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Noman has been living and breathing games for over 15 years. He started back in the early App Store days, when launching a single game could put a new studio on the map. Since then, he has designed, published, and scaled a wide range of mobile titles across casual, hyper-casual, simulation, strategy, idle, and even Web3, working closely with producers, UA experts, and live-ops teams on growth and monetization. Over the years, Noman has seen how player psychology and the business of games constantly evolve, and he has helped teams from small indies to larger studios tackle the same problems many still face today: how to grow without burning budgets, keep players engaged, and make games not just fun, but profitable.

Ignacio Amaya leads AI initiatives at Rovio, working on machine learning and generative AI for games, advertising, and user acquisition. He has a background in data science and data engineering and focuses on building AI solutions that deliver real business impact.

Moritz is a senior partner and the head of gaming & interactive media at Lightspeed, a globally leading VC firm with 13 offices, $43 billion in assets, and over 200 exits across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. An advocate for world models, he is also a founding member of General Intuition, a research lab that trains spatiotemporal agents on proprietary video game data and raised a $133.7 million Seed round in 2025.

Prior to that, Moritz founded and led the firm’s global gaming practice at Goldman Sachs. A lifelong gamer, he spent his teenage years competing in Blizzard’s Diablo II, culminating in a #1 ranking among over 12 million players in 2003.

Beau was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Began playing guitar and drums in bands and producing music when he was 15. Turned his passion for gaming into a PA job working events for Activision. Spent 5+ years after that at Activision working in licensing and partnerships before coming to Universal Music in 2024 to lead the gaming sector of the Production Music department. Favorite games of all-time are Goldeneye, Halo 3, and Fallout: New Vegas.

Kirk Barker is a Product Manager at Meta, specializing in developer platforms and mixed reality technologies. He is responsible for SDKs including the Movement SDK, Mixed Reality Utility Kit, and the Passthrough Camera API. Kirk has enabled creators and engineers to push the boundaries of immersive experiences by incorporating body tracking, mixed reality, and exploring access to computer vision and Large Language Models (LLMs) within Virtual Reality headsets. Kirk is passionate about empowering developers to build innovative, interactive environments that blend the digital and physical worlds.

Writer/Director Kal-El Bogdanove has crafted dozens of the world's most popular AAA videogames, including Steam record-breaker Helldivers 2, global smash Honkai Star Rail, Horizon Forbidden West, MultiVersus, Diablo 4, Diablo Immortal, Overwatch 2, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, League of Legends, Convergence, the BAFTA-winning Fallout 4, and more. Kal-El was the creator and showrunner for The Walt Disney Company's entire suite of interactive audio, a whopping 2000+ pages of fully-voiced content across Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar, earning Disney $30 million first year net in this previously unexplored space, and generating an incalculable number of guest impressions. Bogdanove also created Dug In Real Life, the most successful viral video in TWDC history, with 28 million views in 24 hours. Together with his business partner Adrienne Arno, Bogdanove wrote Exoprimal for Capcom, and an unannounced AAA title for Warner Bros. Arno and Bogdanove also partnered with horror legends John Carpenter and Sandy King to create Terraformed, an eight-part graphic sci-fi miniseries, and The Haloperidol Files, a psychological mystery.

Stephanie Boluk plays, makes, and writes about games at the University of California, Davis. Her work incorporates game studies, media theory, and political economy to explore the relationship between leisure and labor in the post-2008 global economy. She co-authored Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames as well as a series of small games like Footnotes and Triforce with Patrick LeMieux.

Lizi is a pioneering producer and partner at Papergames (internationally known as Infold Games), where she serves as both creative director and game director. She has played a key role in shaping many of the studio’s signature titles, including Nikki UP2U: World Traveller, Love Nikki, Mr. Love: Queen’s Choice, and Shining Nikki. Lizi currently leads the development of Love and Deepspace, a groundbreaking 3D interactive narrative that launched globally in early 2024. Under her leadership, the project reimagined emotional storytelling in games through semi-realistic 3D visuals, cinematic presentation, and deeply human themes. The title’s fusion of immersive sci-fi action and richly woven relationships has resonated with players worldwide, establishing it as a landmark in interactive narrative design. Recognized by major gaming media such as IGN, GameSpot, Pocket Gamer, and 4Gamer, Lizi’s work reflects her remarkable ability to merge creative innovation with strategic vision, shaping the future of emotional and story-driven gaming experiences.

