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Lectures below are from 2013

Lectures at Casual Connect are programmed to focus on cutting edge topics in the video games space. On July 30 - August 1, over 3000 industry professionals came to San Francisco for the eighth annual Casual Connect in the United States to listen to lectures from over 300 industry experts. Conference content was programmed by a set of industry advisors. If you attended lectures at Casual Connect and want to see your favorite sessions again, or if you could not make it to San Francisco this time and want to see what you have missed, press the icon to watch videos and download slides (all content is FREE!).

email Tennille Forsberg

Continental Ballroom - Hall A: General Industry, Children and Family, and Monetization

August 1:
Monetization

Emcee: David NIXON, Founder & CEO, Gemini Hive Inc.

David is Co-Founder and CEO of "Gemini Hive, Inc." - a boutique investment, advisory, and consulting firm focused on helping small social and social mobile game companies get started and find growth. David has been involved in video game development since 1989. In 1999 he dedicated his career to the publishing of "casual" games and pioneering ways for these games to reach new audiences. He has played a key role in the launch of RealArcade and the establishment of the casual games industry. He was also deeply involved in the rise of Oberon Media, and the launch of Xbox Live Arcade. He has a passion for online communities and social interactions in online cross-platform game services.
[Email David]

July 31:
Children and Family

Emcee: Alison BRYANT, Founder and President, PlayCollective and PlayScience

Dr. J. Alison Bryant is Founder and President of PlayScience, a research, consulting, design, and innovation firm on a mission to break down the walls between industry innovators, academics, and consumers. Alison has spent her adult life moving seamlessly between the academic and industry worlds (and usually sitting in both concurrently). She spent several years as Senior Research Director of Digital Research and Brand & Consumer Insights for the Nickelodeon/MTV Networks Kids & Family Group; and was Chief Strategy Officer for Smarty Pants, a research and consulting firm focused on kids and families. She was also an assistant professor of communication at Indiana University.
[Email Alison]

July 30:
General Industry

Emcee: David NIXON, Founder & CEO, Gemini Hive Inc.

David is Co-Founder and CEO of "Gemini Hive, Inc." - a boutique investment, advisory, and consulting firm focused on helping small social and social mobile game companies get started and find growth. David has been involved in video game development since 1989. In 1999, he dedicated his career to the publishing of "casual" games and pioneering ways for these games to reach new audiences. He has played a key role in the launch of RealArcade and the establishment of the casual games industry. He was also deeply involved in the rise of Oberon Media, and the launch of Xbox Live Arcade. He has a passion for online communities and social interactions in online cross-platform game services.
[Email David]

9:15-9:20

Welcome to Casual Connect USA

Jessica TAMS, Managing Director, Casual Games Association

9:30-9:50

Self-Publish or Die

Will HARBIN, CEO, Kixeye

As Chairman & CEO, Will drives KIXEYE's overall strategy, product development and game design. Prior to KIXEYE, he co-founded Affinity Labs, a company focused on building a global network of online communities. Previously, he was part of the team responsible for restarting Netscape Communications Corp. Before Netscape, he co-founded MD Drinks, Inc. and also co-founded Media1st, an e-learning provider. He has also held positions at Yahoo, Internet Security Systems, Radiant Systems and was an EIR with Trinity Ventures. He graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science from Vanderbilt University.
[Email Will]

So you made a great game? Good for you. Now the hard work starts. Traditional publishing models are on the wane. The means to distributing and marketing your own games have never been more readily accesible and powerful. Developers must understand and own the entire trajectory of their games -- from inception to distribution to iteration. You don't need massive budgets to find and engage users, or to build your own tools. This talk will outline challenges and solutions on the road to building a durable company in today's gaming ecosystem.

10:00-10:20

Maximizing Monetization in Free to Play Games | 10:00 - 10:50

Emily GREER, Co-Founder & COO, Kongregate

Emily cofounded Kongregate in 2006 with brother Jim and as COO oversees most day to day operations including product development, marketing, community, and monetization. Prior to Kongregate, Emily worked in marketing/ecommerce for various catalogers & retailers building statistical and financial models predicting customer behavior as well as doing product analysis, customer research, strategic planning and website development.
[Email Emily]

The economics that underpin Free to Play games are non-intuitive yet crucial to understand to truly optimize your game. This deep dive backed by data from Kongregate will look at price elasticity in games and how that affects what items you sell, when you sell them, and how they should be priced.

Big Risks Outside the Box

David BASZUCKI, Founder & CEO, Roblox

David is the founder, co-creator and CEO of ROBLOX. Prior to founding ROBLOX, David was a private investor. Previously, David was VP and General Manager of MSC. Software, where he ran the desktop simulation division. David also founded Knowledge Revolution and grew it to be the volume leader in mechanical simulation software and physics educational software.
[Email David]

This session will focus on following one's passion and taking risks in order to build a studio and a product of lasting value.

When Publishing Works for Free to Play Games

Jameel KHALFAN, Mobile Gaming, Pocket Gems

Jameel Khalfan leads publishing efforts at Pocket Gems, a leading mobile entertainment company that pioneered free-to-play mobile gaming. Jameel previously led paid user acquisitions at Pocket Gems during the time that its titles Tap Zoo and Tap Pet Hotel were the #1 and #4 top grossing iPhone apps of 2011. Prior to Pocket Gems, Jameel worked at Globespan Capital Partners where he evaluated new investment opportunities in technology startup companies. Jameel was previously a Product Manager at Microsoft where he drove product strategy and development on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Live. Jameel held positions with Digitas and Orange before joining Microsoft. Jameel earned degrees in Computer Science / Media Studies and Management Science from MIT, and sits on the Board of Directors for MIT's Alumni Association. [Email Jameel]

Pocket Gems only publishes games they love. Free to play games have changed the way publishers and developers need to work together to be successful. Since delighting players long past the launch is the name of the game, developers need to own the game experience and work with publishers for what they do best. If your publishing partner provides strong marketing support, well-evolved tools, broad market awareness and a true commitment to success, then you've found a great match.

10:30-10:50

Top Ten Things You Need to Know To Play Big in the Kids' Space

Alison BRYANT, Founder and President, PlayCollective and PlayScience

What are the keys to winning with kids today (and tomorrow)? We will reveal our "Top 10" list of things you need to know about what kids are doing, what is engaging them, and how we can use these insights to build the "next big things."

Publishers and Developers: Build Great Partnerships that Lead to Great Games

Karen ADDISON, Producer, IUGO
Jori PEARSALL, Director of Product, GREE International Inc
Jim YING, VP of Publishing and Partnerships, GREE International Inc.

Karen Addison is a Producer at IUGO Mobile Entertainment, a progressive studio that specializes in the design, development and deployment of premium games for smartphones. With IUGO, she has led production on 13 titles including Lil’ Pirates, Implode!, and the Animal Academy series, and has led IUGO’s production relationship with GREE on Knights & Dragons since its beginning in 2012. Knights & Dragons, currently sits in the Top 50 Highest Grossing games across a number of key iOS and Android markets, and continues to improve. Karen’s previous experience includes project management at companies including Accenture and Bodog.com, and she looks forward to continuing to face the challenges and excitement ahead with the IUGO team and the mobile games industry as a whole.
[Email Karen]

Jori Pearsall is a Director of Product at GREE International and one of the earliest additions to GREE’s product team in the US. As the head of the 2nd Party Product team, he is responsible for the success of Knights & Dragons, a top charting title across multiple territories worldwide. Prior to joining GREE, Jori spent four years as a Product Marketing Manager at Google where, in addition to working on the marketing strategy for the launch of Google+, Jori also served as the Asia Pacific product marketing lead for Android and Google Maps in Tokyo and Sydney respectively.
[Email Jori]

Jim Ying is VP of Publishing and Partnerships at Gree International, Inc.. His team manages relationships with and investments in developers focused on building great free-to-play mobile game experiences. Before joining GREE, Ying was the SVP of Publishing at 6waves, a publisher of independent social and mobile games, where he managed the product, marketing and bizdev teams. Leading up to that, he served as Director of Product at GameHouse, the casual games division of RealNetworks, and worked in console gaming managing franchises like Halo and Age of Empires at Microsoft Xbox.
[Email Jim]

This panel presentation, led by GREE's VP of Publishing and Partnerships Jim Ying, will feature members of GREE's publishing and production teams as well as partner developer IUGO to discuss how they have all worked together to ensure the success of the mobile title Knights and Dragons and their working relationship. With a focus on general issues and challenges that publishers and developers have when working together in the mobile space, discussion will include ways they came together to solve problems, issues they had to overcome, and key learnings they now apply to how they work with each other and future partners.

11:00-11:20

Kids' Apps - the Monetization Minefield

Barry O'NEILL, CEO, StoryToys

Barry O'Neill is the CEO of StoryToys, a developer and publisher of award winning mobile games and interactive books for children. Prior to StoryToys, Barry was a “Mobile 1.0” pioneer, having headed up Namco’s European mobile business and co-founded Upstart Games which he sold in 2006.
[Email Barry]

Common monetization tactics for kids apps and how the "new rules" of COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) fundamentally change the developer-customer relationship. This talk will look at the before COPPA and after of selling and monetizing kids apps on App Stores. Many developers are currently ignorant of or not compliant with the rules and guidelines surrounding marketing, selling and monetizing content aimed at children.

Being Consequential in a Transitory World

Clive DOWNIE, CEO, DeNA West

Clive Downie is the CEO for the leading mobile entertainment company DeNA. As CEO, he oversees DeNA’s mobile social game platform Mobage, as well as the company's third party business and first party studios in the West. Downie spent more than 15 years at Electronic Arts where he served as Vice President of Marketing.
[Email Clive]

In today's game industry there is enough "free" content available to satisfy the needs of all but the most prolific players. Standing above the crowd with a unique and powerfully compelling proposition for your players is critical to success. Join Clive Downie, CEO of the Americas and Europe for DeNA, for a look at recent mobile game properties that have built enormous success in a crowded marketplace by taking mobile game players to a new level of play experience.

11:30-11:50

Navigating the Mobile Advertising Ecosystem

Brian MIKALIS, SVP Monetization and Mid-Market Sales, Pandora

As Senior Vice President of Monetization and Mid-Market Sales, Brian is focused on monetizing Pandora's growing mobile audience and working with advertisers and partners that are looking to reach their target audience through audio, video and display advertising opportunities. Brian also manages and leads the strategy for the following teams: network and advertising business development, direct response, app developer sales and mid-market.
[Email Brian]

The nascent nature of the mobile advertising market has led to rapid change, industry fragmentation and new complexities. The challenge of 2013 is how to effectively navigate through an ecosystem which requires marketers to make a multitude of decisions across mobile install tracking, click-thru and view–thru attribution models, look–back windows, programmatic buying, incentivized ad placements and mobile publishers/ad networks. In this presentation, attendees will learn strategies to map the current environment and better prepare for what lies ahead.

Youth and Gaming: What to Know About Kids Online

Dr. Jo WEBBER, CEO, Virtual Piggy

Dr. Jo Webber is the CEO and Founder of Virtual Piggy, Inc, the first e-commerce solution that enables youth to manage and spend money within parental controls. As an experienced software company CEO, she led the sale of InnaPhase Inc. to Thermo Electron (NYSE:TMO) in 2004 before becoming CEO of Energy Solutions International. At Energy Solutions International, Webber directed two strategic acquisitions for the company as well as its successful sale. She has a Ph.D. in Quantum Physics from the University of Nottingham Trent/Manchester University and serves on the boards of Maxwell Systems and Octagon Research Solutions.
[Email Jo]

With so many major lawsuits pending, COPPA and Children online privacy laws are becoming more and more relevant everyday. Hear about what you need to know when engaging the next generation and how to monetize this unique multibillion dollar youth market safely.

We will include:
* Data on child spending (Engagement Age / Solo Spending / Money Available)
* Main issues around children online (COPPA / CARU / Data Retention, Transactions)
* Industry Specific Issues and any relevant industry data
* Virtual Piggy product - What issues does it address, what can it do?

Inside the Saga Series

Jong WOO, VP Business Development, King

Jong manages initiatives, with a specialty in partnerships and strategy in the U.S., for the world's leading cross-platform, bite-sized games company. He leverages more than a decade of experience to maintain the company’s global track record for delivering successful social, competitive and pastime gaming experiences to millions. Before joining King, Jong was a senior business development executive at Blockdot, an interactive agency specializing in branded entertainment and “advergaming” solutions. Jong was also President of Gamelab, best known for its acclaimed casual game titles Diner Dash and Jojo's Fashion Show, where he lead the company to critical and commercial success. Jong started his career in finance with the structured finance group at Macquarie Bank. He holds an MBA in marketing from NYU Stern School of Business and a bachelor's degree from Princeton University.
[Email Jong]

This session takes a case study approach to exploring the primary lessons learned throughout King’s inception, implementation and launch of its Saga series starting with its first Saga game, Bubble Saga, through to its current flagship game, Candy Crush Saga. The presenter will help attendees discover the fumbles and the lights that went off that led to King’s ultimate free-to-play strategy and process for eliminating risk, while growing its audience in a well calculated, sustained way. Attendees will also get a glimpse into the months and years that culminated into their wildly popular Saga series, while hearing details on the best practices that emerged during their sharpest learning curves.

12:00-12:30

LUNCH BREAK
sponsored by G5

12:30-12:50

EMERGING TRENDS: The Real Impact of Adaptive Marketing and Predictive Analytics

Chethan RAMACHANDRAN, CEO and Co-Founder, Playnomics

Chethan Ramachandran is the CEO and co-founder of Playnomics, an early stage company that applies predictive data mining to online games. Playnomics' technology enables game publishers to predictively segment and target players by behavioral characteristics. The company is backed by FirstMark Capital, Vanedge Capital, Metamorphic Ventures, X/Seed Capital, Accelerator Ventures, and TriplePoint Capital.

Prior to starting Playnomics, Chethan spent three years as a partner at a boutique investment fund where he structured, launched, and ran new technology joint ventures. Prior to that, he was part of the founding team and Director of Business Development of a venture backed startup focused on applying predictive analytics to information security.

Chethan also has previous experience in technology investment banking and strategy consulting.
[Email Chethan]

The future of adaptive marketing and predictive analytics is playing out right now in the mobile and social games industry. The advent of connected devices and data-targeting has turned games into real-time marketing services, where every interaction with a player is a unique opportunity to engage them. In this session, Playnomics CEO Chethan Ramachandran will share how gaming companies leveraging predictive modeling and real-time targeted messaging strategies are able to identify LTV of their top monetizing players early, target the right players with the right messaging at the right time, and increase monetization and loyalty.

EMERGING TRENDS: The Television Industry and 2nd Screen Casual Games

Matt DOMINIANNI, Director, Universal Games Network, NBC Universal

Matt Dominianni is the Director of the Universal Games Network at NBC Universal, where he oversees casual game production for NBCU's various cable channels, including USA Network, Oxygen, Bravo and others. Matt's background includes more than 10 years in game design related to big media in New York City.
[Email Matt]

The television industry has largely thought of games as a marketing tool, focused on small games lacking in depth. Television executives are finally waking up to the power of games to not only drive tune-in, but also to deepen the television viewing experience and generate revenue. This includes ancillary narrative experiences, mobile, and so-called 2nd screen games that reward players for engaging while watching. Matt Dominianni, Director of the Universal Games Network at NBC Universal gives a roundup of what kinds of games the TV industry is spending money on in 2013 and beyond, drawing from the plans of the many cable channels under NBCU, as well as other television channels and networks.

1:00-1:20

Online-to-Offline: the $1T Mobile Opportunity

Terry ANGELOS, Co-Founder, TrialPay

Terry is a co-founder and the Chief Product Officer at TrialPay, where he is responsible for developing advertising and monetization solutions for TrialPay's e-commerce merchants, game publishers and social app developers. Terry was previously a director of product management for Living.com, a Benchmark Capital and Amazon.com-funded online retailer and a product manager at Trilogy Software, where he was responsible for e-commerce solutions for the Fortune 50. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from WITS University, an SM in Engineering Science from Harvard University and an MBA from MIT Sloan.
[Email Terry]

Over 90% of consumer spending occurs offline and Forrester estimates over half of the $3.5T in retail spend will be influenced by online research and advertising by 2016. See how mobile app and gaming companies are rewarding customers for making everyday purchases in local brick and mortar stores, a concept first coined in this 2010 Techcrunch article. Terry will discuss trends, techniques, what works, what's coming and what innovative marketing teams should be thinking about to earn a share of the trillion dollar retail economy and create a better user experience for their customers.

The Hummingbird Backfire: A Lesson in Monetizing Virtual Goods from Animal Jam

Clark STACEY, President & CEO, Smart Bomb Interactive

Clark Stacey is the President and CEO of Smart Bomb Interactive, a game development company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. In October 2010, Smart Bomb launched National Geographic Animal Jam, the online virtual world for kids who love animals and the natural world. Smart Bomb is also known for the forthcoming Sky Legends, a radical browser-based flight combat MMO.

Clark abandoned an academic career when his passion for blowing things up drew him to videogames in 1995. He began his career in interactive entertainment with Beyond Games, where he contributed to the design and development of successful titles across a variety of platforms -- all of which centered around blowing things up.

Before co-founding Smart Bomb in 2003, Clark was the CEO of Cobalt Interactive, a pioneering studio in interactive marketing and advergaming, whose clients included St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Quaker Oats.
Clark graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in English literature and philosophy, and is now evidently doing what one does with those qualifications.
[Email Clark]

Animal Jam is an online game world for kids with over 12 million players worldwide. Over the past two years, we've tinkered extensively with our monetization model on our way to profitability, and the lessons the data have taught us have often been surprising. This session will present a few of these lessons through analysis of game metrics and player behavior in response to different membership options and virtual goods pricing experiments. Monetizing kids under 12 in F2P games fairly, ethically, and profitably really is possible!

Do You Want to Rule the World?

Gabe LEYDON, Co-Founder & CEO, Machine Zone

Gabriel Leydon is co-founder and CEO of Machine Zone. Mr. Leydon is responsible for company vision, product design, monetization, recruiting, operations, and anything else that keeps him up late at night. From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Leydon was the creator and game designer of America’s Army Arcade Edition at Global VR, a leading US coin-op manufacturer and the U.S. Army’s Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis. Prior to the America’s Army project he was a game designer at Tsunami Visual Technologies where he amassed deep game design and monetization experiences. Earlier in his career, Mr. Leydon worked on various coin-op games for Atari/Midway Games.
[Email Gabe]

Real time MMO design taken to mobile scale extremes. During this talk we will cover our journey to create a game that can support hundreds of thousand's of players in a highly social real time MMO. We will focus on social structures and hierarchy, mass scale pvp, community that crosses the globe, harnessing the player as your greatest feature, and creating a experience that actually makes you feel like you rule the world!

1:30-1:50

Mobile Monetization Insights from Amazon

Jason CHEIN, Director, Amazon GameCircle

Jason is the Director of Amazon GameCircle, and a product-centric executive seasoned in developing games as services and managing online economies. Previously, Jason has been a Partner at Vanedge Capital as well as held management positions at Electronic Arts and Xbox.
[Email Jason]

As Amazon enters its third year of distributing Android games via Kindle Fire tablets and the Amazon Appstore, they have established a remarkable vantage point for gaining insights into the shifting monetization landscape across a wide range of games. In this session, Jason Chein, Director of Amazon GameCircle, will share specific findings and observations, and present practical advice to help developers make better decisions about how they design, deliver, and operate their games to maximize their monetization opportunities.

Updates and New Releases: the Lifeblood of your App

Kristin FITCH, Co-Founder & CEO, Ziggity Zoom

Kristin Fitch is CEO and co-founder of Ziggity Zoom, a multi-media tech company in Norfolk-Virginia Beach, VA. The company creates original online and mobile content for families and kids with a focus on ‘Sparking Creativity and Imaginations’. Ziggity Zoom produces top quality mobile content such as educational games, family apps and ebooks. To date the company has produced over 7 mobile apps for iOs devices,over 30 successful children’s ebooks, and has reached millions of families on ZiggityZoom.com with educational content, games, art/crafts, stories, and articles for teachers and families. Kristin has worked in the online space since 1999 and and co-founded Ziggity Zoom in 2008.
[Email Kristin]

Is your App a Superstar? Learn how other App developers have reached that status and find out why Updates are critical to the life of your app and how new App Releases can increase sales and brand development over the long term.

Fireside Chat with John Riccitiello

John RICCITIELLO, Investor
discussion led by John GAUDIOSI, Editor in Chief & Co-founder, Gamerhub.tv

[Email John Riccitiello]

John Gaudiosi has spent the past 20+ years covering the $75 billion videogame industry for top international print, online and television outlets like The Washington Post, Wired, Playboy, AOL, IGN, Yahoo!, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today Weekend, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Maxim, CBS and NBC. John currently contributes to outlets like American Way Magazine, Geek Magazine, CNN, Reuters and Forbes, focusing on the convergence of Hollywood and games as well as the intersections of technology and the games business. He is the founder of GamerHub.tv video and editorial syndication, which syndicates editorial content through Tribune/McClatchy and video through Alloy Digital’s Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG). He currently resides in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife and dogs and can be reached at JohnGaudiosi@gmail.com.
[Email John Gaudiosi]

2:00-2:20

Asia Expansion: Mobile Trends and User Acquisition Strategies in Japan and Korea

Ken ASAKURA, General Manager, Adways Interactive

Ken is the General Manager of Adways Interactive. After obtaining B.A. Telecommunication Engineer from University of Technology Sydney in Australia, Ken began his career as an ADSL communication engineer for ABB, a multinational engineering firm from Swiss. After gaining experience in technical side of internet, he began his work on MMORPG title, Ragnarok as a global marketing manager. Ken joined Adways in 2011 to spearhead Adways’ USA expansion.
[Email Ken]

Ken Asakura, General Manager of Adways Interactive, will shed some light on the Asian markets, covering the following topics:
- App opportunities in Asia, namely Japan, Korea, China, India and South East Asia
- Major differences in gaming in Asia and US, including raw data such as ARPU, eCPM
- UA strategies, pricing, major players, do’s and do not’s
- Q&A;

Design Meets Discovery: Following the Five C's

Karen MORGAN, Lead Designer/Producer/Founder, Soma 365 Studios

Karen creates, directs, produces and designs visually stunning content and sets the overall artistic direction for Soma 365. Karen founded Soma 365 Studios in 2001 as a solution to leverage her extensive experience in fashion, design and media. Clients include, AT&T;, Nokia, Microsoft, Sinclair Broadcasting Group, Nordstrom and several of the 100 brand advertisers around the globe. Prior to establishing Soma 365, Karen spent over fifteen years in front of the camera as well as behind the camera as a successful international model and art director. Largely due to Karen's cross-departmental direction, Soma 365 has evolved in to an effective and profitable hub for premium content and content discovery.
[Email Karen]

In today's digital marketplace, creating an educational and entertaining game is just the beginning. Karen Morgan speaks about designing the entire experience by following the 5 C’s:
Content
Community
Campaigns
Commerce
Conversion

Get Discovered & Grow: Reaching the Right Mobile Gamers with Facebook

Dan MORRIS, Mobile Games Partnerships, Facebook

Dan Morris is the global lead for mobile games partnerships at Facebook. Prior to joining Facebook, Dan served as senior director for partnerships at DeNA, leading North American business development for the world's biggest mobile-games publisher. He was previously director of strategy and development at Electronic Arts, and began his career as a journalist covering the video games industry.
[Email Dan]

One of the biggest problems for games on any platform is getting discovered by the right people. With unique reach across mobile and desktop and users who play a diversity of games, Facebook can help your mobile game find and engage its audience. In this session, you will learn how Facebook provides multiple paths to success for developers by connecting the game experience across platforms, bringing more valuable users to your game, and partnering with smaller game studios.

2:30-2:50

The Perfect Store - Getting Users to the In-game Stores and Keeping Them There

Yaniv NIZAN, CEO & Co-Founder, SOOMLA

Yaniv Nizan is the CEO and Co-Founder of SOOMLA, the platform for Creating In-App Purchase Stores for Mobile Games. Yaniv is also a writer with articles featured in blogs such as: Gamasutra, Gamesauce, Gamedev and blog.soom.la and a speaker in different industry events.
[Email Yaniv]

Based on research spanning more than 50 of the top In-Game stores and interviews with leading game designers, SOOMLA has developed a system for giving users an in-game shopping experience that will keep them engaged with your game and specifically with the store component. This session will focus on practical advice and guidelines for building the perfect store.

From the Mouths of Babes: Re-learning How to Design a Game by Watching Kids Play

Kelly FENNIG, Producer, Slant Six Games

Kelly Richard Fennig was Producer for Slant Six Games' Max's Pirate Planet - A Board Game Adventure. Past notable gaming projects include Sleeping Dogs and Galactic Reign. As an actor and musician, he stars in the award winning feature film Hit 'n Strum.
[Email Kelly]

Slant Six Games is a studio recognized for mature-themed titles. Our challenge: to create a fun tablet game for young children. We made Max’s Pirate Planet – A Board Game Adventure and along the way discovered that what we considered “fun” and what kids consider “fun” may be two different things. Learn how we embraced, nurtured and re-connected with our inner child to make a compelling game through observation, psychology and the release of inhibitions.

The Power of Touch

Jesse SCHELL, CEO, Schell Games

Jesse is the CEO of Schell Games, the largest videogame studio in Pennsylvania. He also serves as Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University. Jesse has worked on a wide variety of innovative game and simulation projects for both entertainment and education, but he is best known for his award winning book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses and for Beyond Facebook, a talk at the 2010 DICE Summit where he described a future where games and life become indistinguishable. He is a former chair of the International Game Developers Association, and in 2004 he was named one of the world's Top 100 Young Innovators by MIT Technology Review. Before starting his own company, Jesse was the Creative Director of the Walt Disney Imagineering Virtual Reality Studio, which helped to develop interactive theme park attractions as well as Toontown Online, the first massively multiplayer game for children. Before that, he worked as writer, director, performer, juggler, comedian, and circus artist for both Freihofer's Mime Circus and the Juggler's Guild.
[Email Jesse]

Touch gaming snuck up on us fast, but humans have been touching the world since before they were humans. This talk takes a deep look at the past, present, and future of touch-based gaming, and how it is changing the next generation of gamers.

3:00-3:20

Case Studies on Successful Ad-based Monetization Strategies

Damon MARSHALL, VP Business Development, SupersonicAds

Damon has over 17 years of experience in consumer technology and connected entertainment. He heads Business Development for SupersonicAds, a leading full-service monetization platform for mobile and online games. Damon has held a number of roles in the video games industry, including having worked for IGN Entertainment, WeGame and Macrovision over the past eight years. His achievements include the successful acquisition of WeGame by Tagged.com in September 2011, managing the launch of IGN's independent games digital distribution channel and spearheading the "Indie Open House" project, a community outreach program providing aspiring game developers resources to help them achieve their goals. A native of Los Angeles, Damon lives in the Bay Area with his wife and two children.
[Email Damon]

With all the options available for integrating an ad-based monetization solution into your game service, it's hard to tell which ones are "worth it" and which are red herrings. While the industry is still new enough to be shaking itself out in terms of clear "best practices", it is useful to look at the strategic approaches successful companies are taking and analyzing why these approaches are working. Damon Marshall from Supersonic Ads layout out some proven successful strategies and shares insights as to why these strategies were successful and where they might have been improved further.

Don't Be THAT Guy: Kid- and Family-Friendly Marketing

Dr. Carla ENGELBRECHT-FISHER, Founder, No Crusts Interactive

Dr. Carla Engelbrecht Fisher is the founder of No Crusts Interactive, a game design firm that blends progressive educational philosophies with engaging game design. Under her direction, No Crusts designed numerous titles including Sesame Street: Elmo’s Musical Monsterpiece (Nintendo Wii and DS), Little Wally Ball-y Ball (iPad), and the indie game Williamspurrrrg (iPad).
[Email Carla]

Children and family app developers are caught in a crowded, competitive universe where discoverability is critical to financial viability, yet traditional channels of marketing and revenue generation are fraught with troubles. Advertising to children is taboo. One slip of a freemium model and your studio is a villain for life because some child charged a gajillion dollars to his parent's credit card. This session explores methods of marketing your content to maximize reach in a family-friendly way.

A Case Study of the IGN People's Choice Award Winner: Fairway Solitaire

Pat WYLIE, VP of Studios, Big Fish

Patrick Wylie is Vice President of Studios at Big Fish in Seattle. Over the last 8 years he oversaw the creation of many award winning brands like Fairway Solitaire, Mystery Case Files, Drawn and most recently Fetch. Prior to his tenure at Big Fish, Patrick produced Moonbase Commander (winner of IGN's 2002 award for Best Game No One Played) and several Backyard Sports games during his 9-year tenure at Humongous Entertainment, the leader in children's adventure and sports games. Patrick has a BS in Microbiology from the University of Washington but opted not to become a doctor because if you are going to lose sleep at night, it's way more fun doing it playing video games.
[Email Pat]

Every game has its successes and even successful games, like Fairway Solitaire, have their failures. Fairway Solitaire managed to make a fun game out of combining two incredibly boring pastimes, but is that enough to be successful? What does it take to make a successful game? How do you push innovation and creativity in companies that focus on the almighty "business model"? Pat Wylie, VP of Big Fish Studios and a 17-year game industry veteran, will either succeed or fail at breaking it all down.

3:30-3:50

Free To Play Mobile Monetization 2.0

Brian SAPP, Director of Developer Partnerships, Tapjoy

As Tapjoy’s Director of Developer Partnerships, Brian works closely with mobile game developers of all sizes, from two person indie teams working on a shoe string budget to multinational gaming corporations, helping them successfully navigate the increasingly competitive mobile landscape. Prior to joining Tapjoy, Brian conceptualized and founded the music discovery site Fuzzedout.com and worked for Sony Entertainment. Brian is a graduate of the University of Southern California.
[Email Brian]

Today's highly competitive mobile gaming environment favors developers who delicately balance engagement while maximizing monetization. In this presentation Brian Sapp, Tapjoy's Director of Developer Partnerships, will discuss the next evolution in mobile gaming "Monetization 2.0." Moving beyond the 'paywall and virtual goods sales' of early mobile games, today's monetization requires a higher level of sophistication. From limited time events, to currency sales, to correct virtual good pricing, understanding each facet of a virtual economy is critical to achieving success on mobile.

Topics Discussed:
• Optimal premium currency exchange rates
• Importance of localizing in foreign markets
• Currency sales
• Limited time events "Japanese Secret Sauce"
• Understanding user segmentation
• Understanding all advertising solutions
• Importance of UI on Monetization

Incorporating Player Feedback in the Game Design Process

Eric CANTINI, CEO, Sunstorm Games

Eric Cantini is the CEO of Sunstorm Games, a mobile gaming company with >80 titles, 1M DAU and 10M MAU. Eric has spent his career working at the intersection of technology, marketing and consumer preferences. Prior to joining Sunstorm Games, Eric was a managing partner at Publicis-owned Rosetta, one of the largest interactive marketing agencies in the U.S.
[Email Eric]

Sunstorm Games' design process, focusing on how the company creates games with a broad young audience in mind- in particular, Sunstorm Games' focus on the importance of responding to and incorporating player feedback.

The Future of Mobile & Online Game Marketing

Jan BECKERS, CEO & Founder, HitFox Group

Serial Entrepreneur Jan Beckers has founded 5 successful companies before starting HitFox Group. Most recently, he has been Co-Founder and Managing Director of SponsorPay – a leading global monetization platform for Online, Social and Mobile Games. Prior to that, Jan co-founded Mobile Marketing Platform Madvertise and Job-Platform Absolventa.
[Email Jan]

After rapid developments in the fields of mobile and online games distribution in the past few years it’s time to take a step back and have a look at the bigger picture. What is the current state of game marketing? And more importantly, what will the future bring in this ever changing environment? Serial entrepreneur and HitFox Group CEO Jan Beckers will analyze the current state of mobile and online game marketing and user acquisition, then give an outlook on the development in the coming years.

