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Lectures

Keynote Torsten Reil on High End Games For Mainstream Audiences

In 2001, Torsten brought his research in biomechanics and kinetics to the movie industry revolutionizing realistic and immersive character interaction on the big screen. While you may not be aware, you have seen Torsten’s work in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Troy and Poseidon ...
Social Games Ecosystem

Nurturing a Robust Social Games Ecosystem
Sean Ryan, Facebook

A high level look at what it takes to create a healthy and thriving ecosystem for social games...
Making Your IP Work

A Bird In The Hand: How to Make Your IP Work for You
Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio

Creating a brand that can be leveraged and extended in a variety of ways helps insure your brand’s value in the future...
Independent IP Evolution

DeathSpank - The Evolution Of An Independent Gaming IP
Mike Inglehart, Hothead Games

The much loved and award winning DeathSpank has evolved and finally come of age....
Monthly Active Monsters

Feeding of your ~~MAU~~ MAM (Monthly Active Monsters)
Stephanie Kaiser, wooga

Listen to Stephanie speak about her player feedback loop, analyzing player progression...
The Making of Snoopy Flying Ace

Old Dog, New Tricks: The Making of Snoopy Flying Ace
Clark Stacey, Smart Bomb Interactive

Last summer, reviewers and Xbox 360 gamers were both pleasantly surprised when Snoopy Flying Ace...
Burrito Bison On Two Markets

Burrito Bison: Designing for Two Markets at Once
Yowan Langlais | Dominique Lemire-Nault, Juicy Beast

Not all Flash games are meant to be ported to the iOS platform...

Conference content was programmed by a set of industry advisors.

Taper Auditorium Lectures - From 2011

July 21:
Audio in Games

Emcee: Aaron WALZ, Co-founder and Partner, Game Audio Alliance

Can you fondly hum the tunes to your favorite games? Have you ever felt like part of the action because of awesome sound effects? Have you thought you are watching a movie while listening to excellent voiceovers? Audio presents a major opportunity to make a good game a great one. Audio professionals, aspiring professionals, and game developers alike will learn a lot by attending sessions at the 5th Annual Casual Connect Audio Track.

July 20:
Games Everywhere!

Emcees: Robert TERCEK, President, General Creativity
Margaret WALLACE, CEO, Playmatics

Games are an indelible part of human history and development dating back thousands of years. Games leverage a rich tapestry of meaning governed by a clear-cut set of rules, expected actions, and valuable rewards while appealing to motivators like social interaction, status, competition, fantasy, and story development. Today, widespread global adoption of video games – including social games -- introduce consumers to the “language” of gaming in unprecedented numbers. Other industries now appreciate and utilize techniques long-known in gaming to expand engagement, and games are literally everywhere. Whether we're talking about Zappos' VIP Program, enhancing work productivity, or the "Fuel Economy" game built into the Toyota Prius dashboard, the underlying practices championed in the games industry permeate our world. Come hear thought-leaders in applied game mechanics discuss how our industry sits dead center of the expansion of gaming ideas into our lives, products and consumer experiences.

July 19:
General Industry

Emcee: Chris EARLY, VP Digital Publishing, Ubisoft

It’s easy to get lost in hype of “what’s new” in the casual gaming world, because NEW is FUN! But if you’re going to make a living at it as well, then there are some important things you need to stay abreast of. What are the trends and where are the more traditional models headed? You’ll need a strategy if you’re planning to ride the wave, not get buried in it. Veterans of the space will analyze the current market and provide key information on surviving and thriving in an ever-evolving industry.

9:00

Delivering High-End Games To Mainstream Audiences

Torsten REIL,
CEO & Co-Founder, NaturalMotion
introduced by Jeremy LEWIS, President and CEO, Big Fish Games

Torsten Reil is the CEO of NaturalMotion Games, one of the fastest growing publishers on iOS and Android with more than 8 million downloads and four consecutive global paid chart hits. With a background in biology, Torsten originally founded NaturalMotion to commercialize human simulation technology in high-end console games such as Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption, a business the company continues to grow. In 2010, NaturalMotion Games was launched to exploit this technology on iOS and Android, with the goal of creating a new type of rich and social gaming experience. Torsten holds a first-class degree in Biology from Oxford University and a Master with Distinction from Sussex University. He has spoken at TED, TED Global and Apple's WWDC. [Email Torsten]

Join Jeremy Lewis, Chief Executive of industry juggernaut Big Fish, as he introduces us to Torsten to discuss tapping the mainstream with high end games.

In 2001, Torsten brought his research in biomechanics and kinetics to the movie industry revolutionizing realistic and immersive character interaction on the big screen. We are certain that you have seen Torsten’s work in movies such as the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Troy and Poseidon where computer animation of human and animal avatars gave rise to breathtakingly real sequences in the virtual world.

Torsten has proven through his success in using neural networks and artificial evolution applied to self-animating characters that using organic models with bones, muscles and a nervous system results in realism not achieved by other methods.

As increasingly powerful platforms have brought a multitude of gaming experiences to the mainstream entertainment audience, many of these experiences lack a depth and richness factor that truly engage players. Those days are gone as NaturalMotion has brought life to games including Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

9:30

Techniques for Looping Game Music

Jesse HOLT, Co-founder,
Game Audio Alliance

Jesse Holt is a prolific sound designer, music producer and composer who has been creating one-of-a-kind audio for casual games since 1999. He is also a proud co-founder of the Game Audio Alliance. He has produced a wide variety of music heard not only by tens of millions in video games, but also on radio and television and recently in the short film SHUFFLE which premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2010. [Email Jesse]

Poorly looping sounds and music are common in the game world and can really take the player out of the realism and action. Seamless loops can be difficult to achieve creatively. This session explores some techniques, tools and examples of looping audio successfully.

Composing Memorable Melodies for Casual, Social & Mobile Games

Aaron WALZ, Co-founder and Partner, Game Audio Alliance

Aaron Walz, composer and sound designer primarily for casual, social and mobile games, earned his BA in music from Sonoma State University. He recently scored the top-ranking Facebook adventure, Ravenwood Fair, which enjoys 25 million plays per month. He has received several awards for his audio work including “Best Game” at GDC’s Independent Game Festival and Game Tunnel’s “Best Sound.” Aaron sings and records with several projects and performs with the Golden Gate Men’s Chorus. He has trained with Grammy award winner, Joseph Jennings, Chris Fritzsche of Chanticleer and Clerestory, Magen Solomon of SFCA, Will Johnson and Robert Worth, among others. Aaron strives to create music for media that stands alone as a worthy contribution to art. Aaron is a co-founder and partner of the Game Audio Alliance. [Email Aaron]

There are many schools of thought regarding what makes great game music. This session explores the classic game tune school where melody and “stickiness” is king. Thus, players open the game at times just to hear the music and sound, and melodies get stuck in everyone’s heads.

Beyond Play: Gaming in the Connected Age

Robert TERCEK, President,
General Creativity

Rob Tercek is one of Hollywood's most prolific creators of interactive entertainment. For 22 years, he has supervised the launch of new television channels, computer and console games, mobile video services, interactive TV shows, and mobile games. He co-founded five companies, including game publisher 7th Level, and served in executive management at MTV, Sony Pictures, Mforma/Hands-On Mobile and OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. Today he serves on the board of directors of several digital media startups and the Creative Visions Foundation. [Email Robert]

Innovation, creativity and adaptability are survival skills for a changing world – and gaming plays a major role in this evolution. Games are everywhere these days. More than just for play or leisure-time, gaming and applied game mechanics increasingly occupy a place in our lives. This new gaming landscape of the 21st century opens up a vast array of new opportunities which will reward smart companies and brand marketers who are willing to engage with an audience of active, engaged players. Media pioneer and visionary Robert Tercek shares insight into the future evolution of gaming and the coming transmedia tidal wave that will reshape human civilization.

10:30

Atmosphering Games: What You Should Know About Music and Sound Design

Dmitry KUZMENKO, Founder,
Strategic Music
William BUCKNUM,
Music Producer and Voice-Over Director,
Strategic Music

Dmitry Kuzmenko graduated from the University of Humanities and Social Sciences in Saint Petersburg, Russia with a degree in Sound Direction. He founded Strategic Music in 2003, and has since been working on music and sound design for computer games. Now, Strategic Music has more than 200 projects in its portfolio, and delivers a wide variety of services which include the creation of music, crafting sound design, voice-over recordings and the recording of music with symphonic orchestras and other ensembles.[Email Dmitry]

William Bucknum began receiving awards in competitions for his music performance during high school at the age of 15. As a saxophonist trained in classical and jazz performance, he took on many musical endeavors such as composing, performing and recording rock and electronic music. After graduating from the University of Oregon with a master's degree in Educational Leadership, he taught World Music and other philosophical courses related to music and arts in a globalized world. He now is working with Strategic Music as a music producer and voice-over director.[Email William]

The focus of this session will revolve around the theory and practical advice about sound design and music composition. Topics covered are: some approaches to sound design used in the industry, discussing good sound design versus bad, and how good music and sound design can enhance a game. There will be demonstrations to illustrate concepts explained throughout the presentation.

Your Brain on Games: The Hidden Psychology of Gaming

Demetri DETSARIDIS, GM,
Zynga New York
Michael FERGUSSON,
CEO and Founder, Ayogo Games Inc
Nicole LAZZARO, Founder and President,
XEODesign
discussion led by Robert TERCEK, President, General Creativity

Demetri Detsaridis is the General Manager of Zynga New York, one of the newest studios of the world’s leading social games company. Having spent his last decade making games of all shapes and sizes, Demetri was most recently the General Manager and Executive Producer of the innovative New York game developer Area/Code (CSI: Crime City, Drop7). Before that, he co-founded and served as Creative Director of London-based Massively Mobile, was a game designer at mobile giant Gameloft, an early member of Warner Bros.’ superhero MMORPG DC Universe Online team, and a longtime game designer and producer at casual gaming pioneer Pop & Co. [Email Demetri]

Michael is CEO and founder of Ayogo, and dedicated to the idea that playing is one of the most productive things we can do. He’s been an entrepreneur and innovator on the Web for over 15 years, and his games have been played by millions on computers and Smartphones all over the world. Michael has been featured in Fast Company, MIT Technology Review, and the Globe and Mail, and identified as one of the 10 innovators to watch in Vancouver. [Email Michael]

Nicole Lazzaro, Founder and President of XEODesign, Inc., has twenty years of expertise in Player Experience Design (PXD) for mass-market entertainment products. Voted by Gamasutra as one of the Top 20 women working in games, one of Fast Company`s 100 most influential women in high tech, and cited by Wired, Fast Company, CNET, ABC News, The Hollywood Reporter, and Red Herring, her clients include Sony, EA, Ubisoft, Sega, PlayFirst, The Cartoon Network, Disney, Lucas Arts, Nickelodeon, LeapFrog, Mattel, Monolith, Xfire, D.I.C.E, Leap Frog, Ugobe, The Learning Company, Broderbund, Roxio, Cisco, Go Pets, Sierra Online, and Maxis. She has an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Stanford University where she also studied film making and computer programming. [Email Nicole]

In this panel, Demetri Detsaridis (General Manager, Zynga New York), Michael Fergusson (CEO, Ayogo) and Nicole Lazzaro (CEO, XEODesign) will discuss the overlap between behavioral psychology and game design and development, as well as the possibilities of better employing psychological insights in the creation of games. As dramatic as the impact of statistical analysis and behavioral economics has been on gaming and the games industry, applied psychology has largely remained the province of player research departments at AAA console developers...or been overlooked entirely. Bringing this field to the fore could be another sea change for the industry, pushing gaming even further into the mass market or (depending on your perspective) pulling games one more step away from becoming art. What can we learn from psychology, how can we use it to understand what we're already doing, and can it help us build better games in the future?

10 Things I Hate About Casual Games

Dave ROBERTS, CEO,
PopCap Games

Dave joined PopCap Games in 2005 as the companys chairman and chief executive officer, overseeing all aspects of the companys operations and guiding PopCap through the adolescent stage to corporate maturity. He brings more than twenty years of entrepreneurial and technology experience. Previously Dave served as an executive for Visual Communications Group, a leading global provider of stock photography (acquired by Getty Images in 2000). Prior to that Dave was founder, chairman and CEO of Definitive Stock, a stock photography company providing royalty-free and rights-protected images using world-class on-line search, delivery and commerce systems. [Email Dave]

Dave Roberts will highlight the 10 worst things about being a casual game developer and whine about why they won’t get fixed in the next 10 years. He promises to include all forms of casual games in his rant, including social and mobile as well as the traditional download space.

11:30

Audio Q&A Panel

discussion led by Kevin TONE,
Co-founder, Soundrangers

Kevin Tone, co-founder of Soundrangers, a pioneer in online delivery of original production music and sound effects built for video games and interactive media. When he’s not composing music or creating sounds for the Soundrangers.com library, he’s doing custom work for one of their many clients or enjoying a long walks on the beach with kittens and/or puppy dogs. Kevin is also a co-founder of the Game Audio Alliance, a group of professionals dedicated to high quality custom game audio.[Email Kevin]

An opportunity for developers, audio pro’s and industry newbies to pose their burning questions and present their opinions to a panel of excellent audio professionals, who will answer and discuss.

Smart Gamification: Seven Core Concepts for Creating Compelling Experiences

Amy Jo KIM, CEO,
Shufflebrain

Amy Jo Kim, Ph.D. is a social game designer who’s worked on Rock Band, The Sims, eBay, Netflix, Ultima Online, Lumosity, MetroGirl, family.com and there.com. Amy Jo is adjunct professor of Game Design at USC's Digital Media school, recently named top US-based game design school. She's also the author of Community Building on the Web (2000), a design handbook for digital communities that’s used worldwide at game studios & universities.[Email Amy]

Games are infiltrating every aspect of daily life - and everyone's now a gamer, in one form or another. Early-on “gamification” involved adding simple game mechanics like points, badges and leaderboards to websites and apps. But that's not what makes games truly compelling. Good games take players on a journey, giving them something to learn, master and share. Gamification 2.0 is about creating game-like digital services that shape real-world behavior and deliver deep value to players, -- using a blend of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. In this talk, we’ll do a teardown of the biggest and most influential social gaming services, and distill those lessons into these Seven Core Concepts for Smart Gamification.

1. Know who’s playing – design for their social style

2. Build Positive Emotions (PERMA) into your core activity loop

3. Build a system that’s easy to learn and hard to master

4. Design for Onboarding (Tutorial), Habit-Building (Grind), and Mastery (Elder Game)

5. Use Progress Mechanics to “light the way” towards learning and mastery

6. As players progress, unlock greater challenges and complexity

7. Deliver intrinsic motivations like Power, Autonomy and Belonging

How Gaming Transforms the Workplace

Ross SMITH, Director of Test,
Microsoft

Ross Smith has been in the software industry for over 20 years, developing and testing software on everything from mainframe systems to handheld devices and PC's. He began his Microsoft career in Product Support in 1991 and has been a Test Lead, Test Manager, and Test Architect. He has been a long-time member of the Test Architect's Group, and has worked on almost every version of Windows and Office since 1995. He is one of the authors of “The Practical Guide to Defect Prevention” and holds 5 software patents. Over the last couple years, he has nurtured a management innovation initiative called 42projects, aspiring to inject cultural change and “bring buzz to the hallways”. He leads the Advisory Council for the Incubation Technical Community Network (TCN). His weekly iNews (Innovation News) and Management iNews – newsletters go out to 3500 Microsoft employees every week. In 2010, he co-authored two top Think Week papers. [Email Ross]

With widespread access to broadband, social networks and multiple connected devices and tools on a daily basis, people are increasingly engaging in a fully connected and often gaming-centered digital world. This digitally-savvy population is also entering the workforce in larger numbers than ever -- inciting vast changes in the workplace and re-defining our very understanding of how work “works”. Gaming and applied game elements, in particular, can make a dramatic impact on the quality of productivity, management, and even team-work itself. Whether you’re talking about making key personnel decisions, motivating employees, setting objectives or facilitating collaboration – these new ways of working will continue to shape the 21st century. Join Microsoft’s Ross Smith as he describes his experience and vision around how “productivity games” can help shape our working lives.

Nurturing a Robust Social Games Ecosystem

Sean RYAN,
Director, Games Partnerships,
Facebook

Sean Ryan manages the Games Partnerships team for Facebook. Prior to FB, Ryan was EVP/GM, Games at News Corp, having been recruited to start up the digital games division. Before News Corp, Ryan was a consultant in digital goods and social media monetization, including serving as Global CEO of Live Journal, a top Russian social platform. He previously was the founder and CEO of Meez, a leading, teenage-oriented virtual world service. Ryan previously served as vice president of music services at RealNetworks, where he managed the music division after selling Listen.com to Real in August 2003. As CEO of Listen.com, Ryan helped lead the development and roll-out of the award-winning Rhapsody subscription music service. Prior to joining Listen.com, he ran business development for online game company SegaSoft Networks, spent several years at the GAP helping launch the successful Old Navy clothing line, and worked at Chemical Bank. Ryan holds an MBA from UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management and a BA from Columbia University, and has also co-founded companies in the virtual goods platform, prepaid card and online karaoke sectors. [Email Sean]

A high level look at what it takes to create a healthy and thriving ecosystem for social games. It might compare and contrast early gaming experiences on MySpace with 1G Facebook games, to the Scamville days, to today's situation (good and bad), and then looking towards the future with a call to action for devs to help get us there.

12:30

Lunch Break

1:30

Monetizing Your Game Soundtracks

Greg RAHN, Owner,
Soundmindz
David WEINER, Founder,
Atomicon
Aaron WALZ, Co-Founder and Partner,
Game Audio Alliance
Brian CHO, Director of Business Development & Marketing,
Booyah

Greg Rahn is an award-winning composer and sound designer who has been creating sound and music for TV, video games, social games, and mobile phones for over 16 years. His work can be heard on over 170 game titles for clients including Zynga, Playdom, PopCap, EA, Hasbro, Disney, Ubisoft and many others. He specializes in creating immersive soundscapes that are cohesive and highly entertaining for the end user.[Email Greg]

A self-taught musician, David Weiner has played in a diverse range of bands for over 20 years. Transitioning to scoring in 1999, he founded Atomicon, and has since provided music for clients such as Nike, Toyota, Delta Airlines, Intuit, Sesame Street, and Technicolor Digital, has scored and sound-designed over two dozen games for the iPhone, and released two game soundtrack albums. He currently plays bass in alt-country band The New Independents, and writes beats for “nerdcore” artist Schaffer the Darklord. [Email David]

Brian Cho is The Head of Business Development & Marketing for Booyah!, creators of location based mobile games MyTown & DJ Rivals as well as Nightclub City on Facebook.rior to joining Booyah!, Cho spearheaded digital business & corporate development for Ubisoft Entertainment, working closely with the NCSA President and Head of M&A to help define Ubi’s digital strategy. Cho began his career at Deloitte Consulting, where he established strategy and operations knowledge, engaging with entertainment clients ranging from EA to Vivendi Universal.[Email Brian]

Game audio does not have to just function inside a game. These presenters will share how they have monetized game audio through physical and digital channels, and thereby also further branded games.

Gamification and SocialTV: The New Way to Watch

Jesse REDNISS, Vice President,
Digital USA Network

Jesse Redniss is the Vice President, Digital for USA Network overseeing all digital strategies, deployments and growth for the various USA Network properties. Since joining the company in April of 2005, Redniss has been at the forefront of the digital restructuring and growth of the usanetwork.com business. He has been instrumental in shifting the company’s online properties from merely entertainment sites to revenue generating destinations and further driving the concept of socialized TV and two screen experiences. Additionally, Redniss has been a key player in selling through integrated multimedia packages to major fortune 500 clients such as Ford, Hyundai, GM, SC Johnson & Company. [Email Jesse]

Showcasing how TV brands are evolving the viewing experience, integrating in Gamification tactics into their SocialTV viewing platforms to bring the users engagement and overall experience to a whole new level of Active Participation with their favorite shows.

