May Meeting Update!

Hey everybody!

 

GOOD NEWS! Due to Kyle and I being a little bit swamped this month, we’d been planning to hold off until the June meeting. But thanks to two very non-Corey, non-Kyle entities, it’s back on! You have Phoenix IGDA’s own Tyler Coleman and Ara Shirinian to thank for that! Tyler and Ara, muchas gracias to you guys for stepping up to fill the gap for us this month! And for everyone else, here’s the info:

 

May IGDA Meeting!
Wednesday, May 16th
7 PM at Claim Jumper Restaurant in Tempe!

The subject and speaker are TOP SECRET! And by that I mean that I don’t even know all the details. But there are plans that involve a projector, an xbox, some awesome announcements, and the same great food and great friends as always. Be sure to come hang out with us!

Though Tyler and Ara are running the show this time, Kyle and I will still be gathering the announcements like usual. If you have any news for the meeting, be sure to send them to me (corey@igdaphx.org), and I’ll make sure people hear it next week. See you all then!

 

Corey

Some Quick Updates!

Hey IGDA PHXers!
 

I have an exciting announcement about an upcoming workshop we have the pleasure of providing here in Tempe! Check it out:

 

“This is Your Brain on Game Development” 
 
Tuesday, 4/24 at 5:30 at University of Advancing Technology (UAT)
 
The IGDA in conjunction with UAT is excited to host Scott Crabtree on Tuesday April 24th at 5:30 PM in room 136 at UAT.
 
This is a free workshop and is open to the public, so bring your friends!
 

At GDC 2011 this talk received average ratings of 4.89/5! Come and participate in this new interactive workshop version.

Neuroscience and psychology offer concrete, applicable techniques to improve morale and productivity in game development. Learn the power and limits of the prefrontal cortex, and how to help it work at its best. Learn what makes memory work-and fail to work-so you can both teach and learn as effectively as possible. Learn to manage stress-especially social stress so common in the office-that adversely affects brain performance. Learn to make yourself and your teammates happier, so your brains work better. You will leave this talk a smarter and happier game developer.
 

Scott Crabtree earned his Cognitive Science degree from Vassar in 1988. Immediately afterwards he worked on artificial intelligence software including expert systems. He started working at the first of several game development companies in 1996. Serving as a Software Engineer, Game Designer, Producer, and Entrepreneur, Scott is proud to have worked on game development with companies including Microsoft, Mattel, Disney, LEGO, Nike and more. He’s published games for PS2, Xbox, PC, and mobile phones including the iPhone.
Crabtree is a highly rated speaker who’s presented multiple times at both GDC and the IGDA Leadership Forum.He is fascinated by and passionately studies organizational development, human psychology, neuroscience, and the science of happiness and well-being. He left Intel in 2012 to work full time on helping people and organizations apply neuroscience and psychology to become happier and more productive. Read more about Scott at www.HappyBrainScience.com.

It’s going to be a great event. We hope to see you there!

 
 
 

 

Meanwhile, I wanted to send out a quick reminder that the IndieCade submissions deadline is approaching fast! Got an independently-developed game you’d like to enter for consideration? You can submit your games here: http://www.indiecade.com/submissions/

 

Standard submissions close May 1st, so submit soon if you’re interested!

 
 

That’s it for now! Keep an eye out for another update soon with details about our May meeting!

 
 

Cheers,

Corey

IGDA PHX: April Announcements!

Hey!  It’s time for some updates from IGDA PHX!

 
 
MCC and ASU Present: Ken Rolston!
Monday, April 9th
10 AM at Studio 4 [CLCC 239] at ASU West
7 PM at Mesa Community College

On April 9th Ken Rolston is visiting the Studio 4 [CLCC 239] at ASU West in the morning at 10 am, and speaking at Mesa Community College in the evening at 7pm.  His talk on campus will be “A Narrative Designer’s Toolkit.”

Ken Rolston, the last in MCC’s speakers series, “Games as a Force and Art Form: Teaching, Learning, and the Creative Economy,” has over thirty years of experience in the games industry.  He is, among other things, the internationally celebrated lead designer of two Elder Scrolls games (the standard hit Morrowind and the mega-hit Oblivion), as well as the IP massive-RPG (Role-Playing Game) Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, released by 38 Studios/Big Huge Games.  Early on in his career, Ken was the principle designer on the classic tabletop game Paranoia, as well as many fine analog games.  He will be talking about the interface between board and video games and designing vast narrative games (stories that build upon one another and intertwine in such a way as to build entire self-contained worlds, much like Lord of the Rings, only in game form).  Ken has a Master’s Degree from NYU and is a member of the Science Fiction Writers Association.  He has been a professional game designer since 1982.
 
