FGS 5 Awards Page

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Meet The Speakers

We are pleased to announce our speakers for FGS 5! These industry pros were selected by the Advisory Board (see below), and will cover a broad range of topics (hint: click on speaker images to reveal session information).

• Luc Beaulieu
  Frima Studio

  

  Luc Beaulieu

  @LucDOA CTO Frima Studio

  My Talk

  Cross-Platform Stage 3D Post Mortem

  How can we use Flash Stage 3D to make a multiplayer game on multiple devices using the same codebase? This session will detail the challenges encountered when attempting to maintain high performance specifications on mobile devices and the guidelines used to succeed. We will talk about the required production pipeline, provide performance tips and techniques, provide guidelines for deploying and debugging on iOS and Android and give an overview of the process, from start to finish.

  Luc Beaulieu is the chief technology officer (CTO) at Frima Studio, a 375-employee company with a passion for digital entertainment and services ranging from video game development (including virtual worlds and casual games) to concept art (Volta) and VFX (including IMAX 3D). With over 16 years of experience in information technology, strategic planning, software and game development, he has participated in the architecture, launch and maintenance of several virtual words, online communities and applications. With his experience and leadership, he has helped companies he has worked with in their rapid growth.

  Website

• Carl Callewaert
  Unity Technology

  

  Carl Callewaert

  @CarlUnity Product Evangelist Unity Technology

  My Talk

  Developing Flash games with Unity

  Learn how to create and optimize cross-platform multi-player 3D/2D games for Flash with the Unity editor and asset store from start to a final Flash version.

  With 10 years production and evangelism experience in game industry Carl likes to share his experience with the Unity community. Prior to working as a product evangelist at Unity Technology, Carl was hands-on in the development of AAA and indie games and shared his knowledge at the Gaming and Animation Institute as eMentor.

  Website

• Chris Condon
  ConArtist Games

  

  Chris Condon

  @ConOfTheArtist Game Developer Con Artist Games

  My Talk

  "Evolve Everything" a post mortem of The Last Stand: Dead Zone

  Post mortem of the development of The Last Stand: Dead Zone. Presentation will cover the transitions that took place in the making of the game including moving to multiplayer, moving to 3D, moving to working with a team and moving to a social game business model. Having done everything differently to my previous work, it's a huge change and should provide great contrast.

  With a 15 year history in everything from 3D level design to Advertising, Chris has always managed to make the creation of games his career. Founding Con Artist Games in 2008 as a solo independent developer, he has since found great success with his involvement in multiple franchises including The Last Stand, Warfare and Crush the Castle. Collectively his games have been played hundreds of millions of times. Having recently moved into the free to play / social space, Chris is now developing The Last Stand: Dead Zone with a talented team alongside him.

  Website

• John Cooney
  Kongregate

  

  John Cooney

  @jmtb02 Game Developer Kongregate

  My Talk

  A Decade of Flash Game Design - A Personal Retrospect

  I have been making games for over ten years almost exclusively in Flash. I would love to speak about my experiences, successes, struggles, and life in the Flash game space over the past decade. My session will start from the early days when Flash was just becoming a viable game tool, and the critical point when I took the plunge to full-time indie development. I will talk about the rise of Armor Games from infancy to giant portal, and the challenges in-between. I've been in the community for many years and I would love to share all my personal experiences.

  John Cooney (alias jmtb02) is a game designer who has made a lot of awesome games, especially about elephants. John started development with Flash in 2002 as an animator-turned-game developer and has continued to publish over ninety titles during his career. He was named Game Developer of the Year in 2011 by Ecrans. John's prolific body of work has been featured in OC Weekly, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Edge magazine, and BBC World television. His work includes titles such as Coinbox Hero, Achievement Unlocked, Corporation Inc, Exit Path, and Hedgehog Launch. John graduated with a Bachelors degree in Technocultural Studies from University of California, Davis.