Watching Market: Gamification

Wanda MELONI, Founder, Senior Analyst, M2 Research

The founder and president of M2 Research, Wanda Meloni is an industry analyst and market strategist. Wanda has a deep understanding of emerging trends in interactive entertainment, games, and social media. She has been tracking entertainment, development tools, 3D and graphics technologies, and emerging markets and trends for over 15 years.

Wanda publishes articles and reports that on the market dynamics affecting development and consumer trends. In addition to her published works, she consults with many of the top companies in the industry, providing custom analysis, investment strategies, strategic positioning and competitive analysis. Prior to starting M2 Research, Wanda was president at DFC Intelligence, working with interactive game clients and custom projects. Early in her career Wanda was a senior analyst at Jon Peddie Research tracking 3D gaming, animation, virtual worlds, 3D web applications, CAD, visual simulation, and enterprise graphics solutions.

Ms. Meloni holds an MBA in International Business and speaks several languages. She is a frequent contributor for some of the industry’s top publications and speaks at various trade events. Wanda has been quoted in numerous publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today, Fortune, London Times, New York Times, SF Chronicle and LA Times. [Email Wanda]

Although still very much in its infancy, Gamification is a component of the industry. Whether people like it or not, it will not be going away. Companies outside of the entertainment business have seen the success of social networks and are planning on increasing their social media market spending in 2011 to take advantage of this new method to reach consumers. In some cases, companies are decreasing their TV advertising budgets to put more money into social media engagement. It’s a directed spending of their money pointed directly at the games industry.

Back in the mid-’90s the cutting edge of online consumer engagement was confined to being able to rotate a Nokia phone, take off the back and look inside directly in a web browser rather than driving into the store. Technology has come a long way, and the notion of engagement has leapfrogged those early days in ways we could have never imagined. Gamification, or any form of game mechanics, if properly implemented is a powerful method of customer engagement.

Hype vs. Real Deal

Julian FARRIOR, CEO,
Backflip Studios
Charles HUDSON, CEO,
Bionic Panda
Daniel BERNSTEIN, CEO,
Sandlot Games
Anil DHARNI, CEO,
Funzio
Lisa MARINO, CEO,
RockYou
discussion led by Joel BRODIE, Founder,
Gamezebo

Julian Farrior is the founder and CEO of Backflip Studios, a mobile game company focused on bringing innovative and thoughtful titles to an expanding group of casual gamers. Backflip has had numerous top ranked apps and seen over 125,000,000 downloads since the company started development in 2009. Their games, which include popular titles such as Paper Toss, Ragdoll Blaster, Shape Shift, Strike Knight and NinJump, are played by more than 3,000,000 users a day and more than 25,000,000 users a month. Prior to Backflip, Julian served as an angel investor and VP of BD/Operations at Earthscape, a company that also had early success in the app store. Previously, Julian spent seven years at Yahoo! in various management roles the most recent of which included heading up emerging markets search. He is a lifelong video and board gamer (in addition to an obsessive pinball nut) who hopes to see Ultima III soon delivered to the iPad. Julian received his undergraduate education at Colgate University and graduate education at Northwestern University. [Email Julian]

Charles Hudson is a Venture Partner with SoftTech VC and the CEO and Co-Founder of Bionic Panda Games, a mobile games company based in San Francisco, CA.

Until February 2010, he was the VP of Business Development for Serious Business, a leading producer of social games.

Zynga acquired Serious Business in February of 2010. Prior to Serious Business, Hudson worked at Gaia Interactive, Google, IronPort Systems, and In-Q-Tel. Hudson also founded Third Power LLC, a conference and events company that was acquired by WebMediaBrands (NASDAQ:WEBM). Charles holds an MBA and BA from Stanford University. [Email Charles]

Daniel Bernstein established Sandlot Games and has served as founder & CEO since its inception in 2002 as a premier developer and publisher of casual and family-friendly games across a variety of platforms. Daniel is a veteran of the gaming industry and has over fourteen years of content strategy, game development, publishing and production-related experience having successfully launched over 20 game titles with Kesmai Studios, Monolith Productions and WildTangent. Prior to starting Sandlot Games, Daniel held the position of director of product strategy at WildTangent, where he devised and executed a successful online fee-based games business. An accomplished composer, Daniel also writes music for most of the games developed and published by Sandlot Games. Daniel holds a BS in Computer Science and an MA in Music Composition from the University of Virginia. [Email Daniel]

Anil Dharni is the Co-Founder, President and COO of Funzio. His responsibilities include business development, marketing and finance. Prior to Funzio, he was Co-Founder of Storm8 where he oversaw Storm8's business operations. Before Storm8, he was the VP of Products and UED at hi5 Networks where he drove the product roadmap and key product initiatives. He has served in product management roles at Yahoo! and held consulting and engineering roles at Wipro, Ariba and Engineering Animation. He holds a BE in aeronautical engineering from Punjab University and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. [Email Anil]

Lisa Marino is RockYou newly appointed Chief Executive Officer. Prior to this role she served as RockYou's COO, overseeing all business functions and leading all brand and ad sales initiatives for the company. Lisa also held the position of Vice President of sales where she created and led a team which generated more than $6 million during its first year. Before joining the RockYou executive team, Lisa was the National Sales Manager for eBay Motors, calling on major automotive original equipment manufacturers as well as their franchise dealers. Lisa co-founded Cima Systems, a leading provider of automatic customer-interaction technology to the automotive industry. She began her career in Silicon Valley as a technology mergers and acquisitions investment banker for Montgomery Securities. Lisa is a thought leader in social media marketing and has spoken at leading conferences and events including, OMMA, iMedia Summits, CES and Digital Hollywood. She holds a Masters in Business Administration from Stanford University's School of Business and a Bachelor's degree in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. [Email Lisa]

Joel Brodie is the founder of Gamezebo, a leading editorial and discovery site for casual (and not-so-casual) games on the PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Facebook, and Android. Gamezebo attracts millions of gamers monthly who come to Gamezebo to read reviews, get tips, discover new games, and find the best game deals across the most popular platforms. Previously, Joel was head of business development for Yahoo! Games, where he was responsible for building numerous products, including Yahoo! Games Downloads, Games on Demand, and Video Games. Joel graduated from the University of Maryland with degrees in economics and political science. [Email Joel]

The future is rushing at us faster than ever. PC Games move back into the browser as Facebook keeps growing, Android & iPhone blasts the smartphone market wide-open, iPad surprises everyone by being desired & useful, radical new user input devices get everyone off the couch, normal people are spending millions on “virtual goods”, “Gamification” gains global recognition, and internet connected televisions are here in high-def and 3D! So…which of these things are meaningful to the casual game business? Our panel of experts pull out their crystal balls to predict how existing and emerging trends will impact our business in 2011 and beyond.

2:30

ASCAP: Licensing, Royalties and the Game Audio Industry

Shawn LeMONE, VP and GM, Film & Television / New Media Department in ASCAP’s Membership Group

Shawn LeMone is Vice President and General Manager of the Film & Television / New Media Department in ASCAP’s Membership Group. Shawn advocates on behalf of film, television and video game composers and resolves high level crediting and distribution issues. His Department is responsible for servicing ASCAP’s composer members and maintaining a strong market share across all audio-visual mediums. [Email Shawn]

Learn how licensing music works, how composers and publishers collect royalties, and what else ASCAP does, how it relates to the game industry, and then ask all your questions your heart desires.

Understanding Music Law as a Game Developer: Basics of Musical Intellectual Property

Mona IBRAHIM, Principal Attorney,
Law Offices of Mona A. Ibrahim

Mona Ibrahim is an Entertainment lawyer in Seattle, WA. She is the principal attorney of the Law Offices of Mona A. Ibrahim, where her practice emphasizes video game, music, trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair competition, name and likeness, general entertainment and employment law. Mona has worked with prominent players in the entertainment industry including Lionsgate Films and The Firm, a talent management company in Los Angeles. While in LA she was a frequent guest lecturer at the Musicians’ Institute in Hollywood, CA. She received her J.D. from West Virginia University College of Law and her LL.M. in Entertainment and Media Law from Southwestern College of Law in Los Angeles, CA. She received a B.A. in Sociology and Social Psychology from Marlboro College in Marlboro, Vermont, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. [Email Mona]

A breakdown of music copyright and trademark law as it relates to music, sounds, recognizable jingles, and more. Focuses on the basic IP principles, and ends with a brief discussion on licensing and other agreements and how the system works (including voice acting and guild relations) in game audio.

Emerging Trends in Gaming

Tim CHANG, Partner,
Norwest Venture Partners

Tim brings a combination of operational, technical and international business experience to Norwest Venture Partners. Tim focuses on investments in mobile, gaming, digital media, and also leads NVP's investment practice in China and Asia-Pacific. Tim led NVP's investments in and joined the boards of directors of ngmoco, Lumos Labs, Brite Semiconductor and 3jam. He also spearheaded NVP's investment in Playdom, a leader in social gaming, and PCH International, a turnkey global supply chain services firm based in Shenzhen. Tim is a board observer working closely with Borqs, deCarta, Double Fusion and Veveo.[Email Tim]

As gaming continues to grow in popularity and market share - reaching into more and more sectors and industries in new and surprising ways - significant trends are emerging. Come hear Norwest Venture’s Tim Chang share his keen insights on what’s hot and what’s not in the exciting world of gaming. What does it take to stay ahead of the curve and stand-out in the competitive crowd? Which emerging trends show promise for sustainable long-term growth? Which trends in gaming are more of a fad? Who are the emerging leaders and how will they shape the future of gaming? Where will the future take us as an industry? Remember, today’s niche market just may become tomorrow’s multi-billion dollar business.

