Search Results
Your search for "ai" returned the below results for sessions and speakers.
Speaker: Grzegorz Wątroba (Soft Crunch Games)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Lauranne Cauduro (The Game Bakers)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Marketing
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Thomas Reisenegger (Future Friends Games)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Marketing, Independent Development
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio, Programming
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Yoshihiko Wada (Capcom Co., Ltd.)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Rory McGuire (Blackbird Interactive)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Business Strategy
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Cisco Maldonado (Midwest Games)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Business Strategy, Marketing
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Florian Jensen (Ubisoft Düsseldorf)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio, Design
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Gina Hope (Riot Games)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Luminaries Speaker Series
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Garry Schyman (Garry Schyman Productions)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio, Business Strategy
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Becky Allen (Halo Studios, Microsoft), Karina Pardus (GameSoundCon, Game Audio Network Guild, Music Creators Academy)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio, Culture & Sustainability
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Nikita Bychkov (Wargaming)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Business Hall Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Marketing
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Atsushi Ueno (Lasengle Inc.)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Production & Team Leadership, Programming
Audience Level:
Advanced
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Career, Narrative & Performance
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Aaron Price (Owlchemy Labs)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Kristie Fisher (Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Career, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Drew Vande Guchte (Riot Games)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Business Strategy, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio, Design
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Emmett Nahil (Perfect Garbage Studios)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Narrative & Performance, Design
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Margarita Grubina (Respeecher)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Business Strategy, Audio
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Scott Crabtree (Happy Brain Science)
Pass Type:
Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass
Track:
Production & Team Leadership, Culture & Sustainability
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Workshop
Speaker: Solomon Sliwinski (Insomniac Games)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Programming, Design
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Marketing, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Ben Sunshine-Hill (Havok)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Programming
Audience Level:
Advanced
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Stef Wu (ArenaNet)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Business Strategy, Design
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Rez Graham (Independent)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Programming, Design
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Roundtable
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Programming, Audio
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Brett Norton (Oxide Games)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Design
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Ezra Goss (Naughty Dog)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Independent Development, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Roundtable
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Executive (Luminaries Speaker Series)
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Narrative & Performance, Business Strategy
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Ask Me Anything
Speakers: Toiya Kristen Finley (Schnoodle Media, LLC), Michelle Clough (Talespinners Studio), Jennifer Allaway (Independent), Matthew Weise (Freelance), Zaire Lanier (Independent)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Narrative & Performance, Career
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Format:
Forum
Speaker: Laia Bee (Pincer Games)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Culture & Sustainability
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Roundtable
Speakers: Grant Shonkwiler (Shonkventures LLC), Veronica Peshterianu (System Era), Justin Anderson (Magic Tavern), Kasey Mulot (37Degrees Studio), Benjamin Schwartz (Microfun)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Microtalks
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Career, Culture & Sustainability
Audience Level:
Advanced
Format:
Forum
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio, Narrative & Performance
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio
Speaker: Ashwin Vasan (Scopely)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Programming
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Marcelo Sequeira (GamerSafer)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Independent Development, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Shannon Cha (Red Spring Studio)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Business Strategy
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Kaitlin Tremblay (Soft Rains), Alexa Ray Corriea (Independent), Jolie Menzel (Zunzun Studios)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Narrative & Performance, Design
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Anna C. Webster (Independent), Alexa Ray Corriea (Lead Writer and Narrative Designer), Ashley Poprik (Independent), Adam Dolin (Turtle Rock Studios), Lis Moberly (The Walt Disney Company, 20th Century Games), Alice Camp (Microfun), Emma Kidwell (Independent), Stephen Rhodes (Electronic Arts), Kelsie Mhoon (Obsidian Entertainment), Sam Winkler (Geartbox Software), Sam Maggs (Critical Role), Aysha U (Independent), Nessa Cannon (Independent), Benjamin Schwartz (Microfun), April MacArthur (Gearbox Entertainment)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Narrative & Performance
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Portfolio Review
Speaker: Ekaterina Strakhova (Owlcat Games)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Design
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Hannah Mackintosh (Saltworks Entertainment)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Marketing, Visual Art
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Mateusz Kałuża (Testronic)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Production & Team Leadership, Business Strategy
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Bernard Rodrigue (Audiokinetic Inc.)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio
Audience Level:
Advanced
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Design
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Ryan Fontenot (Independent Game Developer)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Career, Culture & Sustainability
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Workshop
Speaker: Hans van Brakel (Azura Interactive)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Business Strategy, Marketing
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Akash Thakkar (Mobius Digital), Ryan Ike (Independent), Charlie Harper (Ironwood Studios / Co-op Kitchen / Lucky Tree Studios), Jess Erion (Hampshire College), Ziyad Duron (Magic Soup Games / Co-op Kitchen)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Production & Team Leadership, Culture & Sustainability
Audience Level:
Advanced
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Jaclyn Seto (Respawn Entertainment)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Narrative & Performance
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Andrea Toyias (Self / formerly Blizzard Entertainment)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio, Narrative & Performance
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Jason Della Rocca (Execution Labs)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Business Strategy, Independent Development
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Marketing, Culture & Sustainability
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Narrative & Performance, Career
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Fireside Chat
Speakers: Carl Varnado (Rancho Solano Preparatory School), Pamela Iluore (Sony Playstation), Jarory DeJesus (Coquito Games), Evan Narcisse (Brass Lion Entertainment), Jabari Ali (Plus Arcade), Kim Belair (Sweet Baby Inc)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Panel
Speaker: Warren Davis (none)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Design, Programming
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Carla Rylance (XDS Spark)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Business Strategy, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Career
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
Advanced
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Elizabeth Kilmer (Take This)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Career
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Matthew Strasser (Insomniac Games)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Christopher Vallarta (Doron Precision Systems), Mary Haley (Bad Ideas Productions), Holly Allen (Canfield Scientific Inc.), Aster Sun (Beep Beep Fish Accident), Josh Ingeneri (Sweet Justice Sound Group)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Career, Educators
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Format:
Microtalks
Speaker: Stan Minasov (AppMagic (a Sensor Tower company))
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Business Strategy, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Robin-Yann Storm (RYStorm Consulting)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Design, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Roundtable
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Visual Art
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Victoria Prentice (Playground Games)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Robin-Yann Storm (RYStorm Consulting)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Visual Art, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
Entry-Level
Format:
Lecture
Speakers: Phil Salvador (Video Game History Foundation), Laine Nooney (New York University), Kendra Albert (Albert Sellars LLP)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Educators
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Panel
Speaker: Anton Johnsson (King)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Design, Business Strategy
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Roc Lee (Clean Cuts Interactive)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Audio, Programming
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Culture & Sustainability, Marketing
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Independent Development, Marketing
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Lecture
Speaker: Euna Park (Skydance New Media)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Visual Art, Culture & Sustainability
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Andrew Fray (Automated AF)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Programming, Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Roundtable
Speaker: Scott Crabtree (Happy Brain Science)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Production & Team Leadership, Culture & Sustainability
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Workshop
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass
Track:
Design, Culture & Sustainability
Audience Level:
Intermediate
Format:
Forum
Title: Founder
Company: Plus Arcade
Jabari Alii is a developer, director, and community leader whose work in gaming spans AAA studios, indie studios, national nonprofits, and entertainment companies. He recently served as Oakland director for The Hidden Genius Project and as systems designer on The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution for Skydance Interactive. Jabari is now programs and partnerships director at Hack the Hood and the founder of Plus Arcade, an entertainment company delivering large-scale social events around gaming, animation, and nerd culture. He has led workshops and talks at major events including AfroTech, San Diego Comic-Con, and the Game Developers Conference (GDC). He is also an indie developer with two games slated for release in 2027.