  Website

• Ryan Henson Creighton
  Untold Entertainment

  

  Ryan Henson Creighton

  @UntoldEnt President Untold Entertainment

  My Talk

  Fact or Fiction: Game Development in 2013

  Today's game development landscape is changing rapidly, and there is a lot of hype swirling around about new platforms and monetization opportunities. With so many options, how do you decide what to focus on and how best to spend your time? This rapid-fire panel of industry veterans will attempt to help you do just that as we separate Fact from Fiction.

  Ryan Henson Creighton is the founder and president of Untold Entertainment Inc., a boutique game development studio in downtown Toronto specializing in games and apps for kids, teens, tweens and preschoolers. Ryan was the senior game developer and resident 'idea man' at Corus Entertainment for nearly a decade, before parlaying his passion and experience teaching elementary school students into a niche games service shop. Ryan is a performing arts graduate and a born storyteller. He's a hobbyist pianist, papercraft modeler and stand-up comic, and a full-time father of two.

  Website

• Jean-Philippe Doiron
  Frima Studio

  

  Jean-Philippe Doiron

  @JPhilDoiron Principal Architect R&D Frima Studio

  My Talk

  Cross-Platform Stage 3D Post Mortem

  How can we use Flash Stage 3D to make a multiplayer game on multiple devices using the same codebase? This session will detail the challenges encountered when attempting to maintain high performance specifications on mobile devices and the guidelines used to succeed. We will talk about the required production pipeline, provide performance tips and techniques, provide guidelines for deploying and debugging on iOS and Android and give an overview of the process, from start to finish.

  With over 10 years of experience in R&D, JP started his career in 1999 building online games with Macromedia Director. He released his first DirectX game in 2001. For seven years he worked as a consultant mostly in Canada, US and UK developing highly optimized and multithreaded database architecture and reporting system for transit operators. He is currently leading and developing the hardware accelerated Flash 3D engine at Frima Studio.

  Website

• John Fox
  Games.com

  

  John Fox

  @johnfox General Manager Games.com

  My Talk

  Fact or Fiction: Game Development in 2013

  Today's game development landscape is changing rapidly, and there is a lot of hype swirling around about new platforms and monetization opportunities. With so many options, how do you decide what to focus on and how best to spend your time? This rapid-fire panel of industry veterans will attempt to help you do just that as we separate Fact from Fiction.

  As General Manager of Games.com, John Fox is responsible for Games.com’s day-to-day operations, as well as leading product development, partnerships, strategy and monetization. Games.com powers gaming across the web, allowing millions of users to discover, play and share games across the globe.
  
  Previously, John served as AOL’s Chief of Staff to Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong. He joined AOL in 2010.
  
  John began his career at McKinsey & Company focused on B2C strategies in the media, technology and retail industries. John has a Bachelors degree in Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

  Website

• Ben Garney
  The Engine Company

  

  Ben Garney

  @bengarney Chief Engineer The Engine Company

  My Talk

  Fact or Fiction: Game Development in 2013

  Today's game development landscape is changing rapidly, and there is a lot of hype swirling around about new platforms and monetization opportunities. With so many options, how do you decide what to focus on and how best to spend your time? This rapid-fire panel of industry veterans will attempt to help you do just that as we separate Fact from Fiction.

  Ben Garney works at the Engine Company, where he is leading development of the Loom Game Engine, a mobile game technology. Before that, he spent three years at PushButton Labs building the open source PushButton Engine, as well as developing award-winning Social City in partnership with Playdom/Disney. Ben started his career at GarageGames working on the Torque Game Engine. Along the way, he worked on a best-selling XBox 360 launch title, Marble Blast Ultra, as well as helping thousands of indies chase their dreams. Ben maintains a game technology blog at http://bengarney.com/, and has co-written a book, Video Game Optimization.