The Biggest Market You’re Missing Today: Casual Games for Children

Susan MORROW, VP Content,
LeapFrog

Susan Morrow plays with games, books and toys for a living as the VP Content at LeapFrog, an education innovator and leading developer of educational entertainment for children. In her role at LeapFrog, Susan manages talented teams building interactive media to charter the company’s future toward a profitable content portfolio across media and devices. Prior to LeapFrog, Susan was VP of Product at Blurb where she spearheaded product strategy in online and physical goods for the game-changing self-publishing startup. Previously she held various executive roles at Macromedia and Adobe, including business unit management, product innovation and pricing strategy for multimedia developer tools Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks and many others. Passionate about the intersections of technology and social change, Susan has an MBA from Stanford, a BA from Bryn Mawr, and a notable history as a political activist.[Email Susan]

3:30

Audio & Game Developers in Perfect Harmony: Best Practices Roundtable

Barry DOWSETT, Co-founder,
Soundrangers

Barry Dowsett, co-founder of Soundrangers, is an original pioneer in the online delivery of production sound effects and music built for video games and interactive media. He actively creates and maintains an online library of downloadable sound effects and music optimized and licensable for game development, available at www.soundrangers.com. As a veteran of the video game industry, Barry actively provides original music, sound design, voice-over and integration services for many console and casual games, with recent titles completed for THQ/Dreamworks, iWin, Activision, Google, Koko Digital, Lolapps, Eidos, Electronic Arts, and Microsoft Game Studios.[Email Barry]

Communication is key – and can lead to a better game, a great partnership, or a strained relationship if it does not go smoothly. This session will cover and discuss the various ways in which audio developers and game developers should work in perfect harmony to create a great relationship and a better product.

Name That (Game) Tune (Game show with audience participation and prizes)

Aaron WALZ, Co-founder and Partner, Game Audio Alliance

Win fabulous prizes! All you have to do is “Name that (Game) Tune!” Participants and audience members will have a great time guessing and remembering some great game tunes through history during this unique game show.

Career Networking Levels Up: A BranchOut Case Study

Rick MARINI, Founder & CEO,
BranchOut

Rick Marini is a serial entrepreneur and social media pioneer with over a decade of experience leading consumer Internet companies. Rick is the Founder & CEO of BranchOut, the largest professional networking service on Facebook. BranchOut allows users to create professional profiles, find jobs, source leads for sales or recruiting, and build a powerful network of professional connections.

Previously, Rick was the Founder & CEO of SuperFan, a profitable social entertainment site that produced social games and Facebook apps for clients such as CBS, MTV, Sony, and Universal Music.

Prior to SuperFan, Rick co-founded Tickle.com. Under his leadership as the CFO and Chief Strategists, Tickle had close to $40 million of annual revenue and 200 million registered users. In 2004, Tickle was acquired by Monster Worldwide for over $100 million.

Rick earned an MBA from Harvard University. He currently advises a number of companies in Silicon Valley. [Email Rick]

While social gaming companies like Zynga, Disney Playdom and Crowdstar are building huge entertainment franchises whose vast numbers of players rival the size of small countries, services like BranchOut demonstrate that Facebook is also a viable platform for business. More than just a job hunting or professional networking tool, BranchOut actively utilizes tactics, techniques and strategies found in gaming, particularly social games, in this decidedly non-gaming context. Hear BranchOut CEO Rick Marini talk about their approach to leveraging the social graph and conventions found in gaming to make a fun, engaging and incredibly useful professional networking service.

Gamification For Everyone: What’s Your Strategy?

Keith SMITH, Co-founder & CEO
BigDoor

Keith Smith, BigDoor co-founder and CEO has been working on gamification well before the term was invented. An avid game fan, at the age of six he sold magazine subscriptions in an effort to buy the original Atari Pong console. Keith wore out five Atari consoles and used his love of games to work his way through college as a game play counselor at Nintendo. Gamification again had a place later when Keith was founder and CEO of Zango; a startup he grew to a multi-national company employing 300 people, with $78 million in annual revenue and $24 million in EBITDA. While at Zango, Keith spent two years building a game-based loyalty program and discovered his passion for gamification. Wanting to focus on game mechanics and gamification, Keith co-founded BigDoor with Jeff Malek in 2009. [Email Keith]

In this session, you’ll learn why gamification is the answer to moving the needle in four categories that are important to digital publishers: Frequency, Engagement, Virality and Revenue. These four categories represent the BigDoor framework and our approach to gamification. The way we see it, these four categories operate like the wheels on a car---they all have to be working to make the car go.

Casual Games on Mobile – Prosperous or Profitless?

Paul THELEN,
Founder, Chairman & CSO,
Big Fish Games

Paul Thelen, Big Fish Games’ Founder, Chairman and CSO, has an MBA from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington. Big Fish Games develops, publishes and distributes the industry’s leading games and BigFishGames.com is the world’s largest game distribution portal, delivering more than 1 million downloads daily. Prior to founding Big Fish Games, Paul wrote the business plan that launched RealArcade, the casual games industry’s first large scale distribution service. [Email Paul]

With an over 250 million Smartphones, more than 25 million tablets, the mobile opportunity is setting the stage to surpass that of all other gaming platforms with casual games as the “killer app”. However sending your games down this golden path to prosperity is more perilous than a Sunday drive down Route Irish in Iraq. With over 1 million other Smartphone and tablet Apps to compete with, continued store fragmentation and increasingly scarce featuring, launching a game into this ecosystem can bring new meaning to the phrase “And the silence was deafening”.

Join Paul Thelen, Founder of Big Fish Games, as he illustrates how developers can make the mobile dream a reality with your casual content.

4:30

What It Takes to Create and Manage Entertainment

LeVar BURTON
Dialogue led by Robert TERCEK, President, General Creativity

LeVar Burton is an American actor, director, producer and author who first came to prominence portraying Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley. He is also well known for his portrayal of Geordi La Forge on the syndicated science fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation and as the host of the PBS children's program Reading Rainbow. [Email LeVar]

During the past 20 years, gaming has grown and evolved from a niche business to a monster media industry. Hundreds of millions of people of all ages now play games. It is truly a mainstream activity. Drawing on LeVar’s broad experience in all sorts of media, we will explore the impact of games, how games have caused TV and film to evolve and change and how it has affected the audience and changed their expectations about entertainment.

Playboy Makes Its Move: Applied Game Mechanics in Miss Social 2011

Molly KITTLE,
Director of Creative Strategies,
Bunchball

Molly Kittle is the Director of Creative Strategy & Insights at Bunchball. In her role there, she manages gamification programs for Bunchball customers including NBC, Warner Bros., MySpace, Hasbro, UBM, Comcast, and ABC. Molly's team is responsible for the design, implementation, and ongoing success of gamification programs that touch more than 100 million users every month. Prior to Bunchball, Molly held roles in Sales, Customer Advocacy and PR at Macrovision and ZeroG Software. Molly has a BFA in Experimental Theatre from NYU, and isn't afraid to use it.[Email Molly]

With their print audience trending older, in 2010 Playboy embarked on a mission to engage with a younger audience through social media. The Miss Social application on Facebook enabled young women who aspired to be Playboy models to enter into a monthly competition, with the grand prize being a Playboy.com photo shoot. Contestants advanced in the competition by “marshaling their troops” – their friends, family, and fans - to vote for them, with votes being earned by installing the Miss Social application, returning every day, completing various challenges and directly purchasing them. Molly Kittle, Director of Creative Strategies at Bunchball, will describe how the Miss Social application was conceived, developed, and iterated upon, as well as the results that Playboy achieved.

Triple Door Lectures - From 2011

July 21:
App Stores & Download

Emcee: Juan GRIL, Director & Founder, Joju Games

Digital downloads have re-invigorated the Console and PC gaming industry, by bringing to the market really creative games which would have been considered too risky to put on retail. The market for core-casual games (games appealing to hardcore gamers but smaller in scope) is growing year over year and becoming an imporant part in the industry's business.

July 20:
Mobile Trends

Emcee: Michael BRESLIN, VP Marketing, Glu Mobile

The land of opportunity…the mobile gaming world is blossoming. Smartphone gaming is hot and tablet gaming may be even hotter. Our mobile sessions will sort it all out with an impressive group of industry professionals discussing the trends, the challenges and how to get your game in the hands of millions!

July 19:
Social Mobile Games

Emcee: David NIXON, President & Founding Partner, Creara USA, Inc.

Ever since the iPhone turned the mobile market upside down in 2008, the internet has moving from the desktop to the palm of your hand. In the last year, social games have started following that trend. Social mobile games combine the best, most distinctive traits of social games with the ultra-short session, always-on traits of mobile games are they are the hottest new trend in gaming. Come to the social-mobile track to hear from many of the leading practitioners of this new art and see the future!

9:30

DeathSpank - The Evolution Of An Independent Gaming IP

Mike INGLEHART, Producer,
Hothead Games

Mike Inglehart is a producer at Hothead Games where he leads the overall vision and production for the latest DeathSpank game, "The Baconing", plus other games currently in development. He was previously a game director at Next Level Games, successfully directing the Mario Strikers series and the modern update of Punch Out!! for the Nintendo Wii. An 11 year veteran of the games industry, he has also enjoyed tenures at Radical Entertainment and Electronic Arts Canada. [Email Mike]

The much loved and award winning DeathSpank has evolved and finally come of age. From the original character's first inception as a flash cartoon on the Grumpy Gamer blog, to the game's inevitable publisher-led birth rights on console and PC download services, DeathSpank has arguably lived up to its original pitch of "Monkey Island meets Diablo". Hothead Games now find themselves in control of a "successful" gaming IP and access to a loyal fan base that demand more of the same. As an independent studio, what would you do?

