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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.

Free-to-Play Summit: The Year in Free-to-Play Games

Speakers: Steven Meretzky  (PeopleFun), Dave Rohrl  (Mobile Game Doctor), Scott Hartsman  (Independent)

Location: Room 2006, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass

Topic: Free-to-Play

Format: Session

Game Design Workshop Day 1

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

UX Summit: Difficult Games by Data and Design

Speakers: Sebastian Long  (Player Research), Lanie Dixon  (Ubisoft Montreal)

Location: Room 3016, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass

Topic: Design

Format: Session

Free-to-Play Summit: Worldbuilding and Story for F2P Live Ops Models

Speaker: Stephan Bugaj  (Genvid)

Location: Room 2006, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass

Topic: Free-to-Play

Format: Session

Animation Summit: Animation Variety Hour

Speakers: Yuki Gupte  (Independent), Lee Dowsett  (Lakshya Digital), Lana Bachynski  (Riot Games), Brent George  (Agora.Community), Harrison Pink  (Cyan Worlds), Robert Coddington  (Insomniac Games), Sebastien Dussault  (Agora Studios), Michala Braker  (JALI Research), Nathan Zufelt  (BioWare), Nick Buzai  (Team Snowdust), Alex Ferreira Simoes  (Riot Games), Aslak Helgesen  (Rain Games), Jalil Sadool  (Steamroller Animation), Kelly Yeo  (Blizzard Entertainment), Mike Jungbluth  (Compulsion Games), Ana Beltran  (The Walt Disney Company), Sol Brennan  (Heart Machine), Ricky Wood  (People Can Fly), Jake Clark  (Innersloth), Sarah Watling  (JALI Inc.), Bruno Velazquez  (Santa Monica Studio), Daanish Syed  (Bit Reactor), Émilie Beauchamp  (WB Games Montreal), JP Rhinemiller  (Blizzard Entertainment), Tim Borrelli  (Undead Labs), Ryan Duffin  (Undead Labs), Aung Zaw Oo  (Outerloop Games), Patrick Walker  (Epic Games)

Location: Room 2001, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass

Topic: Visual Arts

Format: Session

Free-to-Play Summit: How Games Manipulate You Through Deceptive Design

Speakers: Emma Varjo  (Redhill Games), Sebastian Long  (Player Research)

Location: Room 2006, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass

Topic: Free-to-Play

Format: Session

Production Workshop: An In-Depth Guide to Solving Tough, Real World Production Problems: Part 1

Speakers: Dave Ranyard  (Dream Reality Interactive), Charu Desodt  (Interior Night), Stephen Davidson  (Dream Reality Interactive), Fleur Marty  (Fang & Claw)

Location: Room 213, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass

Topic: Production & Team Leadership

Format: Workshop

Game Design Workshop Day 2

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

Production Workshop: An In-Depth Guide to Solving Tough, Real World Production Problems: Part 2

Speakers: Dave Ranyard  (Dream Reality Interactive), Stephen Davidson  (Dream Reality Interactive), Dirk Hulverscheidt, Charu Desodt  (Interior Night)

Location: Room 213, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass

Topic: Production & Team Leadership

Format: Workshop

Xsolla Developer Summit: Navigating Web3 for Your Video Game (Presented by 3Thix)

Speakers: Timothy Tello  (3Thix), Peter Kieltyka  (Sequence), Evan Cheng  (Mysten Labs), Angela Dalton  (Signum Growth), Sebastien Borget  (The Sandbox), Michael Lee  (zkSync)

Location: Room 2014, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass

Topic: Business & Marketing

Format: Sponsor Developer Summit

Free-to-Play Summit: ENGAGE! Scalable Community Outreach for All

Speaker: Linda Carlson  (Arise Gaming)

Location: Room 2006, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass

Topic: Free-to-Play

Format: Session

The First 30 Years of 'Warcraft': The Making of a Game Universe

Speaker: John Hight  (Blizzard Entertainment)

Location: Room 207, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Business & Marketing

Format: Session

Harnessing Generative AI to Create Unlimited Content Within Game Worlds (Presented by Amazon Web Services)

