Use the GDC 2021 Session Viewer to browse and sort the ever-growing list of sessions by day, time, pass type, topic, and format. All registered attendees will be able to build their personal schedule directly within the event platform, once live early July 2021. All times are listed in Pacific Time.
Marcin Makaj, Indie Game Developer & Academic Lecturer, The Moonwalls & Academy of Art in Szczecin
Designer, graphic artist and programmer. He is also a lecturer and a doctoral student at the Design Department of the Academy of Art in Szczecin, where he teaches video game designing courses. Marcin Makaj balances on the edge of traditional games and art, experimenting with form and message. He believes that video games can offer more than only entertainment. His most important production – Bohemian Killing – combines the features of a traditional video game with a legal thriller resembling the works of John Grisham. The game received various awards (including the Best Story award at the 2016 Pixel Awards and a nomination in the Best Desktop/Downloadable category at the Game Connection Development Awards). It was showcased all around the world (Pixel Heaven in Warsaw, Gamescom in Cologne, the Tokyo Game Show in Tokyo, INDIGO in Amsterdam, the Out of Index Experimental Game Fest in Seoul, Fan Expo Canada in Toronto and Game Connection Europe in Paris). His next game, Commander 85, has also been well-received (including three nominations in the Best PC Game, Best Hardcore Game, Best Story/ Storytelling categories at the Game Connection America 2020 - Indie Development Awards, and a nomination to Indie Prize USA 2019). It was showcased in many different countries (ChinaJoy in Shanghai, the Tokyo Game Show in Tokyo, GameDaily Connect in Los Angeles and Playtopia in Cape Town). Marcin Makaj regularly participates in industry events. He received a scholarship from the Indie Games Poland Foundation at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, gave various lectures (at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), Game Industry Conference (GIC), in the Przegrani program, and the Mastering the Game conference of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland) and has taught children at a private art school in South Korea. He received three grants by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland as part of the Creative Sectors Development program. Furthermore, Marcin Makaj was one of the fifteen candidates in the Digital Culture category at the 2016 Polityka Passports Awards.