A Bird In The Hand: How to Make Your IP Work for You

Peter VESTERBACKA, The Mighty Eagle, Rovio Mobile

Peter helms the North American operations of Rovio, creators of Angry Birds, an iPhone game which has surpassed 50 million downloads since it's release in December 2009. Peter also manages the companies marketing and business strategy, including expanding the Angry Birds franchise into a broader entertainment franchise. [Email Peter]

In a hit-driven, mass-market entertainment medium like casual games, creating a brand that can be leveraged and extended in a variety of ways helps insure your brand’s value in the future. Building a hit game is a critical (and really difficult) part of this equation, but it is only the beginning. Long-term brand value is a volatile mix of appeal, recognizability, promotional reach, sharability, and popularity. Of course, if this was easy, then everyone would do it. Come listen to Peter Vesterbacka talk about the "Angry Birds" phenomenon and how Rovio plans to leverage the “Angry Birds” brand in a long-term play.

10:30

Offices Vs Pajamas: Making Pro Zombie Soccer From Home

Ricardo CARRETERO, Game Designer, Super Mega Team

Ricardo used to be a crappy 3D artist, then he evolved into a good game designer. After working as a game designer for companies such as EA Mobile or Gameloft, he decided to combine his creativity and craziness with fellow game industry veterans to create the company behind Pro Zombie Soccer. Each member of Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team lives and works in a different corner of the world. [Email Ricardo]

An office is no longer necessary to produce high quality titles. Affordable development costs on the iOS platforms and a ubiquitous connected world allows a team to fully interact even while at distant places of the globe. What are the real advantages and disadvantages of working from home? During this session, "Richy" will talk about the design and production process that lead to the creation of our first title as a company. As videogame entrepreneurs, they just needed lots of emails, voice chat, a good FTP server and, most importantly, passion and enjoyment for our work.

All or Nothing: Transitioning from Work for Hire to Original IP

Shainiel DEO, CEO,
Halfbrick

Shainiel is the only original Halfbrick founder still standing. He didn’t kill the others, merely proved his superior skills with a disco throwdown. When he isn’t jet-setting around the world speaking with other executives of the video game world and making Halfbrick the way it is today, he can be found playing Fight Night or fishing in the mud with no shoes. He’s just that kind of stand-up guy.[Email Shainiel]

During the lifecycle of every developer there is a moment when they have to choose between working for hire and working for themselves. Shainiel Deo from Halfbrick will share his company’s experience and provide insights on how to avoid common pitfalls on the road of becoming independent.

Social Games for Smartphones; The Challenges and the Opportunities

Hong-Yee WONG,
CEO,
IUGO Mobile Entertainment

Hong-Yee is the founding CEO of IUGO Mobile Entertainment. He has been passionate about mobile games since 2003, and directed the independent studio to blast out original hits like the Toy Bot Diaries series, Zombie Attack, Star Hogs, Cliffed!, and Implode! on iOS and other platforms. With excellence in creativity, technology, and quality, IUGO entered the social space by launching Lil’ Pirates (published by Capcom) and Sunshine Cruise Lines. Hong-Yee executed strategies that led the studio from a young technology startup (during the not-so-smart-phone era) to a reputable smartphone developer and publisher. In his previous life, Hong-Yee was a scientist, leading research in 3D graphics and immersive visualization. He received his PhD from the University of Western Ontario. [Email Hong-Yee]

In this talk Hong-Yee will begin in mid 2010 when IUGO decided to jump on the path of developing social games for Smartphones. Hear about the independent studio's early success with its partnership on Lil' Pirates with Capcom, the aggressive move to pump out several social titles for 2011, the proprietary tech behind it and why designing, developing and deploying social games for mobile is a whole new frontier. Hong-Yee will speak to the notion that there is indeed room for the indie dev while the big players such as Zynga, EA and others are muscling into the latest and greatest space for social games.

What Is Social Mobile

Jennifer LU,
Director of Business Development,
TinyCo

Jennifer leads business development and marketing for TinyCo, a San Francisco-based mobile gaming company whose 5 top grossing iOS titles include Tiny Zoo, Tiny Chef and Tap Resort. Jennifer also heads the TinyFund-- a $5 million fund for iOS and Android developers in need of financial, marketing or distribution support.

Prior to TinyCo, Jennifer managed Developer Relations at OpenFeint, the largest mobile social gaming network for iOS and Android. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S. in Bioengineering, but secretly wishes she spent that time creating a bird/fruit/zombie game. [Email Jennifer]

The Social Mobile game is a new beast, having arrived in the market just in the last year. In this lecture from leading developer TinyCo, you will learn the basics of social-mobile gaming—both what traits it shares with traditional smartphone and Facebook games and how it is different from both.

The Social Mobile Market

Tim MEREL, Managing Director,
Digi-Capital
Andrew CHAN, Senior Product Manager,
Playfish
Jennifer LU,
Director of Business Development,
TinyCo
Matthew TUBERGEN, Product Manager,
Recharge Studios

Tim Merel is Managing Director of Digi-Capital (www.digi-capital.com), the games investment bank focused on Europe, North America and Asia (China, Japan and South Korea). As well as its investment banking and venture partner work, Digi-Capital publishes its 2011 Global Video Games Investment Review http://slidesha.re/dJwTaX, which focuses on the rise of online/mobile games, China and investment across sectors. [Email Tim]

Andrew Chan leads product management for Playfish studios developing free-to-play games on mobile platforms. Previously, he worked on the development of bringing EA Sports brands to the Facebook platform. Before entering the gaming industry, he worked in corporate development at Electronic Arts and investment banking at Credit Suisse. Andrew holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. [Email Andrew]

Matt Tubergen is a mobile content expert with a decade of experience working with brands that include Disney, NFL and LucasArts. Matt heads up W3i’s wholly owned freemium mobile games publishing arm and investment fund, Recharge Studios. [Email Matt]

A year ago, almost every mobile developer was working on games that were sold like traditional mobile games—a single purchase for $0.99-$9.99. Over the last 12 months, the market has seen the rise of microtransaction-oriented social-mobile games. By May 2011, 7 of the top 10 grossing games on the iPhone were social mobile. In this lecture, you will learn about where social and mobile meet, including the market and investment dynamics that are getting investors, developers and customers excited about this high growth market.

11:30

Old Dog, New Tricks: The Making of Snoopy Flying Ace

Clark STACEY,
EVP, Strategy & Business Development,
Smart Bomb Interactive

Clark Stacey is the Executive Vice President of Smart Bomb Interactive, a videogame development studio based in Salt Lake City, Utah. In October 2010, his company launched National Geographic Animal Jam, the online virtual world for kids who love animals and the natural world. In 2011, Smart Bomb is launching Sky Legends, a radical browser-based flight combat MMO.

Clark was pursuing an academic career in obscure branches of the humanities when his passion for blowing things up drew him to videogames in 1995. He began his career in interactive entertainment with Beyond Games, where he oversaw the design and development of successful titles across a variety of platforms -- all of which centered around blowing things up.

Before co-founding Smart Bomb in 2003, Clark was the President and CEO of Cobalt Interactive, a pioneering studio in interactive marketing and advergaming whose clients included St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Quaker Oats.

At Smart Bomb, Clark is responsible for executive production, business development, and licensing for all of the company’s games. [Email Clark]

Last summer, reviewers and Xbox 360 gamers were both pleasantly surprised when Snoopy Flying Ace was released on Xbox LIVE Arcade. Numerous Editors Choice awards and appearances on many reviewers' lists of 2010's best XBLA games have helped sustain an active player community a year after release, but is that enough for it to be profitable? Clark Stacey from Smart Bomb interactive will discuss the unique licensing, development, and marketing challenges of Snoopy Flying Ace; including first-year sales of the game and lessons learned on publishing digitally in the console space.

All Your Game Needs Are Pirates & Ninjas

Shainiel DEO, CEO,
Halfbrick

Join the CEO of Halfbrick Studios, Shainiel Deo, as he reflects on challenges and inspirations of creating the action platformer game Raskulls.

Dash to the Top: Building The Most Successful Premium Casual Gaming Franchise in the App Store

Chris WILLIAMS, VP & GM, Mobile,
PlayFirst

Chris Williams, vice president and general manager, mobile at PlayFirst, has spent more than 12 years dedicated to the interactive entertainment industry. Previously, Chris was with LucasArts Entertainment, where he rose through the ranks to eventually lead the development team on Star Wars: Republic Commando and be the Producer of Star Wars: Empire at War. As the Project Lead for Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, Chris was a member of the executive team and managed an internal development team of over 140 people. Since joining PlayFirst, Chris has grown the iPhone business by launching such hit titles as Cooking Dash, Diner Dash, Diner Dash: Grilling Green, and Wedding Dash to the top of the charts and establishing Dash as one of the most successful gaming franchises in the App Store.[Email Chris]

In this talk, Chris Williams, VP and general manager of mobile at PlayFirst, will reveal the secrets that have propelled PlayFirst into one of the leading mobile game publishers with over 12 million iOS downloads of its Dash franchise games, and more recently, launching new hit games such as Egg vs. Chicken. This presentation will explore the “why” behind PlayFirst’s startling track record of launching each of its mobile games into the Top 20 and maintaining an ongoing Top 200 status for many of them. Williams will share insights from PlayFirst’s current acquisition, retention, and monetization strategies for both premium and freemium products as well as discuss general trends and emerging platform opportunities. This talk is a ‘must see’ for any publisher looking for success in the highly competitive mobile gaming market.

What Makes a Game a Hit or a Miss: Lessons from Slice It!

Lydia HEITMAN, PR Manager,
Com2us USA

Lydia Heitman is a USC SCA graduate who played video games since she could press the buttons and worked in the industry as soon as she could work, with a concentration on the mobile games space. She has worked as a consultant and as a PR manager for 5 years with great mobile and platform games companies, most recently with leading Korean games developer Com2uS. [Email Lydia]

Com2us will bring a great case study on their most successful games, which analyze data from multiple platforms including both iOS and Android. Market comparisons between the iTunes AppStore and Google Android Market will include IAP(In App Purchase) performance and will give great insight to developers who want, like Com2uS, to be successful in both mobile markets. The data covers casual games and will take into account the international game markets.