Sponsor Speaker: Russ Harding  (Saltwater Games)

Location: Room 3009, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass

Topic: Programming

Format: Sponsored Session

Exploring How Language Models and AI Support the Game Development Process (Presented by Inworld AI, in partnership with Xbox)

Sponsor Speakers: Kylan Gibbs  (Inworld AI), Haiyan Zhang  (Xbox), Moritz Baier-Lentz  (Lightspeed Venture Partners)

Location: Room 2000, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass

Topic: Programming

Format: Sponsored Session

What Game Companies Need to Know About Deepfakes (Presented by Perkins Coie LLP)

Sponsor Speakers: Lisa Oratz  (Perkins Coie LLP), Duncan Crabtree-Ireland  (SAG-AFTRA), Wei Wang, Ph.D.  (Meta), Jessica Henderson  (Microsoft)

Location: Room 2011, 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

Making Player Data Work Roundtable Day 1: Pre-Production

Speaker: Sebastian Long  (Player Research)

Location: Room 306, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Production & Team Leadership

Format: Roundtable

Concept Art Postmortem: How Creative Principles Shaped Visual Development of 'Returnal'

Speaker: Veera Hokkanen  (Housemarque, Sony PlayStation Studios)

Location: Room 2006, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Visual Arts

Format: 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

Animation Roundtable Day 1

Speakers: Euna Park  (That's No Moon), Shayna Moon  (Sanzaru)

Location: Room 312, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Visual Arts

Format: Roundtable

ARTificial: Ethics and Aesthetics of AI and Copyright

Speakers: Micaela Mantegna  (Berkman Klein Center Harvard University (Affiliate), TED Fellow), Ryan Black  (DLA Piper), Mirjana Prpa  (Northeastern University), Andrew Maximov  (Promethean AI)

Location: Room 207, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass

Topic: Advocacy

Format: Session

Starting a Game Studio Roundtable Day 1: Funding Choices

Speaker: Richard Vogel  (T-Minus Zero Entertainment)

Location: Room 306, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Production & Team Leadership

Format: Roundtable

Starting a Game Studio Roundtable Day 2: Building a High-Performance Culture

Speaker: Richard Vogel  (T-Minus Zero Entertainment)

Location: Room 314, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Production & Team Leadership

Format: Roundtable

Making Player Data Work Roundtable Day 2: Production

Speaker: Sebastian Long  (Player Research)

Location: Room 312, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Production & Team Leadership

Format: Roundtable

Using Generative AI for Content Moderation in Gaming at Scale (Presented by Amazon Web Services)

Sponsor Speakers: John Rouse  (Amazon Web Services), Lana Zhang  (Amazon Web Services), Andrei Muratov  (Amazon Web Services), Orlando Cardoso  (Sony PlayStation)

Location: Room 3009, 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

Hearing Health in Video Games

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

The PM's Dilemma - Striking a Healthy Balance when Managing Live Games (Presented by CleverTap Gaming)

Sponsor Speakers: Solomon Ruiz-Lichter  (CleverTap), Tim Hong  (AWS for Games)

Location: GDC Industry Stage, Expo Floor, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass

Topic: Design

Format: Sponsored Session

Animation Roundtable Day 2

Speakers: Euna Park  (That's No Moon), Shayna Moon  (Sanzaru)

Location: Room 308, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Visual Arts

Format: Roundtable

Operation Innovation: How Xbox Employs Military Talents in Gaming

Speakers: Fiona Cherbak  (Xbox Game Studios), iAsia Brown  (Xbox Game Studios Publishing), Lisa Elswick  (USO), Jenn Panattoni  (Xbox/Microsoft), Jason Coon  (Xbox/Microsoft)

Location: Room 3005, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass

Topic: Game Career Development

Format: Session

Adapting Foley Techniques for Interactivity: Lessons Learned on 'Marvel's Spider-Man 2'

Speakers: Zack Bogucki  (PlayStation Studios), Joanna Fang  (PlayStation Studios), Blake Collins  (PlayStation Studios)

Location: Room 3006, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Audio Pass