Title: Senior Writer & Narrative Designer
Company: Independent
Jennifer Allaway is a renaissance woman of interactive narrative. In 11+ years, she's written and designed for games in AAA, indie, mobile, and tabletop. Outside of her bread and butter career, she's also worked on escape rooms, LARPs, a knitting game, even a museum exhibit. Her experience may be broad, but her success comes from her specific narrative techniques. She practices sociological storytelling to use the world and societal systems to make every scene matter. Highly emotional scenes are her specialty, along with heart-wrenching relationships and romance. All in all, she makes games with big hearts.
Title: Audio Director
Company: Halo Studios, Microsoft
Becky Allen has been in the Interactive audio industry for over 30 years. She is currently Audio Director at Halo Studios and recently shipped Halo: Campaign Evolved. This past year, she received the Liftetime Achievement Award from the Game Audio Network Guild at GDC. Previously Becky has been a business leader, composer, project Audio producer, manager and leader within the industry. She was one of the co-founders of AMP (Audio Mentorship Project) and believes strongly in giving back to the community.
Title: Senior Game Designer
Company: Riot Games
Noor Amin is a senior game designer at Riot Games and a neuroscientist by training. Prior to her current role, Noor worked in disability research, designing accessible interfaces for individuals with somatosensory impairments. Since joining the games industry, she has contributed to Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, Battlefield 2042, EXODUS, and League of Legends. Noor is passionate about leveraging her understanding of cognition to design more inclusive and impactful games.
Title: Audio Design Lead
Company: The Coalition
Edward Bauman is the Audio Design Lead at The Coalition, where he has spent more than twelve years shaping the sound of the Gears of War franchise, including Gears of War: E-Day, Gears of War 4, Gears 5, and the Gears 5: Hivebusters expansion.
With nearly 20 years of professional audio experience, Ed's background spans across AAA and independent games, television, film, animation, interactive installations, advertising, commercial productions, consultant experiences, and instructor/mentorship work training the next generation of game audio professional
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: Community Manager
Company: SYBO
Hanna Berggren is a Community Manager at SYBO, the mobile games studio behind Subway Surfers. She leads community and creator initiatives for Subway Surfers and Subway Surfers City, working across social media, influencer marketing, and community engagement to support one of the world's most widely played mobile games.
With five years of experience across marketing, social media, and community management, Hanna has led major influencer campaigns, supported esports events, and managed social channels reaching over 30 million followers. She also runs the Subway Surfers Creator Club, SYBO's creator ambassador program.
Originally from Sweden and now based in Copenhagen, Hanna is a passionate gamer who enjoys everything from RuneScape and The Sims to Animal Crossing, Baldur's Gate, and the occasional quick Fortnite match.
Title: Principal Technical Designer
Company: Bit Reactor
Ever since he was a kid playing Commander Keen, games have been a huge part of Zach's life. That passion has led to a decade long career working on some of the largest games of the generation, from Spider-Man 2018 to God of War: Ragnarok. He's a UI specialist, building menus, maintaining architecture, and helping design long term progression and retention systems. With Star Wars: Zero Company, he's had the wonderful opportunity to directly contribute to his favorite genre of Tactical Turned Based games and is thrilled at where the genre is headed next.
Title: Global Communications Product Manager
Company: Wargaming
Nikita Bychkov is a Global Communications Product Manager at Wargaming. Since 2023, he has helped build and operate CRM programs for World of Warships across PC, console, and mobile markets in Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific. Work includes predictive churn campaigns, player reactivation programs, audience segmentation, and targeted messaging. These programs have reached millions of players, driving retention lifts of up to 4.1 percentage points through predictive churn intervention and reactivation uplifts of up to 7% over organic return.
Title: Writer
Company: Escape Velocity Entertainment
Zoe Calamar is a game writer and narrative designer based in Southern California. She is currently working on an unannounced title Escape Velocity Entertainment and has worked on projects such as Borderlands 4 at Gearbox Software and Marvel's Wolverine at Insomniac Games.
Title: Narrative Designer
Company: Independent
Nessa Cannon is a video game writer and narrative designer with over six years of experience in the industry, on over a dozen shipped titles such as Borderlands 4, Date Everything!, Star Trucker, and the Endoparasitic franchise. She has spoken at GDC, Narrascope, CSU LA, and Northeastern University on interactive fiction and branching techniques. She was previously part of IGDA's Next Gen Leader program as well as Academy of Interactive Arts and Science's Amplifying New Voices cohort. She is also an avid video essay watcher and always gets ink on her hands when changing out her fountain pen.