Joe Clark is the CEO and Founder of Studio 316, currently working on PACS - Post Apocalypse Courier Service: Co-op Delivery Simulator

Dr. Richard Cole is Lecturer in Digital Futures at the University of Bristol, where he also co-programme directs the MA Games Design (Narrative). His research investigates how video games, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence open up new avenues for humanistic inquiry. He has published widely on games, from inquiries into gameplay structures and immersion, to worldbuilding, paratexts, and gender representation. He has coined key terms for game analysis and has led ground-breaking player studies into AI-native games. As co-Director of the Bristol Digital Game Lab, a pioneering hub connecting academia with the games industry, he aims to unlock the power of play for cultural, educational, and civic transformation.

Eben Cook is the Visual Effects Director at Naughty Dog. He has worked on some of Naughty Dog's most popular series, such as UNCHARTED and The Last of Us. He's a game industry veteran who got his start in 2001 on Myth III: The Wolf Age, and has worn many hats over the course of his career. Before becoming Visual Effects Director, Eben previously worked as a Concept Artist, Texture Artist, Modeler, Tech Artist, Dynamics Artist, Visual Effects Artist, and Environment Lead. When he is not in the trenches of game development, Eben enjoys working with his hands. If he's kept indoors too long, he gets grumpy.

Michael Csurics is a director specializing in video game voiceover and performance capture. He is the founder of the Brightskull Entertainment Group, a production company providing casting, VO/Face/P-Cap Production, and creative localization solutions. His notable works include: Marvel Rivals, Infinity Nikki (无限暖暖), Bugsnax, Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, Tacoma, and Bioshock 2. Throughout the video game industry Michael is a well-known crusader for pushing the bar in dialogue and voice performance. He is a leading expert in the art of capturing ensemble performances as well as in adapting Chinese source material for English speaking audiences.

Don Daglow is a three-time Inc. 500™ CEO, a pioneering game designer and 2008 Technical Emmy® Award recipient whose career spans the history of Silicon Valley. Teams have shipped over $1 billion in game products under his leadership. In addition to working with publishers and game developers, Don serves as Sr. Director for Industry Relations at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY (home of the largest collection of video games and related documents and artifacts in the world), as an Advisor at the Founders Space accelerator in San Francisco (rated in the Top Ten by Inc. Magazine), and as the volunteer President of The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Foundation, the charitable wing of the Academy. Daglow has delivered keynotes and speeches at The Smithsonian Art Museum in Washington D.C., BAFTA in London, the Biennale in Frankfurt, Medientage in Munich and many international games conferences. He is the only executive in the history of the games industry who has held leadership and/or creative positions on every generation of video game consoles, from 1980 to the present day. In 2003, he received the CGE Award for "groundbreaking achievements that shaped the Video Game Industry." Along with John Carmack of id Software and Mike Morhaime of Blizzard Entertainment, Daglow is one of only three game developers whose work has been honored at both the Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards and at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences DICE Awards. As an engineer working on mainframe computers, Daglow also created key early milestones in the development of chatbots (ECALA, 1972) and the machine translation of natural language (Spanish Translator, 1977).

Lyn is a Senior Community manager with 8 years experience working in the games. Industry. Currently working at Noodle Cat Games, she specializes in launching new IPs and building healthy communities and growing brand awareness from zero. In her free time, she is a mental health advocate and industry mentor across a number of organizations.

Ruphar Dhawan works as a senior Account Manager at AWS. Ruphar started his journey as a Java developer but moved into sales and BD roles after his MBA. He has an industry experience of 15 years while working within gaming segment for more than 3 years now. Ruphar manages some of the biggest gaming customers of AWS in EMEA with the likes of Supercell and Rovio.

Liza Dobrovoljc is an Associate Product Director at King, for Candy Crush Soda Saga. She previously led strategic initiatives across the game's Communication & Navigation systems. Liza focuses on transforming complex, legacy systems into player-first experiences that scale. A passionate product leader, she thrives on building clarity in complexity, empowering teams, and unlocking business growth through player value. She believes great product leadership combines vision, empathy, and holistic problem-solving. Outside of King, she is an active advocate for women in games.