Topic: Audio

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

Revisiting Fun: 20 Years of "A Theory of Fun"

Speaker: Raph Koster  (Playable Worlds)

Location: Room 2001, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Design

Format: Session

Starting a Game Studio Roundtable Day 3: Communications

Speaker: Richard Vogel  (T-Minus Zero Entertainment)

Location: Room 312, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Production & Team Leadership

Format: Roundtable

Animation Roundtable Day 3

Speakers: Euna Park  (That's No Moon), Shayna Moon  (Sanzaru)

Location: Room 306, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Visual Arts

Format: Roundtable

Live Service Development in 2024: The Developer's Perspective (Presented by Accelbyte and Omdia)

Sponsor Speakers: Liam Deane  (Omdia), Rob Schoeppe  (AccelByte)

Location: Room 2011, West Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Friday Only Expo Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass

Topic: Business & Marketing

Format: Sponsored Session

Making Player Data Work Roundtable Day 3: Live-Operations

Speaker: Sebastian Long  (Player Research)

Location: Room 312, South Hall

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Production & Team Leadership

Format: Roundtable

Game Career Seminar: A Survival Guide for Game Developers in a Post Pandemic World

Speaker: Richard Vogel  (T-Minus Zero Entertainment)

Location: Room 207, 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: Session

G.A.N.G. Town Hall

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

Baier-Lentz, Moritz

Title: Partner, Head of Gaming

Company: Lightspeed Venture Partners

Moritz Baier-Lentz is a Partner and the Head of Gaming at Lightspeed, a globally leading venture capital firm with over $29 billion in capital under management and more than 500 investments across the U.S., Europe, and Asia—including Epic Games, Stability AI, and Snap. Moritz loves to partner with exceptional entrepreneurs and has invested over $100 million into the gaming industry—including founders who have led the creation of games like Fortnite, Call of Duty, League of Legends, Wild Rift, Apex Legends, Overwatch, Valorant, StarCraft II, and Warcraft III. Previously, Moritz was a partner and management team member at BITKRAFT. He personally raised over $200 million and, with the founders, scaled the firm to become the most active gaming investor of 2020, 2021, and 2022. Moritz led many of the funds’ marquee early-stage deals, including Inworld AI, Theorycraft Games, and Raid Base—achieving top-decile IRR (collective valuations over $2 billion) and attracting 9-figure follow-on investments from Amazon, Disney, Epic Games, Google, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, NetEase, Niantic, Nintendo, Riot Games, Sony, Take-Two, Tencent, and Ubisoft. Before joining BITKRAFT, Moritz was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs, where he founded and led the firm's global gaming practice. During his 5-year tenure, he advised the world's largest gaming and technology corporations on over $300 billion in transaction volume across M&A, IPOs, VC, and other strategic transactions—including Dell’s $67 billion acquisition of EMC and IBM’s $34 billion Red Hat purchase. A lifelong gamer, Moritz spent his teenage years competitively playing Blizzard’s Diablo II, culminating in a global #1 ranking among over 12 million players in 2003. The first person in his family to graduate high school, he traded the digital swords and armor that he earned in-game to afford his college tuition—two decades before NFTs entered the mainstream. Moritz holds an M.B.A. and M.A. from Stanford, where he graduated as Arjay Miller Scholar and ERP Scholar ("German Rhodes"). He was recognized among the "30 Under 30" (Forbes), "40 Under 40" (Capital), "Young Leaders" (Atlantik-Brücke), and "Young Global Leaders" (World Economic Forum). His recent speaking engagements include Harvard, Stanford, M.I.T., Goldman Sachs, Forbes, New York Times, SXSW, and GDC. In his personal time, Moritz is an avid Ironman and ultramarathon athlete, including the 250km Marathon des Sables and the World Marathon Challenge (7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days). With his races, he has raised over $250,000 for depression research.

