Savannah College of Art and Design > Events

Eric Zimmerman Keynote speaker Game designer, entrepreneur, educator and co-founder of Gamelab Eric Zimmerman has been working in the game industry for 13 years. He is the co-founder and chief design officer of Gamelab, an independent game development company based in New York City. Gamelab creates and self-publishes innovative single-player and multiplayer games that are distributed online, on mobile phones and through retail, including the hit downloadable games "Diner Dash" and "Miss Management." Pre-Gamelab credits include "SiSSYFiGHT 2000" and the PC title "Gearheads." Zimmerman has taught courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and Parsons: The New School. He has lectured and published extensively about game design, co-authored with Katie Salen "Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals" (MIT Press, 2004) and "The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology" (MIT Press, 2006), and co-edited "RE:PLAY" (Peter Lang Press, 2004).
Ian Bogost, Ph.D. Assistant professor, Georgia Institute of Technology; founding partner, Persuasive Games LLC Ian Bogost, Ph.D., is author of "Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism" (MIT Press, 2006), recently listed among “50 books for everyone in the game industry” by Next Generation magazine, and "Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames" (MIT Press, 2007), along with several other books and many other writings. He is a popular speaker and is widely considered an influential thinker and doer in the video game industry and research community.
Asante Bradford Digital entertainment liaison, Georgia Film, Video and Music division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development Asante Bradford's area of concentration with the Georgia Film, Video and Music division is increasing the impact of video game development on the state of Georgia. He also serves as a dedicated liaison assisting with promotions, logistics and business development to attract game development companies from outside the state to relocate to Georga. Bradford was the founder of a game center entertainment arcade, which provided gaming, training and Web access on state-of-the-art equipment in a LAN environment. He was also responsible for establishing educational programming, game licensing and acquisition, as well as planning video game tournaments in the Southeast, for companies such as EA Sports, Red Octane and Microsoft.
Brenda Brathwaite Interactive design and game development chair, SCAD A 26-year veteran of the video game industry, Brenda Brathwaite is an award-winning game designer and professor of game development at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Ga. She has worked on 22 internationally known titles, including the story mode for "Def Jam: Icon," "Playboy: The Mansion," "Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes," the award-winning "Wizardry" series and the award-winning "Jagged Alliance" series. In 2006, Brathwaite 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.” Her book "Sex in Video Games" was released by Thomson Learning in September 2006, and she is writing a second book.
Greg Costikyan Game designer and founder, Manifesto Games Greg Costikyan is CEO of Manifesto Games, a start-up devoted to creating a viable path to market for independently developed games. Prior to founding Manifesto, he was a games researcher for Nokia, and before that, he co-founded Unplugged Games. He has designed more than 30 commercially published board, role-playing, computer, online and mobile games, including five Origins Award winners. At the most recent Game Developers' Conference, he received the Maverick Award for his tireless promotion of independent games. He has written about games, game design and game industry business issues for publications including the Wall Street Journal Interactive, The New York Times and The Escapist. He is also the author of four published science fiction novels.
Chris Crawford Game designer and founder, Game Developers' Conference Chris Crawford began his career at Atari, but after its collapse in 1984, he began creating games for Macintosh, including "Balance of Power," a game about diplomacy, and the war games "Strikes Back" and "Patton Versus Rommel." In 1992, Crawford decided to leave game design and concentrate his energies on interactive storytelling, a  field that he believed would become important. He has published five books, including "The Art of Computer Game Design" and "Balance of Power." He founded and served as chairman of  the Computer Game Developers’ Conference, now known as the Game  Developers’ Conference, and created the first periodical about game design, the Journal of Computer Game Design. He served as computer system designer and observer for the 1999 and 2002 NASA Leonid MAC airborne missions.
Linda Currie Producer, Blue Fang Games Linda Currie is producer and a senior game designer at Blue Fang Games. She was producer of "Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania," lead designer on "Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species" and senior game designer on the best-selling "Zoo Tycoon 2." Prior to joining Blue Fang, Currie co-founded the former SirTech Canada. While at SirTech, she was the project lead on the award-winning "RPG Wizardry 8" and "Nemesis: The Wizardry Adventure," and was co-designer of the award-winning "Jagged Alliance" strategy role-playing series. Currie is an industry veteran whose extensive experience in both game design and project management dates to the early 1980s. She has been credited on more than 16 published titles.