Title: Founder
Company: Exigent Hope
Brie is a queer woman with over fifteen years of industry experience in gameplay and AI engineering and team leadership. She's worked on Project Spark, Microsoft Hololens, Halo 5: Guardians, unannounced things with Riot Games R&D, and was the lead engineer for Halo Infinite's multiplayer bots. Brie has mentored dozens of developers across disciplines at varying stages of their careers, and cares deeply about fostering the next generation of incredible game developers. She's currently hard at work at a new indie studio working on a new game, The Healer's Journey. In her spare time, you'll usually find her gaming, cooking, or subjecting people to terrible puns.
Title: Lead Writer and Narrative Designer
Company: Gearbox
Alexa Ray Corriea is a writer, narrative designer, and narrative systems designer with a decade of experience. She has worked with major blockbuster IP, including Marvel, Middle-earth, and Call of Duty. She is currently working on several unannounced projects across games and film. Alexa is a host of the AIAS Game Maker's Notebook Podcast and mentors within the games industry, working closely with several industry organizations including the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, BAFTA, and GDC.
Title: Lead Writer and Narrative Designer
Company: Lead Writer and Narrative Designer
Alexa Ray Corriea is a writer, narrative designer, and narrative systems designer with a decade of experience. She has worked with major blockbuster IP, including Marvel, Middle-earth, and Call of Duty. She is currently working on several unannounced projects across games and film. Alexa is a host of the AIAS Game Maker's Notebook Podcast and mentors within the games industry, working closely with several industry organizations including the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, BAFTA, and GDC.
Title: Chief Happiness Officer
Company: Happy Brain Science
Scott Crabtree is the founder and Chief Happiness Officer of Happy Brain Science. His mission is to help the world apply science to thrive more at work. Before founding Happy Brain Science, Scott was a professional video game developer, then worked at Intel. He's presented over 600 sessions to repeat clients including DreamWorks, Google, Nike, Intel, Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, NBC/Universal, EA, and Epic Games. He's led the development of many videogames through the years. The most recent game he designed and led production on was Choose Happiness @ Work Online — a video game designed to boost the science of happiness on teams. He's also served as programmer on titles such as Yourself!Fitness by ResponDesign, NRL Rugby League, and many children's educational games such as Arthur's Thinking Games.
He loves playing strategy games the most. When not gaming or presenting, he's usually outside in beautiful Central Oregon where he lives, or playing music in multiple bands.
Title: Designer/Programmer
Company: none
Warren Davis is best known as the designer and programmer of the arcade classic, Q*bert. He also co-designed and programmed the laserdisc game, Us Vs. Them. For Williams, he contributed to Joust 2 and helped develop the system that became NARC. He was part of the team that created Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Revolution X featuring Aerosmith. He also created the digitizing system that Williams/Bally/Midway used for many of their hit games of the 1990s including Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam, as well as the aforementioned T2 and Rev X. During a hiatus from Williams, he created the surreal and unusual Exterminator.
In the mid-1990s, Warren left the arcade industry and worked on a variety of home games for Disney and other companies. He was, for a short time, a Disney Imagineer and has also worked for Industrial Light and Magic.
In 2018, he was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame. In 2022, his memoir about his time in the coin-op industry – Creating Q*bert and Other Classic Arcade Games – was published by Santa Monica Press and is now available worldwide. He appears in the film, Insert Coin, about the glory days of Willams/Bally/Midway, and is included in the documentary portion or the recently released Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection.
Title: Performer / Voice Director
Company: SAG-AFTRA
Best known for roles in blockbuster AAA titles (Fortnite, Halo Infinite, Gears 5) and critically acclaimed indie games (Afterparty, Pyre, Gone Home), Sarah has over a decade of experience giving her voice to interactive projects, as well as providing both voice and first-person performance capture for Anthem's player character, the Freelancer.
Led by her desire to foster stronger collaboration within games and across creative communities, she has been an organizing and educating force in games spaces (such as IndieCade) and institutions (USC, NYU) for many years, while nurturing meaningful exchange between game developers and the actor's union, SAG-AFTRA. She has extended this work into a consultancy, offering developers assistance with the union, casting, and recording process.
Sarah's latest professional and creative evolution is as a sought-after voice director for indies (The Red Lantern, The Wreck) and AAA (Fortnite) alike. Drawing on her years of immersion in the development community and her experience as an actor, she relishes the opportunity to cultivate a safe, fun, effective and team-based performance atmosphere.
Title: Narrative Designer, Game Writer, Editor, Consultant
Company: Schnoodle Media, LLC
Nashville native Toiya Kristen Finley, Ph.D., has been a freelancing writer and editor her entire adult life. She earned a doctorate in literature and creative writing from Binghamton University. Over her career, she has published more than 80 works of fiction, nonfiction, comics/manga, and games, and 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 cofounded 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. 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, writing for the Interview with the Vampire TTRPG, and editing Our Brilliant Ruin.
A presenter at conferences throughout the year, she has lectured on freelancing and storytelling and led workshops on narrative design and game design. She is a member of the IGDA Game Writing Special Interest Group's Executive Board. The Game Narrative Toolbox (CRC Press), a book on narrative design she coauthored with Jennifer Brandes Hepler, Ann Lemay, and Tobias Heussner, was published in 2015. 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.
Speaking History: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-vZf3N5I_8Nclp0dkZ1UVpBcTQ/view?usp=drive_link&resourcekey=0-Hw0yQbGXjCsqC1CiPu9lmA
Title: Sr. Director of Research, PlayStation Studios
Company: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Kristie Fisher is a cognitive psychologist currently leading the global multidisciplinary Research team at PlayStation Studios. At Google she worked on Stadia, Support Platform, Gmail, and Ads and was a co-author of Google's People + AI Guidebook. Prior to Google she started her career at Xbox Research, collaborating with game producers and development teams to improve player experience on Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Kinect, and Windows. She has been a people manager since 2018.
Title: Game Developer
Company: Independent Game Developer
Ryan Fontenot is an Air Force veteran, independent game developer, and hopes this email finds you well.