4:00-4:20

Ad Networks: Comparing the Options

Kelly MULLINS, Sr. Director Optimization, EA

[Email Kelly]

Each day, new ad network partners pop up like daisies in the spring, and sorting out the opportunities is a confusing task. Some product managers have reached “opportunity fatigue,” choosing to focus on optimizing known opportunities, while others are still trying out the latest stuff in an attempt to find a competitive edge or hidden arbitrage angle. Dave Madden, SVP of Global Media Solutions at EA, attempts to bring some clarity to this muddle with a simple compare and contrast of the services and strengths of top companies in the free-to-play games ad services sphere.

Playing Outside the Box: True Cross-platform Design and Development | 4:00 - 4:50

Thomas BLEYER, Managing Director, Ravensburger Digital
Mark DONOVAN, President, Xfire
Lisa PAULSON, VP Business Development, A+E Networks
Moderator: Joost VAN DREUNEN, Co-Founder and CEO, SuperData Research

Thomas founded Ravensburger Digital in 2009, as part of Ravensburger group, which is Europe's largest traditional games publisher, and has been running Ravensburger's digital & hybrid games unit as managing director since then. Prior to joining Ravensburger Thomas spent 12 years in the tech/VC/start-up space, being a repeat entrepreneur as well as venture capital investor.
[Email Thomas]

Mark is the President of Xfire, the ultimate social application and network for gamers. Xfire has over 22 million users from across the planet capturing in-game screenshots and videos, broadcasting their game play live and chatting with friends in over 3300 titles. Mark was integral in the company's spin-out from Viacom as well as in raising its series A financing led by Intel Capital. His current focus within Xfire is leading the development and marketing of Battleground, the company's competitive gaming platform.

Prior to Xfire, Donovan was co-founder of Titan Gaming (Now Playsino), a social casino gaming company and developers of the Titan Platform, which allowed for game developers quickly integrate skill gaming into their titles. The company was incorporated in 2006 and raised financing from some of the top angel investors in California including Tomorrow Ventures, Michael Robertson (MP3.com) and William Quigley (Clearstone Venture Partners).

Mark has significant experience in the government of Canada's SR&ED; tax credit program. He has filed over 25 successful claims in a wide variety of sectors and was also a co-founder of Startup Edmonton, a non-profit events driven organization dedicated to expanding the startup scene in Edmonton Alberta.
[Email Mark]

Lisa joined the A+E games team with more than 18 years of sales and marketing experience in the videogame industry and a strong record of developing revenue generating partnerships. Prior to A+E, Lisa held the position of VP of Business Development and Marketing at Arcadia a start-up focused on building a 3D virtual world for casual gamers. Lisa joined Arcadia from Oberon Media where she held the position of Mobile Business Development Director; managing key carrier relationships for content sales and collaborating with tier one partners, such as Verizon and Comcast, on their platform convergence strategy. Purchased by Oberon in 2006, Blaze Entertainment was a mobile games publisher where Lisa managed all aspects of U.S. sales and marketing including carrier and license partner relations. She was formerly the Sr. Director of Strategic and OEM Sales at Electronic Arts where she secured revenue and marketing deals with worldwide partners including: Compaq, Sega, Pepsi, and THQ. Lisa holds a BA degree from Indiana University.
[Email Lisa]

Joost is fascinated by games and human behavior. He has over fifteen years of commercial research experience in interactive entertainment and technology industries, and was also one of the first academics to study video games. After receiving a doctorate from Columbia University on the topic, he founded SuperData to create greater transparency in the worldwide online, mobile and digital games markets. In early 2010 the company secured multi-year seed funding and today SuperData is a leading games industry researcher, specialized in online games. Clients include publishers such as Electronic Arts, Activision, SEGA, Zynga and Pokémon as well as all the major Wall Street firms. In addition to his business adventures, Joost teaches at the NYU Game Center. He lives in the East Village in New York, with his wife Janelle and son Maximus.
[Email Joost]

True cross-platform development means designing games that live in both the digital and the real world. For all their creativity, many game designers tend to limit themselves to a single medium or platform. A concentrated effort can pay off in a big way when focusing on a single, quickly-growing platform. Setting up a partnership with a platform provider can greatly benefit marketing efforts and quickly put a game in front of a large audience. But to build a long-term, sustainable business, it makes a lot more sense to design and develop with more than a single platform in mind. In this panel we’ll hear from key executives who, each in their own way, wrestle with what it means to develop and publish across platforms. How does a digital property break out of the box and position itself in the physical world? And how does a traditionally physical games company stay relevant as audiences become increasingly tech savvy?

Global Monetization of Games: Emerging Markets as Drivers of Growth

Peter WARMAN, CEO, Newzoo

Peter Warman (1971) is CEO and Co-founder of Newzoo, the games market research and consulting firm, servicing clients across all game business models and continents, such as Valve, Microsoft, EA, Wizards of the Coast, Nvidia, Plantronics and Changyou. After being responsible for sales and business development at Europe’s largest interactive agency (LBi), he was responsible for internet development at Reed Business and operated as commercial director for a MMO for kids. Peter is a frequent speaker on the business aspects of the games industry. Peter enjoys opera as well as good German techno.
[Email Peter]

The ongoing and dramatic changes in the games industry have made it difficult to monitor the “total picture”, let alone look ahead to the future of our industry on a global scale. In terms of monetization, what were classified as emerging markets only years ago are now leading Western established markets. Peter Warman, CEO of Newzoo, will share exclusive results of a 12-month research and analysis project which combines worldwide consumer research, transactional data and financial analysis across all consumer screens. Key growth segments and regions will be sized, profiled, projected and placed into a global perspective.

4:30-4:50

Sell, Sell, Sell!

Jon WINTERMEYER, Business Development Manager, Paymentwall, Inc.

Jon Wintermeyer has been at Paymentwall for over 2 years and is now leading the business development team in all five of Paymentwall's offices. Even though Jon is based out of the San Francisco office, you will see him regularly going where Paymentwall's merchants are including Europe, South America, Asia and more. A manager who likes to do--meaning he still works closely with a number of Paymentwall merchants in making sure they are earning the most revenue by taking advantage of all the Paymentwall services.
[Email Jon]

Increasing the conversion rate of your users can be done with a number of different tools. By finding out what your users really need for making payments, you can bring up the ARPU along with increasing user engagement. With games being made available all over the world, it is now more important than ever to understand and acknowledge the different markets by providing your users local and seamless experiences throughout the game--even in the checkouts page.

50 Games, 50 Takeaways: A Writer Looks Back

Edward KUEHNEL, Lead Writer, FableLabs

Ed Kuehnel is a twelve-year industry veteran and a critically-acclaimed writer/narrative designer of over fifty video games for developers such as Telltale Games, Twisted Pixel Studios, GameHouse, iWin and many more. He is a former contributor to The Onion and his first film, Lumberjack Man, is due to be released in late 2013. He is currently a Lead Writer with FableLabs, a San Francisco-based start up.
[Email Ed]

Glean insights from a game designer/writer who has worked on over 50 games in the social, mobile, console and downloadable arenas- including some of the most well-regarded story-based casual games to date. Covers pre-design to post-production and everything in between.

Continental Ballroom - Hall B: Free-to-Play

August 1:
F2P - Production

Emcee: Mike ARKIN, Independent Producer and Developer

With a 25+ year creating video games, Mike has worked as a producer and a studio head on both the publishing and development side of the video game business. Working at companies like Acclaim, Fox, Activision and Crave, Mike has shipped over 150 games including some top franchises like WWF/WWE, The Simpsons, Die Hard, Battlezone, UFC and Tokyo Xtreme Racer. After running his own studio, Zono Inc. for 3 years, Zono was acquired by Mumbo Jumbo in 2006 and became MJLA with Mike as General Manager. Mike later ran the LA office of Skyworks Entertainment, shipping three top-10 iOS games.

Mike now acts as an independent producer and developer, shipping mobile apps and consulting. As a consultant, he has been an expert witness, an occasional conference speaker and mentor to start-ups and incubators.
[Email Mike]

July 31:
F2P - Operations

Emcee: Scott FOE, Chief Creative Officer, Big Head Mode, Inc.

Called the "Quentin Tarantino of Videogames" by Escapist Magazine, Scott Foe is a fifteen year veteran of the games industry who began his career as a member of the team that developed and launched the Sega Dreamcast, the world's first online games console. Currently, Foe serves as Chief Creative Officer for Big Head Mode, Inc., a social/mobile games studio headquartered in San Francisco. Foe's Interactive Achievement Award-nominated game Reset Generation was listed by Pocket Gamer beside Angry Birds as "one of the-most important handheld games of all-time," and Giant Bomb called Foe's most-recent title, Douche Defender, "one of the most-important simulations of human drama ever played."
[Email Scott]

July 30:
F2P - Design

Emcee: Scott FOE, Chief Creative Officer, Big Head Mode, Inc.

9:00-9:20

Matthew KELLIE, Player Acquisition, Supercell

Matthew Kellie began working with the Supercell team in October of 2012 developing growth and user acquisition strategies for top grossing titles, Clash of Clans and Hay Day. Previously, Matt helped roll up the transition of the marketing organization within Funzio to GREE. Prior to the games industry, Matt focused on performance advertising and rich media products with Mojiva Mobile.
[Email Matthew]

As developers continue to search for install volume, how do we reach new audiences and grow market share beyond those who identify as 'Gamers?' While many user acquisition strategies focus on creative performance, perhaps our biggest opportunity for growth is in focusing on and honing the message.

9:30-9:50

Rik HAANDRIKMAN, Director of Business Development, GamePoint

Rik Haandrikman will discuss the pros and cons of mutiplayer. Has cross platform multiplayer moved from being a fun novelty to a bare necessity? Is synchronous multiplayer a viable option for mobile devices? How do you gain critical mass for a new multiplayer game? Does longer LTV outweigh the higher barrier to entry for multiplayer? What are the pros and cons of a vibrant community?
[Email Rik]

Keith KAWAHATA, VP of Studio Operations, Kabam

Keith Kawahata is Vice President and General Manager of Kabam Studios, the western world leader in free-to-play core games. Keith manages a 130-person team in San Francisco and Austin, Tex. and oversees all aspects of game development, from concept to build to live operations. Since taking the helm in 2011, Keith has grown franchise Kingdoms of Camelot to become one of the top ten strategy franchises of all-time. In addition to Kingdoms of Camelot, Keith's other selected titles include Realm of the Mad God, Glory of Rome, and The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age. Prior to Kabam, Keith was a Sales Manager for Aeria Games & Entertainment where he was responsible for U.S. revenue. Before that, he was a Project Manager for Duke Capital Partners. Keith received his B.S. in Finance from Santa Clara University where he graduated cum laude. He is a veteran Sergeant of the United States Army Special Operations.
[Email Keith]

The midcore games segment is primed for growth as developers and publishers realize the revenue potential from this audience of gamers. But with this new trend comes heated competition to create and market midcore titles in a crowded market. Keith Kawahata, Vice President & General Manager, Kabam Studios, will discuss the characteristics that make up midcore gamers and take a deeper dive on their growing importance within the industry. His lecture will also detail what it takes to develop quality titles for this powerful audience, including the scale, scope and rising development costs of midcore games in today’s market.

10:00-10:20

Mathieu NOUZARETH, CEO and Co-Founder, FreshPlanet Inc.
Elliot SOLOMON, VP Americas, Unity
Lisa PAULSON, VP Business Development--Games, A&E;
Rob SANDBERG, Sr. Producer, Reliance Entertainment Digital
Moderator: Neal SINNO, SVP, Casual & Mobile Games, Arkadium

Paris-born, serial web entrepreneur Mathieu Nouzareth is CEO of FreshPlanet, the New York-based developer of the highly-popular social mobile game SongPop, the turn-by-turn, simulated real-time play game for music lovers that has built a global following of over 80 Million, players since its launch in June 2012.

Mathieu Nouzareth began his career in 1995 at 23 by co-founding WebConcept, one of France’s first e-business consulting firms. WebConcept was sold to Sweden’s IconMedialab of Sweden in 1999, and is one the largest internet consultancy companies in the world. From 1999 to 2001, Mathieu acted as CEO of IconMedialab France.

In 2001, Mathieu and his brother Romain started Boonty.com, a digital game distribution company. Operating in over 30 countries with a staff of 180, the company was sold to Nexway (France) in 2008 and is currently one of the world’s leading game distribution platforms.

In 2006, the Nouzareth brothers founded Is Cool Entertainment, social casual game publisher which is now listed on the NYSE-Alternext market (ALIS) and has become one Europe’s largest Facebook game developers.

In 2009, Mathieu moved to New York where he and Romain founded the game company, FreshPlanet, where Mathieu currently acts as CEO.

Mathieu is a graduate of the Grenoble School of Management and holds an MBA from Pace University in New York. He is a frequent panelist at tech conferences such as LeWeb Paris, CES Las Vegas, GDC or CrunchUp.
[Email Mathieu]

Elliot is the Vice President, Americas for Unity Technologies and is responsible for Unity’s business in the Americas. Prior to Unity, he was Vice President Business Development for Omek Interactive, an Intel funded startup focused on motion control middleware for providing Kinect-like experiences on non-Microsoft platforms. As Director Business Development for Disney Interactive Media Group, Elliot led business development activities for Disney’s virtual world business. Prior to Disney, he was General Manager Business Development for RealGames, the online games division of RealNetworks. Elliot has an MBA from Pepperdine, currently lives in San Francisco.
[Email Elliot]

Rob Sandberg, Senior Producer at Reliance Games, is a veteran videogame producer who has worked in the industry since 1995 in development and publishing with tenure including Westwood Studios, Electronic Arts, Liquid Entertainment, Crave Games and Groove Games. He has production credits in over twenty games on just about every platform including PC’s, multiple console generations and most recently smartphones and tablets. The portfolio of titles Rob has shipped range from triple-A original IP, to licensed value titles. Some of his credited games include:Command and Conquer, Freedom Force, UFC Throwdown, Battle Realms, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 and Blitz: The League. Recently, Rob has turned his eye toward the iTunes and Google Play app stores, along with the free-to-play business model. In this role he builds games and optimizes them for improved acquisition, retention and monetization. In addition to being an illustrator and concept designer, Rob is a certified project manager (PMP™), agile maven and trained in information architecture.
[Email Rob]

Neal Sinno brings 15 years experience in market opportunity assessment, product development, and sales management. Prior to joining Arkadium, Neal was Vice President of Business Development at Game Trust. There he managed key relationships with partners to develop network, channel, search and advertising opportunities, and was a member of the executive team responsible for the company's acquisition by Real Networks. Prior to his role at Game Trust, Neal worked at Mellon Financial Corp, where he was the Director of E‐Commerce Product Development. Within his role there, he led a global team of developers, designers and actuaries to create state of the art web‐based financial applications. A seasoned sales and e‐business product specialist, Neal has also held key leadership roles at The New York Times and Lucent Technologies. Neal sits on the board of advisors for the Casual Games Association and frequently speaks at key industry events.
[Email Neal]

With the constant emergence of new platforms and operating systems, how do you navigate the cross-platform world and create a seamless game experience for users? From Facebook and the Web, to iOS and Android, developers can now expand the reach of their gamers, increase engagement and create better monetization. Leading developers on each platform will discuss the challenges and benefits of a cross-platform experience, the future opportunities for disruptive innovation, best practices, and the state of each marketplace.

Mike GOSLIN, General Manager, Rebel Entertainment

A respected veteran of the interactive entertainment industry, Mike Goslin is the general manager of Rebel Entertainment, an innovative game studio currently developing and publishing social and web-based games including the innovative and award-winning Dungeon Rampage, available on Facebook and on the web at DungeonRampage.com.
[Email Mike]

The accessibility of mobile devices has caused a rapid migration of gamers toward casual platforms in recent years, giving way to a new set of mid-core gamers who have outgrown simple casual games for richer experiences. Rebel Entertainment’s Mike Goslin will explain how developers can ditch single-player click games for synchronous multiplayer gameplay, and successfully incorporate hardcore elements into their casual games, including:
• Deep RPG leveling
• Rich story progression
• Advanced end-game play with player guilds
• High quality animation and audio

Tim LETOURNEAU, CCO, Zynga

Tim LeTourneau, Chief Creative Officer, Zynga A 20+ year veteran of the games industry, Tim LeTourneau joined Zynga in 2011 and currently serves as Chief Creative Officer. Prior to this role, Tim was VP of Games at Zynga where he oversaw the creation of FarmVille 2, which ranks as one of most popular games on Facebook according to AppData.

Before joining Zynga, Tim served as VP and General Manager of The Sims Studio at Electronic Arts.
[Email Tim]

There's a lot to think about when designing a free-to-play game, but we've got a pretty good idea about where you should start. Join Tim LeTourneau, chief creative officer at Zynga, as he shares a formula for conceptualizing and delivering lasting free-to-play games. Learn how to plan for future growth, develop in-game economies that stand the test of time and unlock meaningful social connections between your players.

10:30-10:50

Mike LU, VP of Product, GREE International Inc.

Mike Lu is the VP of Product at GREE where he oversees teams working on popular games like Crime City, Modern War, and Kingdom Age as well as upcoming new titles. His titles have reached top charts for both IOS and Android. He has over 10 years of product experience working in mobile social games and online media. Mike was the executive producer at Funzio when it was acquired by GREE and previously he was the General Manager of popular social mobile gaming company RockYou and employee number five at Yume.
[Email Mike]

Mike Lu, VP of Product at GREE International Inc, will sit down and talk about how GREE uses the community to help maintain and build on the success of ther games using live-ops. Seing a direct correlation between happiness of their player and where the games live in the top grossing charts, this will be an open discussion of how game developers use several touch points - from forums to analytics - to gauge what the players are looking for and how to keep retention and engagement high and consistent. Mike will use Modern War, Crime City, and Kingdom Age as case studies to show how the team at GREE has worked to make this happen.

Jon RADOFF, CEO and Founder, Disruptor Beam

Jon Radoff is the CEO & Founder of Boston-based Disruptor Beam, which is disrupting the current social gaming landscape by leveraging Jon’s experience with software platforms, analytics and online communities. A lifelong entrepreneur, Jon is the founder of NovaLink, online publisher of Legends of Future Past; Eprise, a content management system; and, GamerDNA, a social media company driven by real-time gamer behavior.
[Email Jon]

When serial entrepreneur and game developer Jon Radoff secured the license to develop the first social game based on the Game of Thrones TV and book series, his vision was to step away from point-click-click social gaming and to create an immersive experience reminiscent of many console / PC games. In this session, Jon will share a postmortem of Game of Thrones Ascent, explaining how Disruptor Beam created a story-driven gameplay experience, unlike anything seen in many “casual” games.

11:00-11:20

Matt SHEA, EVP, WildTangent

Matt Shea has been with WildTangent since April 2002 and is responsible for the company’s technology and product development. He is the co-creator of WildTangent’s WildCoins digital currency and the WildTangent ORB game console. Prior to WildTangent, Shea was the Games Group Engineering Manager at InfoSpace, Inc. where he led development across various platforms and devices. Prior to InfoSpace, Shea held the position of Engineering Director for Games at Go2Net, Inc. In that role, he oversaw large-scale online game sites including PlaySite, Lycos Games and Hasbro’s Games.com. Matt got his start in the games industry at Sony Interactive Studios working on 3D graphics and massively multiplayer games while he received his B.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of California at San Diego.
[Email Matt]

Are you scared to self-publish your free-to-play title? You should be. It’s like buying a lottery ticket and hoping your game is the next big winner. Chances are you don’t have a proper plan in place and you’re leaving your game up to fate. Don’t let your game become an expensive losing lottery ticket. This session will discuss how to build and integrate the tools you need to successfully self-publish a f2p game.

Robert WINKLER, CEO, 5th Planet Games
Mike SEGO, Gaming Entrepreneur
Ken SETO, CEO & Founder, Massive Damage
Josh NILSON, COO & Co-Founder, East Side Games
Bryan MASHINTER, Producer, Backflip Studios
Moderator: Mike THOMPSON, Creative Writer, 5th Planet Games

Robert Winkler is the co-founder and chief executive officer of 5th Planet Games, a leading independent game development studio that combines hardcore gaming experiences with deep social interactions to create a new genre of social games. Robert oversees all game design for the company, including development of such hits as Dawn of the Dragons, Legacy of a Thousand Suns, Clash of the Dragons, Legacy of Heroes and more. Follow him at @RobWinkler.
[Email Robert]

A social media entrepreneur and pioneer in online gaming, Mike Sego was previously the CEO at Gaia Online and led the company’s expansion into social games, including Monster Galaxy, the most popular RPG on Facebook on 2011 (peaking at 15M MAU). Mike was chief product officer at Gaia for six months prior to assuming the CEO role. Prior to Gaia, Mike was the creator and developer of (fluff)Friends, the first Facebook game to monetize with virtual currency, which he sold to Social Gaming Network in August 2008. Previously, Mike served as the technical lead for Gmail, and prior to his role at Google, Mike was a software engineer at Electronic Arts on The Sims Online. Mike attended Stanford University, where he earned a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science, with a focus on Human-Computer Interaction.
[Email Mike]

Ken is an experienced mobile app and game designer who is currently the CEO/Co-founder of Massive Damage. Massive Damage is a Toronto gaming studio dedicated to building the future of massively multiplayer games on mobile. They’ve released a top-grossing hit game called Please Stay Calm, a location-based, massively multiplayer zombie apocalypse game for the iPhone and iPad. He is also the co-founder of Endloop Mobile, a leading mobile development studio building some of the most entertaining and innovative iPhone and iPad applications on the market, garnering media attention from Wired, Mashable, WSJ and others. Ken is well-regarded for his passion and expertise in mobile, gaming, social media and user experience design.
[Email Ken]

Josh Nilson is the COO and co-founder of East Side Games, a proudly-independent studio creating humorous and addicting social/mobile games. Their cult classic game Pot Farm is still going strong on Facebook three years later and has had over 8 million unique players. East Side Games strongly believes in community-driven design, building games pitched internally, and having the best culture around. And they have the best hoodies in the business, seriously.
[Email Josh]

Hailing from Backflip Studios in Boulder, Colorado, Bryan Mashinter has most recently been the Producer on games like Paper Toss 2.0, Ragdoll Blaster 3, Army of Darkness and 2012 Top Grossing App DragonVale. He likes to write about himself in the third person, used to be the lead singer of an 80’s cover band, hates entropy, loves beer and revels in any chance to bring order to chaos.
[Email Bryan]

Mike Thompson is a creative writer at 5th Planet Games. Prior to this, he covered the social games industry as Lead Writer at Inside Social Games; during his career as a journalist, he regularly contributed to sites like The Escapist, Gamezebo, and Ars Technica focusing on technology and video games. Mike earned undergraduate degrees in Advertising, Journalism, and Photography from Northern Arizona University.
[Email Mike]

Community building is one of the most important components of any Free-To-Play game. A strong community can not only help boost player engagement, loyalty, and overall fun, but have a dramatic impact on monetization and even future development as well. What are the best practices for implementing and nurturing an effective community strategy? Our panel of successful F2P game developers looks at what has worked, what hasn’t, and what have been their biggest stumbling blocks in building strong player communities.

Greg COSTIKYAN, Sr. Game Designer, Playdom
Dan RUBENFIELD, Executive Producer, Kixeye
Ethan LEVY, Co-Founder, Quarter Spiral
Moderator: Scott FOE, Chief Creative Officer, Big Head Mode

Greg Costikyan has designed more than 30 commercially published games in almost every form, has founded two game companies, and won the Maverick Award at the GDC in 2007 for "tireless promotion of independent games." In the last several years, he has been designing social games for Disney Playdom and Guerillapps. In addition to his design work, he has a reputation as a scholar of games; The MIT Press published his book, Uncertainty in Games, this March, and his writings on games and game design are used in game studies programs across the globe.
[Email Greg]

Dan Rubenfield has been a game designer for over 17 years. He has worked on such titles as Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Sorcery, Playstation Home and many more. He currently lives in San Francisco and works at Kixeye where he is an Executive Producer.
[Email Dan]

Ethan Levy is a 10 year veteran game developer and simply lives for making games which bring joy to players’ hearts. Ethan started as an intern and tester at Pandemic Studios working on Star Wars: Battlefront and has contributed to over 20 shipped games in almost every role. At PlayFirst and iWin, Ethan 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, eventually 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. Ethan helped shepherd the studio through the transition to BioWare 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.
[Email Ethan]

Called the "Quentin Tarantino of Videogames" by Escapist Magazine, Scott Foe is a fifteen-year veteran of the games industry who began his career as a member of the team that developed and launched the Sega Dreamcast, the world's first online games console. Currently, Foe serves as chief creative officer for Big Head Mode, Inc., a social/mobile games studio headquartered in San Francisco. Foe's Interactive Achievement Award-nominated game Reset Generation was listed by Pocket Gamer beside Angry Birds as "one of the-most important handheld games of all-time," and Giant Bomb called Foe's most-recent title, Douche Defender, "one of the most-important simulations of human drama ever played."
[Email Scott]

In free-to-play gaming, business and design are inseperable to the point that designers are having to make business decisions on a daily basis--decisions which core industry veterans sometimes brand "evil." Well, let's get our "evil" on in the "Evil Game Design Challenge!" Three challengers compete, presenting an evil game design based around a secret theme, and the audience decides, "Who is the most evil game designer?!"

11:30-11:50

Juan GRIL, Studio Director, Joju Games
Steve MERETZKY, Former VP of Game Design, Playdom
Dave ROHRL, VP of Game Production, Funsockets

Juan heads the production at Joju Games. Joju produces online, social and multiplayer games for clients such as Atari, Addicting Games, Mindjolt/SGN, MTV Networks, Comedy Central, and Mochimedia. Juan has more than 13 years of experience developing online games. Previously, and as one of the first members of the Yahoo! Games team, Juan was the lead producer for the downloadable games area and community manager of multi player games. In the last year of his tenure at Yahoo!, Juan was the head of Yahoo! Games Studios.

Juan is a frequent speaker at industry events. He is an indie games Advisor at Casual Connect, an editor of the IGDA Casual Games White Paper, and an Advisor of the Social Games Summit at the Games Developers Conference. Juan holds a BFA in Electronic Media from the University of Illinois.
[Email Juan]

It’s hard to have a serious conversation about gaming without mention of Steve. It’s also hard to have a humorous conversation about gaming without mention of him. Steve’s contributions to the industry began in 1981 at the legendary adventure game company Infocom, where his titles included Planetfall, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (a collaboration with Douglas Adams), Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Zork Zero. Prior to joining Playdom, Steve co-founded Boffo Games and held senior creative posts at Blue Fang Games, Floodgate Entertainment and WorldWinner.com. Over his prolific career, Steve also consulted with teams at Activision, Blizzard, Disney, EA, Harmonix, Hasbro and Legend, to name a few. A former board member of IGDA, Steve is co-organizer of the Social and Online Games Summit at the GDC as well as the annual Game Designers Workshop. Steve holds a BS in construction project management from MIT, but otherwise assures us that he did not waste his four years there.
[Email Steve]

If you've played casual games on the Internet this century, odds are decent that you've played a game that Dave Rohrl touched. After beginning his career in edutainment, Dave moved to Pogo in 2000 where he created many of Pogo's best-loved franchises, including Word Whomp and Tumble Bees. He also co-founded Pogo To Go, Pogo's downloadable game service. Dave was the founder and GM of PopCap's original San Francisco studio which created Plants vs. Zombies. Since 2000, Dave has been working in gaming at Zynga, Playdom, PopCap, and Pogo, where he has worked on popular titles like Zynga Poker, Scramble, Wild Ones, Mobsters 2, and Sorority Life. Dave now serves as VP of Game Production at FunSockets, where he oversees design and development on the company's premier game titles. Dave lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his two children and approximately 500 board games.
[Email Dave]

The last year has brought tremendous changes to free to play gaming in the mobile, desktop, and browser markets. This perennial favorite Casual Connect session has undergone a few changes as well. Newcomer Juan Gril joins grizzled industry veterans Dave Rohrl and Steve Meretzky as they look at the year's most important design and business trends in free-to-play gaming across all platforms. Thrill as they advance their slides, groan as their jokes fall flat, and leave scratching your head in amazement that you actually got some interesting insight.

12:00-12:30

12:30-12:50

Sevan KESSISSIAN, SVP Strategy & Content, G-cluster

Sevan Kessissian is a game industry and innovation expert who pioneered the digital distribution of games on the Internet as the first in Europe to distribute major AAA games. Prior to joining G-cluster, Sevan developed the strategy and games at ISCool Entertainment and led the team and content strategy of Cafe.com/Weka. As director of content at Boonty, a leading digital game distribution platform, Sevan pioneered bringing Pan European digital distribution of AAA games before retail launch together with UBISOFT. Sevan graduated from ISC Paris Business School, with a major in international business, and is a frequent speaker at industry events including Casual Connect, IDATE digiworld Summit, Cloud Gaming Summit and Insead MBA international program. When he is not running the strategy and content business at G-cluster, you’ll probably find him playing NBA 2K13 and Plants vs Zombies.
[Email Sevan]

Cloud Gaming technology allows a seamless access to a game entertainment on any devices and is seen by many as the future of gaming. Sevan Kessissian, SVP of Strategy and Content at G-cluster will propose to us a vision of the Value Chain in Cloud Gaming. G-cluster is leading the cloud gaming space with partners such as Ubisoft, Nvidia, Orange, SFR, Warner, Disney and Konami. Sevan will introduce to us the key players in the Cloud Gaming value chain and how they contribute. We will see with him the benefits and risks factors associated with this disruptive technology. He will share with us his knowledge based on 3 full years of large scale commercial cloud gaming deployment in Europe as well as the latest in Cloud Gaming from Japan.

Randy LEE, VP Global Development, CrowdStar

Randy Lee leads the global business development efforts at Crowdstar. This includes international market analysis, market entry strategy, partner negotiations/contracts, and revenue generation. Key international market expansions include China, Japan, South Korea, Europe and Russia. He also manages relationships, drives strategic initiatives and negotiates and closes complex deal structures with key partners such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, GREE, Microsoft and other mobile/consumer OEMs and social platforms.

Previously he was a board member of AAMA (Asia America MultiTechnology Association) and the VP and General Manager for the US at Symbio, a company designing and developing products for companies embracing transformational advances in communications and technology.
[Email Randy]

Randy will share specific tactics for game companies to successfully market mobile games to China, Japan and Korea. Lee will discuss Partnerships, Monetization, overcoming obstacles with Social Networks, and why you must see Asia as a marathon and not a sprint. Attendees will learn why female-themed games are growing in popularity in Asia and how CrowdStar brings top grossing games to the Asia app stores.

Ari MIR, CEO, Pocket Change

Ari Mir brings over ten years of entrepreneurial product leadership experience in the areas of social, mobile and e-commerce to his role at Pocket Change. He co-founded GumGum.com, the world’s largest In-image Ad-network, which reaches over 100 million unique visitors per month. Ari also co-founded MoJungle which was acquired by ShoZu. He has held senior product roles at BizRate/ShopZilla and LowerMyBills. He holds an undergraduate degree from University of Southern California.
[Email Ari]

The advent of virtual currencies with the rise of Bitcoin and others of its ilk is changing the way we interact with money as consumers, businesses and countries. Virtual micro-currencies have been popular in social and mobile games but are now broadening their sphere. It is not only paid micro-currencies but earned micro-currencies as well that are causing game developers to view their ecosystems in a different light. This talk will focus on the benefits of virtual micro-currencies, trends and future directions.

