Speaker Announcement 2019: Leanthony “AJ” Edwards

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!

Speaker Announcement 2019: Christian Allen

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_FNChristian’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!

Speaker Announcement 2019: Jon Foust

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!

Diversity Scholarship Brought to You By I Need Diverse Games

For the fourth year in a row we are incredibly pleased to announce a partnership with the phenomenal organization “I Need Diverse Games” to help cover the costs of diverse applicants in their attempts to make it to Vector ’19! This scholarship helps cover ticket admission costs for any participants who would like to come (lunch is provided as well through the ticket price) and we hope that this eases a pathway for anyone who is on the fence on attendance.

A black box with the text "I Need Diverse Games" a stylized controller in rainbow as their logo.

From their website:

I Need Diverse Games via all associated platforms and members; including but not limited to: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and other mediums seeks to bring projects, works and research by marginalized folks to light. We also seek to discuss, analyse, and critique identity and culture in video games through a multi-faceted lens rooted in intersectionality.

We are very excited to once again be working with an organization that seeks to promote underserved and marginalized voices in the game industry. If you’re a person who feels that they identity under that banner (be it through sexual orientation, gender, skin color, etc) please contact us. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in coming to Vector 2019 and doesn’t yet have a ticket please let us know at vector (at) runjumpdev.org.

If you do not currently have a ticket for Vector 2019 and would like to purchase one, you can do so here.

Speaker Announcement 2019: Lisa Brown

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!

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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!

Tickets Available for Vector 2019

Tickets are now available for Vector 2019!

Vector is a game conference held at Eastern Kentucky University in collaboration with the EKU Gaming Institute and RunJumpDev. In its fourth year, Vector is a celebration of developers from the midwest and southeast United States, and allowing them a chance to network with leaders and peers ​in the field of game design and development.

This year will again feature a 2-Day format, with the first day focused on education and day two featuring more professional development for regional game developers.

LARGE PURPLE BUTTON THAT READS "bUY TICKETS" IN THE CENTER

Speaker Announcement 2019: JoAnna Lio Amos

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!

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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!

Speaker Announcement 2019: Rami Ismail

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!

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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.

Student Showcase Application Form is Open for 2019

Our Student Showcase is now accepting applications! Are you a student (or have you been in the last 6 months) and have a project you’d like to show for this years presentation? Send us your game or work in progress project in for Vector 2019’s Student Showcase.

Student Showcase attendees get free admission to the two day event and a chance to show their game to our attendees as well as a walkthrough from our professional speakers! This is a great opportunity for burgeoning developers from high school and college.

Have a question or want to sign up for our email list? Do that here.