View, browse and sort the ever-growing list of sessions by day, time, pass type, topic, and format. With this Session Viewer, you can view session and speaker details for Game Developers Conference 2024.
You will be able to build your schedule with the GDC Mobile App. The GDC 2024 app will be available for download in Apple Apps and Google Play late February 2024.Sessions do fill up and seating is first come, first serve, so arrive early to sessions that you would like to attend. Adding a session to your schedule does not guarantee you a seat.
Speakers: Marc LeBlanc (Riot Games), Stone Librande (Riot Games), Marcus Montgomery (Xbox Game Studios Publishing), Andy Ashcraft (Giantsdance Games / NYFA), Jeb Havens (Jeb Havens Games), Eleanor Todd (Orange Monkey Games), Samuel Villanueva (Villains Creative), Geoff Marsi (Riot Games), Kellee Santiago (E-Line Media), Eben Myers (Level Ex)
Location: Room 207, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass
Topic: Design
Format: Workshop
Machine Learning Summit: From Photo to Expression: Generating Photorealistic Facial Rigs
Speaker: Hau Nghiep Phan (Electronic Arts)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass
Topic: Programming
Format: Session
Summit Speakers: Marcus Montgomery (Xbox Game Studios Publishing), Kellee Santiago (E-Line Media), Eben Myers (Level Ex)
Speakers: Marc LeBlanc (Riot Games), Stone Librande (Riot Games), Andy Ashcraft (Giantsdance Games / NYFA), Jeb Havens (Jeb Havens Games), Eleanor Todd (Orange Monkey Games), Samuel Villanueva (Villains Creative), Geoff Marsi (Riot Games)
Location: Room 207, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass
Topic: Design
Format: Workshop
Audio Summit: Lunchtime Surgeries
Speakers: Renaud Barne (Demute), Jorge Garcia (Electronic Arts), Ariel Contreras-Esquivel (Independent), Adele Cutting (Soundcuts Ltd), Brigitte Dajczer (Music Salad Studio Inc.), Tyler Hoffman (Insomniac Games), Dominique Devoucoux (King), Em Halberstadt (A Shell in the Pit)
Location: Room 3007, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass, Audio Pass
Topic: Audio
Format: Special Event
Designing Solutions for a New Era of Player Experience (Presented by Community Clubhouse)
Sponsor Speakers: Anna Wright (Niantic), Gabe Turk (Electronic Arts (EA))
Location: Room 2022, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Production & Team Leadership
Format: Sponsor Developer Summit
Sponsor Speakers: Hersh Bansal (Unity Technologies), Erick Boulay (Unity Technologies)
Location: Room 3022, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Programming
Format: Sponsor Developer Summit
Audio Summit: Challenges and Opportunities in Designing and Developing Audio Tools
Speaker: Jorge Garcia (Electronic Arts)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass, Audio Pass
Topic: Audio
Format: Session
Free-to-Play Summit: Give UX a Chance: Maximizing an Underutilized Discipline's Value
Speaker: Jonathan Bieda (Independent)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass
Topic: Free-to-Play
Format: Session
Sponsor Speakers: Terry Chen (Modulate), Paul Nunn (Epic Games), Lewis Ward (IDC), Tess Lynch (Premack Rogers P.C.), Mike Pappas (Modulate), Joe Newman
Location: Room 2022, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Design
Format: Sponsor Developer Summit
Educators Summit: Game Educators Soapbox
Speakers: Timothy FitzRandolph (Art Center College of Design), Michael John (UC Santa Cruz), Josephine Baird (Uppsala University Department of Game Design), Sonia Michaels (Independent), Sanjay Madhav (University of Southern California)
Location: Room 3014, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass
Topic: Educators
Format: Session
The Power of Community Feedback to Create Better Games (Presented by Amazon Games)
Sponsor Speakers: Scot Lane (Amazon Games), Brian Willitts (Amazon Games), Michael Lovan (Amazon Games), Katy Kaszynski (Amazon Games), Scott Geiser (Amazon Games)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Production & Team Leadership
Format: Sponsored Session
