Previous Speakers (2017-2018)
Tuesday speakers provide broad insights on game development from their respective disciplines for students of CS146 & CS544 / BIOE196.
On Thursdays, speakers cover topic in greater depth though code walkthroughs and guided tutorials.
Several days after their presentation date, Tuesday lectures recordings will be available here.
On Thursdays, speakers cover topic in greater depth though code walkthroughs and guided tutorials.
Several days after their presentation date, Tuesday lectures recordings will be available here.
Week One: Introduction + Product (Tuesday)
Stephen Lim,
Lead Producer at Riot Games |
Abstract:
We finally have a full quarter to work on a game at Stanford, so we must make the most of that time and carefully choose what we deliver. We often get caught up with what we want to do, but it is more important to think about what we offer. What do you want to stand out for? Games are a subjective art, so it's not easy to convince players why your game will be especially fun, let alone why they should choose to play. Through various example games, we will explore the experiences they offer, the motivations they satisfy and ultimately how well they execute on their promises. Bio: Stephen Lim is a lead producer at Riot Games. He's worked in the game industry for over 13 years as a producer of new games for Riot, League of Legends, Project Titan at Blizzard Entertainment, Spore at EA and as a programmer on weapons for Ratchet & Clank at Insomniac Games. Prior to games, he worked as a programmer at enterprise startups in Silicon Valley. He is a defender of multiplayer experiences and battles a never-ending tide of casual games. |
Week One: Introduction + Product (Thursday)
Brad Smith,
Engineer at Riot Games |
Abstract:
Unity is a powerful and easy to use game engine. In this talk, we'll be cover a wide variety of topics to give you a jump start using Unity. We'll walk through many of the key pieces of the engine as we build a small, playable prototype. By the end of this talk, you should have a good understanding of how to get started making your own projects with Unity as well as have a broad vocabulary of the pieces needed to make a game. Bio: Brad Smith is a software engineer who has been in the games industry for over a decade and has been making video games since he was a kid. He's worked on a lot of fun projects over the years, starting with Spore and SimCity at Maxis before moving on to help build Doki Doki Universe at Humanature Studios. He spent a brief period doing independent development and currently works at Riot Games. |
Week Two: High-Level Game Design (Tuesday)
Stone Librande,
Lead Designer at Riot Games |
Abstract:
In an effort to communicate more effectively and concisely, Stone has been experimenting with a style of design documentation called a "one page design". As the name implies, this is a document that is exactly one page long. After all, why create a document with more than one page if most people only read the first page anyway? During this talk Stone will show numerous examples of one page designs from Diablo 3, The Simpsons Game, Spore, and SimCity. He'll discuss what works and what doesn't and explain how you can use similar techniques to communicate key design ideas to your team. Bio: Stone Librande, a Lead Designer at Riot Games, has worked in the game industry for over 15 years on games such as SimCity and Diablo 3. In addition to his full-time job designing video games, he also teaches game design courses at Carnegie Mellon University’s ETC program and runs design seminars around the world. An avid game collector, Stone's walk-in closet holds more than 300 card and board games, including 30 that he has designed himself. |
Week Three: Design and Engineering (Tuesday)
Jonathan Blow,
Indie Developer at Thekla |
Abstract:
Moderated discussion with Jonathan Blow about his philosophy on game development, sources of inspiration, and advice for aspiring developers. Bio: Jonathan Blow is an American video game designer and programmer, who is best known as the creator of the independent video games Braid (2008) and The Witness (2016), both of which released to critical acclaim. From 2001 to 2004, Blow wrote the Inner Product column for Game Developer Magazine. He was the primary host of the Experimental Gameplay Workshop each March at the Game Developers Conference, which has become a premier showcase for new ideas in video games. In addition, Blow was a regular participant in the Indie Game Jam. Blow is also a founding partner of the Indie Fund, an angel investor fund for independent game projects. |
Week Three: Design and Engineering (Thursday)
Joy Horvath,
Developer at Unity |
Abstract:
In this talk, we'll focus in on two different elements of the Unity editor: art and programming. Often thought of two disparate practices, it is increasingly more useful for developers in each field to have a basic familiarity with the other, especially in the indie space. We'll start by going over the basics of the art pipeline for development in Unity, and make use of the Asset Store before moving on to creating a small procedural maze game with some simple code. Bio: Joy Horvath is a game developer, educator, and Certified Unity Developer. Her career has taken her across many different roles in the game industry, from QA to modeling and animation, and more recently, scripting and design. For five years, Joy taught game design at several schools and tech camps across California and now works at Unity in the Education department. |
Week Four: Art (Tuesday)
Lee Petty,
Art Director at Double Fine |
Abstract:
What exactly is art direction? How do you define an appropriate visual direction for a video game? In this presentation, Lee will discuss different elements of art direction and present a framework for analyzing and thinking about visual style. Lee will also provide several examples of how these ideas can be applied to games to create compelling, memorable visuals. Bio: Lee Petty is an Art Director and Project Lead, currently at Double Fine Productions, and has worked in video games for more than 20 years on titles such as Brutal Legend, Broken Age, Stacking and Headlander. Lee is also a member of the GDC Advisory Board and an active speaker at events and schools across the world |
Week Five: Audio (Tuesday)
Darren Korb,
Audio Director at SuperGiant |
Abstract:
Darren began working in games with no game development experience, no sound design experience, and a whole lot of questions! In this talk, he'll discuss techniques for getting a lot of bang-for-your-audio-buck, and ramping up your understanding of sound implementation in games as quickly as possible. Bio: Darren Korb is the award winning Composer and Audio Director for Supergiant Games. He has composed the music, generated sound effects, and recorded voiceover for all three of the studio's titles: Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre. He has presented at the Game Developers Conference, Dakota State University, the Boston Festival of Indie Games, the Penny Arcade Expo, and MAGFest. He is also the 2010 national Rock Band champion. |
Week Six: Technical Art (Tuesday)
Dan Moran,
Senior Graphics Engineer at NCSOFT |
Abstract:
Each major release of Unity brings with it cutting edge graphics capabilities, but what exactly goes on behind the scenes of the latest Post Processing Effects and Physically Based Materials? In this talk, we’ll dive into the code that colors each pixel on the screen and see how we can write our own shaders to unlock new possibilities on the GPU. A high level overview of rendering pipelines coupled with concrete examples— this talk will jump-start your skills as both a graphics programmer and technical artist. Bio: Dan is a Senior Graphics Engineer at NCSoft working on AAA mobile games developed in Unity. Dan’s career in game development started as a programmer and artist on the games-for-health project Liberi with EQUIS Lab at Queen’s University. He then spent a year as an independent developer during which time he started the Makin’ Stuff Look Good YouTube channel. MSLG teaches introductory-to-advanced level shader programming and explores how visual effects in popular games can be recreated in Unity. |
Week Six: Technical Art (Thursday)
Chaim Gingold,
Researcher at YCombinator |
Abstract:
Games are typically thought of, talked about, and designed in ways that marginalize play. In the disciplines of game studies and game design, play enacts a supporting role, and toys such as "SimCity" are seen as degenerate games, lacking a win or lose condition. But play is more than a liminal game, the performance of games, or an elemental ingredient. Bio: Chaim is a designer and theorist who creates and studies powerful representations for playing with, learning about, and reshaping the world. Chaim was design lead on the Spore Creature Creator (2008), and developed Earth: A Primer (2015), a blend of toy and science book that WIRED called “an inspiring design experiment, and a reminder that interactive media is a young and undeveloped world itself.” His design expertise and research interests include authorial tools, simulation, and play. Chaim has a M.S. in digital media from Georgia Tech. His Ph.D. in computer science was awarded for research on the history of simulation and computing, SimCity, and designing for play. |
Week Seven: Narrative Design (Tuesday)
Sean Vanaman, Founder at Campo Santo
|
Abstract:
Regardless of what you design, build and ship, the explicit or experiential stories that emerge will be the thing that ultimately define the product. Sean will walk through how explicit story decisions play a role in the design process at Campo Santo and how you can design, prototype and iterate on narrative and mechanics to create compelling stories, fascinating worlds, memorable moments and impactful characters. Bio: Sean Vanaman, studio director at Campo Santo, has worked as a writer and designer in the video game industry since 2006, notably contributing to and directing The Walking Dead S:1 and Firewatch. He has worked at Campo Santo since 2013 and spent a considerable amount of time at Telltale Games and The Walt Disney Company. He attended the University of Southern California where he studied film, writing and politics. |
Week Seven: Narrative Design (Thursday)
Mark Choi, Director of Analytics at Unity
|
Abstract:
Mark will talk about best practices in using data to drive analysis and development decisions. Mark will also cover monetization strategies and tools available within Unity Engine. Bio: Mark Choi is the Head of Developer Analytics and manages product development of the Analytics dashboard. Prior to Unity, Mark worked in data engineering for Playnomics, a predictive analytics and CRM platform that was acquired by Unity in 2014. In addition, Mark has spent more than 7+ years in investment banking and economic consulting during stints with Cornerstone Research, Jefferies & Company, and J.P. Morgan. Mark completed his undergraduate studies at Stanford University, and lives in San Francisco with his family. |
Week Eight: Creative Direction (Tuesday)
Creative Director at Facebook
|
Abstract:
Moderated discussion with Ocean Quigley about his philosophy on game development, sources of inspiration, and advice for aspiring developers. Bio: Ocean Quigley is a creative director and art director, best known for his work on SimCity, Spore, and The Sims at Electronic Arts. Ocean Quigley is now a creative director at Facebook working on upcoming VR projects. Ocean has been a frequent presenter at Game Developers Conference. Outside of game development, Ocean is a traditional, realist painter and his artwork has toured the world as part of the Game On exhibit arranged by the Barbican Gallery. |
Week Nine: Publishing (Tuesday)
Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer at VentureBeat
|
Abstract:
In this talk, Dean will provide an overview of the history of games journalism and highlight examples where developers have been particularly successful (and unsuccessful) at marketing their games. Dean will discuss strategies to build resonance with an audience and how developers can draw the right kind of attention to their games. Bio: Dean Takahashi is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist for more than 25 years, and he has covered games for 18 years. He has been at VentureBeat since 2008. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat and GamesBeat Summit conferences. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. |
Week Nine: Publishing (Thursday)
Seth Marinello,
Lead Level Designer at Pocket Gems |
Abstract:
What is level design and how does it work with story to create the player experience? In this talk Seth will go through the process of creating a world through a series of unique levels, including story development, walkthroughs and encounter design. The talk will include examples from both mobile and console games and outline a structure that students can apply to their own projects. Bio: Seth Marinello is a level designer at Pocket Gems and before that Visceral Games in Redwood Shores. He has designed levels for numerous titles including the Dead Space and Battlefield series. Since joining Pocket Gems he has been working on an unannounced mobile title. He has presented at the GDC Level Design in a Day Workshop and the Vancouver Game Design Expo as well as several college campuses. |
Week Ten: User Experience (Tuesday)
Robin Hunicke, CEO at Funomena
|
Abstract:
Robin will describe how to put the final polish on a great player experience and a call to action of what to do with the game after it's complete. This talk will cover Robin’s personal path, lessons learned from Journey, and leadership at Funomena. Bio: Robin Hunicke is the Co-Founder of the independent game studio Funomena, which creates experimental games for Console, PC, VR & AR platforms (Luna, Woorld and Wattam) in the heart of downtown San Francisco. A game designer and producer by training, she has a background in Computer Science, Art and applied Game Studies. She has been designing, making and teaching about games for over 12 years (Journey, Boom Blox, MySims, TheSims2). Robin is an outspoken evangelist for increasing the participation of women and under-represented minorities within the Arts, Games & Tech. She is Associate Professor of the Arts Division at UC Santa Cruz, Director of the Art, Games & Playable Media BA and the Digital Art and New Media MFA. She also supports a broad range of initiatives including: Amplifying New Voices, the annual Experimental Gameplay Workshop, PlaySFMOMA, the Lexus Design Award, Google Made with Code, Girls Make Games, and the CS For All initiative. |