Case Studies: Winning in Social Mobile

Tom HUBINA, VP Community,
Z2Live Games
Thomas CHUNG, VP & GM,
The Playforge

Tom has been actively evolving the mobile gaming experience for over a decade. Having designed and developed games around major brands for THQ Wireless, HandsOn Mobile, Superscape and Disney Interactive, Tom has consistently worked towards promoting the social experience as a central part of the game mechanic.

Recognizing that, increasingly, players are the content and interaction is the game, Tom founded Amplified Games in 2003 and set out to build games that promoted more connection between players. Later, with the introduction of Apple’s iPhone, he was the first to bring a full social gaming community to mobile. [Email Tom]

Thomas Chung is the VP, General Manager for The Playforge, creators of Zombie Farm, an iPhone game which has surpassed 13 Million downloads since its release in February 2010. Thomas manages the company’s analytics, marketing and business strategy teams. He worked previously at Digital Chocolate as the Director of Partnerships, which he grew into through roles in their Product Management, Mobile Operations and Engineering teams. [Email Thomas]

Two developers of top grossing iPhone games will give you a deep dive on their products. Learn how the games got started, how they have grown, what key post-launch features have propelled the games to the top of the charts, and what surprises popped up along the way. Z2Live, publisher of Trade Nations, and The Playforge, the creator of Zombie Farm, take you far beyond theory and deep into the practical aspects of building, growing and running winning social mobile games.

12:30

Creating Addictive Gameplay in They Need To Be Fed

Jesse VENBRUX, Game Designer,
Q-Games

Jesse Venbrux turned his hobby of developing computer games into his job. He didn't just stay in the Netherlands, where he was born in the year 1987, but thought it would be more interesting to go to Japan. Before getting there however, Jesse studied Game Design & Development at the Utrecht School of the Arts. As part of this course he did an internship at Q-Games in Japan, and also a student exchange with Kyoto Seika University in the same city, where he had the opportunity to follow a digital arts course, develop an iPhone game, and learn Japanese.

After graduating the Utrecht School of the Arts he briefly joined YoYo Games in Scotland and developed “Karoshi” and “They Need To Be Fed” for mobile phones. Since the start of 2011 he is back at Q-Games, Japan where he is working as a game designer.[Email Jesse]

“They Need To Be Fed” (literally) revolves around a 360° gravity mechanic which gives you the ability to walk upside down and never fall off. The puzzle-y platformer game has your head twisted while you jump from object to object making use of their gravitational pull. “They Need To Be Fed” is available on iOS and Android devices. The session speaks about the challenges that were faced in designing an original concept with a traditional design approach for a touch screen based handheld. How do you make a seemingly complex platformer game work on a mobile phone? It will go in depth about its level design, game mechanics, feel, as well as the actual design process. You will get a sneak peek into the mind of an up and coming young game designer.

How to Create and Market Big Brands for Mobile

Vivian LEE, Director of Strategic Marketing & Partnerships,
EA Interactive

Vivian Lee oversees marketing across EA’s mobile channels/platforms (app stores, carriers, OEMs). She has launched successful integrated marketing programs across EA’s product portfolio. With over 11 years of consumer marketing experience, she’s held marketing positions at Vivendi Games, Sony, and Digitas (integrated brand agency). Vivian has a BA in English Literature and Government from Dartmouth College and an MBA from USC. [Email Vivian]

Creating a successful brand from your game not only extends its lifecycle, but also grows your audience and boosts its profit. The question is: what do successful brands do differently? During this insightful lecture, EA Mobile will share their experience of creating and marketing such famous mobile brands as Bejeweled, Tetris, Scrabble and many others.

Facebook's Approach to Mobile Social

Gareth DAVIS, Platform Manager, Facebook

Gareth Davis is a Platform Manager at Facebook, where he oversees games for Facebook Platform. Prior to Facebook, Gareth spent many years in the game industry, producing titles for game publishers including Sega and Electronic Arts. He also led software development at Pixar Animation Stuiods for five years, working on the award winning and commercial blockbuster films, The Incredibles, Cars and Ratatouille. He holds a Bachelors degree in Artificial Intelligence and lives in the North Beach district of San Francisco. [Email Gareth]

Facebook's mobile products are used by over 250 million users every month. Gareth Davis, Platform Manager at Facebook, shares how the Facebook mobile platform enables developers to create truly social mobile games for players on every platform.

1:30

Why Mobile Games Appeal to the Mass Market

Mathieu ROY, CEO,
PowPowGames
Alex BORTOLUZZI, CEO,
Xoobis
Jon LAM, President & CEO,
Ph03nix New Media
discussion led by Levi BUCHANAN,
Sr. Manager of Developer Relations Chillingo

When still in college, Mathieu created his first game alone, which attracted the attention of his partner and designer. At this point, they decided to work on their first game as a company, Powpowgames. Rocket Boy 2D had a moderate success and Powpowgames decided to get working on a game for everybody, a game that could be enjoyed by people of all age, all over the world. They came up with Dream Track Nation, a 2D racing game with a big single player game and online competition. Since then, then plan on working on many more iOS titles, some which are already under development. [Email Mathieu]

Alex Bortoluzzi is CEO and Co-founder of Xoobis, the developer of the successful iPhone and iPad game Zombie Wonderland. The game hit the top 10 paid apps on the iTunes App Store in less than two weeks of being launched. Alex has been in interactive digital media since the mid-eighties, working on multimedia, broadcasting and motion graphics for a decade, successfully starting two companies which produced hundreds of pieces before transitioning to games. In the late nineties, He moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as lead artist for the world's largest videogame publisher, Activision Blizzard, having worked on some of the biggest franchises in the world, like Spider-Man The Movie Games, Call of Duty 3, James Bond and Transformers 2, with millions of copies sold around the world. Alex now prefers to make quirky and cool mobile games, as he believes the best games are the ones you can carry with you anywhere. [Email Alex]

“What could be more fun that accounting?” Jon asked himself one fateful day working as an auditor (spoiler alert: the answer is pretty much anything) That question led Jon down the path to becoming a game developer. Jon is the founder of Ph03nix New Media (PNM), designing PNM’s first game: Curse of the Pharaoh. Jon has since acted as producer on a variety of downloadable, and iOS games, including Jet Set Go, the Curse of the Pharaoh series, Sigma, Piano Pals, and Hottie Hookups. Jon holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, as well as a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calgary. He also heads the iPhoenix Fund - Canada’s first iPhone development micro-fund for games and entertainment apps. [Email Jon]

Levi Buchanan is the Sr. Manager of Developer Relations at Chillingo, the leading indie games publisher with hits such as Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, and Feed Me Oil. Prior to Chillingo, Levi covered mobile gaming at IGN Entertainment for over eight years, and has been active in the games industry since 1998. [Email Levi]

Indie developers will share their insights about what makes an indie title stand out from the rest and share how their non-licensed games often appeal more to consumers than large branded ones.

Measure or Die: Analytics and F2P Mobile Game Design

Jeferson VALADARES, GM Games,
Flurry

Jeferson has over 10 years of mobile and Facebook game studio leadership experience. Across his career, he has built critically-acclaimed original IP as well as titles for brands such as EA Sports FIFA, Harry Potter, Need for Speed and numerous Hasbro titles including Game of Life and Battleship. At Electronic Arts, Jeferson served first as Creative Director for EA Mobile, and then as Studio Director for Playfish for both Facebook and mobile games. Prior to that, he ran Digital Chocolate’s largest studio, based in Finland, responsible for mobile hits including Tower Bloxx, Crazy Penguin Catapult and Rollercoaster Rush. He began his career by founding his own mobile gaming company. Jeferson holds BS and MS degrees in Computer Science from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, the top ranked technical university in Brazil. [Email Jeferson]

The free-to-play (aka "freemium") business model on mobile is changing the gaming landscape - thanks to a new segment of mass market casual gamers, proliferation of connected devices and revolution in digital distribution. With its roots in retail distribution and selling "gold" content for an up-front fee, the incumbent gaming industry must rethink core game design principles to maintain growth, or risk being left behind. In this new world, revenue per active user has replaced units sold at retail, and the connection to end users is persistent. Monetization now depends on engagement, retention and driving micro-transaction purchases. Advanced measurement and continuous game design iteration are the new mantra. Jeferson, an award-winning game studio veteran and GM Games at Flurry, will share the new principles of measurement and game design that are powering the most significant paradigm shift in modern gaming.

Adding Value: Lessons Learned from a Developer being a Publisher

Kyu LEE, VP & Head of
GAMEVIL USA

Kyu Lee is President of GAMEVIL USA, US office of GAMEVIL Inc. GAMEVIL is well known for revolutionizing the sector with its original and innovative mobile games, backed by unparalleled expertise in advanced mobile and network technology. Kyu, who has been in GAMEVIL since the beginning at 2000, has constantly played a key role in the evolution of Korean mobile gaming and has continuously introduced the innovation to the world. Kyu has graduated Seoul National University with a B.S. in Physics and was on the board of advisory at GDC Mobile from 2005-2008. [Email Kyu]

GAMEVIL, well-known as a development studio which only publishes in house titles, has been aggressively publishing 3rd-party studio titles, creating successful titles on the App Store and Android Market since 2011. In this session, Kyu Lee will discuss how GAMEVIL’s relationships with developers have been established and how they've successfully added value to the table to create successful franchises such as Air Penguin.

Battle of the Social Mobile Platforms

Keith KATZ, VP Monetization,
OpenFeint
Volker HIRSCH,
Director, Business Development ScoreLoop/Research In Motion
Anders EVJU, SVP & GM,
Playphone
Paul CHEN,
Head of Business Development,
PapayaMobile
Simon JEFFERY,
Chief Publishing Officer,
ngmoco:)
discussion led by Dean TAKAHASHI,
Lead Writer, VentureBeat

Keith Katz is VP of Monetization for OpenFeint, the largest mobile social gaming ecosystem for iOS and Android with over 85 million registered users and a presence in over 6,000 games. He spends his days (and nights) thinking about ways to help OpenFeint’s developer partners make loads of cash. Keith has previously worked as VP of Marketing for mobile social gaming company Cellufun, as Head of North American Marketing for mobile game publisher Gameloft, and in brand management at game publisher Atari. He has a B.A. from Tulane University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.[Email Keith]

Volker is the Chief Strategy Officer at social infrastructure software specialists Scoreloop who bring sociality including monetization tools to mobile platforms and the web. He is also a co-founder of Blue Beck, a smartphone games studio.