Birczynski, Daniel

Title: Audio Manager

Company: Insomniac Games

Daniel Birczynski is a sound designer for video games, TV, and film. Based in Los Angeles, he currently holds an Audio Manager position at Insomniac Games. His most recent credit "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart" earned many nominations and won Audio of the Year and Creative and Technical Achievement in Sound Design at the latest GANG Audio Awards. Before joining Insomniac Games, he worked at PlayStation Studios Creative Arts group at Sony Santa Monica. While at Sony his sound design can be heard on titles such as "Concrete Gene", "Marvel's Spider-Man", "God of War (2018)" (MPSE Golden Reel winner in 2019), "Bound", "Hohokum", "God of War: Ascension", and "Starhawk". Before joining Sony Daniel worked at Activision and 7Studios on several projects, among them "Skylanders" and "The Sopranos: Road to Respect". His musical training began at age six. He received his master's degree in Percussion Performance from the Academy of Music in Cracow, Poland, where he focused on classical, contemporary, and jazz. In 1999 he received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston. Upon earning his B.M. in Music Synthesis, he moved to Los Angeles. His music background has led him to develop a unique style of sound design combining traditional techniques with musical and tonal approaches. This has led to successful collaborations with composers and producers on a variety of musical sound design projects. His professional credits also include work as engineer, music supervisor, orchestrator, and score production coordinator. He shares his expertise through teaching and presentations at international conferences.

Bugaj, Stephan

Title: Chief Creative Officer

Company: Genvid

As Genvid's chief creative officer, Stephan Bugaj brings a wealth of past creative and technical direction experience to creating our socially interactive streaming series like Silent Hill Ascension, DC Heroes United, and Borderlands Echovision Live. As CCO of DJ2 Entertainment he ran creative for the Hollywood company behind the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, forthcoming Tomb Raider anime, Derek Kolstad's forthcoming Coyote Blue, and many more— working with partners like Paramount, Legendary, Amazon, Netflix, Sony, and more on many film and TV development projects. Stephan has also held senior creative and creative-technology roles at a number of companies including Hanson Robotics, where he led creative and systems development of the artificial intelligence personality, physical behavior, and mind architecture of the Sophia android, and premiering his short films starring her at Cannes. At Telltale Games, he led visual and story development for beloved narrative games including Game of Thrones, Tales From The Borderlands, and The Walking Dead.

Cardoso, Orlando

Title: Engineering Manager with PlayStation Trust & Safety

Company: Sony PlayStation

Carlson, Linda

Title: Director of Business Development

Company: Arise Gaming

Linda is a 20-year veteran of the game industry. Her evolution included developing strategy guides and maps, professional cosplay as Brasse the Dwarf, and games journalism, culminating in senior leadership roles in Community Management, managing global teams at major companies such as Sony Online Entertainment and Trion Worlds. She is now the Director of Business Development at Arise Gaming, advising a broad range of clients while continuing to specialize in Community Management and Trust and Safety. Linda firmly believes in online communications as a force for good in human civilization, in the power of forging lasting, meaningful, global relationships in real-time to achieve common goals and evolve our potential as a species. In her spare time, Linda is a relentless gamer (online and tabletop), and runs a small farm with dairy goats, miniature pigs and heritage breed chickens, along with a decorative support team of dogs.

Cherbak, Fiona

Title: Lead Talent Program Manager

Company: Xbox Game Studios

Fiona designs and drives inclusive hiring initiatives across Xbox first-party studios. Fiona was previously Talent Acquisition Lead, Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment. Fiona is former chairperson of IGDA Women in Games SIG, co-founder of Women in Games International, co-creator of GameMentorOnline and prior advisor to Women in Games Jobs U.K. Fiona is co-founder and prior executive producer of Boston Festival of Indie Games, now in its 12th year. Fiona participated in a women in games roundtable at the U.S. White House in 2015.

Desodt, Charu

Title: Studio Head

Company: Interior Night

Charu is Studio Head at INTERIOR/NIGHT, an independent narrative games studio based in London. Having studied mechanical engineering, she started her career as a core programmer on Sony’s $billion SingStar franchise before transitioning to Production.Since then she has earned her stripes releasing titles such as Wonderbook: Book of Spells and As Dusk Falls in 2022 while working at a mix of studio; from Xbox to start-up independents. Her games are characterised by their innovation and ability to challenge industry norms.