1:00-1:20

Gevorg SARGSYAN, CEO & Founder, Plexonic

Arbak MARTIROSYAN, Product Manager, Plexonic

Wade TINNEY, CEO and Founding Partner, Large Animal Games

Moderator: Jill SCHNEIDERMAN, SGN

Gevorg is the CEO and founder of Plexonic, which is the studio behind more than 35 awesome casual games. Gevorg is a serial entrepreneur who started several gaming companies like Flip Invert in Thailand and Teoken in Armenia. His direction in management, development and design leads Plexonic in creating games that are not only fun to play, but give people deep emotional experience. Some of great successes achieved by Plexonic team are games like Panda Jam, and Cassandra’s 11 recently released for iPhone and iPad.
[Email Gevorg]

Arbak’s passion towards games was sparked from early childhood. When he was 19, he became a game critic doing game reviews for various gaming portals. Eventually he ended up on Product Manager’s position at Plexonic, where he is responsible for multiple casual titles production. His team most recently released Cassandra’s 11 on iOS, a mysterious take on classical Eleven card game.
[Email Arbak]

Wade has been designing and developing games since 1996. He founded Large Animal Games with Josh Welber in January of 2001. He is an active member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and has led the New York City Chapter of the International Game Developers Association since 2006. Large Animal develops and publishes games that connect friends. Their Toga social game platform provides a complete tool set for running games as a service across multiple platforms and devices. Their recent titles include Color Zen (iOS and Android), Nomsters (iOS), Lonely Planet Photo Blitz (iOS/Facebook), and Universal Studios Film Mogul (Facebook). For more information about Large Animal, please visit http://www.largeanimal.com or connect with Wade on Twitter at http://twitter.com/largeanimal
[Email Wade]

Jill Schneiderman is VP of Games for SGN, running production and operations at the company's San Francisco location. Prior to joining SGN, Jill headed up business development and international sales for board game company Imagination Games.
[Email Jill]

Three fantastic work for hire gaming studios compete to see who delivers the best pitch for a new game. Each studio has been given the same RFP in advance; each has 15 minutes to convince the audience that they are the best studio for the job. The audience votes and crowns the winner! Great session for anyone looking for new studios to work with, and for studios who want to understand how to improve their pitch process.

Chris WILLIAMS, VP/GM F2P, Big Fish

Chris Williams has spent more than 14 years dedicated to the interactive entertainment industry. Before joining Big Fish games as VP & General Manager of Free-to-Play, he was the VP of Products & Strategy at PlayFirst, where he rapidly grew the iOS business, establishing Dash as one of the most successful gaming franchises in the App Store.
[Email Chris]

Big Fish has grown its F2P business from zero, a little more than a year ago, to one of its strongest revenue generators today. Join Chris Williams, Big Fish's VP and GM of free-to-play, to find out the traps and pitfalls that come with creating free-to-play games. How do you get your F2P games discovered? What game design monetizes the best? What timeline do you need to create and maintain to have a successful F2P game? What are the most relevant data points to grow your F2P IP? What social features should you employ? Walk away understanding free-to-play best practices.

Greg RICHARDSON, CEO, Rumble Entertainment

Greg Richardson is the founder and CEO of Rumble Entertainment, a company dedicated to developing and publishing irresistible and beautiful cross-platform multiplayer game experiences for connected gamers. For over 20 years, Greg has been a veteran and a visionary of the video games industry. After leading Product Development as Senior Vice President of Eidos Interactive, Greg joined Electronic Arts to serve as Vice President and General Manager of EA Partners. There he spearheaded major acquisitions and long-term partnerships with world-class developers, including DICE, Crytek, and Valve. Greg served as an investor with Elevation Partners, where he advised Palm on product development, marketing and developer relations, as well as serving on the board for SDI Media. While at Elevation, Greg helped source and the lead the investment in BioWare and Pandemic, combining and transforming the two companies, eventually serving as CEO of the newly formed BioWare/Pandemic for two years leading up to the company's sale to EA.
[Email Greg]

A confluence of factors have ripened the market for AAA-quality games to make their long-awaited appearance on emerging browser and mobile platforms. The combination of server technology, game-engine improvements, and the creative talent from the traditional game business have come together to create increasingly immersive and compelling game experiences. Gamers, people who spend meaningful amounts of media time and money on games have started to adopt the free-to-play model and are now playing more and more on new devices and networks. Greg Richardson will discuss how all of these factors play a role in creating truly mass market top quality games on new platforms and share examples and experiences from developing Rumble’s first game, KingsRoad, currently running a popular beta.

1:30-1:50

Aaron LOEB, VP, Group GM, EA Mobile

Aaron Loeb has been working in the games industry for two decades. He joined Electronic Arts in 2011 as a General Manager. In that time he has been a key player in EA's transition toward live services, helping to launch The Sims Social and as General Manager of The Simpsons: Tapped Out, EA's biggest mobile title. Today he is a Group General Manager in EA's All Play division. Before joining EA, Aaron was Producer, Director of Business Development and COO before being appointed CEO of Planet Moon Studios. Prior to Planet Moon, Aaron was Editor-in-Chief of Gamepen.com and UGO, and Director of Editorial and Technology at Future Publishing, and was the creator and chairman of the Game Critics Awards.
[Email Aaron]

Why do some live service games succeed and some fail? In this session, Electronic Arts Group General Manager Aaron Loeb will examine the importance of maximizing your development strategy around specific service goals (such as efficient acquisition, long-term retention, conversion). Loeb will also share EA data demonstrating that long-term retention is what makes a real hit possible. Aaron will draw on examples from EA’s mobile portfolio—including chart-toppers like Real Racing 3 , The Simpsons: Tapped Out and The Sims FreePlay—to illustrate the great potential created by live-service games and specific pre-launch and post-launch factors that must be considered in game development.

Antti HATTARA, Head of Studio, Wooga

Antti Hattara made his first mobile game in 2003 for Nokia smartphones running Symbian while studying at Helsinki University of Technology. He worked as product manager on several hit mobile games like Tower Bloxx, Mini Golf and Rollercoaster Rush series at Digital Chocolate. Later as VP Product Management, Antti helped the company move to free-to-play social games on Facebook and worked on titles like Zombie Lane and Army Attack. As of September 2011, he runs the Pocket Studio at Wooga. Antti's studio shipped the company's first mobile only title Pocket Village in April 2013.
[Email Antti]

There are lots of talks about the process of prototyping, but no hints on how to evaluate them to make the decisions. In this talk Antti Hattara, Head of Studio at Wooga, will tell how to evaluate prototypes and recognize the ones with great potential from the rest Antti will talk about the mobile developer’s creative and agile approach to finding those needles in a haystack and how good projects are put to rest and great ones given that all-important green light.

2:00-2:20

Bastien CAZENAVE, Co-Founder, Pretty Simple
Corentin RAUX, Co-Founder, Pretty Simple

Co-creator of hit social game of investigation Criminal Case, Bastien co-founded Pretty Simple in 2010 with Corentin Raux. He was among the first in France to start creating social games on Facebook in 2007. Bastien’s first million DAU game dates back to 2009, with Treasure Madness. He has worked in engineering since 2000, including over five years at IBM, and is a graduate of Ecole Centrale Paris.
[Email Bastien]

Co-creator of hit social game of investigation Criminal Case, Corentin co-founded Pretty Simple in 2010 with Bastien Cazenave. He was among the first in France to start creating social games on Facebook in 2007. Corentin’s first million DAU game dates back to 2009, with Treasure Madness. He is a Telecom ParisTech engineering graduate with creative experience in the film industry. He notably produced hit web series La Chanson du Dimanche, and also wrote and co-directed comedy movie L’incruste.
[Email Corentin]

This session looks at how social game of investigation Criminal Case rose to 9M DAUs in 6 months on Facebook, through exceptional retention and virality. Pretty Simple co-founders Corentin and Bastien will present their understanding of the relationship between virality and retention, and how these were effectively designed and implemented, with actual numbers and examples. They will also highlight how to leverage Open Graph stories to achieve efficient virality through this channel.

Jack EMMERT, CEO, Cryptic Studios

Jack Emmert co-founded Cryptic Studios in 2000. He was the lead designer on Cryptic's first title, City of Heroes. Since then, Jack has served as creative director, chief creative officer, chairman of the board and chief operating office. During this period Cryptic Studios has shipped Champions Online and Star Trek Online. In April 2010, Jack assumed the role of CEO and helped guide Cryptic Studios into a new era as part of Perfect World Entertainment. Recently, Cryptic launched the hit MMORPG Neverwinter. Jack is an avid comic book reader and all-around gamer.
[Email Jack]

Casual games embraced the F2P model more quickly and efficiently than MMORPG's, who stubbornly hung on to subscription models. I'll discuss how things are changing.

2:30-2:50

Andy YANG, CEO, Playhaven

Andy leads the strategic vision, global management and product and business development for PlayHaven, the leading lifetime value maximization platform for mobile games.

With more than 10 years of leadership experience building businesses and products, Andy has led the growth of PlayHaven from 400 games to more than 5,000 with monthly unique users exceeding 500MM.
[Email Andy]

From acquisition to engagement to monetization, it’s challenging to manage free-to-play games as a business. More and more creative solutions are coming to market that help you address specific business needs so you can focus on the art of your game, but how can you be sure you’re choosing the right suite of solutions for your game, your players and your business? Is your suite not so sweet?

Andy Yang from PlayHaven will share strategies to help you successfully run your game as a business and discuss best practices for leveraging the right partners for your game.

Fabien-Pierre NICOLAS, General Manager, Mobile, Perfect World

Fabien-Pierre Nicolas is General Manager, Mobile at Perfect World, the leading developer and publisher specializing in free-to-play online multiplayer games with hits like Dungeons & Dragon Neverwinter, Torchlight and Star Trek Online. In his role, he oversees the mobile publishing and content creation operation across the company’s mobile game portfolio.

Prior to his current role at Perfect World, Fabien was at DeNA, the world largest social mobile games company, overseeing their creative services, product marketing and user acquisition teams in the West across the company’s mobile game portfolio.

Previously, Fabien spent five years at Ubisoft where he handled strategic, brand and online marketing for major game franchises, including Far Cry, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia and Heroes of Might & Magic. Fabien holds an MBA from Grenoble Business School.
[Email Fabien]

The gaming industry tends to think of each platform as living in a vacuum where games are aimed towards a very specific, and sometimes elusive, core gamer. By comparing metrics and similarities between two very different gaming formats, PC and mobile, we will show how industry leaders should think of core gamers as one crowd, regardless of the platform.

3:00-3:20

Tomi HUTTULA, Senior Director, Product Management, Kabam

Tomi Huttula is a Senior Director of Product Management at Kabam, the western world leader in free-to-play core games. Tomi specializes in developing innovative, high-monetizing gaming products and is a leader in creating publishing platform solutions optimized for mobile free-to-play games. Previously, Tomi worked for Nokia on mobile social gaming platforms, as well as in the casino games industry as CEO for a Finland/Russia/Estonia-based games operator. Tomi is a Finn in the San Francisco area, where he has lived for eight years.
[Email Tomi]

Free-to-play game developers are facing the challenges of determining how much functionality they should build themselves and if they should use external frameworks and solutions. The typical social gaming platform feature set has remained almost unchanged for several years, but the mobile gaming market is changing rapidly. What should developers expect from future free-to-play optimized solutions? Kabam Senior Director Product Management Tomi Huttula will delve into what tools and services will help drive monetization and how to optimize social features for increased acquisition and retention in free-to-play games.

Leonard FRANKEL, Head of Business Development, Plarium

Leonard Frankel is Head of Business Development at Plarium, the second largest hard-core games developer on Facebook. Richly experienced in both business and technology, he is responsible for locating investment opportunities in various markets for Plarium. He is also leading Plarium into mobile and browser platforms, establishing collaborations and locating new technologies and services. Prior to joining the Plarium team, Leonard founded and managed Universal Business & Trading, a company developing an autonomous poker-playing system for real money online games.
[Email Leonard]

How we brought a hard-core strategy game to over 4m MAU in less than 3 months.

This will be a walkthrough of our game mechanics, user acquisition thoughts, platform integrations and payments.

Plarium is the 2nd largest HC games developer on Facebook with Stormfall: Age of War as one of its leading titles.

Greg COSTIKYAN, Senior Game Designer, Playdom

Playdom Senior Game Designer, and games industry luminary, Greg Costikyan believes that whales, players who pay an obscene amount in free-to-play games, are an endagered species.

3:30-3:50

Guy BENDOV, CEO, Sidekick Games

Guy Bendov is co-founder and CEO of Side-kick motion games, a developer of fun games that uses seamless interfaces such as motions, touch and voice commands. In June 2012 Side-kick launched Mini Ninjas Adventures, an Xbox Kinect exclusive, for Square ENIX. Guy is an interactive entertainment serial entrepreneur over the last 20 years experience. Prior to Side-kick, Guy Founded Double Fusion, a leader in the in-game advertising space, Cellular Magic and Click! Online, a casual games studio. In 2007 Guy founded GameIS, the Israeli games association.
[Email Guy]

Most experienced developers are used to a particular product cycle. First you brainstorm the concept, then you prototype and research, then you finalize your design and get down and dirty in heavy production, then you QA, finish, launch and start over with a new game. But that's not how Free to Play works! How do you keep a dev team directed, motivated, and happy when the designs are fluid, development is iterative, improvement is incremental, and launch is just the beginning of a long, long road? Join Guy Bendov, CEO of Sidekick Games as he remembers his teams' journey to embrace a service evolution reality and the challenges Sidekick overcame to get there.

Aaron BANNIN, Director of Product, Kongregate

Aaron Bannin is Director of Mobile Product at Kongregate, leading the monetization and analtyics initiative for Kongregate's mobile game publishing initiative. He works with game developers to leverage best practices and utilizes advanced testing and statistical models to ensure their success for their game. Prior to Kongregate, Aaron worked at GREE optimizing the live performance of titles such as Modern War and Kingdom Age. He also had the opportunity to work with indie developers such as Appy Entertainment, SkyVu, Riptide Studios, and Venan Games.
[Email Aaron]

Christopher ORY, Game Designer, The Playforge

Christopher Ory holds a Masters Degree in Social/Games Theory and has been designing alternate reality games and real-world gaming experiences for over a decade. Currently, Ory designs mobile collectible gaming experiences for The Playforge.
[Email Chris]

All of the monetization and retention secrets of the card battle game revealed!

4:00-4:20

Justin BECK, CEO, PerBlue

Justin Beck is the Co-Founder and CEO of PerBlue, a mobile gaming company in Madison, Wisconsin. The company’s flagship product is Parallel Kingdom, the first location-based RPG. Justin is a passionate software developer and entrepreneur. Beck has grown PerBlue from a group five college friends to a team of 30 employees.
[Email Justin]

The process of creating a thriving free-to-play mobile game is time consuming and painfully difficult. It means constantly feeding players new content and improving player experience, all the while keeping the in-game economy in balance. In the last four years, PerBlue has created and sustained a living, breathing virtual world in flagship mobile title, Parallel Kingdom. During this session we will share five critical components to PerBlue’s success in creating a sustainable and profitable free-to-play game.

Roxanne GIBERT, Product Manager of User Acquisition, DeNA

Roxanne is responsible for driving viral, cross promotion, and user acquisition features for DeNA’s Mobage social games platform. She has more than six years experience in the gaming industry working with top social, casual, and MMO game companies, including Zynga, Playdom and PlayFirst. She has produced a variety of games for Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, iPhone, and Android, such as Mafia Wars iPhone, Sorority Life, Mobsters 2, Market Street, and Diner Dash for Facebook.
[Email Roxanne]

This talk will focus on how to use analytics to drive game monetization, including best practices for planning for monetization within game design.

Dani ZUNIGA, Sr. Business Analyst, Machine Zone

Dani is a math centered social games veteran, who has shipped over 20 titles since 2003. Dani is pushing a paradigm shift in analytics and decision making. In 2008, he co-founded Ayumusoft to develop games for the newly opened iOS Appstore. In January 2009, Dani saw the potential of social games due to the use of analytics and minimum viable product design methodologies. Since then he never looked back to the console world and has wholly embraced the freemium model and analytics driven design.
[Email Dani]

When Facebook Games exploded in 2009 social interactions were viral yet shallow. This did well getting games noticed but did little to keep players engaged. Now, in 2013, we have come a long way - new social interactions keep players engaged even when they are away from a game.

4:30-4:50

Tzvi KOPETZ, Co-Founder & COO, Applicasa

Tzvi is Co-founder and COO of Applicasa. Since its arrival, internet and mobile have been his passion, which led him to co-found Applicasa. Applicasa is a platform that helps game developers increase their revenue through user segmentation and in-game promotions. Tzvi is in charge of business development and marketing, he loves to meet new people and insists that you contact him!
[Email Tzvi]

Creating high quality games is important for every studio’s success. The process of producing the game before launch and monetizing it after launch is another key factor to consider. With today’s services, every studio can produce and monetize faster and easier. Tzvi will discuss the pain points of game developers today and how they can avoid them by using the monetization and production tools available today. He will mention which ones are most important, show which types of tools to select according to the type of game being produced, and describe how they are different from one another.

Rob SANDBERG, Reliance Entertainment Digital

Millions of games are presently available for Andriod, iOS and other smart devices, and there are at least a hundred more games added to the list every single day. It’s time that we, as mobile game developers, pay attention to the fact that while an incremental number of games is being developed and published every year, only a small percentage (as low as 1 percent) of these games turn out to be a success story. In the context of a highly successful IP-based game, Real Steel, Rob Sandberg of Reliance Games will break down and discuss the scope of the options developers face:
1. Invest in the already successful game to increase repeat-play by augmenting the reach and user experience of the same game with innovative value additions. OR
2. Invest in an altogether new game with a fresh set of funding for its development; its fate eventually being decided by consumers.

Stanislav KINS, Executive Director, Rocket Jump

Stan Kins is an Executive Director of RJ Games, Russian game developer company for social networks and mobile devices. Stan has a high-skill background in the market of social media where he's working since 2007. In RJ Games Stan has lots of responsibilities such as company managment, business development, all-stages product managment, and also marketing.
[Email Stanislav]

Stan Kins has been building games for the Russian social market for many years. Recently his company, Rocket Jump, released their most successful game Under Siege (a hardcore Tower Defense/City Builder/RPG) on Facebook with a focus on the US market. In the process he found the transition from Eastern European to North American success to be full of surprises, pitfalls, challenges, and idiosyncrasies going far beyond the language displayed on the screen. Join Stan for a case study on how he and his team identified and navigated these free to play design challenges while chasing US success for Under Siege.

Golden Gate: Casino

August 1:
Casino

Emcee: Michael MARCHETTI, Former CEO, Buffalo Studios

Michael has been at the forefront of bringing gaming to the masses over the past 13 years, beginning with his role as a founding executive and Chief Financial Officer of JAMDAT Mobile in 2000, one of the first mobile game companies in the U.S. Michael was instrumental in JAMDAT's highly successful IPO in 2005 and its subsequent acquisition by Electronic Arts in 2006 for $680 million. At EA, Michael held various senior roles between 2006 and 2011, leading multiple platform and business model transitions in mobile, online and social games. Prior to leaving EA in 2011, Michael was SVP & COO of EA Interactive, responsible for worldwide mobile development. Most recently Michael was CEO of Buffalo Studios (creator of the popular Bingo Blitz franchise), which was sold to Caesars Interactive in December of 2012. Michael is currently working on a new mobile related venture. Michael began his career on Wall Street as a corporate lawyer at Cahill Gordon & Reindel and later as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Michael lives in Manhattan Beach, CA with his wife, son and daughter.
[Email Michael]

July 31:
Casino

Emcees: George ZALOOM, CEO, Goplay
Brock PIERCE, Managing Director, Clearstone Gaming Fund

George Zaloom is the CEO of GoPlay, a Los Angeles-based technology company which has created software that enables land-based casino operators to embed popular social (casino) games directly into their own websites. GoPlay was a finalist at the 2012 European iGaming Congress Startup Competition and was also nominated for a 2013 International Gaming Award. Prior to Goplay, Zaloom founded FaceChipz.com and giantHello.com – two safe social networks for tweens. He was also Head of Business development for X17online.com -- the largest online paparazzi agency in the world. Preceding his digital career, Zaloom ran ZM Productions, a major independent film company specializing in non-fiction and family entertainment.
[Email George]

Brock Pierce (31) is an entrepreneur best known for pioneering the market for virtual goods in online games. He has founded eight companies, acquired more than 30 companies, and closed a dozen corporate finance transactions, securing more than $200 million on behalf of his companies. He is currently Managing Director of the Clearstone Global Gaming Fund, and he sits on the boards of IMI Exchange, Xfire, EverTune, RevenueAPEX, and Spicy Horse Games.
[Email Brock]

July 30:
Casino

Emcee: Jesse JANOSOV

Most recently, Jesse Janosov was Vice President of Games at Zynga based in San Francisco. Prior to joining Zynga, Jesse was CEO of Rivet Games, where transformed the company from its initial virtual pet concept into a full multi-platform game development and publishing business. Jesse was also VP of Product Development at Playdom, where he helped the company grow from 50 to over 500 employees by building several studios, both the monetization and QA departments, and the mobile and destination site businesses while helping to define publishing standards. Prior to Playdom, Jesse was an investment associate at Lightspeed Ventures, where he covered games, consumer internet, and enterprise infrastructure spaces. Jesse also spent nearly a decade at Microsoft working in the Home Entertainment Division, where he held leadership roles working on many hit console and PC Game titles. Jesse earned a BSE degree in Computer Science Engineering and a BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and holds an MBA from Harvard University.
[Email Jesse]

8:00-9:00

BREAKFAST sponsored by Playnomics

9:00-9:20

The Future of Social Casino Gaming

Rob GLASER, Founder and CEO, RealNetworks

Rob Glaser, Founder, Chairman and Interim CEO of RealNetworks, Inc., has long been intrigued with the nexus of media, computing, communication and the Internet. Since founding Real in 1994, Mr. Glaser has played an integral role in the transformation of the Internet into the next great mass medium. In 1995 under Mr. Glaser's direction, Real introduced the groundbreaking RealAudio. Followed by RealVideo, RealPlayer and the systems to distribute audio and video including the Helix technologies, RealNetworks has continued to innovate and bring technologies to market. Additionally in 2000, RealNetworks began offering aggregated premium content online directly to consumers in a subscription service. In 2003, RealNetworks purchased Listen.com and built the Rhapsody music service into the leading music subscription service. With the combination of technology and business systems for monetizing media, RealNetworks and Mr. Glaser are at the forefront of the Internet media revolution. Prior to founding RealNetworks, Inc., Mr. Glaser worked for Microsoft for 10 years in a number of executive positions, including Vice President of Multimedia and Consumer Systems. Mr. Glaser has served on several non-profit boards and committees, including his appointment by President Clinton to the Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters. Mr. Glaser is a graduate of Yale University, with a B.A. and an M.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Computer Science.
[Email Rob]

The collision between the casual games and casino industries has created an entirely new market. A number of interesting and successful products and services have come to market over the past 4 years, but it’s truly just the beginning. There are great opportunities for innovation ahead. Rob Glaser, founder and interim CEO of RealNetworks has been involved in innovation in Games and Digital Media for over 30 years. He will share his thoughts both about what Real’s Gamehouse division has been up to and where the industry is and should be going.

9:30-9:50

Preparing Games for the Ever Changing Social Casino Market: Is HTML5 the Answer?

Nick TALARICO, Founder and CEO, 12 GIGS

Nick Talarico began his career in gaming as a flagship member of the incubator YouWeb (OpenFeint (acquired by GREE), Spaceport.io (acquired by Facebook), Crowdstar, iSwifter, Pluto Games, etc.), where he was Director of Operations and managed some of the most successful early social game titles on Facebook & MySpace. From there, Nick became an early executive at fferpal Media (now Tapjoy), where he led Publisher Development efforts and oversaw revenue increases of ~400%. Nick left Tapjoy in 2010 and consulted with numerous entertainment, media, and games companies until 2011 when he founded 12 Gigs with his business partner, Bret Terrill. Since then, 12 Gigs has become one of the largest and fastest-growing companies in the mobile-social casino games space.
[Email Nick]

Everyone has an opinion about the viability of HTML5, even those who have never taken the plunge to attempt and actually use the technology. Join Nick as he divulges, from real world experience, the advantages and disadvantages of using HTML5 for games in today’s marketplace. How does native implementation, Adobe Air, or Unity compare to HTML5? Then the fun begins when Nick discusses items that are really important to casino apps such as monetization, distribution, and production values - will HTML5 be able to rise to the challenge? Join Nick to find out.

10:00-10:20

Mobile & Social Sports: The Next Frontier

Matt PANGBORN, Co-Founder and CEO, BUNKERMODE

Matt’s involvement in the gaming market has consistently ended in success under a variety of different roles. Prior to his current position as CEO of Bunker Mode, Matt led business and corporate development for CyberArts Licensing, successfully selling the Company in October of 2011 to Fertitta Interactive. Matt has also managed social gaming, casino and online entertainment verticals for two leading boutique investment banks. His experience in social & mobile gaming, "real-money" gaming and interactive media markets provides a unique resource to Bunker Mode. Matt holds a B.S in International Finance from the University of South Carolina and both J.D. and LL.M degrees from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Matt and his wife Jennifer, have three boys, Jackson (6), Owen (4), Mason (18 months).
[Email Matt]

Sports games are rapidly becoming a darling of the emerging social gaming industry hearled as the biggest opportunity in all of new media. Loyal fans willing to spend on their teams from outside of the typical user acquisition paths are a welcome relief in a world where seven digit user acquisition costs are becoming common. Join Matt for a review of strategies for cost-effective acquisition and tips essential for small developers trying to make a go in the rapidly changing market.

MAXimizing Fraud in Online Games (or Fraud is Your Friend)

Monty KERR, Product Owner, Playstudios

Monty is the principal product owner at PLAYSTUDIOS and is responsible for all product development efforts. Before PLAYSTUDIOS, Monty was responsible for defining and implementing hi5 Network's commerce and advertising strategy, leading all monetization activities for the company. Prior to joining hi5, he was CEO at Big Six Games, a social game developer, which was acquired by hi5 Networks in 2010. Before Big Six Games, Monty was founder and CEO of Red 5 Games, which developed multiplayer casual games, and CEO and President of Glass Eye Entertainment, which created an online gambling system that managed more than $9 billion in microtransactions from 35 million customers. In 2002, Monty co-founded the mobile game development studio Knockabout Games. In 2000, Monty also co-founded Compulsive Development, which developed a variety of retail casual games. Prior to Glass Eye, Monty held design and management positions at Maxis, Electronic Arts and MicroProse. He got his start two decades ago at Origin Systems.
[Email Monty]

This session discusses the surprising positive impact of player fraud on most online games. Helps product owners distinguish between good fraud from bad. Discusses how to find, minimize and redirect bad behavior.

Doubling Down, Going All In, Putting It All On the Line

Robert MELENDRES, IGT Executive Vice President, IGT Interactive

Robert C. Melendres has served as Executive Vice President Interactive Group (formerly Executive Vice President Emerging Businesses) of IGT since January 2012. He is responsible for seeing the direction and accelerating the adoption of IGT interactive gaming across online, mobile, and social platforms. Additionally, he is responsible for the P&L; of the Interactive business as well as for setting the direction and accelerating the adoption of IGT interactive gaming across online, mobile and social platforms. As part of this charter, Mr. Melendres is also responsible for integrating and driving synergies across IGT’s Interactive businesses including DoubleDown Casino, the world’s largest online casino on Facebook and mobile devices. Mr. Melendres previously served as IGT Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary from December 2009 until May 2012 and was responsible for the direction of the legal, intellectual property, compliance, and government relations and other corporate functions.
[Email Robert]

Gaming today is about providing players with thrilling entertainment experiences, anywhere they want to play, across any devices, anywhere around the world, seamlessly. Robert Melendres, EVP for IGT’s Interactive Group, will discuss long term strategy and vision for social casino gaming.

10:30-10:50

The Near Future of Real Money Gaming

Marcus YODER, Exec Director of Business Development, IGT

Marcus Yoder is the Executive Director, Business Development for IGT Interactive. IGT Interactive is a division of IGT focused on providing casino operators with online and mobile platforms and games to over 60 online operators in 12 countries. Mr. Yoder is responsible for the expansion of the IGT Interactive for-wager and social gaming offering throughout North and South America, and the Asia Pacific region. Marcus comes to IGT Interactive, after running a consulting practice focused on the use of social media to drive product development, working with companies such as Marvel Entertainment, Medtronic, and Mattell, Inc. Prior to this Marcus was a co-founder and the Chief Operating Officer of Veeker Corporation. Veeker provided multi-media mobile messaging services for companies such as Sony Pictures, Sony BMG, Sprint, Budweiser, and multiple advertising agencies. After completing his MBA, at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Finance and Marketing, Marcus was a Principal Consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Marcus also received an Executive MBA from the Fundacao Getulio Vargas, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and has worked as a consultant to multiple companies in Brazil. Marcus is fluent in German and proficient in Portuguese.
[Email Marcus]

The dynamics of the real money gaming industry are changing fast with social embracing casino and casino embracing social. With recent movements in new jurisdictions, e.g. Canada, Mexico, Delaware, best practices and locations are in constant flux. But even with all the change there is a clear convergence unfolding before our eyes with a glimpse of what will ultimately win

Balls, Cards and Currency (Virtual): Why Innovation in Gaming is Coming from Startups

Alex KELLY, CEO, PLAYSINO

Alex Kelly is currently CEO of Playsino, a social casino games publisher and developer focusing on innovations that bring the exciting world of free-to-play casino games to mobile and social platforms everywhere in the world. Playsino is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and has offices in Seattle, Washington and Kiev, Ukraine. From May 2010 to January 2012, Kelly served as Vice President of International Game Technology’s Interactive Division responsible for global revenue where he brought a rare combination of commercial, Internet/mobile, strategy and corporate experience. Prior to joining IGT, Kelly held leadership roles at some of the most innovative companies in technology, media and entertainment including Veeker, Pinnacle Systems (PCLE), 20th Century Fox, Booz, Allen & Hamilton, A&E; Networks and Billboard magazine.
[Email Alex]

Alex Kelly of PLAYSINO discusses why innovation in gaming is coming from startups and what everyone from entrepreneurs to established companies can do to harness the creative energy and potential of startups.

Zynga Poker – 3 Years of Cross-Platform Play

Nicole OPAS, Executive Producer, Zynga

Nicole Opas serves as Executive Producer on Zynga Poker, leading production and creative for the franchise. Prior to working at Zynga, Nicole was the Director of Casual Games for Disney Online where she built online games based on Disney’s popular characters. She has been producing casual games for 15 years.
[Email Nicole]

Launched in 2007, Zynga Poker has held its spot as the leading cross platform social casino game. With a belief that social and mobile is the future, the Zynga Poker team continues to bring new features to one of the original social games on the web. Join Nicole Opas, executive producer, to learn about the early days of cross platform and the features, technology and production practices that have kept Zynga Poker players engaged for years.

11:00-11:20

Wager Conversion: How to Convert an Evergreen Casual Game to Lucrative Wagering

Trivikraman THAMPY, Founder and CEO, Games 24X7

Trivikraman Thampy (Vikram) is CEO and Co-Founder of Play Games24x7, operator of India's largest Rummy website (www.RummyCircle.com) of over 1.5 million players. ikram’s steadfast focus is on a data driven approach to support the Company’s mission to deliver the best online rummy experience in the world. Since its initial round of funding, the Company has launched two new rummy products which account for 75% of company revenues, as well as a unique and highly scalable tournament platform for rummy that has hosted the largest ever online rummy tournament. Under Vikram’s leadership, the Company has increased revenues by over 500% and has secured two rounds of investment from U.S. based investment firm Tiger Global. Vikram believes that gaming companies that succeed in delivering entertainment in a consistent and sustainable manner do it by focusing on the core gaming experience. Vikram has an engineering degree from IIT Bombay and a PhD in Economics from New York University.
[Email Trivikraman]

How do you make an engaging card game that balances betting, skill, chance and speed in order to deliver a potent array of emotions to the player? In this session you will learn about the evolution of a brand new wagering game, which has been constructed by making significant alterations to a casual card game from an enormously popular genre of card games. These alterations were done to create just the right blend of skill and chance, and game speed, and hold important lessons for how to convert evergreen casual games into lucrative wagering style games.