 

Indie Game: The Movie!
Tuesday, April 10th
7 PM (Doors open 30 minutes prior) at Madcap Theaters in Tempe!

Indie Game: The Movie – The Tour Presented by Adobe®
Presented in association with IGDA PHX

The 96 minute film follows the dramatic journeys of game developers as they create and release their games to the world. The screening includes an in-person Q&A with the filmmakers and Adobe® prizes.

Indie Game: The Movie is pretty baller, and has accomplished the following things:
2012 Sundance Official Selection World Documentary Competition
2012 Sundance Winner for Best Editing in World Cinema
2012 South by Southwest Official Selection

Labelled  “A big hearted celebration of the artistic spirit!” by IndieWire and a “Must See” by Ain’t It Cool News, Indie Game: The Movie is a must see for anyone interested in the world of games, and game development!

Buy tickets at http://www.indiegamethemovie.com/

Use special promo code IGDAPHXIGTM to get a ticket price discount.
 
 

April IGDA Meeting!
Thursday, April 12th
7 PM at Claim Jumper Restaurant in Tempe!

PJ Vilsaint will be making another appearance as a speaker for April’s meeting.  Come listen to the wise words of the President of Super Fun Games as you enjoy the food and drinks of Claim Jumper, and the company of your fellow game developers.  Don’t miss it!

You can find out more about Super Fun Games at http://www.superfunproductions.com

Please note that this month’s meeting is on Thursday!
 
 

Other Announcements!
 
 
Offspring Fling

Offspring Fling has been released into the wild!  Developed by Kyle Pulver, Offspring Fling is the tale of a poor forest creature that has lost all of her children.  She’ll have to run, jump, and fight her way through over 100 levels of puzzle platforming action to save them!  Come to the April meeting for a chance to win a free copy of the game!

Play a sample of the game, or buy the full version of the game at http://offspringfling.com
 
 
Pizza vs Skeletons

Pizza vs Skeletons has been released on iOS!  Developed by Tucson based RiverMan Media, Pizza vs Skeletons is a fresh look at a rivalry that’s as old as time.  Take control of a 25 foot tall pizza as it battles a horde of undead rivals on land, sea, and in outer space!

To find out more, visit http://www.rivermanmedia.com/games/pizza-vs-skeletons
 
 
Now Hiring Artists!

Mike Giam, the co-creator and one of the lead designers of the Twisted Metal series, Warhawk, Jet Moto 1/ 2, War of the Monsters, and many others is looking to create a small pitch prototype to shop around to his connections at major publishers like Activision, Square Enix, and Disney.  He’s looking for capable Artists (2d or 3d). If anyone is interested, please email jjohnstongames@gmail.com for more information.
 
 

That’s it from me!  See you at the next meeting : )

February Meeting and GDC 2012!

Hi everybody!

 

Happy February! It’s your favorite local IGDA chapter, and we’re happy to be back after a January break. We’ve got some announcements to make!

First of all, congratulations to everyone who participated in this year’s Global Game Jam, both at UAT and elsewhere. We had some great local entries! And for those of you who missed it, don’t worry, you’ll see ‘em at our…
 

 

February IGDA Meeting!

Wednesday, February 15th
7 PM at Claim Jumper Restaurant in Tempe!
 

By popular request, we’re moving the meetings back to Tempe! This means you’ll want to get in on time to take advantage of the seating arrangements

This meeting will be a post-jam wrap-up, with jammers both new and old recounting their experiences making a game in a weekend. And of course, no game jam postmortem is complete without a full suite of new games to try! They’ll all be available on the IGDA computer. So come by, eat, drink and play!

 

 

Don’t forget that GDC 2012 is rapidly approaching! If you’re interested in buying tickets, you can do it through the main conference site. There are a lot of cool sessions planned, so if you have the means, it’s a conference well worth attending! (If you’re a card carrying member of the official IGDA, don’t forget about the special additional discounts you can receive!)

 

 

Finally, we have some awesome announcements to make from developers from all around the valley!

 
 

From just across the desert, we have a brand new word puzzle game: Monster Words by Enemy Hideout, available now on the iOS!

 
And to top it off, it’s FREE! Check it out today on the iDevice of your choosing!