Title: Director of Operations and Publishing
Company: Causeway Studios
Mike has spent more than a decade in the video game industry as a leader, consultant, business analyst, critic, and journalist. He is the co-founder of F-Squared, a boutique video game industry consultancy.
Prior to co-founding F-Squared, Mike was news editor at Game Informer and a freelance writer for Polygon, Variety, GameDaily, and GamesBeat. He is also the author of The GameDev Business Handbook and The GameDev Budgeting Handbook, designed to help demystify foundational business concepts for those starting their own studios.
Now, Mike is director of operations and publishing at Causeway Studios, where he heads up day-to-day business, marketing and communications, publishing, and business devleopment. He is also finance producer at Strange Scaffold where he also served as licensing producer on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown and lead producer on Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator and I Am Your Beast: Quitting Time DLC.
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: Professor in Communication Studies
Company: McGill University
Sara M. Grimes is the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy and a Full Professor in Communication Studies at McGill University, where she is also founding director of the Kids Play Tech lab. Her research combines design analysis, policy analysis and child user/interaction studies to better understand how digital games and other technologies can be designed and regulated to advance children's rights and wellbeing. She is Principal Investigator of the newly launched "Children playing in the parasocial gameworld," a five year study of AI in children digital games, play, and literacy, and author of the award-winning book Digital Playgrounds: The Hidden Politics of Children's Online Play Spaces, Virtual Worlds, and Connected Games.
Title: VP of Business Growth
Company: Respeecher
Margarita Grubina leads business development at Respeecher — an Emmy-winning AI voice company behind some of the most demanding audio work in games, like Cyberpunk 2077, and Oscar-recognized movies like The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez.
She works at the intersection of production reality and voice technology: what studios actually need, what the tech can deliver, and where ethics and quality aren't optional. She's had the conversations about ethical compliance, franchise character continuity, de-aging child actors mid-production, and what happens when you can't get a voice actor back for the sequel. She knows how these decisions get made and what goes wrong when they don't
Title: Producer
Company: Bad Ideas Productions
Mary is a producer. After graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2026 in a Masters of Game Design and Development, she cofounded Bad Ideas Productions with YouTuber JonnyRazer. The studio's main release is "The Salesman" with over 40,000 copies sold, the studio has over 7,000 Discord Community Members and 5,000 Steam Community Followers.
Title: Software Engineering Manager
Company: NVIDIA
After having worked on many notable titles and franchises such as Agents of Mayhem, Saints Row, Red Faction: Guerrilla, Dark Age of Camelot, Air Warrior, and Planetside, Jeff ended a three-decade video game development career in December 2021. He hasn't gone far, though. He now works on the Omniverse engine and developer tools at NVIDIA, progressing from a senior software developer to managing a team of engineers. Along with bringing his Technical Artist skills to NVIDIA's innovative real-time 3D collaboration and simulation system, Jeff helps coordinate the TA community on Tech-Artists.org. He is a member of the GDC Advisory Board and sits on a curriculum advisory board for Purdue University. Every year at GDC he hosts the Technical Art Bootcamp and the Technical Art Roundtables. He was awarded an Autodesk 3ds Max Master award in 2007 and was named an Outstanding Alum of Purdue University's School of Technology in 2012.
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 "Pacific Drive: Whispers in the Woods" at Ironwood Studios as Producer.
When not working at Ironwood Studios, Charlie 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: Game UX Strategist
Company: Ethical Games
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 close to 20 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 & chair of the Game UX Summit and a 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.
Title: Head of Technology (Senior Director, Engineering)
Company: Riot Games
Gina is the Head of Technology (Senior Director of Engineering) on Teamfight Tactics (TFT) at Riot Games. She leads the engineering team, focusing on core architecture, gameplay development, and feature implementation for TFT. In her role, Gina is responsible for driving technical innovation in areas such as AI to build new capabilities that ensure the game's long-term growth and scalability.
Gina is active in the local community. She advocates for programs and opportunities in the special education community—particularly access to computer science, assistive technology, and scholarships. She has served as the Special Education District Advisory Committee chair for SMMUSD and founded the Epic soccer program for AYSO Region 20, now in its 11th year.
Prior to Riot Games, Gina worked as a Senior Director of Engineering on the Sports Platform team at Electronic Arts (EA), where she led engineering efforts to build the EA Sports app, a socially-driven sports app blending real and virtual sports content. In addition, she served as the global co-chair for the ABLE employee resource group to support families with disabilities. Gina was also Vice President of Consumer Technology at Activision, where she partnered with game studios, business leads, and marketing teams to develop experiences for franchises like Call of Duty across web, mobile, console, and voice platforms, leveraging data and AI. She holds a Master's in Computer Science from California State University.
Title: Audio Director
Company: Ubisoft Düsseldorf
Florian Jensen started his career in 2006 at Crytek. In the following 14 years he shaped the audio of 5 unique IPs with more than 10 award winning releases plus the CryEngine Audio Technology Pipeline.
Since November 2020, Florian has been contributing to multiple Ubisoft titles from Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora to The Settlers: New Allies, recently shipping the critically acclaimed Anno 117: Pax Romana.
Besides his role as Audio Director, he is a passionate Gamer and Audio enthusiast, who loves teaching and giving talks at various universities about Game Audio.
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: CEO
Company: VFX Apprentice LLC
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.
Title: Senior Researcher
Company: Take This
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 leads research on resilience and well-being in developer and gaming communities, and trains therapists and community members on using digital and tabletop games to support growth in individuals. She co-authored the book Therapeutically Applied Role-Playing Games, and discusses the intersection of gaming and psychology through talks like Growth Mindset is Just Good Game Design (GDC), and Better Gaming Through Modern Psychology (PAX). In her clinical practice, Dr. Kilmer provides diagnostic and therapy services for adults with ADHD and autism, and uses games like D&D, Minecraft, and Animal Crossing to support insight, growth, and change with her clients.
