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Alex Austin
Co-founder
Chronic Logic
Alex Austin has been an independent developer for 4 years. He was a programmer/designer on the indie hits Gish and Bridge Construction Set - by indie hits, he means that they sold over 1,000 copies. Currently he is working on a golf game called Golf?, a game that everyone can agree on.
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Raigan Burns
Co-Founder
Metanet Software
Raigan Burns n (1889): a set that is closed under two commutative binary
operations and that can be described by any of various systems of postulates
all of which can be deduced from the postulates that an identity element
exists for each operation, that each operation is distributive over the
other, and that for every element in the set there is another element which
when combined with the first under one of the operations yields the identity
element of the other operation. He is also a co-founder of IGF prizewinning N creator Metanet Software. |
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Russell Carroll
Founder
GameTunnel.com
Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Game Tunnel, Russell has been involved in indie games for about four years. Russell first became interested in indie games while helping on several indie projects that no one has ever heard of. After watching the lack of commercial success on those projects and the lack of knowledge among the gaming public about indie games he decided to take a course of action to educate the masses on what they were missing and has since been seen all over the web preaching the goodness of indie games. |
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Simon Carless
Chairman/Editor-in-chief
IGF, Game Developer, Gamasutra.com
Simon Carless is the Chairman of the IGF and the Editor-In-Chief for both Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra.com, part of the CMP Game Group. He originally hails from London, England, but now lives and works in the Bay Area. He was formerly an editor at the techgeek site Slashdot, concentrating on the Slashdot Games page, and also worked on multiple digital archiving projects at the nonprofit Internet Archive in San Francisco. Before that, he was a lead game designer at companies such as Eidos Interactive and Atari, where he worked on a diverse set of titles for both console and PC platforms, and also recently authored 'Gaming Hacks' for technical book publisher O'Reilly & Associates.
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Mark Cooke
Programmer
Nihilistic
Mark Cooke is a programmer at Nihilistic Software, where he has just completed work on Marvel Nemesis: Rise Of The Imperfects for Electronic Arts.
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Craig Derrick
Producer
Vicarious Visions
Craig Derrick has 10 years of production experience in the games industry and is currently a Producer for Vicarious Visions. He began his career working at Parallax Software / Outrage Entertainment and served as the Producer on the highly acclaimed Descent series for PC. At Vicarious Visions he has been responsible for the production of Finding Nemo, Jet Grind Radio, Tony Hawk’s Underground, Shrek 2, and Batman Begins each for the Gameboy Advance and is now currently leading development on two unannounced PSP titles.
Craig is an active member of the IGDA and sits on the Advisory Board for the Albany Chapter of the IGDA and the IGDA Credit Standards Committee. He’s also a member of the Full Sail Game Design and Development Advisory Board, has written for Game Developer Magazine, and co-presented the GDC 2004 session “Beyond Fun: Setting Aesthetic Goals and Sticking to Them” with Vicarious Visions Design Group Manager, Tim Stellmach.
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Trevor Elkington
Assistant Professor
University of Copenhagen
Trevor is Assistant Professor of popular culture at the University of
Copenhagen, where he researches and teaches media studies, media
convergence, and globalization. He has worked as a Producer for SCEA, where
he worked on the GameDay football series and the now-canceled Road to
Sunday. He has also served as a private consultant for a number of
independently-financed multimedia and interactive projects. He has
published an anthology of essays and over 20 articles on media studies and
videogames.
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Joe Engalan
Developer
Stardock Systems
Joe is a programmer at Stardock who has worked on the following games:
- Galactic Civilizations: Altarian Prophecy (Tools programmer)
- The Political Machine (Lead developer)
- Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords (3d engine architect and lead developer). He also participates in the company's TotalGaming.net indie game subscription service.
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Bryan Erck
Special Effects Artist
Shiny Entertainment
Bryan is currently a Special Effects Artist for Shiny Entertainment. He's been in the industry for almost 7 years now, working with LucasArts and Stormfront Studios, with positions ranging from QA to Technical Art and now Special Effects. But more importantly, he's been an avid gamer since he was 4 years old, and was the 1995 Blockbuster Video Game Champion for the City of Vacaville on the SNES .