 
 
 

Local dev and vice chair Kyle Pulver has announced a new game! Take a look at Offspring Fling, a game of epic baby-flinging proportions. The game itself originated from a game jam from last May. It will be out soon for Mac and PC! He also has a mailing list you can sign up for to receive an email when the game is released.
 
Check it out and help spread the word!

 
 
 

And by another local dev and IGDA board member, Tyler Coleman has released one of his game jam games to the app store. Hello Color will test just how well you can match and recognize colors under pressure, and contains a sophisticated statistics tracking system so you know JUST how good your hue senses really are.
 
This one’s available for just $0.99. Less money than a bagel AND more fun!

 
 
 

That’s all for now! Hope your 2012′s been going awesomely so far, and we’ll see you guys next week!

 

Cheers,

Corey

Celebrate the Holidays with IGDA!

Hey all!

 
 
Hope you’re having a great holiday season so far. Even if you aren’t, fear not! We’re here to bring you tidings of great joy and stuff, cause it’s our…

 
 
2nd Annual HOLIGDAY PARTY!!

Saturday, December 17th

Noon – 5:00 PM at University of Advancing Technology (UAT)!

 
 
That’s right! Instead of the normal monthly meeting, we’ll be having some super rad FESTIVITIES to celebrate the holidays with your favorite local game developers! But it’s not just us: this season is about your close ones! Feel free to bring along any family and friends who might be interested!

Because this is our second annual holiday party, I can now say it’s a continuing tradition of awesomeness, and fun times have always been had by all. If you don’t want to take our word for it, just check out the awesome pictures from last year (courtesy Matthew Wegner)! We’ll provide lots of food, snacks and drinks (no alcohol, sorry) but if you have a dish or dessert you’d like to make, please do! The party is free for everyone, but if you want to kick a couple bucks of donation our way we wouldn’t complain ;D

This year we’re in UAT’s Little Theater, which means we’ll have the BIG SCREEN available to us to… you guessed it… PLAY GAMES! Feel free to bring in your creations or projects-in-progress and we’ll put ‘em up on the projector, super show-and-tell style! (Keep in mind the screen’s resolution size is 1024×768.) We’ll also have some board games for my fellow board game geeks (and again, feel free to bring your own)!

It’ll be a fun time for all, so we hope you can all join us!

 
 

ALSO, I wanted to extend a quick thanks to everyone who has helped us out so far by taking our location survey. We’ve come up with a couple of leads for new potential meeting ‘homes’, and we’ve gotten a lot of insight in general on what people want to see moving forward into the new year.

 
 
Happy Holidays, everyone! Have fun, be safe, and hope to see you all on the 17th!

 
 
Cheers,

Corey

 
 
 
 

Survey, Updates, Recap!

Hey everybody!

 

Thanks to those of you that made it out to Rosie’s to join us this past Wednesday. For those of you that missed it, fear not! I’ll recap the details below

 

First and most importantly, we’ve put together a survey for all of you! You can take it here. It’s just one page, shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes, and it will help us tremendously going forward to decide on things like future meeting locations. (Speaking of which, we’ll have some news on our December meeting soon, so stay tuned!)

 

Coming up, we have just one event reminder for this coming Monday:

 
 
Lecture: Richard Rouse III!

Monday, November 14th
7:30 PM in the Navajo Conference Room (in Kirk Student Center) at Mesa Community College!

ASU, in collaboration with Mesa CC, is presenting a very special lecture series, the first one being a talk from Richard Rouse III of Paranoid Productions. Perhaps best known for his work on the game The Suffering, Richard has also released a book on game design and is well-known for his lectures about emotion and morality in games at the past few GDCs.

 

All are invited, and it’s FREE, so please come out and represent the local game development scene! With Richard’s expertise, it should be a fantastic and thought-provoking talk for developers, teachers and students alike.

 

Finally, as promised, here’s a recap of our most recent meeting (with REAL working links!):

• The participant games of our most recent Game Jam over at UAT were all playable on the IGDA PHX machine! Some of them can also be found on the Ludum Dare homepage: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-30/. They’ll be playable at future meetings as well, so if you’d like to try them, we’ll see you in December! ;D
   
  By the way, did you know Tyler has a Facebook page for UAT Game Jams? Check it out and ‘like’ it here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/UAT-Game-Jam/184716878280518 Spread the word! With enough support, we can get rid of those silly extra numbers at the end of the URL.

