
Mentors
We are building out our roster of amazing mentors and judges for this year’s Climate Jam. Check back as we add more mentors and content to this page.
This Year’s Mentors
Want to support others with your climate or game knowledge? Join us as a mentor!
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Camille Kanengiser
GAME DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGNPrincipal Artist & Cofounder of Freeform Labs
Camille Kanengiser is the principal artist and cofounder of Freeform Labs, a cutting-edge development studio crafting solutions for clients in the entertainment and XR industries. Her passion is innovating at the intersection of art and technology. While working on award-winning original content and client-facing projects, she’s had broad experience working within the realtime-3D pipeline; her responsibilities have included in-engine asset implementation, performance analysis & optimization, 2D & 3D asset creation, animation, interaction design, visual effects, documentation, and consultation. She looks forward to supporting this year’s Climate Jam teams!
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Carly Kocurek
Game MentorCarly Kocurek is a video game designer and historian. Her games include Golden Mart with Michael Anthony DeAnda, Choice: Texaswith Allyson Whipple, and Happy Ecosystems, which won the Climate Jam Positive Impact Award in 2020. She is the author of two books, Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade (University of Minnesota Press, 2015) and Brenda Laurel: Pioneering Games for Girls (Bloomsbury, 2017), and she’s an associate professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
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Hannah-Marie Garcia
Climate mentor – Clean Energy, Marine Systems, Community Based SolutionsHannah-Marie Garcia is an Alaska Sea Grant Fellow that began working for the Northern Latitudes Partnerships (NLP) at the Alaska Conservation Foundation on August 1st, 2021. She holds a Master’s in Marine Policy from the University of Delaware where she worked on improving engagement with Native American Tribes in the development of offshore wind in the Mid-Atlantic. She also has a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Sustainability and Anthropology from the University of the South, Sewanee.
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Life Reimagined Collaborative
Climate Justice Indie Development GroupThe Life Reimagined Collaborative (LRC) is a small indie dev group of climate justice volunteers, who are making a video game called Life Reimagined to help people turn climate anxiety into climate action by helping them imagine the world we need and the actions it will take to get there. Join us!
Life Reimagined will be hosting a Jam session on April 26th at 5PM PT for jammers, followed by a 6PM showcase party on our Life Reimagined game. Join us for both/either! Register here: bit.ly/LifeReimaginedRegister
Find them on Discord:
dargan#0468, ben.sibelman#8869, LifeReimagined#3829
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Lisa Yeager
Climate Mentor – Empathy, Storytelling, Climate OptimismLisa (She/They) loves to explore ways to help more people talk about climate change in informal settings. She’s a CEE-Change Fellow with the North American Association of Environmental Education where she’s part of a cohort building a new framework to address the intersection of civic engagement and environmental education.
Find her on discord at LisaY#4722
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MiKe LeSauvage
GAME DESIGN MENTOR – UNITYMike is an ex-military computer and aerospace engineer who loves being a generalist. You’ll find him playing video and board games, making computer games, tinkering with hardware, or hiking in the rugged paradise of Vancouver Island.As an engineer with Cloudhead Games, most of his recent engine experience is with Unity, though he’s ready to help you with your game design and general programming issues as well.
Mike wants you to know that he loves helping people learn, so feel free to hit him up! Even if he can’t solve your problem, he can likely push you in the right direction. -
Niva Kay
CLIMATE MENTOR – FOOD AND NATURE SYSTEMS AND MEDIA, STORYTELLING, AND MISINFORMATIONNiva(She/Her) and her partner established Pakaraka Permaculture, a solar-powered regenerative market garden and education centre in Aotearoa, New Zealand. She co-authored the number one best selling book ‘The Abundant Garden’ and is New Zealand’s 2021 Organic Farmer of The Year. She is the co-founder of The Rebel Film Collective and is a producer/director and writer of the award-winning climate justice feature documentary High Tide Don’t Hide. Niva studied Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, a Bachelors in Leadership for Change, focused on impact filmmaking and is currently doing a Masters in Technological Futures; her research is focused on transforming agricultural imaginaries through games and game jams. Niva has built a successful career as a digital producer, creating content in various media forms, including writing, photography, videography, and design. She is also the instigator of REGENERATE Game Jam. Hear Niva on the No-Till Market Garden Podcast
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Simon Waldman
Climate Mentor – Capturing the wind, Solar panels on every rooftop, Marine renewable energySimon works at the University of Hull, where he teaches about Renewable Energy.
Simon’s research specialization is marine renewable energy – wave and tidal – but he’s also happy to talk with people about solar, wind, and more general matters around energy transition.“I’m a gamer in my spare time, but know little about making them :)” In his own words:
Read “After the tsunami: how tidal energy could help Japan with its nuclear power problem”
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And You
Want to support others with your climate or game knowledge? Join us as a mentor!
Climate Jam 2022 Judges
Judges will play games and be judging based on:
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Environmental Theme
Does it get people inspired, informed, or engaged with this years theme: Empathy and Equilibrium? -
Innovation
Is it new, novel, and unique? -
Gameplay
Is it fun and engaging? -
Art
Does it pop? -
Audio
Does it bop?
Award Categories Include:
Grand Jury’s Choice
Overall Favorite
Positive Impact
Inspires Action
Most adventurous
Most Unexpected, Innovative approach to the problem
Powered Up
Most well researched and clearest communication of energy plans
Honorable mention awards in art, design, sound and more …
Award Eligibility Must be 13 or over. Must be submitted by the due date and hour (12:00 PM PDT 2 May 2021) Must be completed to the point of running as a prototype. Must represent original work ( plagiarism and/or forgery will be disqualified) All assets used in the project must belong to the creators or be used under an appropriate license.
Award Selection Criteria Entries will be reviewed by a review jury of not more than a dozen members on a simple point system. Games must address one of the theme topics. A winner and any runners up will be announced MAY 9.
Get Inspired by Past Mentors!
IndieCade and Games For Our Future thank all of the wonderful mentors who gave their time to make Climate Jam 2020 and Climate Jam 2021 a huge success. Check out our past mentors and their work: