devices: Creating Multimodal, Cross-Device Experiences" (Rosenfeld Media, 2020), is the design manual for technologists who aspire to get a little bit closer to the starship bridge of their dreams – or just build better responsive websites, games, and cross-channel experiences.
Title: Principal Sound Designer
Company: Sandfall Interactive
Always passionate about sound and music, Maxance did sound design studies, with a specialization in audio post-production and then game audio. That is when he joined Sandfall Interactive as an audio intern. He was the first member of the audio team, and ended up defining Clair Obscur : Expedition 33's audio artistic direction.
Title: CEO
Company: Amber Studio
Mihai Pohontu is the CEO of Amber, a game development agency headquartered in Bucharest, Romania.
Previously Mihai was VP of Emerging Platforms at Samsung, working to build the developer ecosystem around
the company's product line. Prior to joining Samsung, he oversaw Product Operations at Disney Interactive, a
team of 600+ staff distributed across 9 locations around the world. While at Disney, Mihai founded the Partners
group, delivering a portfolio of co-development and licensing projects, leveraging Disney properties and
franchises to deliver high-quality entertainment created by external studios and publishers, such as the top 50
grossing game "Frozen Free Fall". Prior to Disney, Mihai was the VP and General Manager of Central
Development Services at Electronic Arts, overseeing operational teams supporting 18 development studios on 3
continents. He founded and was the General Manager of EA Romania, one of the largest game development
studios in Eastern Europe.
Title: Senior Narrative Designer
Company: Independent
Ashley Ash Poprik is a video game and comic writer. Her credits include Destiny 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Clue: Disney Villains, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and Transphoria, to name a few. Ash pushes to create a more diverse games industry through mentorship, speaking, and advocacy.
Title: Director of Consulting
Company: Newzoo
Porter brings a multifaceted background that blends gaming expertise, business acumen, and a passion for tackling complex challenges at the intersection of technology and entertainment. Leveraging his robust experience in digitization, economics, and account management for Fortune 500 companies, he has developed a remarkable ability to distill intricate concepts into comprehensible insights. Acting as a bridge between technical experts and non-technical stakeholders is one of his specialties, making him an invaluable asset in translating complex data into actionable strategies. As the Consulting Director at Newzoo, a globally recognized authority in PC and console games, gamers, and games market data, Ben shares his skills to empower world-leading organizations to seize opportunities in the dynamic gaming ecosystem.
Title: VP of Membership Development
Company: Tech Coalition
Katia Potapov serves as the Vice President of Membership Development at the Tech Coalition, an alliance of 60+ tech companies united in the fight against online child sexual exploitation and abuse. With over two decades of experience in strategic operations, member engagement, and development, she is leading the Coalition's growth to extend its reach and strengthen industry's trust and safety capacities. In addition to her professional efforts, Katia is deeply committed to child safety and welfare, an attribute she demonstrates through her leadership roles in youth-focused organizations.
Title: Customer Engineer, Games Industry
Company: Google Cloud
Jamie's journey into game dev started in the trenches, writing bots and scripts alongside his brother long before it was his job. After years of navigating diverse industries at Google, he's returned to his roots to focus on his lifelong passion. Today, Jamie bridges the gap between cutting-edge research and gameplay, helping developers leverage AI/ML to build the next generation of immersive gaming experiences.
Title: Composer
Company: Slide20XX
Star Victoria Power (aka, Slide20XX) is a composer who writes colorful music for colorful games. Their work includes contribution to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night's new DLC, Dominique's Curse; the soundtrack for Calico (a game about magical girls running a cat cafe); the anti-racist PSAs, put out by Steven Universe; and electro-swing & jazz-hop for the visual novel, Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain. They're also co-founder of The Rising Star Patronage Project, a fund supporting marginalized video game music composers, co-founder of video game music community and educational resource, Beats to Play Games to, and founder of Beats to Play Games to's sister organization, Black in Game Audio.
Title: Tech Architect
Company: Ubisoft
Thomas is a Technical Architect at Ubisoft, specializing in large-scale data engineering, analytics, and AI-driven developer tools. Over the past several years, Thomas has architected the implementation of core data and DevOps infrastructure that powers insights and decision-making across Ubisoft's worldwide studios.
Most recently, Thomas was the technical lead on DocGPT—Ubisoft's secure, in-house AI knowledge assistant—bringing generative AI to the heart of the studio's development workflows. From integrating scattered sources like Jira, Confluence, Perforce, and playtest reviews, to deploying highly secure, domain-aware retrieval pipelines, Thomas helped make knowledge more accessible for thousands of game developers every day. Prior to this, Thomas worked on Ubisoft's global analytics and machine learning platform, delivering scalable event-driven architectures and deploying AI-powered features directly inside game engines.
A strong advocate of combining DevOps discipline with machine learning and data engineering best practices, Thomas leverages tools like Kubernetes, ArgoCD, Spark, and Databricks to make scalable, production-grade solutions a reality.
Thomas holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from IRRCyN (Nantes) and an engineering degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Mines de Nantes.
Title: Director of Product Design
Company: Discord
Sota Proffitt is Director of Product Design at Discord, where she leads teams shaping the product experience for one of the world's largest communication platforms, serving hundreds of millions of users globally.
Before joining Discord, she spent over four years consulting as a Strategy Director for Epic Games, helping guide product vision and user experience across gaming and creator ecosystems including Unreal Engine, Fab, ArtStation, and more. She has spent over a decade working in the games industry, beginning her career consulting for Omen Games as an industrial designer, and later for Discord through the acclaimed design studio Instrument.
As a strategist and creative, her experience spans brand, marketing, and product, with a focus on platforms that serve both developers and players.
Title: Creative
Company: ComfyUI
Eric “Purz” Purcell is a creative technologist exploring the intersection of generative AI, art, and open-source tools. Working within the ComfyUI ecosystem, he focuses on building, testing, and teaching creative workflows that help artists and developers experiment with new forms of generative media. His work centers on making powerful tools approachable—and fun to explore.
Title: Technical Fellow, GPU Tools
Company: AMD
Budi Purnomo is a Developer Tools Domain Architect at AMD with over two decades of expertise in GPU software development. He collaborates closely with AMD architects and industry partners to shape the next-generation hardware and software architectures across firmware, drivers, compilers, and developer tools, empowering developers building advanced graphics and compute applications.
Budi has co-architected the core technologies behind AMD’s flagship Radeon developer tools, including Radeon GPU Profiler, Radeon GPU Detective, Radeon Raytracing Analyzer, Radeon Memory Visualizer, and Radeon GPU Analyzer.
He is also the co-author of the popular OpenGL ES 3.0 Programming Guide and holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University.
Title: Staff Area Designer
Company: Obsidian Entertainment
Dan Qiao is an area designer at Obsidian Entertainment, focusing on level and combat system design. She has worked on several AAA games, including The Outer Worlds 2 (Obsidian Entertainment), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward), and XDefiant (Ubisoft). Her expertise covers both multiplayer and narrative-driven single-player games, with strengths in content blocking, scripting, and iterative development.
Title: VFX Artist
Company: Beyond-FX
Rachel Quitevis is a VFX Artist from Dallas, Texas. Since 2017, Rachel has worked for game developers such as Playful Studios, Gearbox Software, Santa Monica Studio, and Blizzard Entertainment. She began her career as a 3D generalist, refocusing her discipline to visual effects in 2020. Rachel is currently a VFX Artist at the co-development VFX studio Beyond-FX since 2024, lending her expertise to AAA titles while honing her craft among the industry's best real-time visual effects artists.
When Rachel is not working on video games, she's playing them. She is also an amateur Miata mechanic, rock climber, award-winning dessert baker, musician, plant collector, bookworm, and dog-mom of Cosmo Squirrelbane.
Title: Senior Game Developer
Company: The New York Times
Shafik Quoraishee is a Senior Games Machine Learning Engineer at The New York Times, where he works on flagship games including Wordle, Connections, Crosswords, and Strands. With a background in computer vision and applied AI, he builds tools and production systems that translate research ideas into real, shipped features. He has over 11 years of experience as an Android developer and led MakerWeek 2023 at The New York Times, where he spearheaded the development of an experimental handwriting recognition system for the NYT Crossword Android app. That work spanned the full pipeline, including custom handwriting input (SketchBox), preprocessing varied writing styles, training a convolutional neural network, and deploying it with TensorFlow Lite. Shafik is a frequent speaker at industry conferences such as GDC's AI Summit, Eng X engineering summits, and Droidcon NYC, where he presents on topics including handwriting recognition, generative AI in games, GANs, and the relationship between AI and game theory. He also writes about machine learning and experimental game AI, with published work on platforms such as Medium and Nieman Lab.
Title: Principal Software Engineer
Company: Electronic Arts
Steve Rabin is a Principal Software Engineer at Electronic Arts in the Performance Technology Group and a 30-year game industry veteran, specializing in game AI, CPU optimization, and game development tools. He has worked on games for Microsoft, Activision, Nintendo, and Electronic Arts. He has 16 issued patents on the Wii Remote (5 patents), Data Visualization and Analysis of Code (9 patents), In-Store Nintendo Kiosk, and Augmented Reality. Steve was the chief editor of the Game AI Pro series, the AI Game Programming Wisdom series, Introduction to Game Development, and an author in the Game Programming Gems series. Steve founded and organized the GDC AI Summit from 2009 to the present. He also teaches Game AI and Data Visualization within the Computer Science department at the DigiPen Institute of Technology since 2006. Steve holds a master's degree in Computer Science and an undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering, both from the University of Washington.
Title: Pipeline Tool Developer
Company: 2DNAC
Miroslav Radmanović is a specialist in high-end character shapes, digital doubles, and digital double-based workflows, with deep expertise across games, cinematics, and next-gen interactive media. Over more than a decade in the industry, he has helped build advanced facial systems, guided AAA character development, and contributed to shaping modern standards in digital human production.
As COO and Co-Founder of 2DNAC, Miroslav plays a key role in designing and optimizing next-generation pipeline tools for scalable character creation. His work focuses on bridging artistic precision with technical innovation—ensuring teams can produce expressive, production-ready heads and bodies faster, cleaner, and with greater consistency across platforms.
Miroslav has been instrumental in evolving 2DNAC's proprietary technologies, including the creation of advanced shape libraries, deformation systems, and custom workflows that empower studios to push realism while maintaining performance. His approach emphasizes flexible systems that support any visual style—from stylized to photoreal—while ensuring seamless integration into Unreal Engine, Maya, and other production environments.
Collaborating closely with artists, programmers, and technical directors, Miroslav helps transform complex character challenges into robust, elegant solutions. His work enables teams to deliver digital humans that not only look believable, but move and emote with natural precision—raising the bar for character production across games, film, AR/VR, and beyond.
Title: Producer
Company: Code Cozy Studio
Fae Raitt (any/all) is a video game producer and studio head. Their love of game design began with Dungeons & Dragons and grew into a career while working at United Way of King County and completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in game design. Since then, Fae has helped student and indie teams find clarity in production, scope, and pipelines. In 2024, they founded a studio dedicated to cozy game experiences, releasing its first title in 2025. Fae focuses on people-first production practices and building sustainable, supportive creative environments.
Title: Head of Customer Engineering
Company: Google Cloud
Ivan Ramirez leads the Customer Engineering and Principal Architect teams at Google, where he helps companies develop amazing games and reach players globally. He partners with top studios to transform the entire development lifecycle through advanced AI integration, implementing solutions that range from accelerating creation and automating QA to deploying scalable global databases. His work also focuses on fostering healthy communities through AI-driven toxicity detection. A Georgia Tech graduate and former NASA aerospace engineer, Ivan combines deep technical expertise with strategic vision to drive innovation for the industry's most ambitious projects.
Title: Global Quality Engineering Offer Manager
Company: Softtek
With 20 years at Softtek, he currently serves as Global Quality Engineering Offer Manager. His career has evolved from Automated Test Engineer to QA Delivery Manager, leading globally distributed teams delivering 24/7 testing services across complex, enterprise-scale environments.
He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and has completed executive education programs at institutions such as Harvard University. His cross-industry expertise includes Gaming, High Tech, Transportation and Logistics, Banking and Financial Services, Retail, Healthcare, and Insurance.
Hector actively drives the evolution of modern Quality Engineering by shaping scalable operating models and AI-augmented testing strategies. At GDC, he shares how these innovations can elevate PlayTesting, enhancing regression efficiency, strengthening gameplay validation, and increasing the strategic impact of testers.
Title: CEO
Company: Dream Reality Interactive
Dr. Dave Ranyard is a distinguished entrepreneur and innovator in the field of interactive entertainment, with a career spanning over two decades. He is the founder and CEO of Dream Reality Interactive, a cutting-edge development company specializing in creating games across multiple platforms from mobile to XR. Additionally, Dave is the Chair of award-winning narrative game studio, Interior Night, and advisor to several companies including Zenos Technology, Singer Studios, and Meeple Corp. Prior to founding DRi, he served as the Head of Sony Playstation's flagship studio in London, where he led groundbreaking projects in the gaming industry. Dave's passion for creativity and entertainment has been a driving force throughout his career. In his earlier years, he left school to start his own vintage business and was later signed to Warner Music Group, gaining valuable skills that he has seamlessly incorporated into the art of game development. His diverse background and multidisciplinary approach have resulted in unique and innovative projects that have made a significant impact in the gaming industry. In addition to his entrepreneurial pursuits, Dave holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, showcasing his deep knowledge and understanding of new technologies. His achievements and contributions in the field of interactive entertainment have earned him a reputation as a thought leader in the games and tech industries. His visionary leadership and dedication to innovation continue to shape the landscape of interactive entertainment, driving the industry forward into exciting new frontiers.