As the Technical Director at Owlcat Games, Alexey has over 20 years of programming and technical leadership experience. Specifically responsible for code in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and The Expanse: Osiris Reborn

Kelli Dunlap, PsyD, MA is the executive director at Take This, the original mental health and games non-profit. She brings on over a decade of experience working at the intersection of mental health and games, including esports, community management, and game design, and uses this experience to inform and drive Take This' mission. In addition to her work at Take This, Dr. Dunlap is a licensed clinical psychologist, holds a Masters in Game Design, and serves as a researcher-in-residence at American University's Game Center. She is an award-winning game designer and has collaborated on game design projects with organizations including the National Institute of Mental Health, UNESCO, VOX Media, and U.S. Congressional staffers. Dr. Dunlap is an internationally recognized researcher and speaker on the intersection of games and mental health, especially pertaining to mental health representation in games and ethical game design.

Stephanie Economou is a Grammy-winning composer known for her scores for DreamWorks Animation's "Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken" and "Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie," as well as Universal's "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3," Lionsgate's "About My Father," and Netflix's "Jupiter's Legacy." She is also the composer of the Assassin's Creed: Valhalla expansions "The Siege of Paris" and "Dawn of Ragnarök," the latter of which earned her the historic 2023 Grammy Award for "Best Score for Video Games and Other Interactive Media," making her the first-ever winner in the new category. In another first, Stephanie won the inaugural David Raksin Award for Emerging Talent from the Society of Composers and Lyricists for her music in "Jupiter's Legacy." A collaborator with Golden Globe-nominated composer, Harry Gregson-Williams, Stephanie has composed additional music on scores such as Disney's live-action "Mulan," directed by Niki Caro; Jon Turtletaub's "The Meg;" Antoine Fuqua's "The Equalizer 2;" Disneynature's "Penguins;" and Ridley Scott's Oscar-nominated film, "The Martian." Her music can also be heard in Niki Caro's "The Zookeeper's Wife," Ben Affleck's "Live By Night," and Simon Baker's "Breath." Stephanie is a 2021 BAFTA Breakthrough Artist, a 2018 NBC/Universal Composers Initiative alum, and a 2015 fellow of the Sundance Institute Composers Lab. Serving as committee director for the Alliance for Women Film Composers, Stephanie is deeply passionate about the empowerment of women in our industry and strives to amplify and celebrate their unique voices.

A.J. Fairfield has been working on graphics at Mojang Studios for over 8 years, focused on elevating the rendering capabilities of the game. Prior to Mojang he contributed to the development of D3D12 and PIX at Microsoft. Physical accuracy and real-time rendering have been his passion for years, and working at Mojang has provided him with the opportunity to deliver exciting visual experiences to gamers on practically every modern platform.

Nate Fox is a Creative Director at Sucker Punch Productions where he works to merge narrative and gameplay as effectively as possible. His 28 years of working in videogames have allowed him to ship 10 games, with the upcoming Ghost of Yōtei to be his 11th. Past titles include the Sly Cooper and inFamous series, as well as Ghost of Tsushima. As a long-time veteran of game production, he's worked in a wide variety of roles: artist, writer and game designer.

Ni Hao! Rosy Fu is a Technical Artist at Naughty Dog. Her experience includes working on The Last of Us Part I & II and the recently announced Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. She is deeply passionate about creating games with strong artistic vision that convey powerful emotions and resonate deeply with players. Beyond game development, Rosy mentors aspiring developers through IGDA, helping to nurture the next generation of talent. As a multimedia artist, she also showcases her work at art conventions, sharing her creative journey across various platforms.

Henry Golding is a 15+ year games industry veteran with broad experience in gameplay, tools, and test automation. He has helped some of the biggest live service games in the world restructure their development processes to ship frequent updates safely and cost effectively. Henry specializes in leveraging modern technical practices to pave the way for sustainable and humane game development – eliminating the need for crunch and fostering an environment where creativity and innovation flourish. With experience at industry-leading companies including Microsoft, Mojang, Rare, Epic Games, and now Netflix, he has been instrumental in transforming how game development teams approach quality and testing. Henry has worked to raise awareness of the benefits of test automation in games for many years - speaking at conferences (GDC, Develop) on podcasts, sharing resources via the Game Automated Testing Resource Hub (bit.ly/gathub) and the Game Devs Can Test channel on YouTube. He also mentors and coaches industry practitioners.

