Game Career Seminar
October 3rd, 2008
Los Angeles Convention Center
Los Angeles, CA
Meet the Speakers:
Fiona Cherbak
Chair (IGDA’s Women in Games Special Interest Group)
Fiona Cherbak is an accomplished recruiting executive in the game industry, expertly placing professionals in key positions at leading game, mobile, and internet companies around the world. Currently, she is chair of the IGDA’s Women in Games Special Interest Group, as well as an advisory board member for Women in Games International, SXSW Screenburn 2009, and America’s Video Game Expo. Cherbak has participated as a game career speaker at numerous industry and college events. She is an editorialist on hiring practices and diversity issues in the game industry, and is often interviewed by mainstream media on game career-related topics.
Carey Chico
Executive Art Director (Pandemic Studios)
Carey has been working in the game industry since 1996, after graduating from UCLA with a bachelor's in design. His foray into the game industry began when he started at Activision Studios as an animator on Planetfall. From there, he rose through the ranks as lead artist on Battlezone and then as a founding member of Pandemic Studios where he completed Battlezone 2 as art director. After working again as art director on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, he stepped up as studio art director to oversee more global and long term art interests. Some of the most recent titles under his supervision are Full Spectrum Warrior, Battlefront, Mercenaries, and Destroy All Humans.
Tim Lang
Lead Game Designer (Spin Master Studio)
Tim Lang is a game designer currently at Spin Master Studios in southern California. Previously, he was a game designer at Electronic Arts, where we worked on the Medal of Honor series. He started his professional careers in video game development as a level designer on several Might and Magic titles.
Mark Mencher
CEO (Game Recruiter)
Marc Mencher is a recognized game industry career specialist and CEO of GameRecruiter.He has been responsible for helping innumerable job seekers secure jobs with leading game companies for nearly 20 years. Mencher is a regular speaker at game industry conferences, college campuses, and job fairs around the country.His career development articles are published on a monthly basis in various online publications, and he is the author of the widely-acclaimed career primer, Get in the Game: Careers in the Game Industry. He is currently on the national advisory boards for Westwood College and The Art Institutes.
Jim Rivers
Hiring Manager (Obsidian Entertainment)
Jim Rivers is the hiring manager at Obsidian Entertainment, a game studio (
Neverwinter Nights 2,
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2) in Orange County, Calif.
Rivers previously worked as a career advisor at The Art Institute California-Orange County, assisting animation and game development students. He’s also an Art Institute alum.
Dr. Gerri Sinclair
Executive Director (MDM Program at Vancouver's Centre for Digital Media, GNWC)
Dr. Gerri Sinclair is the executive director of the Masters of Digital Media Program at Vancouver's Centre for Digital Media, Great Northern Way Campus. She has more than 20 years' experience spanning the fields of internet and new media technology, entrepreneurial business, academic research, and government policy. She holds a Ph.D. in Renaissance drama as well as an honorary Doctor of Science in Computing Science from the University of British Columbia.
Scott Steinberg
Founder (Embassy Multimedia Consultants)and Author (Get Rich Playing Games and Videogame Marketing and PR)
Scott Steinberg is an author, entrepreneur, and TV and radio host covering the video game industry. A frequent guest on ABC, CBS, and CNN, he’s also founder of game industry advisory Embassy Multimedia Consultants, and has covered technology for more than 300 outlets, including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and TV Guide. A self-publisher and industry talent scout, he’s also creator of DigitalTrends.com’s documentary series Players Only. His recent books include Get Rich Playing Games and The Videogame Style Guide co-author.
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Game Career Seminar 
September 17th, 2008
Austin, TX
Meet the Speakers:
Eduardo Baraf
Director of Product Management at Tabula Digita, Inc.
Eduardo Baraf is a producer and designer in the game industry. Some of his favorite projects were Crisis Wolverine: Insurrection Green (PC), Field Commander (PSP), Stomping Grounds (PC), DimensionM: Evolver (PC/Mac), and Universe at War (PC/Xbox360). Baraf is a huge advocate for academic discourse on games and student and independent development. His first foray into game development was starting up University of Michigan's game development organization, Wolverine Soft, followed by a stint in quality assurance at Atari, Inc., most notably working on Unreal 2K4 (PC), Sid Meier's Pirates (PC), and Dragonshard (PC).