Title: Senior Creative Director
Company: PlayStation Studios Creative Arts
Matt is the Senior Creative Director at PlayStation Studios Creative. With over 17 years of experience in branding and campaign design across a wide range of industries, he joined PlayStation in 2018. Since then, he's led branding efforts for numerous high-profile titles, including Returnal, the Horizon franchise, Helldivers 2, Until Dawn, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Destruction AllStars, Spider-Man, and many more.
Title: Wargaming HQ Analyst
Company: Wargaming, Inc.
Michal Reszka is a Data Analyst with over three years of experience working with data. He's responsible for competitive intelligence and general modeling, primarily for the analysis, evaluation, and validation of the Social Value model within Wargaming's ecosystem - specifically in World of Tanks. He draws on 13 years of personal experience with the game to help design meaningful tests and gain deeper insights into its mechanics and social dynamics.
Title: Lead Character Artist
Company: Sandfall Interactive
Alan Reynaud is the Lead Character Artist at Sandfall Interactive, where he has been leading the character art team on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for the past five years. With six years of experience in the game industry as both a character artist and a concept artist, Alan specializes in designing and sculpting distinctive, story-driven characters.
Title: Senior Creative Director
Company: Behaviour Interactive Inc.
An enthusiastic fan of Stephen King's work, Dave Richard just cannot get enough scary movies, jump scares and everything horror.
With a degree in Fine Arts, he first entered the video game world as a 2D Artist, before moving on to various other roles including Lead Game Designer, and eventually Creative Director.
Dave has been a key player at every stage of the development of Dead by Daylight, from the ideation phase to making it the globally acclaimed hit horror game it is today.
When reflecting on the success of the game, Dave is humbled to see that what started as a dream project has now grown to become a worldwide phenomenon: "I remember taking part in an event one day and seeing a girl with a Dead by Daylight tattoo on her arm. I realized then the impact we had on our fans. I understood that we had a duty to not only create quality content, but also to create content that would have a positive effect on people and on today's culture."
At work, Dave's role is to oversee and direct every aspect of the content creation, from the narrative of the characters to the choice of maps, the visual design, the music as well as the gameplay mechanics.
When he's not working on innovative ways to scare the millions of fans out there, you might find Dave hitting the drums to the beat of his favourite rock band.
Title: Principal 3D Environment Artist
Company: Compulsion Games
Paulette is a Principal 3D Environment Artist at Compulsion Games, specializing in texture and material creation. On South of Midnight, she managed the base texture library and contributed to level art of Huggin Molly's Lab. She brings 18 years of industry experience, including 14 years at Ubisoft Montreal, where she worked as a texture artist on titles such as Rainbow Six Extraction, Shaun White Snow Boarding, Michael Jackson: The Experience and the Far Cry Franchise. Her expertise spans environment and character textures, props, vegetation, and cinematic matte paintings. Paulette holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Georgia and a Master's in Animation and Visual Effects from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Title: CEO & Managing Director
Company: Nordicity
Kristian is the CEO and Managing Director of Nordicity, an international consultancy focusing on the creative economy. Kristian is also one of the world's leading experts in the design, implementation, and evaluation of games industry support systems. From tax credits around the world to local-level industry development, Kristian, and his team at Nordicity act as the translation matrix between industry, investors, and the public sector. Over the last few years, Kristian has become one of the games industry's leading voices on ecosystem development and economic policy, building on almost two decades of experience working with video game industries around the world. In fact, Kristian got his first job at Nordicity in 2007 by answering the question 'What do you know about the games industry?' He provided so much detail that they hired him to make him stop.
Title: Associate Art Director
Company: Behaviour Interactive Inc.
Sarah Robinson has been working in the video game industry for nearly two decades on a variety of games from mobile educational titles and platformers to high action PC and console games. Originally hailing from a User Interface background, she is currently an Associate Art Director at Behaviour Interactive working on Dead by Daylight and focusing on new characters and content.
Title: Development Director
Company: Playstudios
Jonathan Rodgers has dedicated his life to making video games. Over the last 20 years, he's made games professionally for the Nintendo DS, Flash/Facebook, PS3, PS4, Vita, PC, iOS, Android, and the web. His favorite games are Super Metroid and Metal Gear Solid 3. He lives in the SF Bay Area with his wife, 2 children, 1 frog, 2 cats, 3 chickens, 6 fish, and about 100 snails.
Title: Founder / CEO
Company: Lingotion
Andreas Rodman is a Swedish tech entrepreneur specializing in artificial intelligence and software innovation. With a background in computer science, Andreas focuses on building cutting-edge technology that pushes creative and technical boundaries.
Andreas is the founder and CEO of Lingotion AB, a Swedish tech startup at the forefront of AI research in video game development. Lingotion offers on-device, performance-efficient, and legally compliant real-time AI-acting for video games, unlocking an infinite number of new possibilities for gameplay and character interactions.
Title: Director
Company: Ubisoft, La Forge
Alexis Rolland is a seasoned technology leader with over 15 years of experience at the intersection of artificial intelligence, game development, and data analytics. As the Director of Ubisoft La Forge in China, he spearheads innovative R&D initiatives that bridge academic research and game development, driving technical prototyping and the adoption of cutting-edge AI solutions. Alexis began his career as a consultant at IBM before transitioning to the gaming industry, where he has played a pivotal role in shaping Ubisoft's AI and data strategy. Over his 13-year tenure at Ubisoft, he has held multiple leadership roles, including Director of Ubisoft China AI & Data Lab, where he managed a diverse team of data scientists, engineers, and product managers to enhance analytics, machine learning, and AI-driven innovation across Ubisoft's projects. A self-taught programmer with a passion for development, Alexis has contributed to numerous groundbreaking AI initiatives, such as Ubisoft's internal generative AI platform, Ghostwriter for narrative dialogue generation, and ZooBuilder, a tool for creating 3D animations from videos. His expertise spans reinforcement learning, computer vision, and generative AI, with his work showcased at major industry events like SIGGRAPH Asia.
Title: Character Artist
Company: Independent
Lucrezia Romeo is a French Character Artist specializing in video games. She graduated from Rubika Supinfogame in 2024 and subsequently joined Sloclap as a Character Artist on the game Rematch. Her work spans both stylized and realistic character creation. Alongside her professional work, she develops personal projects, including Wastepunk, which has been selected as Substance 3D Painter's Hero Asset for 2026.
Title: President
Company: RetroPixel Digital
Nick Romick is a cinematics director, motion capture lead, and game developer based in Vancouver, best known for his work on Green Hawk Platoon and his upcoming title Delta Poly: Block Ops. With a background spanning film, animation, and game development—including motion capture supervision on Love Me (starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun) and a LEGO web series—Nick specializes in real-time performance capture and stylized cinematic storytelling. Through his studio, RetroPixel Digital, he creates high-energy trailers, character shorts, and gameplay cinematics using tools like Unreal Engine, Xsens, and Manus. Nick's work has reached millions online, blending technical precision with a playful, creative spirit.
Title: Game Director & Lead Designer
Company: Ironwood Studios
Seth Rosen was the lead designer and game director on Ironwood Studios' debut title, Pacific Drive. With a background in systems design, his career work has focused mainly on survival games and non-combat AI behaviors. Whether it's making companion-AI Elizabeth feel alive in BioShock Infinite, applying the lessons learned to a whole city in Mafia III, or figuring out how to expand Don't Starve and later add multiplayer mechanics to the game, Seth is always looking to build on what has come before, pushing boundaries and solving new problems.
Title: Narrative Director
Company: Subverse Interactive Narrative
Joshua Rubin is an Interactive Emmy-winning veteran of the entertainment industry, best known as a Lead Writer for video games such as Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2, Bungie's Destiny, Telltale's Game of Thrones and Walking Dead, and People Can Fly's Outriders. He was recently a Narrative Director for Techland's Dying Light franchise. He won the Emmy in 2022 for Netflix's branching TV series: You vs. Wild: Out Cold. Rubin has been a pioneer in the XR and Immersive space, constantly exploring the frontiers of narrative and future tech, since his 360˚ sci-fi film The Argos File premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won Best Live Action Experience at the VRLA Proto Awards in 2017. He was Narrative Director for Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son, Sony's VR sequel to the classic Bill Murray film, and Asset 15, an innovative AR thriller from director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity). He recently wrote Netflix's Black Mirror location-based VR experience, and is leading the creation of two new LBVR experiences for Felix & Paul. He is the founder of Strange Land Comics and he regularly speaks on the future of immersive storytelling at conferences like SXSW, AWE and San Diego Comic Con. Most recently, Rubin was the Narrative Director for Orion Drift, the new massively multiplayer VR game from the creators of Gorilla Tag, the first $100million VR game.
Title: AI Technologist
Company: AWS
Sergey Rudenko is a Principal Technologist in the Amazon Luna division, pioneering the use of real-time generative AI in interactive entertainment. He prototypes GenAI-native games and platform features, with a focus on real-time AI characters, game environment simulations, and emergent player experiences. With a background spanning technology, product, and game design, Sergey explores new forms of interactive entertainment at the intersection of AI and play. He prototyped the early version of Courtroom Chaos and partnered with the Amber team to ship the title in 2025.
Title: Professor and Microsoft Endowed Chair
Company: University of Southern California
TreaAndrea M. Russworm is the Microsoft Endowed Chair and Professor of Interactive Media and Games at the University of Southern California. Russworm is the author of Blackness is Burning; she is a co-editor of the collections Gaming Representation and Theorizing Tyler Perry; and she is a Series Editor of Power Play: Games, Politics, Culture (Duke University Press). Along with Samantha Blackmon, she is a co-founder of the public humanities project The Black Games Archive. Since 2016 Russworm has served as the founder and director of the Radical Play Lab, a community-based game design and research lab.
Title: Senior Audio Director
Company: EA DICE
4 Time Academy Award (BAFTA & AIAS) winning, experienced Audio Director with over 15 years in the video game industry; specializing in immersive sound design and audio direction for AAA titles. Proven track record in leading audio teams and delivering high-quality soundscapes that enhance gameplay experiences. A Battlefield, DICE and EA veteran.
Title: Senior Narrative Designer
Company: Unskippable Dialogue
Ben Sabin is a freelance narrative designer and games writer with 6+ years of experience, who specialises in interactive fiction and branching narratives. He's worked for a number of clients, including FRONTIER, Failbetter, Playstack, and Wizards of the Coast, and has multiple commercially shipped games under his belt.
Title: Corporate Officer
Company: Digital Garage, Inc.
Junichi Sakishima is a Corporate Officer at Digital Garage, responsible for new strategic business initiatives, including the development and global expansion of the digital content e-commerce platform, AppPay. He held roles in startup investments and business development at Mitsui & Co., based out of Tokyo, New York, and London. He also led the transformation of the global supply chain at Fast Retailing (Uniqlo).
Title: Creative Director
Company: Raindrop Games
Josh Samuels has been a video game developer and software engineer for over 20 years. They are the Studio Lead for Raindrop Games where they worked on Arrival: Village Kasike, a strategy game about the Taino people of the Caribbean and Fishin' For Permission, a children's game about consent. In 2015 Josh co-founded the Allies Special Interest Group (SIG) of the IGDA. This group's purpose is to educate people about issues faced by marginalized groups and provide tools to help everyone be a more effective ally.
Title: Sr SA Marketing Demo Engineering
Company: AWS
Patrick Santora Jr. is a Sr SA Marketing Demo Engineer at Amazon Web Services, where he designs and implements cutting-edge generative AI solutions and leads technical enablement initiatives. With over 25 years of technology and leadership experience, he has achieved notable recognition including presenting at AWS re:Invent and supporting fortune 500 companies across startups and other industry segments.
Title: Secretary General
Company: iGi
Sho Sato is the CEO at LUDiMUS Inc., leading specialists group of creative industries like game, anime and manga. He is the co-founder and Secretary General at iGi, the first game incubator in Japan, and works as an advisor for So-Fu game accelerator by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and as the core member of Global Game Growth Gateway by Agency for Cultural Affairs. From 2024, he became the chairman of IGDA Incubation SIG, a working group for more than 120 leaders from incubators and accelerators in 61 countries.
Title: Founder, Always Supporting Games Community (ASGC) and BD Director
Company: Tencent Games
I'm a Business Development Director at Tencent Games in North America, with 20 years of experience across Amazon, Veeam, VMware, Dell EMC, and Goldman Sachs. At Amazon, I led business development and strategy for Prime Gaming and was a Principal Producer for Amazon Games.
I'm best known as the founder of ASGC (Always Supporting the Games Community), the largest career support initiative in games. ASGC helps game developers through layoffs and career transitions. Supported by nearly 2,500 volunteer coaches, the community has facilitated almost 90,000 coaching conversations. Through 13 free job-seeking resources across LinkedIn, Discord, and other platforms, the community has helped more than 4,500 people secure jobs. The guiding principle is simple: we help gamers get hired. Zero profit, infinite caring.
In 2023, this work was recognized when I was named a LinkedIn Top Voice in Video Games and received the International Special Industry Achievement Award from the Australian XR Festival. In 2024, it was further honored with the inaugural Game Changer Award at The Game Awards.
In 2025, the community's efforts during industry layoffs were recognized with the Giving Award from Games for Change and the inaugural Industry Impact Award from Game Dev Heroes. At the External Development Summit (XDS), this work was also honored with the Unsung Hero Award.
