Speakers
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.
Recordings of the lectures can be found here: www.youtube.com/channel/UCFXx0rgq8t9lt8cxD2S8K5Q
On Thursdays, speakers cover topic in greater depth though code walkthroughs and guided tutorials.
Recordings of the lectures can be found here: www.youtube.com/channel/UCFXx0rgq8t9lt8cxD2S8K5Q
Speakers for Fall of 2018-2019
Week One (Sep 25): Introduction + Product
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 Two (Oct 2): High-Level Game Design
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 Two (Oct 4): Design and Engineering
Joy Horvath,
Instructional Designer at Unity |
Abstract:
The transition from designing a game on paper to prototyping in Unity can seem challenging to those who haven't worked with the engine before. In this talk, we'll dispel the perceived complexity of the Unity editor by exploring the user-friendly tools natively available for developers to begin immediately creating their game. Using Unity standard assets as well as free assets from the Asset Store, we'll build a simple functional level from start to finish, complete with character controller and basic objectives. By the end of this talk, students will have become familiar with several tools and resources that will allow them to begin creating games in Unity quickly. Bio: Joy Horvath is a game developer, educator, and Instructional Designer for Unity Technologies. 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 develops training workshops in the Education department at Unity. |
Week Three (Oct 9): Rapid Small Team Development
Kevin Martens,
Principal Designer at Blizzard Entertainment |
Abstract:
In this talk, Kevin Martens will discuss how to rapidly develop a game with a small team, from ideation to creation. His talk will help you determine what’s most important to focus on, the rules of iteration and playtesting, and how to reach your end goals. Bio: As a principal designer on the World of Warcraft team, Kevin Martens oversees the creation and development of a variety of game content, including the continent of Zandalar—home to an ancient troll empire, titan mysteries, and blood gods—in the upcoming expansion, Battle for Azeroth. Kevin joined Blizzard Entertainment in early 2009 as lead content designer for Diablo III, becoming lead designer in early 2012 and joining the World of Warcraft team in 2017. Before arriving at Blizzard, he held leadership roles at BioWare in the development of the Baldur's Gate series, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, and Dragon Age: Origins. In addition to enjoying computer games, Kevin is an avid cook, and likens the mixing of flavors in unexpected and enjoyable ways to the process of game design. |
Week Four (Oct 16): Storytelling
Kara Loo,
COO of Pixelberry Studios Jennifer Young,
Studio Director of Pixelberry Studios Oliver Miao,
CEO of Pixelberry Studios |
Abstract:
Stories both entertain and tie things together. In this talk, Jennifer, Kara, and Oliver will share their stories from being pioneers of narrative mobile gaming and, in the process, give advice on how to better tell stories in your games. You’ll learn more about knowing your audience, finding genres and themes for your game, creating compelling characters, and writing well for your games. Along the way, you’ll get an inside look into how Stanford alums (and one Berkeley Bear) started and grew a successful a game studio. Bio (Kara Loo): Kara Loo is the COO of Pixelberry Studios. Having started as a writer in the games industry, she has 10 years of experience writing interactive, mobile, narrative games. Kara has helped grow and train the Pixelberry team. She has written for several Books within Choices, including the fantasy Book The Crown & The Flame and the romance titles Rules of Engagement and The Royal Romance, as well as advising on others. Bio (Jennifer Young): Jennifer Young is the Studio Director of Pixelberry Studios. With 8 years of experience writing interactive narrative fiction, she helps oversee the hiring and training of new writers for the team. She is also a senior writer and has written for several of Choices' romance titles such as The Freshman, Rules of Engagement, and The Royal Romance. Bio (Oliver Miao): Oliver Miao is the CEO of Pixelberry Studios. He’s an early veteran of mobile games with 17 years of mobile games experience. With his team, Oliver has created 4 iOS Top Grossing 25 Games. Pixelberry is his second games start-up. He started the first, Centerscore, with 3 of his friends from Stanford. They later sold to Vivendi-Blizzard who re-sold their studio to EA. |
Week Five (Oct 23): Art Direction
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 Six (Oct 30): Five Things That Can Go Really Wrong in Production
Caryl Shaw,
VP of Development at Double Fine Productions |
Abstract:
In this talk, we’ll take a deep dive into some areas of Production where when difficult situations manifest, development can falter and sometimes fail, as well as ways to spot these types of problems early enough to resolve them. Bio: Caryl Shaw is currently the VP of Development for Double Fine Productions in San Francisco, California. Prior to joining Double Fine, Caryl worked for large developers like Electronic Arts/Maxis and Amazon as well as smaller companies like Telltale Games and ngmoco:). Her focus is typically on team management and growth, game production, online features, quality assurance management, and promoting diversity in the games industry. She's spoken internationally about a range of topics including: Running a Live Mobile Game, the changing role of Game Production in Development and Putting User-Generated Content to Work in Video Games. |