The Gamble of Social Casino Game Distribution | 11:00 - 11:50

Brian LEUNG, Co-Founder and CEO, Blue Shell Games
George ZALOOM, CEO, Goplay
Kevin FLOOD, CEO, Gameinlane, Inc.
Moderator: Eric LAMENDOLA, General Manager, Slingo

Brian Leung co-founded Blue Shell Games, a developer of social and mobile games, in 2010. Blue Shell is the maker of Lucky Slots, the 3rd largest slot machine app on Facebook. He has been developing social applications since the launch of the Facebook platform in 2007.
[Email Brian]

Custom Social Game Development, Internet Gambling Platform Development and land based casino gaming consultant.Focus on convergence of casino, social gaming and Internet gambling.
[Email Kevin]

Eric Lamendola is a specialist in digital interactive entertainment having over 13 years of experience with one of the most successful brands in games. Whether it is social, mobile or online content, he has had repeated success in generating value across multiple verticals and building a brand that has become part of a billion dollar ecosystem. He has negotiated and closed licensing and advertising deals with several tier one companies including Zynga, Scientific Games, IGT, Microsoft, AOL, and Hasbro. The licensing portfolio that Eric manages in the game space includes, online and desktop games, social games, iOS and Android mobile games, interactive television content, casino slot machines and table games, lottery, online gambling and television game shows. Leading one the first online game portals to integrate rich media and video advertising, Eric has developed comprehensive strategies to effectively integrate and maximize online advertising. He has productized those strategies to be utilized by 3rd parties to earn top CPM. Interestingly enough, Eric was also a professional actor on television, radio, screen and stage for over 15 years with over 150 commercial and voice over credits (as Eric Jason).
[Email Eric]

This panel will explore the complexities around getting involved in iGaming from development to distribution to marketing.

That’s Entertainment: How to Create an Online Entertainment Destination

Carey DIJULIO, VP and General Manager, Casino, Big Fish

Carey DiJulio joined Big Fish in 2009, and has quickly worked her way up from Product Manager to VP and General Manager of Casino. During this time she helped to scale the company’s iOS business to become one of the top 10 grossing developers on iPad. In her current role, Carey oversees Big Fish Casino, the top grossing multi-player casino on iOS, including managing the brand’s expansion onto new platforms, and introducing a real-money betting option for Big Fish Casino players in the UK. She also leads Self Aware Games, Big Fish’s game development studio in Oakland, CA.

Carey started her career at RealNetworks, where she worked for 9 years in various positions. Her first role at RealNetworks was in broadcast operations and support, and during her nine-year tenure was promoted six times, ending as RealNetworks' Senior Program Manager overseeing its mobile video platform which supported carriers such as AT&T; and Verizon.

Carey holds an M.S. in information management from the University of Washington, and graduated summa cum laude with honors in behavioral science with a B.A. degree from Drew University.
[Email Carey]

When it comes to social casinos, there is a lot of talk around business models, platforms, etc... But let’s talk about the fun — the core ingredients that retains customers and keeps them playing. Big Fish Casino’s Carey DiJulio will discuss the core elements of a social casino that keep players engaged and coming back for more. Where exactly is the fun in social casinos? Is it only in the gameplay? Do social elements and innovation play a part? Learn what is driving and keeping the #1 top-grossing casino app at the top of the charts and how this entertainment base is necessary to build a platform for the future.

11:30-11:50

Pivoting, Transitioning and Adding New Business Models

Lisa MARINO, CEO, ROCKYOU

Lisa Marino will discuss the transition RockYou has made from an early social game developer to pioneering its Rewards Based Games (RBG) monetization platform, as well as the changes on the media side from delivering display advertising to now focusing primarily on premium video placements

What "Social" Means to Big Casinos

Melissa BLAU, Director, iGaming Capital

Melissa Blau has been in the Internet Gaming sector for the past nine years as both an operator and advisor. She is currently the Founder & Director of iGaming Capital, the leading iGaming consulting and advisory company in the US. Clients include state regulators, US and Native American casino operators, payment processors, game suppliers, and social gaming companies. Prior to launching iGaming Capital, her experience in the Internet Gaming sector included senior roles at a number of Internet Gaming operators and marketing companies as well as in a banking advisory capacity. Since 2006, Melissa is as appointed the Finance Editor and regular columnist (iGaming Global Index) for iGaming Business Magazine. She is also part of several leading expert financial networks within the Internet Gaming sector and sits on the advisory committee of G2E for the Internet sector. Prior to her Internet Gaming experience, Melissa was a General Partner and founding member of Constellation Ventures, a $450m media & technology venture capital. Melissa has a BA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard University.
[Email Melissa]

Why do big online and land-based casinos care about social games, of all things? Social games seem like "big business" to those of us in the industry, but compared with the global gambling industry, our whole industry barely covers the cost of one new resort. To understand the answer to this question, you must take a step back and look at what social networking generally means to the big casino operators and then put social gaming in this context. Melissa Blau, Principal for iGaming and Finance Editor for iGaming Business Magazine, works closely with many of those big operators and understands why they see social networking as a huge opportunity. Join Melissa as she explains it to the rest of us!

12:00-12:30

LUNCH BREAK
sponsored by G5

12:30-12:50

EMERGING TRENDS: Transmedia: Taking Game I.P. to Hollywood and Beyond

Scott FAYE, Content Producer, Depth Entertainment

An expert in the area of transmedia content adaptation, Scott has founded/run several successful media companies including, Radar Group, Depth Entertainment, Collision Entertainment, Dark Horse Entertainment, and Full Moon Entertainment. Scott produced the feature film adaptation of the video game MAX PAYNE. He served as the executive in charge of production of the Fox Kid's Network adaptation of the Frank Miller and Geoff Darrow comic book BIG GUY AND RUSTY THE BOY ROBOT. Scott was a partner in Carbon 6, the game studio behind the Gameboy Advance title SPY KIDS 2: ISLAND OF LOST DREAMS. Scott served as Director of Cross Media Content Development at Philips Media Games, where he worked on PMG titles BURN CYCLE and ALIEN ODYSSEY. Scott will be producing the feature film adaptations of the SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, ALICE MADNESS RETURNS and DUKE NUKEM, and is currently designing a touch screen game based on an INCARNATE, and original IP he co-created.
[Email Scott]

My talk will cover the following:
The need of major entertainment companies to acquire content to fill their substantial digital distribution pipelines.
The opportunity this circumstance presents to small and medium size developers with respect to the creation of transmedia content.
An examination of the process by which developers can create branded entertainment that extends far beyond a successful mobile experience.
The team: Bringing talent together to build powerful transmedia IP.

EMERGING TRENDS: The Real Impact of Microconsoles, High-end Mobile and SmartTV on Consoles

John LEE, Chief Strategy Officer, ZeniMax Asia Pacific Ltd

John has been in the video games space since 2003. Most recently, he was the senior founding executive at ZeniMax Media’s Asia Pacific operations, in charge of Asia Pacific related corporate strategy. Prior to ZeniMax, he held senior executive roles at GigaMedia, NC SOFT, and Softbank. He currently a founder of AngelVest’s Hong Kong chapter with recent personal investments including Bee Cave Games, Intellect Motion and Playsino, and is a board member of both Mig33 and Blueark Global.
[Email John]

Let the next-gen console wars begin! With recent next-gen announcements by the two giants in the industry, Xbox and Playstation, and moves into the space by companies such as Nokia and Valve, mobile platforms such as Android and iOS, new emerging Kickstarter and venture backed companies such as GameStick, Ouya and Green Throttle Games, just to name a few, the space is getting very crowded, very quickly. How does this affect the industry at large, and how can developers benefit and 'cash in' on this boom on consoles?

EMERGING TRENDS: Welcome to the Microconsole Generation

Tadhg KELLY, Creative Director, Jawfish Games

Tadhg Kelly has been working in games for twenty years, first in table top and live action roleplaying games and latterly in videogames as designer, writer, producer and startup founder. He is the creative director of Jawfish Games in Seattle. Tadhg is a regular contributor to industry-leading sites such as Gamasutra, and writes both a weekly gaming column for TechCrunch and a monthly column for Edge magazine. He also teach a class in game production at the National Film and Television School in the UK, and is a member of BAFTA. He is currently writing the What Games Are book.
[Email Tadhg]

In this session, Jawfish Games creative director Tadhg Kelly talks about the problems facing a console gaming sector in an age where gamers have become used to apps, free-to-play games and personal technology. He discusses why a new class of gaming machine that he calls the "microconsole" has the potential to disrupt everything we think we know about console gaming and make the world anew. He outlines how app economics, liberalized publishing and a lack of heavy handed gatekeepers could create the next fertile landscape for games, and some of the opportunities that lie within. Will we see a future where innovative game design finally makes its way to the television set, free of old world constraints? Kelly thinks it's inevitable, and would like to show you that future.

1:00-1:20

The Reality of the NewBorn Social Gambling Industry and its Benefits

Vincent MOREL, CEO, Bet-in-Game

In 2009, Vincent Morel, graduated from an engineering school in Paris, launched MulteeGaming.com, the first European website where you can bet real money on your victory on big licenses such as Fifa or Sarcraft 2. This platform took 1M$ bet in only one year and a half. In 2012, he was one of the first to feel that social gambling could improve social gaming ratios, he became an expert in these matters and helped many growing companies by integrating social gambling tools in their gameplay. In 2013 he founded Bet-in-Game, a betting solution you can plug into your game in one day, Bet-in-Game increases ARPPU by 20% and lowers the CHURN by 30%.
[Email Vincent]

Publishers, especially free-to-play ones can see great benefit by using social gambling mechanisms and best practices to improve KPIs such as retention or ARPU. Fortunatly, there is no need in designing an other casino-style video game to apply principles from social gambling and the sometimes off-putting casino-style game play is the last thing some consumers want. Nowadays, only a few games optimize virtual currency betting whereas it is easy to add competition tools and let people battle for in-game currency. With the proper matchmaking system, smartly balanced, people can find an other interest to play and an other reason to spend money in your game.

Managing Success at the Intersection of Casual and Casino

Dan FIDEN, Partner, Signia Venture Partners

Dan is a founding partner at Signia and has been in technology for over 16 years. He first joined independent game developer Jellyvision, serving as Creative Director on the highly successful You Don’t Know Jack series of games. At venture-funded Spiderdance, an interactive TV studio, Dan’s work was nominated for an Emmy. After roles at WMS Gaming and Electronic Arts, Dan was General Manager at Playfish, a social game maker based in London that was acquired by EA for $300m. Dan began working with Rick Thompson in 2010, eventually becoming CEO of Wild Needle (sold to Zynga) and Playchemy (sold to Iddiction.) Dan serves on the Board of Directors of Idle Games, Kihon, Super Evil Mega Corp, and Mind Pirate, and on the Advisory Board to the flagship Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. He holds a BA in Cinema and English from Denison University in Granville, OH.
[Email Dan]

From the outside looking in, social casino seems like a straight forward extension of a current social, web or mobile offering. In reality social casino is a big jump with decisions, roadblocks and hurdles along the way. The space might not be for everyone, but those who do decide to play in the casino space have the potential to capture a large growth market. Using case studies from Idle Games and Plumbee interpreted with Dan’s extensive knowledge of design and production, Dan will review the current opportunities for entrepreneurs and best practices in game designers and product planners.

Removing the Risk from Building Games and Maximizing Profits

Chris DEWOLFE, CEO, SGN
Interviewed By: Yukari KANE, Journalist

Digital entrepreneur, Chris DeWolfe is best known as co-founder and former CEO of MySpace from 2003 to 2009, the social network that redefined the concept of socializing around shared interests. Under DeWolfe’s leadership, MySpace grew exponentially. At launch in 2003, MySpace attracted an average of 300,000 new members daily, and when he left the company in 2009, it had more than 125 million monthly active users globally. DeWolfe continues his entrepreneurial mission at SGN. As CEO, DeWolfe led the acquisitions and rollup of MindJolt, SGN and HallPass Media, creating a leading independent multiplatform game developer and publisher. Responsible for more than 12 top 10 titles on the iTunes Store and three number one titles on the Amazon Appstore, SGN has 35 million monthly active users, 45 million mobile downloads and more than 80 million installs on Facebook. DeWolfe has been featured on the cover of Fortune magazine twice, was named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world (2007), and chosen by Barbara Walters as one of her 10 most fascinating people (2007). DeWolfe has a B.A. degree in Finance from the University of Washington and an MBA from the University of Southern California and was honored by the atter as Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year (2006). DeWolfe served on the board of directors of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Talenthouse. He lives in Los Angeles.
[Email Chris]

Yukari is a veteran journalist with nearly 15 years of experience covering the technology industry. As a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, she covered Apple and the U.S. videogame industry for three years in San Francisco. Before that, she was a foreign correspondent in Tokyo writing about Sony, Nintendo and others. She started her career at U.S. News and World Report and Reuters. She is currently working on a book about Apple to be published by HarperCollins.
[Email Yukari]

The mobile and social gaming industry continues to be a fast-growing market. The key to maximizing revenue and longevity lies in building polished, evergreen titles, cross-deployed across social and mobile platforms. It is essential to understand user behavior utilizing deep analytics and smart media buying. By turning the art of making games into a science, one is able to minimize the hits driven nature of developing games.

1:30-1:50

Scaling to the Masses- Strategies to Acquiring Quality Users and Keeping Them

Scott PHILP, CEO and Founder, Wedge Buster

Scott Philp is CEO of Wedge Buster, a leading developer of social, web and mobile sports & casino games. Wedge Buster's cutting-edge gaming platform creates the opportunity to rapidly release new titles and features seamlessly across all network channels; additionally, the platform leverages deep analytics to create personalized targeting to maximize engagement, retention and monetization. The company recently released Slot Buster, which is one of the fastest growing independent social slot apps on Facebook, with new titles launching soon including Bingo Buster, Casino Buster and Jewel Buster.
[Email Scott]

Creating the right marketing strategies, cross-promotion tactics and internal analytics to maximize value across your audience. We will explore innovative user acquisition channels and how to build market share in a competitive landscape. After acquiring quality users; leveraging internal analytics and user data for retention strategies to keep users coming back.

Should You Stack the Deck? The Risks & Rewards of Innovation

Jeff HYMAN, Co-Founder/Board Member, Idle Games, EIR Signia Venture Partners

In 2000, Jeffrey Hyman founded the advertising agency COG1. His creative work in advertising won over 23 awards at: The Clios, The One Show, The Cannes Lions, ADDYs, Adweek Magazine’s Icon Award, AD:Tech, NYC Advertising Festival, Adweek & Brandweek Magazines’ MIXX Award. After 11 years of leading COG1 as both it’s CEO and Creative Director, Jeff sold COG1 and cofounded Idle Games.
[Email Jeff]

Innovation in game design is inherently very risky. Bringing innovation to centuries old casino games has even greater risk. Jeffrey Hyman, the co-founder of Idle Games and the creator of Fresh Deck Poker provides an in-depth and data driven examination of what worked and what didn’t when launching a new mobile & social casino product into a mature market. Jeffrey provides both the story and data behind a wide spectrum of challenging decisions including: seemingly qualitative only decisions like art style to the place of random number generators to the temptation of stacking the deck.

Social Casino : Where It All Started and Where We Are Going

Jose BROTONS, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Product Madness/Aristocrat

Prior to Product Madness, Jose Brotons obtained his MBA from Stanford University, interned at McKinsey, worked for ITT Spain as Director of Monitoring and Control Technologies, and obtained his Masters in Industrial Engineering. He is originally from Spain and loves high adrenaline sports like kite surfing and snowboarding.
[Email Jose]

Jose explores the impressive growth of Social Casino into the thriving industry of today and what to expect in the future.

2:00-2:20

Distribution of Social Casino Games - It's Not Just about Facebook

Paul BROWNLOW, Director of Mobile, Double Down Interactive

Paul brings more than 20 years digital media and consumer electronics experience to DoubleDown Interactive’s mobile team. As General Manager, Paul focuses on growing and scaling DoubleDown Interactive’s mobile business. Throughout his career, Paul has developed distribution relationships with several major television and tablet manufacturers, including Samsung, Sony, Yahoo, Philips, and Sharp, and developed apps for the Sharp, Philips, Samsung, and Yahoo TV app platforms. Prior to joining DoubleDown Interactive, Paul served as principle at Blue Dart Consulting, a consultancy that provided business strategy and product development services to companies delivering content to Internet-enabled televisions and tablets. Paul was also co-founder of GalleryPlayer, a VC-funded company that delivered high definition art and photography to HDTVs. From 1999 to 2001, Paul was Director of Technology R&D; of aQuantive Inc., a global digital media companies that was acquired by Microsoft for $6.3 billion in 2007.
[Email Paul]

DoubleDown's Director of Mobile shares more around the distribution of social casino games and why Facebook is just one channel.

5 Online Social Casino Myths

Charles HARPER, Vice President of Business Development, Double Down Interactive, a division of IGT

Charles Harper is currently the Vice President of Business Development for DoubleDown Interactive, a division of IGT, Inc. (IGT). He is responsible for the IGT Social Gaming Partner Program as well as strategic distribution partnerships with top tier companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook, business strategy for globilization, and mobile distribution Previously, as General Manager of Business Development for GameHouse, the Casual Games Division of RealNetworks, Inc. (RNWK) Charles was responsible for developing, overseeing and inplementing business strategy, legal affairs and strategic partner management for the division including the mobile, social and online business units. This included running the P&Ls; for all retail business and alternative platforms. Before Real, Charles was Vice President of Business Development and Screenlife, LLC, the makers of Scene It?, where he managed the acquisition of the content for the Scene It? games as well as launching Scene It? on the Mobile, Xbox, IPTV and online platforms and assisted with the successful sale of the company to Paramount. Prior to that, Harper worked at WildTangent where he managed the custom games business group working with partners such as Nike, McDonalds, General Mills, Microsoft, Intel and Anheuser- Busch. He started his career in gaming nearly 14 years ago at Real as a founder and head of Business Development for the then new RealArcade group, launching both the web site and the RealArcade client. He is credited as selling the first online in game advertisement. Prior to moving to games Harper managed sales teams in the professional services, media, advertising and technology sectors as well as working in advertising.
[Email Charles]

In recent months, the online social casino space has exploded. VP of Business Development at DoubleDown Casino Charles Harper will walk through 5 common myths for online social casinos. He'll address common myths, including social casino games aren't "real" games; social casino games don't involve any skill; social casino games don't offer the same experience as land-based casinos and more.

The New Face of Skill Gaming | 2:00 - 2:50

Wim STOCKS, Virgin Gaming
Mark DONOVAN, President, Xfire
Andrew PARADISE, CEO and Founder, Skillz
Cooper MOO, VP of Business Development, GSN Digital
Moderator: David GZESH, Legal Counsel, Gzesh Law, Ltd.

Wim Stocks is the Executive Vice President of Virgin Gaming. Virgin Gaming operates an online gaming platform that enables players of all skill levels to compete in competitive play events and tournaments for cash, points, and prizes. Virgin Gaming works with many of the leading gaming publishers (EA, Ubisoft, Take 2/2K, Microsoft Studios, Sony and more) to support their key game franchises by offering a broad spectrum of competitive play events, from day-in, day-out online head-to-head matches, to large scale pay-to-enter and sponsored tournaments (ie. the EA Sports $1,000,000 Challenge Series, sponsored by Sony Playstation and Gamestop).
[Email Wim]

Andrew is a serial entrepreneur with a successful track record. He founded AisleBuyer, which was sold to Intuit in April 2012. Prior to AisleBuyer, Andrew was the founder of Photrade, a web 2.0 digital media and advertising company. He has also worked in venture capital and private equity investing for Fort Washington Capital Partners and The Watermill Group. He learned to program at age 7 by hacking a video game with a hex editor and later writing his first game in Pascal.
[Email Andrew]

Cooper leads overall business development strategy and operational execution of deals with content and distribution partners for GSN Digital. Cooper joined WorldWinner, GSN’s tournament games platform, in 2004 as director of business development and has negotiated agreements for the company’s major partnerships including Sony, EA/Pogo, MSN, PopCap and Hasbro. Previously, Cooper was senior manager of e-commerce for Monster.com where he represented Monster's interests in a $104 million dollar, four-year partnership with AOL. As director of strategic partnerships for Salary.com, he created and managed partnerships with Monster, Yahoo!, CareerBuilder and other major online media companies. Before entering the online space, Cooper was a partner in a Seattle trading company for eight years.
[Email Cooper]

David Gzesh is the founder of Gzesh Law, Ltd. expertise and experience in internet gaming transactions. His specialties include business, legal and regulatory representation, licensing and operational matters related to the online gaming industry, especially gaming ventures interested in the emgerging US market(s). He is a member of the International Masters of Gaming Law, Member of State Bar of Nevada, Gaming Law Section.
[Email David]

2:30-2:50

From Lottery Games to Slot Machine Games: The Growing Momentum of Internet Gaming

Michael LIGHTMAN, Vice President, Business Development & Sales, Sciplay™, Scientific Games

Michael Lightman is Vice President, Business Development & Sales, Sciplay™, at Scientific Games, a leading innovator in the global lottery and regulated gaming industries. Since 1973, Scientific Games has advanced the technology, games, programs, marketing research and security that have been a driving force behind the success of more than 300 customers on six continents.

Sciplay is Scientific Games’ secure, open technology platform encompassing the full suite of technology and managed services necessary to rollout world class internet and mobile solutions for loyalty and rewards, iLottery and iGaming.

Mike has over 20 years in gaming and managed IT services, as well as broad experience in sales, operations and product marketing. Prior to joining Scientific Games, he was Vice President of Sales for GameLogic, an original pioneer in the field of Internet-based player loyalty and social gaming for the regulated gaming industry. Mike has held Vice President positions with several other companies, including GTECH Corporation. He has been featured as a speaker at various international gaming conferences and is the author of thought leadership articles in several gaming industry publications.
[Email Michael]

As consumers interact with their favorite lottery and gaming organizations and form social communities online, the opportunity for internet gaming is gaining more and more momentum. Are electronic versions of traditional lottery products such as instant and draw games just as exciting on the internet? Or do players prefer to visit the retail store for paper versions of their favorite games? Should bingo reside in the community hall or can the bingo community be effectively replicated on the internet? Is the enjoyment of slot machine games just as dynamic if the player is in their own home? Michael Lightman will draw upon Scientific Games’ 40 years of innovation and Sciplay’s internet sports books, lottery draw games and electronic instant tickets, social games, virtual goods, loyalty and rewards programs, bingo, poker, blackjack, roulette and slots offerings to explore these emerging opportunities.

3:00-3:20

When Your User Cost is Higher Than Your LTV: New Market Opportunities for Content Creators to Increase LifeTime Value of Customers

William D. VOLK, CCO, PlayScreen

William Volk, CCO Playscreen. His career spans 30+ years, starting with Conflict 2500 (Avalon Hill) in 1980. Notable works include The Pyramid of Peril (Aegis), The Return to Zork (Activision), and Word Carnivale (PlayScreen). Volk served as VP of Technology at Activision. Has worked in mobile gaming since 2000.
[Email William]

It is a simple fact: customer acquisition has become too expensive for last year's business models. What are content creators to do? While there are tools to stretch your customer acquisition dollar, these are becoming crowded and are only a temporary fix. Come explore a candid review of this year's new game types, business models and themes to help increase your bottom line.

Monetization and KPIs of Real Money Gaming and Social Casino Gaming

Matt CULLEN, President, RocketPlay
Mike REAVES, CEO & Co-founder, CashBet

Matt leads the US operations for RocketPlay based in San Francisco. He is responsible for all business development, corporate development and strategy. RocketPlay, formerly known as Gamingo, is a leading entertainment and gaming company, bringing sports and casino games to Facebook and Mobile platforms.
[Email Matthew]

Dr. Reaves has over 20 years of software development experience, the last 5 of which have been spent developing and deploying real-money eGaming platforms for the Europe online gambling market. As Co-Founder and CEO of CashBet, Dr. Reaves and team provide a feature-rich, turnkey platform, giving developers the ability to improve monetization by adding legal, online gambling to their games.
[Email Mike]

Real Money Gaming and Social Casino Gaming continue to converge and overlap on many levels. We will take a deep dive into both of these data driven businesses with two execs who have worked in both verticals. The session will be a compare and contrast by looking at the main monetization mechanics as well as the key performances indicators (KPIs) that drive both of these businesses.

Real-Money Gaming: Mo' Money, Mo' Confusion

Christopher GRIFFIN, CEO and Founder, Betable

Christopher Griffin, CEO & Founder of Betable is the utmost expert at the intersection of gambling and gaming -- a convergence that represents a significant opportunity for game developers. Prior to establishing Betable, Christopher worked as a VC in the healthcare space where by the age of 23 he secured an industry record-breaking $43 million in Series A funding for a portfolio company.
[Email Chris]

In has been a year since Christopher Griffin first spoke at Casual Connect. Since then, real-money gaming has become the most talked about opportunity for the gaming industry. Despite the gaming industry's enthusiasm for real-money gaming, there is a tremendous amount of confusion about how best to enter the race for real money revenues.

Want to know what options are available to developers? Want to know what kinds of real-money gaming deals are available to developers? Want to know what economics developers can expect from these deals and what the pros and cons of each are?

Join Christopher as he talks to the current state of the real-money gaming landscape and sets the record straight about an opportunity that has become muddied by misinformation.

3:30-3:50

The Future of Bitcoins

David WANG, Former CMO, SEGA Games

David Wang is a e-commerce veteran with over 15 years of experience working in the internet, media and emerging technology businesses. He has held executive management roles with various publically traded companies on the NYSE, Nasdaq, Nikkei and the London Stock Exchange. David was most recently the Global Chief Marketing Officer of SEGA Games where he was instrumental in developing new businesses via the iconic SEGA brands as well as grow market share across Asia, Europe, North/South America and the Middle East whereby David oversaw all aspects of the companies marketing, online operations, product and business development. David is a life time member of the Bitcoin Foundation and holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from Northwestern (Kellogg School) and currently sits on the board of several start ups.
[Email David]

David Wang will discuss what Bitcoins are, how they started, where the industry is heading and what it means to your business.

Emerging Markets for Social Casino Gaming

Vicenc MARTI, CEO, Akamon

Vicenç Martí is an expert in the specifics of the gaming industry, after being Managing Director at Cirsa Gaming Corporation. As Chief Marketing Officer at Spanish low-cost airline Vueling, he succeeded in turning the start-up into a cool and reputable million-euro brand, and as CEO at fashion label Custo Barcelona, he had direct responsibility over finance, marketing, sales, operations and product functions. He graduated in communications from Saint Louis University, and earned an MBA from IESE Business School, University of Navarra, completed with an Executive program at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He prides himself on his excellent communication skills in four languages: English, French, Spanish and Catalan. He understands Portuguese and Italian, too.
[Email Vicenç]

By taking a local approach to a global audience, Akamon has been able to achieve success in the fast-growing regions of Latin America and Southern Europe which are experiencing some of the strongest growth globally. Vicenç will discuss the rapidly growing market and how emerging markets are key to Akamon’s success.

Turning Your Poker Club Leaders into Game Managers

Xiang LIN, VP of International Business, Hoolai

Xiang Lin, VP of International Business, oversees international strategy, business development, corporate communications and international operations. Born and raised in Beijing, Xiang holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Tsinghua and a M.S. from Brown. Prior to Hoolai Games, Xiang escorted many products through their full or partial lifecycle from inception, birth, growth and end of life in companies like Microsoft, SanDisk and several silicon valley startups.
[Email Xiang]

Guilds and clans have always been a very important feature in more hard core games to drive engagement and pay rate. Such design is not commonly leveraged in casual social games, ESP, social casino. Hoolai, experienced in mid core web games, added a club system in their social poker game. We will share how this feature changed the social game statistics.

4:00-4:20

Back to the Basics: The Application of Traditional Gaming Design to Digital Gaming

Al THOMAS, President and Co-Founder, Blu Hare Studios

Al is the President and Co-founder of Gemini Digital Development, a digital media publishing and management company of wholly-owned subsidiaries including Bluhare Studios and Wildhare Gaming. Prior to founding Gemini, Al was Executive Director of Advanced Game R&D; for WMS Gaming. He is an accomplished creative professional with extensive experience in design and innovation with over 30 issued patents and 150 patent applications.
[Email Al]

Slot machine design evolution is in fast-forward! Mega-multi-line "penny" slots are replacing "dollar" slots. High-res, multi-layer video screens create realistic 3D "reels" that aren't. "2nd story" bonus games and multi-screen formats add drops, cut scenes, and brand-licensing opportunities. Al Thomas, President and Founder of Bluehare Studios, shares experiences in the thick of the ongoing radical technical and design innovations around real-world slots and how to use these principles in creating social/mobile slots.

4:30-4:50

Mobile Games: Understanding and Optimizing Player Behavior Across Platforms

Sumit GUPTA, Founder & CEO, BASH Gaming

Sumit has 15 years of experience in media and technology of which last 5 years have been in building social games and acquisition of millions of organic users. Previous to Bash Gaming, he was VP Strategy at MonetizeMedia, founding team member at Business Signatures and early employee with Oracle CRM.
[Email Sumit]

Bingo Bash has been a app on both iOS and Android for about an year now. Using real data from Bingo Bash, Sumit will share his perspective on how the combination of crossplatform strategy and powerful casino game mechanics provided the recipe for success; what metrics mattered and what didn’t; and look at the challenges of measuring metrics on user acquisition, retention and monetization.

There's Nothing Virtual About the Opportunity in Real-Money Gambling

Ashley LANG, CEO, Odobo

Ashley Lang is a veteran of the regulated online gambling industry and Founder and CEO of Odobo, the new HTML5 game developer program and content marketplace for the regulated gambling industry.

Ashley was co-founder of Green Room Media (1998), developing digital media strategies and affiliate marketing programs for the industry's largest gaming operators. He was Head of Marketing for MANSION (2004-2007); is a non-executive director with bet365 (2008-present); and partner in poker word game AlphaBet and iOS games developer Granville Games.
[Email Ashley]

Join Ashley Lang, veteran gaming industry executive and Founder & CEO of Odobo, the new HTML5 game development platform and content marketplace for the regulated real-money gambling market, for a highly informative presentation covering game development and monetization strategies for developers, brands and operators interested in claiming their share of the multi-billion dollar regulated gaming space.

Imperial Ballroom: Mobile

August 1:
Mobile - Operations

Emcee: Vincent CARRELLA

Vincent Carrella is an award-winning designer, writer and game industry veteran best known for his work on the cult hits Bad Mojo and Space Bunnies Must Die! He's the author of the novel Serpent Box and was most recently the Sr. Director of Content at Nickelodeon/Addicting Games. He's now looking for his next adventure.
[Email Vincent]

July 31:
Mobile - Design

Emcee: Craig HOLLAND, Chief Creative Officer, Freeze Tag

As Chief Creative Officer, Craig directs all of the design and production projects of the company. Freeze Tag creates family video games and digital entertainment for smartphones and tablets. The company’s brands include Grimm Reaper®, Party Animals™, Rocket Weasel®, Etch A Sketch®, Unsolved Mystery Club®, and Victorian Mysteries®.