External Development (Outsourcing) Roundtable Day 1
Speaker: Carl Schmidt (Zynga)
Location: Room 312, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass
Topic: Visual Arts
Format: Roundtable
Speaker: Graham Wihlidal (Epic Games)
Location: Room 2002, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass
Topic: Programming
Format: Session
The Evolving Social Layers of Gaming (Presented by Discord)
Sponsor Speakers: Youri Lee (IVP), Takuro Mizobe (Pocketpair / Palworld), Stan Vishnevskiy (Discord), Peter Knudson (Electronic Arts), Rich Elmore (Respawn Entertainment), Brandon Miao (Riot Games), Pu Liu (Riot Games)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Business & Marketing
Format: Sponsored Session
Sponsor Speakers: Vitalii Vashchuk (EPAM), Stef Corazza (Roblox), Chris Benjaminsen (FRVR), Nico Perony (Unity), Luis Villegas (Bungie), Jeff Skelton (Electronic Arts (EA))
Location: Room 2024, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Business & Marketing
Format: Sponsored Session
Unreal Engine 5.4: Animation Deep Dive (Presented by Epic Games)
Sponsor Speakers: Fredrik Nilson (Epic Games), Jacob Buck (Epic Games), Scott Lemmer (Epic Games), Paddy Walker (Epic Games), Jose Villarroel (Epic Games), Samuele Rigamonti (Epic Games)
Location: YBCA Theatre
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Visual Arts
Format: Sponsored Session
A Sound Strategy: Audio Project Planning for 'Marvel's Spider-Man 2'
Speakers: Jesse Allen (Insomniac Games), Daniel Birczynski (Insomniac Games), Patrick Michalak (Insomniac Games)
Location: Room 3006, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Audio Pass
Topic: Audio, Production & Team Leadership
Format: Session
Leaders Working at the Heart of the Team 2024
Speakers: Grant Shonkwiler (Shonkventures), Saffron Bolduc-Chiong (Kitten Cup Studio), Yesenia Cisneros (Jar of Sparks), Jessica Klyne (Free Range Games), Zoe Curnoe (Timbre Games)
Location: Room 2010, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass
Topic: Production & Team Leadership
Format: Session
The Evolution of Matchmaking in 'Apex Legends'
Speakers: Christopher Pierse (Electronic Arts), Samy Duc (Respawn Entertainment)
Location: Room 3016, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass
Topic: Programming
Format: Session
Classic Game Postmortem: 'The Elder Scrolls, Chapter I: Arena'
Speakers: Ted Peterson (OnceLost Games), Julian LeFay (OnceLost Games)
Location: Room 2002, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass
Topic: Design, Production & Team Leadership
Format: Session
Warp: High-Fidelity Cloth Simulation in 'EA SPORTS FC 24'
Speaker: Robin Taillandier (Electronic Arts)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass
Topic: Programming
Format: Session
Audio Directors Roundtable Day 1: Team Management
Speakers: Lydia Andrew (EA DICE), Jason Kanter (Avalanche Studios)
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Audio Pass
Topic: Audio
Format: Roundtable
LGBTQ+ Executive and Entrepreneurship and Allies Roundtable
Speakers: Gordon P Bellamy (Gay Gaming Professionals), Jen Donahoe (Jade Inferno)
Location: Room 312, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Advocacy, Game Career Development
Format: Roundtable
Building Cognitive Accessibility Into Your Games
Speakers: Jay Justice (Independent), Morgan Baker (Electronic Arts), Tara Voelker (Xbox)
Location: Room 215, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Advocacy
Format: Session
How Generative AI is Transforming Game Development, Discovery and UGC (Presented by Roblox)
Sponsor Speakers: Stef Corazza (Roblox), Chen Zheng (Roblox), Juniper Hovey (Neura Studios), Guy de Beer (Toya)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Programming
Format: Sponsored Session
G.A.N.G. Demo Derby: Sound Design
Speakers: Nick Hartman (Game Audio Network Guild), Shannon Potter (Formosa Interactive), Scott Gershin (Sound Lab at Keywords Studios), Kristen Quinn (Polyarc), Elise Baldwin (Netflix Games)
Location: Room 3006, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Audio Pass