Title: Lead Technical Sound Designer
Company: Arrival
With twenty years of sound and interactive media expertise, Nick LaMartina is a seasoned audio professional with experience across numerous genres and platforms. He has worked as a sound designer, composer, and audio engineer on projects spanning the farthest reaches of the audio discipline, from high-powered MMOs, to critically acclaimed mobile titles of beloved IPs, to the furthest edges of the artform with virtual and mixed reality gaming and research. Above all, he is committed to sharing his passion and expertise, and is deeply committed to the advancement of the sonic and gaming arts.
Title: Partner and Publishing Producer
Company: Full Metal Bagel Games
Tsz Wai Lam has spent over a decade in game publishing across China, working at the intersection of international titles and Chinese players.
From 2020 to 2023, she was Publishing Producer at Pixmain, the indie publishing label under ByteDance, where she shipped titles including WitchSpring R, A Guidebook of Babel, Inked, and The Heroic Legend of Eagarlnia across PC and mobile. Before that, she held marketing and business development roles at YOOZOO Games and Happy Elements, covering both domestic and overseas markets.
She is now Partner and Publishing Producer at Full Metal Bagel Games, a startup indie studio currently developing Hell Express, a co-op PvE PC and console game.
Tsz Wai brings the developer side of this conversation. She has navigated the same platform and localization decisions from inside a studio, and watched how the same market information lands differently depending on whether you are sitting in Shanghai or in a Western indie team trying to read Chinese review sentiment from a distance. The practical know-how for China is not hard to act on once you know what to look for.
Title: Game Writer
Company: Independent
Zaire Lanier is a Peabody and BAFTA winning writer and narrative designer. Best known for her work as a writer on South of Midnight, she has also worked on Subnautica: Below Zero and Gears of War: E-Day.
Title: Lead Generative AI Analyst
Company: NVIDIA
Matthew Lee is a Lead Generative AI Analyst at NVIDIA, researcher, designer, and Chair of the IGDA Serious Games SIG whose work explores how games and other disciplines can learn from—and benefit—one another. For more than a decade, he has built bridges between game developers, researchers, educators, healthcare professionals, and industry, advancing interdisciplinary collaboration through research, speaking, and community leadership. His work spans artificial intelligence, serious games, healthcare innovation, player engagement, and interactive design, with a focus on translating ideas across disciplines to create more engaging, meaningful, and resilient interactive experiences.
Title: Senior Technical Sound Designer
Company: Clean Cuts Interactive
Roc Lee (he/him) is based in Washington DC where he works as a Senior Sound Designer at Clean Cuts Interactive. Roc specializes in building audio systems that support gameplay and story, drawing on a background that spans live theater, indie and AAA games, and a first-generation Chinese-Taiwanese perspective. His credits include Asgard's Wrath 2, Saber Punks, and Sword Reverie. Roc has spoken at GDoC, GSC, and AES AVAR and helps to organize the DMV Game Audio meetup.
Title: Founder, GameDash
Company: GameDash
Bing Li founded GameDash in 2022, starting out by helping student game projects and small indie titles find their footing in China.
Over the following years, GameDash grew alongside the Chinese indie market on Steam. Across those campaigns, GameDash-supported titles have sold over 7 million copies in China.
This talk comes from a simple observation: a lot of good games leave China results on the table not because the audience does not exist, but because the information gap between Chinese market realities and Western developer assumptions is still wide. The goal is to make that gap a little smaller.
Title: Editor
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: Managing Director
Company: Player Research
Sebastian Long is MD of Player Research (a Keywords Studio), the leading agency for insight into players and play. As a gameplay researcher Seb led design-improving playtest studies for hundreds of games, spanning all genres, audiences and platforms - including for beloved IPs Star Wars, FIFA, Sonic, World of Tanks, LittleBigPlanet, Talking Tom, Hungry Shark, LEGO, Dark Pictures, Life is Strange — and seminal games including Control, Elden Ring, and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Seb has consulted on gamedev insight strategies for teams including EA, PlayStation, Xbox, Tencent, Bandai Namco, Ninja Theory, and hundreds more. As Managing Director Seb leads a 25-person consultancy based in the UK and Canada, providing world-class research that drives game development decision-making. Seb is a member of BAFTA, community leader within the IGDA Games User Research SIG, prolific speaker and educator, and is based in Brighton on the UK south coast.
Title: Brand Manager
Company: Saltworks Entertainment
Hannah is the Brand Manager at Saltworks Entertainment, an internal publishing studio built from the success of Black Salt Games (DREDGE) and now supporting Disc 2 Games (Canvas City) and Team Trifold (Nothing Lost).
Coming from a 2D game art background of over 8 years, Hannah uses her skills to showcase each studio's unique charm, style and gameplay and deliver it to the right audience. Outside of work, Hannah spends her time cosplaying, making art, bouldering and discovering new and interesting places to eat.
Title: Senior Manager, Narrative Storytelling
Company: Critical Role
Sam Maggs is a New York Times Bestselling and Eisner-winning author of books, comics, and video games. She serves as the Senior Manager of Narrative Storytelling for Critical Role's external narrative projects. 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: Senior Manager, Narrative Storytelling
Company: Critical Role
Sam Maggs is a New York Times Bestselling and Eisner-winning author of books, comics, and video games. Currently the Senior Manager of Narrative Storytelling for Critical Role, Sam has had a decade-long career in game writing and IP strategy. Sam’s game writing credits include Anthem (RIP); Call of Duty: Vanguard (Sledgehammer); Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands (Gearbox); Marvel’s Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps (Insomniac); Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance (Tuque); and, as an IP strategist, Idle Champions and Baldur’s Gate III (Wizards of the Coast). Her game spin-off novel Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars hit the NYT list, 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’s also a long-time on-air host and moderator. A Canadian in Los Angeles, she misses Coffee Crisp and bagged milk.
Title: Chief Strategy Officer
Company: Midwest Games
Cisco Maldonado is a senior games publishing and marketing executive with 15+ years of experience across games and entertainment, specializing in go-to-market strategy, franchise positioning, and cross-functional leadership. He has worked across AAA titles and some of the largest franchises of all time, including Harry Potter, Dragon Ball, DC Comics, and Warhammer, alongside other globally recognized properties. Cisco is known for translating creative intent into market clarity, building messaging architecture, audience strategy, and launch plans that teams can operationalize. His background spans global brand marketing, portfolio leadership, and commercialization across multiple studios and stakeholders, bridging product, creative, publishing, and performance teams to deliver cohesive, high-impact releases.
