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Speakers 2018

2018 Keynote: SHAYNA MOON

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 9:30AM

Shayna Moon is an Associate Producer at Santa Monica Studio, and recently released the highly anticipated God of War (2018). She has worked closely with top talent in game narrative and audio. She also has worked to support up and coming game developers through volunteer and mentoring opportunities such as Amplifying New Voices and the GDC Conference Associates program.

Shayna graduated from Ferris State University in 2014 with a degree in Digital Animation and Game Design. She later attended the University of Texas at Austin Denius-Sams Gaming Academy, completing the program with honors. She began her career in games as a Quality Assurance tester in her home state of Michigan.

2018 Keynote: Brad Kalinoski

Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 9:30AM

Brad Kalinoski, grew up in West Virginia believing for the longest time there was no way to fulfill his dream of working in art, film and entertainment.  At first, he thought of completing a career in the medical field, but after almost 10 years working in a 350-bed hospital in Huntington WV, he decided it was not his career choice, and not his dream.

Deciding to take a chance, and as cliché as it sounds, he quit his job in 1995, and with his wife’s blessing, went to buying books from the freshly new Amazon.com. Brad began studying and creating camera, lighting, color, and a demo reel that he and his wife would take with them as they set out to find their dreams in Los Angeles. Literally, two weeks after arriving in North Hollywood, CA to stay with his friend and wife’s cousin, John Wallace III who was working at Film Roman, (AKA the Simpsons), he landed a job in the Visual Effect industry working with the Academy Award-winning Dr. Mark Sagar (Academy of Sciences Academy Award winner).

Brad has worked with other well-known names in the entertainment on over 80 films and tv shows.  He is currently finishing work on Kansas City for Amblin Entertainment, Dolly Parton Theater, and some other surprises that are coming.

Brad took that chance of moving to California where at that time, everything happened in the entertainment industry, to pursue his dream and his love of working in the entertainment industry as a digital VFX artist, producer, and someday, director.

Today Brad works in many aspects of Visual Effect as a VFX Supervisor, Producer, and artist. He has been nominated for a BAFTA Award for his work on Black Swan and for two VES Awards (Black Swan and Lost the final season) as compositing supervisor. Brad has worked on some of the largest shows in feature and episodic history including The Walking Dead, season eight. He has also worked on shows that have won Emmy’s, Academy Awards, and BAFTAs.

Today Brad continues his work as an artist/supervisor with Chris LeDoux’s company, www.craftyapes.com, and has settled in the new Atlanta GA office, where he works alongside his wife, also a VFX artist and producer and science fiction fantasy writer, where they create and develop at Atlanta’s largest VFX Company supporting visual effects for all realms of films and television.

Sponsored by:
Presented by:

Unreal Engine Meetup

Workshop #1: Intro to Unreal
Friday, October 26, 2018 at 10:35 AM

In this workshop we’ll go over the basics of the Unreal Editor. Guided step by step with experts in one of Mountwest’s Game Development Labs.

Workshop #2: Teaching with Unreal
Friday, October 26, 2018 at 12:00

We’ll go over EPIC Games Instructor materials to make sure you are teaching your students the skills to land AAA jobs.

Workshop #3: VR Mode
Friday, October 26, 2018 at 2:30

Working directly in VR provides the proper sense of scale necessary to create realistic, believable worlds, while the use of motion controllers means you can build environments with natural motions and interactions.

Workshop #4: Unreal Films & Niagara
Saturday, October 27, 2018, at TBA

New Niagara Editor and Sequencer.

Aaron Preece

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 10:35

The Fog of War: making video games accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired

Matt Mundell

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 10:35

Game Design at Marshall University

Find out about educational opportunities to receive a Bachelor of Science in Marshall University’s Computer and Information Technology major which includes a concentration on Game & Simulation Development. Also for current and prospective Mountwest students, learn about our Articulation program that lets you start with an Associates Degree at Mountwest and then jump right in to finish a Bachelors at Marshall! Learn more at https://www.marshall.edu/cit/.

Timm Johnson

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 10:35

The History of Video Games in Eight Bits

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 1:00

An Overscoped Journey: Age of The Ring Mod Postmortem

Unity Engine Workshop 1: Entry Level

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 10:35

Unity Engine Workshop 2: Intermediate Level

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 12:00

Presented by 28:12 Studio

Mixed Reality Drone Demonstration

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 10:50

Presented by Megan Click, Instructor of Drone Technology and GIS at Mountwest.

Chelsie Cooper & Azyn Chahryar

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 11:30

Women in Tech

Jay Kidd

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 11:30

Social Butterfly: How a strong social media presence can make a studio and how to make social media work for you

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 3:00 & Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 3:10

Gamedev FUNDamentals – Your guide to business plans, loans, grants, publishers and crowdfunding

Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 10:35

“A World in Shades of Grey: Designing for Colorblind Players” – Your guide to designing graphics, UX and UI for a color blind audience

Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 11:35

“The PRESSING Problem” – How to create a stunning press kit, create a press list, send out blind emails, and not get your game laughed off the news desk

Dr. George Landon

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 11:30

Juice Your Education: Maximizing Results from Your Time Spent in School  

Megan Grass

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 1:00

How Learning to Code for the famous Resident Evil 1.5 Project Saved My Life

Matt Crutchfield

Friday, October 26, 2018 at 3:00

Freelancing for motion graphic design, does it matter where you live?

Amanda Hudgins

Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 10:35

How To Show A Game (Internationally, I Guess)

Jeremy Doolin

Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 10:35

Basic Game Programming with Lua and LOVE.


(Limited to 15 participants. First come, first serve)

John Meister

Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 11:35

Optimized, Cross Platform Barf: A Pig Eat Ball Technical Postmortem

Kyle Nestmann

Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 3:10

EKU Game Competition Finalist: An E3 Post-Mortem