Topic: Audio
Format: Session
'Baldur's Gate 3': A Fireside Chat (Presented by Dolby Laboratories)
Sponsor Speakers: Stefan Randelshofer (Larian Studios), Alistair Hirst (Dolby Laboratories)
Location: Room 2020, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Audio
Format: Sponsored Session
External Development (Outsourcing) Roundtable Day 2
Speaker: Carl Schmidt (Zynga)
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass
Topic: Visual Arts
Format: Roundtable
Speaker: Brian Schmidt (GameSoundCon)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Advocacy, Audio
Format: Session
Bringing Frostbite to New Rendering Tech and Platforms (While Nobody Noticed)
Speaker: Jason Bright (Electronic Arts)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass
Topic: Programming
Format: Session
Inside UEFN SceneGraph (Presented by Epic Games)
Sponsor Speakers: Kurtis Schmidt (Epic Games), Tim Tillotson (Epic Games)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Programming
Format: Sponsored Session
Audio Directors Roundtable Day 2: Team Inspiration
Speakers: Lydia Andrew (EA DICE), Jason Kanter (Avalanche Studios)
Location: Room 314, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Audio Pass
Topic: Audio
Format: Roundtable
Navigating Leadership: Insights from LGBTQ+ Managers in Gaming
Speakers: Gordon Bellamy (Gay Gaming Professionals), Ryan Canuel (Petricore, Inc), Elaine Gomez-Sanchez (LatinX in Gaming), Nicole Lewis (Howl)
Location: Room 207, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Advocacy, Game Career Development
Format: Session
Closing the Gender Gap in Game Audio Design
Speakers: Debbie Gonzalez (The Sound Lab a Keywords Studio), Kat Wenske (Team Audio), Monet Gardiner (Sony Interactive Entertainment PlayStation), Alexandra Takei (Ruckus Games), Gina Zdanowicz (Serial Lab Sound)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Advocacy, Audio
Format: Session
Breaking Boundaries Roundtable: Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Non-Conforming Game Developers
Speakers: Gordon Bellamy (Gay Gaming Professionals), Christine Rose Schermerhorn (Independent), Mika Dilig (Gay Gaming Professionals)
Location: Room 312, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Advocacy
Format: Roundtable
Voices of Authenticity: Best Practices for Casting & Representing Queerness
Speakers: Anjali Kunapaneni (Queer Vox), Gordon Bellamy (Gay Gaming Professionals), JP Karliak (Queer Vox), Sarah Elmaleh (Collabelation, Inc.), Christine Rose Schermerhorn (Independent), Linsay Rousseau (Queer Vox)
Location: Room 3014, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Friday Only Expo Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Game Career Development
Format: Session
Empowering Diversity: LGBTQ+ Professionals Roundtable
Speaker: Gordon Bellamy (Gay Gaming Professionals)
Location: Room 306, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Friday Only Expo Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Advocacy, Game Career Development
Format: Roundtable
Speaker: Alexis Griffin-Lira (Electronic Arts)
Location: Room 3014, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass
Topic: Programming
Format: Session
Crafting and Balancing the Story and Characters in 'Marvel's Spider-Man 2'
Speaker: Jon Paquette (Insomniac Games)
Location: Room 2016, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass
Topic: Design
Format: Session
Game Career Seminar: Killer Portfolio or Portfolio Killer Part 2: Portfolio Reviews
Speakers: Greg Foertsch (Bit Reactor), Alison Kelly (Bit Reactor), Gaurav Mathur (DeepWell DTx), Jessica Kutrakun (Hypixel Studios), Inmar Salvatier (Maxis), Jeff Parrott (Blizzard), Ashley Sparling (K9 Digital), Daanish Syed (Bit Reactor), Jordan DeVries (Respawn Entertainment), Piero Macgowan (Bit Reactor), Jeff Skalski (Yellow Brick Games), Jeff A. Johnson (Insomniac (Formerly)), Rembert Montald (Lightspeed LA), David Yee (Lucas Film Games), Lana Bachynski (Riot Games)
Location: Room 213, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Friday Only Expo Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Game Career Development