  Website

• Pany Haritatos
  Kongregate

  

  Pany Haritatos

  VP of Mobile Kongregate

  My Talk

  Fact or Fiction: Game Development in 2013

  Today's game development landscape is changing rapidly, and there is a lot of hype swirling around about new platforms and monetization opportunities. With so many options, how do you decide what to focus on and how best to spend your time? This rapid-fire panel of industry veterans will attempt to help you do just that as we separate Fact from Fiction.

  Pany Haritatos is the Vice President of Mobile at Kongregate where he leads all mobile publishing and platform projects and teams. Pany comes to Kongregate with over 8 years of experience developing games for mobile devices and the web. With titles ranging from boutique indie favorites to chart topping smash Facebook games, Pany has shipped over 50 titles with combined earnings in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
  
  Before coming to Kongregate, Pany was a General Manager and studio lead at Zynga. Over the course of three years, Pany established and operated several franchise studios across multiple locations. He led these teams to build chart topping blockbuster hits like Treasure Isle, Cafe World, and Bubble Safari.
  
  Pany came to Zynga when the social games giant acquired his independent game development startup, Urbansquall, in 2009. Urbansquall found success working on some of the web’s first free-to-play titles and by working closely with partners like Kongregate, MTV and Ubisoft.

  Website

• Stephen Harris
  Ninja Kiwi

  

  Stephen Harris

  @ninjakiwigames Co-founder Ninja Kiwi

  My Talk

  Tower Power: Bloons TD 5 Flash to mobile

  Bloons TD 5 was the biggest and most successful game ever made by Ninja Kiwi. Bringing this game to the App store in a way that met the approval of fans and the developers of the Web version was a tremendous task. Hitting #2 Top paid app in the US store within 12 hours of debut was insane and then so was dealing with the panic that ensured shortly after...

  Co-founder of Ninja Kiwi and design lead on the Bloons TD series. Ninja Kiwi has been developing flash and mobile games since 2006 and now employs 35 full-time staff in two countries.

  Website

• Bill Howard
  Adobe Systems, Inc.

  

  Bill Howard

  @BillAtAdobe Group Product Manager, Flash Technology Adobe Systems, Inc.

  My Talk

  That Was Then, This is Now: Adobe Gaming

  Join Bill from Adobe Systems for an overview of how Adobe Gaming has evolved and how Adobe will help you build and deliver stunning games through your browser and mobile device.

  Bill has been in the software industry for the last 25 years. Much of the time he has focused on mobile as an architect and engineering manager for Verizon Wireless and Vodafone. In that time, he was involved in the emergence of mobile portals, on device portals, mobile advertising, j2me application infrastructures, and other mobile client services. Since coming to Adobe 5 years ago, Bill has managed engineering teams responsible for mobile technologies and customer projects built on Flash and AIR. For the past year and half, Bill has been working as a Group Product Manager responsible for Flash Player and AIR. In his spare time, he plays with his 4 kids and acts like a kid running his RC cars and reading comic books!

  Website

• Simon Lachance
  Berzerk Studio

  

  Simon Lachance

  @berzerkstudio Co-founder Berzerk Studio

  My Talk

  A berzerk's journey from Flash to mobile land

  Thinking of going mobile? We did! This session will unveil all of Berzerk's secrets on how we did Berzerk Ball, Berzerk Ball 2 and many other games across Web, iOS, phone, tablets and Android. Grow some Berzerk balls and hop on the mobile train!

  Simon Lachance has been in the video games industry for 5 years. He met Etienne and Marc-Antoine at his previous job and they all decided to quit and become full-time indie game developers...and so Berzerk Studio was born. Simon is the creator of the "Lachhh Engine", which powers all of Berzerk Studio's games. These days his role is to take Berzerk's games to market on mobile, tablet, and browser platforms.

  Website

• Josh Larson
  Mochi Media, Inc.

  

  Josh Larson

  @larsenio CEO Mochi Media, Inc.

  My Talk

  Welcome to FGS 5!