Matt Dominianni Creative director, The Electric Sheep Co.; co-founder/creative director, ILL Clan Inc. Matt Dominianni is the creative director of The Electric Sheep Co., the top virtual-worlds developer. As a co-founder of ILL Clan, an award-winning 3-D movie-making team, he created his first machinima short in 1998. Dominianni directed and provided the voice for ILL Will, the animated host of the ILL Clan's Web series "Tra5hTa1k." His work has appeared on MTV, SpikeTV and CBS. He recently directed machinima scenes in Second Life that appeared on "CSI:NY" on CBS and were seen by 11 million viewers.
Greg Frame Co-founder, chief gaming officer, Kaneva As co-founder and chief gaming officer of Kaneva, Greg Frame is responsible for developing and executing Kaneva's online gaming and virtual-world strategies, as well as managing Kaneva's platform development and developers program. Prior to joining Kaneva, he was founder and CTO of IndigoOlive Software Inc., which specialized in wireless handheld sales force/field force automation. He also founded a contracting company in Atlanta that assisted clients with Internet strategies and related technologies. In addition, Frame designed, developed and released an independent, massively multi-player game in the late 1990s. He also served as a technical speaker for the Microsoft Corp., where he showcased one of the first production Windows server applications, which he designed and developed at Unlimited Solutions of Columbus, Ohio.
Tracy Fullerton Game designer, author and co-director, University of Southern California's Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab Tracy Fullerton is a game designer, educator and writer with 15 years of professional experience. She is an assistant professor in the interactive media division of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, where she serves as co-director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab. Fullerton is the author of "Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping and Playtesting Games," a design textbook used in game programs worldwide. She was game designer for "The Night Journey," a unique game/art project with media artist Bill Viola, and was faculty adviser for the award-winning student games "Cloud" and "flOw." Prior to joining the USC faculty, she was president and founder of the interactive television game developer Spiderdance Inc. Spiderdance’s games included NBC’s "Weakest Link," MTV’s "webRIOT," The WB’s "No Boundaries," History Channel’s "History IQ," Sony Game Show Network’s "Inquizition" and TBS’s "Cyber Bond."
Jon Hanna Game producer, Kaneva As the game producer for the virtual world of Kaneva, Jon Hanna oversees the vision of the company's 3-D social entertainment world. A veteran of the game industry with more than 12 years of experience, he draws on his strong community relations background to advocate interactive design, in which the development team and community work together to create a fun experience. Prior to joining Kaneva, Hanna worked as a director of community relations, producer and game designer for a variety of gaming companies such as Electronic Arts, Turbine Inc. and Sony Online Entertainment. His work includes award-winning titles such as "Ultima Online," "Star Wars Galaxies," "Dungeons & Dragons Online" and "The Lord of the Rings Online."
Frank Lantz Co-founder and creative director, area/code Frank Lantz is the creative director and co-founder of area/code, a New York game studio that creates large-scale, real-world games. He has worked as a game designer for the past 20 years. Before starting area/code, Lantz was the director of game design at Gamelab, a developer of online and downloadable games. He has also worked as a freelance game designer on projects for Cartoon Network, Lifetime TV and VH1. Between 1988 and 1998, he was creative director at R/GA Interactive, a New York digital design company. For more than 10 years, he has taught game design in New York University's Interactive Telecommunications program, the School of Visual Arts and Parsons: The New School. His writings on games, technology and culture have appeared in a variety of publications.
Elan Lee Founder and chief designer, Fourth Wall Studios; interaction director and founder, Edoc Laundry Elan Lee believes that if you’re bored, you’re doing something wrong. A self-identified entertainment addict, Lee has spent his career finding and sharing ways to extract adventure from the world around him. He pioneered breakthroughs in the area of entertainment and immersive gaming through his role as creative director for award-winning projects such as "I Love Bees," "NIN: Year Zero" and "The Vanishing Point." He was lead game designer for the Xbox, has spoken throughout the world on the future of gaming, and is considered among the foremost Alternate Reality Game creators in the world. He has been featured in WIRED magazine, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and the Wall Street Journal. He has won awards for best Web game of the year, best advertising campaign of the year and best idea of the year.