Prior to Freeze Tag, Craig founded and sold two previous companies (including mobile gaming pioneer Thumbworks which was sold to In-Fusio in 2005). Craig has over 20 years experience in running companies and leading creative teams. He earned an MBA from USC. and a BA in English Literature from UCLA.
[Email Craig]

July 30:
Mobile - Production

Emcee: Vincent CARRELLA

9:00-9:20

Grow Big. Think Small. Unleash Your Game’s Customer Acquisition Potential

Mitchell WEISMAN, Founder & CEO, LifeStreet Media

Mitchell is the founder and CEO of LifeStreet Media, a leading advertising technology company that generates breakthrough monetization and high volume customer acquisition for social and mobile app developers. Mitchell previously worked in technology venture capital and private equity and graduated from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.
[Email Mitchell]

Millions of games are online, from the web to mobile devices to platforms like Facebook, yet few become runaway success stories. In this high-energy, entertaining and practical session learn how thinking small can help your game audience grow big. Learn how to use data to uncover granular insights, how to determine the metrics that matter (vs. those that will destroy you), and how to employ real-time bidding and rapid testing to help you get the most users for your game.

9:30-9:50

The Mobile Publishing Landscape: 10 Things Every Developer Should Know

Kyu LEE, Vice President, GAMEVIL USA, Inc.

Kyu Lee is Vice President of GAMEVIL Inc. and Head of GAMEVIL USA Inc. GAMEVIL is well known for revolutionizing the sector with its original and innovative mobile games, backed by unparalleled expertise in advanced mobile and network technology. Kyu, who has been in GAMEVIL since the beginning at 2000, has constantly played a key role in the evolution of Korean mobile gaming and has continuously introduced the innovation to the world. Kyu has graduated Seoul National University with a B.S. in Physics and is currently on the board of advisory at GDC Mobile.
[Email Kyu]

It's rough out there for developers, especially if you're independent and small. But luckily you don't have to go it alone. Learn the easy way what to look for and what to avoid when seeking, negotiating and managing a publishing deal.

Bite-Sized Narratives: Conveying Impactful Narrative with Emotional Hooks

Levi BUCHANAN, Business Development, Chillingo

Levi Buchanan is a fifteen-year veteran of the videogame industry with a primary focus on mobile gaming. From pioneering mobile game coverage at IGN Entertainment to managing business development at Chillingo|Electronic Arts, Levi has been a strong advocate for mobile as a dominant force in entertainment. As a writer himself, Levi evangelizes narrative in all shapes and sizes, recognizing that a good story is a good story, regardless of medium.
[Email Levi]

Story and mobile gaming are not mutually exclusive. However, the narrative structure of a AAA console game is not necessarily appropriate for devices meant to be played in "stolen moments." So how do you draw players into a story in just a few seconds? And can you even tell a meaningful story in the sliver of time in which a mobile game is played? Through the smart use of subtle emotional hooks, thinly sliced narratives, and tricks as old as visual media itself, developers can establish a rich story that pulls gamers into their worlds and create engaging experiences in as little as fifteen seconds.

10:00-10:20

Developing a Successful Go-To-Market Strategy

Bertrand SCHMITT, CEO, App Annie

With 14 years in analytics, mobile and tech, an MBA from Wharton and a Masters in Computer Networks from ISEP, France, Bertrand is a tour-de-force in business and the app economy. From his unique vantage point in overseeing data across the leading app store platforms globally, and providing insights to over 80,000 users, including 80 of the top 100 publishers, Bertrand can provide trend analysis that can be directly translated into business strategies.
[Email Bertrand]

Free or paid? iOS or Android? U.S. or international? Those are the questions publishers must ask when developing and deploying games in the global app ecosystem.

Bertrand Schmitt, CEO of App Annie, will share insights into monetization trends from over 190,000 apps across iOS and Google Play. He will discuss three main questions you should ask in order to implement a successful go-to-market and monetization strategy:

•Do Google Play’s rising download and revenue numbers justify an Android-first strategy?
•Which monetization strategies — beyond simply freemium or premium — provide the greatest return?
•How can publishers capitalize on surging international markets such as APAC and EMEA?

What's in the Water in Finland?: The Finnish Invasion Continues

Thorbjörn WARIN, CMO, Grand Cru

Thorbjörn (pronounced “thor-byorn”) is an experienced marketer and manager with extensive gaming, start-up and international experience. Prior to joining Grand Cru in May 2012 he served as Head of Marketing at German social/mobile gaming company Wooga. Before joining Wooga, Thorbjörn was responsible for all operations in Northern Europe at Fox Mobile. Thorbjörn holds a master’s degree in Management & Organization from Stockholm University School of Business.
[Email Thorbjörn]

The Supernauts is the inaugural game from Finnish iOS developer Grand Cru. In this presentation, Grand Cru CMO Thorbjörn Warin will talk about the game, the company, their approach to marketing and the most asked question: “Why are so many successful gaming companies coming from Finland?”

The Evolution of TinyCo's Business Intelligence System

Nick ROSS, Head of UA and Analytics, TinyCo

Nick Ross, PhD, is Head of Data and UA at TinyCo, where he leads a team working on business intelligence and user acquisition. Previously, he was employed at Bates White, an economic consulting firm, where he answered math, statistics and economics questions for lawyers. Nick holds a PhD from UCLA's Anderson School of Business, where he researched empirical and theoretical issues in economics, finance, and accounting.
[Email Nick]

Analytics may help find the margins that can make or break features for your games. We will look at the evolution of TinyCo’s business intelligence systems as a backdrop to highlight what we learned while crafting a world class analytics system. We will discuss things like balancing significance, event-tracking and sampling. We will also focus on execution as well, so you can learn to use analytics to create a truly data-driven culture and not just one that scratches at the surface.

10:30-10:50

Making it Big in Social Casual Games: How to Bootstrap Your Way from 0 to 10M DAU on Mobile

Perry TAM, CEO & Co-Founder, Storm8

Perry Tam is CEO and co-founder of Storm8, the leading mobile social game network and developer with more than 600 million downloads across 200 million devices. Prior to Storm8, Perry worked at Facebook where he led the payments team that architected Facebook Credits. The author of four patents, Perry graduated from Cornell University.
[Email Perry]

Founded in 2009, Storm8 is one of the first companies to bring social games to smartphones. Over the last four years, Storm8 grew its social gaming network to more than 200 million devices and remained profitable without outside venture funding. In this talk, Storm8’s CEO will discuss how mobile social gaming has evolved and offer a peek into how Storm8 built its network from zero to more than 10 million DAU. Using personal anecdotes, he will also share knowledge on how to tackle the next phase of mobile gaming.

Balancing Fun vs. Monetization: Translating Traditional Game Philosophies into Effective Monetization Strategies

Gary GATTIS, CEO, Spacetime Studios

Gary wrote his first game on an Apple II+ in 1984. He got his vocational start in gaming when he co-founded Human Code, one of Austin’s first multi-media companies. Gary next went to work for Digital Anvil as Director of Development, then in 2003 joined Sony Online Entertainment to run Star Wars: Galaxies. He and his partners founded Spacetime Studios in October 2005. In April of 2010, his studio released Pocket Legends, the world’s first mobile MMO, and in 2011 Spacetime Studios released Star Legends, the world’s first MMO to play across both mobile and desktop platforms. In 2012, they added two more games to their portfolio, Dark Legends and Arcane Legends.
[Email Gary]

Design Considerations for Mobile Platforms: Acquisition. Retention. Conversion. Everybody is talking about it, but how do you actually DO it? Mobile game design is a highly iterative and speculative art. The audience will learn techniques for breaking down classic design components and rebuilding them for an emerging user base and platform. Gary Gattis will share the experience of the last 8 years in transforming his company from developing PC MMOs to award winning mobile multiplayer titles with over 20 million downloads.

Operating a Mobile Game Service: Lessons Learned

David WORLE, VP of Content Acquisition, WildTangent

David Worle joined WildTangent in November 2007 and currently leads the game content strategy for the WildTangent Game Network. His responsibilities at WildTangent include managing the publishing team and driving current partnerships, as well as prospecting new games for release. Prior to joining WildTangent, David held various positions at Encore Software for 10 years, including Director of Sales & Director of Marketing. During his tenure at Encore he helped the company grow from $12 million to over $80 million annual revenues. David studied English Literature and Philosophy at Texas Tech University.
[Email David]

This session will discuss how to resolve the common pitfalls of the developer community, from overcoming SDK fatigue to prioritizing developer resources. Then, we address some of the challenges that developers face when going to work directly with an OEM or mobile carrier (i.e. lack of value, time to market, etc.). In addition, this session will highlight the importance of picking the right advertising solution (brand advertising vs. CPI ads) and how it truly works. Finally, we will wrap up by discussing how to stay up-to-speed with the changing times and new operating systems, and how to ensure success in an ever growing mobile marketplace where discoverability and revenue are a huge obstacle.

11:00-11:20

Not Your Father's Oldsmobile: New Ways to Acquire and Retain Gamers in a Mobile First Society | 11:00 - 11:50

Amitt MAHAJAN, Founder, Red Hot Labs
Alex ROSEN, Director, Product Management and Business Intelligence, GREE
Chris PITZ, VP Mobile Marketing & Publishing, Kabam
Jong WOO, VP Business Development, King.com
Moderator: Dean TAKAHASHI, Lead Writer, VentureBeat

Amitt is the founder & CEO of Red Hot Labs, a mobile games and technology company. Prior to starting Red Hot Labs, he was co-founder and CTO of MyMiniLife. MyMiniLife sold to Zynga in 2009 and its work became the foundation of Zynga’s game technology stack, which provided the company with a product advantage to build a global business. At Zynga, Amitt was the co-creator & lead developer of the popular FarmVille, CityVille, and other Zynga titles. While on FarmVille, he oversaw user growth from 0 to 32 million daily users. In addition to his work developing games at Zynga, Amitt was CTO of Zynga Japan, based in Tokyo, before returning to the US to pursue his second startup. Amitt holds a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Business Administration from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign.
[Email Amitt]

Alex Rosen is the Director of Product Management and Business Intelligence at GREE. He runs a game studio developing casino titles and also manages the business intelligence group, responsible for data analysis and optimization at the company. Previously, he was Director, Analytics & Monetization at Funzio, a leading social gaming startup acquired by GREE in May 2012. Before Funzio, Alex worked at Google in the Google Apps for Enterprise group.
[Email Alex]

Chris Pitz is Vice President of Mobile Marketing & Publishing for Kabam, the leader in the western world for free-to-play core games. Chris joined Kabam in 2010 to help expand the company’s growing business and oversees marketing, partnerships, and user acquisition for mobile. Previously, Chris developed marketing strategies for clients while at Google and Yahoo. Chris started his career at J.D. Power and Associates where he worked extensively with automotive executives on market research and planning.
[Email Chris]

Dean Takahashi is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. He previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked.
[Email Dean]

As game developers transition to creating mobile games, it requires an entirely different mindset on acquiring and retaining users. The old principles that applied for games played on a desktop, console or the Facebook platform no longer apply. The mobile ecosystem is still young and new rules are being written for all aspects from platforms to content to users. On this panel, you will hear from gaming companies on new ways to acquire mobile users for your games, platforms to gain early traction, methods to engage with users over the long term and a host of topics for you to have a strong chance of getting your game to reach millions of mobile users everyday.

The Candy Crush Saga Phenomenon – Real Players’ Focus Group on What Keeps them Hooked | 11:00 - 11:50

Moderator: David NIXON, Founder & CEO, Gemini Hive Inc.

The popularity of Candy Crush Saga has broken down many stereotypes when it comes to defining the typical casual social gamer. It’s not just moms anymore, it's…well, everyone. We’ve heard from developers about their theories on the game’s success, but it’s time we heard from the gamers themselves. In this diverse panel of avid, highly addicted Candy Crushers, we aim to explore what makes the most popular social and mobile game so appealing to users from all walks of life. We’ll enlist men, women, grandmas, and nephews of all demographics to see not only what it is about Candy Crush Saga that intrigued them in the first place, but what is it that keeps them coming back for more, time and time again.

This focus group-style panel will aim to answer questions like: When, where, for how long and why do they play the game? What makes Candy Crush Saga different? What do they like or dislike about it? What role does it fill in their lives? Are they spending money on virtual goods? Are they inviting friends? Do they play more on Facebook or on mobile? We’ll also open the floor for attendees to ask their own questions to this valuable group of gamers so please do come with questions in mind.

The Android Alternative: Road to 100M Downloads

Vladimir FUNTIKOV, Co-Founder, Creative Mobile

Vladimir Funtikov is the CEO and co-founder of Creative Mobile, a game development studio based in Tallinn, Estonia. At just 23 years old, Vladimir built one of the largest (mobile) gaming companies in Northern Europe with one of the most popular racing games in the world, Nitro Nation Drag Racing. The chart topping mobile game has amassed over 100 million organic downloads on Android, and over 12 million on iOS. Drag Racing has also maintained excellent chart performance on Android, remaining in Google Play’s Top 50 for more than 2 years and counting. In his role as CEO and co-founder, Vladimir has been the thought leader and driving force behind the Nitro Nation Drag Racing series, which now includes the Android-exclusive spin-off, Drag Racing 4x4
[Email Vladimir]

Android Publishing - how simple games can win out over big-budget blockbusters. Our biggest title has over 80M players on Google Play and 10-20M on 3rd-party stores without a single dollar spent on user acquisition. This session will talk about how an indie with no money can do this even now (Hill Climb example). Then maybe expand into what happens next and the kind of problems and choices a tiny team with a successful product faces (brand development vs. diversification, copycats, converting traffic into revenue, etc).

11:30-11:50

Enlivening the Dead: Telling Tales Socially

David FOX, VP Online, TellTale Games

David Fox is currently the VP of Online at Telltale Games, developers of The Walking Dead. Formerly, he co-founded iWin and Double Coconut. David has been a game designer and developer for over 15 years, with a focus on multiplayer gameplay and storytelling. He is also the author of several best-selling books about Internet technologies and culture.
[Email David]

With The Walking Dead, Telltale Games gave players an interactive experience that puts them in the center of a meaningful story. But when an episode’s closing credits roll, what then?

12:00-12:30

LUNCH BREAK
sponsored by G5

12:30-12:50

EMERGING TRENDS: Guerrilla Marketing and Other Non-Conventional Ways to Get Your App or Game Discovered

Ryan MERKET, Director of Product, Inmobi

Ryan Merket joined the InMobi team as the director of Product Marketing after the acquisition of his company, AppGalleries.com, in July of 2012. Ryan currently is currently the GM of AppGalleries.com and director of Developer Relations.
Ryan has had a lifelong love of tech. He first learned how to program at the early age of eleven years old, developed his first website at 13, and started his first internet business at the age of 16. Along with his passion for programming, Ryan is equally passionate about design. Ryan holds a degree in visual design from Oklahoma Wesleyan University.
Prior to joining InMobi, Ryan was the CEO and co-founder of AppGalleries.com, a white-label app store platform that gives publishers the tools to showcase mobile apps that are highly relevant to their users. Ryan founded AppGalleries.com after leaving Facebook, where he helped major platform partners like Disney, Hulu and Spotify effectively leverage the Facebook Platform. Before Facebook, Ryan co-founded Ping.fm (accquired by Seesmic), a service that allows users to post across multiple social networks at once. Ryan originally made his way out to San Francisco when he took a role at CBS Interactive as a senior product designer. There he launched the very first implementation of Facebook Login and numerous viral Facebook applications.
[Email Ryan]

If you haven't noticed, app stores feel a bit like a Tokyo subway car during rush hour. If you want to stand out from the crowd you need to step your marketing game up. I'll be using real world examples of successful non-conventional strategies while giving you a checklist on how you can create your own guerrilla campaign.

EMERGING TRENDS: Future-casting: User Acquisition & Monetization in 2013 and Beyond

Bryan BUSKAS, VP of Sales & Marketing, AdColony

Bryan Buskas is VP of Sales and Marketing at AdColony where he leads all aspects of global marketing and sales for the performance based user acquisition business with the world’s leading social and mobile app publishers. Previously, Mr. Buskas held multiple positions over 5 years with Activision in key brand management, sales, and analytics roles where he was involved in the launch of global interactive entertainment products across the Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, Marvel and DreamWorks franchises. Prior to joining Activision, Mr. Buskas spent 4 years providing economic consulting services for Fortune 500 clients across the entertainment, financial and sports verticals. Mr. Buskas holds an MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business and a BA in Science and Management from Claremont McKenna College.
[Email Bryan]

User acquisition and monetization continue to provide great opportunities, but they require a laser-sharp focus in a rapidly evolving social and mobile landscape. Take a look into the future of 2013 and beyond as AdColony debuts insights from a recent survey of Top 100 grossing developers. What marketing channels do developers find most effective? Where are they directing their budgets in coming months? Bryan Buskas, VP of Sales & Marketing, will present the Top 10 trends and insights to plan against in 2013 and what to expect in 2014.

EMERGING TRENDS: The Absolute Biggest Opportunity in Mobile Gaming Today: The Mobile Web!

Vincent OBERMEIER, President, TreSensa

Vincent Obermeier, President of TreSensa, is an eleven-year veteran of digital marketing and entertainment. He began his career in sales working as a national sales rep for companies such as Coolsavings.com, DoubleClick, and Max Worldwide. In 2005 Vincent was hired at Tremor Video as employee number one and minority co-founder. Charged with building an online ad network specifically for brand marketers, Vincent managed the development, deployment and growth of Tremor’s proprietary rich media and in-stream video technology. He also managed the aggregation of thousands of video content producers, building Tremor’s publisher base into the largest video ad network as ranked by Comscore. In January of 2011 Vincent left Tremor and launched TreSensa. Vincent holds a BA from Union College.
[Email Vincent]

Mobile browsers have evolved to the point where they can support commercial quality mobile web games. And mobile web games have closed the gap on native games in terms of performance and far surpass them in portability. At this session you will learn about the state of mobile web gaming from a business, technology and distribution standpoint, and find out how and why the world's largest mobile carriers, media companies, online retailers, Fortune 500 brands, Flash game portals, and, yes, even native game studios, are taking advantage of the mobile web as a massive new game distribution platform.

1:00-1:20

Free-to-Play - Lessons From the New Mobile Leaders

Maria ALEGRE, CEO, Chartboost

Maria Alegre is co-founder and CEO of Chartboost. Prior to Chartboost, Alegre was one of the early employees at Tapulous, the company behind Tap Tap Revenge, the #1 music game on the iPhone that was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2010 to become Disney Mobile. Alegre holds a Bachelors and Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. In 2012, Maria was named in the Forbes Magazine “30 under 30” list as one of the top disruptors and innovators in marketing under 30 years old.
[Email Maria]

Free-to-play has arrived as the dominant business model in gaming – embrace it or die trying. However making your game free does not make you successful. Developers who embrace the free-to-play model are baking it into how they build their game, tightly linking their business strategy with their game design. User retention, acquisition and monetization need to evolve to make the free-to-play model succeed. This session will share best from the early leaders in the free-to-play space and discuss where the industry is headed going forward.

Game Design Vs. Game Marketing: Battle Round | 1:00 - 1:50

Eyal RABINOVICH, VP Marketing, PlayScape
Tom HESS, Lead Product Manager, DeNA
Moderator: Brian SAPP, Director of Developer Partnerships, Tapjoy

An entrepreneur, software engineer and user-experience evangelist, Eyal Rabinovich specializes in developing and delivering products and ideas. His commercial involvement in a variety of industries has provided him with an expanded market view, together with the ability to lead development from ideation and through to successful product launches. Eyal’s previous experience includes serving as an officer in an elite IDF Navy unit. In addition to being a Senior Software Engineer at Hedge-Tech Financial Engineering, and Lipman Electronic Engineering Ltd. Today Eyal is the co-founder of PlayScape ™, a leading games publisher.
[Email Eyal]

As a Producer at DeNA, Tom oversees the creation of free-to-play mobile games from inception through live management. Currently Tom is working on Transformers: Legends, a mobile game that consistently appears on the App Store and Google Play top grossing charts. Prior to joining DeNA, Tom was a Producer at Electronic Arts where he led teams on production of both single-player and multiplayer cross-platform console games. Tom also held roles as a Game Design lead at both Electronic Arts and Activision. He has worked on a variety of well-known triple A franchises including Medal of Honor and Gun, Eliminate:Gun Range and Skyfall mobile games.
[Email Tom]

Featured for the first time, this quick-paced format will discuss a diversity of conflicts between game design and game marketing. If you're seeking to gain insights into practical design and marketing approaches, pique your curiosity with new ideas and to challenge yourself to look at your work in new ways - this is a must-attend session. The debated topics will include: Which Should Lead the Way - Marketing or Design, Should Game Marketers Care About Design, Does Game Marketing Corrupt Games and more. Join Eyal Rabinovich (PlayScape) and Tom Hess (ngmoco\DeNA) as they passionately debate their different points of view. The session will be led by Brian Sapp from Tapjoy.

One World: Inside Xyrality's Multi-Platform Approach - ONE ACCOUNT ALL PLATFORMS

Sven OSSENBRÜGGEN, Managing Director, Xyrality

Sven Ossenbrüggen is the Managing Director XYRALITY GmbH, a top 50 mobile developer specializing in next-generation construction and management simulation MMOGs. In 2007, Sven built Gamigo, an online games magazine with 10 employees, into one of the leading European MMOG Publishers with 75 employees. As a partner of bmp AGhe was responsible for Online Media and Entertainment.
[Email Sven]

Does it pay out to increase complexity of backend and frontend in favor of a cross platform approach? Do users really use their browser and their smartphone, an iPhone and a Kindle Fire when playing our games? Have we measured any advantage in the promotion of launching our Android version through a message to our iOS users? Why not reach a critical mass of users on any platform separately? What is the best ratio of ARPU and marketing costs? Do all channels have the same quality and how can we benefit from the potential competition of different markets? Learn how Xyrality found its way as a bootstrapped startup to the top 50 of mobile developers based on a multiplatform approach for sustainable growth.

1:30-1:50

How We Attracted 5 Million Players for Royal Revolt in the First 6 Months

Georg BROXTERMANN, Co-Founder & Dir. Business Development, Flare Games

Georg Broxtermann is a Co-founder of flaregames GmbH, a developer and publisher of mobile games from Germany, and responsible for their Business Development. He has held a number of business development positions in media companies and first dived into gaming when he founded the games division of ProSiebenSat1, a leading european TV network, in 2005. In 2008, he launched his own startup, a company for location-based mobile games, which became central building block for flaregames.
[Email Georg]

Royal Revolt was the No. 1 free game in six countries and the No. 1 role-playing game on the iPhone in 82 countries so far. Which marketing activities worked and which didn't? How did TV advertising work out? What have we learned with Royal Revolt and which learnings are set in the next Royal Revolt?

Designing for Mass Niche Audiences

Henry OH, Director of Strategic Intiatives, Animoca

What about the art and science of social games is applicable to make story-based games into even better experiences?

2:00-2:20

The Perfect Launch: Reaching Fans and New Audiences

Phil LARSEN, CMO, Halfbrick

Phil Larsen is CMO at Halfbrick in Brisbane, Australia. He is in charge of all marketing initiatives and has brought Halfbrick’s games to over 150 million players around the world. He is a stakeholder in all projects at the studio and works with all teams on creative design, brand positioning and intuitive monetization strategies for each game in development. Phil values an intelligent, creative studio culture and above all, making incredibly fun games!
[Email Phil]

Halfbrick's approach to launching of new titles. How do you reach your fans and new audiences? What it takes to monetize and create a buzz around a newly launched game.

How to Design and Operate a Successful Live Event in Mobile Social Games

Chris PLUMMER, Head of Ideation and New Development Strategy, DeNA

Chris is a veteran creative and production executive with more than 18 years experience in the game business. He spent more than a decade of his career working in production, design and marketing leadership roles at Electronic Arts (EA) before joining DeNA’s U.S. subsidiary ngmoco in 2008. At ngmoco, Chris produced and launched four No. 1 hits on the Apple App Store since October 2009, including Eliminate Pro and Touch Pets Dogs. Most recently, he was General Manager of DeNA’s North American game studios, and Executive Producer on TRANSFORMERS: LEGENDS. Chris began his career at Origin Systems, Inc. in Austin, TX where he was the marketing lead on Ultima Online (the first commercially successful MMO), the Wing Commander brand and Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, among other original properties.
[Email Chris]

This session will cover a unique angle of DeNA’s game design – the company’s raid boss events structure. These events are an extremely important aspect of why DeNA has become so successful as a mobile game developer/publisher in Japan.

Technical Challenges of HTML5 Development

Chris SHANKLAND, Lead Developer, Big Viking Games

Chris Shankland is a lead developer at Big Viking Games and spends his days building the backend systems that are used extensively throughout Big Viking’s HTML5 game engine Valhalla. Chris is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal Quebec and a native of Seattle. Chris has worked in the gaming industry across the US and Canada.
[Email Chris]

When developing in web languages like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, you don’t control the majority of the code that is running your game; therefore, you need to be able to profile and understand how the underlying code functions. Chrome Tools, JSPerf and Automated Testing are all critical tools that make HTML5 development possible.

Some key technical points that we will dive into include:
- It is significantly faster to reassign functions rather than use inheritance.
- How you can use C-pre processor to create macros within the source.
- The importance of profiling and the need to not assume anything.
- How to create automated test cases.
- How to optimize for garbage collection environment.
- Technical details around CSS vs. the Canvas Tag.
- To write efficient code for nodeJS, you need to optimize for v8 - for example Monomorphic call sites.
- The need to optimize for the environment your code will ultimately be running in - specifically the browser interpreter - and not your specific development environment.

And some technical challenges that will be discussed:

- Performance Optimization
- Automated Testing
- Using wrappers and building plug-ins for mobile app stores

2:30-2:50

Raising the Bar on Mobile UI Design for the Next Generation of Social Gaming

Bhaskar ROY, Chief Product Officer, PlayPhone

Bhaskar brings more than 20 years of experience in building innovative products and taking them to market. He is an entrepreneur and a leader with proven startup experience (like PlaceWare, Qik) as well as leading groups within large organizations, like Oracle, Microsoft and HP.
[Email Bhaskar]

Wireless carriers are making major commitments to take a leadership role in mobile gaming and are ready to impact how games are distributed, discovered and monetized. In order to win mindshare, loyalty and ultimately repeat customers, game platforms and developers alike must raise the bar when designing for the mobile customer because encouraging viral recommendations is key to success.

PlayPhone’s Chief Product Officer and 20-year UI veteran Bhaskar Roy will discuss the fundamentals of digital design for the mobile user experience, with a focus on how to translate behavioral and aesthetic research into intuitive, efficient and simple UIs for the next generation of mobile social gaming.

The Best of Both Worlds – Bringing Meaningful Gaming Experiences to Mobile Platforms

Sarah THOMSON, Sr. Manager Mobile Content Acquisition, PlayStation Mobile, SCEA

Sarah Thomson is the Sr. Manager of PlayStation Mobile for Sony Computer Entertainment America, LLC. (SCEA). A five year veteran in mobile games, Sarah oversees and executes Sony’s PlayStation Mobile content strategy and platform. She has spearheaded the creation of an open environment for developers to design and publish their games on the PlayStation Mobile platform, allowing for more games to make their way into the hands of consumers. Previously, Sarah worked at mobile indie studio IUGO Mobile Entertainment. There she served as IUGO’s spokesperson and helped build the company through original IP and pivot towards free-to-play social games. Sarah also served on the developer relations team at GREE International recruiting developers to GREE’s new global platform for smartphones. Sarah is involved in all aspects of the PlayStation Mobile platform strategy, including creating best practices, processes and policies for new PlayStation platforms, executing content strategies, aligning the PS Mobile team globally and more. Sarah received her Business Marketing degree from Sheridan College.
[Email Sarah]

The gaming industry is in a renaissance period. Advancements in technology have created powerful platforms that allow for sophisticated experiences that push the boundaries of graphical quality, storytelling techniques, user input, and more. At the same time, a new demographic is discovering the world of videogames via casual games on their smart phones and tablets. While these games might serve as a brief distraction, our research shows that these gamers still crave more satisfying experiences not typically found in these experiences. This talk will cover ways that console companies can bring quality gaming experiences to mobile platforms, taking into consideration the innate features of these devices.

Production Methodologies and Tools for Small Studios

Justin LEADER, Producer, Big Red Button Entertainment, Inc.

Justin Leader is the Producer at Big Red Button Entertainment, responsible for their Agile Scrum and Kanban methods, including the custom tracking tools used to manage projects. He has additional experience as an Agile Development Consultant to Dell Inc., producer of several iOS apps, and production for TV and Theatre.
[Email Justin]

New or small studios can benefit from sophisticated development methodologies and tracking tools. This session, targeted to leads and production, will include a high-level overview of Agile, Scrum and Waterfall methods, how to combine them throughout production, and they solve common problems for teams. I will also review several tracking and collaborative tools. The session will end with an examination of the results of integration of these methods into a small studio (35 people).

3:00-3:20

Real-Time Performance at Massive Scale

Francois ORSINI, VP of Platform Engineering and Chief Architect, Machine Zone

Francois Orsini joined Machine Zone in January 2010 as Vice President of Platform Engineering and Chief Architect, bringing his expertise in building server-side architecture and implementation of next-gen social and server platform. From 2005 - 2010, Francois served as database architect at Sun Microsystems. In addition, his experience spans more than 20 years as senior staff engineering and architect at companies like Oracle, Sybase, Cloudscape and CenterBoard. He also collaborated with Visa International and Visa USA, to implement the first Visa Cash Virtual ATM for the internet and founded a VC-backed startup called Unikala in 1999.
[Email Francois]

Social gaming has been growing at an exponential rate and the nature of engagement and retention required for mobile makes engineering a game for this level of scale a particularly challenging proposition. In this presentation, I will discuss the aspects of Social Gaming 2.0 that present new challenges for massive scalability at real-time speed. I will also describe the core architectural components and design principles that Machine Zone has used to address these challenges and support hundreds of thousands of concurrent players in a single world instance. In addition, I will discuss emerging technologies that offer new opportunities for building cost-effective high real-time performance infrastructure.

Mobile Games - the Advertisement Platform of the Future

Christopher KASSULKE, CEO, Handy Games

Christopher Kassulke is CEO and co-founder of HandyGames™ (www.handy-games.com). Founded in 2000, HandyGames is one of the oldest developers of mobile games and experts in the mobile advertisement space. The company started out as a quality developer of feature phone games and fully transitioned to “mobile games 2.0”. With the mission “Beyond Mobile” the developer is reaching out to new platforms like PC and Consoles with its huge portfolio of blockbusters.
[Email Christopher]

The media usage is changing globally. If brands want to reach the consumers they need to be on mobile. Mobile Advertisement is more than Banners! How will the future look like? Are or will mobile advertisement be a real revenue stream?

Character Collision: Interpolating Characters into Free-to-Play Games

Kenny Shea DINKIN, CCO, Making Fun

Kenny Shea Dinkin was most recently Studio Head and VP/Executive Producer for Playdom/Disney Social Games' San Francisco Studio. Prior to that he was Chief Creative Officer at PlayFirst where where he oversaw the game portfolio, built the publishing and production business and ran creative direction for over 60 casual games including the Diner Dash series, Wedding Dash, Dream Chronicles and Chocolatier. Kenny was previously Creative Director for The Learning Company/Broderbund where he was the creative lead for the portfolio of premiere children’s software brands including Reader Rabbit and Carmen Sandiego as well as licensed properties such as Scooby-Doo and Batman. A visual artist, writer, musician, game designer and avid comic book reader, Kenny got his start as lead game designer of the critically acclaimed, top-selling adventure game series The ClueFinders.
[Email Kenny]

This talk will explore the challenge game designers face when trying to incorporate story-telling and characters into games, and the particular challenges that differentiate a designer working in the world of free-to-play. Kenny will explore successful (and less successful) character highlights from the last two years, as well as a comparative core games example or two—and will offer a set of tools for game designers to facilitate authentic incorporation of characters into casual gameplay.

3:30-3:50

10 Tips for Mobile Disclosures and Privacy

Steve AUGUSTINO, Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP

Steve Augustino is co-chair of the telecommunications practice group at the law firm Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. He assists mobile service providers and mobile app developers to meet the business and legal challenges brought on by the revolution in smartphones and broadband service. Steve has over 20 years of experience in handling regulatory and enforcement matters for his clients.
[Email Steve]

This session will help app developers navigate the maze of regulations successfully. You will leave this session armed with 10 clear, practical suggestions for improving your own apps and staying out of expensive legal trouble.