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Ian Fisch
Game Designer
Gameloft
Ian Fisch is a game designer who's currently working at Gameloft Los Angeles.
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Andy
Gahan
Producer
Evolution Studios
Andy Gahan started out in the games industry in 1992 at D.I.D. working on the Amiga version of Robocop 3D after taking a summer job there. He opted not to do the degree he had planned and instead opting to stay in games development. From there he worked his way through a number of flight sims and space games (including T.F.X, Inferno, EF2000 and F22 ADF) and some training systems for the military. He then jumped from PC development over to PS2 and did GTC Africa and has spent the last 4 years working on The World Rally Championship series at Evolution Studios easily the best place to work in the industry. He is now working on MotorStorm for PS3 as a producer.
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Matt Gallant
Journalist
Freelance
Matthew Gallant is a freelance game writer with credits from outlets such as GameSpot,
GameSpy, The Onion A.V. Club, and Computer Games Magazine. He's 32 years
old and lives in Plano, TX. |
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Rodney Gibbs
Studio Director
The Fizz Factor Game Studio
As senior producer for Human Code/Sapient,
Rodney oversaw development of game titles for Nickelodeon,
THQ and Mattel. A screenwriter by training, he came to Human
Code from Los Angeles where he wrote and helped produce animated
and live-action television programs. Building on this experience,
Rodney developed and pitched game/television co-productions
for Human Code/Sapient. He has also worked as an associate
producer for Chicago's PBS television and he helped implement
Time, Inc. Magazines' bold foray into guerilla-style, one-man-crew
video reporting. He was also sponsored by Fox Television in
its annual television writing workshop at the American Film
Institute in Los Angeles. Rodney holds a B.A. in Sociology
from Rice University and an M.F.A. in Screen and Fiction Writing
from the University of Texas at Austin.
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Troy
Gilbert
Field Engineer
Criterion
Troy began experimenting with computer games in the late eighties while learning to program the Commodore 64. Now a field engineer for Criterion Software, Troy is working with, and more importantly learning from, some of the best game developers in North America. Prior to the games industry, Troy founded the OpenSWF Project as his obligatory dot-com contribution and graduated from the University of Arkansas by writing his undergraduate thesis on the oh-so-geeky premise of using behavioral models to control particle systems.
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Jules
Grant
Producer
Electric Playground
Jules is a Vancouver-based writer and producer,
who has written for many enthusiast and consumer publications
as well as helping for years on the Electric Playground television
program. He also works as an advisor to game publishers, and
teaches game design at the College of Interactive Arts.
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Garner
Halloran
Senior Software Engineer
Red Storm Entertainment
Garner Halloran is a Senior Software Engineer at Red Storm Entertainment and a ten year veteran of the game industry. He has worked on more than eight games including Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six: Lockdown for the Playstation 2 and PC. |
J.C.
Herz
CEO
Joystick Nation Inc.
J.C. Herz is the author of Joystick Nation: How
Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our
Minds and Surfing on the Internet, which was described
by William Gibson as "post-geographical travel writing."
She was the New York Times' first computer game critic
and is now producing a documentary on the history of videogames
for PBS. J.C. serves on the National Research Council's committee
on Creativity and Information Technology. |
Jeff
Hoffman
Merchandising
Sony Computer Entertainment America
Jeff has been playing games since the inception of
the Atari 2600. His natural talents extended to the arts and
has acquired a Bachelor degree in Theatre Arts from Illinois
State University as well as a Master of Fine Arts degree in
Film and Video from Columbia College Chicago. He is an independent
filmmaker with 17 films to his credit. Jeff recognizes art and
talent within Interactive Media and his product knowledge led
him to a merchandising position at SCEA. Jeff continues to help
bridge the gap between Interactive Media and Film. |
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Chane Hollander
Gameplay Consultant/Senior QA Lead
LucasArts
Chane Hollander is a seven-year industry veteran with experience on a multitude of LucasArts titles, including Star Wars Battlefront and
Star Wars Episode 3 Revenge Of The Sith, and was the co-founder of the LucasArts Game Theory Group, a group dedicated to furthering the knowledge of game design and theory.