Volker has been at the forefront of mobile and digital media for a decade. From helping conceive the world’s first mobile artist services for the likes of Britney Spears, Eve and Duran Duran, working with radio stations to use mobile as an audience activation tool to mobile games (with leading publishers Hands-On Mobile and Connect2Media where he oversaw licenses with Marvel, Hasbro, Activision, LEGO, BMW, Konami, WPT, etc.) he has been fortunate in playing a part in industry firsts.

Volker is a regular speaker at top mobile and technology conferences around the world (incl. Mobile World Congress, CTIA, Oxford University, SXSW, etc) and a speaker at and co-founder of TEDx Youth @ Manchester. He blogs at http://vhirsch.com/blog and tweets @vhirsch [Email Volker]

As SVP & General Manager of PlayPhone Social, Anders Evju heads up the mobile social gaming initiatives at PlayPhone. Anders has more than 20 years of experience in the wireless industry and has been involved in the creation of mobile entertainment services since its inception in the mid 1990’s. [Email Anders]

As Head of Business Development at PapayaMobile, Paul Chen is responsible for building the ecosystem of game and application developers that support the Papaya social network for Android devices. Prior to joining PapayaMobile, Paul served as Product Lead for NVIDIA’s line of Tegra application processors. Paul has also held various engineering roles at Advanced Micro Devices and covered the technology sector as an investment banking analyst for Salomon Smith Barney. Paul received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley and his M.B.A. from Columbia University. [Email Paul]

Dean Takahashi is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. He previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked.[Email Dean]

Unlike web social platforms, your smartphone doesn’t (yet) come with amazing, frictionless viral and social networking tools. A variety of providers have stepped in to fill the gap, each with its own particular spin on how to best serve player and developers to deliver the best social gaming experience. Watch as they give a brief presentation on their platforms’ best points, then proceed to duke it out for the title of top platform!

2:30

Social Mobile in Asia

Naoki AOYAGI, CEO,
GREE International

Naoki Aoyagi joined GREE in March 2006, and serves as the company's chief financial officer. He has nearly 10 years of experience in financial operations and management in the technology, media, telecom and the Internet sectors, including four years at Deutsche Bank. During his 4 years at Deutsche Bank he held various executive positions, and handled startup financing, global offering, M&A and arranged a successful joint service with KDDI - Japan's 2nd largest mobile carrier.

Aoyagi earned a bachelor's degree in Policy Management from Keio University in 2002. In accordance with the establishment of the US subsidiary, GREE International, he assumed the position of its CEO in January 2011. [Email Naoki]

The social mobile category has just begun to be “real” in North America, but it’s been big business for a while in Asia. During this session you will find out about developing for the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean markets – how they’re different from one another (and from America) and how they’re similar.

Alternative Distribution Channels – What’s Up With That?

Dov COHN, VP, Products & Marketing,
Appia
Anders JEPPSSON,
Head of Gaming Strategy,
Research in Motion
Kristian RABE, Head of Mobile,
GameDuell
Bill SCOTT, SVP of Sales &
Business Development,
GetJar
discussion led by Eyal RABINOVICH, Mominis

Dov Cohn oversees all product management and marketing activities at PocketGear, including product strategy and planning, product marketing, corporate marketing and public relations. Dov brings over 16 years of marketing, product management and business development experience with emerging technology companies to PocketGear. Prior to joining PocketGear, Dov was Vice President, Product Management and Marketing at Zoove, where he launched the national Mobile Dial Code Registry and Zoove's StarStar Mobile Dial Code service. From 2007 to 2009, Dov was a Venture Partner with Acta Wireless, developing strategy for a variety of companies in the mobile ecosystem. From 2000 to 2007, Dov was a founding member of the executive team at Motricity (formerly Pinpoint Networks). During his tenure at Motricity, Dov held executive roles including SVP of Marketing and Product Management, VP of Product Strategy and VP of Business Development. Starting in 2001, Dov led the design and delivery of Motricity's Fuel Mobile Application Platform, which has since delivered over $3 billion of mobile content.[Email Dov]

Anders was founder and CEO of game development company SouthEnd Interactive between 1998-2010 and is also credited as Lead Game Designer and Senior Producer on games such as Deathrow (Xbox), R-Type Dimensions (XBLA), Lode Runner (XBLA) and Ilomilo (XBLA/WP7) on Xbox/360, PS3, Android, Windows Mobile, WP7 and other platforms.

Anders also worked as Head of Innovation and Chief Visionary Officer at Tactel, a telecom consultancy in Sweden and owner of SouthEnd since 2005 the last few years with a specific mission of expanding their customer base into the major Asian telecom companies before joining The Astonishing Tribe in October 2010. TAT was acquired by RIM a month later and Anders is now focusing on the gaming strategy for RIM's new platform. [Email Anders]

Kristian Rabe is Head of Mobile and responsible for all mobile activities and the mobile strategy at Gameduell. Kristian has more than 7 years experience in the mobile industry working for Fox Mobile and VZnet Netzwerke before joining Gameduell. He co-founded the Berlin chapter of Mobile Monday - a non profit open networking organisation for mobile industry professionals with chapters all over the world. Furthermore he co- founded an own mobile startup in 2009 and was responsible for the product management. [Email Kristian]

Bill is VP Sales & Business Development where he is responsible for all customer interface and partnerships. He joined the mobile data industry in 2000, as VP Latin America for Infospace. There he launched the region’s first mobile portals. Subsequently Bill held VP Latin America positions for Critical Path and Openwave. Bill is originally from Seattle, WA. He has a BA in Philosophy from Amherst College and an MBA from Harvard University. [Email Bill]

Eyal Rabinovich is an entrepreneur, software engineer and user-experience evangelist. Eyal particularly specializes in the science of developing and delivering products and ideas. Eyal has specific experience in the discipline of designing consumer-facing products that account for a keen understanding of and adaption to, the needs and desires of today’s demanding consumer. [Email Eyal]

One of the most widely discussed topics today is mobile cross platform development with an emphasis on which platforms should be covered and the potential revenue involved. It’s clear that there is increasing interest in bringing existing game IPs to various platforms. However, there are questions that game developers have about how to reach real paying customers that remain unanswered. Many developers tend to correlate each technological platform with its respective dominating app-store, a habit that likely originates from the iOS system wherein the Apple App Store is the only possible distribution channel. This session offers insights into lucrative alternative distribution channels with a panel of experts in the fields of mobile operator app-stores, cross platform app-stores and content aggregation networks. These experts will outline the various strengths and weaknesses of each channel and, finally, choose the most promising ones.

Understanding Mobile Gamers

Quyen QUACH,
Director, Consumer Apps and Games,
AT&T

Quyen Quach is responsible for AT&T’s mobile consumer application business where she drives mobile games and apps strategy, oversees the catalog on AT&T AppCenter, and drives mobile application marketing opportunities across AT&T wireless platforms. She works closely with the AT&T Developer Program and organizations across AT&T to represent mobile game developer needs. With over 13 years of mobile industry experience, she’s been evangelizing mobile application development from the early days (even before Brew and J2ME), working with developers to launch the first WAP and messaging applications. Prior to AT&T, Quyen worked in a number of roles at Nokia including a long tenure with Nokia’s Developer Program driving Business Development for mobile content distribution. In both her past and present roles, she has been focused on helping mobile developers find monetization and growth opportunities. Quyen is also an avid gamer. [Email Quyen]

The Mobile Gamer. Who are they? What is important to them? How do you get their attention? As the mobile landscape evolves to smarter, more powerful devices, how is mobile games audience evolving? In this session, Quyen Quach will share her insights learned from running the AT&T games storefront and data from customer surveys. She will share general tips for marketing to mobile gamers. Join us for some real in-depth data on what Mobile Gamers are really looking for.

PlayBook: Building The Easy and Developer Friendly Ecosystem

Anders JEPPSSON,
Head of Gaming Strategy,
Research in Motion

For the last year and a half RIM has been quietly building its new developer friendly platform from the ground up. The recently released Playbook tablet device is only the first small taste of what is becoming a creative ecosystem with unparalleled performance and flexibility for all kinds of developers; be it casual, social or hard-core, in any genre. Learn more about how you can start monetizing on RIM's new platform in this interactive session.

3:30

Pitfalls in Mobile Games

Steve AUGUSTINO, Partner,
Kelley Drye & Warren, LLP

Steve Augustino is a Partner in the Telecommunications Practice Group at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP and helped to create the firm’s Telecommunications Practice, which is now one of the largest telecommunications practices in the nation. With over 15 years of experience representing innovative content and service providers, Mr. Augustino added a gaming concentration to his practice in 2006, specifically geared towards addressing mobile and broadband access issues affecting video game developers and publishers. His experience in the gaming industry helps online and mobile gaming companies meet the business and legal challenges brought on by the intersection of gaming and communications policy in the United States. Steve blogs on telecommunications enforcement, litigation and compliance issues at www.telecomlawmonitor.com. [Email Steve]

Pitfalls can be fun and challenging elements of any game, but not when they involve compliance with legal requirements and consumer expectations. Is your mobile game permitting in-app purchases? Does it use location information from the phone? Do you, knowingly or unknowingly, disclose personal information to third parties? If so, or even if your game might, you will not want to miss this session.

This past year has seen significant enforcement investigations and class action litigation over mobile apps, including high-profile cases involving in-app purchases, marketing disclosures and data breaches. The FCC, FTC and Department of Commerce are working on new privacy standards and new rules for the use of location based information. This session will provide a concise, comprehensive map of the major pitfalls for game developers in the mobile space.