  Josh will kick off the day with a quick welcome and overview of FGS 5. Once the heckling begins he will hand the reigns over to the keynote session.

  Josh Larson is the Chief Executive Officer at Mochi Media, where he leads the company's business strategy and execution. Josh previously directed Mochi's monetization efforts and day-to-day operations as President & Chief Operating Officer through the acquisition by Shanda Games. Josh has spent over a decade in leadership roles for innovative businesses at the intersection of games and advertising including Mochi Media, Double Fusion and CBS/GameSpot. Josh holds a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.

  Website

• Ethan Levy
  Quarter Spiral

  

  Ethan Levy

  @FamousAspect Co-Founder Quarter Spiral

  My Talk

  Mo Money Fewer Problems: a practical guide to designing in-game purchases

  In-game purchases are here to stay. Now more than ever it is clear that players are comfortable spending money in browser, mobile, and download games. But just because players are willing to pay does not mean game developers know how to give them something worth buying. This talk gives practical, hands-on guidelines and processes for designing your game’s monetization. Core loops, feature design, economy design, user interface tips, user experience flows, and forecasting tools are all covered in this actionable talk from a 10 year design veteran who has successfully made the leap from designing paid games to freemium games.

  Ethan Levy is a 10 year veteran as a game developer and simply lives for making games which bring joy to players’ hearts. Starting at the ground level as an intern and tester at Pandemic Studios working on Star Wars: Battlefront, he has contributed to over 30 shipped games in almost every role. While working at casual game publishers PlayFirst and iWin, he worked as a producer, designer, external consultant and metrics analyst on a variety of titles including Jewel Quest Mysteries and the Diner Dash/Wedding Dash series. In 2008, he joined Electronic Arts’ Office of the Chief Creative Officer working for Rich Hilleman before becoming EA2D’s first employee. At the studio, he led the development of Dragon Age Journeys, Dragon Age Legends and Dragon Age Legends: Remix 01 as Game Producer. In 2011, the studio became BioWare San Francisco, and Ethan helped shepherd the studio through the transition and kick off the development of a new game in the BioWare family as Design Manager. In spring of 2012, he left EA to co-found Quarter Spiral. Ethan has worked on games that have appeared on every platform, including console, handheld, mobile, tablet, browser and social network.

  Website

• Danny Parker
  Ninja Kiwi Europe

  

  Danny Parker

  @ninjakiwigames Head of Technology Ninja Kiwi Europe

  My Talk

  Tower Power: Bloons TD 5 Flash to mobile

  Bloons TD 5 was the biggest and most successful game ever made by Ninja Kiwi. Bringing this game to the App store in a way that met the approval of fans and the developers of the Web version was a tremendous task. Hitting #2 Top paid app in the US store within 12 hours of debut was insane and then so was dealing with the panic that ensured shortly after...

  As Head of Technology at Ninja Kiwi Europe Danny oversees development of in-house technology for Mobile, Tablet and other native platforms. Starting out developing J2ME mobile games, Danny has been involved in all kinds of games development over the past 10 years. From developing console downloadable titles such as Flock! and Final Fight: Double Impact to bigger boxed titles such as Crackdown 2, Danny has always had a love for the development ethos of mobile and web games. Keeping it fun is the number one priority when working on smaller platforms as its a place where a single developer can really make a difference.

  Website

• James Pearmain
  Freelance Game Artist

  

  James Pearmain

  @ArtJimp Freelance Game Artist

  My Talk

  Games Aesthetics and Branding

  Visual feedback provides the main connection between a game and player. Strong design and aesthetics can make a game stand out from the crowd and reach its full potential audience. A look at some branding strategies and methods to improve a games reception, make it more enjoyable to players and maximise possibilities of future success.

  I'm a freelance Flash game artist from the UK. Over the last 5 years I've had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the best developers in the industry, and worked on a number of successful games including Sushi Cat, Elephant Quest, Zomgies and Achievement Unlocked 3 to name a few.