 

• Tristan and his team at UAT showed the latest gameplay footage of their game in development, The Afflicted (http://www.indiedb.com/games/the-afflicted). You can find it in the “Latest Video” section!

 

• Ben Steele, a one man animation machine, showed footage from a work-in-progress project of his, Kitaru, which you can view in full on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vq_y1hFlrY&feature=youtu.be&hd=1 He’s currently looking for collaborators on a game project based around this IP. If you’re interested, you can find him at ben at aoineko dot com.

 

Again, if you guys can take that survey and spread the word about it, it would be totally awesome and a HUGE help to us. Thanks! Have a great Thanksgiving, and keep an eye out for ze news about December

 

Cheers,

Corey

A Flurry of November Events!

Hey there, Valley Game Developers!

We’ve got one busy November coming up, and I want to make sure you guys have it all on your schedule! Get over your Halloween candy comas quick, ’cause we’ve got a LOT coming at ya…

 
 

UAT Technology Forum!

Tuesday, November 1st – Thursday, November 3rd
11 AM – 6 PM (each day) at University of Advancing Technology in Tempe!

 

The Tech Forum put on bi-yearly by UAT is free and open to the public! Which is great, because there’s a lot of interesting content being presented and taught here. It’s being held across three days, with lectures and other events spread across from 11 AM to about 6 PM each day. You can get more information, including registration and an event schedule, on the official Tech Forum website!

 
 

Tech Forum: Indie Panel!

Wednesday, November 2nd
6 – 7 PM in the little theater at University of Advancing Technology in Tempe!

 

Within the Tech Forum, we have a special panel being put together by Tyler Coleman featuring some of our talented local developers: Matthew Wegner, Kyle Pulver, David Koontz and Ara Shirinian! This panel will be about independent development, and the risks and rewards of going indie or starting your own studio as a reflection of their own experiences in the industry. We’ll have more to come about this, so stay tuned!

Because this panel is scheduled for the night that’s ordinarily our monthly IGDA meeting, we’ll be pushing this one back a week once again Scroll down for the details on that!

 
 

November Game Jam!

Friday, November 4th – Sunday, November 6th
6 PM (Friday) – 8 PM (Sunday) at University of Advancing Technology in Tempe!

 

Man, UAT is hoppin’ this month! Lots of stuff going on, including yet another exciting Game Jam! This one will have none of the restrictions of the Noob Jam last month, along with a theme, judging, prizes… yeah, this jam is the REAL THING, folks!

It’s been a while since we’ve had a formal game jam… here’s a recap, in case anyone needs one: A Game Jam is a 48 hour timeframe in which developers get together and work in small teams to create a fully playable game by the end of the 48 hours. Games are then presented to everyone in UAT’s little theater. It’s hectic, yet fun! Even if you can’t make it for the whole weekend, it’s a great chance to work in a creative, energized environment. So feel free to drop by any time, the event goes on all day and night!

Friday, 6PM: We meet at UAT. This is the time for equipment set-up, brainstorming, getting to know people, etc. If you want to work with other people, you can pitch ideas and form teams. The theme will be revealed at 7, as well. (A theme is a high-level word or phrase that you must then take and incorporate into your game. Themes can provide a good starting block for brainstorming.) You can start working on the game as soon as you’re ready, but generally…

Saturday til 6PM on Sunday: is JAMMING TIME! You can use any tool, language, or platform you want and can run your game on any platform. Generally, creating your own assets is encouraged over pulling from the public domain. Teams can be any size.

Sunday, 6PM: Wrap-up and presentation time! This is when people can demonstrate what they’ve been working on for the weekend. After the presentation, judging will commence, and prizes will be awarded to the top games in a number of categories.

Annnnd that’s it in a nutshell! Hope you can all make it to the biggest Game Jam of the Fall!

 
 

November IGDA Meeting!

Wednesday, November 9th
7 PM at Rosie McCaffrey’s Irish Pub and Restaurant in Phoenix!

 

Here it is! As you can see, this month’s meeting is pushed back a week to accommodate the Tech Forum Indie Panel (above). It’s also the first meeting of the season to be held back at Rosie’s in Tempe! You guys may have noticed we’re a bit of a… large crowd for the Claim Jumper room. Rosie’s has much more space for a large group, and will be a comfortable place now that the Winter months are approaching. Plus, they’ve got a great beer menu! Our directions page has some additional info, such as phone number and nearest light rail stop.

We’re still looking for a speaker for this meeting, so if you’re interested, please e-mail me! (corey@igdaphx.org). Also, if you have announcements of screenshots of games in progress you’d like to show off at the meeting, please let me know (again, corey@igdaphx.org). Thanks!