Morla Gorrondona has been working in video games as an actor (voice/performance capture/creatures) for over 15 years on award-winning titles such as Destiny and Destiny 2. Moss: Book 1 and Book 2, God of War: Ragnarok, The Last of Us 2, The Death Stranding, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, 4, Cold War and 7, Spider Man 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn and New West.

She is a member of SAG-AFTRA, NAVA, IESD, founding member of the Game Audio Network Guild Voice Actor Coalition (GVAC) and founding co-chair of the GANG Awards Dialog Committee.

Dr. Ashley ML Guajardo (née Brown) is an award-winning teacher, streamer, and scholar. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Arizona State University, a Masters of Arts in Sociology from The University of Manchester (UK), and a PhD in Sociology from The University of Manchester (UK). Dr. Guajardo's research interests lie within the intersection of sexuality and play. She is the author of Sexuality and Role-Playing Games (Routledge 2015) and dozens of book chapters and journal articles on fandom, sexuality, videogames, and table-top roleplaying games. Currently, she is working on multiple book projects exploring how fandom and fantasy shape sexual desire. Previously, Dr. Guajardo was faculty at Brunel University London (2014-2016), and the University of Utah (2016-2025). She won awards for innovative and inclusive teaching at both institutions. Since 2017, she has hosted a weekly educational Twitch stream on game user research methods. She has also held several leadership positions in industry and academia-facing professional organizations. She was Vice President of the Global Game Jam (2020-1), conference co-director of the IGDA's Games User Research Special Interest Group (2021-2), and currently serves as president of the Digital Games Research Association (2025-7). In 2025, she was inducted as a fellow of the Higher Education Video Game Association.

Ian Hardingham is a multi-award-winning Game Designer and Director best known for his work on the classic strategy game Frozen Synapse and its critically-acclaimed follow-ups. Following a successful career in games he moved into the technology sector, becoming Chief Technology Officer of Oxford Brain Diagnostics, a breakout medtech business specializing in pioneering brain analysis techniques to support drug development and aid clinical interventions. Ian recently led the technical component of OBD's successful FDA 510(k) submission for their groundbreaking CDM Insights software.

Nick Hartman is an Audio Producer and Communications Manager working within the wonderful world of game audio. He currently serves with the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), where he supports the Guild’s efforts to foster community and celebrate excellence in interactive audio. Having worked with clients including SEGA, Firaxis Games, Riot Games, Wizards of the Coast, and more, Nick is passionate about supporting the creative ventures of the gaming industry while cultivating welcoming spaces where talent can thrive.

Sarah Hays (she/her) is a doctor of counseling psychology and licensed mental health counselor in Washington State. Her passion for serving the gaming community has been clear since before she started working for Take This in 2018, where she serves as the Accelerate Program Manager – providing revolutionary mentorship to marginalized individuals seeking to bridge their careers between games and mental health. She also delivers live, educational content like workshops, panels, and co-hosts Take This' Twitch stream. Never satisfied with limiting herself to serving one part of the gaming community, Dr. Hays is an outpatient therapist for the game-based mental health nonprofit Save Point Behavioral Health, specializing in working with games industry, ADHD, and LGBTQIA+ populations. She has served as the Director of Programming for Queer Women of Esports, as an advisor for the Games Hotline, and is one of the editors of the groundbreaking book A Clinician's Guide to Geek Therapy. She has authored a number of other works, including a chapter in Video Games and Well-Being and The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Witcher. She will be releasing her first solo-edited book this fall, The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: Black Mirror.

Cecile Hemery is an inclusive leadership coach who helps professionals reclaim their confidence and impact, leading authentically while lifting others up - never "taking the blanket for themselves." With 15 years in gaming and tech leadership, Cecile combines coaching, psychoanalysis, hypnotherapy, and mindfulness with deep understanding of workplace dynamics in fast-paced, data-driven environments. She supports clients as they navigate the curveballs of career progression, leadership challenges, and life transitions; bringing clarity, confidence, and calm through her Becoming Process.Her approach blends practical structure, emotional insight, and gentle challenge, always delivered with empathy and the occasional dash of humor, helping human-centered leaders create positive ripple effects on their own terms. Her mission is simple: to help human-centered leaders show up with authenticity and have impact in their careers, and in their lives.

