Speakers
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Naomi Clark
KEYNOTE - Naomi Clark has been working on games, virtual worlds and digital toys for nearly twenty years, ever since helping to build MUDs (text-only online virtual worlds) as a teenager. As an editor at the landmark '90s webzine Word, Naomi co-designed Sissyfight 2000, one of the first multiplayer web games. She went on to produce and architect online games and digital building tools for LEGO. Over the last decade, Naomi has worked as a producer, game designer and creative director for independent game studios such as Gamelab, Blue Fang, and Fresh Planet. Sh
Tim Crosby
After a short time as a rocket scientist working on ballistic missile defense, Tim switched to the game industry. He has worked at many Boston-area game companies including Irrational Games (during BioShock), Demiurge Studios (during Mass Effect for the PC), Helixe, and Mad Doc Software. He is now game design lead and product manager at Disruptor Beam, where has helped create multiple social games, including 50 Cent’s Blackjack, and is currently working to craft the next generation of player engagement. Tim likes numbers, words, narrative construction, miniature dachshunds, deep thinking ab
Mitchell Smallman
Mitchell Smallman is a Game Designer at Big Viking Games in London, Ontario, Canada. He has been working on free-to-play models in the social games industry ever since MySpace was where the big money was. He has given talks at Toronto's George Brown College and London's "Hello, My Game Is" events, but this is his first honest-to-Zod conference talk. You can read his sparsely updated blog at http://nowlookcloser.com.
Clara Fernández-Vara
Clara Fernández-Vara is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. Her work concentrates on adventure games, as well as the integration of stories in simulated environments. She teaches courses on videogame theory and game writing at MIT, and was the creative director of the adventure games Rosemary (2009), Symon (2010), and Stranded in Singapore (2011).
Bryant Drew Jones
Bryant Drew Jones is the cofounder of and game designer at Biba Ventures -- a Vancouver-based startup focused on building mobile games for kids that interface with physical playground equipment. Through partnerships with an international group of playground manufacturers, Bryant's work on Biba reimagines the role of the playground for an increasingly sedentary generation. Outside of Biba, Bryant designs and develops family-friendly multiplayer games that encourage people to look at, talk to, and touch each other affectionately.
Deirdra Kiai
Deirdra Kiai is a writer, programmer, musician, and visual artist valiantly attempting to make an honest-to-goodness career out of all of the above. She released her first videogame at age sixteen (for which she still occasionally gets fan mail to this day) and has since used her interactive storytelling skills to touch on such subject matter as feminism, race, gender, coming of age, and social awkwardness. Currently, she is working on a stop motion musical point-and-click adventure game for no reason that makes any financial sense at all.
Jim Munroe
Jim Munroe (b. 1972) is a “pop culture provocateur” according to the Austin Chronicle, and an “independent press icon” to Time Out Chicago. Primarily he is an indie culture maker in various mediums: post-Rapture graphic novels, lo-fi sci-fi feature movies, and award-winning
Holly Tatnall
After earning her degree in music composition, Holly broke into the games industry working on the AAA Microsoft-published title "Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends" and creating the soundtrack for Xbox 360's "Catan.” She then worked as an in-house composer and sound designer for High Voltage Software, followed by Activision|Blizzard, developing a smattering of titles, including the “Guitar Hero” series and “Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2”. Since leaving traditional game development for the indie scene, Holly has been a freelance composer and audio designer for iOS, social, and web-based games and ap
Heather Decker-Davis
Heather M Decker-Davis is a designer and artist at Robot Overlord Games. She also works as a lecturer in game development, most recently at Clinton Community College in Iowa. After discovering the Commodore 64 and crayons early on in life, Heather has been incessantly making expressive things, often with groups of wonderful people. She proudly serves her local game development community as Secretary on the IGDA Chicago Board of Directors and is an alumni of the IGDA Scholarship program. Heather writes for AltDevBlogADay, with articles featured on Gamasutra and Game Career Guide, and chaired th
Luke Dicken
Luke Dicken is the founder of Robot Overlord Games, and a researcher with the Strathclyde Artificial Intelligence and Games group at the University of Strathclyde in the UK. He is a two-time IGDA Scholar, contributes to AltDevBlogADay and was one of the organisers for the recent web-based AltDevConf. Luke has been passionate about artificial intelligence since playing “Creatures” as a teenager, and pursued it at university, first through several degrees in traditional AI before specialising in AI for games as part of a PhD he is still (occasionally) pursuing. Luke is a member of the AI Game Pr
Robert Yang
Robert Yang has an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons the New School for Design. His research focuses primarily on first person games, and architecture / narrative design as it pertains to digital spaces; his FPS mod "Radiator" has been exhibited internationally. He has written for The Escapist, Rock Paper Shotgun, and PC Gamer UK.
Andrea Shubert
Andrea Jennifer Shubert has been a game designer, producer or developer for the past twenty years. Her first commercial hit, Acrophobia, helped to launch the social gaming genre in 1997. She has been a part of the digital trading card game genre since its inception, first as a high-level player of Chron X, and later as a designer or producer of over a dozen games. Totaling more than 11,000 cards, she is glad that they are digital. Currently Andrea is a Product Lead at Connected Sports Ventures, and can be found on twitter @andrea2s1 or on the web at