Fang, Joanna

Title: Senior Foley Artist

Company: PlayStation Studios

Joanna Fang is an Emmy award winning Foley artist and sound editor. An alumna of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Joanna fell in love with sound design and Foley during her studies and, after graduating with honors in 2014, immediately started apprenticing and performing under the guidance of esteemed Foley artist Leslie Bloome at Alchemy Post Sound in Peekskill, NY. In 2021, Joanna transitioned into game development and began working for Sony Playstation where she currently co-leads their new Foley department and is their first in-house Foley Artist in over 15 years. Through her decade in Foley, she has had the privilege of swinging axes in God of War Ragnarök, hunting misogynists in Promising Young Woman, and even crashing a bus for Ira Glass on This American Life. Her Foley art spans across several media from traditional narrative films, documentaries, and television series to triple A games, virtual reality and sound art. In 2016, she was recognized by the Television Academy as the first openly transgender woman of color to win a Primetime Emmy for her Foley and sound editorial work on A&E’s Cartel Land.

Ferreira Simoes, Alex

Title: Senior Animator

Company: Riot Games

My name is Alex Ferreira Simoes and I'm currently a senior animator working on the Champions Team for League of Legends!

I've been working at Riot for about 3 years.

Before Riot I was working in the Featured Film industry, spending most of my time at Dreamworks Animation (about 3 years) working on Abominable, Boss Baby 2, The Bad Guys and some other stuff, before that I worked at Blue Sky Studios, Sony Animation and some other studios I'm also the creator of Animation Flow, where I've been teaching animation for the past 3 years now focusing on gameplay and featured film.

Gardiner, Monet

Title: Dialogue Designer

Company: Sony Interactive Entertainment PlayStation

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

Harding, Russ

Title: Chief Gaming Officer

Company: Saltwater Games

Russ Harding, holding the position of Chief Gaming Officer at Saltwater Games, Maze Theory, and Nexus Labs, has dedicated nearly three decades to the gaming industry. His work focuses on leveraging emerging technologies like VR, AR, MR, AI, and Web3 to create engaging gaming experiences. Russ's experience spans various game genres, catering to different audiences. His collaborative efforts with notable brands such as LEGO, PlayStation, Harry Potter, Sony Music, Doctor Who, and Peaky Blinders reflect his broad industry involvement with leading intellectual properties.
As Chief Gaming Officer, Russ primarily engages in guiding the creative strategic direction, nurturing initial concepts, and overseeing prototype development. He also plays a critical role in maintaining the quality of the studio's game portfolio. As a custodian of the studio's creative development process, he ensures it stays relevant with evolving market trends and technological advancements.
Currently, Russ is leading several notable projects. "The Infinite Inside" is an MR/VR puzzle game that explores the possibilities of immersive gaming, while "Resurgence" is a crafting/survival game that delves into the applications of AI and Web3 in gaming, and “Celeros,” Formula One for the skies, based on the new real-world motorsport Airspeeder.

Hartsman, Scott

Title: Advisor & Director

Company: Independent

Scott Hartsman is a veteran with 30+ years’ experience as a developer, producer, executive, advisor and director in online games and their platforms. He has served in these roles at Sony Online Entertainment, Trion Worlds, Wargaming, and more.  He’s developed, produced and/or launched dozens of successful massive games including a pair of EverQuests, RIFT, Trove, and ArcheAge. He considers himself extremely fortunate to have been in leadership of a team that won a technical Emmy for their groundbreaking work in MMOs, and was later nominated for a BAFTA as the head of RIFT. He currently works with game studios of all sizes, from fresh startups through massive publishers, as an advisor and independent board director, while dreaming up what to build next.