Format: Special Event
Speakers: Brian Schmidt (GameSoundCon), Sabrina Hutchinson (Defiant Talent Management)
Location: Room 3002, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Audio, Special Event
Format: Special Event
Building the 'Minecraft' Creator Platform Block-by-Block
Speaker: Kayla Kinnunen (Mojang Studios)
Location: Room 2005, West Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass
Topic: Production & Team Leadership
Format: Session
Game Career Seminar: Finding Your Groove as Musicians in Game Audio
Speakers: Jamie Lee (A Shell in the Pit), Mark Berg (Electronic Arts), Mason Victoria (Disruptive Games)
Location: Room 215, South Hall
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Friday Only Expo Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass
Topic: Audio, Game Career Development
Format: Session
Title: Audio Manager
Company: Insomniac Games
Jesse James Allen Audio Manager Insomniac Games Jesse is an award-winning media professional. He is a former AAA video game sound designer and/or lead on 53 well-known games. He is now part of the audio leadership team at Insomniac Games. Jesse's other contributions include visual work for museums and theme parks around the world. Credits include NASA/Kennedy Space Center, Electronic Arts, National Geographic, Disney, Motion Gate Dubai & Busch Gardens
Title: Studio Audio Director
Company: EA DICE
Lydia Andrew is a Game Audio Director with almost 30 years of experience in sound. Starting in location sound recording in 1994, moving into sound post-production for film and television in 1999 and into games in 2002. She has experience in all aspects of game audio creation and integration with deep specialism in Music and Voice within multiple game genres, including the Assassins Creed and Battlefield franchises. Her games career started at Electronic Arts UK, Lydia moved to France with Ubisoft and then Canada. Her current role is Studio Audio Director for DICE in Stockholm, Sweden.
Title: Game Accessibility Lead
Company: Electronic Arts
Morgan Baker (she/they) is a award-winning Games Accessibility Specialist & Designer who has a strong commitment to increasing the accessibility and broadening the inclusivity of video games. She currently serves as a Games Accessibility Lead for Electronic Arts Inc.
Title: Senior Audio Lead
Company: Netflix Games
Elise Baldwin has been fortunate to work in game audio for more than 20 years. She is currently employed as a Senior Audio Lead within the Games group at Netflix Inc. Prior to that, she had been an audio director on the Publishing team at Xbox, where she collaborated closely with external studios to develop first-party games for the Xbox platform. She also served as a lead of the diversity and inclusivity team for the studio and co-led the Game Audio @Microsoft group for three years. Elise worked at Electronic Arts for over a decade, mainly as an Audio Director within the Sims division. While there, she contributed quality audio experiences on over a dozen games, and directed audio for the MySims franchise and Sims Medieval among other award-winning titles. In addition to creating, directing, mixing and authoring content, she was a senior team leader and a core contributor to audio development and pipeline innovations. With a background in film, experimental music and sound design, Elise is extremely passionate about creating entry points for women and LGBTQIA+ folks in the fields of audio production and interactive media.
Title: Technical Product Manager
Company: Unity Technologies
Hersh Bansal is Technical Product Manager at Unity, and has a passion for collaborating with game developers, from AAA to indies to help transform their concepts into reality. At Electronic Arts, he contributed to the Skate 4 game economy, and in his role at Unity, he is currently focused on the creation of multiplayer samples to enable developers with quality samples and educational content to simplify the complexities of multiplayer game development.