PlayFirst: Dash to Flash!

Marco DEMIROZ, President & CEO PlayFirst

President and CEO of PlayFirst, Inc., DeMiroz has over 20 years of experience in executive roles with leading technology companies and in global investments. Prior, DeMiroz was president and CEO of Racktivity, a leading cloud platform provider. Before Racktivity, DeMiroz was with Trinity Ventures, focusing on early-stage media, entertainment and energy investments. He was also a Managing Director at Selby Ventures, and led its investments in digital media and Internet sectors. Selby was the one of the founding investors of Pandora. DeMiroz has worked at leading technology companies including Oracle, Sun, Silicon Graphics and General Magic, and his executive roles have encompassed CEO, President, CFO, SVP Business Development and VP Operations.
[Email Marco]

Marco DeMiroz, CEO of PlayFirst, will share his three big Ideas on how to succeed in mobile gaming. Based on PlayFirst's experience building global hit franchises such as Diner Dash, DeMiroz will provide insights to help developers reach their own successes. Marco will expand on the following keys to winning in mobile: maximizing revenue through metrics-based games-as-a-service, operating an in-game network for cross-promotion and managing cost per install, and delighting game players through storytelling and character.

Hardcore Connect

Jamil MOLEDINA, CEO & Co-Founder, Wormhole Games
Shawn FOUST, VP Design, Quark Games

Jamil is CEO of Wormhole Games, a San Francisco startup he co-founded with James Kelm. Their vision is to make genuinely fun games that everyone can enjoy, and go deep if they want to. The games are designed first for tablets, and the first game from the new studio will arrive on iOS in 2013. Jamil was an EIR for leading game investor Rick Thompson's venture firm, following a run heading business development for Funzio, through their acquisition by Gree. At Electronic Arts, he managed third party digital game publishing deals for EA Partners, from signing to shipping. Prior to that, he ran the Game Developers Conference, including both the P&L; and its editorial content.

Jamil is also a trustee of the IGDA Foundation, an advisor to various game startups, and the writer of Tearing the Sky, a science fiction novel.
[Email Jamil]

Shawn Foust is the Vice President of Design at Quark Games, a venture backed company dedicated to creating hardcore games for the phone and tablet. In addition to leading the team for ValorHD, a top 100 grossing app in 2012, Shawn is currently leading design for Quark's upcoming game, Champs: Battlegrounds. Prior to Quark, Shawn was the Director of Business Development at Booyah and founded the Video Game Group at an AmLaw 100 law firm.

Shawn serves on the Board of Advisors at various companies, has spoken at a number of industry events, and writes a monthly guest column on PocketGamer. He often ponders whether dinosaurs would defeat a zombie horde in a post-apocalyptic universe.
[Email Shawn]

A casual connection to the gamer just isn't tenable any more. It's the hardcore connection that's kept gamers engaged for decades. The speakers head up similar but distinct paths to delivering hardcore games to tablet audiences this fall. Their talk demonstrates the hardcore evolution in progress, highlighting the push toward quality, the rise of depth, and the importance of community. Note: the opinions of the speakers may not in fact completely agree with each other.

4:00-4:20

How to Monetize Emotions in Free-to-Play Games

Julia PALATOVSKA, Business Development Director, G5 Entertainment
Tatiana TIMOSHENKO, Director of Licensing, G5 Entertainment

Julia Palatovska is Business Development Director at G5 Entertainment. She has over 9 years of experience in IT / telecommunication industry with specialization in international business development. Since joining G5 in 2008, Julia has played active part in G5′s transformation from game developer to publisher. Today, Julia is focused on relations with independent game development studios, and on adding new channels to G5′s distribution network.
[Email Julia]

Tatiana has over 6 years experience in game development business, and joined G5 as Director of Licensing from Oberon Media, where she spent 3 years as Developer Partnership Manager, overseeing multiple development and publishing deals. Before that Tatiana worked in a number of privately held IT companies specializing in game development and outsourcing fields. In current position Tatiana mainly targeted in searching for new great content for G5 games’ catalogue.
[Email Tatiana]

Julia will speak about the challenges and opportunities of publishing and monetizing free-to-play games on mobile platforms and will share best practices based on G5′s experience.

Designing the UA Process: How to Excel on Buying ROI Positive Traffic

Dr. Hanno FICHTNER, Co-Founder & Managing Director US, AppLift

Hanno is the Co-Founder of games distribution incubator HitFox Group. He's currently building up the San Francisco office for the HitFox portfolio company, AppLift. Previous to that, Hanno worked for 7 years at McKinsey & Company and founded 2 companies in the online and mobile space. AppLift acquires high quality users for 150+ mobile game publishers and helps them monetize their traffic.
[Email Hanno]

• Launch Timeline: How to prepare for launching a game.
• App Store Optimization: How to maximize free traffic.
• The 3 Waves in Paid User Acquisition: How to buy traffic that really pays off.
• All About Quality: How to get only the best gamers.

Making It Big: The Monetization Strategies of Leading Game Developers | 4:00 - 4:50

Joe LAZARUS, CMO, Backflip Studios
Lou FASULO, CEO, Z2Live
George DONOVAN, CEO, Gogii Games
Moderator: Heather HROMOHO, Director Developer Operation, Millennial Media

Joe Lazarus is the Chief Marketing Officer for Backflip Studios, makers of absurdly fun mobile games like Paper Toss, DragonVale, NinJump, Army of Darkness Defense and more. In his current role, Joe manages a small team at Backflip that oversees marketing, analytics, revenue operations, and other business functions. Prior to joining Backflip Studios, Joe's background included positions in marketing and ecommerce at Yahoo!, LinkedIn, eBay, and a few consumer internet startups. Joe lives in Denver, CO and commutes to sunny Boulder, CO where Backflip Studios is based.
[Email Joe]

Lou is responsible for the day-to-day operations of Z2Live including production, marketing, operations and business development. Prior to Z2Live, Lou lead the Publishing Team at NY-based Sonic Boom Games. Previous to Sonic Boom, Lou was the Vice President of Distribution at Vivendi Games Mobile, now Activision, where he lead sales and partner management to achieve the number 6 sales ranking in North America. Prior to Vivendi, Lou held management positions at AT&T; Mobility (formerly Cingular Wireless), and oversaw content acquisition and product management of games and applications. Lou received his Masters Degree in Engineering from Clarkson University.
[Email Lou]

As founder and CEO of Gogii Games, Donovan approaches casual game publishing and development with the strong business acumen and creative spirit often associated with successful entrepreneurship. Only thirty-eight, Donovan is already considered a pioneer in the online marketplace. His career in the digital market began after acquiring a degree in international software marketing. Soon after he established and sold his first IT company Internet Communities. Naturally, he launched another company thereafter, iNFiknowledge, a firm that expanded to include a full time staff of 90 individuals before it too was sold to Traffix Inc., a NASDAQ publicly traded corporation, in 2001.

Founded in 2006, Gogii Games has since expanded to include a full time staff of thirty individuals. As a developer and publisher, Donovan has also established strong relationships with a variety of international studios. Donovan ensured at the outset that Gogii Games was positioned to compete in an international market, by releasing games in multiple formats and in multiple languages. With more than ten Number 1 games currently in their extensive product library, the company publishes an average of ten games a year.

Constantly striving to better the organizational model and increase revenues, Donovan has focused on the mobile and free to play markets with the addition of a dedicated team of IOS developers in house, geared toward the creation of original and twinned content for mobile platform consumption.

When not focused on streamlining and managing the business, Donovan can be found spending the majority of his free time with his most important venture, an expanded family – one that now includes three children. Limited in time, his sole other passions include trend analysis and golf. On a very good day, he can be found on a golf course, mobile phone in hand of course.
[Email George]

Heather Hromoho is the Director of Developer Operations for Millennial Media’s Global Monetization Solutions team. Heather mentors developers of all levels, helping them develop and execute a successful business plan, monetize their inventory, optimize based on results, and grow their user base with mMedia.com tools. Heather is dedicated to educating the developer community on industry resources and best practices in order to help developers create an efficient revenue stream.
[Email Heather]

With freemium game apps producing the majority of the mobile industry's app revenue, in-game monetization is more important than ever. Hear how these leading game developers plan and execute a successful monetization strategy, while balancing user experience. They’ll share their views on a number of monetization tactics including in-app purchases, rewards, and in-app advertising – particularly the extraordinary opportunity that exists with mobile video ads. Brand advertisers are following consumer interest in mobile video, but are these developers following the mobile video advertising dollars? Find out the answer to this question and many more as Heather Hromoho, Senior Director of Platform Business Operations at Millennial Media leads an insightful discussion with this panel of seasoned monetization experts.

4:30-4:50

The Four Most Important Emotions for Free to Play Casual Games

Nicole LAZZARO, Founder & President, XEODesign

Nicole Lazzaro is a world-renowned game researcher, designer, and speaker who makes games more fun. She discovered the Four Keys to Fun in 2004, a model used by hundreds of thousands of game developers worldwide. She used this model to design the iPhone's first accelerometer game in 2007, now called Tilt World which aims to plant 1 million trees in Madagascar. Nicole has been named one of the most influential women in the gaming industry by Fast Company, Forbes and Gamasutra. Nicole's work on user experience and emotion spans over two decades, and she has worked with some big names such as EA, Ubisoft, D.I.C.E., and The White House to make games more fun and unlock human potential to improve our world.
[Email Nicole]

Great casual gameplay creates strong emotions that AB testing and traditional marketing methods can't measure. Other methods can and developers that access player emotions early in game development can innovate with much less risk.

Beyond level packs and ammo, players crave specific emotions in exchange for their hard earned cash. Come find out how games such as Candy Crush Saga, Bejewled Blitz, and My Singing Monsters go beyond emotions like fiero and schadenfreude to motivate players to play.

Franciscan: Indie, M&A;, Funding, Accelerator / International Markets, and Tools/Platforms

August 1:
Tools/Platforms

Emcee: Nick BERRY, Data Scientist, Facebook

Nick, a native of the UK, works at facebook as Data Scientist, based mainly in their Seattle office. He was educated as a rocket scientist and aircraft designer, graduating with a Masters Degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. Upon graduation, he joined a group of friends to form a software company, specializing in electronic mapping and route planning. This company was grown organically, and earned an unprecedented number of awards and accolades, including the British Design Award and The Queen’s Award for Technology, presented by Her Majesty in 1991. In 1994, Nick was recognized by the Sunday Times Magazine as “One of the top 50 entrepreneurs of the decade”. In 1994, after the company had grown to 50 people worldwide, it was sold to Microsoft.
Nick moved to America with the sale and spent 14 years working from Microsoft, the last ten of which were in the Microsoft Casual Game team. During his tenure, he filed a variety of patents for Microsoft, and represented Microsoft at various conferences and speaking engagements.
After leaving Microsoft, he worked for RealNetworks as the GM of customer analytics for their games division, GameHouse, before starting his own consultancy company, DataGenetics. After a couple of years of successful consulting, he was approached by Facebook, and now works there full time. In addition to his engineering expertise, Nick is passionate about data privacy and holds a CIPP qualification from the International Association of Privacy Professionals. He is an active member of the privacy community and speaks at various events about the legal and ethical aspects of data collection, use, and destruction.
[Email Nick]

July 31:
M&A;, Funding, Accelerator / International Markets

Emcees: Michael CHANG, Managing Director, Mavent Partners, LLC
Zack KARLSSON

Michael Chang is Managing Director of Mavent Partners. Michael was previously Senior Director Corporate Development at Electronic Arts and led the acquisitions of Other Ocean PEI, ESN, KlickNation, and Bight Games. Prior to EA, Michael held investment professional roles at Apax Partners, TCV, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Michael started his career as a technology M&A; banker at Jefferies Broadview. Michael graduated from Stanford University with an MS in Management Science and Engineering and a BS in Electrical Engineering.
[Email Michael]

July 30:
Indie

Emcee: Mike SEGO, Gaming Entrepreneur

A social media entrepreneur and pioneer in online gaming, Mike Sego was previously the CEO at Gaia Online and led the company’s expansion into social games, including Monster Galaxy, the most popular RPG on Facebook on 2011 (peaking at 15M MAU). Mike was Chief Product Officer at Gaia for six months prior to assuming the CEO role. Prior to Gaia, Mike was the creator and developer of (fluff)Friends, the first Facebook game to monetize with virtual currency, which he sold to Social Gaming Network in August 2008. Previously, Mike served as the Technical Lead for Gmail, and prior to his role at Google, Mike was a software engineer at Electronic Arts on The Sims Online. Mike attended Stanford University, where he earned a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science, with a focus on Human Computer Interaction.
[Email Mike]

9:00-9:20

Incubators and Accelerators: An Inside Look at Startup Funding and Entrepreneurship Programs

Jason DELLA ROCCA, Co-Founder, Execution Labs

Jason Della Rocca is the co-founder of Executions Labs, a first-of-its kind, hybrid game incubator and go-to-market accelerator that helps independent game developers produce games and bring them to market. Formerly, Jason was a game industry consultant focused on business and cluster development, working with game studios and organizations all over the world. Prior, he served as the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) for nearly nine years, and was honored for his industry building efforts with the inaugural Ambassador Award at the Game Developers Conference. In 2009, Jason was named to Game Developer Magazine’s “Power 50,” a list which profiles 50 of the most important contributors to the state of the game industry. As a sought after expert on the game industry, Jason has lectured at conferences and universities worldwide.
[Email Jason]

Largely adopted (and adapted) from more general web/tech efforts like Y-Combinator and TechStars, incubators and accelerators to suit the particular needs of game development and commercialization are being established across the globe. While each program is set up differently, they often provide much-needed resources like seed funding, dev machines, shared working space, and, most importantly, mentorship and coaching. This session will provide an overview of available programs, discuss how to evaluate if you should apply or not, and what to watch out for.

9:30-9:50

M&A; Market Update – 2013/14 Predictions and the Latest on the Industry’s Biggest Deals

Alina SOLTYS, Senior Analyst, Corum Group

Alina Soltys joined Corum Group in 2010, located out of their Seattle headquarters working on client engagements in the financial and research capacity. Prior to this, she worked as an Acquisitions Specialist at a real estate development firm specializing in acquiring multi-family properties throughout the Pacific Northwest. During her college years, she was an intern within the Mergers and Acquisitions Group at Colliers International where she contributed in marketing, finance as well as strategic growth and positioning.

Alina graduated from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington, specializing in Finance and Entrepreneurship.
[Email Alina]

You’ve nailed it – your gaming company has finally broken through the sound barrier. Where do you go next? Do you continue building more great games or is the time right to explore the right strategic partnership? This talk will provide a 10,000 foot view of the market trends, movers and shakers in Gaming M&A;, and predictions going forward.

10:00-10:20

10 Years of Casual Games – Moving from Platform to Platform, A Strategic Vision on the History and Future of Web, Social, Mobile and Cross-Platform Games

Michael KALKOWSKI, Co-Founder & Managing Director, GameDuell

Michael Kalkowski is co-founder, Managing and Creative Director of GameDuell and is responsible for the company’s games, websites, and player communities. He has a passion for creating great teams and products that people love. Michael started his ventures as a serial entrepreneur 13 years ago as a founder of dooyoo.com. In his previous life, he worked as an international product and marketing consultant. He holds several business degrees from Germany and an MBA from Eastern Illinois University (USA).
[Email Michael]

In the last decade the games industry has come a long way moving from one platform to another. Hypes have come and gone but with the move along platforms came many innovations in product quality, technology and business models. Michael Kalkowski shows how the champions of our industry were able to drive growth during ever-changing times and delivers a strategic view on the key business aspects for the next 12 months.

Top VCs on Funding the Next Wave of Gaming Companies | 10:00 - 10:50

Tim CHANG, Managing Director, Mayfield Fund
Jeremy LIEW, Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Dan FIDEN, Partner, Signia Venture Partners
Kristian SEGERSTRALE, Parnter, Initial Capital
discussion led by Michael METZGER, Principal, Covert & Co.

Tim is a proven venture investor and experienced global executive, known for his thought leadership in Gamification, Quantified Self, and Behavioral/Social Science-led Design. Tim invests in the mobile, social, adtech, and health 2.0 themes. Prior to joining Mayfield Fund, Tim spent five years as a Partner at Norwest Venture Partners. While at Norwest, he invested in the mobile, gaming and digital media sectors and established their investment practice in China and Asia Pacific. Prior to Norwest, Tim worked for Gabriel Venture Partners where he led their wireless and Asia Pacific practice.
[Email Tim]

Jeremy Liew is a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, joining the firm in 2006. He invests primarily in the Internet and mobile sectors with a particular interest in massive-scale social media, commerce, gaming, financial services, and methods for increasing monetization. He was named to Forbes’ Midas List in 2011 and 2012. Jeremy’s current investments include LivingSocial, Bonobos, Kixeye, PetFlow, Slice, ShoeDazzle, The Honest Company and Zest Finance. He was also responsible for several Lightspeed investments which have had successful exits including Playdom (acquired by Disney), Flixster (acquired by Warner Brothers), Kongregate (acquired by GameStop) and Serious Business (acquired by Zynga). Previously, Jeremy was with AOL, first as SVP of corporate development and chief of staff to the CEO, and then as general manager of Netscape. Jeremy joined AOL from InterActiveCorp (originally USA Networks), where he was VP of strategic planning.
[Email Jeremy]

Dan is a founding partner at Signia and has been in technology for over 16 years. He first joined independent game developer Jellyvision, serving as Creative Director on the highly successful You Don’t Know Jack series of games. At venture-funded Spiderdance, an interactive TV studio, Dan’s work was nominated for an Emmy. After roles at WMS Gaming and Electronic Arts, Dan was General Manager at Playfish, a social game maker based in London that was acquired by EA for $300m. Dan began working with Rick Thompson in 2010, eventually becoming CEO of Wild Needle (sold to Zynga) and Playchemy (sold to Iddiction.) Dan serves on the Board of Directors of Idle Games, Kihon, Super Evil Mega Corp, and Mind Pirate, and on the Advisory Board to the flagship Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. He holds a BA in Cinema and English from Denison University in Granville, OH.
[Email Dan]

Kristian has been at the forefront of the rapidly transforming game industry since 2001. After serving as Electronic Arts’ executive vice president of digital, he left in March 2013 to focus on startups. Today, he leads seed-stage investments with Initial Capital and serves on the board of Supercell, the #1 iOS grossing game company in the world. Before that, he co-founded, ran and then sold social gaming pioneer Playfish to Electronic Arts for $400M in 2009. He was also a co-founder of mobile gaming pioneer Macrospace – today Glu Mobile (Nasdaq: GLUU) in 2001 through the successful IPO in 2007.
[Email Kristian]

Michael is a Principal at Covert & Co., a next-generation investment bank providing premium M&A; and financing services to media and technology companies globally. Covert & Co. is a leader in the games sector and our track record includes M&A; transactions such as Aeria Games/Gamepot, Hearst’s UGO/NewsCorp’s IGN, Club Penguin/Disney, SRS Labs/DTS, NevenVision/Google, DailyCandy/Comcast, and Musicmatch/Yahoo!; as well as equity financings such as Wildtangent, Realtime Worlds, Meebo, LegalZoom, and Move Networks. Previously, Michael was a Vice President at New Century Capital Partners and advised Yahoo’s Mobile Marketing and Advertising group. Michael has also held senior management and engineering positions at AT&T;, IBM and Mindspeed. He holds 5 patents in the field of Communications and also serves as Vice-Chair and Board Director of the German American Business Association (GABA) in Southern California. Michael received an MSEE from the University of Ulm, Germany and his MBA from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.
[Email Michael]

The investors of Supercell, ngmoco (DeNA), Kixeye, Playdom (Disney), Playfish (EA) and Ouya will discuss opportunities in mobile/online gaming, gamification, real-money gaming and next-gen consoles.

Tips For the Indie Web Game Developer Moving to Mobile

Chris HUGHES, Co-Founder, FGL.com

Chris Co-Founded FGL.com and GamerSafe. com which have helped web and mobile game developers make millions annually.
[Email Chris]

One billion smartphones. Are you ready? There is no denying the mobile opportunity is upon us. With Chris’ help, indies have been able to distribute their Flash games quickly and painlessly on the web, but what about mobile? Come hear Chris’ take on the indie’s place in the mobile market.

10:30-10:50

Android, Google Play, and the Mobile Gaming Opportunity

Purnima KOCHIKAR, Director of Business Development, Google Play

Purnima Kochikar, heads Apps and Games for Google Play. In this role Purnima leads a global team that helps developers build successful apps and games businesses on Google Play. Prior to Google, Purnima held various roles at Nokia including leading developer activities worldwide, which took her to more than 30 countries and got her the million miler status on United Airlines. Purnima earned a MBA with honors from Harvard Business School and an MS in Computer Science from University of Maryland, where she was initiated into the Phi Kappa Phi and the Upsilon Pi Epsilon honor societies. In her spare time, Purnima serves as an advisor to technical startups, and volunteers at non-profit institutions focused on K-12 education.
[Email Purnima]

Gaming has moved from that box in your living room to the screen that you carry with you in your pocket wherever you go. And more and more, that screen is an Android one -- with over 900 million Android devices activated around the world to date. Come explore the exciting opportunities where mobile and gaming interact, and the opportunities that Google Play and Android can unlock.

Start-up Survival Lessons for Indie Developers

Kenny HUANG, CEO, BlueBat Games

Kenny Huang is the CEO and co founder of Bluebat. Kenny has over 11 years of experience as a software engineer. He has worked for companies such as Electronic Arts, Pacgen Biopharmaceuticals, DTEC, and Market Melody. His experience led him to his true passion of working in the video gaming industry. He’s credited for some of the best selling game titles such as NHL, FIFA, NBA, Madden. He knew that the world of traditional video gaming would be disrupted by the mobile and social space. Not one to sit back and watch trends pass by him, he wanted to help game developers create social games more easily. This is done by the creation of the BlueBox gaming engine.
[Email Kenny]

So you are an indie developer with aspirations of making the next big hit. Yes, you are considered a start-up! Before your hit game brings you the millions of dollars, your number one priority is survival. This session talks about how BlueBat Games survived its first years as a start-up and as an indie studio. The pivots it made, the business lessons learned, and the production process paradigm shifts. Finally, BlueBat will share how they got funded as a studio in an industry that is very hard for investors to fund due to its hit-based nature.

11:00-11:20

Building Your Game with Google Play

Bob MEESE, Business Development-Games, Google
Greg HARTRELL, Lead Product Manager, Google

Bob leads games business development for Google Play. He focuses on growing Google Play game developer revenue, managing new initiative outreach, and influencing product development of key features including payments and discovery/ distribution.
[Email Bob]

Greg Hartrell is Lead Product Manager on Google Play game services, devoted to helping developers make incredible games with Google Play. In his spare time, he enjoys jumping from platform to platform, boss battles and matching objects in threes. Before Google, Greg was Studio Head at Capcom/Beeline and lead product management for Xbox Live/360 core platform.
[Email Greg]

Games are mobile, they’re social, and they’re an important part of Google Play. Join us as we explore Google Play game services, a core part of building a gaming platform for the next generation of games, with services to make your games more social, like achievements, leaderboards, and multiplayer, as well as more powerful, storing game saves and settings in the cloud. By building on Google’s strengths in mobile and cloud services, you can focus on what you’re good at as game developers: creating great gaming experiences for your users.

M&A; Walkthrough – The Do’s and Don’ts of Selling Your Game Company

Jim PERKINS, Director, Corum Group

Entertainment software entrepreneur Jim Perkins is directly responsible for publishing some of the industry’s biggest franchises, including Unreal, Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein, Doom, Hunting Unlimited, and Driver. A well-known senior executive with a 22-year track record of publishing such bestselling hits, he founded and grew two highly successful software publishing companies (FormGen and ARUSH) from start-ups to multi-million dollar enterprises.

Jim also launched Radar Group, the first Transmedia Incubation Company to monetize entertainment franchises across all media, including film and television. His success and extensive experience in software production, marketing and public relations, packaging, online and retail distribution and software M&A;, uniquely qualify him as an expert in building value and realizing wealth. Jim joined Corum Group, the world’s leading software M&A; firm, with a specific focus on educating and helping prospective sellers maximize the value of their digital media companies.
[Email Jim]

The sale of your gaming company has the potential to be the most important transaction of your life—don’t launch this final level without a walkthrough from the experts. Hear the tips, hints and proven processes you need to sell your company—and the negotiation pitfalls and deal disasters that can vaporize value. Built from the largest body of technology mergers and acquisitions work in history, this presentation will help you prepare for battle when considering selling in the next three years.

Building an Amazing Studio Culture - There is More to it than Just Free Lunches | 11:00 - 11:50

Josh NILSON, Co-Founder, East Side Games
Tim TEH, Co-Founder, Kano Apps
Emily GREER, Co-Founder, Kongregate
Sonia RYAN, People, Culture and Outreach, A Thinking Ape
Moderator: Chris YE, Founder, Uken Games

Josh Nilson is the COO and co-founder of East Side Games, a proudly independent studio creating humorous and addicting social/mobile games. Their cult classic game Pot Farm is still going strong on Facebook 3 years later and has had over 8 Million unique players. East Side Games strongly believes in Community Driven design, building games pitched internally, and having the best culture around. And they have the best hoodies in the business, seriously.
[Email Josh]

Tim Teh is the Cofounder and CEO of KANO/APPS, a Canadian based indie social gaming company. Bootstrapped in 2008, KANO/APPS was one of the first developers to see success on the Facebook platform. Fastforward to 2013, KANO/APPS has released six social gaming titles, continues to remain self funded and hires 21 full time employees (and growing). Teh attributes KANO/APPS’ success to its focus on building a culture, team and processes to repeatedly create award winning products.
[Email Tim]

Emily cofounded Kongregate in 2006 with brother Jim and as COO oversees most daytoday operations including product development, marketing, community, and monetization. Prior to Kongregate, Emily worked in marketing/ecommerce for various catalogers & retailers building statistical and financial models predicting customer behavior as well as doing product analysis, customer research, strategic planning and website development.
[Email Emily]

Sonia Ryan focuses on People, Culture and Outreach at a friendly local startup, A Thinking Ape. Her expertise spans such areas as marketing, public relations, recruitment and digital strategy. Her goal is for A Thinking Ape to be continually recognized as a strong technical company, and as one of the best places to work in Canada. Prior to A Thinking Ape, Sonia worked at Bootup Entrepreneurial Society and was responsible for Community Outreach. Sonia can always be found with her iPhone and a smile that doesn't quit.
[Email Sonia]

Chris is the cofounder and ceo at Uken Games. Through the launch of 9 cross platform games, he's helped the company achieve over 25 million customers worldwide. He contributes to the startup community in Canada as a mentor for the Extreme Startups incubator (http://www.extremestartups.com) and the Execution Labs game accelerator (http://www.executionlabs.com/). Prior to Uken, he collaborated on one of the first Facebook apps to gain early traction and the integrate an international brands. He attended the Schulich School of Business.
[Email Chris]

In depth talk about how to grow a company, or maintain one while cultivating the best culture possible. Topics include spending as much time ramping down as hiring, hiring from within, cultivating game ideas from your team, retention, why having hack days are important and how free lunches are not always a great thing.

Our speakers will dig deep and share what works in their studios and what they stay away from. Bring your questions!

11:30-11:50

Building Your Gaming Strategy for BlackBerry 10

Anders JEPPSSON, Global Head of Gaming Category, BlackBerry
Ramprasad MADHAVAN, Sr. Application Development Consultant, BlackBerry

Anders has dedicated more than 15 years of his career to video games and mobile innovation. In his current role, he leads strategy and business development for the gaming category at BlackBerry, where his efforts are focused on making Blackberry 10 a developer friendly platform for game studios of all sizes.

Prior to this position, Anders founded and was CEO of SouthEnd Interactive, a console and mobile game studio of more than 40 people that he ran from 1998-2010. He is credited as Lead Game Designer and Senior Producer on award winning titles such as games Deathrow(Xbox), R-Type Dimensions(XBLA), Lode Runner (XBLA) and Ilomilo (XBLA/WP7) on Xbox/360, PS3, Android, Windows Mobile, and WP7. Anders worked as Head of Innovation and Chief Visionary Officer at a Swedish telecom company with a specific mission of expanding their customer base into Asia before joining The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) in 2010. TAT was acquired by RIM in December, 2010.
[Email Anders]

Ram is a Senior Gaming Consultant at BlackBerry's Developer Relations Team. With close to 10 years of Advanced Graphics and Gaming Experience, he manages technical partnerships with Industry's Top notch Game Engines, Middlewares and Publishers. Indie Gaming has always been his passion and he strives to make available all the tools necessary for Indie Game developers be successful on new BlackBerry Platform.
[Email Ramprasad]

BlackBerry recently launched its next generation BlackBerry 10 mobile computing platform and smartphones to wide acclaim.

With over 100k apps, targeting BlackBerry 10 makes more sense than ever before! Learn why it is profitable to build for BlackBerry 10. We’ll be joined by an independent developer that will briefly describe their experience with BlackBerry 10.

We’ll also provide a quick technical demonstration on porting an app to BlackBerry 10 using Unity and other professional game engines. It’s so easy that we only need part of a session to show you how to do this.

And, we'll show you how stunning these games look on the BlackBerry Z10.

Game Winners: Sellers Panel – Meet the Top CEO’s that have Sold Their Company | 11:30 - 12:20

Michael POLE, CEO, gloops International
Andrew PARADISE, CEO and Founder, Skillz
Moderator: Jim PERKINS, Director, Corum Group

Michael Pole is the Chief Executive Officer for gloops International. gloops is one of the most successful mobile social game companies in Japan which was recently acquired by Nexon. gloops International operates two development studios, one in San Francisco, California and the other in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. We design, develop and publish a wide variety of mobile game applications across the widest variety of devices and networks possible.
[Email Michael]

CEOs and Founders of recently sold companies share their war stories and challenges from taking their gaming companies through the most important transactions of their lives. Don’t miss their unique insights on what to expect, and especially the unexpected they encountered! Highly recommended for founders and CEOs who want the inside perspective on selling their company.

12:00-12:30

LUNCH BREAK
sponsored by G5

12:30-12:50

Buyers Power Panel – Meet and Learn from the Most Active Buyers in the Industry | 12:30 - 1:20

Kent WAKEFORD, EVP Corporate Development & General Counsel, Kabam
Will O'BRIEN, SVP, Corporate and Business Development, Big Fish
Carlo BERTUCCI, Corporate Development, Amazon
Moderator: Jim PERKINS, Director, Corum Group

Kent Wakeford is Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and General Counsel for Kabam, the leader in the western world for free-to-play core games. Kent joined Kabam full-time in February 2011 after serving as a company advisor since February 2009. He has been instrumental in shaping the company’s game portfolio, adding talented development teams, and navigating all legal areas for the company. Currently, he is responsible for the legal department, mergers and acquisitions, corporate strategy and governance, partnerships for third party game development, and licensed intellectual property. Kent has sourced and structured Kabam’s relationships with Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for The Hobbit mobile and web games, and NBCUniversal for the Fast & Furious 6 mobile game. Kent facilitated Kabam’s acquisitions of Gravity Bear, Fearless Studios, WonderHill, Wild Shadow Studios, Balanced Worlds, and Exploding Barrel Games. In addition, he assisted in raising more than $100M in capital investments for Kabam from venture and strategic investors including Google Ventures, SK Telecom, Pinnacle Ventures, Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Canaan Partners, Intel Capital and Redpoint Ventures.
Kent began his digital career at Netscape and spent more than five years at AOL as a Vice President, facilitating more than 250 partnerships across AOL web properties as well as Time Inc., Turner, and Warner Bros. Prior to joining Kabam, he was SVP at AddThis social sharing platform and co-founded the media valuation and ad verification company Integral Ad Science. Kent began his career as a corporate attorney at O’Melveny & Myers representing movie studios, record labels, and media companies.
Kent graduated order of the coif from University of Southern California Law School, achieving awards for highest scholarship and excellence in the field of entertainment law, and participated on Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree cum laude from University of California, Los Angeles.
[Email Kent]

Will O'Brien joined Big Fish in 2010 and during his tenure, he has held multiple leadership roles. As VP and GM of Cloud Gaming, Will led the team that launched Big Fish Unlimited, a universal cloud gaming service with hundreds of games instantly streaming to PCs, tablets, smartphones, and connected TVs. Will also led the acquisition of Self Aware Games, makers of the hit mobile-social casino platform that today powers Big Fish Casino. Prior to Big Fish, Will was GM of Social Games for TrialPay, and before TrialPay, he bootstrapped his own consumer internet startup as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Highland Capital Partners in Silicon Valley. Will holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. He also holds a B.A., cum laude, in Computer Science from Harvard University.
[Email Will]

[Email Carlo]

Find out what the industry’s top buyers are looking for in partner companies, and get the inside scoop on how they evaluate gaming companies for an acquisition. How about after the transaction closes? How will your company be integrated into mother ship? The panel gets you deep inside what the buyers are thinking when buying companies.