Henderson, Jessica

Title: Principal Corporate Counsel for Gaming

Company: Microsoft

Jessica Henderson is currently Principal Corporate Counsel for Gaming at Microsoft (Xbox Game Studios). Jessica is the frontline product counsel for the Forza and Fable game franchises, and happily calls herself the “mini general counsel” for Turn 10 Studios, Playground Games, and Simplygon. Jessica additionally leads and manages music and talent licensing and engagement for all Xbox Game Studios and their games. Jessica has been instrumental in leading the global music licensing program for Xbox, including cultivating partnerships with performing rights organizations (PRO’s), music publishers, and record labels worldwide. Jessica focuses her practice on music, talent, and entertainment related transactions to secure the most strategic and innovative creative content for first party game studios, third party developers, and Xbox’s xCloud and Game Pass services. Prior to her stint at Xbox, Jessica worked in both the non-profit humanitarian and corporate sectors, including, International Mission Board, Sony Music Publishing, and LifePoint Health (HCA). Jessica is most passionate about cultivating her legal practice to create “safe spaces” for creativity/innovation to flourish and making the gaming industry the most inclusive creative economy in the world.

Hight, John

Title: Franchise General Manager, Warcraft Franchise

Company: Blizzard Entertainment

As the Warcraft general manager, John Hight oversees the company's collective efforts around all titles within the Warcraft universe, including the ongoing development of World of Warcraft, both the modern and Classic games, Hearthstone, and the forthcoming mobile entry Warcraft Rumble in addition to new content and projects that enhance the community's experience outside of the games, and new opportunities to extend the Warcraft universe to new audiences around the world. John joined Blizzard Entertainment in 2011 as lead game producer on the award-winning World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria. He also served as production director for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls and Diablo III on console before returning to the WoW team as production director. In the years prior to joining Blizzard, he worked on over 40 games on various platforms, including Command & Conquer and Neverwinter Nights. While at Sony Computer Entertainment of America, John was instrumental in the development of many critically acclaimed titles, including flOw, flower, and God of War 3. John holds a B.S.E. in computer science from the University of New Mexico and an MBA from USC. He served as a board member of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and was the lead author of Game Development Essentials: Game Project Management, a comprehensive introduction to game project management. He also taught game production for four years at the top-ranked Interactive Media division of the USC School of Cinematics. In his free time, John enjoys tabletop gaming, scuba diving, photography, watching movies, and riding his Harley.

Hokkanen, Veera

Title: Senior Concept Artist

Company: Housemarque, Sony PlayStation Studios

Veera Hokkanen is a senior concept artist with 8 years of professional experience in the games industry. She is currently working at Housemarque, a Finnish game studio part of the Sony PlayStation Studios, that developed the award-winning roguelite game Returnal. She has bachelor's degree in graphic design and master's degree in game design and development. Veera enjoys working on a variety of topics with both 2D and 3D tools, hopes to inspire aspiring concept artists to the industry and is always eager to talk about art, games and worldbuilding.

Hong, Tim

Title: Head of BD - Live Service Game

Company: AWS for Games

Tim Hong, currently leading Live Service Business Development at AWS for Games, leverages his 15 years of game product management experience to enhance gaming experiences across the industry. Having worked with giants like Unity, Blizzard, EA, Sony, Zynga and Disney, Tim possesses a unique insight into the nexus of gaming and technology, focusing on empowering game studios with the right tech solutions. In his role, he transcends traditional product management, acting as a strategic advisor to bridge the gap between innovative technology and game development. Tim's dedication to the gaming world is driven by a player-first philosophy, focused on ensuring developers have access to the knowledge and tools needed to create captivating, player-centric experiences, reflecting his passion for gaming and his commitment to its ongoing evolution.

Tim is a Bay Area native who loves basketball and has taken his talents to Austin where he loves spending time with his wife, 3 kids and labrador retriever.

Koster, Raph

Title: CEO

Company: Playable Worlds

Raph Koster is the CEO of Playable Worlds, Inc. He is a veteran game designer and creative executive who has worked at EA, Sony, and Disney as well as run his own company twice. The lead designer and director of massive titles such as Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, he’s also contributed writing, art, music, and programming to many other titles. He is the author of the classic book A Theory of Fun for Game Design. In 2012, he was named an Online Game Legend at the Game Developers Conference Online.

