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1st AnnualAdvisory Committee
The Advisory Committee, made up of distinguished game industry veterans from the Game Developers Conference Online, will select Special Award winners following public nominations. These advisors are as follows:
Cindy Armstrong
President and CEO, Electric Bat Interactive
Cindy Armstrong brings a wealth of over 20 years of experience in operations, business development, and finance to the team at Electric Bat Interactive. As President and CEO for EBI, Cindy Armstrong is responsible for all strategic planning, overseas development and publishing operations. She has been with the company since the beginning, working on the development of two online experiences that showcase the proprietary layered reality gaming (LRG) technology; WEBLORDS, the browser-based, free-to-play fantasy game that turns the Web itself into social entertainment, and WEBLINGS, a fantasy world of colorful critters living within the Internet.
Her background includes serving as the CEO of Webzen America, Vice President of Business Development at Sony Online Entertainment, and Director of Sales Analysis and Planning at Nintendo of America. Previous responsibilities included strategic planning, international publishing operations, developing licensing opportunities, scouting new products, and exploring innovative business models.
Brandon Beck
CEO, Riot Games
Brandon Beck is the co-founder and CEO of Riot Games, a leading direct-to-consumer video game developer and publisher of premium, competitive, online games. Riot Games, based in Los Angeles, is funded through venture capital firms Benchmark Capital, Firstmark Capital, and China's largest online services corporation, Tencent. Brandon has served as the CEO of Riot since he co-founded the business. Under his leadership, the company has evolved into a leading global developer and publisher of premium, free-to-play, online video games. Riot launched their award-winning debut title, LEAGUE OF LEGENDS, in October 2009. Prior to founding Riot, Brandon worked at Bain & Company, where he focused on media and entertainment, technology, and consumer products for market leaders and worked in Bain's private equity group. Brandon has held prior roles in banking and venture capital and has been a lifelong competitive gamer.
Thomas Bidaux
CEO, ICO Partners
Thomas Bidaux started his career at France Telecom, within the GOA team. In 1999 he grew the team from a one man operation in charge of the first French MMORPG, LA4EME PROPHETIE, to the European organization in charge of successful DARK AGE OF CAMELOT. In 2004, he left France Telecom, to set up the European subsidiary of the online game giant NCsoft. Acting as the development director for the company, he managed the teams who brought many online games to the European market, including GUILD WARS and CITY OF HEROES.
He is now the CEO of ICO Partners, the consulting agency he founded in April 2008. With his team of experts, he guides independent developers seeking to enter the online games market, provides local expertise to foreign online games publishers entering the European market and has recently providing bespoke pan-European media management services through the ICO Media brand.
John Blakely
General Manager, Zynga Austin
John Blakely is a General Manager for Zynga's Austin studio where he is responsible for an unannounced product. Prior to his current role, Blakely was the Vice President of Development at Sony Online Entertainment where he served as the executive leader for the company's studios in Austin, Denver, and Seattle. Based in SOE's Austin studio, Blakely also served as the Executive Producer for DC UNIVERSE Online which launched simultaneously on both the PS3 and PC in January of 2011. He also oversaw the STAR WARS GALAXIES live service and other titles including LEGENDS OF NORRATH and STAR WARS GALAXIES Trading Card Games. Blakely was hired at Sony in 2002 as the senior producer on EVERQUEST II which launched in November 2004. His previous industry work includes online titles FIGHTER ACE, EM@IL SCRABBLE, and ULTRACORPS. Blakely lives in Austin with his wife and four sons. If he wasn't making games, Blakely would be trying to figure out a way to get us back to the moon or to another planet.
J. Allen Brack
Production Director, Blizzard Entertainment
J. Allen Brack joined the game industry in 1994, and currently serves as the Production Director for WORLD OF WARCRAFT. In this role, J is responsible for coordinating the efforts of the game's development team as it creates new content to keep the experience fresh and exciting. This involves overseeing all aspects of the project and managing the production of patches and expansions from initial conception through release.
Brack started at Blizzard Entertainment in January 2006 as a senior producer in charge of content, playing a major role in the creation of new zones, dungeons, and quests for WORLD OF WARCRAFT's first expansion pack, THE BURNING CRUSADE. In his role as Production Director Brack shipped two award winning and #1 selling expansion packs, WRATH OF THE LICH KING and CATACLYSM.