  Website

• Matt Rix
  Magicule

  

  Matt Rix

  @MattRix Founder Magicule

  My Talk

  Fact or Fiction: Game Development in 2013

  Today's game development landscape is changing rapidly, and there is a lot of hype swirling around about new platforms and monetization opportunities. With so many options, how do you decide what to focus on and how best to spend your time? This rapid-fire panel of industry veterans will attempt to help you do just that as we separate Fact from Fiction.

  Matt Rix is the creator of Trainyard, a popular iPhone game that he made in his spare time. For a week in October 2010, Trainyard was the #2 app on the App Store.
  
  Matt studied "Multimedia Design and Production" program at Humber College in Toronto and then worked at Indusblue as a Flash Developer for five years. In early 2011 he founded Magicule, a game development company, where he's now focused on creating innovative mobile games.

  Website

• Ryan Schaefer
  Monster Media

  

  Ryan Schaefer

  @Rhuno Associate Director of Development Monster Media

  My Talk

  I Made a Native Extension...and You Can Too

  The session will focus on the benefits of leveraging native extensions in AIR. I will discuss how utilizing extensions can add important functionality to games and how they can help developers accommodate a wider audience base. For instance, the Airxbc extension allows for a more console-quality experience as console gamers can play with a gamepad they are already familiar with. The main content of the session would be creating a simple C++ native extension from scratch to show the attendees how to get started.

  I have been developing professionally with Flash and ActionScript for 7 years and have two shipped titles in the console games industry with Electronic Arts. Currently I'm working with Monster Media in Orlando, FL where we focus on large, out-of-home advertising displays. In my spare time I like to make Flash-based games, tinker with interesting technology and keep up a Flashblog. Most recently I've created an AIR native extension that allows Xbox 360 gamepad support in AIR-based games.

  Website

• Scott Walker
  Ninja Kiwi

  

  Scott Walker

  @ninjakiwigames Partner, Head of Production Ninja Kiwi

  My Talk

  Fact or Fiction: Game Development in 2013

  Today's game development landscape is changing rapidly, and there is a lot of hype swirling around about new platforms and monetization opportunities. With so many options, how do you decide what to focus on and how best to spend your time? This rapid-fire panel of industry veterans will attempt to help you do just that as we separate Fact from Fiction.

  Partner and head of production at Ninja Kiwi, makers of Bloons TD 5 and SAS Zombie Assault 3. After 20 years of industry experience, including exec producer and studio lead roles for Activision and EA, the awesome fun of my role is to blend the good parts of that production and business experience with the existing strengths of a hit-making, player-focused, indie team.

  Website

Advisory Board

• Tony Solary & Matt Neff
  Flipline Studios

  

  Tony Solary & Matt Neff

  @Flipline Studios Co-Founders Flipline Studios

  Tony Solary and Matt Neff are the co-founders of Flipline Studios, an independent game development studio located in Cleveland, Ohio. Matt and Tony started developing games together in 2002, and soon created Flipline Studios in 2004. Since then, they have developed many games spanning casual puzzle games, action-packed platformers, quirky cooking games and even a sprawling MMO. Through the years, Flipline Studios have amassed a loyal fan base surrounding their many Flash games.

  Website

• Chris Hughes
  FGL

  

  Chris Hughes

  @ch00se Co-Founder FGL.com

  Chris Hughes has been an indie game developer for over 15 years. He Co-Founded FGL.com and GamerSafe.com which have helped game developers make millions annually. He has spoken at the GDC and Flash Gaming Summit on monetizing and distributing web games. He also has several published articles on the topics of monetizing and distributing web games. He has a BS and MS in Computer Science from Sacred Heart University.