Marcus Matthews CEO and co-founder, Blue Heat Games Marcus Matthews is the CEO and co-founder of Blue Heat Games, one of the largest independent mobile game development studios in the United States. Blue Heat has shipped more than 30 games since its founding in 2001, including best selling titles like "Snoop Dogg Boxing" and "Donavon McNabb Street Action Football." Clients include Sega Mobile, EA Sports Mobile and Sony Pictures Wireless. Prior to starting Blue Heat, Matthews ran Sega Sports, a $100 million business unit. In that role, he was responsible for all sports games for the launch of Dreamcast. Before joining Sega in 1996, he worked at IBM's Multimedia Publishing Studio and in Turner Broadcasting's games group, and produced products involving Turner entities such as Castle Rock, New Line Cinema and Hanna Barbera.
Ali Mazalek, Ph.D. Assistant professor, Georgia Institute of Technology; explores puppet interface for UT engine with Michael Nitsche Ali Mazalek, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of digital media at Georgia  Institute of Technology and a member of the Graphics, Visualization and Usability  Center, where she founded and directs the Synaesthetic Media Lab.  Her research interests include applications of emerging physical -sensing and computer-interaction technologies to applications in  media arts, entertainment and education. She received her  Ph.D. from the Tangible Media and Media Fabrics research groups at  the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab in 2005.
Scott Mercer Lead encounter designer, Blizzard Entertainment Scott Mercer has been a game designer at Blizzard Entertainment since 1997. He started his design career by creating multiplayer levels for "StarCraft" and its expansion set, "StarCraft: Brood War." He then contributed to "Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos" and "Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne" as a level designer for single-player campaigns and was a game designer for www.Battle.net. Switching game genres, Mercer joined the "World of Warcraft" team and began creating dungeon and raid encounters for "World of Warcraft" and its expansion, "The Burning Crusade." At Blizzard Entertainment, he oversees all creature-encounter design within "World of Warcraft."
Marx Myth Art director, Lockheed Martin 3-D Learning Solutions Marx Myth has had an interest in the arts since he was four years old. Throughout his life he has pursued a variety of interests and careers, including education, health care, illustration, concept freelance art and gaming. He currently manages an art team for Lockheed Martin 3-D Learning Solutions, where he creates interactive simulations using serious game technology (UtiSim) and data visualization (UltiVis). Myth also oversees and creates visual content for the casual games market as an art director for the Republic of Fun.
Michael Nitsche Assistant professor, Georgia Institute of Technology; explores puppet interface for UT engine with Ali Mazalek, Ph.D. Michael Nitsche is an assistant professor at the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he teaches courses on virtual environments and digital moving images. He heads the Digital World and Image Group and is associate director of the Experimental Game Lab. His research interests focus on the design, use and production of virtual spaces, machinima, and the borders between games and film. Nitsche's work is a combination of practical experiments and theoretical exploration. Experiments include collaborations with the National Film and Television School London, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Funatics Germany, Turner Broadcasting and educational institutions such as Cambridge University. In a former life he was co-author for a commercial video game, a professional improv actor and a dramaturgist. He is author of the forthcoming book "Video Game Spaces" (MIT Press).
Allen Partridge, Ph.D. Technology evangelist, Adobe Systems Inc. Allen Partridge, Ph.D., has a 15-year background in game and multimedia development. He is head of Insight Interactive Games, which has produced casual games that have been distributed via Oberon, Reflexive, Pogo, Comcast, Incredigames, Metacafe and dozens of other portals. He hosts the popular dirGames-L and dir3D-L mailing lists for Shockwave and Flash game developers. He is director of the Applied Media and Simulation Games Center at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a technology evangelist for Adobe. Partridge is author of the popular new book “Casual Games for Profit and Fun” (Charles River Media), as well as “Real-Time Interactive 3-D Games” (Sams Publishing). He also is co-author of “Massive Fundamentals,” the electronic guide to Massive Software’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award-winning large group simulation software, best recognized for its use in blockbuster films such as “Lord of the Rings” and "The Chronicles of Narnia."