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Paul
Kerchen
Co-founder
Whirling Chair Games
Paul Kerchen is co-founder of Michigan-based Whirling
Chair Games, an independent developer of downloadable games
for Windows PCs. Previously, Paul has worked as a US Forest
Service firefighter, a pizza chef, a programmer for Maxis, a
plumber's apprentice, and a do-er of other odd jobs which, if
nothing else, have taught him that there's nothing quite as
fun as making games (although playing them comes close). When
Paul isn't staring at his CRT trying to turn it into a flat
panel display, he enjoys traveling, cycling, and trying to think
of interesting tidbits to put in his next bio. |
Shane
Kneip
Composer/Sound Designer
Freelance
Shane has been composing music with computers since
the days of the Commodore64, graduating later to the Commodore
Amiga, and then moving to the PC realm. Having written music
for advertisements and computer animations, he finally followed
his lifelong dream and is now submersed in composing music for
video and computer games. He currently serves on the Advisory
Board of the Game Audio Network Guild (www.audiogang.org)
which he helped launch in February of 2002. |
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Edmund McMillen
Developer Relations Manager
Chronic logic / Diverge Creations
Edmund is the art director and co designer of Gish, last year's IGF grand prize winner. Aside from being a huge force in the mainstream video game industry Edmund is also widely known for his hat dances.
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Adam Mechtley
Character TD
2XL Games
Adam currently works as character technology consultant in the games industry, and has spent the last year as character technical artist on next-gen console products for Rainbow Studios/THQ Interactive in Phoenix, Arizona. He has served as a volunteer coordinator for the Phoenix IGDA Chapter for over two years.
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Gregory
Micek
Editor-in-Chief
DIYGames
Gregory Micek is currently the editor-in-chief of DIYGames.com,
a gaming news and review site that focuses exclusively on
independent games and their developers. After working with
a number of gaming news services, Gregory came to the realization
that indie games would one day save the world and deliver
gamers everywhere from oblivion. When he's not preaching the
greatness of independent games on the street corner, Gregory
enjoys involving himself in guerrilla marketing campaigns
to promote DIY Games and independent games in general.
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Alex Neuse
Project Manager
Santa Cruz Games
Alex is an eight year veteran of the video game industry. He has worked his way up through the ranks of esteemed video game companies, LucasArts and Activision and has recently found his home at Santa Cruz Games. His tenure with LucasArts started in 1997 when he began in Test, before being hired on as a Level Designer in 2000 where he spent the rest of his tenure working on the critically acclaimed Gladius. Alex joined the Activision team as a Producer in 2004 where he went on to produce The History Channel's award winning Civil War Bull Run game for the PC, and the children's game Madagascar Island Mania, where he met and worked with Santa Cruz Games for the first time. He joined the Santa Cruz Games team as Project Manager in 2005.
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Aaron
Pulkka
Vice President of Digital Media
Hyper Entertainment
After growing up as a hobbyist game programmer, Aaron received
his Master's in Computer Science from the University of Washington
in 1995 and has been working in the industry ever since. He
started as a show designer and programmer at Disney's Imagineering
VR Studio, followed by Sony Development as a Lead Programmer
on a game created for the Metreon. While the company has spun off
as Hyper Entertainment, Aaron has transitioned through programming,
to managing the development of several games, and finally to
directing all of the company's digital development and publishing
efforts for both video games and location-based entertainment
attractions. |
Brian
Reynolds
President
Big Huge Games
A twelve-year industry veteran, Brian Reynolds is recognized
as one of the industry's most talented and productive game designers.