Long, Sebastian

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 has led design-improving playtest studies for hundreds of games, spanning all genres, audiences and platforms - including for beloved IPs Sniper Elite, FIFA, World of Tanks, LittleBigPlanet, Talking Tom, Hungry Shark, LEGO, and games including Control and Elden Ring - and influencing the development direction of international projects for businesses including EA, Sony, Xbox, Tencent Games, and hundreds more. As Managing Director Seb leads a 20-person consultancy based in the UK and Canada, providing research that drives game development decision-making, as both a consultant research strategist and the company Director. Seb is a member of BAFTA, community leader within the IGDA Games User Research & UX SIG, prolific speaker and educator, and is based in Brighton on the UK south coast.

Maximov, Andrew

Title: CEO, Founder

Company: Promethean AI

Games industry veteran, former Technical Art Director for Sony Interactive, Andrew pushed cutting edge art technology that powered the biggest entertainment franchises in the world. Develop and Forbes magazine's 30 under 30, artist, programmer, consultant and entrepreneur. Andrew taught art, technology and production at Universities, Schools and Computer Graphics events in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Montreal, Tokyo, Seoul, Malta, Bulgaria, Poland and Uganda to name a few. Distinguished in both art and technology he has been co-running the Art Direction Summit at Game Developers Conference for 9 years, while also sitting on the jury of SIGGRAPH Realtime Live. Democratizing the creative process, supporting artists and empowering creativity within every single person has been his unrelenting focus and singular goal throughout his entire career.

Moon, Shayna

Title: Technical Producer

Company: Sanzaru

Shayna Moon is a Technical Producer at Meta's Sanzaru studio, recently shipping the critically acclaimed Asgard's Wrath 2. Her previous work includes Microsoft's The Coalition, the Unity DOTS Spotlight group, and cinematic and audio production on Sony Santa Monica’s God of War (2018) and God of War: Ragnarok (2022). She also has worked to support up and coming game developers through volunteer and mentoring opportunities such as Amplifying New Voices and the GDC Conference Associates program.Shayna graduated from Ferris State University in 2014 with a degree in Digital Animation and Game Design. She later attended the University of Texas at Austin Denius-Sams Gaming Academy, completing the program with honors. She began her career in games as a Quality Assurance tester in her home state of Michigan.

Schmidt, Brian

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).

Schoeppe, Rob

Title: Chief Commercial Officer

Company: AccelByte

Rob is a Games Industry Executive with 20+ years of experience focused on Game Development Technology specializing in development and execution of go-to-market strategies including leading B2B Sales, Solution & Product Marketing, Business Development, and Solutions Architecture teams. Rob has held Sr. Executive positions at Namco Bandai, Sony, and Amazon Web Services. Most recently, in 2023, Rob joined AccelByte as Chief Commercial Officer leading Sales & Marketing efforts helping customers to build, launch, and operate Live Service games.

Tello, Timothy

Title: CEO

Company: 3Thix

Sony, EA, King, and 505 Games, he supported various projects exceeding $300 million in revenue and reaching an audience of more than 15 million players. Tim holds an MBA from Western Governors University and enjoys a fulfilling life in Austin, Texas."}" data-sheets-userformat="{"2":5053,"3":{"1":0},"5":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"6":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"7":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"8":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"10":0,"11":4,"12":0,"15":"Arial"}">Tim Tello is an award-winning professional in the video game and blockchain gaming space. Collaborating with industry giants, including Sony, EA, King, and 505 Games, he supported various projects exceeding $300 million in revenue and reaching an audience of more than 15 million players. Tim holds an MBA from Western Governors University and enjoys a fulfilling life in Austin, Texas.

Villanueva, Samuel

Title: Game Designer / Owner

Company: Villains Creative

A veteran game designer with over 25 years of development experience throughout five console generations, working with incredible teams at companies such as Niantic Labs, Sony Playstation and Crystal Dynamics.
 

Vogel, Richard

Title: Studio Head

Company: T-Minus Zero Entertainment

Rich Vogel is an award-winning executive producer with over 25 years of industry experience building online games and is a Founder and the Studio Head of T-Minus Zero. Before T-Minus Zero, Vogel built three studios, including Sony Online Entertainment Austin, BioWare Austin, and a Bethesda Games Studio, BattleCry, which generated $3 billion in revenue. Additionally, Vogel was instrumental in running and overseeing LiveOps for four critically acclaimed MMORPGs, including Meridian 59, Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

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