Celia Pearce, Ph.D. Assistant professor, Georgia Institute of Technology Celia Pearce, Ph.D., is a game designer, author, researcher, teacher, curator and artist, specializing in multiplayer gaming and virtual worlds, as well as independent art and alternative game genres. She began designing interactive attractions and exhibitions in 1983, and has held academic appointments since 1998. She is an assistant professor of digital media in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she also directs the Experimental Game Lab. She is the author and co-author of numerous papers and book chapters, as well as "The Interactive Book" (Macmillan, 1997). She also serves as festival chair for IndieCade, an international independent games festival and showcase series, and is a co-founder of the Ludica women's game collective.
Antony Petersen Director, MTV Networks Mobile Gaming Antony Petersen has spent the last seven years conceptualizing and designing 3G mobile products for consumer markets in Australia and North America. As head of user experience for 3 Australia he was responsible for ensuring usability and fun across a full range of 3G mobile products including games, entertainment, music, news, weather and finance. In 2005 he moved from Sydney, Australia, to New York City, where he joined MTV Networks. He is responsible for mobile games, applications and widgets for the North American market. At MTV Networks he has released mobile games and applications for brands including MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, South Park, MTV Cribs, Best Week Ever, I Know the 80s and Pimp My Ride. He lives in Hell's Kitchen, New York.

Joseph Saulter Game design and development chair, American InterContinental University; CEO, Entertainment Arts Research Featured in Ebony magazine's October 2006 "Who's Who in the Technology Boom," Joseph Saulter is chair of game design and development at American Intercontinental University. He also serves as CEO of Entertainment Arts Research, one of the first African American 3-D video game development companies in the United States. He earned his master's degrees from State University of New York, Empire State College, and is chairman of the International Game Developers Diversity Advisory Board and author of "Introduction to Game Design and Development" (McGraw-Hill). Saulter has served as a technology professor and musical director for shows from Broadway, where he worked on such productions as "Hair," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "The Magic Show," to the African bush. He has received numerous awards, including the Drama Desk Award for his role in the Broadway musical "I Love My Wife." He was recently appointed president of the Dekalb Council for the Arts, has been a professional jazz drummer for more than 30 years, and is co-founder of the Urban Video Game Academy.
Ian Schrieber Programmer, game designer and adjunct professor, Columbus State Community College Ian Schrieber has been in the game industry for seven years, first as a programmer and then as a game designer. He has worked on five published game titles, including "Playboy: The Mansion" and the Nintendo DS version of "Marvel Trading Card Game." He has also developed serious games to train salespeople at two Fortune 500 companies. He first started teaching game design and development in 2006 at Ohio University and is now an adjunct professor at Columbus State Community College.
Rahul Sood Founder, VoodooPC; chief technology officer, Hewlett-Packard Global Gaming Business Unit Rahul Sood is the chief technology officer of the Global Gaming Business Unit in the Personal Systems Group at Hewlett-Packard. In this role, he oversees the worldwide technical strategy for HP’s consumer gaming and high-performance devices. Sood joined HP in November 2006 when the company acquired VoodooPC, a leading manufacturer of high-end luxury and gaming computers. Since founding VoodooPC in 1991, Sood has led the development of innovative technologies such as fanless PC technology, liquid cooling and active liquid chilling. He also was the first to bring these products to market in the high-performance computing industry. VoodooPC’s OMEN desktop PC has earned the coveted Ziff Davis Editors’ Choice award in the Ultimate Gaming Machine competition for five consecutive years. Sood has been featured in several publications, including Business 2.0, MacLean’s Magazine, and The Globe and Mail.
Scott Thomas Director of brand marketing, GameTap Scott Thomas is director of brand marketing for GameTap, the first-of-its-kind broadband entertainment video game network from Turner Broadcasting System Inc. He is charged with developing brand positioning, supervising the company’s new-media strategy, and managing internal integrated campaigns with Turner divisions such as adult swim. Thomas leads a team that executes brand-marketing campaigns through events at industry conventions, all online and offline media programs, and overall consumer messaging programs. Prior to his role at GameTap, Thomas served as director of media, messaging and annual planning at EarthLink, where he led the team that developed consumer facing messaging and media plans for all company products and services.
Dan Waters Microsoft academic developer evangelist, Southeast United States, specializing in XNA/Xbox Live Dan Waters has published many posts in his Beginners’ Guide to XNA series at his blog, www.danwaters.com. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was a small business owner, consultant, developer and architect.