Speakers - SGDA 2022 Summit

SGDA SUMMIT | 2024 SPEAKERS

Production Panel

Time: Saturday, June 29th, 12PM

Xiao Han (she/her)

Producer at Mega Cat Studios

I'm currently a Producer at Mega Cat Studios. I graduated from the Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center in May 2023. I'm happy to share about my experience working for an indie game company, and my journey of navigating the job market as an international student.

Shan Jiang (she/her)

Production Assistant at Niantic

Shan Jiang is a game producer at Niantic, based in the Bay Area, having recently graduated from Master of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University. With 5 years of game development and 6 years of technical background, she has interned at Schell Games, Unity Technologies, and Psychic VR Lab (Japan). She has worked on over 30 projects, including mobile games, AR/VR/MR apps, and interactive films, and has received honors such as the Pausch Award and scholarships from D.I.C.E. and CYSTEM.

Mitch Zasa (he/him)

Associate Producer at 1047 Games

Mitch has been in the game industry for 4 years. First starting out at Santa Monica Studio working on God of War Ragnarok as a Production Coordinator then transitioning to 1047 Games as an Associate Producer for the UI/UX team.

Art Panel

Time: Saturday, June 29th, 3PM

Shawn Kang (he/him)

3D Environment Artist (Contract) at Astrobream Software

3D Environment artist, graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, Entertainment Technology Center in 2020. Worked at Schell Games for 3 years. Worked on mostly VR projects (I Expect You to Die 2 & 3, the Lost Recipe). Now working as a freelance 3D Environment Artist.

Eiko Qu (she/her)

Associate Biome Artist at 1047 Games

Eiko is a 3D Environment Artist specializing in biome art. She expertise in 3D modeling, texturing, environment creation, and cinematic rendering. With a background in both 2D and 3D art, she is passionate about creating immersive and creative game environments.

Garrett Kaida (he/him)

Artist at Restoration Games and Visual Purple

Garrett Kaida is an educator, illustrator, and concept artist. He received his MFA in Illustration from CSU Fullerton. He currently works for Restoration Games and Visual Purple. Other clients include Stronghold Games, Rept Media, Yunnan Sourcing Tea Company, Aarons Animals, Zach King Studios, and Eagle Griffon Games. His work includes architectural renderings, book covers, game illustrations, key art, as well as character, prop, and environment design. Garrett’s passion lies in teaching, and he has been an instructor for over 10 years. He is currently an instructor at Brainstorm, CSU Fullerton, and Fullerton College. His favorite classes to teach are perspective drawing, foundation drawing, and digital painting.

Design Panel

Time: Saturday, June 29th, 5:00 PM

Elaine Gómez (she/her)

Senior Gameplay Designer at Worlds Untold

Senior Gameplay Designer at Worlds Untold, Founder and CEO of Midnight Hour Games, and Vice President of Latinx in Gaming, Elaine is a seasoned designer with 8+ years experience in core mechanics, features, and systems. She has been recognized for various awards and accolades for her positive impact including being a member of The Game Awards Future Class 2020 and recipient of the EDGE in Tech Athena Award for Executive Leadership in 2024.

Engineering Panel

Time: Sunday, June 30th, 4:30 PM

Jessica Wei (she/her)

Software Engineer at Maxis

I'm a software engineer currently working at Maxis. Before that, I studied computer science (BS) and serious games (MS) at CSU Long Beach and UC Santa Cruz, where I also worked as a gameplay programmer and research assistant for a number of labs. I am also a CSULB VGDA alumni, which is where I started my game development career.

Ted DiNola (they/he)

Developer Relations Engineer at Meta Content Ecosystem

Ted DiNola is a game programmer and designer with over 15 years of experience in the games field. They have worked at large studios, for small independents, led their own teams, and currently work at Meta as a Developer Relations Engineer, providing deep dive technical and design guidance to developers bringing experiences to the Meta Quest.

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