Title: CEO
Company: Gay Gaming Professionals
Gordon Bellamy is a Professor of the Practice of Cinematic Arts at USC, faculty advisor for USC Esports, and leads career development and DEI&B efforts at USC Games, helping to cultivate the next generation of leaders in our craft. He has played key business and product leadership roles at Tencent, Electronic Arts, as a designer on Madden NFL Football, and MTV Networks. In 2020, Bellamy was honored by Games for Change as their Vanguard Award winner for his contributions to the craft. In 2019, he was awarded the first ever Jerry Lawson Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2018 he was featured in Nickelodeon's Black History Month. Currently, he is featured in Netflix's Game Documentary High Score, and on The World According to Jeff Goldblum on Disney+. Gordon serves as the Executive Director/CEO of the Gay Gaming Professionals and on the Board of Directors of Wave and has served as Executive Director of both the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and the International Game Developers Association. He is a graduate of Harvard College with a BA in Engineering, and resides with his husband Joe Heally in Los Angeles, California.
Title: CEO
Company: Gay Gaming Professionals
Gordon Bellamy is a Professor of the Practice of Cinematic Arts at USC, faculty advisor for USC Esports, and leads career development and DEI&B efforts at USC Games, helping to cultivate the next generation of leaders in our craft. He has played key business and product leadership roles at Tencent, Electronic Arts, as a designer on Madden NFL Football, and MTV Networks. In 2020, Bellamy was honored by Games for Change as their Vanguard Award winner for his contributions to the craft. In 2019, he was awarded the first ever Jerry Lawson Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2018 he was featured in Nickelodeon's Black History Month. Currently, he is featured in Netflix's Game Documentary High Score, and on The World According to Jeff Goldblum on Disney+. Gordon serves as the Executive Director/CEO of the Gay Gaming Professionals and on the Board of Directors of Wave and has served as Executive Director of both the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and the International Game Developers Association. He is a graduate of Harvard College with a BA in Engineering, and resides with his husband Joe Heally in Los Angeles, California.
Title: Technical Audio Artist
Company: Electronic Arts
Mark Berg is a jazz school graduate turned shoe-gaze pop musician turned technical sound designer. Originally from Edmonton, Canada, Mark started his audio journey studying Music Technology and Jazz from Grant MacEwan in 2011 where music production first piqued his interest. This led him to tour under his creative moniker, Tropic Harbour. His love for ear candy and all things production led him to the non-linear world of video game audio. With the wisdom of the game audio community and continued learning from the School of Video Game Audio he expanded his sound design horizons and landed a role at Electronic Arts as a technical audio artist on FC 24. Now living in Vancouver, Canada, you can find him listening to D&D podcasts, harvesting new foley sounds, and lamenting the finite amount of time for creative pursuits.
Title: Director of UX Design
Company: Independent
Jonathan Bieda is an interaction design director that specializes in digital product development. He has 18+ years of experience designing digital products and campaigns across a variety of industries with a focus on entertainment. The majority of his career has been spent in the gaming space, leading design initiatives on several top-grossing mobile games such as "Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes" and "MARVEL Strike Force". He has also established design pipelines at multiple gaming studios, including Electronic Arts, Scopely, FoxNext Games LA (20th Century Fox), and Super Evil Megacorp.
Title: Staff Software Developer
Company: Unity Technologies
Erick is a staff developer at Unity, with a focus on package development and developer experience for Unity Gaming Services UGS. He helped build the foundations of UGS by working on player authentication as well as other parts of the platform. Prior to Unity, Erick worked at Electronic Arts and Square Enix Montreal. He is passionate about game development and has worked on various types of games, from casual asynchronous multiplayers to real-time deterministic MOBAs.
Title: Senior Software Engineer
Company: Electronic Arts
Jason Bright is a Senior Software Engineer in the Efficient Quality team on the Frostbite Engine at Electronic Arts. He’s been engineering computer graphics for almost 30 years, games for 20, and at Electronic Arts for 12. He worked on the Osiris mobile engine before joining the Frostbite team in 2019
Title: Studio Director
Company: Timbre Games
Zoë is a Leadership and Executive Coach and Consultant who uses her unique perspectives, humour and candour to help leaders break through limitations, become more self aware and harness their true potential so they can foster thriving and healthy cultures to unlock creativity and innovation.
She adds to this deep knowledge of the video game industry based on her 20 years holding production and operational leadership positions at a range of companies that have spanned working with eccentric artists in the Canadian Rocky Mountains at the Banff Centre, to smaller independent video game studios to large powerhouses such as Riot Games, Electronic Arts and XBOX. While at XBOX Zoë led the Campaign team on Gears of War 4 and Gears 5, two of her most proud achievements in her career.
