Keynote Speaker: Tygarlily

Keynote Session:

Sessions

Patches, Engines, & Glitches V. 5 The Hardware Inclusive Edition

• Video Games are influential in our lives. We play them a lot. But how did we get here...again? Come to the 5th edition of Patches, Engines, & Glitches where we cover from World War II to Tears of the Kingdom! Back from the 2017 edition, we have revamped and are ready to talk more in-depth! We are making sure we are up to date for this one and all our facts are correct.

Finding the fun in Game Design, Clutter, and Life!!!

• The talk will be how to focus on "Removing the Grind" in order to find the "Fun" in games (using Clutter examples specifically) and then also applying it to "Your Life as a Game".

The Future of Voiceover and Creativity

• What Role does Voiceover play as Technology and AI are changing our Industry Hour by Hour? Let's consider what we need to do to be Competitive, Collaborative, and Creative in today's environment!

Start Ups, PR & Content Creation

Creating Modular Primitives in zBrush

• This (Demo) will showcase the ability to create basic human bipeds for 3D gaming, simulations, and entertainment. I will demonstrate the ability to create a Poly Sphere Modular design allowing the artist a primitive template for almost all desired game characters. The intended outcome will be to educate the benefits of developing such primitives for both low poly and high poly sculpt. Skills that will be showcased: Create Dynamesh Spheres Utilize the translation, scale, and rotational GISMO zBrush Master Plugins Subtool Organization and Navigation Geometry Iteration and Duplication zRemeshing Mirroring Final deliverable: Export a reusable OBJ for cross-platform designing.

Game Testing Panel

Speakers

Michael Brown

• CEO of Vicarious PR and V Publishing, Michael has years of industry experience as a journalist, reviewer, editor, and freelance writer. Michael’s passion lays in game discovery and finding new ways to get games the attention they deserve. Michael has spearheaded campaigns on some of the top games in the industry including Dead By Daylight, PUBG Mobile, Gunfire Reborn, Game of Thrones and more. His PR and marketing experience coupled with his knowledge of games publishing gives him key insights into game development and the industry as a whole.

Bob Carter

• Bob Carter is a professional Voice Actor, Audio Director, and Voice Coach known for voicing Black Adam in Multiversus, the Street Fighter series, Mortal Kombat 9, Dragonball Z, Smite, Lifeless Planet, Destiny 2, & many other video games! Carter has also broadcasts globally on iHeartMedia, ESPN, NBCSports, and other stations, and has voiced many anime projects such as Fairy Tail, Dragonball Z, Full Metal Alchemist, Samurai 7, Blassreiter, and many other cartoon & anime series. He has owned the Neighborhood Studio in Atlanta since 2016 where he proudly continues to help Aspiring Creatives become Working Creatives!

Joe Cassavaugh

• Joe as Puzzles By Joe has been "Living the Indie Dream" for 13+ years now. His Original-IP (Clutter Franchise - 13 Games) has over $5M in sales, >$1.5M net. His latest Clutter debuted at #1 on BigFishGames, and is the #3 Best Hidden Object Game of 2022 there. Joe's Clutter sparked many imitators and is now considered its own Sub-Genre of Hidden-Object-Games.

Valencia Coleman

• Valencia Coleman is an indie game developer and Associate Gameplay Engineer at Owlchemy Labs. After graduating from Columbus State University with a degree in Computer Science- Game Programming, she worked toward her game development career by working on several game projects on her itch.io, including 2d Unity games, visual novels, and text-based adventure games. At her work, she develops gameplay mechanics for VR games at the awarding winning game studio Owlchmey Labs. When not developing games, she is passionate about promoting more diversity in the games industry. She is an alumni coordinator for the Internation Game Developer Association Foundation (IGDA-F) and a mentor for GamesHeads. She is recognized as a Google Women in Games Scholar, Xbox Camp Atlanta Alumni, and IGDA-F Scholar. Outside of her game industry work, she loves to write, read, and cosplay at anime conventions.

Michael Grantham

• Michael Grantham is a graduate from CSU's Computer Science program with a focus in the Games Programming track. His area of study allowed him to work on several video game projects throughout his time in the Turner College of Business, and he was able to collaborate with students and faculty at CSU to help re-establish the GGDA student chapter. He Co-founded Pirate Pixel Game Studio with fellow alum Alex Kingsley. They are working on their first retail project and have ambitions to help expand the game development community in Columbus and here at CSU. He is involved with the Georgia Film Academy and has worked alongside industry professionals from across the film/tv production sphere. Michael also holds a BA in Economics from Georgia State University, and has over 5+ years experience in technical support roles.

M. Scott Hull

• Michael Scott Hull, however, I am addressed as Scott. I am a husband to a wonderful wife and father of 4 adult children, and I also have two dogs. I possess an MFA from Full Sail University in Media Design and an MA from the University of Central Florida in Instructional Design IT eLearning with a Prof. Certificate in Modeling and Simulations. I have created assets for dozens of animation shorts and characters in 2D and 3D platforms. My students have gone on to gain careers at IBM, Disney, Blizzard, Aristocrat, and Amazon.

Dr. Becca Jones

• Becca Jones has been at Columbus State University teaching marketing classes since 2019.  She is the lead instructor for the Professional Selling and Sport and Event Marketing classes.  Prior to starting at Columbus State University, Becca taught advertising classes at the University of Memphis.  Becca was in the sales industry before moving into academia so she has firsthand experience in identifying specific strengths that can help increase sales of goods and services.  Most of her research specializes in psychological influences and manipulation practices applied to areas of interest in marketing materials that can induce the most impactful physiological responses in order to impact behavior.

Ron Jones

• Ron Jones The Artist is an entrepreneur, artist, and game developer based in Atlanta. He's been an integral part of the local game community, helping it grow for years. In response to the lack of resources for indies, he created The Indie Cluster to help game developers gain access to opportunities. You can find him at one of his art shows, making comics, or playing indie games on Twitch.

Alexander Kingsley

• Alex Kingsley is the Co-founder of the Columbus-based, Pirate Pixel Game Studio. Along with his business partner Michael Grantham, he formed the business after graduating from the games track at CSU. As Co-founder, Alex specializes in design, programming, creative leadership, art direction, business development , and business outreach. He has 6 years of experience developing games and web based applications for both professional and personal projects, and is very excited by upcoming initiatives with Pirate Pixel.

Anthony Obando

• Anthony Obando is a teacher in the local school district. He teaches computer science now at Hardaway High. He grew up playing video games and is now working to preserve the history of video games and teach his students.

Karen Williams

• Karen Williams is an eager programmer with a passion for game design. She founded the game studio Hiccup Interactive in 2019 to platform her development endeavors. The studio's primary tenet is that games are an invaluable medium for empathy and understanding that needs more dynamic utilization. Early titles explore education as a mechanic instead of a genre, prioritizing the fun to motivate learning. Such as Urchins & Ink, a 2D action shooter, disguises learning Japanese while blasting at cute sea creatures. Karen aims to share the importance of games for personal growth and better connection with others.