Speakers

Joshua Hilton is the founder and operator of multiple gaming startups over the years, including League Coaching, Gamer Sensei, TrackingThePros, and Coachify.gg. Currently he’s building tools for esport coaches to manage …

Over the last 9 years, Ian has gone from complete unknown to established, award-winning, Voice Actor. Including Best Gaming performance at One Voice 2021. He has been featured in well over 100 games creating …

I am a Humancentric, Versatile Agilist, Coach and Consultant with over a decade of experience developing people, systems & product. I engage through mutual partnerships with individuals, teams, and organizations.

A seasoned visionary, David produces and strategizes for brands and businesses all over the world. In the last 10 years David’s work has been focused on sports entertainment, immersive retail, and brand licensing. With years …

I am the Founder and Director of MonRiverGames, a non profit 501 (c) (3), whose mission is to provide affordable, professional experiences in Game Design. We service the Morgantown, WV area and surrounding locations.

Randy has been in the game industry for 20 years covering a variety of Design roles but found his calling in Technical Design more than 10 years ago due to his love of solving technical problems and helping others. Getting …

She has worked as a level designer and environment artist since 2007 with a focus on efficient art that can run on any platform. She is also an Associate Professor at Wake Tech Community college where she teaches classes in …

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 by The Princeton Review, Dr. Hall …

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 …

Branden is an attorney at Frascogna Law Group, an Entertainment law firm. His years of experience working with trademarks, copyrights, artist portfolio management, and royalty accountings has given …

Caleb Smith is a Triangle native who after graduating high school, decided to head overseas to play soccer in Germany. After a few years he returned to the United States and opened up the Triangle Esports Academy in Cary …

Paxton Galvanek is the CEO & Co-Founder of the newly formed Amplifier/Embracer Group company called Studio Hermitage. Studio Hermitage is an NC-based transmedia company working on original IP for production across …

Eli is an award-winning actor, voice artist, and director in the film industry. He is the current voice of LFA / UFC Fight Pass, and has voiced several games ranging from Elder Scrolls: Skyrim to the highly anticipated ARPG …

Ryan Hoss joined the game industry in 2011 and is currently a Senior VFX Artist at Volition, where he has shipped titles such as Saints Row (2022) and Agents of Mayhem. Prior to Volition, Ryan worked for Vicious Cycle …

Jeff Rodgers has never been known to sit idle. Professionally, he has worked in marketing and team development for over 20 years, managing and consulting with multi-million dollar companies to build successful …

I am a Unity AR developer who works for Lenovo on the interface for their ThinkReality A3 glasses. I’ve been in this position for nearly 5 years, but in 2021 outside of work I also started working on a game project online with a …

Jay has successfully negotiated and closed countless deals for licensing, development and distribution over the past 20 years. His consulting firm, The Powell Group, focuses on building positive relationships between …

Seth Hudson is Associate Professor of Game Writing in the Computer Game Design program at George Mason University, where he teaches Story Design for Computer Games, Research Methods and Criticism, the …

Jesse O’Brien is an Assistant Professor in the School of Film and Animation (SOFA) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Before joining SOFA he was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Interactive Games and Media …

Stephen Weese got his start in the Hellsing Ultimate anime, and has been in several video games since then including the playable leader Dietrich in Shadowverse and Chundoon in the Blade & Soul MMO. Recently he has been in …

Jesse Scoble is a Chief Narrative Designer at Tencent for Lightspeed Studios, and has been working in video games for 15 years, and games overall for more than 20 years. Previously, he was lead writer on Hyper Scape …

Glen has almost 9 years of experience working in data with a focus on analytics, cloud architecture, data architecture, data science, and visualization. He also has almost 7 years of video game industry experience …

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 Ubisoft, Funcom, White Wolf, CCP …

Hi, I’m David and I don’t write about myself in third-person. I’m a Believer, musician, game thinker, soul-searcher, and full-time friend. I founded Solanimus in 2011, founded NonZeroSoul in 2019, co-founded Integrity Metric …

I’m a game musician and I made the soundtracks for FTL: Faster Than Light, Into the Breach, Subnautica: Below Zero, The Darkside Detective, and many others. I’ve been making game soundtracks for a little over …

Michael is an indie game developer and community organizer based in Durham, NC. He is currently working on the upcoming 3D Exploration + Card Battler game FORKLIFT FLOWERPOT. He also …

I grew up in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and graduated from Sun Prairie High School in 2015. I attended the University of Wisconsin-Stout thereafter, majoring in Computer Science with a Concentration in …

Justin has 12 years’ experience in multimedia storytelling across games, novels, and audio fiction. He’s currently a Narrative Designer at Crytek on Hunt: Showdown. If you see him riding a dinosaur, you should …