Title: Sr. Director Product Inclusion
Company: Scopely
Tülay Tetiker McNally is a senior strategic leader with over twenty years of experience in the global games and VFX industries. With a professional history spanning Germany, the UK, Canada, Sweden, and Spain, she brings a globally informed perspective to developer- and player-centred design.
Following foundational experience at Microsoft, Square Enix, and SEGA, Tülay joined BioWare in 2010 as Director of QA & Central Development Operations. She later led strategic cultural transformation initiatives within Studio Operations at EA DICE before being appointed as Electronic Arts' first Director of Inclusive Design & Product Development. In this role, she helped integrate the frameworks required to embed inclusive design into global production pipelines. Currently, she is the Senior Director of Product Inclusion & Central Ops Partnerships at Scopely, a strategic programme she created and leads to provide teams with guidance on accessibility and inclusive content, ensuring culturally informed decisions throughout the development process.
Tülay holds an MA in American Culture, History, and Society from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and a Postgraduate Diploma in Innovation & Design Thinking. She is an ICF Certified Coach and a CQ® Certified Facilitator and serves on the GDC Advisory Board and is a Patron of the mental health charity Safe In Our World.
Title: Senior Narrative Designer
Company: Obsidian Entertainment
Kelsie Mhoon is a narrative designer and game writer with a focus on RPGs and expansive branching dialogue. During her 8 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". Based in the Pacific Northwest, she spends her free time hiking, birdwatching, and cheering on her favorite teams.
Title: CPO
Company: AppMagic (a Sensor Tower company)
CPO at AppMagic (a Sensor Tower company) 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: Creative Lead
Company: The Walt Disney Company, 20th Century Games
Lis Moberly is the Creative Lead of 20th Century Games at The Walt Disney Company where she works with IP such as Alien, The Simpsons, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She has worked with companies such as Obsidian Entertainment, WB Avalanche, and Chuhai Labs as a game writer and narrative designer. Her work can be found in Avowed, Cursed to Golf, Hogwarts Legacy, and We Went Back, among others. In addition to her games work, Lis is a former academic and professor who continues to study critical issues facing game development including game dev burnout, feedback culture, and institutional memory.
Title: Narrative Director, Co-Founder
Company: Perfect Garbage Studios
Hailing from a haunted seaside town in Northeastern Massachusetts, Emmett Nahil is the Narrative Director and Co-founder of Perfect Garbage Studios, and the lead writer of Grave Seasons. He is also the author of FROM THE BELLY (Tenebrous Press, 2024) and LET ME OUT (Oni Press, 2023), among other scary fictions.
Title: Senior Writer
Company: Brass Lion Entertainment
Evan Narcisse is the Senior Writer at Brass Lion Entertainment, the game studio behind Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver. 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's 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. A native New Yorker, he now lives in Austin, Texas.
Title: Associate Professor
Company: New York University
Laine Nooney is an Associate Professor at New York University and a historian of computing and video games. They are the author of The Apple II Age: How the Computer Became Personal, co-host of the games industry podcast UNBOXING, and co-editor of ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories. Their research examines the history of games, personal computing, and media industries, with a particular focus on how technologies, businesses, and institutions shape the development, circulation, and preservation of digital culture.
Title: Senior Producer & Voice Actor
Company: Crunchyroll (Games Vault)
JiaLing can be described as Your Resident ADHD Chaos Gremlin. One may call them unfocused, they would say they're indulging in diving deep into all their curiosities and interests with aplomb.
Amongst the many pursuits, they've applied themselves to 15 years of production experience across mobile and AAA games, with a particular focus on pipeline optimisations while balancing creative and business needs. Additionally, they're a trained and working voice actor and illustrator. In recent times, they're pursuing their lifelong love affair with the written word by expanding their writing repertoire. Who knows where that may go?
This passion and pursuit of creative endeavours has led them across the globe, from South East Asia to the United Kingdom to land in the United States. They do not take the privilege lightly and thus endeavour to imbue cross-cultural learnings and understanding across their body of work.
How do you find them between all that, you ask? Well, their friends and family say you can hear them before you see them - so follow the cackling, mirthful laughter you hear in the distance. (or ya know, email)
Title: Associate Director, Production Manager, Executive Director
Company: GameSoundCon, Game Audio Network Guild, Music Creators Academy
Karina Pardus is an orchestrator, Creative Director, and industry advocate. She is the Associate Director of GameSoundCon, the Production Manager for the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Awards, the Executive Director of Music Creators Academy, and works in music education as the Music Director of the Adaptive Needs Adults Program at Tanner Dance through the University of Utah. She is the founder of Coy Compositions, and has composed and orchestrated music for podcasts, video games, and has worked commercially with companies such as Ipsy. She has been in leadership and board positions in advocacy nonprofits including the Female Composer Safety League and Mamas in Music. She has been a speaker at the Salt Lake Gaming Convention, GameSoundCon, PAX East, AirCon, and a contributor to the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit. As a mom of 3, she knows that managing a family and a business requires a lot of creativity to not only balance her dreams, but to thrive among them.
Title: Senior Gameplay Animator
Company: Skydance New Media
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: Senior Writer
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: Principal Designer
Company: Electronic Arts
David Pritchett is a Principal Designer and Producer at Electronic Arts with a background that spans television production, advertising, technical art, and game development. Originally from St. John's, Newfoundland, he studied English and creative writing before attending film school and beginning his career in television production and editing, including work with the CBC.
He entered the game industry in 2011 as a Technical Art Director and has spent the past 15 years at Electronic Arts, contributing to franchises including Grand Slam Tennis, SSX, EA SPORTS UFC, and EA SPORTS NHL.
A lifelong storyteller and problem solver, David is equally fascinated by retro games and emerging technology. He is particularly interested in how AI and new creative tools can remove traditional production constraints, increase quality, and make previously impractical ideas achievable.
