Speaker Announcements | Vector

16 Apr 2019

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Speaker Announcement 2019: Leanthony “AJ” Edwards

Sticky Post By Amanda Wallace On April 16, 2019

This year we are super excited to have Leanthony “AJ” Edwards come and speak to our folks at Vector this year! Leanthony is a lawyer out of Cincinnati and will be talking about how to protect yourself and your game from an IP standpoint at the outset in order to save time and money.

Leanthony’s bio:

A smiling African American man in a blue buttoned up shirt against a brick wall. Leanthony (“AJ”) Edwards is a Cincinnati based attorney who helps developers, entertainers and content developers navigate all legal issues related to intellectual property, advertising, licensing, data privacy/cybersecurity, and other tech related transactions. He is passionate about the gaming community so you might spot him at various local conferences in addition to GDC or Gamesforum. As an avid Gamer, he swears by Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn as the best game of all time and will articulate the elements that make the game great if pressed.

If you’re interested in Leanthony’s talk on Saturday, check out our event this year! Be sure to check out our ticket page and pick up your tickets for this years event! Vector 2019 is April 26-27!

09 Apr 2019

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Speaker Announcement 2019: Phil Profitt

Sticky Post By Amanda Wallace On April 9, 2019

This year we’re incredibly psyched to have Phil Profitt, an Xbox Account Manager with Microsoft and Kentucky Native, to speak at Vector 2019!

A white man with a beard and black glasses, holding a small duck.

Phil Profitt is currently a developer account manager for Xbox at Microsoft, and has been working in the games industry for 10 years now. He grew up in the middle of nowhere in Bourbon County, KY. After graduating from University of Kentucky as an electrical engineering major he made his way to Tokyo, Japan to work in the games industry as a software engineer.

Recently becoming a father, in his ample free time Phil loves playing anything developed by FROM Software, and enjoys all the amazing Pacific Northwestern outdoor activities. In his profile picture you can see him spending time on his childhood friend’s farm in the Seattle area.

Again, we’re super excited to have Phil attend this years event! Be sure to check out our ticket page and pick up your tickets for this years event! Vector 2019 is April 26-27!

08 Apr 2019

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Speaker Announcement Christopher Totten

Sticky Post By Amanda Wallace On April 8, 2019

This year we’re pleased to announce that Christopher Totten will be joining our speaker list! Christopher will be speaking on Level Design and Architecture, and we’re excited to have him this year.

Christopher Totten is an Assistant Professor in the Modeling, Animation, and Game Creation program at Kent State University. He is the founder of Pie For Breakfast Studios, an award-winning Northeast Ohio independent game company, and has done work as an artist, animator, level designer, and project manager in the game industry. He holds a Masters Degree in Architecture with a concentration in Digital Media from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Chris is an executive organizer for the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) Arcade and lifetime member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). Chris has written articles featured on Gamasutra, Game Career Guide, and other publications and is a frequent speaker at game industry conferences such as GDC, East Coast Game Conference, GDEX, and others. He is the author of An Architectural Approach to Level Design, published in its second edition in 2019 and Game Character Creation in Blender and Unity, released by Wiley Publishing in 2012. He is also the editor of the collected volume, Level Design: Processes and Experiences.

Interested in this talk and others like it? Be sure to check out our ticket page and pick up your tickets for this years event! Vector 2019 is April 26-27!

27 Mar 2019

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Speaker Announcement 2019: Christian Allen

Sticky Post By Amanda Wallace On March 27, 2019

This year we’re pleased to announced the involvement of Epic Games, and specifically Unreal Engine Evangelist Christian Allen! Christian will continue with the fantastic workshops and talks about the Unreal Engine.

Allen_headshot_FN Christian’s bio:

Christian Allen is an experienced and BAFTA award winning AAA game designer and creative director. Prior to joining Epic Games as the Unreal Engine Evangelist for North America, Christian served as Lead Designer, Creative Director, and Design Director of several AAA game projects for Ubisoft, Red Storm Entertainment, Microsoft, Bungie, and Warner Bros. Games; as well as running his own indie development studio, Serellan LLC, which shipped multiple titles on console, PC, and VR.

Interested in this talk and others like it? Be sure to check out our ticket page and pick up your tickets for this years event! Vector 2019 is April 26-27!

21 Mar 2019

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Speaker Announcement 2019: Jon Foust

Sticky Post By Amanda Wallace On March 21, 2019

This year we’re really excited to announce the attendance of Google Cloud Developer Advocate Jon Foust! Jon is a talented member of the Google team and will be attending for his first year this year to give some talks on subjects on how the cloud can benefit game developers.

A young African American man in a black pullover, smiling towards camera.

His bio: Jon is a Google Cloud Developer Advocate focused on Cloud Gaming. He enjoys helping developers use Google Cloud APIs easily within Unity. In his spare time, you can find Jon playing Volleyball, Baseball/Softball, and as you probably have guessed… Games! His passions are using the cloud to break barriers that divide gamers.

We are super happy to have Jon attend this years event and look forward to what he’s going to bring to Vector 2018!

If you’re interested in attending Vector this year, don’t forget to grab your ticket today!