Saritdikhun Somasa (Sarit) has three degrees in Art Education, a BFA In Visual Design, and an MFA in Multimedia Design. Currently, he teaches 3D modeling, 3D design and prototype, 3D animation, and 3D rigging …

Patrick Messenger is an associate in the technology transactions practice in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s Palo Alto office. He advises public and private companies, investors, entrepreneurs, and other …

Mary O’Brien is an associate in the technology transactions practice in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s Palo Alto office. She focuses her practice on intellectual property, licensing, and commercial transactions. …

Gary Greenstein is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where his practice focuses on intellectual property, licensing, and commercial transactions, with specialized expertise in the …

Matt is a senior developer advocate focusing on monetization and player engagement. Prior to joining Unity, Matt spent nearly 15 years in the video games industry working as a designer for …

Jedidjah Julia Noomen is a game director, lead writer and narrative designer who has worked on multiple indie, mobile and AA+ games, as well as on immersive and multidisciplinary theatre and hybrid interactive projects.

New York based narrative designer originally from Bangladesh. Formerly mobile developer. Currently working on MLB:The Show for Playstation.
 
 

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 …

Michelle Clough is a freelance game writer, editor, and narrative designer, and a partner in the game narrative co-op Talespinners. Her work includes Destruction All-Stars, Purrfect Date, Choices, Albert Wilde …

Barret Vasilchik is a Full Sail University Game Design graduate with extensive games industry experience in design, QA, and game engine support. He has a passion for video games, technology, and board games, …

Joshua Peery is a 18 year video games industry veteran with several game titles launched, including the AAA and indie titles: WildStar, Fallen Earth, Imagine Town, and Knee Deep. Lead Game Designer at East Carolina …

Garrett Swanson leads the World to Build team as an engineer and as the CEO. Swanson has been working with various game engines and creating quality games since before the age of 13 starting on Roblox and …

Bonnie Mauldin is indeed a prodigy. She is a successful author, professional speaker, and top marketing consultant. Today, Bonnie provides clients with marketing, coaching, and speaking services. Her book, “Harmonic …

Heather Albano likes telling stories. In her 13 years in the industry, she has created interactive novels with Choice of Games, interactive radio dramas with EarPlay, pen-and-paper tabletop games with Pelgrane …

I am a multi-disciplined developer from Kingsport, Tn. My last position was at Cygnus Entertainment as a Lead Engineer focusing on console porting. I did ports of Colossal Cave for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One …

Chris is a software engineer with 16+ years of experience in software development and prototyping related to 2D/3D interactive media (videogames, streaming and augmented reality) and GPU-accelerated machine …

I am a pragmatic futurist. I design for today and build for tomorrow. I have a Bachelors degree in Industrial Design, video production, and game design with a Masters in educational technology and innovation. …

Suzanne Peterson-Warr is an author, narrative designer, and up and coming game designer, as well as developmental editor. As an author she primarily writes middle-grade fantasy, but she’s also published a dozen …

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. Through his filmmaking endeavors he …

Austin Caskie is a graduating Master’s student from North Carolina State University College of Design focusing on technical and 3D environment art. For his thesis, he programmed an interactive-knot tying simulation …

Arthur Protasio is an award-winning, Emmy-nominated writer-director with over nine years of experience in the digital entertainment and interactive industries. Senior narrative designer at veteran VR dev …

Katie Stokes is currently an Interprofessional Advanced Fellow in Clinical Simulation at the Durham, North Carolina Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System in Durham, NC, led by fellowship co-directors Mary Holtschneider …

As a Registered Nurse and Health Professions Educator, Mary works with clinicians and others in the healthcare environment to maximize communication and teamwork using simulation techniques. She currently …

I’ve been working in production for the last twenty years. For the last twelve, I’ve been in games. I have been an environment art lead, a team lead, a lighting artist, and an environment artist. I’ve also done enough tech art in …

Steph Briles owns and helps operate Oak City Indie Games, a local indie game showcase event based in Raleigh. Steph has been in the games industry for 12 years working in QA, Customer Service, Community Management and …

I am a Digital Media student at East Tennessee State University, specializing in digital sculpting, particularly figurative work. I have been chosen to represent ETSU along with two other students and our professor, Saritdikun …

Lane Howell is a digital sculptor for concept art and enjoys creating models for toy design, she aspires to model toys for the top toy companies. She will graduate from East Tennessee State University in May 2023 …

I am a current senior at ETSU and am studying as a visual developer specializing primarily in game art. I do a broad range of art and design in both 2D and 3D. I am a big idea person and I love coming up with interesting concepts and …

Nick is a lifelong gamer who grew up on 8 and 16-bit classics, and inevitably ended up making games as well. He spent over a decade working in the AAA space, most of which was at Epic Games as a gameplay programmer on …

Mrs. Tara Powell-Blackwell is from Fayetteville, North Carolina. CTE teacher at Seventy First Classical Middle School teaching Coding in Minecraft to 6th and 7th grade students.
 