Across 40+ global events, ASGC has distributed more than 3,000 free tickets. For their 2025 and 2026 events, our community partnered with GDC and gamescom to provide over $500K in free passes.
In addition to my role at Tencent, I serve as an advisory network member at Vivrato and as a special advisor to the Zero Abuse Project. Our community annually supports Gamers for CHOC, benefiting CHOC Children's.
ASGC has been featured by Business Insider, Bloomberg, NPR, CBC, The Los Angeles Times, Epic, IGN, GamesBeat, PC Gamer, Polygon, The Fourth Curtain, Naavik, and more. I've spoken at GDC, DICE, GamesBeat, MIGS, XP Games Summit, and served as a keynote speaker at XDS.
Follow for practical career support, industry context, and real help for people working in games.
I hold an MBA from the Wharton School, an MB in Biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, an MPA in Policy and Management from NYU, and a BS in Finance from Boston College, where I was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist and named a top 10 graduate.
Title: Accessibility Consultant
Company: Independent
Steve Saylor is a blind accessibility consultant and advocate known for his work as the "Blind Gamer" on YouTube where he reviews video games from a visually impaired perspective. With over a decade of experience in the gaming industry, Steve has collaborated with major studios including Ubisoft, PlayStation, and Xbox to improve gaming accessibility in games such as Assassin's Creed Valhalla, The Last Of Us Part 1 and 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. He is a frequent speaker at industry events for his accessibility expertise. He continues to help studios implement accessible features through consulting and is passionate about ensuring games can be enjoyed by players of all abilities.
Title: Executive Vice-President & Global Head of Transmedia
Company: SEGA
Justin is a seasoned strategic and operational executive with over 30 years of leadership experience. He currently leads Sega’s Global Transmedia Group, overseeing Film/TV/Streaming, Consumer Products, Location-Based Entertainment, and Live Shows. Before Sega, Justin built a strong record of creative and financial success across gaming, mobile, and consumer products. His experience includes senior roles at Disney and Scopely spanning production, marketing, sales, business strategy, and development, as well as leading The Walt Disney Company’s Japanese Consumer Products business. He has also served as an advisor and investor across sectors including Web3, music, consumer products, and gaming. At Scopely, Justin managed Asia-based offices across Japan, China, South Korea, and Singapore, providing strategic, M&A, and operational leadership. Previously, he led Disney’s Asia Pacific games business, driving global franchises such as Disney Tsum Tsum, Kingdom Hearts, and Marvel Future Fight.
Title: Senior Manager, Technology Evangelism
Company: Apple
Allan Schaffer is a senior manager in Worldwide Developer Relations, leading the team focused on graphics and games, machine learning and AI, augmented reality, and spatial computing.
Title: CEO
Company: Schell Games
Jesse Schell is the CEO of Schell Games, a team of more than 150 people in Pittsburgh, PA who strive to make the world’s greatest educational and entertainment games, including Yale Medical's PlayForward: Elm City Stories, HoloLAB Champions, the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood games, and Happy Atoms.
Schell Games also creates pure entertainment content, such as the award-winning VR games Among Us VR, the I Expect You To Die franchise, and Until You Fall, a critically-acclaimed VR sword fighting game. Jesse also serves as Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University. Jesse has worked on a wide variety of innovative game and simulation projects for both entertainment and education, but he is best known for his award-winning book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, now in its third edition, and his predictions about the future of gaming technology. He is a previous chair of the International Game Developers Association and former Creative Director of the Disney Virtual Reality Studio.
Title: Senior 3D Programmer
Company: Ubisoft Mainz
Aaron Scherzinger is a Senior 3D Programmer at Ubisoft Mainz. He received a PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) from the University of Münster, Germany in 2018 for his work on scientific visualization and image processing before joining Ubisoft in 2019. Since 2020, he is part of the Anno team and has been working on the Anno 1800 Console Edition and Anno 117: Pax Romana.
Title: Marketing Director
Company: Yacht Club Games
Celia is the Marketing Director at Yacht Club Games, the indie studio behind the critically acclaimed Shovel Knight series. With over a decade of experience in the video game industry, she's passionate about building community and championing the indie scene. You might also recognize her from podcasts like the Spawncast and Game & Talk, where she regularly shares her take on upcoming games and industry news. Outside of work Celia enjoys collecting retro games, binge watching anime, and spending time with her cat, Mister Schmutz.
Title: Bellelvue
Company: Brian Schmidt Studios, LLC
Brian Schmidt is one of the early pioneers of the game audio industry. The 2008 recipient of the Game Audio Network Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award, and 2017 inductee into the Pinball Expo Hall of Fame, Brian has been creating game music, sounds and cutting-edge technology for more than 35 years. With a credit list of over 140 games and a client list including Electronic Arts, Zynga, Microsoft, Sony, Capcom, Sega, Data East, Namco and many others. Brian has used his combined expertise and experience in music composition, sound design and his deep technical knowledge to further the state of the art in game audio and his music has been featured in TV, Film and in the CD-set, Legends of Game Music. Brian began his career in game audio in 1987 as a composer, sound effects designer and music programmer for Williams Electronic Games in Chicago - writing music and creating sound effects for pinball machines and coin-operated video games. While there, he was the primary composer of the iconic video game NARC and lead composer and audio lead for Black Knight 2000. His main theme from NARC was later recorded and released by The Pixies. In 1989, Brian left Williams and became one of the industry's first independent game composers, where he worked on such games as John Madden Football, the Desert Strike Series, Mutant League Football and the award-winning Crueball. Other credits include Guns and Roses Pinball, where he worked closely with Slash to create a truly interactive Rock and Roll game experience. In 1998, Brian was recruited by Microsoft to lead the direction of game audio technologies. While there, he joined the then-fledgling Xbox organization as the primary architect for its audio and music system. Brian has been credited with bringing Dolby Digital Surround Sound to interactive gaming through his efforts at Xbox (where he also created the original Xbox startup sound).Through his ten-year tenure at Microsoft, Brian continued to drive and advance game audio technologies through tools such the award-winning XACT (Xbox Audio Creation Tool); the first-of-its kind tool to provide interactive mixing for video games. Brian was also responsible for the overall audio system of the Xbox 360 game system, including the XMA audio compression format, winner of the G.A.N.G Best New Technology award and finalist in IGDA's Best new technology category. Brian currently works as a consultant to the video game industry working with companies large and small. Brian is the creator of GameSoundCon, the industry's largest conference dedicated to composing video game music and video game sound design. Brian is a frequent and in-demand speaker on game audio and game audio technologies, having given literally hundreds of educational and inspirational talks at events all over the world. Events such as the Game Developers Conference, Microsoft's Gamefest, Sega Devcon, and the Audio Engineering Society Conference, SiGraph and esteemed institutions such as Yale University, Northwestern University and Digipen have invited Brian to share his knowledge and insight into the industry. Brian received undergraduate degrees in music and computer science from Northwestern University in1985, where he created the first dual degree program between the School of Music and the Technological Institute. He went on to complete his Masters in Computer Applications in Music in 1987, where portions of his thesis work was published in the prestigious Computer Music Journal and presented by invitation to the AES special conference on Audio Technology. Brian currently serves as President of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), a position he was elected to in 2012; sits on the advisory board of the Game Developer Conference; is a former steering committee member of the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (ia-sig) of the MMA; and has been a featured keynote speaker at GDC, Project BBQ and the Montreal Interactive Games Summit (MIGS).
Title: Senior Director of External Development
Company: Zynga
Carl got his start in games in 1994. Carl has worked at small and large companies alike from a buyer and a service provider perspective, most notably Michael Crichton's Timeline Entertainment, Nvidia, Electronic Arts and his current role as Senior Director of External Development at Zynga. In this Business Operations role, he has built a worldwide organization which facilitates all of Zynga's external development and partner relations involving Art, Engineering, Audio, UI/UX, Co-Dev, QA, Localization/LQA, Narrative, UA and Marketing/Publishing. In addition, Carl helps coordinate and facilitate M&A integrations for Zynga and its subsidiaries.
Title: Director of Slate Strategy
Company: Scopely
Talia is a senior product and strategy leader in the mobile games industry, with experience across midcore and casual titles spanning RPG, Action, Strategy, Merge, Match 3, Bingo, and Solitaire. She has held leadership roles at Plarium as Director of Product and Market Research Insights, and at Bring It On heading Product.
Today, Talia is Director of Slate Strategy at Scopely, assisting in the strategic processes of new titles. She also hosts gaming product and monetization panels for Liquid & Grit.
Title: Vice President
Company: PGDA
Simon is a hands-on community builder who helps turn ideas into action. He is actively involved in many game industry events across Austria and spent the past year working on Panta Rhei – Guardian of Time. Simon is also the founder of creAT and recently began teaching, sharing his experience with the next generation of developers.
Within Austrian Game Developers Association (PGDA), Simon serves as Vice Chair. The organization is dedicated to supporting, showcasing, and accelerating Austrian games, developers, and businesses, strengthening the country’s game development ecosystem.
Title: EVP, Chief Development Officer
Company: IGN Entertainment
Born in Germany, Peer Schneider is one of IGN Entertainment's founders and originally served as editor of N64.com/IGN64. He is now IGN's Chief Development Officer, responsible for IGN, GN, and Map Genie game help and tools.
Title: Game Producer
Company: Nebraska Public Media
Jacob Schwitzer is a member of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin with a background in storytelling and game development. Raised on the Menominee Reservation, Jacob's family fostered his love for storytelling and games by reading to him at a young age and gifting him a Nintendo DS at the age of ten. Those loves propelled him to the University of Wisconsin - Stout, where he earned his B.S. in Computer Science with a concentration in Game Design and Development. There, he gained hands-on experience with developing games and used that knowledge to create VR apps for the College of Menominee Nation and Penn State University. Jacob now works at Nebraska Public Media as a Software Developer and Game Producer, where he works with a diverse team to create games in their Emerging Media department.
Title: Composer
Company: Garry Schyman Productions
Composer Garry Schyman’s award-winning music can be heard in nearly every audio-visual media, including feature films, prime-time television, and video games. His haunting orchestral scores for the globally acclaimed video games BioShock, BioShock 2, and BioShock Infinite have earned him multiple awards, including top honors for Best Original Score from the British Academy of Film & Television (BAFTA) and the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
As one of the world’s most celebrated composers of video game music, Schyman is notable for his versatility of style and unique ability to fluidly draw from multiple eclectic sources of inspiration. Always experimenting, his recent music for the game Metamorphosis, based on Kafka’s groundbreaking novel, incorporates a unique expressionist score featuring techniques such as Sprechgessang (half sung half spoken) and 12-tone music.
He captured the fantasy world of Tolkien for the adventure game Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (nominated for a BAFTA award) and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War and paid playful homage to ’50s sci-fi with his score for the game Destroy All Humans! (followed by two sequels). He accelerated heartbeats with his thunderous orchestral score for EA’s Dante’s Inferno and gave a nod to the hypnotic style of Bernard Herrmann in the mystery game Voyeur, as well as his beautiful and haunting music for the VR game Torn soundtrack available on Varèse Sarabande Records.
When he’s not composing, Schyman teaches part-time at his alma mater the University of Southern California in their world-famous Screen Scoring program.
Title: Group Product Manager, Developers
Company: Discord
Mason Sciotti, a nine-year veteran and Group Product Manager for Developers at Discord, has been key in evolving Discord into a comprehensive gaming platform. His deep expertise spans Discord's history of developer products, including SDKs and pioneering console integrations with Xbox and PlayStation. Currently leading the Social SDK, Mason focuses on helping game developers use Discord's social graph to boost player engagement and retention. His approach combines technical product understanding with practical, measurable implementation guidance, shaped by working with studios of all sizes. At GDC, Mason shares proven strategies to make Discord integration a driver of sustained player engagement.
Title: Head of Studio
Company: New Tales
Sylvain Sechi is a French game designer, producer and creative director with more than 18 years in the gaming industry. He has held key roles at Cyanide, Ubisoft, Eden Games, and co-built Big Bad Wolf Studio. Since 2022 he has been Head of Studio at New Tales, leading the development of a new Action RPG for PC and Consoles.
Title: Senior Manager of Creative
Company: PlayStation Studios
Keith is a veteran art leader with over 25 years of experience in art production, world building, cinematic development, and team leadership. He started in the games industry as an artist in 1998 working on a series of popular outdoor sporting titles. In the years since, he has contributed to a variety of studios and franchises including Presto Studios (MystIII, Whacked!), Volition (Saints Row, Red Faction, Agents of Mayhem), Blizzard Entertainment (TITAN, Hearthstone), and Bungie (Destiny 2, Marathon). Keith is also a long-running veteran speaker at the annual Game Developer's Conference. He is co-creator/co-organizer of the Art Direction Summit along with Andrew Maximov. Keith has also moderated the Art Leadership Roundtable since 2012.
Title: Research Scientist
Company: Electronic Arts, SEED
Alessandro Sestini is a research scientist at SEED, the research and development lab within Electronic Arts. His work focuses on the application of deep reinforcement learning (RL), inverse reinforcement learning, imitation learning, and large language models (LLM) to game AI and playtesting. Alessandro contributed to the game AI landscape, helping develop LLM-based agents for the new Battlefield game and, more recently, developing the new RL-based movement system of the goalkeeper in EA Sports FC 26. Alessandro has published several academic papers and given several talks about the intersection between machine learning and video game development, helping researchers and practitioners in adopting such technology. Prior to joining SEED, Alessandro obtained his PhD with honorable mention in Smart Computing and Computer Engineering from Università degli Studi di Firenze
Title: Level Designer II
Company: Pipeworks Studios
Baqir Shah is a design and creative lead with over 13 years of experience in the games, entertainment, and technology industries. He has worked across AAA, AA, indie, mobile, and immersive platforms, contributing to shipped titles including Life is Strange: Double Exposure, Fortnite, Temple Run, Justice League VR, and The Sandbox.