In 2021 Zoë co-founded Timbre Games under the Sumo Digital umbrella, with the goal to create a studio that is a platform for new voices making games that are more fun and accessible for everyone. Zoë has acted as both Studio Production Director and Studio Director for Timbre growing the studio from just 3 founders to 100 employees in 2024.
Zoë is committed to helping traditionally marginalized people enter and succeed in the game industry and finding ways to encourage their voices to not only be heard but listened to, creating an environment where everyone can do their best work and truly thrive.
She has been an avid Wonder Woman fan since childhood and lives with her husband and their two cats, Leeloo Dallas Multipass and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Vancouver, BC.
Title: Dialogue Designer
Company: Sony Interactive Entertainment PlayStation
Monet Gardiner is a Sound Designer with 10+ years of experience in video games, film, television, music, and multimedia. As a Sound Design graduate from Savannah College of Art and Design, Monet has worked with 343 Industries at Microsoft on Halo Infinite and Electronic Arts on NBA Live 19 and NBA Live 20. Noteworthy achievements include Production Mixer & Supervisor on Emmy award-winning live sitcom “The BUZZ”, multiple MPSE Golden Reel Nominations for Sound Editing, and Dialogue Designer on 2023 BAFTA Best Audio and EE Game of the Year “God of War:Ragnarok”. Recently in addition to her work on God of War: Ragnarok, Monet has been working on titles such as The Last of Us 2 Remastered and Death Stranding 2 as a Dialogue Designer with Sony Interactive Entertainment PlayStation. Monet's impact continues to reverberate through the industry through her commitment to giving back to the game audio community by fostering diversity and inclusion as a proactive board member of the Game Audio Diversity Alliance, a non-profit charity which aims to provide career advancement opportunities for underrepresented voices through education, mentoring, and financial support.
Title: Game Designer
Company: Jeb Havens Games
Title: Sr. Game Developer Relations Manager
Company: Dolby Laboratories
Alistair Hirst has shipped over 45 games across 11 platforms as an Audio Director, sound designer, composer and audio programmer. During his 10 years at Electronic Arts he launched the Need for Speed franchise as Audio Director. He co-founded OMNI Audio, a game audio company which worked on four campaigns of Guild Wars and Halo 2 among many other games. He was Audio Director at Amazon Game Studios for 6 years before joining Dolby Laboratories. In his current role he evangelizes and supports game developers integrating Dolby technologies in games.
Title: Associate Teaching Professor
Company: UC Santa Cruz
Michael John ("MJ") is an associate teaching professor at UC Santa Cruz, where he has taught game development primarily at the MS level for the past 8 years. Prior to UC Santa Cruz, MJ worked in the commercial development industry for over 20 years, including working with studios such as Insomniac Games, Ready at Dawn Studios, and Electronic Arts, among others. He also co-founded an educational games startup called "GlassLab" in 2012.
Title: Executive Producer
Company: Mojang Studios
Kayla Kinnunen is an Executive Producer at Mojang Studios focusing on helping content creators express their creativity with Minecraft. Her 20+ year career in tech and gaming has given her an opportunity to work with incredibly talented individuals at companies that include Microsoft and Electronic Arts. She is particularly interested in empowering everyone to express themselves through the medium of gaming.
Title: Head of Community Video
Company: Amazon Games
For more than 15 years, Michael Lovan has been honing his expertise in video production and editing, focused on shaping narratives that deliver maximum impact in marketing, user acquisition, and retention. In 2022, he joined Amazon Games’ community organization, where he serves as Head of Community Video, creating original video content for the business’s player and creator relations programs. Other companies he’s worked with include Twitter, Electronic Arts, Glu Mobile, Wargaming North America, Art Directing Duo, and others. Lovan’s work has been featured internationally in Forbes, Rolling Stone, Fangoria, Slash Film, the Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and more. He is also the owner of Head Turner Films where he wrote, produced, directed, and edited the award-winning film Murder Bury Win.