Prior to joining Blizzard, he worked at Origin Systems, Inc. on the WING COMMANDER franchise and then at Sony Online Entertainment LLC on STAR WARS GALAXIES.
Eugene Evans
Vice President, Studio General Manager, BioWare Mythic - an EA Studio
Eugene Evans is a Vice President and Studio GM of BioWare Mythic, part of the BioWare Group within Electronic Arts. BioWare Mythic created or manages three live MMO's, WARHAMMER ONLINE, ULTIMA ONLINE and DARK AGE OF CAMELOT. From 1997 to EA's acquisition of Mythic in 2006 Eugene was a consultant and then VP, Marketing and Business Development at Mythic and responsible for the launch of WARHAMMER ONLINE and DARK AGE OF CAMELOT. He managed relationships with Mythic's worldwide partners, including Vivendi, France Telecom, Capcom. As a 28 year veteran of the game industry, Eugene has worked with small start-up developers, large publishers and media companies around the world. Before joining Mythic he founded Infinite Ventures an independent production and licensing company that created one of the first interactive DVD games, and licensed and produced versions of SHADOWGATE, the award winning adventure game, for Game Boy Color, Pocket PC, PalmOS and mobile phones. Infinite Ventures was also a consultant to several leading developers including Zipper Interactive (acquired by Sony in 2006).
Mike Goslin
Senior Vice President & General Manager, Mindspark Worlds
Mike heads up virtual worlds for Mindspark Interactive Network, a leading developer of online social and entertainment destinations including ZWINKY.COM. Prior to joining Mindspark, Mike was an entrepreneur in the social gaming space and oversaw the development of a portfolio of virtual worlds at Disney including TOONTOWN ONLINE, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN ONLINE, PIXIE HOLLOW and THE WORLD OF CARS ONLINE. Mike also developed several virtual reality theme park attractions at Walt Disney Imagineering including Aladdin's Magic Carpet Adventure and the award-winning Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold.
Min Kim
Vice President, Nexon America
As vice president of marketing at Nexon America, Min is responsible for business development initiatives and game operations of Nexon published titles in the US. His current professional and personal goal is the successful introduction and adoption of the microtransaction business model in the US.
Prior to joining Nexon America, Min operated the successful launch of the Global Edition of MAPLESTORY as the Vice President of Global Business Development at Wizet Corp. Today, MAPLESTORY remains one of the world's top online games supported by a microtransaction business model. Min started his career in video games as a senior associate of business development at Nexon Corporation pursuing new business opportunities such as a social networking service, a board game business, and online game licensing.
Before joining the online games space, Min was an investment banking analyst in the media group of Salomon Smith Barney in New York. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics-Statistics from Columbia College.
Raph Koster
Vice President of Creative Design, Playdom
Raph is a VP of creative design at Playdom, which acquired his startup Metaplace in 2010. In past lives, Raph was the lead designer on the seminal online world ULTIMA ONLINE, which first brought online worlds to the mass market, and chief creative officer for Sony Online Entertainment, makers of EVERQUEST, where he previously led the design of STAR WARS GALAXIES. Raph's essays and writings have appeared in game design textbooks, books on legal theory, and major newspapers, and his book "A Theory of Fun for Game Design" is considered a classic and is widely used in universities. He is a regular speaker at game, technology, and policy conferences all over the world, and still
finds time to write on his popular website, http://www.raphkoster.com.
Chris Mayer
Founder, Night Owl Games
Chris Mayer is the founder of the independent Austin based game studio Night Owl Games and is responsible for the development and launch of DUNGEON OVERLORD. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Chris spent a decade developing and publishing MMOs. This includes lead engineering roles on ULTIMA ONLINE at EA: Austin and STAR WARS GALAXIES at Sony Online Entertainment. He served as CTO and VP of Product Development at NCsoft Corporation North America helping to fund and publish numerous MMO titles as well as setting up an infrastructure designed to assist development teams with common MMO technical requirements.