Baqir specializes in level design, world building, content design, prototyping, and cinematic storytelling, with experience spanning PC, console, mobile, and VR/AR/MR. In addition to hands-on development, he has led and mentored multidisciplinary design teams, guiding projects from early concept through production, playtesting, and iteration.
As both a hiring manager and educator, Baqir regularly reviews level design portfolios and mentors designers at all career stages. He is passionate about creating meaningful, engaging interactive experiences and helping designers clearly communicate their craft.
Title: Lead Writer and Narrative Designer
Company: Pacific Drive
Karrie Shao is the Nebula-nominated and BAFTA-longlisted Lead Writer and Lead Narrative Designer of Pacific Drive, the best-selling supernatural survival game described as Stephen King's X-Files in a Station Wagon. The game sold 1M+ copies and has been honored by BAFTA and The Game Awards. Shao's writing has garnered praise as funny and compelling by GamesRadar. Pacific Drive is in development for television by James Wan at Atomic Monster. Shao is a BAFTA Breakthrough 2024 talent and was one of the first women to write and produce on League of Legends, the most played PC game of all time.
Title: Creative Executive (formerly King, Candy Crush)
Company: -
Kenny Shea Dinkin is a veteran game designer and creative leader known for building durable franchises that leave a mark on popular culture. Most recently, he spent eight years at King leading creative for Candy Crush’s Metagame Studio during a period of sustained global growth.
Previously, Kenny served as VP and Studio Head for Disney’s San Francisco studio and as Chief Creative Officer at PlayFirst, where he helped grow the Diner Dash franchise to hundreds of millions of players worldwide. He is also co-creator of the cult hit The ClueFinders.
A frequent GDC speaker and early contributor to the Game Designer’s Notebook series, Kenny now curates conversations that spotlight emerging voices and enduring insights in game design.
Title: Corporate Vice President
Company: AMD
Robert Shearer is a Corporate Vice President at AMD, leading Advanced Architecture and ISV engagement within the Computing & Graphics organization. He is responsible for aligning silicon architecture, software, and ecosystem partnerships to drive platform‑level differentiation across client, graphics, and AI portfolios.
Robert brings deep leadership experience at the intersection of hardware and software, with a proven track record of building and scaling high‑impact technical organizations and translating architectural vision into commercial results.
Prior to AMD, he held senior leadership roles at Meta, Microsoft, and IBM, where he led silicon and system architecture initiatives from concept through production. Robert holds more than 150 issued patents and is recognized for fostering durable, forward‑looking platform strategy.
Title: Senior Director of Product Management
Company: Blizzard Entertainment
Chase Shi, Senior Director of Product Management at Blizzard Entertainment, leads commercial strategy for the Diablo franchise, including the award-winning mobile game Diablo Immortal and several incubation projects. He oversees product strategy, monetization, LiveOps, and growth across these games. Previously, he drove business success for top-ranking titles like Star Trek Fleet Command at Scopely. He also hosts Game Bakery, a podcast bridging the gap between Eastern and Western gaming industries through creative dialogue.
Title: VP, Developer Technology Group
Company: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Muneki Shimada is the Vice President of the Developer Technology Group at Sony Interactive Entertainment (aka PlayStation), where he focuses on solving the toughest technology and operational challenges in game development. In his role at PlayStation, Muneki works closely with every type game developer — from the smallest Indie studios to the largest AAA developers — across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. He is based in San Mateo, California.
Title: Attorney and Counselor at Law
Company: Lewis Rice LLC
Benjamin J. Siders is an intellectual property and technology lawyer, and Practice Group Leader for the Intellectual Property practice group, at Lewis Rice LLC in St. Louis, Missouri. A former software engineer, Ben brings a developer's mindset to his legal practice, providing cost-effective, actionable counsel to software and game development clients. His work focuses on helping small businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups protect their creations with copyrights, trademarks and patents, and navigating complex technology licensing and compliance.
Ben also maintains a niche practice working with video and board game clients. He has advised developers and publishers on a wide range of gaming products, including tabletop games, mobile apps, fantasy sports platforms, and digital publishing services. Ben's legal counsel is informed by his personal experience as a game developer. He has developed a multithreaded on-line RPG server in C++, dubbed "Archon," and open-sourced a ROM2.4 derivative MUD codebase. He is also co-inventor of U.S. Pat. No. 9,078,103 for a geogaming technology used to create "parallel reality" games.
Ben is also a co-author of the American Bar Association's Legal Guide to Video Game Development, and has written for Landslide, the American Bar Association's intellectual property law journal, including an article focused on legal issues in board game design. He also co-hosts A Lawyer's Guide to the Galaxy, a podcast about the intersection of geek culture and the law.
Title: Co-Founder & CEO, ESPAT TV
Company: Producer Call of Duty: The Film
Dr. Dante Simpson is an acclaimed award-winning Marketing Executive and serial entrepreneur. Simpson is currently the Co-founder and CEO of ESPAT TV, a premium gaming content agency and studio. ESPAT TV is a collaborative, comprised of industry leading production studios, led by Ridley Scott Creative Group and PRG, alongside the talented creatives of Zoic Studios, Petrol, Elite Edge Productions, The Famous Group & Disney’s InWorld. Since ESPAT Studios’ inception, in 2019, its collective has been a part of the gaming cultures most recognizable moments, including development and production of unforgettable immersive experiences (Travis Scott|Fortnite, Lil Nas X|Roblox, Post Malone|Pokemon, Ariana Grande|Rift Tour, etc.), NFL’s mixed-reality activation with Nickelodeon for the 2024 Super Bowl, the award-winning introduction of Balenciaga in the Fortnite metaverse (Grand Clio Award), and trailers and programming for the world’s most recognizable gaming titles.
Previously, Simpson served as the Sr. Vice President of North American Business Development for SonyBMG Music Entertainment, where he led efforts for business development, growth, and campaigning. During his tenure, Simpson developed the division’s strategies into a highly successful revenue-generating business. Prior to SonyBMG, Simpson established himself as an industry leader while serving as Vice President of Business Design and Development for The Gucci Group where he implemented one of the most successful multi-channel marketing campaigns in the high-fashion industry, under the leadership of Creative Director Tom Ford.
Simpson has overseen the rapid growth and expansion of organizations, as well as providing consultation to companies globally. His diverse body of work spans global gaming interests, branded entities, and high-profile influencers - both on content/technical production and campaign matters. Most recently, as co-Producer of CALL OF DUTY: THE FILM, ESPAT channels the high-octane energy and cinematic intensity that have defined a generation of blockbuster storytelling. Under the banner of ESPAT Studios, Simpson leads the creative and production vision for one of the most ambitious game-to-film adaptations ever mounted—where authenticity meets adrenaline. Merging the immersive realism of the legendary video game franchise with large-scale filmmaking, Paramount, Skydance & Activision have positioned CALL OF DUTY as a global entertainment event designed to ignite audiences across film, gaming, and streaming platforms.
Earning a formidable reputation as a trailblazing marketing executive and change-agent in various spaces, coupled with his success at The Gucci Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and boutique agency DSA Media Group (Associated Press, Sprite, Body Armor, Sony Pictures, Tulum Board of Tourism, iHeart Radio Music Fest, Bud Light and more), Simpson has been referred to as one of the most effective “behind-the-scenes” marketers/builders (according to AdWeek).
Simpson is currently a board member of MMCA (Multicultural Media & Correspondents Association), recipient of the TNJ 40 Under 40, Effie Award winner, Clio Award winner, Billboard “Executives To Watch, Cannes Lions Digital Craft Grand Prix, and Webby Award winner (Super Bowl).
Simpson received his Bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University, Master’s degree with cum laude distinction from New York University, and in 2023 received an Honorary Doctorate from Texas Christian University’s Harvest School. Continuing his accolades of 2023, Simpson received the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by President Joseph R. Biden, in a ceremony on Capitol Hill.
Born in Rochester (NY) and raised in Atlanta (GA), Dr. Simpson currently resides in New Jersey.
Title: Creative Director & CEO
Company: Singer Studios
Eloise Singer is an Emmy-nominated, multi-award-winning producer, writer, and director, and the founder of Singer Studios, known for bold, genre-defining storytelling across film, television, podcasts, and immersive media. She created and directed The Pirate Queen (2024), starring Lucy Liu, which premiered to critical acclaim, won the Storyscapes Award at Tribeca, earned Emmy® and PGA nominations, and became a #1 bestseller in China. She went on to create Mrs Benz (2025), starring Daisy Ridley, which premiered at Cannes, Venice, Berlin, SXSW, and Sheffield, receiving widespread praise and multiple award nominations, including the Grand Jury Prize at Venice. Singer has also executive produced Rare Beasts, directed by and starring Billie Piper, and The Last Rifleman, starring Pierce Brosnan. Her work has been showcased at leading festivals worldwide and is widely recognised for its distinctive voice and innovative approach to contemporary storytelling.
Title: Customer Engineer, Games Industry
Company: Google Cloud
Targoon Siripanichpong is a Customer Engineer at Google, dedicated to the gaming industry. He partners with leading game companies to design and implement scalable, cutting-edge solutions on Google Cloud. With a deep focus on infrastructure modernization and the application of AI, Targoon's work explores its transformative impact across the entire game development lifecycle—from accelerating development and QA to enhancing live operations and trust and safety. He holds a Bachelor's Degree from Purdue University and a Master's Degree from the University of Chicago.
As an avid gamer, Targoon is passionate about leveraging technology to help build and foster a healthy, thriving gaming community for players everywhere.
Title: VP of Product
Company: Bad Robot Games
Seth Sivak is a seasoned entrepreneur and executive with over 16 years of experience building and scaling companies at the intersection of games, technology, and creative culture. His current role is VP of Product at Bad Robot Games driving product and production across the studio. Previously, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of Proletariat Inc., a game studio he grew from 5 to 130 employees, raising five rounds of funding, launching multiple original titles, and ultimately leading the company to be acquired by Activision Blizzard in 2022. Following the acquisition, Seth served as VP of Development on World of Warcraft, where he oversaw production and product management for one of the world's most iconic game franchises during a period of significant organizational and cultural transformation.
An engineer and designer by training, Seth began his career in gameplay programming before moving into product leadership at Zynga. Since 2020, he has been an active angel investor and advisor, supporting dozens of early-stage companies such as Modulate.ai, K-ID, Midsummer Studios and working with venture capital firms such as Courtside Ventures, TIRTA Ventures, and a16z.
Title: COO & Executive Producer
Company: Yellow Brick Games Inc.
Jeff began his career as an art intern at MicroProse in 1997. He later joined Mythic Entertainment in 2002 to work on the Dark Age of Camelot series. Following the company’s acquisition from Electronic Arts in 2006 he relocated to Shanghai as an Art Director to build the art team needed for Warhammer Online. Upon returning to the US, Jeff assumed the role of Producer for WAR. In 2014 Jeff joined Ubisoft as a Senior Producer on the Assassin’s Creed franchise. In 2020, Jeff co-founded a new independent studio in Quebec City called Yellow Brick Games where the focus is on creating new innovative gameplay and original IPs starting with their debut title that launched last year, Eternal Strands.
Title: Fellow & VP, Technology Partnerships
Company: Electronic Arts
Bio Jeff is a Fellow & Vice President leading Technology Partnerships at Electronic Arts. With 30 years of professional game dev experience and 57 credits across 46 shipped titles spanning both AAA and indie studios, Jeff has built his career around engineering excellence, technology strategy, and hands-on problem solving. He is known for approaching hard problems from unconventional angles, applying deep technical thinking to bridge business needs and technology capabilities, and still brings a builder's mindset to every partnership.
During his 27+ years at EA, Jeff has driven the company's global technology partnerships in alignment with EA's broader technology strategy. He works closely with the C-suite, central platforms, studios, and senior technology leaders to identify non-obvious opportunities, translate emerging technologies into practical use cases, and turn complex constraints into meaningful outcomes for teams. His work focuses on developing and strengthening strategic relationships from implementation through executive levels with technology companies ranging from early-stage startups to some of the world's largest, all in service of helping EA teams create world-class games players love.
Title: Game Writer/Narrative Designer
Company: Independent
With over 30 years of combined story and game development experience at world-class entertainment companies such as Marvel, Activision, Lucasfilm and Telltale, Evan Skolnick brings a unique perspective to narrative experiences in the games we play. A college professor, international speaker, and BAFTA- and D.I.C.E. award-nominated game writer, Skolnick is also the author of Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know About Narrative Techniques. Game projects to which Skolnick has contributed include Cuphead: Don't Deal with the Devil, Concrete Genie, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, Batman: The Enemy Within, Mafia III, Star Wars: Battlefront, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, among many others.
Title: Narrative Designer
Company: Lunacy Studios
Sarah Helen Slovak is a writer and narrative designer at Lunacy Studios, a co-founder of snacktime games, and a cultural consultant for tabletop games. She's carving a niche for herself telling stories from the MENA region as an Egyptian-American writer. Past credits include: writing and cultural consultancy on Son of Oak's Cairo:Otherscape, and writing, narrative design, and cultural consultancy on Signal Creek. Her potential for growth and industry influence has earned her the 2022 DICE WomenIn and the 2025 Amplifying New Voices Scholarships.