  Website

• Dominique Lemire- Nault & Yowan Langlais
  JuicyBeast

  

  Dominique Lemire-Nault & Yowan Langlais

  @juicybeast Co-Founders JuicyBeast

  Ever since he was young, Dominique has been dreaming of creating his own video games...and that’s exactly what happened on June 1st, 2009 when he co-founded Juicy Beast Studio! He's learned so much since then thanks to his co-workers and the crazy atmosphere at Juicy Beast! Despite the mistakes they’ve made, Dominique is more than proud to say that Juicy Beast Studio creates fun and original casual games.
  
  Yowan has always been passionate about digital creation, which led him to study Multimedia Integration in college. Right after graduating he co- founded his dream company, Juicy Beast Studio, even though he had little experience creating games. Three years later, Juicy Beast is still doing very well in the Flash market!

  Website

• John Daskalopoulos
  NotDoppler

  

  John Daskalopoulos

  @notdoppler Owner NotDoppler

  John Daskalopoulos founded Not Doppler in 2005, a Flash and online gaming portal known to its users for its weekly game updates each Thursday. Since launching in 2005, the Sydney-based company has featured over 2,500 online games across more than 380 weekly game updates, attracting millions of users each week. In 2012 Not Doppler also marked its expansion into mobile and tablet game publishing, with its first release Earn to Die hitting the iPhone Top 10 charts in 12 countries.

  Website

• John Cooney
  Kongregate

  

  John Cooney

  Game Developer Kongregate

  John Cooney (alias jmtb02) is a game designer who has made a lot of awesome games, especially about elephants. John started development with Flash in 2002 as an animator-turned-game developer and has continued to publish over ninety titles during his career. He was named Game Developer of the Year in 2011 by Ecrans. John's prolific body of work has been featured in OC Weekly, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Edge magazine, and BBC World television. His work includes titles such as Coinbox Hero, Achievement Unlocked, Corporation Inc, Exit Path, and Hedgehog Launch. John graduated with a Bachelors degree in Technocultural Studies from University of California, Davis.

  Website

• Justin Wong
  Mochi Media

  

  Justin Wong

  @mochimedia COO & VP Business Development Mochi Media

  Justin Wong is the Chief Operating Officer at Mochi Media, where he leads both the Company's developer and publisher partnerships efforts as well as its finance team. Justin was an early Mochi employee and helped scale both internal operations and external partnerships up through the acquisition of the Company by Shanda Games. Prior to joining Mochi, Justin led YouTube's video syndication partnerships efforts, closing key partnerships with Apple, Panasonic and Electronic Arts. Justin was also an early member of the Google Local Search team and was recognized with a Google Founders Award for the launch of Google Maps. Justin holds a B.A. in Business from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

  Website

• Mat Annal
  Nitrome Limited

  

  Mat Annal

  Sole Owner & Managing Director Nitrome Limited.

  I am the sole owner and Managing Director of Nitrome Limited. We are an award winning games studio that make retro styled games for iOS, Android, the browser and Steam. Nitrome started as a browser game developer and has produced over 100 games in Flash that have been played hundreds of millions of times around the web. Many of their games are featured on other games sites such as Miniclip, MSN and Newgrounds. All of their web games are available on their site, Nitrome.com.
  
  Current projects include ‘nitrome touchy’, an iPhone/iPod Touch/android based controller for Flash browser games; Icebreaker – A Viking Voyage, our first iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad game due for release soon; and our first Steam game ‘Flightless’ currently working its way up the top 100 on Steam Greenlight (please vote if you're able). :)

  Website

• Lee Brimelow
  Adobe

  

  Lee Brimelow

  Platform Evangelist Adobe

  Lee Brimelow is a Platform Evangelist with Adobe. He has previously worked for McDonald's, Papa Ginos, Namco Pool Supply, Grand Targhee Ski Resort, Mack Dawg Productions, Barton Security, fatbrain.com, AOL, Netscape, eBay, Stanford University, and frog design. Lee is currently interested in mobile web development, Flash video, and everything Android. Lee loves MMA, BJJ, tennis, lifting, eating, beer, TV, Ethan, and Giovanna.

  Website