EMERGING TRENDS: Global "Micro-indie" Development

Steve FELTER, CEO, Gamesalad

Steve Felter is the CEO of GameSalad, the popular game creation platform that enables game designers to rapidly create, publish and distribute sophisticated games for iOS, Android and HTML5 while eliminating the need to code. Prior to joining GameSalad, Steve served as COO and CFO at DigiSynd, a social media marketing and analytics platform that was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2008. Prior to Disney, Steve worked in Corporate Development and Strategy at Warner Bros. (TWX) where he focused on M&A;, investments and partnerships in the digital media space.
[Email Steve]

In the games business, "indies" and "innovation" go hand in hand. In an industry where you're only as good as your next game, established developers often have too much to lose to risk pushing the innovation envelope. Indies, though, build games often fueled by passion alone. These raw, sometimes flawed gems of creativity can provide "proof of concept" that fuel new product direction for years to come. Join Steve Felter, CEO of Gamesalad, in a discussion about what the industry gains from the combination of accessible tools, digital distribution, and a global marketplace that has resulted in a global storm of micro-indie games creativity -- and even a few top 10 hits.

1:00-1:20

What Do Mobile Developers Really Need Today for Success? | 1:00 - 1:50

Jussi IMMONEN, Director of Publishing, Rovio
Chris AKHAVAN, President of Publishing, Glu
Iman MOSTAFAVI, Co-Founder and COO, Limbic Software
Mario WYNANDS, Managing Director, PikPok
Moderator: Mickey MAHER, Director of Business Development, Applifier

Mickey Maher currently leads the business development initiatives for Applifier. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in marketing and user acquisition across the IOS, Facebook and Android platforms. Prior to Applifier, Mickey served as Director of Business Development at Sometrics which was acquired by American Express in 2011 where Mickey then worked in American Express' Serve eWallet group as Director of Business Development until May 2012.
[Email Mickey]

With an abundant landscape of design, programming, acquisition, monetization, and analytics providers to arm your game development and marketing arsenal, the question still remains - what do developers really need from the market to launch mobile games and build long-term growth, and which tools and platforms are developers currently using with measurable success? Applifier's Mickey Maher leads this panel with some of the leading mobile game developers for an inside look at the tools and the platforms that are working, lacking and really needed for game publishing success in the market today.

The Five Mind-Myths of the Micro-Mobile Studio

Charles COX, Founder & CEO, 4gency

Charles N. Cox has worked on games for Sierra Studios, Microsoft, and Sony. He is now the Developer Education Manager at Xbox, and runs his own mobile/tablet game company, 4gency. Charles blogs at http://www.charlesncox.com.
[Email Charles]

Who said Year One was easy? This isn’t just any post-mortem, it’s a survival guide. Come join 4gency’s founder as he outlines one vision, two games, twelve months and $25,000 nobody will ever see again. Learn the five dangerous myths that nearly sunk a new mobile games studio, and walk away with a map of landmines you can avoid on your way to fame and fortune.

1:30-1:50

EMERGING TRENDS: 1.24 BILLION New Customers - Android on The Rise in India

Rakesh RAJU, CTO, TreSensa

Rakesh Raju, TreSensa’s CTO, is a developer with 19 years of experience building interactivity tools, games, consumer products and platforms. After developing an award winning surgical simulation authoring tool after grad school, Rakesh worked at Disney Feature Animation building tools for film animators. In 1997, Rakesh built a high visual quality, high performance graphics engine - SquishyFX, which was licensed to and distributed by Microsoft. Rakesh then joined RealNetworks and worked on their games product, RealArcade, for the ensuing 4 years, helping to build one of the original and largets online game distribution platforms. In 2005 Rakesh moved to Pune India where he built and managed a 200 person development center, overseeing product development of multiplayer online gaming products for Tribeca Tables, one of the world’s largest online poker networks (Tribeca Tables was acquired Playtech in 2007). Most recently Rakesh founded and managed CodeWalla, a full life cycle game development company based in Pune India. In July 2011, Rakesh joined TreSensa as a co-founder and CTO.
[Email Rakesh]

The title pretty much says it all. India's immensely populous consumer culture, with already ubiquitous feature phone usage, is flipping to Android smartphones fast. The growth numbers are fascinating. Companies like Google and Facebook are literally subsidizing hardware and data plans, and localizing their products - paving the way for a billion-user ecosystem of mobile content to pop into existence practically overnight. But of course, there's a catch…join Rakesh Raju, games entrepreneur, to find out what it is.

How Slant Six Games took AAA to Mobile

Peter DOIDGE-HARRISON, Technical Director and Executive Producer, Slant Six Games

Peter Doidge-Harrison is one of the founders of Slant Six Games, where he is a Technical Director, and Executive Producer. He has been in the industry for 17 years and has been at Slant Six Games since its inception in 2005. Peter was the Executive Producer for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, and for the last 18 months has been overseeing the studio's transition to mobile.
[Email Peter]

Slant Six Games recently made the transition from AAA console developer to indie mobile publisher. This is the story of how we made that transition, the learning process we went through and the strategies the studio is taking to manage the change; including design re-training, team structure, production issues and wrestling with analytics and monetization issues.

2:00-2:20

Tune Your Designer/Developer Workflow

Tom KRCHA, Gaming Evangelist, Adobe Systems

Tom Krcha is a Sr. Creative Cloud Evangelist at Adobe focusing on designer/developer workflows for Gaming, Web and Apps using code with Photoshop, Illustrator and other Creative Cloud tools. He develops games and speaks regularly at conferences in USA, Europe and Asia. He is programming for over 14 years and worked for interactive agencies, gaming studios, streaming companies and telco providers. Tom writes a blog at TomKrcha.com and you can follow him on twitter: @tomkrcha.com.
[Email Tom]

Boost your game designer/developer asset creation workflow and safe hours. Learn tips & tricks to extract data from Photoshop and Illustrator effectively and fast to use them within the code. Understand how to get GPU-ready 2D skeletal animations for games from Flash Pro timeline animations. Bring your graphical assets quickly to major platforms including HTML5/PhoneGap, ActionScript/Flash and Obj-C/Cocos2D and deploy on various devices.

How to be Successful In China, Japan and South Korea | 2:00 - 2:50

Randy LEE, VP Global Business Development, Crowdstar
Junichi AKAGAWA, Executive Officer & SVP, Mobage(DeNA)
James YOO, Managing Director, NHN USA
Ben CHEN, SVP Developer Relations & Business Development, SponsorPay
Moderator: Kim-Mai CUTLER, Writer, TechCrunch

Junichi (Jun) Akagawa joined DeNA in 2009 and he is currently in charge of the corporate strategy for DeNA’s Mobage social games platform where he's responsible for developing the vision for the Mobage platform in the four regions of Japan, Greater China, South Korea and the West. Akagawa’s role also includes managing platform development and exploring new business areas for DeNA.
[Email Junichi]

James Yoo is the Managing Director of NHN USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NHN Corporation headquartered in Korea. Their main business models are the NAVER portal, which is the most popular Internet portal and search engine in South Korea, and HANGAME, the country's number one online game portal. It also operates LINE, which is a global mobile messenger application, with over 180 million users and 230 countries worldwide. Prior to NHN, he worked as an Analyst at KPMG's strategic planning office and focused on the firm's global expansion. James holds a BBA in marketing from Southern Methodist University, and has attended Johns Hopkins University for his master's degree.
[Email James]

Ben is responsible for Global Developer Relations and Business Development. He has extensive experience in consumer and business-to-business sales strategy as well as in new business development. Prior to SponsorPay, Ben lead the Developer Relations teams at both GREE International and DeNA Global. Before that, he was the Head of Sales for Playdom, which was acquired by Disney for $570MM.
[Email Ben]

Kim-Mai Cutler is a technology journalist who has worked for Bloomberg, VentureBeat and The Wall Street Journal. Before she joined TechCrunch, she led mobile coverage at Inside Network, a six-person media startup that was acquired by WebMediaBrands in 2011 for $14 million in cash and stock. She specializes in covering gaming, distribution and monetization of mobile applications and venture financing. She attended UC Berkeley and was editor of the student paper The Daily Californian. She has lived in London, New York, Buenos Aires and Hanoi and speaks Spanish and some conversational Vietnamese.
[Email Kim-Mai]

The Asia-Pacific region is predicted to foster impressive growth in games and social apps over the next few years. This is particularly true of the mobile markets in China, South Korea and Japan that have established themselves as hotbeds of opportunity.

Each of these countries, however, has its specificities and challenges for developers. All studies and reports from Asian publishers reveal that gamer demographics, gaming preferences and spending behavior can vary greatly between these countries.

How can Western developers best approach these markets? What are the best practices and existing local ecosystems to take into account? What metrics should be used as benchmarks? This roundtable, featuring leaders in the space, will discuss the nuances of these markets and answer your questions.

Tournament Time! Live Ops for Mobile Indies

Simon NEWSTEAD, CEO, Frenzoo

Simon is CEO and Co-Founder of Frenzoo, creator of the Me Girl™ series of 3d mobile games, enjoyed by millions of women around the world. He blogs at iteratingfun.com and has a passion for positive, playful and inspirational games. Prior to Frenzoo, Simon ran the emerging tech team for Asia at Juniper Networks and is originally from rainy Melbourne.
[Email Simon]

So you're an Indie and one of your new games has turned into a minor hit. Congrats! So how do you make the most of all the downloads and build a thriving and profitable community of players?

One key answer is Live Ops. Live ops covers all ongoing time and community based content that is enjoyed within the game well after launch, for example contests and events. Live ops are increasingly used by both big and small players to increase retention, monetization and can make mobile games "last" for months and even years. This talk will be covering the ins and outs of live ops:
• Why live ops in your game?
• Compare and contrast different techniques
• Case studies including one from the speaker's game
• How to support live ops within a small team
• Trends and opportunities

2:30-2:50

How WebGL Makes HTML5 Ready for Prime Time

Ola DE FREITAS, Founder & CEO, Goo Technologies

Ola de Freitas is a father of 4, has a big passion for music and loves web that makes you go WOW. He has previously founded three companies – including Ardor Labs and Greenturn Management – and used to work for Schneider Electric and the Swedish Trade Council. He is currently committed to improving the interactive web as the CEO and co-founder of Goo Technologies. "What drives me is my passion of exploring new territory, improving the way things are done, and making people go "WOW!" That is exactly what we do at Goo!"
[Email Ola]

Meet Fredrik. He is a developer who has built his entire business on Flash. This was all great until Steve Jobs decided to kill Flash. So, what's next for Fredrik? HTML5! Everybody loves HTML5, but there is one big problem with HTML5: it's not smooth and performant... Or?

Introducing WebGL and the Goo Engine, the worlds leading platform for advanced graphics on HTML5. With WebGL Fredrik can now get native performance on his apps, in the browser, using no plugins. This means that his business is saved and he can make the transition to HTML5 and develop all the cool stuff he loves for the web!

Marketing and Monetization for Mobile Indies: Lessons from the Trenches

Keith KATZ, Co-founder, Execution Labs

Keith Katz is co-founder of Execution Labs, where he oversees the company’s business functions and works closely with game teams in areas like PR, user acquisition, and player monetization. He was VP Monetization at OpenFeint (acquired by GREE), VP Marketing at Cellufun (now Tylted) and Head of North American Marketing for Gameloft. He started his gaming career at Atari.
[Email Keith]

Getting useful marketing and monetization help is nearly impossible for mobile indies these days. Most mobile developers and publishers guard their tips and tricks because they give them a competitive advantage over smaller devs. In this session, Keith will share the real-life marketing and monetization strategies for games launching this summer on iOS and Google Play.

3:00-3:20

The Path to a Million Users: Diversifying Your Acquisition Playbook

John MAFFEI, General Manager, K-Invite

John Maffei is a software executive with 18 years of executive experience at leading Internet, mobile and gaming companies. He currently is the General Manager of Medio's Mobile Customer Acquisition Division. K-Invite (Medio's acquisition product) helps mobile brands and developers acquire new users at a fraction of the cost of traditional ad networks by increasing the virality of your mobile users.

Maffei was formerly a principal of MPQ Acquisition Corp that acquired Internet gaming businesses including Xfire and Titan Gaming. Maffei served as CEO of Titan Gaming (Now Playsino) and Xfire. Maffei led MPQ negotiations to acquire Xfire from Viacom.
[Email John]

The cost of acquiring mobile customers is skyrocketing and competition for high value users is becoming cut-throat. Developers are forced to navigate a maze of low-value ad networks and deep-pocketed publishers as they bring their games to market. Understanding how multiple devices, platforms and channels impact user acquisition ROI is critical. In this session you'll learn how to unlock the viral potential of your user base and diversify your acquisition strategy without breaking the bank.

Key Success Factors in Korea’s Mobile Game Market

Eric CHOI, Team Leader, Global Game Business Team, KAKAO

Eric heads KAKAO’s Global Game Business Team, working and communicating with global game companies to bring high-quality games to KAKAO Game Platform. At KAKAO, he helped design the business model of Dragon Flight, which still holds the highest record of accumulated revenue in Korea. He was also project manager of many top-hit games on KAKAO Game Platform including Everybody ChaChaCha, Arrow, Heroes’ War, and Com2us Homerun King. Prior to joining KAKAO, he worked at NHN Korea’s search team and CJ Group’s strategy team.
[Email Eric]

Eric will introduce how the landscape of mobile games changed after the emergence of Kakao Game Platform and will suggest what foreign game companies can do to penetrate Korea’s mobile game market successfully.

Releasing on Consoles: From Business to Coding

Brian PROVINCIANO, Founder, Vblank Entertainment

Brian runs Vblank, a PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and PC development studio. He shipped the award winning Retro City Rampage for consoles and Steam, single-handedly doing all of the programming, design, business and marketing. Previously, Brian worked at studios from small to AAA, casual to core. He has spoken at GDC and other conferences worldwide.
[Email Brian]

This talk takes attendees through the entire process of developing and releasing games on consoles and Steam. Getting licensed, getting games approved, porting, implementing platform requirements, submission and certification, production, store assets and marketing, with a post launch breakdown of the time, cost and revenue of each platform. Attendees will gain an overview of the differences between each platform, a road map to accurately plan ahead and jump in headfirst.

3:30-3:50

The Future of Unity

Carl CALLEWAERT, Unity Evangelist, Unity

With 10 years production and evangelism experiences in game industry Carl likes to share his experiences with the Unity community. Prior to Unity, Carl worked on AAA and indie game and as contract worker for Autodesk Education. He shared his knowledge with workshops hosted around the world and at Gaming at Animation Institute of Fredericton.
[Email Carl]

The Rapid Growth of Android Market in China - The Challenges and Opportunities for Western Developers

Gary CHANG, SVP & GM of North America, Renren

Chang is the SVP and GM of Renren Games in North America, who is responsible for the business development and operations of Renren Games in US. Prior to Renren, Chang served in various executive positions in the gaming industry, including President & Chief Strategy Officer at Mixamo, Inc., VP of Publishing & GM of China at Electronic Arts, President & CEO of Winking Entertainment, VP of International Business Development at Shanda Interactive Entertainment, VP of Platform Development of Shanda Network, Co-founder & CTO of Zona, Inc., etc. With 20+ years of engineering and operations experience, Chang has led several teams to establish successful businesses in the U.S. and China. Chang graduated from Northwestern University with a Ph.D. degree in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science.
[Email Gary]

To date, the China mobile game market has been a disappointment for most Western game developers and publishers. The presenter will discuss the current challenges in the China mobile game market and the future evolution of the market that will make it imperative for every game developer and publisher to make their way to China and compete for an audience in the world's largest and fastest growing, and eventually most lucrative, mobile game market.

The Top 3 Reasons Why FREE Users Suck

Andy ROSIC, Founder, Selfpubd

Andy Rosic is founder of Selfpubd, the publishing platform for independent mobile game developers. With about 250 member companies and 4 million monthly installs, they’re doing some amazing things with Indie devs – especially around discovery. He regularly consults and advises.
[Email Andy]

Go ahead, give your mobile game away free for a day. But you’ll get a huge pile of bottom-feeding, no-spenders who will rate you poorly, bury your support and move on! In this session you’ll learn about:
Inversion: how more users can equal less revenue.
Conversion: how more DAU’s drive lasting income.
Aversion: what a bad promo really costs you.
What do the numbers look like? How else do you get discovered without spending millions of dollars you don’t have? Are zombies real? Join this session to learn more.

4:00-4:20

Cloud Save Across Platforms and Devices: Techniques and Pitfalls

Peter HEINRICH, Technical Evangelist, Amazon Games

Now a technical evangelist with Amazon.com, Peter entered the games industry in 1991, porting flight sims to Amiga. Since then he has worked on PC, console, social, mobile, and MMO games. His favorite game is currently The Room, but Mass Effect, Homeworld, Warcraft II, and Super Bomberman hold special places in his heart.
[Email Peter]

As more users find themselves playing games on multiple devices, they increasingly expect their purchases and progress to follow them, no matter which device they happen to be using at the moment. The cloud makes it easy to keep this game data synchronized, but there are some special situations to be considered. This session will explore common scenarios, identify problematic use cases, and present strategies for achieving the desired behavior when saving and restoring data in the cloud.

How Game Developers Can Succeed in China

Jerry VUONG, VP of International Operations, FL Mobile

Jerry has 13 years of experience in finance, e-commerce and mobile/gaming. Before joining FL Mobile, Jerry held positions at Wells Fargo, App Ant Studios, and GREE International.
[Email Jerry]

Join Jerry Vuong, VP of International Operations of FL Mobile, as he presents four critical factors that Western developers must consider in order to find success in the exploding mobile market in China. Using their game, Little Ninja, Jerry will illustrate how FL Mobile found success by mastering these four areas: distribution, community, culturalization, and monetization.

Indie Game Studio Survival Panel | 4:00 - 4:50

Wade TINNEY, CEO & Founding Partner, Large Animal Games
Bryan MASHINTER, Producer, Backflip Studios
David EDERY, CEO, Spry Fox
Moderator: Juan GRIL, Studio Director, Joju Games

Hailing from Backflip Studios in Boulder, Colorado, Bryan Mashinter has most recently been the Producer on games like Paper Toss 2.0, Ragdoll Blaster 3, Army of Darkness and 2012 Top Grossing App DragonVale. He likes to write about himself in the 3rd person, used to be the lead singer of an 80’s cover band, hates entropy, loves beer and revels in any chance to bring order to chaos.
[Email Bryan]

David Edery is the Manager of Fuzbi, an independent consulting firm focused on the business and design of digitally-distributed and online games, and CEO of Spry Fox, a game development studio focused on making the world a happier place. Spry Fox has developed several hit games including Steambirds, Triple Town, and Realm of the Mad God. Prior to going his own way, David was the Worldwide Games Portfolio Manager for Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade service.
[Email David]

You’re a game developer and you’ve decided to go indie. You have an office wall covered with ramen noodle packets, and enough cash to pay rent and utilities for a few months. You are going to make the next great game, or so you think. But how will you promote it? If the game fails, what next?

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to put these questions to people who have managed to stay afloat, regardless of the circumstances? In this panel, Juan Gril of Joju Games has invited a group of very successful indie game developers to talk. “Success” is defined here as being able to feed yourself and your team for more than a few years in a row solely by making games. We will cover topics such as promoting your studio, self-publishing vs. working with publishers or distributors, how to best plan your projects, and general survival skills. Come with your questions, and we'll do our best to answer them.

4:30-4:50

The Power and Influence of Social Fandom in Gaming

Jennifer BETKA, SVP Marketing, Wikia
Nick WILLIAMS, Marketing Research Director, Wikia

Jennifer leads Wikia’s effort to broaden brand awareness and expand the company’s portfolio of media content sites. She has a successful track record of conceptualizing and executing large-scale integrated marketing campaigns as well as driving revenue for multi-brand media portfolios. She’s built brands and expanded market presence for leading media companies including AOL, Time Warner, Veoh, SIRIUS XM, and the LA Times.
[Email Jennifer]

Nick Williams is the Marketing Research Director at Wikia where he oversees all research and consumer insights. As a proven thought-leader in the digital media industry, Nick has extensive experience consulting with Fortune 500 companies to compete and grow their businesses such as Sony, Apple, Disney and Blizzard. Nick is an avid business writer and has authored over 30 research reports with his analysis featured in AdAge, Forbes, USA Today and MSNBC.
[Email Nick]

Gamers around the world are flocking to online communities to create and collaborate around original content. These “super fans” are not only leading conversations, but their influence is extending to brands and video game publishers alike. With social fandom getting more popular by the second, brands are looking for new ways to engage and address these communities, and learning in the process, the unique value super fans can bring to the table. Wikia’s Nick Williams and Jennifer Betka will shed light as to how gaming brands are currently addressing the Wikia Gaming communities and engaging with fans while also providing data around the fans themselves – what they like, what they are most passionate about, and what keeps them coming back.

Mobile Gaming in China: Challenges and Opportunities | 4:30 - 5:20

Jeff LYNDON, Co-Founder, idreamsky
Henry FONG, Founder & CEO, Yodo1
Fernando PIZARRO, General Manager, North America, Papaya Mobile
Linda JIANG, VP Business Development, UMENG
Janis ZECH, CRO and Co-Founder, SponsorPay
Moderator: Kim-Mai CUTLER, Writer, TechCrunch

Jeff Lyndon is the Executive Vice President and Co-founder of iDreamsky, a mobile brand manager/publisher founded in 2009 with partnership from Halfbrick, Imangi, Gameloft, Rovio, Miniclip, Gamevil, Enfeel and many more top mobile game companies.

On top of his daily role in iDreamsky, he is also the co-president of international cooperation and founding executive committee member of Global Mobile Confederation.

He has served in the game and tech related industry since 2000, mastering his skill in creative directing, strategic development, investment, publishing, product development and game company operation along the way
[Email Jeff]

Henry Fong is founder and CEO of Yodo1, a market entry specialist that helps Western mobile game developers successfully launch and monetize their titles in the rapidly expanding China market. Fong is a veteran technologist and international business strategist with over 18 years of experience in leadership roles for companies like Microsoft and Brocade Communications. As a serial entrepreneur, Henry previously co-founded several successful ventures, including an $80 million Hong Kong-listed venture fund, and a profitable pan-Asia market entry consulting firm that's helped over 60 US tech companies accelerate their business in Asia.
[Email Henry]

In his role as General Manager of Papaya Mobile's North American business, Fernando is charged with growing both the company's flagship games platform as well as it's newly launched app cross-promotion exchange, AppFlood. As a two time entrepreneur in mobile gaming and collaborative video, Fernando brings to bear his experience in traditional media at Disney and the Discovery Networks as well as large scale internet at Yahoo. A longtime Asia resident and passable Mandarin speaker, Fernando adds to Papaya Mobile's strategic depth in both China and the US. He has an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago and a BA in East Asian Studies from Harv.
[Email Fernando]

With more than 12 years experience in the mobile and internet industries in Europe and China, Linda is heading business development and marketing at Umeng, the leading mobile developer service platform and the largest mobile app analytics platform in China. Linda has been active across all aspects of the mobile industry, having led content and apps partnership development for Samsung’s mobile business in the UK and providing consultant services to Operators O2, T-Mobile & Vodafone.
[Email Linda]

Janis is a Berlin and San Francisco-based serial entrepreneur and angel investor passionate about mobile and online ventures. He co-founded SponsorPay in 2009, and has since grown it to the leading value-exchange advertising company with offices in Berlin (HQ), Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seoul and Tokyo.
[Email Janis]

With a projected smartphone and tablet audience larger than in the US, China’s mobile gaming revenues are predicted to grow more than 50% every year between 2013 and 2015. This potential presents numerous opportunities for publishers but also several challenges, including extreme fragmentation in platforms/devices as well as localization issues. How can Western developers best approach this huge market? How crucial is it to find local partners for cultural adaptation and a more localized approach? This panel, featuring leaders in the space, will discuss the nuances of this ostensibly intimidating market and answer your questions.

Executive Board Room: Audio, Indie, and Indie Postmortems

August 1:
Indie Postmortems

Emcee: Oscar CLARK, Evangelist, Applifier

Oscar has a passion for online entertainment and community and has spent much of the last 12 years on the bleeding edge of this technology. As a product and business strategist with more than a decade's experience in this relatively young industry Oscar has a keen insight into what works for businesses trying to engage communities and how to turn that into revenue. Oscar has a substantial senior executive background in telco, mobile and games having recently been Architect for the Sony Computer Entertainment Home world where he was custodian of the requirements and long term vision for this social gaming platform on PlayStation3. Prior to that he was in charge of Mobile Operator Strategy EMEA for nVidia looking at how to bring next generation 3D accelerated gaming to mobile phones and was delivering content for 3G at THREE. He started his career with BT and Real Networks.
[Email Oscar]

July 31:
Indie Postmortems

Emcee: Oscar CLARK, Evangelist, Applifier

July 30:
Audio

Emcee: Aaron WALZ, Audio Director, Walz Music & Sound

Aaron M. Walz, composer and sound designer for casual, social and mobile games, graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Music from Sonoma State University. He wrote the theme song for the top-ranking Facebook adventure, Ravenwood Fair, and produces audio for Shanda and Cherry Credits’ regional releases of Dragon Nest and SD Gundam Capsule Fighter. More recently, he provided audio for Ruby Seven Studios, Arena of Heroes and ZombieYou 3D. Aaron has received several awards for his work including “Best Game” at Microsoft’s Independent Games Festival and Game Tunnel’s “Best Sound.” Ravenwood Fair was also nominated for Best Audio at the GDC Online Awards.

Aaron strives to create music for media that stands alone as a worthy contribution to art. He runs Walz Music & Sound and is a co-founder and managing partner of the Game Audio Alliance, based in Seattle, WA. He is the audio speaker content adviser of the Casual Connect game conference. His biggest influences are the great Japanese game composers.
[Email Aaron]

10:00-10:20

East Side Games: Dragon Up

Jim WAGNER, Producer, East Side Games
Kevin OKADA, Producer, East Side Games

Jim transitioned from the Vancouver film industry into the wild world of videogame development bringing his extensive knowledge of scheduling, budgeting, and carrying heavy things. He transitioned to the social/mobile space early in his career at Hothead Games and eventually moved into a community management role at East Side Games. Jim did the initial design and was the Producer for the launch of Dragon Up on iOS.
He is now the producer of the Pot Farm team, the biggest little marijuana farming game in the world.
[Email Jim]

Kevin graduated with a design degree from the Art Institute of Vancouver in 2002. He has worked as a artist/level designer for the past 7 years on AAA titles, and has transitioned over to social/mobile space where he transitioned over to the management side as a producer on Dragon Up. He started out as a 2D artist working on flash games and quickly moved into 3D environment modelling. From there he has worked on such notable titles such as Army of 2, Turok, Ghostbusters, Transformers 2, Bass Pro Shops The Strike, and Sleeping Dogs. He has now moved into a production role, first on I Like Slots and currently on Dragon Up.
[Email Kevin]

Discovery is a huge challenge for mobile games, especially Indie games that have a limited marketing budget. Dragon Up launched on iOS and had good launch numbers but needed more organic players. Since we were Facebook developers first, we decided to add our iOS game to Facebook. This was no small task for coding, design and art. Learn how we tried to fail fast, what worked, what tools we used and what we learned.

From Niche to Mainstream Success: How We Built A 5M Players Community in The Sandbox!

Sebastian BORGET, Co-Founder & COO, PIXOWL

Sebastien manages the operations of Pixowl's 22 people international team between San Francisco, Buenos Aires and Paris. He has supervised the production and marketing of the studio's most popular titles (10+ million players in total): Doodle Grub, Greedy Grub and The Sandbox. His work was awarded by the nomination in Dec. 2012 of The Sandbox in AppStore Best of 2012!
[Email Sebastian]

The Sandbox is a world crafting game in pixel art, first launched in May 2012 on iOS.

Just over 1 year later, the title has been played by over 5M people worldwide, is now available on iOS, Android, Amazon and BB10, reached the 13-24 mainstream audience and was crowned by a nomination by Apple in its iTunes Best Of Games 2012!

How did we operate our community management? Our cross-platform strategy? How much did we spent in Users Acquisition and How? What are our other secrets?

The Goals of Mixing

Jeff TOLBERT, Game & Film Composer, Jeff Tolbert Film & Video Scoring

Jeff Tolbert is a composer for games, films and advertising. In 2007, he launched Jeff Tolbert Film & Video Scoring to combine his passion for movies and games with his love of music. His career thus far has led him to collaborate on games like Faerie Solitaire 1 and 2, Chimpanzee Catastrophe, Faerie Alchemy and Dragon Embers, and such films as Wyatt Steps Out, Bobby Ellis Is Gonna Kick Your Ass, American Courtesans, Modern Views, and Walk Right In. Advertising and corporate video clients include Webber Shandwick, Studio 216, Happy Candidates, Bakon Vodka, MovieMaker Magazine, and the Seattle non-profit PATH. He's composed several pieces for live performance, including "Electron Boy," which was performed at Seattle's Benaroya Hall in 2012. In 2011, Jeff founded the website FilmScoring.info as a resource for other media composers and a place to collect his writing on composition, orchestration and recording. He studied film scoring with Emmy-award-winning composer Hummie Mann and classical and jazz composition with Seattle's Tim Huling.
[Email Jeff]

Setting goals for your mix session helps you keep your focus on the big picture and not get bogged down in the details. Learn the four goals of a great mix and how to achieve these goals quickly and under deadline. Understand common mix mistakes and how to avoid them--muddy mixes, lack of energy and excitement, harshness, and choosing the wrong effects--and why you'll get more work if you improve your mix skills. Get expert tips and resources to make your mixes crisper, wider and more exhilarating and help them stand up next to the pros!

10:30-10:50

Lessons to be Learned from Some Great-Sounding Indie Games

Kevin REGAMEY, Creative Director, Power Up Audio

As a lifelong gamer and audiophile, Kevin brings a wealth of experience to the table at Power Up Audio. Over his career, he has played a contributing role in the sound design, music, and voice-over of almost 200 projects, ranging casual, midcore and AAA.
[Email Kevin]

Join Kevin Regamey, Creative Director at Power Up Audio, to explore how and why some Indie games sound so darn good. Yeah yeah, "Get audio involved early", right? Sure, but once audio is involved, what can you do to help deliver an immersive and memorable experience to the player? This talk will cover what's to be gained by looking to your sound and music as more than a simple paint job.

DIY Community Bricklaying

Howard TSAO, Team Lead, Muse Games

Howard Tsao is the Team Lead of Muse Games, an indie studio located in New York City. Their current project is the awarding winning Guns of Icarus Online - a team-based, first-person multiplayer, steampunk airship combat game on Steam.
[Email Howard]

Howard Tsao, Team Lead of Muse Games, offers tips and lessons from building and managing the Guns of Icarus Online Community.