Title: Composer
Company: The Flight
Ivor Novello award-winning duo Joe Henson and Alexis Smith began collaborating in 2005. After realizing they had a similar approach to life and wildly divergent musical tastes, they formed a creative partnership that quickly encompassed songwriting, production, and composition. The duo have worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry as well as being renowned composers for triple A video game titles. In 2014, they saw the release of hit survival horror title Alien: Isolation, and they followed this up with Horizon: Zero Dawn, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Horizon Forbidden West, and WB Games Montréal's Gotham Knights. The Flight's television projects include the NETFLIX Series Lockwood & Co; BAFTA-nominated BBC documentary series, Drugsland; and Kids on the Edge, produced for Channel 4 by Century Films. Their most recent project is the duo returning to the popular Assassin's Creed franchise with Assassin's Creed Shadows. The game takes place in 16th century Japan and follows two new characters in the creed's fight against the Templar order. Assassin's Creed Shadows is out now on Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Title: Associate Professor and Program Director for IMGD
Company: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Gillian Smith (she/they) is the Director of Interactive Media and Game Development at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and GDC Summit Advisor for the Educators' Summit. She teaches artificial intelligence, novel interface design, and design-based research, and has a research practice focused on critical AI literacy and the ethics of generative AI in creative industries. Gillian has previously spoken at the GDC Education Summit, has given keynotes at academic conferences including AIIDE and IEEE Conference on Games, and is a regular speaker at academic and para-academic conferences related to games and interactive media.
Title: SVP of Product, Unity Engine
Company: Unity
With over a decade of experience at Unity, Adam has been an integral part of the company’s journey, shaping the evolution of one of the most influential game development platforms in the world. Before joining Unity, Adam was an early adopter and passionate customer, developing multiplayer games with Unity since its earliest days. This hands-on beginning with Unity as a developer laid the foundation for a career deeply rooted in understanding and advocating for creator needs.During his 10 years at Unity, Adam has founded and led several pivotal teams, including Unity Developer Relations and Unity Studio Productions. Now serving as the Vice President of Unity Engine Product Management, Adam oversees the vision and strategy of Unity's core engine technology, directly enabling the development of many of the world’s most successful Unity-powered games. His leadership has played a key role in shaping some of the most celebrated Unity titles of the past decade.As both a Unity leader and Unity enthusiast, Adam remains a dedicated user and advocate of the platform in his personal time, continually exploring Unity's capabilities. Adam is thrilled to share his insights, experiences, and passion for empowering developers.
Title: AI Programmer
Company: Warhorse Studios
Petr Smrček is a game engineer primarily focused on AI. He has been working at Warhorse Studios for 10 years, participating on both Kingdome Come: Deliverance and its sequel.
His contributions are mainly to the realistic open world simulation, combat behaviors and item system. He enjoys games that reward player for clever ideas and allow natural decisions.
Title: Principal Audio Programmer
Company: Blizzard Entertainment
Guy has been developing audio engines for various platforms since 2002. He has worked on everything from slot machines to AAA titles to indies, and written audio engines for them all, from a low-level mixer up through next-gen multi-threaded magic. He has also worked as a gameplay engineer on multiple titles, implementing various combat and gameplay systems, and was until recently the lead gameplay engineer at Echtra Games. He now works as an Audio Programmer at Blizzard Entertainment. Guy is editor/author of five books on Game Audio Programming entitled Game Audio Programming: Principles and Practices volumes 1 through 5.
Title: Design Director
Company: Mythwright
Based in Brighton, Jeff has made a name for himself in the game industry working on high-calibre, critically acclaimed titles such as Alan Wake 2 (at Epic Games Publishing) and the Forza Motorsport series (at Microsoft Game Studios). He is currently design director for Mythwright Publishing and design lead on Out of Words. Jeff is a meticulous and creative game designer, with a wide range of projects under his belt in both scope and style.
Title: Co-Founder, CEO
Company: Wevr
Neville Spiteri is the co-founder and CEO of Wevr, an award-winning interactive content studio, named “Top 10 Most Innovative Companies” in AR/VR by Fast Company. Neville is credited on critically acclaimed franchises in film, video games, and immersive media. He has been at the forefront of interactive content throughout his career, most recently as Executive Producer on “The Blu”, a multi-award-winning virtual ocean experience, “Harry Potter VR” with Warner Brothers, and “Gnomes & Goblins”.
Prior to Wevr, Neville was a Producer and Senior Development Director at Electronic Arts where he led technology and game production teams including the Medal of Honor franchise. He previously served as Technical Director and Digital Effects Supervisor at Digital Domain and Square Enix. Neville started his career at Wavefront Technologies (now Autodesk) as a graphics software engineer.
Title: Technical Music Director
Company: Warhorse Studios
Adam Sporka is a software developer by trade, a musician by domain, and a scientist by approach. As a researcher, developer, and educator in game audio, he places a special focus on interactive music. He has served as the technical music director for Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (Warhose Studios) and is the author of the Sequence Music Engine, a proprietary adaptive music middleware used in both games. As a composer, he contributed to the soundtrack of both Kingdom Come: Deliverance games, writing some of the most memorable medievalesque and early renaissance pieces on the soundtrack. Currently, he teaches game audio at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received his Ph.D. and habilitation in human-computer interaction from the Czech Technical University (Czech Republic) and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Trento (Italy). He has published more than 50 articles in the proceedings of international conferences and academic journals. Adam is currently appointed as a principal engineer at Embody, a Sunnyvale-based game audio software company focused on the commercial applications of the head-related transfer function. He can be reached on Twitter at @adam_sporka
Title: Engineering Lead
Company: Valorem Reply
Mithuna Srinivasan, Engineering Lead, Valorem Reply
Mithuna is an Engineering Manager at Valorem Reply, where she leads the company's engineering practice and guides technical teams in building large‑scale cloud and AI solutions for enterprise clients. With deep experience in system design, Azure architecture, and applied GenAI, she focuses on helping organizations adopt new technologies in ways that strengthen performance and unlock new capabilities.
She brings more than 15 years of hands-on engineering and technical leadership experience across cloud platforms and modern application development. Her background includes leading development for Xbox and Windows experiences, architecting high‑availability cloud solutions, and mentoring engineering teams through complex delivery cycles. At Valorem Reply, she recently leads rollout and optimization of AI tooling and practices, enabling teams to integrate Azure OpenAI, LLM-driven automation, and secure AI workflows into daily development.
Her work centers on building practical, scalable AI systems that teams can trust in production. At this year's conference, she will demo Valorem Reply's agentic gaming solution built on Azure Foundry and share how AI‑powered agents can help studios accelerate development, experiment faster, and bring new player experiences to life.
Title: Actor
Company: Independent
Ben Starr is an award-winning voice actor. His credits include lead Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy XVI, the titular hero in The First Berserker: Khazan, Prometheus in Hades II, Arthur in Warframe, Dorian the Door (all 17) in Date Everything! and most recently Verso Desendre in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Since 2023 Ben has also starred in the Dungeons & Dragons web series Natural Six and has frequently portrayed Jimbo the Clown from Balatro.
Title: Sr. Solutions Architect
Company: AWS
Matt Stevenson has worked as a Senior Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS) for over 5 years where he directly assists studios in building, running, and growing games in the cloud. In addition to general cloud architecture, Matt specializes in generative AI and game streaming. He is a 2x AWS re:Invent speaker who also has a passion for exploring human skills such as connection, leadership, and collaboration in the age of AI. Arya: Arya Subramanyam is a Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS) based in Toronto, Canada, helping Independent Software Vendors architect and deploy cutting-edge generative AI solutions that push the boundaries of intelligent applications. Arya holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Engineering from the University of British Columbia. She specializes in multi-agent systems and production-ready AI architectures, and has presented on leveraging generative AI in gaming at multiple industry conferences including the AI & Games Conference in London, the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2025) in Ottawa, and AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas. Arya actively contributes to the broader tech community through published technical blogs and thought leadership on emerging AI technologies.
Title: Tool UX & Workflow Designer
Company: Independent
Robin-Yann Storm is a freelance Tool UX & Workflow Designer. In the past he has worked as a full time Tool UX Designer in the AAA games industry on the 'Glacier 2' editor on which the Hitman series is built, where he was present for the end of Hitman 1 and the beginning of Hitman 2, and the 'Decima' editor on which the Horizon series was built, where he was present for the end of The Frozen Wilds, and the beginning of The Forbidden West. He has also consulted on Unity asset store level editors, and spent a few years working at Apple on AR creation tools such as Reality Composer and Reality Converter, which has made him well acquainted with the workflows of Pixar's USD framework. Next to that, he created and organizes the Tool Design Roundtables, talks at conferences around the world, and has contributed a chapter about Tool Design in the book 'An Architectural Approach to Level Design, Second Edition.
Title: Senior Dialogue Designer
Company: Naughty Dog
David Su is a game developer, audio programmer, musician, sound designer, and researcher interested in creating new audio experiences through technology. He is currently a senior dialogue designer at Naughty Dog and an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Southern California. Previously he was the lead audio and systems programmer at Brass Lion Entertainment, working on Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver. David's game credits include One Hand Clapping, NFL Endzone, Trolls Music Stars, and Yi and the Thousand Moons. He has also worked on audio technology for products by Focusrite Novation, Output, and Sunhouse.
Title: Solutions Architect
Company: AWS
Arya Subramanyam is a Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS) based in Toronto, Canada, helping Independent Software Vendors architect and deploy cutting-edge generative AI solutions that push the boundaries of intelligent applications. Arya holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Engineering from the University of British Columbia. She specializes in multi-agent systems and production-ready AI architectures, and has presented on leveraging generative AI in gaming at multiple industry conferences including the AI & Games Conference in London, the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2025) in Ottawa, and AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas. Arya actively contributes to the broader tech community through published technical blogs and thought leadership on emerging AI technologies.
Title: Director
Company: Ada Eden
Yuqian Sun, also known as CheeseTalk, is a research artist and indie game developer of 1001 Nights.” Yuqian aims to create alive narrative experiences that extend beyond video games and into our daily lives through conversational AI agents. Yuqian's interdisciplinary arts and research have been featured in galleries and tech conferences, including SIGGRAPH, CVPR, NeurIPS and New York Times Square. She was a GDC speaker and winner of the Red Dot Design Award and Lumen Prize in 2024. For more information see https://fakecheese.me/, https://www.instagram.com/cheesetalk1997/
Title: Lead Writer, Voice & Localization Producer
Company: Sandfall Interactive
Jennifer Svedberg-Yen is an award-winning writer and creative producer who specializes in stories with emotional and philosophical depth. She is the Lead Writer and Voice & Localization Producer for the breakout hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and is an independent creative consultant for various gaming and entertainment studios. She has been warmly praised by partners around the world for her expertise and her thoughtful collaboration style.She loves puzzles and snacks (traits she shares with her dog Trunks) and often composes stories in her sleep. She is usually deeply immersed in a book or tv show, and/or possibly hunting platinum trophies for her favorite games.
Title: CEO
Company: Astrid Entertainment
Sharon Tal Yguado is a senior media executive and the Founder and CEO of Astrid Entertainment, an interactive entertainment studio building open world cooperative games and experiences.
Over the past 20 years, Sharon has built and led studio divisions and media platforms at major companies including Amazon and Fox. She is known for innovation, forward thinking, and a willingness to take creative risks, with a career rooted in franchise building and long term world creation. She cares deeply about fans and fandom.
Her credits include leading global franchises such as The Walking Dead, The Boys, and Invincible. She also oversaw acclaimed series including The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Fleabag, Homecoming, and Good Omens. She previously served as Head of Scripted Programming at Amazon and Head of Global Programming at Fox Networks Group.
Title: Senior Application Researcher
Company: Tencent Games
As a Senior Application Researcher, Zhipeng has dedicated his efforts to harnessing AI technology for game asset production since joining the company. His work involves two key areas: First, to employ differentiable rendering techniques to automate the downgrading of high-specification art assets, encompassing model LOD (Level of Detail) optimization, SOC (Software Occlusion Culling) proxy generation, and skeletal animation simplification etc. Second, he utilizes AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generated Content) algorithms to automatically produce high-quality assets. The overarching goal is to enhance the quality and efficiency of game asset development through AI, thereby reducing production costs while effectively tackling the challenges of game content diversification, multi-platform deployment, and globalization.
Title: Senior Game Client Engineer
Company: Team Jade / Tencent Games
Space Tan is a Game Performance & AI Engineering Lead on Tencent's Delta Force: Hawk Ops with 15+ years in game development. He built an industrialized performance pipeline that enabled 48-player gameplay on mobile with native 120/144 FPS, and now focuses on AI-driven game development and performance engineering.
Title: Director of Marketing & Partnerships
Company: Kinetic Games
Asim Tanvir is a 15 year veteran of the games and tech industry, he currently serves as Lead Marketing & Partnerships Manager at Kinetic Games, the independent studio behind the genre-defining horror game Phasmophobia. Asim has led marketing, community, and social for some of the biggest games publishers, spearheading campaigns both in‑house and agency-side with major brands including 2K, Konami, Zynga, CI Games and Deep Silver. His work spans some of the world's most popular game franchises including Dead Island, Saints Row, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Sniper: Ghost Warrior, Pro Evolution Soccer, Metal Gear, Castlevania, Contra, and many more. He is also a proud BAFTA member.
Title: Technical Sound Designer
Company: EA DICE
Born and raised in Portugal. He studied Sound Design (BSc) in Lisbon and Music Composition for Film and Media (MSc) in Hertfordshire. Then moved to the UK in 2017 to work at Codemasters Cheshire, where he worked on Onrush, Grid, and Dirt 5. In 2020, he was hired to work at EA DICE, moved to Sweden and has spent the last 5 years pushing the limits of what Battlefield audio can be.
