Game Developers Conference 2008 - (Page 23) Advisory Board Ian Baverstock KuJu EnTErTAInMEnT Carey Chico pAnDEMIC STuDIOS Ian is co-founder and CEO of Kuju Entertainment and has been working in the games industry for 16 years. Originally a programmer, Ian has been responsible for the overall creative direction of Kuju in recent years as well as business strategy. Kuju now operates as five autonomous UK studios. Ian is also chairman of Tiga, the UK independent game developers’ trade association. louis Castle ElECTrOnIC ArTS lOS AnGElES Louis is a co-founder of Westwood Studios and vice president of Creative Development at Electronic Arts Los Angeles. As part of the management team, Louis helps direct EALAs programming, artwork, audio, and research & development departments, as well as contributes to studio business strategy. Louis was the general manager of Westwood Studios from 2000-2003 and served in creative, business and finance roles while growing Westwood from two employees in 1985 to over 250 in 2002. In his creative roles, Louis has contributed as executive producer, creative director, technical director, programmer and artist to over 100 games created by Westwood and EA over the past 23 years including best selling original franchises such as Command & Conquer, Lands of Lore and eye of the BehoLder as well as block buster licensed original products including the Lord of the rinGs – the BattLe for middLe earth II, the Lion KinG, BLade runner and monopoLy. 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. Chris has been on the advisory board for the Game Developers Conference for many years and is a regular speaker at the GDC, Siggraph, and other conferences. A frequent contributor to Game Developer magazine, Chris was the technical columnist for the magazine for two years and the editor-at-large for three. Before joining Maxis he was an indie game developer for eight years with his company definition six, inc. He is also on the editorial board of the computer graphics research publication, The Journal of Graphics Tools. noel llopis pOWEr OF TWO GAMES laura Fryer MICrOSOFT GAME STuDIOS As executive producer for Microsoft Game Studios, Laura is responsible for shipping great games for the Xbox and Windows platforms. Her most recent titles are Gears of War and zoo tyCoon. An industry veteran, Laura was one of the first members of Microsoft Game Studios (MGS) in 1995. As a producer, she shipped several games, including the classic Crimson sKies, and fiGhter aCe, Microsoft’s first massively multiplayer game. She also conceived and produced Microsoft’s first release of Zone.com. Prior to her return to MGS in 2004, Laura was the director of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group, and a founding member of the Xbox project, which she joined in May 2000. During her tenure, she cultivated worldwide Xbox Developer Support, created the Xbox Advisory Board, and ran Xbox game developer events around the globe. Named one of The Hollywood Reporter’s “Top 12 Most Influential Women in Gaming” and one of next generation’s “Game Industry’s 100 Most Influential Women,” Laura is dedicated to fostering diversity in the games industry. An avid gamer, Laura enjoys taking “videogame vacations” to play videogames in marathon allday sessions. Her other hobbies include reading, gardening, juggling, and playing with her dog Jazz. Noel is following his lifelong dream of being an indie game developer and co-founded Power of Two Games. He is hoping to prove that even today is still possible to create great games with tiny teams and lots of enthusiasm. He now gets to wear every hat imaginable, from code monkey, game designer, to company director and everything in between. He regularly contributes articles to Game Developer magazine and the Game Programming Gems series, and he is the author of the book C++ for Game Programmers. Some of his past titles include the Bourne ConspiraCy, darKWatCh, and the meChassauLt series. He earned an M.S. in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Cyrus lum MIDWAy STuDIOS AuSTIn Mark Cerny CErny GAMES InC. Mark has been working in game design and technology for 25 years. He designed and programmed 1984’s marBLe madness for Atari coin-op, and at Sega he oversaw the creation of soniC the hedGehoG 2. While president of Universal Studios game division, he worked in a variety of production and design roles on the Crash BandiCoot and spyro the draGon series on the original PlayStation. In 1998, Mark established Cerny Games as a consultancy, and has since participated in the creation of the JaK and daxter and ratChet and CLanK series on PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3 launch title resistanCe: faLL of man. He has also been instrumental in the creation and guidance of the ICE team, a technology group based at Naughty Dog that specializes in graphics systems and tools for the PlayStation 3. In 2004 the IGDA honored Mark with its Lifetime Achievement Award, calling him a master collaborator and a jack of all trades. Cyrus has been an artist in the computer game industry for 20 years. He got his start at Strategic Simulations Inc., creating computer artwork for games based on the advanCed dunGeons and draGons license. After four years at SSI, Cyrus moved on to Crystal Dynamics, Inc., founded Crystal’s art department and served as the art director. His work can be seen in such game products as Crash ‘n Burn, totaL eCLipse, and the horde. Two years later, Cyrus packed up and left California for Texas and Iguana Entertainment, Inc. There, he founded the Advanced Technology Group which handles Acclaim Studio’s high-end 3D rendering, and animation for games. Before Cyrus left Acclaim, he served as the vice president of digital productions for Acclaim Studios where he coordinated and provided visionary direction to the advanced computer graphic art efforts of Acclaim Studios - Austin, Salt Lake Teeside (UK), London and the Acclaim Studios Cinematic and Motion Capture Group. In March of 2000, Cyrus co-founded Inevitable Entertainment – a videogame development company dedicated to creating innovative product for the PS2 and Xbox. In 2004, Inevitable was acquired by Midway Games. Currently, Cyrus serves as the studio art director, giving guidance and support to next generation titles for the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 game consoles. Cyrus is fond of craps and trains – in no particular order…Supposedly… Chris Hecker ElECTrOnIC ArTS Chris focuses on solving hard game design and technical problems found at the intersection of gameplay, aesthetics, and engineering. He is an outspoken advocate for pushing the current boundaries of design and interactivity, in the hope that games will achieve their full potential as an art and entertainment form. To this end he helps organize the yearly Indie Game Jam and the Experimental Gameplay Workshop, and his recent work at Maxis has centered around using advanced proceduralism to enhance player creativity and agency. Visit www.gdconf.com for daily coverage of GDC 2008 23 http://www.gdconf.com/?cid=GDC08_showguide http://Zone.com http://www.gdconf.com/?cid=GDC08_showguide
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.