He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife and their cat, Twinsen, and remains a long-suffering Toronto Maple Leafs and Blue Jays fan.
Title: Lead Writer and Narrative Designer
Company: Independent
Alexa Ray Corriea is a writer, narrative designer, and narrative systems designer with a decade of experience. She has worked with major blockbuster IP, including Marvel, Middle-earth, and Call of Duty. She is currently working on several unannounced projects across games and film. Alexa is a host of the AIAS Game Maker's Notebook Podcast and mentors within the games industry, working closely with several industry organizations including the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, BAFTA, and GDC.
Title: CEO and 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: Head of Business Solutions
Company: XDS Spark
Carla Rylance is Head of Business Solutions at XDS Spark and Chair of the XDS Advisory Committee. With more than 20 years of experience in game development, she has led external development, production, and strategic initiatives at studios including Lionhead Studios, The Coalition, Electronic Arts, Behaviour Interactive, and XDS Spark. Throughout her career, Carla has contributed to the development of 18 shipped titles, including Halo Infinite, Gears 5, The Casting of Frank Stone, Fable Legends, and The Casting of Frank Stone.
Title: Senior Audio Artist (Speech Lead)
Company: Electronic Arts
Mathew Savage is a Senior Audio Artist and Speech Lead at Electronic Arts. Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, he spent most of his time outside, but thanks to an abundance of rainy days, his passion for video games grew and eventually led to a full-time career.
He broke into the game industry in 2019, joining Electronic Arts to work on the NHL franchise, and has never looked back. Mathew is fascinated by the search for ways to bridge the gap between live sports broadcasts and video game commentary. He believes AI-assisted tools can help close that gap by supporting talent during recording sessions, reducing bottlenecks, and improving workflows.
When it rains these days, Mathew tries to find time between family life, friends, and work to continue a seemingly endless game of Factorio because, well… The Factory Must Grow.
Title: Composer
Company: Garry Schyman Productions
Garry Schyman is an award-winning composer whose music spans film, television, and video games. He is best known for creating the distinctive orchestral scores for the acclaimed BioShock trilogy—BioShock, BioShock 2, and BioShock Infinite—music celebrated for its haunting atmosphere, emotional depth, and singular musical identity. His work on BioShock Infinite earned the BAFTA Games Award for Original Music, while his scores for the series have also received two D.I.C.E. Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition.
Schyman's extensive credits include the Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor series, Destroy All Humans!, Dante's Inferno, Metamorphosis, Torn, and Voyeur. Renowned for his versatility and dramatic storytelling, he has written music ranging from dark experimental soundscapes and sweeping orchestral scores to playful homages to classic science fiction.
A graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music, Schyman also teaches in USC's Screen Scoring program, sharing his experience with the next generation of composers.
Title: [prior] Senior Creative Director, Candy Crush Saga. Now Independent
Company: CitizenKenny Consulting
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: Game Engine Specialist
Company: Tencent Games
I have been working as a game engine engineer in the gaming industry for over 10 years, with more than 8 of those years dedicated to developing in-house engine: NetEase's NeoX, which has powered multiple successful titles including "Once Human", "Harry Potter Magic Awakening", "Identity V", "Eggy Go". My primary interests lie in game engines, rendering, AI, neural networks and related technologies. I also had the opportunity to present our neural global illumination system and its deployment in 'Once Human' at GDC 2025.
Title: Lead Project Manager
Company: NVIDIA
Patrick Skelly is a Lead Project Manager at NVIDIA with more than 15 years of experience producing and managing projects across games, entertainment, and technology. He has held production and marketing leadership roles at Riot Games, The Pokémon Company International, Disney Interactive, Mattel, Activision, Amazon Prime Video & Studios, and Amazon Games. Passionate about play, storytelling, and helping creative teams do their best work, Patrick focuses on building collaborative processes that empower teams to deliver exceptional experiences.
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 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: Tool Design Director
Company: RYStorm Consulting
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: Engine Director
Company: Wargaming
Bronislav Sviglo is Engine Director at Wargaming. In 2020, he started the company's new proprietary engine from scratch and has led the team building it ever since — the engine behind World of Tanks: HEAT (May 2026, day-one release on PC, Steam Deck, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Pro, and Xbox Series X|S) and the company's future titles.
He has spent 18+ years at Wargaming (since 2008), working on World of Tanks from its earliest days: generalist, then graphics programmer, then long-time Rendering Team Lead — through the 1.0 render rewrite, the multi-core restructuring with up to 41% average FPS gain, and the enCore RT ray-traced shadows technology developed with Intel.
He is a three-time GDC speaker (two sessions in 2018, one in 2020) and spoke at 4C 2017.
Title: Audio Lead
Company: Mobius Digital
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: Senior Casting & Voice Director
Company: Self / formerly Blizzard Entertainment
Andrea Toyias is a veteran Casting and Voice Director whose career has been spent at the intersection of performance, storytelling and games. She founded the voice-over department at Blizzard Entertainment and spent 20 years overseeing casting and voice direction across some of the company's most celebrated franchises, including World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, StarCraft, and Hearthstone.
During her two decades at Blizzard, Andrea helped build the studio's VO pipeline from the ground up, collaborating with creative teams and performers to populate worlds with thousands of characters—from legendary heroes and terrifying villains to the smallest NPC with only a handful of lines.
Known for bringing energy, curiosity and a deep love of actors into the recording room, Andrea has spent thousands of hours behind the glass directing performances and helping creative teams discover possibilities they may not have known were on the page.
Today, she brings that experience to the broader game development and acting communities through directing, casting, consulting, coaching and education. After a career spent creating heroes, demons, dragons, orcs and the occasional talking spoon, Andrea remains fascinated by the same thing that drew her to voice-over in the first place: the extraordinary things that can happen when great storytelling meets great performance.
Title: Narrative Director
Company: Soft Rains
Kaitlin Tremblay is a writer and narrative designer. They are currently the narrative director at Soft Rains, but their career has spanned indie and AAA, as well as mobile, escape rooms, and ARGs. Outside of games, Kaitlin is a published horror writer and poet, and is the author of three books on videogame storytelling, including Collaborative Worldbuilding for Video Games (CRC Press), Life Is Strange (Boss Fight Books) and Ain't No Place for a Hero: Borderlands (ECW Press).