Title: CEO and Co-Founder
Company: Leti Arts
Eyram Tawia is an award-winning game developer, educator, and researcher specializing in game development, gamification, and cultural storytelling. Currently pursuing a PhD at Loughborough University, his research delves into the evolving landscape of digital geographies exploring the intersection of gaming, gamification, and politics in the Global South. As CEO & Co-Founder of Leti Arts, he has played a pivotal role in advancing Africa's gaming industry through impactful projects, publications, and strategic consultancy. With a proven track record in creating culturally resonant games and immersive experiences, driving gamification research, and mentoring the next generation of developers, Eyram continues to shape the future of interactive storytelling and digital innovation. Eyram has led gamification projects for USAID, JHPIEGO, UNDP, GIZ, and global NGOs in Africa. His contributions to African video game development have earned him numerous awards, and he's a frequent speaker at global game conferences. He is also a Lecturer of Game Design at Ashesi University and an author, sharing his journey in the book "Uncompromising Passion."
Title: Deputy CEO
Company: High Technology Park Kyrgyzstan
Chubak Temirov is the Deputy Director of the High Technology Park (HTP) of the Kyrgyz Republic and a senior official in the country's technology sector. He plays a key role in advancing Kyrgyzstan's digital economy and strengthening the national IT ecosystem.
With over 10 years of experience in the IT industry and 7 years in sales and business development, he has been actively involved in recruiting international and local technology companies to join HTP. He advises founders and executives on residency procedures, tax incentives, legal structuring, and scalable business development models.
His prior experience includes roles in sales and project management within local IT firms, as well as international experience with Amazon UK and Marks & Spencer. In addition to his executive responsibilities, he serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of INAI Kyrgyz-German Tech University and is a Member of the Higher Accreditation Council under the Agency for Accreditation of Educational Programs and Organizations of the Kyrgyz Republic.
His responsibilities include supporting innovative startups, attracting foreign investment, and fostering a favorable regulatory and tax environment for export-oriented IT companies. Temirov actively contributes to strategies aimed at modernizing the economy through technology, positioning him as an important figure in Kyrgyzstan's ongoing digital transformation.
Title: President
Company: Abragames
Current president of Abragames. He is the co-founder and Chief Technology Evangelist of ARVORE Immersive Experiences, winner of several awards for its immersive games and experiences, including Brazil's first Primetime Emmy® for Outstanding Innovation.
He holds a postgraduate degree in Administration from FGV, is a trained radio broadcaster from FAAP, and a postgraduate professor at ESPM-SP.
He has been researching Games, New Media, Exponential Technologies, and Innovation in the Creative Economy since 2010.
He is a LEGO fanatic, an avid gamer, a cinephile, a binge-watcher, and a technology addict.
His associative activities include being a founding member and serving as president and board member of the EraTransmidia Association, founding member and Executive Director of the XRBR Association (2019-2020), and an active member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (USA) since 2020.
Title: Sound Designer
Company: Independent
Akash Thakkar is an award-winning sound designer based in Seattle. His portfolio includes contributions to critically lauded titles such as Hyper Light Drifter, Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye, Concrete Genie, and High on Life, among others. Beyond his creative work, Akash is dedicated to educating and empowering the next generation of audio professionals. He frequently shares his expertise through international speaking engagements and educational content for aspiring sound designers. Akash is also a vocal advocate for fair compensation in the gaming industry, actively working to ensure audio professionals receive appropriate recognition for their contributions.
Title: Software Engineer
Company: Meta
Alexandre Thivierge is a Software Engineer at Meta, specializing in VR Developer Technology. Prior to joining Meta, Alexandre built a career in the game industry, focusing on mobile games and VR, and thriving in the fast-paced environment of constrained platforms. At Meta, he has led the development of impactful showcases and samples, championed developer velocity, and advanced AI for XR, drawing on his deep expertise in XR development and his passion for advancing entertainment technology for all.
Title: Founder & CEO
Company: Fablegate
Eleanor Todd is the founder and CEO of Fablegate, an AI-native game and game services startup reinventing interactive storytelling. Previously, she was Chief Creative Officer at Microfun Ltd, a Sequoia-backed mobile studio, VP of Product at Disney Interactive, and a Creative Director at Maxis / Electronic Arts.
Title: CEO & Co-Founder
Company: Aiba
Hege Tokerud is CEO & Co-founder of Aiba, building AI technology that helps gaming platforms
create safer digital communities across languages and cultures worldwide. With a master's in
computer science and management and 20 years of launching tech ventures, she combines
expertise in AI, community dynamics, behavioral science, and cybersecurity to protect the next
generation of gamers.
Title: Senior Gameplay Programmer
Company: Sandfall Interactive
After a computer science engineer diploma, Florian joined Ubisoft in 2016. He met at that time Tom Guillermin, one of the co-founders of Sandfall Interactive, and they became friends. Between Montpellier and Singapore, he worked on the weapon system of the Ghost Recon series, the ships of Skull & Bones and the spaceships of Beyond Good and Evil 2. Florian joined Sandfall Interactive in late 2022. Since then, he has worked on all gameplay systems that affect exploration in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Title: Advanced Environment Artist
Company: MachineGames
Michael Tran is an Advanced Environment Artist at MachineGames. He is a passionate artist with an obsession for detail.
Title: President, COVEN
Company: COVEN
Celine Tricart is an internationally acclaimed film and game director, an expert in new technologies such as VR and AR. Her work has been showcased at Sundance, Venice, Tribeca, SXSW, and HotDocs. She received the Lion for Best Immersive Work at the Venice Film Festival, the Storyscapes Award at Tribeca and an Auggie amongst many other accolades. Celine served as the President of the International Jury for Virtual Reality at the 2020 Venice Film Festival alongside video game legend Hideo Kojima. Originally from France, Celine specialized in film and new technologies early on and worked on cutting-edge franchise films such as Transformers 4 and 5. She co-founded COVEN, a video game studio based in Paris that focuses on strong emotional stories, innovative gameplay, and inclusivity. COVEN's first game, MASTERS OF LIGHT VR, was released in 2024 on Meta Quest Store to raving reviews and earned the reputation of being the best hand tracking game on the platform. It was the second hand tracking game ever on Playstation VR2. Masters of Light went on to be nominated for Best VR Game of the Year and won Best European VR Game in 2024. In 2021, Celine was awarded France's prestigious insignia of Chevalier De l'Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) by the Ministry of Culture of France. She was a keynote speaker at SXSW 2022. Celine is a martial artist, a certified self-defense instructor, and an avid gamer.
Title: Product Manager at Denuvo
Company: Denuvo by Irdeto
Andreas Ullmann leads PC operations at Denuvo by Irdeto, having been with the team since its 2014 inception. Previously at Sony, he specialized in copy protection. Throughout his tenure, he has driven innovation in anti-piracy, anti-cheat and security, ensuring Denuvo remains a leader in protecting PC games from threats.
Title: Co-founder and Worker-Owner
Company: Comradery.co
Ty Underwood is a Seattle-based game developer, labor organizer, and educator as well as the co-founder of Comradery.co. Over the last decade, Ty has worked as a UX artist and designer on games in the education space, an industrial designer and a software UX designer. Since 2020, Ty has taught game design and development at Lake Washington Institute of Technology. In 2024, Ty became the department chair and faculty union co-president of AFT Local 3533. Over the past 4 years, Ty has worked with other designers and activists on Comradery.co, a cooperatively owned and operated funding and distribution platform for cooperatives, artists, and organizers.
Title: Developer Advocate - MR Platform
Company: Meta
Over the past decade, Dilmer has worked in roles ranging from Full Stack Software Engineer to XR Developer, creating AR/VR tools and training simulations. He later became an XR consultant through his platform, "Learn XR," helping companies and developers adopt XR tools and SDKs. Now a Developer Advocate at Meta, he focuses on empowering developers by sharing insights and best practices. Passionate about XR, he has created 950+ development videos on YouTube and shares educational content on X, Instagram, and Threads. His mission is to make XR development more accessible and inspire the next generation of creators.
Title: Sr. Director, Data & AI
Company: PlayStation Studios
Ryan Valenza leads Data & AI for PlayStation Studios, partnering with first-party game teams to apply AI where it meaningfully improves game development. He previously drove machine learning strategy at Bungie and has worked across the data stack in research, government, and industry. With training in physics and mathematics, Ryan brings an eclectic, practical approach to AI—and a gamer’s perspective on the craft and future direction of the industry.
Title: Senior Technical Animator
Company: That's No Moon
Thomas is currently the wielder of the title Senior Technical Animator at **That's No Moon**. He's a self proclaimed Mocap Janitor and has had a lengthy career in animation for cinematics before making the jump to the technical side of the industry.
Title: Sr Specialist Solutions Architect
Company: AWS
Armando Vargas is a Senior Specialist Solutions Architect at AWS, focused on game backends and AI-driven solutions for customers in Games and Media. He helps customers architect and scale modern gameplay services and bring AI into their development and production pipelines to deliver better player experiences.
Title: Narrative Designer/Educator
Company: Rancho Solano Prep
Carl Varnado is a writer, educator, and narrative consultant with credits on Need for Speed Unbound, Dragon Age: Veilguard, Street Fighter 6, and Wyld Flowers. He is the creator of Black Heroes Matter and Executive Director of Black in Gaming, where he advocates for inclusive storytelling and industry equity. A frequent speaker at GDC, Comic-Con, and the Essence Festival, Carl also teaches game and film production, helping students build real-world pipelines using Unreal Engine, AI, and collaborative narrative tools. His work blends technical rigor, cultural perspective, and deep experience in education - making him a powerful voice at the intersection of design and identity.
Title: Vice President, Global Head of Gaming & Interactive Entertainment Solutions
Company: EPAM
Vitalii Vashchuk, Vice President & Global Head of Gaming at EPAM Systems, brings nearly 20 years of expertise at the crossroads of gaming and technology. Under his leadership, EPAM's gaming practice has grown into a global powerhouse, delivering innovative solutions that support the experiences of over one billion players worldwide. A passionate advocate for collaboration within the industry, Vitalii is excited to host a dynamic panel discussion on the future of gaming. We'll delve into transformative trends like AI, cloud gaming and the groundbreaking impact of AI on the gaming industry.
Title: Global General Manager, Skillz Platform
Company: Skillz
Gaurav Verma is the Global General Manager of the Skillz Platform (NYSE: SKLZ), where he leads product, gaming, engineering, and innovation, driving both B2B platform growth and B2C product execution. Skillz is a pioneer in mobile skill-based gaming, enabling millions of players worldwide to compete and empowering developers to monetize through its proprietary SDK.
With over a decade of experience in gaming and digital entertainment, Gaurav has scaled some of India's most successful consumer technology platforms. Prior to Skillz, he grew RummyCircle from $10M to $300M in revenue at Games24x7 and led subscription growth at JioSaavn, India's largest music streaming platform.
At Skillz, Gaurav oversees global strategy across product, engineering, marketing, and gaming, and directs investment decisions for the company's $75M Developer Accelerator Program focused on the future of competitive gaming.
Title: Co-founder, CEO
Company: Tesana AI
Co-founder & CEO at Tesana, a new AI game model platform that enables anyone to explore, create, and actively shape playable experiences, not just consume them. Y Combinator Alum.
Title: Senior Engineering Manager
Company: Roblox
Brent Vincent is a Senior Software Engineering Manager at Roblox, leading scripting, performance and optimization and AI tools. With a strong ML, engineering and game development background, Brent is committed to accelerating creation on the Roblox platform.
Title: Senior Product Manager
Company: Xbox
Anna Waismeyer is a Senior Product Manager on the Gaming for Everyone team at Xbox. She is responsible for co-creating and managing the Inclusive Design Workshops and Accessibility Research programs. Anna has a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley where she studied cognitive and comparative psychology. Driven by her passion and advocacy for players with disabilities, in 2024 Anna led the launch of the Game Accessibility Workshop Toolkit, a pioneering resource that provides game developers throughout the industry with tools to help them bring accessibility and inclusive design practices to their studios. Over the 5 years that Anna has been at Xbox, she has supported the release of accessibility features across Xbox Game Studios including award-winning features such as Forza Motorsport's blind driving and steering assists, as well as Sea of Thieves' audio aim assist.
Title: Director of Events & Operations
Company: International Game Developer Association
Parker (they/them) is a non-profit management and events specialist, with over a decade working with different organizations to help them grow. Often referred to as the wizard behind the curtain, they manage all aspects of IGDA's day to day operations, as well as on site presences at events. They are passionate about LGBTQ+ rights as well as mental health issues, and is a 2025 Safe in Our World Ambassador. They also volunteer with a Canadian non profit, the Women's Non Profit Network, as their Head of Awards, and work with Women in Games International as their Communications Manager. In their spare time, they love playing with their two cats, Nyx and Thanatos, and streaming dating sims.
Title: President
Company: Testronic
Michael Wallen is a veteran games industry leader with a strong track record of driving commercial growth and operational excellence in global games services. Known for his client-first, relationship-driven approach, he builds scalable operations and strategic partnerships that help studios navigate evolving markets. As President and Main Board Director at Testronic, Michael leads the company’s expansion, empowering games businesses to scale confidently and thrive in uncertain times.
