Speakers - SGDA 2022 Summit

SGDA SUMMIT | 2022 SPEAKERS

Art Panel

Time: Saturday, June 25th, 10:00 AM

Lauren Brown (she/her)

Art Director at Wildseed Games

Lauren Brown is an Emmy-Award Winning Art Director and Illustrator currently living in Austin, TX. She currently works at Black-owned studio Wildseed Games, on an upcoming Action-Adventure RPG. She currently is co-host of the Painted in Color podcast, a show dedicated to uplifting and showcasing marginalized artists.

Mary Yovina (they/them)

UI/UX Lead at Obsidian Entertainment

Mary Yovina is a UI/UX Lead at Obsidian, with 15 years of experience working in game development. Previously, they were a UI Art Lead at Harmonix, where they worked on FUSER, Dance Central, and Rock Band 4. They’ve also worked on BioShock Infinite, Lord of the Rings Online, and the PotatoFoolsDay ARG.

Jobye Karmaker (he/him)

Lead Environment Artist at Respawn Entertainment

Jobye-Kyle Karmaker is a Lead Environment Artist with over 12 years experience working in the games industry. He initially got his start working on multiplayer Source Engine mods. From there, he went professional and worked at Ubisoft Toronto, then Monolith Productions, where he worked on an array of franchises in different genres, from linear and multiplayer games to open world games: Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Far Cry and Middle-Earth – Shadow of War. Jobye has now spent 5 years at Respawn Entertainment, where he shipped 2019's Star Wars - JEDI: Fallen Order, worked on the critically-acclaimed Apex Legends and is now leading the Environment Art team of their Star Wars FPS Team.

Engineering Panel

Time: Saturday, June 25th, 12:00 PM

Jim Dong (he/him)

Lead UI Engineer at Infinity Ward

Dong Jinghui (Jim) is a game UI engineer who focuses on user interface, user experience and gameplay development. He creates unique experiences with experts, passionate about game and UI design that would break through the limits. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

Rachelle Davis (she/her)

Engineer & Game Developer at Bonfire Studios

Rachelle fell in love with immersive entertainment experiences and transformative storytelling at the age of 2, when she'd force her parents to sit through full reenactments of The Wizard of Oz on the elevated fireplace "stage". Several twists, turns, and years of musical theatre performances later, she's found that same joy in creating worlds and player stories in games. Her first industry job was at Blizzard slinging cards and code on the Hearthstone team, where she learned that behind every truly great game is an even greater team of passionate people collaborating with one another. Rachelle is beyond excited to have returned to that small-team, close-knit group vibe at Bonfire Studios to help craft incredible team and player experiences.

Reuben Brenner-Adams (he/him)

Game Engineer at Originator

Reuben Brenner-Adams is an award-winning game designer and engineer based in Washington, DC. Reuben has spent his career developing games for learning, and was central to the creation of two games recognized as Notable Children's Digital Media by the Association of Library Service to Children, as well as several Webby Award nominees. He holds a combined BS/MS degree in Game Design & Development from the Rochester Institute of Technology and is currently supporting the ongoing development of education games at Originator.

Production Panel

Time: Saturday, June 25th, 2:00 PM

Lilly Arredondo (she/her)

Associate Producer at Raven Software

Lilly Arredondo has experience in producing titles for Consoles, PC, mobile, browser, and casino games at all stages, from concept to market. Leading from small (3+) to big teams (70+) from countries all over the world and diverse backgrounds. Currently working at Raven Software as an Associate Producer managing the Gameplay Engineering, AI, and UI/UX teams, and is the managing producer of one of the campaign missions in the latest Call of Duty.

Yesenia Cisneros (she/her)

Lead Producer at Brass Lion Entertainment

Born and raised in Queens, NY, Yesenia Cisneros is a veteran producer who has worked on multi-award-winning titles such as Batman: Arkham City, Minecraft, and Pokemon. She has always been passionate about creating a space and better representation for Latinx, and other marginalized communities in the gaming industry both on and off the screen. Yesenia currently works as a lead producer at Brass Lion Entertainment; a studio that focuses on creating original universes for Black, Brown and other marginalized characters, stories and cultures.

Mariah Morris (she/her)

Associate Producer at Naughty Dog

Mariah is a producer with nearly a decade of industry experience that spans across indie, mobile, and AAA capacities. She specializes working with creative disciplines such as level art and narrative both as a producer and a designer. Previously, she completed narrative work on Wizards of the Coast and Bungie IPs. In her current role at Naughty Dog, Mariah supports the Background, Foreground, Lighting, and VFX teams on an unannounced project.

Audio Panel

Time: Sunday, June 26th, 10:00 AM

Aaron Cendan (he/him)

Senior Technical Audio Designer at Relic Entertainment

Aaron received his Bachelors in Music with a specialization in Ethnomusicology (the relationship between culture and music) from the University of Chicago in Spring of 2018. While attending UChicago, he dove headfirst into music production and sound design, composing tracks for the school newspaper’s podcast and experimenting with modular synth sfx and field recording. Outside of classes, He hosted regional gaming tournaments a few times a year and started up a company developing custom gaming controllers for players with hand and wrist complications. After four years in Chicago, he moved on to study at the University of Central Florida’s master’s program in interactive entertainment, FIEA. Following graduate school, he worked at Electronic Arts on Madden 21, helping to build, organize, and maintain the intricate systems for the playback of sports commentary audio for the game. Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic forced most studios into working-from-home, he began working remotely for Sony Santa Monica on God of War: Ragnarok. After about a year of working on the game, he accepted his current position at Relic Entertainment, and made the move from Orlando, Florida to Vancouver, British Columbia!

