Speakers

Richard Dansky is a 22 year veteran of the video game industry. He has written for franchises including Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon …

Justin is an Assistant Professor of Art + Design and Doctor of Design practitioner at North Carolina State University. With over 13 years of experience in the game industry in a variety of roles including: level designer, environment artist, lead environment artist, character artist, and UI designer …

Brad Swearingen has been instructing students in 3d and game related topics for over 20 years. He is currently a Professor in Wake Tech Community College’s Simulation and Game Development …

Billy Le Voir-Barry served as CTO for IBM Esports and Video Games and has 15+ years of tech consulting, architecture planning, and agile/scrum project management experiences in gaming/esports. He is widely considered to be …

Alex Epstein was the Narrative Director of WE HAPPY FEW for Compulsion Games, as well as Story Director of CONTRAST, and Narrative Lead of STORIES: THE PATH OF DESTINIES for Spearhead Games.

Jonathan is a game designer who loves combat and monsters. He enjoys making games with varied styles of play and randomized gameplay, such as his recently launched The Last Sunshine: Rekindled from Four Eyes Productions.

Eddy Webb (with a “y,” thank you) is a writer, design consultant, and game and narrative designer for video games and RPGs. He’s worked on over 150 books and games during his career and created …

Ethan Levy is a 20 year veteran game designer and producer who has contributed to over 70 shipped games across every genre and platform. He has worked at companies including EA, BioWare …

Zachariah Inks is an artist from birth, designer and programmer by training, and an educator in heart. He has worked as a 2D / 3D artist and designer / programmer in the application of gaming …

Garrett Swanson leads the World to Build team as an engineer and as the CEO. With only a few years in the professional game industry, he is writing this bio to try and fit in with the other amazing speakers at ECGC.

Alex Loughran (He/Him) is a Game Designer who’s worked all over the globe on myriad of different projects, including some in mobile, VR, and AAA. Now living in Madison …

Suzanne Warr grew up in an alternate universe from the one we all live in every day. When she stepped into a classroom for the very first time as a sophomore in high school, she found …

Troy (Trikeri) is the founder, creative director, and primary developer at Nuldrums. The company started with development of the indie game, Native, that was worked on from 2014 – 2016 …

Aris Bricker (they/them) is a game designer, instructor, and student mentor who specializes in neurodiverse and queer issues. Aris lives in North Carolina with their partners, pets, and plants.

Saritdikhun Somasa (Sarit) has three degrees in Art Education, a BFA In Visual Design, and an MFA in Multimedia Design. He taught digital arts focusing on 3D digital form and animation …

Professor (Ted) Prawat has been involved in the serious games field for the last decade. Professor Prawat was drawn into the field of serious game design after completing an artist in residence and teaching position …

Max Litvinov is a gameplay engineer. He has previously worked on a wide range of gameplay systems and mechanics for the following games: Cookie Jam Blast, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Assassin’s Creed VR, and Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland.

Todd spent several years in Fort Lauderdale, FL where he operated his design studio “Voodoo Designs” and taught at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. He later became the Director of Marketing and Web Design at Steeda Auto Sports …

Eric Patterson, Ph.D. is currently Director of the Digital Production Arts program and Associate Professor in the Visual Computing Division of Clemson University’s School of Computing. He was formerly …

Raymond Arifianto has been making online games and platforms for over 15 years, working at Xbox, Lionhead, EA and Ubisoft. He is now working as VP of tech at AccelByte, a one-stop shop for live game services.

Jessica Baron is a Ph.D. candidate in Visual Computing at Clemson University based in Charleston. She has extensive experience through internships and travel. Her professional internships …

Xiang Li is a Ph.D. candidate in the Visual Computing Division of Clemson University’s School of Computing. His research mainly focuses on computer graphics, primarily concentrating on facial reconstruction and rendering.

Amber Johnson is an Associate Professor in Simulation and Game Development at Wake Tech Community College. She has worked in the game industry as an artist and level designer …

Paxton Galvanek is the Studio HR/Operations Director at Funcom (makers of Conan Exiles, Conan Chop Chop, Anarchy Online, Secret World, and currently DUNE games). Paxton oversees Funcom’s Operations …

Megan Smith holds a Bachelor of Science degree from East Tennessee State University, obtained in 2019, and is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts. She majors in Digital Media with a concentration in Animation …

Stephen is a detail-oriented individual who graduated from ETSU with a B.S in Digital Game Design in May 2021. Following graduation, his passion for expanding his ever-growing knowledge of 3D art led him to pursue …

Grayson graduated from ETSU in May of 2021 with a Bachelor’s degree in Digital Media Art Design. After graduating, his passion for character art led him back to ETSU’s Digital Media graduate program.

Dr. Sarah Glova is the CEO of the award-winning digital media firm Reify Media, and she is an international public speaker who has spoken from California to Qatar on topics ranging …

A fellow with the London-based Royal Society of Arts, Boinodiris has focused on inclusion in technology since 1999. She is currently the business transformation leader for IBM’s Responsible AI …

Shaver is an award-winning Canadian performer, producer and director. He is the Realization Director for Ubisoft Redstorm, helming the cinematics on a AAA game in Virtual Reality. He also directed the cinematics for Ubisoft’s Far Cry New Dawn.

Hi I’m David, and as you can see, I don’t write about myself in third-person. I founded Solanimus in 2011, NonZeroSoul in 2019, co-founded Integrity Metric Systems in 2020, and co-founded …

Tony O’Driscoll is a professor, speaker, author, and advisor whose engaging message emphasizes that the key digital-age differentiator is not technology, but people. Dr. O’Driscoll’s current …

Jacy is currently an Assistant Professor for the Digital Media program at East Tennessee State University. She also still works in the industry as a 3D/VFX artist and has focused much of her work on interactive experiences in museums.

Augustus Wendell is an educator, technologist and designer. Augustus has an MFA in Computer Art from The School of Visual Arts and an undergraduate degree from Northeastern University. He researches the …

Jay has successfully negotiated and closed countless deals for licensing, development and distribution over the past 25 years. His consulting firm, The Powell Group, focuses on building …

Gregory Grimsby, Assistant Professor in Computer Game Design, earned his MFA in painting from George Mason University. He has been teaching 3D modeling and animation …

Iris Cole is the founder and CEO of Do Good Artist. She is also a social entrepreneur and Founding Partner of She Raises the Bar, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability consulting firm.

I’ve been interested in using unconventional teaching methods since I first worked at the Insect Zoo at the Smithsonian. Since then, I’ve forayed into math, programming, science education …

Brandon is from Tarboro, NC and lives in Garner, NC. He is an assistant professor of Simulation and Game Design at William Peace University and a technical animator who focuses on 3D character rigging, animation …

Being an avid gamer his whole life, Jesse originally picked up his first 3D program, Blender, in 2010 to make video games, but found another passion as well – filmmaking.

Ken cut his teeth creating games for learning back when playing with rocks was fun. He had the fortune of working with Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton, NASA …

Travis Brown is a graduating senior at William Peace University, pursuing a BA in Simulation and Game Design. His game design focus area …

Matt Merino is a graduating senior at William Peace University, pursuing a BA in Simulation and Game Design. His focus areas in game development are Sound Design and Level Design …

Franci Dimitrovska is a Toronto-based narrative designer, currently an Assoc. Content Manager and Game Writer at Electronic Arts. Currently helming the narrative effort at …

Stefan Hall is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Game Design at High Point University. Recognized in 2017 and again in 2022 as a Top 50 Game Design Program …

Michael (he/him) is an independent game developer and organizer for the Triangle Interactive Arts Collective. He’s currently working on the weird sci-fi puzzle game, TENDY: Robot Gardener, for the upcoming CosmOS9 bundle.

Justin Achilli is a games-industry veteran, with more than 25 years making commercial games. His resume includes stints at a number of studios and developers, including …

Mauricio is a Senior Engineering Manager at Pocket Gems were he recently participated in the release of their latest game, Adventure Chef. Before that, Mauricio was directing …

I am an Environment Artist and Game Designer that is graduating from East Tennessee State University with a B.S. in Digital Media. In addition, I’m the sole director, artist, developer, and animator …

Rachel Presser is a game developer, writer, consultant, business educator, and speaker from The Bronx, now headquartered in Los Angeles. Former CFO and Executive Producer of Himalaya Studios, Rachel …