Week Seven (Nov 6): The Path from Buttons to Beeps (Tuesday)
Caleb Epps,
Senior Sound Designer at Sledgehammer Games |
Abstract:
In this talk, we'll cover all aspects of Game Audio, focusing on practical approaches to getting sound and music into your games. We’ll explore the nuts and bolts of game sound design, following a sound from when it enters a microphone to when it enters your player's ear. We'll talk about how to approach writing music for games as a composer, and how, as a game maker, to work effectively with composers to achieve great results. Finally, we'll discuss how to approach making decisions in game music and audio, and the intersection between technology and aesthetics that's at the core truly interactive sound design. Bio: Caleb Epps is a Senior Sound Designer at Sledgehammer Games in San Mateo, California. Caleb got his start in game audio sound designing for the Rock Band series at Harmonix Music Systems in Boston before heading west to EA. Now a part of the award-winning audio team at Sledgehammer Games, Caleb most recently contributed to the soundscape for 2017's Call of Duty: WWII. Caleb received a BA in African-American studies from Harvard University, and an MFA in Composition and Experimental Sound Practices from California Institute of the Arts. |
Week Eight (Nov 13): Publishing (Tuesday)
Shannon Loftis,
General Manager Microsoft Studios First Party Publishing Noah Musler,
Senior Director, Business Development Microsoft Studios & Global Game Publishing |
Abstract:
Today, more than ever, game publishing is dynamic and complex. With more ways than ever to obtain funding, more ways to reach gamers, and more gamers than ever (and more gaming scenarios), developers and publishers have to be both agile and focused in order to build a healthy business. Noah Musler and Shannon Loftis will discuss the current state of publishing in the industry, including: Microsoft’s strategy to build a consumer-focused gaming business, key trends and do’s-and-don’ts of building a publishing relationship. Bio (Shannon Loftis): Shannon Loftis is responsible for a portfolio of games worth over $100m annually, working with independent AAA game developers all over the world to build new content for Windows and Xbox. She has built and supported over 40 games in production and management, including the entire Madness series, Project Gotham Racing, the Fable series, State of Decay, the Crackdown series, and even the Microsoft Solitaire Collection (part of the world-famous Microsoft Casual Suite). Bio (Noah Musler): Noah and his team negotiate and execute more than 250 deals per year on behalf of Microsoft. These deals range from small co-development deals in the low tens of thousands of dollars to large-scale AAA development contracts that can exceed $100M per game. Currently, he and his team have been working with the Xbox Leadership team to help build-out and grow the internal development teams with the first fruits of those efforts being announced at E3 2018 when Phil Spencer revealed the acquisition of Playground Games, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games and Ninja Theory. |
Week Nine (Nov 27): Data Driven Design (Tuesday)
Kirsten Koa,
Software Engineer at Niantic Labs |
Abstract:
Pokémon GO is a location-based adventure game where players go out into the real world to discover and capture Pokémon. This past summer Pokémon GO launched their Friends and Trading feature, which enabled players to connect with friends and play together within the game. We will go over how we used data to drive decisions around feature development and measure feature success post launch. Bio: Kirsten Koa is a Software Engineer at Niantic. She’s been at Niantic for almost 2 years working on Pokémon GO. She was the Tech Lead on the Pokémon GO team for the Friends and Trading feature that launched this past summer. Prior to joining Niantic, Kirsten worked at Google as a Software Engineer. In addition to Pokémon GO, she loves playing Overwatch, Ingress, and Stardew Valley. |
Week Ten (Dec 4): Augmented Reality (Tuesday)
Jean Francois St Amour,
Engineering Manager at Apple (Augmented Reality Team) |
Abstract:
In this talk, we will discuss key considerations in bringing your game to Augmented Reality. Outside of the not-so-obvious technical challenges associated with world understanding, tracking and rendering, much care must be taken in crafting a user experience designed with AR in mind. We will also go over the tools available in Unity to help craft great AR experiences. Bio: Jean-Francois is an engineering lead at Apple, creating transformative experiences in the AR Applications group. Prior to joining Apple, he spent 13 years in the games industry at companies like Gameloft, Ubisoft and Riot Games. He has helped lay the rendering foundations of brands like Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia. He has a master’s degree from the University of Montreal, where he studied computer science and computer graphics. |