Writing Music for an Iconic Hollywood IP: Scoring the Soundtrack for Kabam’s The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age

Greg RAHN, Audio Director, Kabam

Greg Rahn has been composing music for games since the early 90’s with over 200 game soundtracks to his credit. He currently heads up the audio team at Kabam in San Francisco, known for their blockbuster games Kingdoms of Camelot, The Godfather, The Hobbit: Armies Of The Third Age, and many others. Greg recently formed Kabam’s own record label- Kabam Tunes, which publishes and distributes Kabam’s game soundtracks worldwide.

Prior to that Greg owned and operated Soundmindz Music and Sound Design, making music for games, TV, albums and digital media. His soundtracks have been honored with various industry awards.

As a keyboard player, Greg has shared the stage with greats such as Bill Champlin, Ronnie Montrose, Davey Pattison, Pete Escovedo and Chris Cain.
[Email Greg]

From green light through sketches, composing with sampled orchestra, prepping and handing off MIDI files for orchestration and score review, contracting and scheduling instrumentalists and choir, soloists, recording sessions, printing more parts, overdubs, missed email memo, feeding the orchestra, running out of time, overtime and video documentation.

11:00-11:20

Lightweight Design & Escape Goat

Ian STOCKER, Game Developer, MagicalTimeBean

Ian's career in games began in 2002, as a contract musician/sound designer. He's shipped over 40 titles in the handheld sphere (Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance). In 2009, he made his first game as a solo developer, which launched his current career as a full-time indie.
[Email Ian]

Indies have an advantage when it comes to designing games. Without the need for exhaustive design documents and project tracking, we can focus instead on prototyping and iteration. Ian will talk about his move from AAA to indie, his methods for designing the Soulcaster and Escape Goat (neither of which had proper design docs), and the pros and cons of this approach.

SteamyBalls - Selling the Goods

Yoeri STAAL, Founder, StaalMedia

Yoeri Staal is a freelance game developer with a passion for original games.

He is the founder of StaalMedia, a virtual company consisting of people all around the globe.
[Email Yoeri]

How can you sell a game nobody wants? Sounds like a great challenge!
SteamyBalls is a game about a penguin and a handful of balls.
Such a project would be doomed from the start, but Yoeri explains how to turn a wreck into a success.

Tips for Being a Successful Game Audio Contractor | 11:00 - 11: 50

Rich VREELAND, Freelance Contract Composer & Audio Lead
Barry DOWSETT, Co-Founder/Composer/Sound Designer, Soundrangers
Dren MCDONALD, Composer & Sound Designer, nerdtracks.com
Nick THOMAS, Founder, SomaTone Interactive Inc.
Moderator: Aaron WALZ, Audio Director, Walz Music & Sound

Barry Dowsett, co-founder of Soundrangers, is a veteran composer and sound designer for video games, and an original pioneer in the online delivery of production sound effects and music built for interactive media. He actively provides original music and sound design services for many social and console games, and has also created and maintains an online library of downloadable sound effects and music optimized and licensable for game development, available at www.soundrangers.com. Barry is also a co-founder of the Game Audio Alliance.
[Email Barry]

Dren is a game audio professional and has worn many hats over the course of many projects (composer, sound designer, audio director etc). He's been in-house as Audio Director for Loot Drop, working with legendary game designers John Romero, Brenda Romero and Tom Hall and also as Audio Lead at 6 Waves/LOLapps where he worked on hit titles such as Ravenwood Fair, and Ravenskye City. As director of NERDTRACKS he's gotten his hands dirty on a bevy of titles for publishers/developers such as Microsoft, 17 Bit, GREE, The Playforge, and MobilityWare on a variety of platforms. He's also currently acting as Director of Development for the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.)
[Email Dren]

Nick Thomas began his professional career in the music industry as an Engineer/Mixer for a long list of platinum artists such as Destiny's Child, Celine Dion, Carlos Santana, Jessica Simpson, Michael Jackson, and Ricky Martin to name a few. As the music industry began to decline, Nick transitioned out of the main stream music industry and launched SomaTone Interactive Inc., with partner and colleague, Kane Minkus. Over the last 7+ years, Nick has transitioned SomaTone to exclusively provide game audio services, and has released over 1000 game soundtracks to date.
[Email Nick]

This session will be filled to the brim with valuable creative, administrative, organizational, educational, sanity-saving, enriching and interpersonal nuggets straight from the mouths and hearts of experienced game audio professionals. Appropriate and useful for both up-and-coming freelance musicians and full-fledged composers and sound designers. Focused on success as a contractor / external solution rather than internal game audio positions.

11:30-11:50

The Secrets of a Moderate Success: An Indie's Tale of The Long Tail

Joe CASSAVAUGH, Game Designer and Developer

Two years after getting a BS in Mathematics from RPI, Joe discovered two of his great loves, Programming and The Rubik's Cube. After co-creating the highly successful Mah Jong Quest trilogy at iWin, Joe took his Puzzles By Joe brand and created his own original IP, Clutter, for the Casual Download space. As both a Designer and Developer, Joe knows there is no "I" in "Team", but is quick to point out there are two "I"s in "Indie".
[Email Joe]

When is a failure good enough? When is a failure not really a failure? What happens when the learning curve and the curve of the long tail cross in the middle? Can 1 + 1 ever be greater than 2? With a detailed analysis comparing and contrasting the release of Clutter with it's sequel Clutter II: He Said, She Said, Puzzles By Joe creator, Joe Cassavaugh, will explore the ups and downs and the unexpected results of doing a sequel.

Beyond Obstacles: The Process and Postmortem of a Quadriplegic Game Designer

Jonathan HALES, President, Outsource Report

Jon spent a decade in the game industry working as an artist, lead artist, and studio art director on AAA titles for Playstation, Playstation 2, Xbox, and Sony PSP. After creating Outsource Report, Jon became a quadriplegic in 2006. He just released his first mobile app created entirely by himself.
[Email Jonathan]

Life, like game development, is full of obstacles, breakthroughs, stalemates, triumphs, and failures. What separates those who do from those who don't? Jon shares his story, complete with mild successes and fantastic failures, focusing primarily on his recent app release BLIZZ Words in the hope that sharing true-life hard knocks will help smooth the road for and motivate current and would-be developers.

12:00-12:30

LUNCH BREAK
sponsored by G5

12:30-12:50

HTML5 Games Development – Is it Worth It?

Sandy DUNCAN, CEO, YoYo Games

Sandy Duncan is chief executive officer of YoYo Games, the home of GameMaker: Studio. Under Sandy’s leadership, YoYo Games has built an active GameMaker community 250,000-members strong. Prior to YoYo Games, Sandy spent seventeen years at Microsoft, most recently spending four years spearheading Microsoft's European Home and Retail division, building the business to $1 billion and successfully launching the Xbox across Europe.
[Email Sandy]

HTML5 offers a very exciting alternative to Flash for browser and mobile gaming. But, doubts still remain as to when HTML5 will become a truly viable platform, especially with regard to its performance on mobile. How can Indies know when’s the right time to start developing and publishing HTML5 games?

In this session, Sandy Duncan, Chief Executive Officer at YoYo Games, will discuss the challenges associated with HTML5 games development and how Indies can catch the HTML5 wave of the future without having to place big bets now.

1:00-1:20

From Free to Minimum Wage: My Transition to Commercial Games

Jay ZIEBARTH, Co-Founder, ClickShake Games

Jay Ziebarth aka. "Zeebarf" is an award winning game designer, former TV actor and writer and co-founder of ClickShake Games. He is best known for his outlandish, point and click Adventure game series, such as The Several Journeys of Reemus, A Small Favor & The Visitor.
[Email Jay]

A post mortem on bringing the popular Flash game series The Several Journeys of Reemus from the free flash portals to the paid commercial game market.

Indie Mind Meld: Lessons Learned, Issues and Trends in Mobile Gaming | 1:00 - 1:50

Michel ALEXANDER, CCO and Co-Founder, Blue Shell Games
Stuart LEWIS-SMITH, CEO, Idle Games
Moderator: Tim DOYLE, Publisher Development Manager, PlayHaven

Michel Alexander is the Chief Creative Officer and Co-founder of Blue Shell Games, a leading social casino gaming company. Alexander has over ten years experience designing and developing successful game titles. His background is in game systems and content design for social and casual games, virtual worlds and MMOs.
[Email Michel]

Stuart Lewis-Smith has spent the last decade managing iGaming companies. He currently holds the position of Chief Operating Officer at Idle Games, a social/mobile casino technology company, where he was also Vice President of Product. Previously Stuart was an independent iGaming consultant; spent four years as Vice-President of Product for a leading internet poker network; and was Head of Product Marketing at the world’s largest online gaming company, PartyGaming. Stuart has launched and operated a number of iGaming brands. Before that, Stuart spent five years heading the internet business of music and entertainment brand Ministry of Sound.
[Email Stuart]

As a Publisher Development Manager, Tim works closely with mobile game developers to help them successfully acquire, engage and monetize players in their games and build a sustainable business. Tim's background is in mobile gaming with a focus on casual and casino gaming.
[Email Tim]

Making a game that's also a successful business is hard, but it feels so good when you get it right. Our panel of indie game developers will reflect on the top 3 challenges, learnings and successes they've faced with their mobile games from development, content, user acquisition and monetization.

They will also tackle key issues and trends in the mobile gaming industry and shed light on new ideas for tools they wish existed to make the business of games even better.

Designing Audio for Casino Games

Aaron WALZ, Audio Director, Walz Music & Sound
Greg RAHN, Audio Director, Kabam
Andreas MONTANO, Game Producer, Double Down Interactive
Moderator: Jesse HOLT, Audio Designer, Double Down Interactive

With over ten years of experience working with offshore technology providers and developers and five years experience in building and managing offshore technology divisions, Andreas Montano is focused on creating products and product vision for both the play money and real money online gaming spaces.
[Email Andreas]

Jesse Holt is a prolific sound designer, music producer and composer who has been creating one-of-a-kind audio for casual games since 1999. He is also a proud co-founder of the Game Audio Alliance. He has produced a wide variety of music heard not only by tens of millions in video games, but also on radio and television and recently in the short film SHUFFLE which premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2010.
[Email Jesse]

As you likely know, Casino Games have largely taken over the casual, mobile and social space. But this genre of game requires very special audio, which industry pros will discuss and be available for questions.

1:30-1:50

Building an MMO by Yourself

Robby ZINCHAK, Developer, Archive Entertainment

Robby Zinchak is the sole developer at Archive Entertainment. Previously a producer at Microsoft, he has also led game creation at Capcom and Midway.
[Email Robby]

8BitMMO is an award-winning indie construction sandbox game built entirely by a single developer. Want to know how? This session will cover lessons learned on everything from building a scalable game to zero-budget indie marketing.

Guaranteeing Fun Factor With Game Audio

Dmitry KUZMENKO, Freelance Contract Composer & Audio Lead, Strategic Music

Dmitry graduated from the University of Humanities and Social Sciences in Saint Petersburg, Russia with a degree in Sound Direction. He founded Strategic Music in 2003, and has since been working on music and sound design for computer games. Now, Strategic Music has more than 350 projects in its portfolio, and delivers a wide variety of services which include the creation of music, crafting sound design, voice-over recordings and the recording of music with symphonic orchestras and other ensembles.
[Email Dmitry]

As you know, the market is overcrowded with games of every shape and kind. They fight for the players' attention every day, but only a few are successful. What can you do to get players to pay attention to YOUR game?

Actually, this is where the sound guys come in - they can drive a game with a special blend of humor, charm and production. The importance of creative game audio is often overlooked by developers and even audio professionals, but a game's success depends greatly on the sound designer's audio skills and creativity, so don't miss opportunities for success. Dmitry Kuzmenko of Strategic Music will share some of his experiences that came from working on several notable iOS and PC games, with the hope of teaching the ability to add that special sparkle.

2:00-2:20

The Game Developer's Heroic Journey

Keith NEMITZ, Founder, Mousechief

After 15 years of industry programming, Keith Nemitz, began making downloadables for a shot at independence. With 3 products shipped: 3 IGF picks, 2 IndieCade nods, an innovation award from the CGA, and nominated by the Writers Guild of America, his business is finally profitable.
[Email Keith]

The Hero's Journey applied to designers, especially independents, because interactive entertainment is barely explored. A 25-year veteran calls you to your own adventure. The classic steps translate into a journey of challenge, confidence building, self-examination, and personal leveling-up design skills. It is a meta-method for finding your path. The lecturer's intimate, possibly embarrassing, examples will be provided.

Games for Brands—How Indies Can Tap That Audience

Eric SCHWERTZEL, General Manager of Fun, DeckDAQ

Eric Schwertzel isn’t an expert in consumer package goods marketing, licensing, gaming or the social and interest graph. But he sure is good in combining them all together.
[Email Eric]

Let’s make money together--besides making a game that is actually fun to play, Indies must also battle discoverability and customer acquisition costs. But what if you found an accessible audience that not only had millions of passionate fans but also offered you the opportunity to cross promote and monetize physical goods? Here you will hear the experiences of one indie game developer working with major brands like Garfield, Dilbert and a major dog food company ---- and how you can do it too.

Real-World Game Audio Development with HTML5

Craig ROBINSON, Co-Founder & President, Absolute Hero LLC
Martin REURINGS, HTML5 Lead, Spil Games

Craig Robinson is Co-Founder and President of Absolute Hero LLC, an independent game studio creating casual games for the web and mobile devices. Craig spent 12 years at GameHouse/RealNetworks developing games and multimedia software. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Washington.
[Email Craig]

Martin is a man with a love of dragons, rum, Javascript and CSS. He's been developing on the web since Netscape 3 and after traveling the world with his hat and backback he's settled down with Spil Games, leading a team of passionate developers into the world of HTML5 games.
[Email Martin]

The WebAudio API is opening up great possibilities for audio in HTML5 games. In this talk, Craig and Martin will discuss how you can use the WebAudio API for your games and how to implement fallbacks for platforms that don’t support it. The focus will be on practical methods to address the audio problems that are most relevant to JavaScript game developers. The presentation will include code samples and demonstration.

2:30-2:50

Starbase Gunship: Focusing on Your Strengths and Finding a Team to Do the Rest

Jedrzej JONASZ, Founder, Capital j Media

Although relatively new to the game development world, Jedrzej draws on his 10 years of film production experience to manage a team from around the world and bring cinematic story-telling elements to game design. Based out of Portland, Capital j Media handles the development of internal IPs as well as client projects.
[Email Jedrzej]

This session covers the development of Capital j Media’s Starbase Gunship, an indie mobile game created by Jedrzej Jonasz. Jedrzej will discuss how he approached finding and managing talent to outsource elements of the game’s production so that he could focus on his strengths and the game’s overall design.

Skiing Fred: A Freemium Post Mortem

Julian CALLENS, Founder, Dedalord

A self-taught artist and game designer, Julian Callens banded with like-minded professionals and founded Dedalord in 2010. He has since split his attention between creating engaging experiences and success strategies for mobile development within and outside the game itself.
[Email Julian]

As indie developers specialized in one of the most densely populated genres, we've come across a pivotal question: Is the standard freemium-sphere saturated beyond reasonable profitability? If so, what kind of business model should smaller scale studios consider migrating to? In this brief presentation, we´ll discuss our views on the evolution of our apps as times keep changing.

Examining the Historical Impact of Game Audio in Order to Level You Up

Raj RAMAYYA, Freelance Composer/Singer/Voice Actor

Ramayya is best known for his involvement with projects such as Konami`s hit series Beatmania and Rythmania, Sega's Racer, Capcom's Resident Evil 2-Biohazard, MTV Japan's mega hit animation series The World Of Golden Eggs, Victor Entertainment's Gungrave and Shenmue, Anime cult movies Cowboy Bebop,Ghost in The Shell, Wolf's Rain and many other productions. Currently residing in California after 18 years in the Japanese music industry, Ramayya is actively touring and composing for games, anime, film and television in North America. www.rajramayya.com
[Email Raj]

We'll begin with a history of audio for interactive media and then move into how "hooks" have always been the foundation for audio that stands the test of time. From arcade, to console, to casual games, the industry has seen enormous shifts in consumer tastes and behavior, but some things remain constant: writing great hooks into your music, filling the right niche as well as taking advantage of the impact of interactive media audio. Make the most of your skills while developing strategies to help you move to the next level in the music business through a deeper understanding of the history of interactive media from a global perspective, spanning territories as diverse as Japan, India and North America.

3:00-3:20

Wizard Ops Tactics by Phyken Media - Building an Indie Studio from Scratch

Kunal PATEL, Co-Founder, Phyken Media

Kunal Patel co-founded Phyken Media in late 2010, a Mobile Game Dev studio based in Orlando Florida which recently launched its 2nd studio title, Wizard Ops Tactics. Having graduated with a degree in Computer Science and Animation from the University of Miami, he set out on a 10-year mission to build a games studio from scratch. Having served as a global CTO & software architect in corporate america to building a tech company while traveling around the world, he acquired a variety of skills in business, production, strategy and horror stories to ultimately do things his way and a shot at the indie dream.
[Email Kunal]

This presentation will highlight the process in which Phyken Media came into existence, the struggles of building a studio, hiring a team, building IP and somehow, against all odds, building a large global game like Wizard Ops Tactics with limited resources. He'll highlight the mistakes, what they did right, their tools and tricks of the trade as well as their present and future challenges of developing a game as a service.

David vs Goliath: Why Smaller Developers Can Win in the New Mobile Gaming Landscape

Chris GRAY, Co-Founder, TapStar

Chris has spent 30+ years in the games industry. His first game, the classic Boulder Dash, was followed by many titles from his Toronto studio Gray Matter. He later joined EA as VP-Executive Producer on Harry Potter, NASCAR and Hasbro. In 2012, he co-founded mobile publisher TapStar in San Francisco.
[Email Chris]

"When underdogs choose not to play by Goliath’s rules, they win, even when everything we think we know about power says they shouldn’t." - quote

"Speedboat" developers can succeed against lumbering "Supertanker" publishers by applying unconventional strategies and exploiting available technologies. You can beat the Goliaths as long as you don't try to act like a Goliath. Know your weaknesses & play to your strengths.

Audio Contractors: Guidelines to Successful Hires, Practices and Results | 3:00 - 3:50

David EARL, Owner/Creative Lead, David Earl Production
Michael ROACHE, Director of Production, Pyramind Studios
Jacob ROSENBERG, Product Manager, DeNa
Moderator: Dren MCDONALD, Composer & Sound Designer, nerdtracks.com

Owner/Creative Lead of David Earl Production. David Earl owns David Earl Production in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is an award winning composer, producer, and educator who has worked with such clients as Double Fine, Sega, Microsoft, Backbone Entertainment, and THQ. David is also known as sflogicninja on YouTube where he is followed by over 28,000 subscribers and has over 3 million views.
[Email David]

Director of Production, Pyramind Studios. Michael is an award winning interactive entertainment and media producer whose career credits include working with some of the biggest companies in the industry including: Microsoft Studios, Ubisoft, 2K Games, Sega, HP and Lucasarts. Michael’s project management prowess and audio production skills give him a unique ability to balance the many technical, creative and administrative challenges that can present themselves on interactive projects.
[Email Michael]

Jacob Rosenberg is Product Manager for the Mobage platform with a focus on User Engagement. Rosenberg joined DeNA in 2011 as a Producer on the 3rd party team and launched over 55 titles. Prior to DeNA, Rosenberg was Producer for Madden NFL 2012 iOS with Page 44. He got his start in the video games industry working for Activision and the Guitar Hero franchise.
[Email Jacob]

With the rise of smaller studios, iOS/Android and Unity developers alike are hiring more freelance audio contractors than in recent years past. We're witnessing some confusion from both audio contractors and from many new game producers about the process of setting up a healthy working relationship with freelance audio contractors.

The panel will discuss several successful methods used to establish a healthy, frictionless pipeline between the studio and audio contractor. Topics will include: the hiring process, negotiation/agreements, asset tracking, milestone payments, rates, focus on key points in the revision process, use of language in the revision process, and to greet the process as one of the really fun parts of game development. We will be taking formal polls from game audio professionals (through organizations such as GANG) to collect recent information on rates, turnarounds, revision process, agreements etc, so we will be providing a large cross section of useful information that will be incredibly up to date.

3:30-3:50

Indie PR Refresher

Joe LIEBERMAN, Owner, VGSmart Marketing

Joseph is the founder of VGSmart, a company dedicated specifically to the marketing and business needs of indie game companies. Founded in 2003, VGsmart has helped clients around the globe reach their intended markets and audiences. With nearly a decade of clients under his belt Joseph has worked with everyone from small developers to mega corporations and retail publishers. Their focus is to be the one-stop shop for independent studio’s business needs, ranging from simple PR to complex strategic business development. Most of the time he can be found busy doing “market research” on his clients and client’s competitors, but he’s nice enough not to charge anyone for it. Joseph has been a speaker at GDC in San Francisco.
[Email Joe]

Tips, tools, and reminders on getting the word out. This session will give lists, information, and downloads that will help people, everything from press release templates to where to find the calendar of gaming events online. It will also sell sheets, web design, email capture, social media tips, community management, and of course, PR and how to get the best review possible.

Mosaique: A Music-First Approach

Bear TRICKEY, Executive Producer and Alex MAY, Creative Director, Winning Blimp LLC

Bear Trickey is the founder of Winning Blimp, an independent game company that specialises in sci-fi themed games with a 16-bit era flavor. Previously Trickey was a game designer for Q-Games, and has worked on Nintendo titles Star Fox 64 3D, X-Scape, Starship Defense, and PixelJunk™Monsters Deluxe.
[Email Bear]

Alex May leads the creative operations of Winning Blimp. May's career history includes tenure with international award winning Japanese design firms in various disciplines including industrial design, graphic design and web design. He also has more than 25 years experience as a music producer.
[Email Alex]

Do you miss the days when game soundtracks could be "legendary"? Do you often find yourself outsourcing the music to your games right at the end of your development process? If so, come and drop by our talk! We'll discuss our "music first" approach to game development, and introduce Mosaique, our humble puzzler that got into Apple's WWDC Keynote.

4:00-4:20

Battling the Concepts of Free-to-Play and Pay-to-Win When Making a Game We Want to Play and Pay for Ourselves

Magnus LIND, Game Designer and Co-Founder, Fula Fisken

Magnus Lind is a Game Designer and co-founder of Stockholm based indie game studio Fula Fisken. He has been designing and developing games professionally since 2005 -- but has been loving games for much longer than that!
[Email Magnus]

This session is about the difficulties of making a browser based, synchronous realtime multiplayer game and trying to think outside the box in a free-to-play world. It's also about the importance of nourishing a strong community, lead by hardcore users as officers.

The Rise of Mobile Gaming, and Fighting Back Against The Mute Switch

Nick THOMAS, Founder, SomaTone Interactive Inc.

Nick Thomas began his professional career in the music industry as an Engineer/Mixer for a long list of platinum artists such as Destiny's Child, Celine Dion, Carlos Santana, and Ricky Martin to name a few. The changing landscape of the music industry led Nick to transition out of pop music production and to launch SomaTone Interactive Inc. Opening it's doors in 2003, SomaTone began by producing audio content on a number of feature films, national ad campaigns, and AAA games, as well as casual games and interactive web content. For the last 7 years SomaTone has provided audio services exclusively for video games, with a focus on casual, mobile, and social games, and is credited on over 1,000 titles to date. SomaTone operates studios in Los Angeles, Emeryville (headquarters), and Vancouver Canada, and produces content on a wide range of games annually. Active clients include Disney/Playdom, TinyCo, Ubisoft, EA/PopCap, Storm8, Gree, KixEye, Zynga, Gazillion, Blue Tea Games, DeNA, SGN, and many many more.
[Email Nick]

New developers are entering this market every day, and in many cases attention to the quality of game audio is not approached properly, or the game designers/producers don't have a good sense of how to produce content for the platform. While we know that audio is one of the best ways to communicate emotion, tension, user feedback, as well as brand identity, the audio experience is threatened by the omnipresent mute switch! Mobile games are unique and demand special consideration to encourage players to experience the audio, rather than completely eliminate it from their game. It only takes one bad sound, music cue, or a poorly mixed soundtrack to cause players to flip the mute switch. So, if you're a game producer, game designer, programmer, or audio professional working in or interested in social/mobile games, come join me as I pass forward tips, techniques, and strategies to raise the bar on social/mobile game audio and fight back against the mute button.

4:30-4:50

Chipmusic and the Science of Knob Turning

Rich VREELAND, Freelance Contract Composer & Audio Lead

Rich Vreeland (also known as Disasterpeace) is an award winning freelance composer / sound designer based in Berkeley, CA, with a focus in producing and directing dynamic sound treatments for games. He grew up in New York clacking rhythms on his teeth and writing guitar licks, eventually graduating from Berklee College of Music with a Bachelor's of Music in Music Synthesis. Along the way he's interned with the MIT Game Lab, written original music for classic franchises like Bomberman, and developed a critically acclaimed generative music tool. He performs his music regularly at big events like PAX and Indiecade, and has been a speaker at events around the globe. Rich has worked on just about every contemporary platform, knows his way around middleware tools, and likes to get his hands dirty. Most recently, he wrote the music for the 2012 IGF Seamus McNally Grand Prize winner FEZ, which also took home numerous awards for best game and soundtrack of 2012.
[Email Rich]

Learn how to make retro-style game music that isn't totally annoying. Discover the science behind synthesized sound in the process, and see how its concepts can be applied in ways you might not expect.

Lectures below are from 2013

Continental Ballroom - Hall A: General Industry, Children and Family, and Monetization

August 1:Monetization

Emcee: David NIXON, Founder & CEO, Gemini Hive Inc.

July 31:Children and Family

Emcee: Alison BRYANT, Founder and President, PlayCollective and PlayScience

July 30: General Industry

Emcee: David NIXON, Founder & CEO, Gemini Hive Inc.

9:15-9:20

Welcome to Casual Connect USA

Jessica TAMS, Managing Director, Casual Games Association

9:30-9:50

Self-Publish or Die

Will HARBIN, CEO, Kixeye

10:00-10:20

Maximizing Monetization in Free to Play Games | 10:00 - 10:50

Emily GREER, Co-Founder & COO, Kongregate

Big Risks Outside the Box

David BASZUCKI, Founder & CEO, Roblox

When Publishing Works for Free to Play Games

Jameel KHALFAN, Mobile Gaming, Pocket Gems

10:30-10:50

Top Ten Things You Need to Know To Play Big in the Kids' Space

Alison BRYANT, Founder and President, PlayCollective and PlayScience

Publishers and Developers: Build Great Partnerships that Lead to Great Games

Karen ADDISON, Producer, IUGO Jori PEARSALL, Director of Product, GREE International Inc Jim YING, VP of Publishing and Partnerships, GREE International Inc.

11:00-11:20

Kids' Apps - the Monetization Minefield

Barry O'NEILL, CEO, StoryToys

Being Consequential in a Transitory World

Clive DOWNIE, CEO, DeNA West

11:30-11:50

Navigating the Mobile Advertising Ecosystem

Brian MIKALIS, SVP Monetization and Mid-Market Sales, Pandora

Youth and Gaming: What to Know About Kids Online

Dr. Jo WEBBER, CEO, Virtual Piggy

Inside the Saga Series

Jong WOO, VP Business Development, King

12:00-12:30

LUNCH BREAKsponsored by G5

LUNCH BREAKsponsored by G5

LUNCH BREAKsponsored by G5

12:30-12:50

EMERGING TRENDS: The Real Impact of Adaptive Marketing and Predictive Analytics

Chethan RAMACHANDRAN, CEO and Co-Founder, Playnomics

EMERGING TRENDS: The Television Industry and 2nd Screen Casual Games

Matt DOMINIANNI, Director, Universal Games Network, NBC Universal

1:00-1:20

Online-to-Offline: the $1T Mobile Opportunity

Terry ANGELOS, Co-Founder, TrialPay

The Hummingbird Backfire: A Lesson in Monetizing Virtual Goods from Animal Jam

Clark STACEY, President & CEO, Smart Bomb Interactive

Do You Want to Rule the World?

Gabe LEYDON, Co-Founder & CEO, Machine Zone

1:30-1:50

Mobile Monetization Insights from Amazon

Jason CHEIN, Director, Amazon GameCircle

Updates and New Releases: the Lifeblood of your App

Kristin FITCH, Co-Founder & CEO, Ziggity Zoom

Fireside Chat with John Riccitiello

John RICCITIELLO, Investordiscussion led by John GAUDIOSI, Editor in Chief & Co-founder, Gamerhub.tv

2:00-2:20

Asia Expansion: Mobile Trends and User Acquisition Strategies in Japan and Korea

Ken ASAKURA, General Manager, Adways Interactive

Design Meets Discovery: Following the Five C's

Karen MORGAN, Lead Designer/Producer/Founder, Soma 365 Studios

Get Discovered & Grow: Reaching the Right Mobile Gamers with Facebook

Dan MORRIS, Mobile Games Partnerships, Facebook

2:30-2:50

The Perfect Store - Getting Users to the In-game Stores and Keeping Them There

Yaniv NIZAN, CEO & Co-Founder, SOOMLA

From the Mouths of Babes: Re-learning How to Design a Game by Watching Kids Play

Kelly FENNIG, Producer, Slant Six Games

The Power of Touch

Jesse SCHELL, CEO, Schell Games

3:00-3:20

Case Studies on Successful Ad-based Monetization Strategies

Damon MARSHALL, VP Business Development, SupersonicAds

Don't Be THAT Guy: Kid- and Family-Friendly Marketing

Dr. Carla ENGELBRECHT-FISHER, Founder, No Crusts Interactive

August 1:
Monetization

July 31:
Children and Family

July 30:
General Industry

Karen ADDISON, Producer, IUGO
Jori PEARSALL, Director of Product, GREE International Inc
Jim YING, VP of Publishing and Partnerships, GREE International Inc.

LUNCH BREAK
sponsored by G5

LUNCH BREAK
sponsored by G5

LUNCH BREAK
sponsored by G5

John RICCITIELLO, Investor
discussion led by John GAUDIOSI, Editor in Chief & Co-founder, Gamerhub.tv

Thomas BLEYER, Managing Director, Ravensburger Digital
Mark DONOVAN, President, Xfire
Lisa PAULSON, VP Business Development, A+E Networks
Moderator: Joost VAN DREUNEN, Co-Founder and CEO, SuperData Research

August 1:
F2P - Production

July 31:
F2P - Operations

July 30:
F2P - Design

Mathieu NOUZARETH, CEO and Co-Founder, FreshPlanet Inc.
Elliot SOLOMON, VP Americas, Unity
Lisa PAULSON, VP Business Development--Games, A&E;
Rob SANDBERG, Sr. Producer, Reliance Entertainment Digital
Moderator: Neal SINNO, SVP, Casual & Mobile Games, Arkadium

Robert WINKLER, CEO, 5th Planet Games
Mike SEGO, Gaming Entrepreneur
Ken SETO, CEO & Founder, Massive Damage
Josh NILSON, COO & Co-Founder, East Side Games
Bryan MASHINTER, Producer, Backflip Studios
Moderator: Mike THOMPSON, Creative Writer, 5th Planet Games

Greg COSTIKYAN, Sr. Game Designer, Playdom
Dan RUBENFIELD, Executive Producer, Kixeye
Ethan LEVY, Co-Founder, Quarter Spiral
Moderator: Scott FOE, Chief Creative Officer, Big Head Mode

Juan GRIL, Studio Director, Joju Games
Steve MERETZKY, Former VP of Game Design, Playdom
Dave ROHRL, VP of Game Production, Funsockets

LUNCH BREAK
sponsored by G5

LUNCH BREAK
sponsored by G5

LUNCH BREAK
sponsored by G5