Title: Community Manager
Company: METATAILOR
Marc Walls serves as the Community Manager at METATAILOR, where he is dedicated to fostering a global ecosystem of technical artists and creators. Since joining the team, Marc has been instrumental in expanding the brand's reach through strategic community engagement and live demonstrations. Driven by a passion for democratizing high-end production tools, he focuses on putting METATAILOR's automated workflows into the hands of every developer. By bridging the gap between complex technology and creative execution, Marc empowers the community to bypass technical encumbrances and focus on the artistry of game and film production.
Title: Director of Mobile Game Anti-Cheat
Company: Tencent Games
Director of Anti-Cheat Operations at Tencent Games, Lead the development and operation of anti cheat solutions to protect the fairness of mobile online games.
With 20 years of experience in client side security and game anti cheat field, bring extensive expertise in fraud detection, cybersecurity, and player behavior analysis to the team.
Title: CEO
Company: Savvy Games Group
Brian is the founding CEO of Savvy Games Group, the world’s largest esports company and 8th largest global games software publisher. In three years, Savvy has grown to 3500+ employees in 22+ countries, providing above target returns for its shareholders. Brian has nearly 30 years of studio and operations experience with Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Activision Blizzard, and as founder and CEO of LottoInteractive. At Savvy, he has led nine acquisitions and investments, achieving 5x capital efficiency vs plan. As Senior Vice President, Worldwide Studios at Activision, he led eleven studio acquisitions and quadrupled revenue to $4B over five years, leading all development from portfolio planning and concept design to quality assurance, code release and customer service. Brian managed development, operations, or business teams for eight #1 entertainment franchises with lifetime revenues exceeding $45 billion. The games which he helped lead have won more than 300 Game of The Year and 1400 Editor’s Choice and Outstanding Achievement awards.
Title: Founder and CEO/Advisor
Company: Hidden Realities/The VOID
Dana Ware is the Founder and CEO of Hidden Realities, an immersive storytelling studio creating interactive worlds that blend physical environments with augmented and mixed reality. Her work focuses on transforming everyday spaces into living story worlds where audiences become active participants rather than passive viewers.
A pioneer in large-scale spatial entertainment, Dana has architected stadium-scale augmented reality platforms capable of synchronizing tens of thousands of participants in real time. Turning live sports and entertainment venues into shared digital experiences layered seamlessly over the physical world.
Previously, Dana served as Creative Director at The VOID, where she helped define the emerging field of location-based virtual reality. She led multidisciplinary teams developing premium immersive experiences in collaboration with global studios including Disney, ILMxLab, and Sony, integrating cinematic storytelling with real-time engines and spatial design.
In addition to leading Hidden Realities, Dana advises several XR startups on product vision, immersive systems design, and scalable creative strategy. Her work sits at the intersection of emerging technology, narrative design, and human connection, exploring how spatial computing can reshape how stories are experienced in the real world.
An internationally recognized Chicana director and advocate for inclusive innovation, Dana serves as Chair of the IGDA Women in Games+ Special Interest Group, a judge for the Webby Awards, and an Advisor to the Future Realities Summit at the Game Developers Conference, helping shape the future of immersive media through community leadership and mentorship. She is also a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy.
Title: Senior Writer and Narrative Designer
Company: Independent
Anna C. Webster is an award-winning freelance writer and narrative designer based in Los Angeles. She holds a BA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University and has written for titles like The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, The Foglands, and multiple unannounced titles. She is a 2025 Hugo Award nominee, a the Chair of the UVW-CWA Freelancing Committee, a panelist for the DICE Awards, a member of BAFTA Connect, and a recipient of The Game Awards "Future Class" award. Her background in the performing arts and interest in clinical psychology informs much of her approach to writing, freelancing, and team leadership. She is still at large.
Title: Creative Director
Company: Leder Games/Wehrlegig Games
Cole Wehrle is an ex-academic who decided to abandon the lucrative field of Victorian studies in favor of game publishing. He works as the creative director at Leder Games in Saint Paul and is best known for the award-winning game Root, which uses a children's book aesthetic to explore the politics of police states and insurgency. Root and its expansions have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and have been translated into nearly twenty languages. His most recent game is Arcs. He is also the cofounder of Wehrlegig Games with his brother Drew Wehrle, which handles the publication of his historical games which cover subjects related to his academic work including state formation in 19th century Afghanistan (Pax Pamir) and the rise and collapse of the British East India Company (John Company).
Title: Oversea Publishing Lead
Company: Team Jade / Tencent Games
With over 8 years of experience launching games worldwide, Wallace Wei now serves as the Global Publishing Manager for Delta Force at Team Jade Studio, driving strategies, roadmaps, and marketing campaigns that propelled the game to Top 4 on Steam's peak concurrent player charts and topped free game on iOS AppStore in 169 regions and on Google Play in 125 regions. Before this, as Global Operations Manager for PUBG MOBILE, he drove IP collaborations like Blackpink and Godzilla vs. Kong, led creative campaigns for new skins and launched the Player-Driven Design Program (P.D.P.) boosting community engagement and revenue. Earlier, he served for the JX Online series in China through domestic marketing.
Title: Narrative Designer & Writer
Company: Fiction Control
Matthew Weise is a narrative designer and writer whose work bridges the worlds of games and traditional entertainment. He spearheaded the story development of Disney's Fantasia: Music Evolved for Harmonix Music Systems, architected the choice-design for the interactive film The Jury Room by Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Good Morning Vietnam), co-designed and directed the game prequel to the Christopher Nolan produced sci-fi film Transcendence, and has performed similar roles on projects for Microsoft, Red Bull, Eko, PBS, and The National Ballet of Spain. His IGF-nominated The Snowfield, an emotion-driven immersive experience set during WWI, was developed while he was Game Design Director of MIT's GAMBIT Game Lab, an initiative that mixed games and research in innovative ways. His current company, Fiction Control, provides narrative design services for film, television, and games. He is currently working with Rocket Ride on an unannounced project for a major entertainment IP.
Title: Actress & Content Creator
Company: Strange Rebel Gaming
Briana White is a professional actress and content creator, best known as the voice of lead character Aerith Gainsborough in the hit video game series Final Fantasy VII Remake. Her reprisal of the role in 2024’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth earned her a Best Supporting Performance win from the Golden Joystick Awards and a nomination for Best Performance from The Game Awards. Beyond performance, she has her own gaming YouTube & Twitch channel, Strange Rebel Gaming, and has built a loyal and wildly engaged viewer base of over 470k+ with more than 21+ million cross-platform views. Drawing from her firsthand experience collaborating with game teams and engaging deeply with player communities, Briana offers a perspective in games that bridges development, performance, and audience impact. She is deeply aligned with causes of diversity and inclusion in games and digital spaces, often leveraging the power of community-driven events and livestreams. Having raised over $120,000 to date for charitable organizations, she is experienced in demonstrating how engaged audiences can be mobilized for meaningful social impact.
Title: Education Content Developer
Company: U.S. Green Building Council
Clayton Whittle is a researcher, educator, and designer for sustainability, specializing in games. At Dankook University, he led the teams that designed language learning games to replace traditional textbooks. At Pennsylvania State University and the Wilson Center, his research and design shifted towards leveraging games to combat the climate crisis. As a member of the IGDA Climate SIG, he led the research team that authored the Environmental Game Design Playbook and the education team for the Playing 4 the Planet Green Game Jam. He currently works on the education team at the U.S. Green Building Council.
Title: Producer
Company: Unknown Worlds
Nico Williams is a Producer at Unknown Worlds Entertainment, where he enables multi-disciplinary teams to do their best work within realistic constraints of schedule, resources, and budget. Nico has worked on a wide variety of projects, from R&D explorations, to full-production client and internal game titles, to multi-day location-based experiences. Before Nico joined the industry, he founded WolverineSoft Studio at the University of Michigan, where it has continued to grow with every passing year. When Nico isn't working, he can be found playing pickleball, participating in a D&D campaign, or searching for the best hot chocolate in town.
Title: Founder
Company: Daydream Studios
With billions of views and millions of subscribers on YouTube, Cory is known for his engaging content and his creative use of Unreal Engine 5 for solo real-time animation. His newest YouTube project, Silly Crocodile, is quickly gaining attention in the industry as a beacon of hope for storytellers concerned about the future of AI. Compared to Cory's custom-built animation pipeline, AI is simply too slow because his animated performances are instantaneous.
Title: Founder, Project0, Founder & President of Community Clubhouse
Company: Project0
Ben Williams is President of Community Clubhouse and founder of Project0. With a background spanning film, games, and large-scale production technology, he has led high-throughput infrastructure environments where storage, versioning, and operational integrity were critical to delivering work at scale. His work now focuses on the structural realities of integrating AI into long-running production systems, with an emphasis on memory, authority, and accountable collaboration as AI becomes embedded across creative industries.
Title: Actor
Company: Independent
Debra Wilson was born and raised in Queens, N.Y. and graduated from the N.Y.C. High School of Performing Arts. She attended both Syracuse University and Brooklyn College, studying radio and television communications. She performed Off-Broadway theatre, improv, sketch comedy, film and television and has been the spokesperson for two major brands.
In 1995, she became a cast member of the Fox late night sketch comedy series 'MADtv' and continued her career into the voice over world with animation, video games, audio books, ADR/Looping, narration, commercials, network promos, gameshow announcing and coaching.
Her love of performing is equally matched with her love of tattoos and animals. She has 12 Lizards, 6 frogs, 2 snakes and a dog.
Title: Expert TDiA
Company: That's No Moon
Nathaniel is an Expert Technical Animation Designer (or TDiA) with over seven years of experience bringing stories and games to life through dynamic and innovative animation. He shipped The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and is currently working on his first title at That’s No Moon.
Title: Graphics Programmer
Company: Sucker Punch Productions
Eric Wohllaib is a graphics programmer at Sucker Punch Productions based in Bellevue, WA. He joined the company in 2016 near the start of Ghost of Tsushima's development, and has been working on the graphics and engine code there ever since.
Title: Principal PDM Manager
Company: Microsoft Xbox
"Brady Woods is a product leader at Xbox with over 15 years of experience across gaming, media, and technology. As a leader in the Gaming Commerce Platform & Experiences organization at Microsoft, she guides a global team of product managers responsible for the commerce foundations that power Xbox transactions, multidevice purchase flows, data infrastructure, and creator‑facing marketplace capabilities. Her work focuses on empowering game creators to reach players everywhere, innovate on business models, and drive sustained commercial success across the Xbox ecosystem.
Before joining Microsoft, Brady held pivotal product and business leadership roles in entertainment and production, partnering with studios like Marvel and Netflix to advance modern content creation workflows. Across her career, she has championed the intersection of technology, consumer behavior, and creator enablement—shaping platforms that help creators engage audiences and build thriving, scalable businesses.
Title: Founder
Company: Media Indie Exchange
With a mixture of over 12 years of independent and AAA development and production experience and a master's in Game Production and Management, Justin Woodward Co-founded and directs an independent game studio, Interabang Entertainment as well as The Media Indie Exchange (The MIX) which is an organization that helps to elevate indie developers' visibility and business opportunities through exclusive indie showcases online and in-person worldwide. Being involved in the development scene has also led him into the role as a lead advisor with Humble Bundle on the Black Game Developer Fund as well as a consultant for the investment/crowdfunding platform Fig, IGN Prime, and has helped organize the IGN Indie Open House and Double Fine Indie spaces.
Title: Project Director of "Peace Elite"
Company: LightSpeed Studios
Head of AI Large Model and AIGC Applications for "Peace Elite",with extensive long-term experience in advancing and applying AI capabilities in gaming. Led the team in launching flagship AI features such as the AI Teammate system and the AIGC capabilities in the "Oasis Era" platform.
Title: CEO
Company: Talofa Games
Jenny Xu is a long-distance runner, fitness instructor, and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, CEO of Talofa Games. She began running and making games at age 12, studied Computer Science at MIT, and has shipped 10 mobile titles with over 10 million downloads. A Niantic Beyond Reality Contest grand prize winner, she raised $6.3M in venture capital, making Talofa one of 2025's Top 25 innovative gaming companies. She taught 1,000 consecutive virtual fitness abs classes, holds a professional group exercise certification, and sets marathon PRs (2:56). Jenny also successfully completed Apple's Entrepreneur Camp, Google's Growth Labs, and a16z's SPEEDRUN program.
Title: Senior Researcher
Company: LightSpeed Studios
Jingwei Xu is a senior researcher at LightSpeed Studios. His main research areas are pose estimation, motion control, and high-quality animation generation. He has supported virtual live broadcasting and video-based motion capture in several games of LightSpeed Studios. He has published over 10 AI-related conference/journal papers.
Title: Partner Group Product Manager, Gaming AI
Company: Microsoft Xbox
Sonali Yadav is a Partner Group Product Manager for Gaming AI at Xbox, leading product and strategy at the intersection of AI, games, and player delight. She shapes how AI meaningfully improves and enhances the experiences of players and creators. Previously, Sonali was a founding leader of Microsoft’s small language model efforts, including the Phi family, helping enable a new class of efficient, powerful AI. Earlier, in the Office of the CTO, she drove cross‑company initiatives across AI and consumer products and helped scale Microsoft’s product‑led growth practice. Sonali is passionate about building great products that empower gamers and developers.
Title: CEO
Company: ComfyUI
Yoland Yan is the CEO of ComfyUI, a professional-grade AI creation engine built for people who care about their craft.
Title: Game Operations Director
Company: Tencent Games
Hommy Yang is the Game Operations Director at Tencent Games. She joined the company in 2009 and brings over a decade of cross-functional experience across game development, publishing, and live operations on both PC and mobile platforms. Her portfolio spans multiple genres, including MOBA, hyper-casual, and RPG.In recent years, she has led the long-term global operations of Honor of Kings and its IP-based titles, overseeing localization and data-driven operational strategies to support sustainable global growth and deliver premium gaming experiences to players worldwide.
