Matthew Board is a technical artist, digital sculptor, Independent game developer and founder of sleekTiki Interactive. He has done contract work and consulting for various clients including Great Eastern Technology, Vermont Digital Arts, Owlchemy Labs, Anzovin Studio, and Hasbro. He is an Associate Professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Dr. Kat Schrier is the Founding Director of the Games & Emerging Media program and Associate Professor at Marist College. She has written/edited over 100 works, including We the Gamers: How Games Teach Ethics & Civics (Oxford); Knowledge Games (Johns Hopkins University); and the Learning, Education & Games book series (ETC Press). She previously worked at Nickelodeon, Scholastic, and BrainPOP, and has over two decades of experience of designing games, apps, and websites.

Dr. Daniel Vella is a senior lecturer at the Institute of Digital Games at the University of Malta, where he teaches classes in digital game studies, player experience and narrative in games. His research interests including the phenomenology of player experience, aesthetic theory and digital games, subjectivity and identity in virtual worlds, and space and architecture in gameworlds. His work has been published in a number of international journals, including Game Studies, Countertext and the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research. He is the co-author of Virtual Existentialism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). He is also a narrative designer for board games, having worked on a number of titles including Posthuman Saga (Mighty Boards, 2019).

William is a researcher, lecturer and writer focusing on the aesthetics of games, media, and software. He is the head of the Centre for Excellence in Game Education at Abertay University, where he promotes efforts to advance game education and create a vibrant international centre for the intellectual and artistic exploration of digital games and interactive media. He is also currently the president of the Digital Games Research Association.

Chris Totten is an Assistant Professor of Game Design at Kent State University and the founder of Pie For Breakfast Studios, an award-winning Northeast Ohio indie game company that explores the intersections of games and the arts. He has done work as an artist, animator, level designer, and project manager in the game industry and published books on game and level design. Chris is a co-founder of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Indie Arcade and GameFest Akron at the Akron Art Museum.

Kevin M. Williams, also known as AlchemistJoker is a brash, trash-talking monster hunter who primarily plays Survival, Horror, and FPS games. As a streamer, he primarily focuses on taking the scare out of horror games and slaying both grotesque monsters and malicious trolls. However, as a host and interviewer, Alchemist’s focus is on taking his passion and gaming industry knowledge to engage his guests with meaningful questions and insights into his interviews. Alchemist is one of the monthly hosts of the Seattle Online Broadcasters Association meetup and has also hosted Seattle Indies Expo online in 2020.

Kai Nyame is a developer and student at University of Southern California studying game design. She is most commonly known for her cooperative field game Ideal Meal, and her cartoon fighting game Serpent Showdown. Kai grew up in Oakland, California and she has aspirations of working in the Japanese game industry post-graduation.
Ideal Meal Link: https://kinnoitamae.github.io/
Serpent Showdown Link: http://persuasiongamestudio.com

Noah Wardrip-Fruin is a Professor of Computational Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He co-directs the Expressive Intelligence Studio, a technical and cultural research group, with Michael Mateas. His new book is How Pac-Man Eats (2020).

John Sharp is a designer, art historian, curator and educator with over twenty five years of involvement in the creation and study of art and design. He is a member of the game design collective Local No. 12, which focuses on games as a research platform. John is also the Associate Professor of Games and Learning in the School of Art, Media and Technology at Parsons School of Design at The New School where he co-directs PETLab (Prototyping, Education and Technology Lab).

Dr. José P. Zagal is a game designer and scholar. He is also a Professor with the University of Utah’s nationally ranked Entertainment Arts & Engineering program where, among other things, he teaches courses on game design, ethics in videogames, and experimental games. He taught his first university-level game development class in 2000, has supervised multiple award-winning student projects, and many of his former students work at leading game studios worldwide.