Katherine Manuel is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience leading innovation and transformation initiatives. Her specialty is bridging the language gap between technologists and the C-suite. She currently is …

Dean Takahashi is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He has been at VentureBeat since 2008. Prior to that, he wrote for the San …

Derald is a Customer Practice Manager for Games at AWS Professional Services with over 15 years working in the games and simulations industry. He has lead immersive game studios and built training programs around …

After my early years in medical research in France, I crossed the pond and kept growing as a programmer within the game development world in North America. I was fortunate enough to ride a few waves in the …

Nashville native Toiya Kristen Finley, Ph.D., has been a freelancing writer and editor her entire adult life. She earned a doctorate in literature and creative writing from Binghamton University. In video games, she …

Matthew Weise is a narrative designer and writer whose work bridges the worlds of games and traditional entertainment. He spearheaded the story development of Disney’s Fantasia: Music Evolved for Harmonix …

Gregory Marlow has worked in the animation and video game industry for over fourteen years. He spent nearly five years at Firaxis Games (2K) in Baltimore, MD, working as a Character Animator and Artist for the …

I am Polish guy and a traveler. I lived all over the place working on games, freelance writing, and even cinematography at one point. I studied humanities and have a masters in international politics, all of which inspire my creative …

Garrett is a VR Research Engineer at Rowan University, creating XR projects for organizations such as Cooper Hospital and the US Army. He spent 3 years working at Rowan’s VR lab as an undergraduate and was a …

Justin is Assistant Professor of Media Arts, Design, and Technology and Doctor of Design practitioner at North Carolina State University, as well as a game developer. He has over 13 years of experience in the game industry …

Matt Schembari is the CEO and a co-founder of Lightforge Games. Prior to that, he spent several years at Epic where he was the Director of UI on Fortnite, running an international team of over 60 people tasked with everything …

Gary Reif, Gameplay Programmer at Zapper Games, previously Systems and Gameplay Programming at Puny Human and Donkey Whisper Productions. 5+ years working with Unreal Engine in C++ and Blueprints. Spent …

Zach Bush is a Narrative Director at Firaxis Games, where he worked on Marvel’s Midnight Suns, XCOM: Chimera Squad, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, and Civilization 6. Previously he wrote for Elder Scrolls Online and Star …

Oliver has a passion for assisting others and an empathetic understanding of developer needs, stemming from his previous experience as a software engineer. He is presently a developer advocate at PubNub …

Nick Klingensmith specializes in creating developer tools, and working with graphics, XR, and OpenXR! With over 100 published games, he’s worked on small arcade games, mobile GPU pushing titles, all the way to …

Samya Potlapalli is a talented and driven Computer Science major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also pursuing a minor in Entrepreneurship, which reflects her passion for innovation and her desire to explore the …

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 intersection of …

Dr. Javidi is the founder/CEO of Simbryo Corporation, a North Carolina-based game development company with more than 200 published video games and development tools to its credit. He serves as chair of …

Evy Kollstrand is a faculty member of Game Development program at Central Piedmont, focusing on Virtual Environments, 3D Modeling, Mobile Programming, and Game Design. Her role as an executive content developer …

Software engineer, environment artist, and now technical writer, I’ve done a little bit of everything – some of it I’ve even done well! I currently write documentation for Adobe Substance 3D Modeler and some of the other Substance …

Shaun is a Senior Software Development Consultant at Unity. Before joining Unity, Shaun was an engineer working on graphics, systems, performance, platforms, and other fun stuff at companies such as Zynga, Ndemic …

David wrote “The Colony”, the first real time 3D adventure shooter game in 1987. This game led to Jim Cameron asking him to build the first realtime 3D set for the movie “The Abyss” which led to the creation of Virtus Walkthrough …

As the Business Development Associate for Games Scribes (one of the worlds top localization & testing companies), Tobe Sexton has the privilege of witnessing the next evolutionary advances in entertainment technology.

Megan Hughes is a herder of cats, kids, and nerds, in no particular order. She is currently a producer at Funcom, where she has been working with the Dune: Awakening team for nearly two years. Prior to that she was a producer for …

Ashely is a digital clothing creator with 15 years of experience founding digital fashion brands herself. She joined House of Blueberry in 2021 as a Platform Lead for Second Life and was promoted to Chief Creative …