Title: Studio Creative Director
Company: Neobards Entertainment
Al Yang is the game director of SILENT HILL f, developed by Neobards Entertainment in Taipei, Taiwan in collaboration with Konami Digital Entertainment. Previously, he also directed Resident Evil Resistance and Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition.
He is particularly interested in how local and global culture shapes perception and gameplay design, having been influenced by working in and extensively with studios around the world; including the US, Japan, Germany, and China. Al is also currently serving as the studio creative director at Neobards, helping oversee titles such as Dead Rising Deluxe Remake and Dynasty Warriors M.
Title: Senior Software Technology Manager
Company: Arm
I am a Senior Software Technology Manager at Arm, based in Shanghai. I lead the product roadmap for the Neural Graphics SDK and Game Engine Plugins, enabling developers in China and worldwide to build next-generation AI-powered gaming experiences on mobile. My passion is helping developers integrate Arm's cutting-edge AI innovations into real-world edge applications, driving performance and creativity across the ecosystem.
Title: Senior Client Developer
Company: Tencent Games
Dong Ye, Senior Client Developer at Tencent Games. He previously worked at companies including Yinhan Games and NetEase Games. He has taken part in the development of multiple in-house proprietary engines and commercial game engines, with a focus on the research and development of core technologies such as physics, animation, terrain, GPU-Driven rendering, and Procedural Content Generation (PCG).
Title: Artist and Fabricator, Chú Mó/Warped Worlds
Company: Warped Worlds
June is an illustrator, visual development artist, and fabricator who specializes in storytelling through both images and physical space. Their work spans splash art, visual development, and immersive environments, bridging 2D illustration and real-world fabrication. As part of Warped Worlds, June helped bring Chú Mó to life as a tactile, ritual-driven experience, contributing to its distinctive visual language and atmospheric presence. Chú Mó has received the IndieCade Live Action Award (2023), the IGF Award, and the alt.ctrl.GDC Audience Award (2024). June currently works in immersive entertainment, continuing to build story-rich physical worlds.
Title: Generative AI Analyst
Company: Nvidia
With a background in pharmacy, academic research, localization, and UX research, as well as being the co-founder of Serious Games Australia New Zealand (now merged with Games for Change Asia-Pacific), Kathleen Yin has been involved in all aspects of serious games ideation, development, and evaluation. She has conducted academic studies on interactive experiences for health and assessed their impact, generating critical evidence on the positive mental health role that games played during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also worked on award-winning Chinese mobile games as a localization specialist, exploring topics ranging from politics to philosophy and acting as the dramaturge in the voice recording booth, bridge cultural differences between the original script and the localized material. She now works in Nvidia to explore narrative design possibilities with AI, and how to construct realistic NPC interactions that allow unprecedented levels of player freedom.
Title: Founder & Director
Company: Dire Lark
Trevin has been leading game dev teams for over 15 years, shipping games which bring together engaging entertainment and real-world impacts. While he's first and foremost a game designer, he's also a researcher, speaker, and author, investigating how games and play are part of effective interdisciplinary interventions in complex contexts (like, for example, the climate crisis). As a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's Climate Resilience Center, Trevin led the development of the Gaming for Climate Action report, collecting and sharing the best practices from game developers working on pro-environmental games from across the globe. In 2022, Trevin founded Dire Lark, a game design for change studio, where he and a small team conduct research, make games, and support other studios to bring rich, meaningful experiences to players.
Title: Product Director
Company: Ubisoft
Roxane Zaim is a Senior Product Director, Quality Engineering, at Ubisoft, where she leads global initiatives at the intersection of quality engineering, AI, and inclusive innovation. With 15 years of experience across France, the UK, and Canada, including transformation roles at IBM and Allianz, Roxane brings a rich background in IT, data, and strategic delivery.
She currently drives AI-flagship initiatives such as DocGPT, a GenAI assistant scaling knowledge across Ubisoft's development pipelines. Known for her ability to connect technical rigor with human-centered leadership, Roxane is deeply engaged in AI strategy and innovation culture, and is a respected voice in women-in-tech circles. As a lead of Ubisoft Montréal's Women's ERG, she champions equity and psychological safety through visible action and mentorship.
Whether navigating cost optimization, scaling experimental technologies, or shaping inclusive culture through internal events and speaking engagements, Roxane brings clarity, care, and strategic insight to complex transformation. Her work consistently bridges operational reality with visionary execution, making her a sought-after leader in change-ready environments.
Title: Enterprise Account Executive
Company: Incredibuild
Yair Zarmon is an Enterprise Account Executive at Incredibuild, where he partners with leading studios and enterprise engineering teams to dramatically reduce build times and accelerate development cycles. Working across gaming, embedded systems, and high-performance environments, he focuses on transforming distributed infrastructure into a scalable throughput layer that keeps pace with modern development demands. Prior to Incredibuild, Yair played a key role in scaling revenue at Monday.com pre- and post-IPO and has led market expansion initiatives in DevOps and digital transformation across multiple industries and regions.
Title: Lead Audio Designer/Audio Director
Company: Morefun Studio / Tencent Games
Audio director of 'Roco Kingdom:World'. Has been deeply engaged in game audio in Tencent for 4 years. Lead sound designer of Ace Force 2 and Main weapon designer of Arena Breakout: Infinity.
Title: Associate Director, Applied Science
Company: Blizzard Entertainment
Zhen leads the centralized AI and ML team at Blizzard, empowering engineers and scientists to leverage AI innovation to transform game development and elevate player experiences. Her team boasts expertise across computer graphics, reinforcement learning, NLP, personalization, and ML pipelines. Outside of work, Zhen contributes to the broader community by teaching C++ programming at a local community college, where she motivates students from diverse backgrounds to explore careers in computer science and gaming.
Title: Gameplay Engineer
Company: LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS
Xiaolin Zhang is a Software Engineer on the Fate Trigger project team at Saros Studio. He is responsible for developing the AIBot framework and gameplay, and has also contributed significantly to the project on neural network cloth simulation.
Title: Senior Software Engineer
Company: Tencent Games
As a Senior Software Engineer, with more than 15 years experiences in gaming industry, Leon has been focused on game engine infrastructure, real-time rendering and performance optimization. Since Leon joined his current team, his primary responsibility has been building an effective and efficient system for AI application researching in game development, including but not limited to: architecting the game asset production system, implementing differentiable rendering pipeline and relative tools and facilities, bridging the pipeline with game engines and DCC tools, optimizing the performance, etc.
Title: Technical Manager
Company: NetEase Games
Accomplished game developer with a track record at leading gaming companies. Extensive experience in both PC and mobile game development, with key contributions to hit titles such as LifeAfter, Once Human, Lost Light, and Diablo Immortal. Currently spearheading AI innovation at NetEase Games, focusing on the application of AI toolchains to optimize game production efficiency.
Title: General Manager of AI Innovation and Science
Company: Microsoft Xbox
Haiyan Zhang is General Manager of AI Innovation and Science at Xbox. She was formerly Chief of Staff to the CEO of Microsoft Gaming and was Senior Director of Innovation at Microsoft Research Cambridge. An innovation and technology leader, Haiyan has spent the past 20 years working hands-on in software engineering, AI, user experience, hardware R&D, cloud platforms, design thinking and blue-sky envisioning. She continues to push the boundaries of where technology can transform people's lives for the better.
Title: Technical Expert/Team Leader
Company: Tencent Games
I’m currently at Tencent, leading an AI-in-engine project. Previously, I spearheaded client-side technology for multiple online projects (including Onmyoji and Harry Potter) and several AAA games, with a focus on technical innovation. I also led the development of multiple middleware tools widely adopted in production. I have extensive practical experience and expertise in technologies such as global illumination, large-scale rendering performance optimization, differentiable rendering, AI-in-engine, and AIGC.
Title: Influencer Relationship Manager
Company: Team Jade / Tencent Games
Qinfu Zhao has served as a Influencer Relationship Manager for the Chinese versions of Call of Duty: Mobile, Honkai: Star Rail, and Delta Force, participating in the launch periods of all three games. He is currently working on the global version of Delta Force, where he focuses on influencer and creator relationships under the Publishing department. He is responsible for driving the brand's content popularity and overseeing its creator ecosystem.
Title: Head of Balanced Online Entertainment Systeam
Company: Tencent Games
Lei Zheng is the Head of the Balanced Online Entertainment System at Tencent Games, with 9 years of professional experience in youth protection and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Dedicated to building a balanced online entertainment ecosystem through technological and product innovation, he has led and refined core systems such as the Healthy Gameplay System, the Parental Guardian Platform, and the "In-Game Gift Donation" platform in China. He has created a series of youth-oriented game for good projects to support youth growth. Notably, the Parental Guardian Platform has served over 90 million users in China, and the "In-Game Gift Donation" model has connected over 90 games with 40 million players. He has been invited to speak at authoritative forums, including the China Game Industry Annual Conference, China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (IDEC), and Tencent Tech for Social Good Conference.
Title: Game Engine Development Engineer
Company: Infold Games
Yuhan Zhou is a Game Engine Development Engineer at Papergames (internationally known as Infold Games), working on Infinity Nikki. He focuses on cross-platform compatibility and performance optimization, with a scalability-driven approach to developing open-world systems and asset management for PC, PlayStation, and mobile. Additionally, he aims to maximize the performance and graphical quality of the mobile UE5 experience by leveraging cutting-edge hardware capabilities.
Title: Senior Engineer
Company: Tencent Games
Ray Zhou is a Senior Security Engineer at Tencent Games, specializing in mobile game security solutions.
With deep understanding of player cheating behaviors, he has led the development of multimodal AI–based behavior detection solutions tailored for game security.
These solutions have been successfully deployed in multiple top-tier products with tens of millions of daily active users (DAU), driving significant breakthroughs for the team in the field of user behavior analytics, thereby building a more comprehensive and in-depth protection system for game security.
Title: Creative Director
Company: LightSpeed Studios
With nearly 30 years of experience in the entertainment industry—spanning AAA games, Hollywood blockbusters, and founding FZD School of Design—I have dedicated my career to IP creation. At FZD, my focus was not just on teaching artistic skills but on developing courses that explore the core principles and practical steps behind crafting compelling IPs.
In 2024, I joined Lightspeed Studios, where I now work on next-gen AAA games, integrating my IP development process into the studio's workflow. Our goal is not just to create successful games, but to build memorable and engaging intellectual properties.
Title: Game Designer & Arts Professor
Company: NYU Game Center
Eric is a veteran game designer who makes award-winning games on and off the computer. Along with Peter Lee, he was the co-founder of Gamelab, an New York City-based studio that created original games like Diner Dash and worked with companies like Lego to create dozens of online titles. Other digital games include SiSSYFiGHT (with word.com), an online game about little girls in social conflict on a playground; Leela (with Curious Pictures), an X-Box Kinect launch title about play and meditation; and Dear Reader (with Local No.12), an Apple Arcade launch title that uses public domain literature as the basis of word puzzles. He was a co-founder of the Institute of Play, which designed entire schools where the curriculum was based on play and games as the model for learning. Tabletop titles include Quantum (with FunForge) and The Metagame (with Local No.12). With architect Nathalie Pozzi, he has designed installations that have been shown in the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and other festivals and museums around the world. He is the co-founder of the top-ranked NYU Game Center, where he teaches as an Arts Professor. Eric's books include Rules of Play (co-authored with Katie Salen), a textbook that helped establish game design as a discipline; and The Rules We Break, a compendium of his game design exercises. He teaches and lectures extensively about game design and is always ready to play.
Title: Creative Director
Company: Howtomarketagame.com
Chris Zukowski is a game marketing researcher and strategist who publishes the weekly blog How To Market A Game. He has helped Games as a Service companies, Indie Publishers, and small to single-person teams understand their audience and communicate with them in a more personal way. He specializes in optimizing your marketing for the Steam algorithm, creating fantastic Steam pages that sell themselves and setting up Email marketing campaigns that your fans will look forward to opening.
Title: Creative Director
Company: Vertigo Games
Martin de Ronde founded Guerrilla Games, overseeing the birth of the Killzone franchise and building the studio into a console powerhouse. After the sale of Guerrilla Games to Sony Computer Entertainment, Martin went on to found Vanguard Games, and shifted his focus to premium downloadable games. At Vanguard, Martin was the Game Director on 2 entries in the Halo franchise, amongst other titles. He then founded Force Field VR, which focused on high-end VR games, specializing in showcase titles for new Meta headsets. Force Field was acquired by Embracer group in 2021, after which it was renamed Vertigo Games. Here, Martin again fulfilled the role of Game Director, this time on Metro: Awakening. Martin is currently Creative Director at Vertigo Studios Amsterdam.
Title: Senior Software Engineer at Embark Studios
Company: Embark Studios
Tom van Dijck is a senior software engineer with over 26 years of experience in game engine, systems, and security development. At Embark Studios, he has spent the past two years working as an anti-cheat developer, leading security efforts on THE FINALS and ARC Raiders. His background spans low-level engine development, backend systems, and large-scale live games across PC and consoles, with prior roles at DICE, Blizzard, EA, and Sony.
Title: Technical Artist
Company: Embark Studios
Erik is a technical artist at Embark Studios developing character workflows for Arc Raiders and The Finals. He works primarily with Houdini and Universal Scene Description (USD). His focus is exploring where artistic control and procedural automation meet.