 
 

Lecture: Richard Rouse III!

Monday, November 14th
7:30 PM in the Navajo Conference Room (in Kirk Student Center) at Mesa Community College!

 

ASU, in collaboration with Mesa CC, is presenting a very special lecture series, the first one being a talk from Richard Rouse III of Paranoid Productions. Perhaps best known for his work on the game The Suffering, Richard has also released a book on game design and is well-known for his lectures about emotion and morality in games at the past few GDCs.

In addition to the 7:30 lecture, he’ll also be giving a short panel earlier that day (starting at 3:15 PM), to review the designs of 3 chosen locally-developed games. Come see what he has to say! We’ll have more lecture series from ASU to announce down the road: keep up with Theresa’s updates on our IGDA Phoenix Facebook page to hear the latest.

 
 

Whew! And that’s everything, for now! Don’t forget to ‘like’ us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for reminders and the latest news and updates!

 

Cheers from your chair,

 

Corey

 

October Meeting: Wednesday October 12th at Claim Jumper!

Hey everybody!

 

I have an important note: our monthly meeting for October will NOT be tomorrow (October 5th). Instead, it will be happening next week on Wednesday, October 12th! Here’s a link to the Facebook event.

It’ll be held at Claim Jumper Restaurant in Tempe, and the talk and announcements start at 7 PM sharp! This month, we feature our very first encore performance as Ara Shirinian returns to the stage! Veteran igdaPHXers might remember Ara from last year’s talk, “How To Get Into the Game Industry (And Stay in it!),” a collection of hard-earned advice from his own industry career. This talk was so well received that he’s here to do another one!

For those of you who don’t know Ara, a brief introduction:

Ara Shirinian is a video game designer, writer, and co-host of Chatterbox Video Game Radio. In his spare time he enjoys displacing massive objects and is on a perpetual quest for extreme hot sauces.

You can find out more about Ara at http://www.shirinian.net and http://chatterboxgameshow.com.

This time around, Ara will be touching on a number of topics that are relevant to game designers and developers as a whole! Be sure not to miss this! (Don’t worry, we’ll be bugging you about it more next week!)

 

 

By the way, those of you who missed Theresa’s excellent talk on Games as Art in August, never fear: you can now watch it online! This was a really great presentation, one of my personal favorites, and for those of you who missed it I’d urge you to check this out!

 

Finally, we at IGDA Phoenix HQ have had something hanging over our heads for the past few weeks… specifically, a hat:

And (we assume) it belongs to one of you, is being missed dearly, and possibly even carries a +5 to CHA or something like that. So if this looks familiar and isn’t on YOUR head, please come claim it! Or send an email to corey@igdaphx.org.

I’ll be wearing this to the meeting, and if I’m still wearing it by the end of the night it becomes the Official Hat of the Phoenix IGDA. So rightful owner, if you’re out there and want it back please let us know!

 

That’s it for now! See you all next week!

Corey

 

Don’t forget, IGDA PHX is also on Twitter and Facebook!

Local Meetings, Discussions, Demos and Successes!

Hey everybody!

 

Big thanks again to everyone who came out to last month’s meeting – the turnout and the talk were both fantastic, AND we have a lot more of these to look forward to in upcoming months!

For those of you who may have missed this past meeting or want a recap on it, we have some exciting news: Theresa captured it all on video, which will also be made available online! We’ll make an announcement once it’s up. For now though, we have her Powerpoint slides AND a bibliography of all the source material (not shown during the talk).

You can download them here: [Slides] [Bibliography]

She’s also chosen to make her contact info available for anyone with questions or comments about the subject! You can find her at theresadevine at gmail dot com or tcdevine at asu dot edu.

 

We have another great announcement! Kihon Games, our nearly-local friends out in Tucson, have released their game for iPhone/iPad, Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig)! It’s an addictive little game that pretty much speaks for itself. Based on the popular youtube video of the same name, it even features the original song by Parry Grip! Here’s a link to their game in the app store (only 99 cents!). Congrats to Kihon! Can’t wait to see what you guys are up to next!

So here we go! Onwards and upcoming we have our…

 

SEPTEMBER Meeting! Wednesday, September 7th
7 PM at Claim Jumper Restaurant in Tempe!