Chris Melissinos serves as the Worldwide Game Technology Integration Lead at AWS, is the former Chief Gaming Officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc., guest curator and creator of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s “The Art of Video Games” exhibition, and a founding board member of the Video Game History Foundation. With a career spanning more than two decades in the games industry, he has led the creation of video game technologies in Java, mobile, server platforms, and next generation game distribution solutions. The first video game art exhibition of its kind, his “The Art of Video Games” installation explored the 40 year evolution of video games as an art form and examined their impact on American culture. The exhibition traveled to 10 additional museums across the US, and he co-authored the companion book, “The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect.” For his efforts, he was awarded the game industry “Ambassador Award” at the 2013 Game Developers Choice Awards, held during the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA. A prolific and sought after speaker, his engagements include CES, Game Developers Conference, PAX, Mobile World Congress, JavaOne, and TEDx, and has been featured in more than 30 news outlets including CBS, ABC, FOX, BBC, NPR, Wired, Time Magazine, Nintendo Power, and Game Informer.

As part of the Talent Acquisition team for Xbox Game Studios, Fiona supports hiring initiatives across all 1 st -party studios. Fiona was previously Talent Acquisition Lead, Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment. Fiona is former chairperson of IGDA Women in Games SIG, co-founder of Women in Games International (11 chapters globally), co-creator of GameMentorOnline, partnership advisor for the European Women in Games Conference and Women in Games Jobs U.K.  Fiona speaks regularly at college campuses and industry events, including USC Games, MIT, SCAD, PAX, GDC, GDC Europe and GDC’s Game Career Seminar series, plus has served as advisory board member and speaker for SXSW Interactive, AIGA and SIGGRAPH. As a member of the indie games community, Fiona is co-founder and prior executive producer of the Boston Festival of Indie Games, now in its 10 th  year, and prior advisor to national indie game events IndieCade and Fantastic Arcade. Fiona was part of a women in games initiative developed under Obama’s U.S. White House in 2015. She was previously a U.S. advisor on behalf of BAFTA Games in 2018-2019, supporting a diversity and inclusivity campaign.

As Director of Operations at Filament Games, Shaina’s responsibilities involve allocating the studio, resolving roadblocks, ensuring processes are followed in both sales and project development. She also manages AV, production, and QA, collaborating with other studio managers in the creation of process improvements for the studio. Summarily, Shaina ensures the day to day operations of Filament game development.

Cindy Armstrong is an experienced online entertainment executive with over 25 years’ experience starting companies, managing teams expanding international operations. She has worked at Nintendo, Sony Online Entertainment, Activision and Wargaming among others. Cindy is currently Chief Administrative Officer at Playable Worlds focusing on building out an exceptional team stressing innovation, accountability and inclusion.

Akram Taghavi-Burris has over 15 years of experience teaching game development and design, along with computer graphics, animation, and web development in higher education. Akram is currently the instructor of Computer Simulation and Gaming at the University of Tulsa and coordinates several outreach STEM-related events including the annual Computer Simulation and Gaming Conference (CSGC). Throughout her career, Akram has been awarded several prestigious awards for her work such as the American Advertising Federation (AAF) Award and, the Davinci Fellows Award for innovation in teaching.

Nick Fortugno is a designer of games and interactive narrative experiences and co-founder of Hello TeamSolar. Fortugno has been lead designer on dozens of works, including leading interactive narrative design on Frankenstein AI, shown at Sundance New Frontier, and on games and experiences including the downloadable blockbuster Diner Dash, award-winning serious game Ayiti: The Cost of Life, CableFAX award winning Breaking Bad: The Interrogation, and MUSE award winner Body/Mind/Change.

Eddie Melcer is an independent game developer, director of the Alternative Learning Technologies and Games (ALT Games) Lab, and Assistant Professor in the UC Santa Cruz Department of Computational Media. Eddie is also a core faculty member in the Serious Games and Games & Playable Media Professional Masters Programs at UC Santa Cruz, and his teaching interests range from introductory programming and game design to alternative game controllers and serious games. His research explores the usage of novel gameplay mechanics and emerging technologies (AR, VR, 3D printers, wearables, and so forth) to enhance learning outcomes in educational games.

Clay Ewing is an Associate Professor and director of the New Experience Research and Design Lab (NERDLab) at the University of Miami. Professor Ewing’s games have tackled issues such as vector borne diseases, the cost of health care, social safety nets and labor practices in collaboration with subject matter experts and researchers.

Eric designs videogames, tabletop games, and with architect Nathalie Pozzi has installed large-scale projects in locations including the Museum of Modern Art. He is the co-author of Rules of Play with Katie Salen and is a founding faculty at the NYU Game Center.

Miguel Sicart is an Associate Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen. He is the author of Play Matters (MIT Press).