Honored by PC Gamer magazine as one of twenty-five "Game
Gods," Reynolds has masterminded the design of an unbroken
stream of hit strategy games, including Colonization,
Civilization II, and Alpha Centauri. Highly regarded
for his mastery of the art of programming, Reynolds' double
specialty gives him the substantial advantage of being able
to bring his own visions to life--and he has built a reputation
for creating finely tuned strategy games. As President of Big
Huge Games, Reynolds brings to bear his proven talent for balancing
the many and diverse elements which come together to create
an addictive game design, a happy team, and a successful product. |
Brian
Robbins
Director, Online Games
Fuel Industries, Inc.
With more than 100 Flash and Shockwave game titles under his belt, including projects for Coors, Dodge, and Red Bull among others, Robbins is a thought-leader in the web-based gaming industry. An active participant in the IGDA, he currently serves as the chair for both the Online Games, and Casual Games SIGs.
A regular speaker at industry conferences, Brian is often recognized for his ability to develop sustainable business models around bleeding-edge technologies, and is an evangelist for the adoption of innovative media. |
Emanuele
Salvucci
CEO, Technical Artist, Consultant
Forward Games
Emanuele Salvucci started his professional career in 1997 providing
art for a multimedia company. In 1998 he joined Prograph Research
as a 3D artist/animator developing his first 3D realtime title
Tsunami 2265 and creating art for another minor title.
He then joined Revolution Software to start researching visual
style for Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon. He's inventor
of the exclusive lightmapping technique behind the game as well
as being background artist and Lightwave tools developer. His
tools published on his website www.forwardgames.com are widely
used in the VFX industry. With five published titles, he's now
freelancing in the game industry. |
Daniel
Sanchez-Crespo
CEO / Professor
Novarama Technology / Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Daniel is CEO of Novarama Technology, a studio working on PC and console titles for the European market, and Director of the Master's Degree in Video Game Development at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. On his spare time, he's the co-chairman of artFutura, one of Europe's main digital arts and gaming festivals, and writes for Gamasutra, Game Developer
and Byte Magazine. He has written four books (last being Game Programming, Core Techniques on New Riders), and is a frequent speaker in many conferences and universities. |
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Chaz Seydoux
Editor
Insert Credit
Chaz is both an editor of cult game-related website Insert Credit, and a coder at a French cell phone, Pocket PC, and Palm gaming company. He has also written extensively for the French video game media.
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Brandon Sheffield
Assistant Editor
Game Developer Magazine
Brandon Sheffield is the Assistant Editor at Game Developer Magazine, and is an alumnus of USC, where he studied Film and Japanese. He has previously written for publication including Wired, GameStar, and GameFace, and co-founded popular 'alternative' gaming site Insert Credit.
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Jez
Sherlock
Engineering Manager
Vicarious Visions
Jez Sherlock is a 15-year game development veteran who has programmed
titles on all major platforms from the nostalgic 8-bit through
to the current generation. He has created games for most of
the major publishers and is credited on several million unit
titles. In addition to software engineering and technical direction
he has also served in design and production roles. He is currently
working for Vicarious Visions as the Engineering Manager for
the Console Group and is as excited as ever about the games
industry. |
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Mare Sheppard
Co-Founder
Metanet Software
Mare is a game developer and artist from Toronto, and is half of Metanet
Software, creators of IGF prizewinner N. She's got literally a ton of interests, which have too much mass
to list here. |
Marq
Singer
Physics Guy / That Engineer
with Blue Hair
Red Storm Entertainment
Before coming to Red Storm Entertainment, Marq worked for Red
Storm's original parent company, Virtus Corp. and Timeline Computer
Entertainment. At Virtus he mainly worked on 3D development
tools. During his stint at Timeline he worked on their single
released game title (oddly enough also called Timeline).
At Red Storm he works on a variety of projects. Currently he
is either known as the "Physics Guy" or "That engineer with
blue hair" depending on who you are asking. |
Jan Sjovall
Character Animator
Shiny
Jan is a veteran 3D and character animator who has worked on titles such as Psi-Ops at Midway and The Matrix: Path Of Neo at Shiny Entertainment. |
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Marc
Tardif
Producer
Gearbox Software
An industry veteran with extensive experience in both publishing and development, Marc A. Tardif has worked on many of the most successful franchises in the industry including Half-Life, Halo, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and most recently Brothers in Arms. As Director of Business Development for Gearbox Software, Marc is responsible for managing the company’s external relationships and also acts as Executive Producer on one of the company’s unannounced projects.