Cissy Jones relishes using both sides of her brain. From her beginnings working in Silicon Valley startups and venture capital firms, to winning a BAFTA for her performance in Firewatch, recurring on Disney's The Owl House, playing in 100+ universes that span the spectrum from Naruto to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or founding Ethovox, an AI company whose mission is to establish the ethical coexistence of AI and voiceover, she thrives in using her experience, passion, and knowledge to bring stories she believes in to life.

A seasoned expert in both digital operations and national security, Jang Kim currently serves as the Roblox TVE Product Support Manager. His career is defined by over 20 years of experience in military intelligence and counter-terrorism, with a specific focus on the intersection of technology and radicalization. Having spent over half a decade tracking terrorist activity online for the U.S. government, he now applies that rigorous analytical framework to managing complex product support systems in the gaming and tech industry for Roblox.

Salaar has been making games since age 8. He's co-founder of CAGE Studios, currently working on their 4th title, Gunstoppable. He was a Gameplay Engineer at Sony Santa Monica for 5 years, working on titles like God of War Ragnarok. He graduated from UPenn with a Computer Graphics Master's and CS Bachelor's. Outside of work, Salaar enjoys guitar, volleyball, and penguins.

Marissa Koors is a narrative editor and designer with over a decade of experience making stories sharper across book publishing and interactive media. As a book editor, she worked for major publishing houses including Hachette Book Group and John Wiley & Sons, where she edited Kate Cooper's “Queens of a Fallen World”—a Finalist for the Cundill History Prize—among other titles, including major IP tie-ins from Marvel to “The Expanse.” She continues her work in the book industry as a literary agent for the Curious Minds Agency while focusing on interactive editorial and narrative design. Her credits as a game editor include “Alice's Lullaby” (2024), IndieCade nominee “Puckish” (2023), and “Zohran’s Run” (2025), in addition to editorial work for other interactive storytelling formats ranging from immersive theatre (“Disrememberance,” 2025) to ARGs ("MagStock Presents: Camp Gemstone Pond,” 2025). She has also edited and developed original epic and dark fantasy serials at Tapas Entertainment, and numerous indie TTRPGs. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Mike Lamprinos is a Product Manager at Reality Labs, working on Meta Quest SDKs and Developer Tooling. He is working on tools that developers use every day like Meta Building Blocks, Runtime Optimizer, Immersive Debugger and AI tools. Mike enjoys to learn how developers use Meta Quests unique capabilities to reimagine immersive experiences and he’s committed to making Horizon OS development more accessible to a wider set of developers.

Simon Landry has been working in the music industry for the last 20 years, as a music supervisor, a music producer and a music composer. Since 2008, as part of Ubisoft Music, he has been delivering industry-leading music supervision, design, production, implementation, and trailer music services for many Ubisoft studios, on AAA videogame franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six and Avatar. Simon's main Awards & Recognitions include working on the Grammy-winning Score of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök by Stephanie Economou, the Grammy-nominated Score of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora by Pinar Toprak, and the BAFTA-winning Score of Far Cry 4 by Cliff Martinez.

Diandra Anne Lasrado's vast experience spans nearly two decades working for industry behemoths such as Riot Games, BioWare, Blizzard, and Aniplex. Diandra is an industry veteran with a narrative background that covers editorial, characters, dialogue, and carries throughout the voice-over pipeline. Her experience covers AAA, mobile and indie games. With Diandra's focus on diversity, great imagination and team first mentality she has built a name for herself as a positive and creative influence for games. She currently is Narrative Director for iwot games making a Wheel of Time game.

Patrick LeMieux is a media artist, game designer, electronic musician, and associate professor in the Cinema and Digital Media Department at the University of California, Davis. His research and teaching engage game studies, media theory, and art making to explore the material practices and community histories of play, from speedrunning, modding, and esports to installation art, modular synthesis, and alternative control. He is the co-author of Metagaming with Stephanie Boluk and the creator of small games like Footnotes, Triforce, and the Octopad, an eight-player controller for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Luka Lebanidze leads the Games Division at POSTRED, where he builds long-term partnerships with studios and supports audio teams with scalable, artist-led production. His work spans audio co-development, business development, and creative supervision, aligning artistic vision with sustainable production systems.

Under his leadership, POSTRED has contributed to titles including Path of Exile II, Wuthering Waves, Naruto Mobile, Delta Force, and Roco Kingdom.