21 Feb 2019

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Speaker Announcement 2019: Lisa Brown

Sticky Post By Amanda Wallace On February 21, 2019

Hello folks! This year we’re pleased to announce the return of one of our favorite previous speakers: Lisa Brown! Lisa Brown has given some of our best talks over the year, on subjects like putting more juice in your game and long term planning for game designers. Lisa has worked for years in AAA and indie development and we are super pleased that she will be joining us for our 2019 event!

via GIPHY

Lisa’s bio:

Lisa Brown is a senior game designer, currently on the Sandbox team at Bungie. She was formally a designer at Insomniac Games and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center, and also worked as a level designer with Heart Machine on Hyper Light Drifter. As an indie, she released several experimental personal games, livestreamed game development and game design analysis, and did an academic residency at Harrisburg University. Lisa loves advising students, participating in game jams, and deep diving on design analysis.

If you’re also pretty pumped to see Lisa at this years event, be sure to grab your ticket here! Contact us for more information on group rates, educational and diversity discounts!

20 Feb 2019

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Speaker Announcement 2019: JoAnna Lio Amos

Sticky Post By Amanda Wallace On February 20, 2019

For this years Vector conference we are incredibly excited to announce one of our keynote speakers as EA Producer JoAnna Lio Amos! JoAnna is an exceptionally talented producer and has worked at EA for 15 years across many incarnations of the Blockbuster Sims Franchise!

via GIPHY

JoAnna’s bio:

JoAnna Lio Amos is a producer of The Sims™. In her 15 years at EA, she has developed a dozen games for the franchise across multiple platforms. Her roles have included being a game designer on The Sims 2, lead producer of The Sims 3, live producer of The Sims 4, and lead producer of The Sims Mobile.

Outside of work, she is a member of the advisory board for the University of Kentucky’s Computer Science department.

If you’re psyched to see JoAnna at this years event, be sure to grab your ticket here! Contact us for more information on group rates, educational and diversity discounts!

19 Feb 2019

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Speaker Announcement 2019: Rami Ismail

Sticky Post By Amanda Wallace On February 19, 2019

For 2019’s Vector Conference, we are incredibly pleased to have independent guru and business & development guy at indie studio Vlambeer (Nuclear Throne, Luftrausers). Rami is an important figure in independent game development and we’re incredibly excited that he will be joining us for this years event April 26-27, 2019!

via GIPHY

Rami’s bio:

Rami Ismail is the Business & Development Guy at Vlambeer, a Dutch independent game studio known best for Nuclear Throne, Ridiculous Fishing, LUFTRAUSERS, Super Crate Box, GUN GODZ and Serious Sam: The Random Encounter.

We are so incredibly excited that Rami will be joining us for this years event! If you’re equally as psyched, please be sure to grab tickets here! In addition, if you need more information on our group rates, pricing for educational institutions or diversity scholarships (if you’re not sure if you apply, ask!) please email us for more information at vector (at) runjumpdev.org.

10 Apr 2018

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Speaker Announcement 2018: Wes Keltner

Sticky Post By Amanda Wallace On April 10, 2018

Wes, a bald man with an impressive moustache and a red and blue check shirt, sits in a crowded office overlooking an urban environment. We are very excited to announce one of our keynote speakers, Wes Keltner! Wes will be joining us Friday afternoon for a fireside chat about indie game development and his title Friday the 13th.

Wes Keltner is the CEO of Gun Media, a game design concept team, based in Lexington, KY. Their most recent project, Friday the 13th: The Game, sold 2M units and garnered a loyal fanbase and won a Golden Joystick award. Gun focuses on paper design, meta game, gameplay mechanics and features, music and foley, motion capture direction, marketing, PR and building communities alongside streamers. Wes is passionate about creativity and pushes his team to be innovative in all aspects of production. He also knows a lot about horror, naturally.

While Wes is a Kentucky based developer, it is always exciting to have him come out and join us for events and to talk about the things that he’s passionate about. It’s really fantastic that he’ll be joining us this year for Vector 2018!

Nicholas Cage, in what seems to be archival footage on a television show, high kicks to show his excitement.

Vector 2018 is coming April 20-21, 2018! Our first day is a student day focused on education and learning for new developers, and our second day is focused on more learned developers. Tickets are available for purchase at Eventbrite now so be sure to get yours.

02 Apr 2018

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Speaker Announcement 2018: Chris Charla

Sticky Post By Amanda Wallace On April 2, 2018

We are super excited to welcome this years keynote speaker, Chris Charla! Chris will join our already amazing line up of speakers for Vector 2018 and were incredibly glad that he can come to see us.

Chris Charla is senior director for ID@Xbox at Microsoft. ID@Xbox enables independent developers to self-publish their games on Xbox One and Windows 10 with Xbox Live. He launched the program after working with developers for several years as portfolio director for Xbox Live Arcade on Xbox 360 at Microsoft Studios. Prior to joining Microsoft, Chris worked at an independent developer doing everything from design and production, to helping create, pitch and produce original IPs. A million years ago, he was the launch editor of IGN.com, and the editor-in-chief of Next Generation magazine. He also edits the fanzines Incredibly Strange Games and Wallingford Skate Report.

We are incredibly pleased that Chris will be joining us for this event!

Vector 2018 is coming April 20-21, 2018! Our first day is a student day focused on education and learning for new developers, and our second day is focused on more learned developers. Tickets are available for purchase at Eventbrite now so be sure to get yours.