Brenda Brathwaite
Game Designer, Savannah College of Art and Design
Brenda Brathwaite is a game designer, game consultant, professor of game design at Savannah College of Art and Design, and holds a seat on the IGDA board of directors. She has worked on 22 internationally known titles, including Def Jam: Icon, Playboy: The Mansion, and the award-winning Wizardry series. Brenda is the longest, continuously serving woman in video game development today according to an August 2007 Next Generation article. Brenda is the chair and founder of the IGDA’s Sex SIG and has extensively studied and consulted on sexually themed video games. She has also written a book on the subject, Sex in Video Games, published by Thomson Learning in 2006. She is a passionate anti-censorship advocate and a proponent of parental rating awareness. In 2006, Brenda was named one of the 100 most influential women in the game industry by Next Generation magazine and her peers, and Nerve magazine cited her as a “New Radical” -- one of “the 50 artists, actors, authors, activists and icons who are making the world a more stimulating place.” In the spring of 2007, she was awarded the Presidential Fellowship at Savannah College of Art and Design to develop an exhibit and presentation titled, “What You Don't Know About Video Games...”
Jennifer Bullard
Senior Producer, AspyrMedia
Jennifer Bullard is a 10-year game industry veteran with more than10 shipped titles across 5 platforms. She has worked as a designer and producer throughout her career and is currently heading up the Development for Hire Studio at Aspyr Media in Austin.
Jill Duffy
Editor of GameCareerGuide.com
Jill Duffy is editor of GameCareerGuide.com, a web site that helps aspiring game developers learn how to get into the highly competitive profession. She is also senior contributing editor of Game Developer magazine and an occasional news writer for Gamasutra.com.
Gordon Dutrisac
Student Services Director, DigiPen Institute of Technology
Gordon Dutrisac has been the director of student affairs at DigiPen Institute of Technology since 2001. During this time, he has managed DigiPen's Career Services Department offering career guidance and preparation to DigiPen students and alumni, and hosting career workshops for those interested in careers in the game industry.
Paula Fellbaum
Vice President of Human Resources, Nexon Publishing NA
Paula Fellbaum has been involved in the business of computer gaming for nearly six years,first on the executive team at the then independent game studio Relic Entertainment Inc. As director of HR, she was a partner in developing Relic to its now almost 200 national and international employees.When Relic was acquired by THQ, Paula’s function evolved to provide tactical, forward-thinking advice to the 14 global external THQ studios as well as head up the company’s global Mergers and Acquisitions team. Today Paula is leads the HR efforts at Nexon’s newest studioHumanature.
Darius Kazemi
President of Orbus Gameworks
Darius Kazemi runs Orbus Gameworks, a small company that builds game play data metrics tools to help developers keep track of what their players are doing in-game. Before Orbus, Darius analyzed gameplay metrics at Turbine, Inc., for MMORPGs, including Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online. He is also a technology officer for the IGDA Education SIG and a coordinator for the Boston IGDA Chapter. He writes about networking and how to break into the game industry on his blog, Tiny Subversions.
James Portnow
Game Designer and CCO of Divide by Zero Games
James Portnow is a game designer, formerly of Activision, and now at Divide by Zero Games, where he is also the founder and CCO. He is also a frequent contributor to GameCareerGuide.com and Next-gen.biz. He received his master's degree in Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University.
Ed Roman
CEO, Ghostfire Games
Ed Roman is the CEO of Ghostfire Games, an Austin TX startup company focused on making downloadable games for the Nintendo Wii platform. He is an accomplished speaker and author and has written two books and has produced several games. He has architected the hiring process in several startup companies and has a wealth of knowledge of the interviewing and hiring process.
Brandon Sheffield
Senior Editor of Game Developer and Gamasutra.com
Brandon Sheffield is senior editor of Game Developer magazine and senior contributing editor to Gamastura.com. He founded the web site Insertcredit.com, and is a strong supporter of independent game development. He believes the children are our future -- we should teach them well and let them lead the way.
Brandon Van Slyke
Game Designer at Vicarious Visions
Brandon Van Slyke is a professional video game designer with experience designing commercial console games, mobile games, and casual downloadable web games, including Snapshot Adventures: Secret of Bird Island, which was nominated for an Independent Games Festival award in 2008. He studied game art and design at the Art Institute of Vancouver-Burnaby and was a member of the first graduating class of game design students at Vancouver Film School. An active outspoken member of the IGDA and lifelong game enthusiast, Van Slyke currently works as a game designer at Vicarious Visions (an Activision studio) in New York.
To view sessions from Austin GDC 2008, click here.
For a list of keynotes from Austin GDC 2008, click here.
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