Jade Leamcharaskul (she/her)

Audio Producer at Silver Rain Games

Jade is currently the Audio Producer at Silver Rain Games working on an unannounced EA Originals game. A Game Dev Hero Award Winner, Jade was a freelance game music composer who worked on several games such as 'Dragon Fin Soup’ before joining SRG. She is one of the Founders of Game Dev London, a Mentor at Limit Break and a member of POCinPlay. She is also a BAFTA member and Juror for Music and Audio Achievement. Music wise she is currently composing for ‘Asian Pirate Musical’, and a proficient Japanese Taiko performer and Gamelan player.

Juan Pablo Uribe (he/him)

Senior Sound Designer at Bungie

Juan has worked at Microsoft doing sound design work for the Hololens, at Team Audio as a sound designer for games like Smite, Paladins, Realm Royale and Rogue Company, and currently works at Bungie as a Senior Sound Designer leading the Systems teams in charge of weapons, abilities, UI and rewards.

Game Design Panel

Time: Sunday, June 26th, 12:00 PM

Monica Fan (she/they)

Associate Game Designer at Schell Games

Monica is a game designer working in mobile and VR/AR space. She has experience in system and gameplay design with a soft spot for accessibility design and cats.

Mark Yampolsky (he/him)

Ex-Respawn Game Designer

Mark is a queer game designer based in Los Angeles, CA specializing in Systems Design. He graduated from USC in 2019 where he co-directed Ascend, a VR Arena Shooter with a novel locomotion system which our team showcased at Indiecade and E3. Until recently, he was a designer on Apex Legends at Respawn, where he led limited time mode development and designed Control, Winter Express, and Flashpoint, as well as core game features like Crafting.

Jason Yang (he/him)

Associate Game Designer at Second Dinner

Jason is a associate game designer working on many aspects of design at Second Dinner. He love creating amazing experiences for players and solving any and all game design puzzles that come my way.

Joe Magdalena (he/him)

Game Designer II at Riot Games

Joemag is a game industry veteran of 17 years. He is currently a Game Designer II at Riot Games working on Teamfight Tactics. He has also worked at Niantic Inc and Blizzard Entertainment where he worked on live content for Hearthstone. He is a self-taught designer and is a big supporter of game jams and enjoys bootstrapping projects together quickly.

Writing & Narrative Design Panel

Time: Sunday, June 26th, 2:00 PM

Lis Moberly (she/her)

Narrative Designer at Obsidian Entertainment

Lis Moberly is a game writer and narrative designer at Obsidian Entertainment. She is also the narrative designer for Cursed to Golf, a golflike being developed by Chuhai Labs.

Diandra Lasrado (she/they)

Senior Narrative Designer at Blizzard Entertainment

Diandra has been part of narrative groups for the past 14 years, working at BioWare, Riot Games, Carbine Studios, Aniplex, Blizzard, and many more. Throughout her career, she has worn many hats on her narrative journey and has experience ranging from Editorial through Localization, Voice Over Coordination, Management, and Narrative Design.

Isa Party (they/them)

Editor at Pixelberry Studios

Isa Party is a game writer and narrative designer with a love for all things silly, spooky, and out of this world. They love bringing joy and good vibes to the games they work on--even if said games are full of monsters, murder, and mayhem. Currently, Isa is an Editor for Pixelberry Studios on the recently announced StoryLoom project and are a part of the upcoming Compendium of Lesser-Known Cryptids anthology.

Community Organization Spotlight: Rad Magpie

Time: Saturday, June 25th, 4:00 PM

Dana Steinhoff (she/her)

Rad Studio Executive Director

Dana Steinhoff is the Executive Director of Rad Magpie, a nonprofit doing its part to dismantle patriarchal white supremacy in the video game industry. She is dedicated to building the creative confidence of underrepresented young people through instruction in game development and interaction design. In her free time, she works as an Adjunct Faculty member at Champlain College and at the Emergent Media Center, the college’s in-house design studio.

Community Organization Spotlight: Latinx In Gaming

Time: Saturday, June 25th, 4:00 PM

Diana Rodriguez

Program Manager, Google

Diana/Reina is a program manager by day and a variety gamer by night. Being a Latina gamer, its important for her to help expand and unite women of color and minorities by creating and developing inclusive communities wherever possible. Diana/Reina is passionate about raising awareness and building a community for underrepresented individuals where they feel a sense of belonging. She volunteers her time within Latinx in Gaming to support different initiatives to help make a difference.

Joseph Magallanes

Social Media Manager at Latinx In Gaming

Joseph/JMags is a life-long gamer who loves to bring positive energy wherever he goes, in addition to creating and nurturing inclusive communities. He believes in highlighting and uplifting Latinx/e, BIPOC and other underrepresented communities personally and through Latinx in Gaming initiatives.

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