Title: Associate Professor of Practice
Company: University of Southern California
Sanjay Madhav is an Associate Professor of Information Technology Practice at the University of Southern California, where he teaches several programming and video game programming courses. He is the author of Game Programming in C++, Game Programming Algorithms and Techniques, and co-author of Multiplayer Game Programming. He is also the recipient of the Information Technology Program's 2015 Award for Outstanding Faculty and the Viterbi School of Engineering's 2016 Dean's Award for Innovation in Teaching and Education. Prior to USC, Sanjay worked as a programmer at several video game developers including Electronic Arts, Neversoft, and Pandemic Studios. His credited games include Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, Tony Hawk's Project 8, Lord of the Rings: Conquest, and The Saboteur. He continues to consult in the game industry.
Title: Product, Privacy and Legal
Joe Newman has spent a decade in the games industry working on kids’ privacy and safety issues. He has worked both as in-house counsel for Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, and in private practice for a variety of clients ranging from indie games to some of the largest video game publishers in the world. In his work, he balances the needs of protecting children while ensuring the privacy and security of their personal information, and is always looking for ways to achieve this balance at scale. At his new role at k-ID, he is working towards building solutions for the next generation of video game services.
Title: Senior Narrative Director
Company: Insomniac Games
Jon came to the game business in 1996 as an intern with DreamWorks Interactive. At the time, Jon was working toward his MFA in Screenwriting at USC. After receiving his degree, Jon served as a producer and designer on a variety of DreamWorks games, including Clive Barkers Undying. After DreamWorks Interactive was acquired by Electronic Arts, Jon continued making games in a variety of creative roles in the Medal of Honor series, including both Writer and Creative Director on Medal of Honor Airborne. He joined Insomniac games in 2008 and has written several games including Resistance 3, Sunset Overdrive, and Marvel's Spider-Man. Most recently, he served as Senior Narrative Director on Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
Title: CEO
Company: OnceLost Games
Ted Peterson started his career in video-game development at Bethesda Softworks. After helping develop two Elder Scrolls games, three Terminator games, and several other games, he left the company and embarked on a career at small studios like AnyRiver and Savage Entertainment, and bigger companies like Activision, Electronic Arts, and Disney. In the meantime, he sold screenplays to Francis Ford Coppola and MGM, and was hired on as a writer at Fox for the hit TV show "Bones."
Title: Technical Art Director
Company: Electronic Arts
I have been a part of the gaming industry since 2003, when I developed my first tower defense game as a hobby. My professional journey began with Electronic Arts (EA), where I contributed to numerous successful games such as GoldenEye 2, Medal of Honor 4, SSX on Tour PSP, and Army of Two. Subsequently, I joined Ubisoft and had the opportunity to work on several games within the Tom Clancy franchise, as well as a couple of installments in the Assassin's Creed series. During this time, I also shared my expertise with aspiring game developers by teaching at the NAD Center in the evenings. After a brief stint with Warner Bros, I returned to EA to work on a project that was eventually canceled. Currently, I am a part of EA's research and development division, SEED, where I focus on enhancing production scalability.
Title: Principal Data Scientist
Company: Electronic Arts
Chris Pierse is a Principal Data Scientist at Electronic Arts with experience building models for a variety of games including Apex Legends, FIFA, Plants Vs. Zombies, Battlefield, Sims, and Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. He specializes in building machine learning models around in-game data including those for matchmaking and game balance. Prior to joining the games industry, Chris got his PhD in theoretical biophysics and left academia to pursue his passion in games.
Title: Audio Director
Company: Larian Studios
Stefan's passion for Audio made him work in various fields of Audio production over the course of 25+ years - spanning from band and orchestra recordings to TV and Movie Sound Design and interactive audio installations. The last ~17 years he solely focused on Game Audio and shipped and worked on 15+ game titles such as Battleforge, Risen 3. Anno 1800, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Prince of Persia: The Dagger of Time. He established and lead audio teams in companies like Electronic Arts, Piranha Bytes and Ubisoft. At the moment he is the Audio Director of Larian Studios and recently shipped Baldur's Gate 3.