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Brandon
Van Every
Consultant
Indie Game Design
Brandon Van Every has been
a 3D graphics optimization jock of one sort or another since
1992. He was instrumental in the creation of the comp.games.development.*
newsgroup hierarchy and co-moderates the gamedesign-l mailing
list. While working on the 3D engine for his turn-based strategy
game Ocean Mars, he had an epiphany that game design
is more important than underlying technology. Consequently,
he founded a new company with a new vision: to develop business models
and take risk where mainstream game companies will not. |
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Mark Warner
CEO, President and Company Founder, Game Designer
Nexus Entertainment
Mark is the founder, CEO and President of Nexus Entertainment. Mark has a Bachelors degree from California State University in Finance, an MBA from the University of Phoenix in Finance, and a certificate in Investor Relations from University of California at Irvine . He has over 16 years of financial, managerial, and strategic experience, 22 years of writing experience and 7 years of game design experience. He continues to work to develop Nexus into a prominent development house as they work on an RTS game and game engine, both currently called HardPoint, as well as an MMO and other internal projects. Mark is also the lead coordinator of the Orange County, CA chapter of the IGDA.
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Derek Yu
Editor
TIGSource
Derek Yu is the webmaster of The Independent Gaming Source, which, since its inception in January, has become one of the more prominent news sources for indie games. He has also contributed his fair share of games to the indiegamingsphere, including the freeware cult hit, Eternal Daughter.
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IGF Modding Competition Judges
Joe Johnson
Editor
ModDB
Joe is a twenty-something writer who never writes and an emerging artist with no talent. Currently, he works in a library while going to college, but he has aspirations of becoming a novelist and a pseudo-gaming journalist, since he has been playing games before he even emerged from the womb. In addition, Joe tends to avoid large crowds of people while frowning a lot. Until very recently, Joe lived somewhere and was known to do things..
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Maximus
Production Co-ordinator
Planet and Vault Network
Maximus is the Planet and Vault Network Production Coordinator, including sites such as the extremely popular NeverWinter Nights Vault, and has been evaluating and interviewing mod makers for a number of years.
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Nick Jackson
Editor
ModDB
Nick is an 18 year old resident of Leeds in the UK, who's been ripping games
apart almost as long as he's been playing them. He started out computing
with
the Spectrum ZX-80+, and quickly learnt that what you intend the code to do
isn't necessarily what the code does. These days Nick still plays games, but
pays far more attention to design and room for improvement, which naturally
places him as a modder. After obtaining a copy of Half-Life, and bumping
into
the concept, he found the fledgling "modDB v1.0" and promptly fell out of
the
actual doing and into his current role of keeping tabs on what works and
what
doesn't, which engines support which styles of play, and who has decided to
be
innovative instead of giving us Counter-Strike Clone number 647. Finds newer
styles of play far more entertaining than point and shoot, and has
nostalgia for
Theme Park and Civilisation
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David Edwards
Editor
ModDB
My name is Ed, I'm 21 years old and am currently residing in Stoke-on-Trent
UK.
I've been playing games since my first Amiga A600 system and have been
completely hooked since. When playing games I try to learn as much from
them in
terms of their narrative and art/design direction as I can, while still
enjoying
the experience they offer. My favourite games of all time would have to be
Grim
Fandango (Tim Schafer is an absolute legend!), Dungeon Keeper, Manhunt,
Putty,
Doom and the Silent Hill series. My actual modding experience is quite
small,
though I have spent the last year or so homing my skills and abilities with
a
number of software packages and game engines, and will be announcing
details of
some forthcoming modifications I am leading/working on in the coming weeks.
[NOTE: A number of IGF Main Competition judges are also serving as Mod Competition Judges, in addition to the above specialized judges.]
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Overview