Prior to entering the game industry in 1998, Chris graduated from Rice University and then worked as a software engineer at National Instruments. Chris currently lives in Austin, TX with his wife, children, and overly energetic dog. When he is not playing with his kids, he is online, playing PC games, or taking a beating, playing amateur hockey at the local rink.
Joe McDonagh
Director of Production, PopCap Games
Joe McDonagh is the Director of Production at PopCap Games, creators of BEJEWELED BLITZ and ZUMA BLITZ. Prior to PopCap he was the Creative Director for LucasArts where he was responsible for the creative aspects of all STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES games. From 2004 to 2009 Joe worked for Irrational Games / 2K Boston, eventually as Director of Creative Development. Whilst there he helped Ken Levine write BIOSHOCK and is the co-recipient of GDC's 2007 award for Best Writing in a Video Game. BIOSHOCK has won more than 50 game of the year awards and is metacritic's 15th highest reviewed game of all time.
Earlier in his career Joe worked at BigWorld, the MMO middleware company. He was also the co-founder and co-owner of the British game development studio Elixir Studios, creators of EVIL GENIUS and REPUBLIC: THE REVOLUTION. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters Degree in Modern History from Oxford University.
Sheri Graner Ray
Studio Design Director, Schell Games
Sheri Graner Ray is the Studio Design Director with Schell Games in Austin Texas. In the game industry since 1989, she has worked for such companies as Electronic Arts, Origin Systems, Sony Online Entertainment and Cartoon Network, and has worked on such licenses as STAR WARS GALAXIES, ULTIMA, and NANCY DREW. She is author of the book, Gender Inclusive Game Design-Expanding the Market and is the game industry's leading expert on gender and computer games. In 2005 she was awarded the IGDA's Game Developer's Choice award for her work in gender and games. Corporate Board magazine named her one of the 50 most Innovative Women in Technology and Hollywood Reporter has named her one of the 25 most Influential Women in Computer Entertainment. She is a co-founder of Women In Games International and served as their Executive Chair for 8 years. While she has worked as everything from a writer/designer to head of her own studio, her first love is game design and she describes herself as a "hard-core gamer." She currently lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, Tim, their three dogs and two cats.
Richard Vogel
Co-Studio Director, Bioware Austin
Rich Vogel has been doing game development for 15 years. His first five years was doing console development for CD-I, Sega, and PS-1. He started his online career as senior producer of Meridian 59 where he helped launch and run the live service. He left 3DO to join Origin in 1997 as Senior Producer of ULTIMA ONLINE where he helped launch and run the live service for two years. He is currently co-Studio Director at BioWare Austin. Previously he was V.P. of Production at Sony Online Entertainment in Austin, and Executive Producer of Star Wars Galaxies. In 2000, Rich joined Sony Online Entertainment as Executive Producer and founded the Austin Studio. He shipped STAR WARS GALAXIES in 2003 and the first expansion JUMP TO LIGHTSPEED in 2004. Rich speaks frequently on issues of online world design, online development process, and online community management.
Gordon Walton
Vice President & Executive Producer, Playdom Austin
Gordon Walton has been authoring games and managing game development since 1977. He is currently VP and Exec Producer at Playdom Austin. Prior positions include VP and co-Studio General Manager at BioWare Austin working on Star Wars: The Old Republic, VP, Executive Producer and Studio Manager at Sony Online Entertainment in Austin, working on an unannounced product and Star Wars Galaxies, Gordon was VP and Executive Producer of The Sims Online at Electronic Arts/Maxis, and in the same role for Origin Systems managing Ultima Online; He also served as Senior VP and General Manager of Kesmai Studios, where he oversaw the development of several MMOGs including Air Warrior and Multiplayer Battletech. Gordon has owned and managed two development companies and was development manager for both Three-Sixty Pacific and Konami of America, Inc. He has personally developed more than 30 games and overseen the development of more than 200 games.
Gordon has been a speaker at every Game Developers Conference since its inception in 1988. Gordon has also been a featured speaker at industry events such as E3, Austin Game Developers Conference, East Coast Computer Game Developers Conference, Kagan Conference, Japan Personal Computer Software Association Conference and Jupiter's Conference.
Gordon is a founding member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS). He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Texas A&M University with a minor in Electrical Engineering.