Title: Senior Character Artist
Company: Maxis
For the past decade Inmar has a character artist at Electronic Arts. He has worked across many platforms in his professional journey. His humble beginnings were on Facebook games, then through mobile, and now on Console and PC. He has helped establish new IPs like Supreme Heroes and Age of Champions as well as partnering with established IPs like Star Wars, Dragon Age, and the Sims. Although he is currently a character artist, he has spent most of my career as a generalist. He is a problem solver and has filled the position of a one-man art team on multiple projects.
Title: Framework Technical Director
Company: Epic Games
Kurtis Schmidt is the Framework Technical Director on the Unreal Engine at Epic Games. He's been working on game engine technology for the last 13 years. Since joining Epic two years ago he has been working on the creation of Unreal Editor for Fortnite, the Verse programming language APIs, and leading the creation of advanced UEFN frameworks. Previously, Kurtis was the Director of Technical Product for the Frostbite Core Engine group at Electronic Arts, where he led the visual scripting, entity component system, 3D scene editor, networking, and low level subsystem teams.
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: Founder
Company: GameSoundCon
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 video game NARC. 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: COO & Executive Producer
Company: Yellow Brick Games
Jeff began his career as an art intern at MicroProse. 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 indie studio in Quebec City called Yellow Brick Games where the focus is on creating new innovative gameplay and original IPs.
Title: Head of Technology Partnerships
Company: Electronic Arts (EA)
With 28 years of professional experience and numerous AAA and indie game credits to his name, Jeff Skelton is a seasoned veteran in the gaming industry, specializing in engineering and technology. Currently serving as the Head of Technology Partnerships at Electronic Arts (EA), he leads support of EA's global technology partnerships in alignment with the company's internal technology strategy. His role involves collaborating with EA's global teams — ranging from the C-suite and central teams to gaming teams and technology leaders—to identify and forge strategic partnerships with major technology partners, thereby advancing EA's dedication to creating world-class games.
Title: Founder
Company: Orange Monkey Games
Title: Director, Customer Experience
Company: Electronic Arts (EA)
Gabriel Turk is a seasoned customer experience executive currently serving as the Director of Customer Experience at Electronic Arts (EA). With over a decade of expertise, Gabriel has honed his skills in support management across diverse industries, including software games, mobile games, technology, consumer goods, and educational products. Previously, he spent 13 years as the Director of Customer Care at Glu Mobile, where he excelled in building and nurturing high-performing teams. Gabriel's areas of specialization include CRM implementation, call center solutions, negotiations, quality assurance, tech support management, online community management, and team leadership. Known for his adeptness in leveraging technology to enhance customer service efficiency, Gabriel is committed to delivering exceptional experiences to EA's global player community.
Title: Senior Technical Product Manager
Company: Epic Games
Paddy Walker has spent most of his career designing and driving animation tools and tech. While at Electronic Arts Paddy worked on franchises such as Battlefield, Fifa, NHL, Madden, and many others and helped design and drive animation technologies for the company. Paddy now works on gameplay and runtime Animation technologies at Epic Games in Unreal.
Title: Engineering Fellow (Graphics)
Company: Epic Games
Graham Wihlidal is an Engineering Fellow (Graphics) at Epic Games, primarily focused on Nanite development. Previously, Graham worked at Electronic Arts (SEED, Frostbite, BioWare), implementing and supporting technology used in many hit games like Battlefield, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Plants vs. Zombies, FIFA, Star Wars: Battlefront, and others. While at BioWare, Graham shipped numerous titles including the Mass Effect and Dragon Age trilogies, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Graham is also a published author and has presented at several conferences.
Title: Operating Officer
Company: Toya
Guy de Beer is the Chief Operating Officer with premium Roblox creator Toya. Previously founder of cloud gaming pioneer Playcast (acquired by Electronic Arts) and the Generative AI company that crossed the Turing test, Kami computing (acquired by Embodied inc). Guy holds a BA in Media from Bar Ilan University, MA in Philosophy of information, Tel Aviv university, Israel.