 

September’s meeting is GAME DEMO Night! The format will be a little bit different from the usual, so let me explain: First of all, anyone with a game demo in ANY stage of its development is free to bring it in for people to playtest and watch it during “mingling time”! And in fact, the main presentation will be pretty short so everyone has plenty of time to do just that.

However, just after the announcements at 7, we’ll be showing a total of 6 actual demo presentations, each 5 minutes long. These demos can be anything you want: showing docs and screenshots, a brief powerpoint presentation, or even playing your game on the big screen! Each of these presentations is an open slot, which can be reserved by e-mailing me! (corey@igdaphx.org) Presentation slots will be assigned on a first come, first serve basis. So if you have a game you’d like to present, let me know SOON!

With September almost here, October’s always pretty quick to follow. And with that, we have our:

 

OCTOBER Meeting! Wednesday, October 5th
7 PM, Location TBA.

 

In the October meeting, we’ll be returning to our usual speaker/presentation format, as we welcome BACK to the IGDA Phoenix stage our very own Ara Shirinian! Those of you who are longtime IGDA Phoenix attendees may have remembered his speech last year. As a matter of fact, Ara’s our very first IGDA speaker to make an encore appearance!

He’s a fantastic designer and writer with a wealth of knowledge and experience. If his extensive list of released games and publications doesn’t convince you of that, just check out this awesome Gamasutra article and postmortem, published just last month!

We’ll have more to announce here as we get closer to October. Look forward to this one for sure!

 

Finally, I just want to remind you guys that we’re still on the lookout for ideal meeting locations! We like places that are big, accessible, quiet, and preferably have some good stuff on the menu ;D If you think you know of a good place to check out, please let Kyle or I know! (kyle@igdaphx.org) (corey@igdaphx.org).

 

That’s it for now, see you all in September! Game demo-ers, don’t forget to email me, and as always check us out on Facebook and Twitter!

Cheers,
Corey

August Meeting!

Hey everybody!

 

This is just a reminder that we’ll be having our…

 

AUGUST Meeting! Tonight, August 3rd
7 PM at Claim Jumper Restaurant in Tempe!

 

This is the same place as we held our July meeting, and it’s located right next to AZ Mills Mall on East Baseline Road. We’ll be starting promptly at 7, so be sure to get there and grab your seat!

We’ll be presenting our announcements and games in progress before the start of the talk, so if you have anything you’d like us to announce OR a screenshot of a game you’re working on, please send it in to me (corey@igdaphx.org)!

Our featured speaker for this month is Theresa Devine. Theresa’s no stranger to the Phoenix game development scene, in particular she’s known for putting together the awesome Tedx talks at ASU for the past couple years. But here are some things you maybe DIDN’T know…

Theresa Devine is the Chief Executive Artist of Zamtox, LLC. Zamtox is a game company with the vision to initiate a new dawn of creative, critical thinking for the enrichment of all lives through mainstreaming art. The company focuses on developing analog and digital games which combine entertainment and conceptual depth.

Theresa received her MFA in Painting at University of Houston in 1994 and her BFA in Painting and Printmaking with honors at Texas A & M University at Corpus Christi in 1991. In addition to running her game company, Theresa is currently faculty member at Arizona State University where she teaches Computer Science and Interdisciplinary Art in the Mathematical and Natural Science and Humanities, Art and Cultural Sciences Divisions. Previously she was a resident artist at the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative and a faculty member at Columbia College Chicago where she taught Programming and Game Design.

Over the past 12 years, Theresa honed her technical skills within the technology departments of small startup and large corporate companies. She has fulfilled the roles of programmer, technical lead, analyst, designer and architect. Prior to working in technology Theresa taught art in the Diocese of Galveston-Houston and Cypress Fairbanks Independent School System. She served on the Cypress-Fairbanks curriculum committee and was a major contributor to re-write the Junior High Art Curriculum.

Theresa was born in Stevenspoint, Wisconsin and spent most of her childhood in Dixon, Illinois. During her high school years, her family relocated to Houston, Texas. For the next 23 years she lived in a variety of cities in Texas before to returning to the Midwest. She currently lives and works in Phoenix, where she enjoys the sun, amazing coffee and the optimism of the game community.

As you can see, she’s all kinds of qualified to give an awesome talk on a subject she is VERY passionate about don’t miss out!

Matthew Wegner of Flashbang Studios will also be there, selling some awesome books on a wide variety of subjects- game development, project management, programming, and more- for $5-10 a piece. There are a lot of good reads, so if you’re interested, be sure to bring a little extra money with you!

 

See you tonight!

Corey