Title: Principal Insights Analyst
Company: Riot Games
Drew Vande Guchte is a Principal Insights Analyst at Riot Games and a lifelong student of both digital and tabletop gaming. With an academic background in computational physics and a decade of experience leading data science teams and delivering analytics in the games industry, he specializes in making data-driven decision-making collaborative and approachable for cross-functional partners. When he is not playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for the n-th time or building his latest Dungeons & Dragons campaign, Drew enjoys reading, running, and spending time with his family in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Title: Lead 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 Alma Stone, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, The Foglands, and other unannounced titles. She is a 2025 Hugo Award nominee, the Chair of the UVW-CWA Freelancing Committee, a panelist for the DICE Awards, 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: Writer / Narrative Designer
Company: Freelance
Matthew Weise is a writer / narrative designer whose credits include Warhammer, Disney, Warner Bros, and Netflix. Most recently he served as Principal Writer / Narrative Lead on Chaos Gate: Deathwatch, the sequel to Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters, and has consulted, written, and/or provided narrative design for a wide variety of story-driven projects over the years, including Fantasia: Music Evolved for Harmonix and Transcendence: Origins for Alcon Entertainment. Matt is also an educator, having taught narrative design for games at MIT, NYU, and Wesleyan, and a newly minted comic book writer, his first publication from Boom! Studios / Penguin Random House slated for 2027.
Title: Porting Engineer
Company: 22nd Century Toys
Coby West has been helping make cool games since 2015. They have worked as a Porting Engineer at 22nd Century Toys since 2024. In addition to their Engineering chops they have also worked professionally as a Designer, Product Manager, and Producer, among other roles at companies like The Glory Society, gamigo US, and Trion Worlds. They were the chair for Fantastic Arcade Fun Sized Edition and the Chair for Games Y'all, an Austin-based monthly meet-up dedicated to uplifting the underrepresented in games.Coby spends their free time helping run and mentor for Game Developer events in Austin, Texas.
Title: Actress & Content Creator
Company: Independent
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: Producer
Company: Unknown Worlds
Nico is a Producer at Unknown Worlds, where he enables multi-disciplinary teams to do their best work within realistic constraints of schedule, resources, and budget. He 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. When Nico isn't working, he can be found playing volleyball, participating in a D&D campaign, or searching for the best hot chocolate in town.
Title: Actor, Voice Actor & Performance Capture Artist
Company: Actor
Debra Wilson is an actor, comedian, voice performer, and performance-capture artist whose career spans television, film, animation, and interactive entertainment. An original cast member of MADtv, she has become one of the game industry's most recognizable performers, bringing emotional depth, physical specificity, and humanity to a remarkable range of characters. Her work bridges comedy, dramatic acting, voice-over, and full performance capture.
Title: Lead Product Manager & Head of Monetization, Guild Wars 2
Company: ArenaNet
Stef Wu is a Product Manager specializing in live service games with a passion for creating player-first experiences that also keep studios in business. She is currently the Lead Product Manager and Head of Monetization for Guild Wars 2 at ArenaNet, where she leads the development of new monetization-focused features and cosmetics as well as gameplay features to help a decade-old game feel fresh. Before joining ArenaNet, Stef worked on live and monetization systems on World of Warcraft and Spellbreak.
In her spare time, Stef is also the Head Volunteer Coordinator for Games Done Quick, a series of charity video game marathons that have to date raised over 50 million dollars for charity.
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: 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, a 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: Head of Player Experience
Company: SYBO
Celia Zimmermann is the Head of Player Experience at SYBO, the mobile games studio behind the global hit Subway Surfers. With nearly a decade of experience in mobile and free-to-play games, she has spent the past seven years creating community-first experiences and leading player engagement across Subway Surfers, Subway Surfers City, and SYBO.
Together with her team, Celia has created entertaining, culturally relevant moments that have reached millions of players around the world, helping Subway Surfers remain one of the most recognizable and enduring brands in mobile gaming.
Outside of SYBO, Celia is passionate about the positive impact games can have on people and the planet. She actively supports industry initiatives that help developers create games for good. When she's not working, you'll likely find her trail running, gardening, or thrifting for vintage treasures.
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: Professor Game Design
Company: Northeastern University
Bob De Schutter (MFA, PhD) is an award-winning game designer, researcher, educator, author, and advocate for meaningful play in later life. As a Professor of Game Design at Northeastern University, jointly appointed in the College of Arts, Media and Design and the Khoury College of Computer Sciences, he leads initiatives on games for age-friendly game design, intergenerational play, and health, and directs Northeastern's graduate program in Game Science and Design.
His publications and talks challenge stereotypes of older players and explore how games can support health, learning, social connection, and help people flourish throughout life. He has delivered invited presentations and refereed talks worldwide, including at GDC, SXSW, CES, GAConf and many other industry events. His creative portfolio includes Brukel, a biographical game that received multiple international awards and was exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Arcade among other venues. He is the founder and past chair of the Gerontoludic Society, a lifetime member of the International Game Developers Association and IndieCade, and a frequent advisor to industry and non-profits on age-friendly design.
Prior to Northeastern, he served as the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Applied Game Design at Miami University, where he directed the Engaging Technology Lab and was a research fellow at the Scripps Gerontology Center. Earlier in his career, he was a researcher and lead game designer for the e-Media Lab of KU Leuven campus Group T.
Title: Founder
Company: Azura Interactive
Hans van Brakel is the founder of Azura Interactive, a publishing consultancy that supports game developers and publishers based on what they actually need, rather than forcing them into a predefined package of services. He has more than ten years of experience in global PC and console publishing, including leadership roles at Thunderful, Crytek and SOEDESCO. His work spans commercial strategy, marketing, sales, distribution, monetization, store optimization and platform relations. Through Azura Interactive, Hans provides flexible, hands-on support shaped around each client's goals, resources and stage of development, helping teams make better publishing decisions and build sustainable commercial growth.