Mobile Goes Social:
One Company Experience

Giancarlo MORI, Chief Creative Officer,
Glu Mobile

Giancarlo Mori serves as Glu's Chief Creative Officer, responsible for product ideation, strategy and production. Giancarlo has more than 20 years of experience in software development, 15 of which he spent as a senior/executive level in the video game industry. Recently, Giancarlo has provided creative and product leadership to several new gaming ventures, including Animal Logic, the award winning special effects and digital film studio. Previously, Giancarlo was at Activision as Vice President of Production, North American Studios, where he led the development of numerous titles based on original IP as well as established franchises, including the Tony Hawk series, Gun (the best-selling new IP of 2005), and several DreamWorks Animation games including Shrek and Over the Hedge. Prior to that, Giancarlo worked with Electronic Arts Canada, where he managed the development of the hugely successful FIFA Soccer and FIFA World Cup series; Microsoft Games Studios where he executive-produced many titles of the company’s Sports Games line; and with the Xbox Applications Group where he led the design and production of Xbox media applications in the social and lifestyle space for the Xbox 360. He holds an MSc. degree from the University of Florence. [Email Giancarlo]

Giancarlo Mori, Chief Creative Officer at Glu Mobile will share his reflections and insights learned from transforming a premium mobile game development organization into a freemium social mobile game development organization

Developing Windows Phone 7 Games from the Ground Up

Charles COX, Program Manager,
Microsoft

Charles Cox has worked in the games industry for a decade, and has been a developer, designer, and writer on PC and console titles. At Microsoft, he has designed developer education experiences for XNA Game Studio from its first version, and delivered games development training to thousands of professionals and students internationally. [Email Charles]

Get a mobile game development jumpstart for the Windows Phone 7 platform. Learn how to develop games in managed code with XNA Game Studio 4.0, take advantage of the graphics, input, and audio hardware capabilities on the phone, and get a look at the opportunities available in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace for game developers.

Recital Hall Lectures - From 2011

July 21:
Online Social Games

Emcee: David NIXON, President & Founding Partner, Creara USA, Inc.

If ever there was a buzz word...social is IT! It seems that everyone and everything is “going social” these days. But the days of acting without thinking are past us. This gaming platform is maturing, and with that comes establishing best-practices, creating higher production values, and expanding opportunities on mobile and alternative social networks. Join us for sessions covering all these topics and more.

July 20:
Online Social Games

July 19:
Online Games

Emcee: Juan GRIL, Director & Founder, Joju Games

The online games industry is not just about Facebook. Sites like Kongregate, Miniclip, and Addicting Games are visited by millions of players every day. These are not your mom's web sites. Teenagers as well as ex-hardcore gamers who don't have time to play AAA games anymore are playing at these destinations. Come to this track to learn more about successful games and best practices.

9:30

Shanti BERGEL, Head of Global Business Development,
Playfish

Shanti Bergel brings a career-long passion for web and game development to his role as head of global business development at Playfish, where he oversees monetization, distribution, licensing and corporate development. Building upon nearly 20 years of experience in the gaming industry, Shanti is an expert on virtual goods and game monetization.

Prior to joining Playfish, Shanti headed business development for Three Rings, a pioneer in the free to play games-as-a-service sector. Additionally, he led console, PC, mobile, online, and casual game development for The Sims and FIFA at Electronic Arts.

Shanti received a bachelor of arts in Japanese and International Studies at the University of Oregon. [Email Shanti]

The opportunity for new entrants to succeed in social gaming is still open and flourishing despite claims suggesting otherwise. While the industry now includes highly competitive spaces, or red oceans, where early movers have proven success and claimed ownership, the overall landscape still has ample "greenfields" that are ready to be explored and conquered. Shanti Bergel, Head of Global Business Development at Playfish, will discuss how developers can best navigate and leverage these "greenfields" and provide insight into what opportunities independent developers should consider when targeting social platforms. Shanti will also discuss how Playfish/EA pioneered the sports and board game categories.

Andrew SHEPPARD,
Chief Product Officer,
Kabam

Andrew Sheppard oversees product strategy and product development for Kabam. He is an industry leader in terms of engagement and monetization, having shipped 20+ virtual currency-based games and applications over the last 4 years. Before joining Kabam, Andrew led hi5 Networks' transformation from a social networking site into a social entertainment destination in the process creating a 20 million unique user game channel in less than 3 months. Andrew brings extensive experience in the interactive entertainment industry to Kabam having worked at Outspark, Electronic Arts and CBS Interactive prior to his stint at hi5. And, in less than a year, he has led the design and implementation of Kabam’s unique Studio Model that has facilitated the company’s growth from 20 to 300 employees in less than a year. Andrew holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business and a BA from Pomona College.[Email Andrew]

Many “experts” claim that you can’t build a successful social network game without virality. Andrew Sheppard shares the story of how Kabam sliced through a market of undifferentiated farming and pet simulation games to create Kingdoms of Camelot, the #1 massively multiplayer social game on Facebook…without the benefit of virality.

10:30

Jens BEGEMANN, CEO,
wooga

In 2009 Jens founded wooga (world of gaming). With 30 million Monthly Active Users wooga is the 3rd largest social games company on Facebook and the leading developer from Europe. The 5 games wooga has lauched so far (Brain Buddies, Bubble Island, Monster World, Happy Hospital and Diamond Dash) are all hits on Facebook. wooga employs a team of 80 people from 20 nations in the heart of Berlin.

Before wooga Jens was Chief Product Officer at Jamba (Jamster, Fox Mobile Entertainment), helping the company to become the world‘s leading provider of mobile entertainment products. [Email Jens]

Conventional wisdom in the games industry says a game is either a hit or a flop. wooga's CEO Jens Begemann has a different philosophy: Every single game wooga creates is an enormously valuable asset.

Once a game service has run the gauntlet of production and you've brought it to life, commitment to honest evaluation, iteration, and evolution will ensure you recoup your investment and more. Of course, as with effective recruiting and evaluation processes for hiring employees - game ideas must also go through a thorough vetting process before they become live game services.

When the going gets tough, remember that there was a reason you committed to the idea in the first place, and abandoning a valuable IP a little too soon costs you much more than sticking with it a little too long.

Wilson KRIEGEL, CRO,
OMGPOP

Wilson Kriegel is currently the CRO of OMGPOP. Kriegel is responsible for Business Development, Advertising, Marketing and Product Monetization. Before joining OMGPOP, Wilson was VP of Marketing, Business Development & Advertising Sales for Outspark. Kriegel served as Executive VP & General Manager at Curse Inc., now the leading online 2.0 MMO game portal focused on online subscription games, which now reaches over 10 Million unique users a month. Wilson was also a part of the founding team of IGA Worldwide in the U.S. where he served as VP Business Development, leading the publisher, developer integration of IGA's services, across platforms (PC, Mobile and Console). Kriegel started his career in the gaming industry by launching GameTimeNation, the first interactive entertainment retail services company. Prior to this, he was an early employee at a gas & electricity consumer company, taken public and worked as a financial analyst on wall street.[Email Wilson]

Bringing a new game to market is hard. It requires tremendous talent, skills, creativity, foresight and luck to invent a new game mechanic, theme, and world that is engaging, cohesive and fun. Few studios or publishers consistently accomplish this over and over. Worse, even a modest success won't keep the lights on by itself.

Wilson Kriegel, Chief Revenue Officer at OMGPOP believes the risk/reward balance improves dramatically when a game IP is leveraged across multiple platforms. However, doing this efficiently and profitably carries its own challenges. Not every game IP or mechanic is suitable for every platform. Without careful planning team size (and costs) quickly balloon unacceptably. Wilson will share how OMGPOP is successfully extending the value of their game design successes across traditional web, Facebook and IOS/Android audiences, while simultaneously controlling team size and costs.

Matt HULETT, SVP,
GameHouse

Matt Hulett is senior vice president of GameHouse, overseeing global operations for RealNetworks' digital games business. Mr. Hulett joined Real as Chief Revenue Officer for the games division in 2009, and assumed the top post of the division in July 2010. Previously, Mr. Hulett was the CEO of Mpire, where he continues to serve as executive chairman. Before Mpire, Mr. Hulett served as president of the corporate travel division of Expedia, Inc., founding partner at AtomFilms, and president of Atom Entertainment. Prior to those positions, Mr. Hulett was the founding consumer products leader at RealNetworks, and launched many of the company's most successful products, including the RealPlayer and its premium subscription businesses.[Email Matt]

Today’s world is turbulent and the games landscape has changed dramatically. But your company can withstand the waves and thrive – as long as you position and equip it with empowering tools, leadership and philosophies. The key to change is to let fear go.

In this lecture, RealNetworks SVP Matt Hulett will share tales of growth, change, development and management. Hulett has led many successful companies including AtomFilms, Expedia and Mpire through oceans of change and is now in the process of transforming the digital games business at RealNetworks. By discussing past and current experiences, trials and tribulations, Hulett will provide insight into how companies can survive and thrive in any economic conditions and industry shifts.

Virtual Goods for Core Gamers: What Works and What Doesn't on Kongregate

Emily GREER, COO,
Kongregate
Anthony PECORELLA,
Developer Relations Manager, Kongregate

Emily co-founded Kongregate in 2006 with brother Jim and as COO oversees most day-to-day operations including product development, marketing, community, and monetization. Prior to Kongregate, Emily worked in marketing/e-commerce for various catalogers & retailers building statistical and financial models predicting customer behavior as well as doing product analysis, customer research, strategic planning and website development. [Email Emily]

Anthony started as a community manager with Kongregate in 2008, then dabbled in quality assurance, and is in charge of developer relations. He manages the acquisition, integration, testing, and marketing of virtual goods games on Kongregate. He has a background in mathematical modeling and is a game designer who directed the educational microbiology game CellCraft. [Email Anthony]

While Facebook remains the hot destination for giant social games, problems with content discovery and expensive ads have made it a difficult target for more hardcore-focused games. Kongregate on the other hand is a gaming site that reaches millions of core gamers a month and has seen strong virtual goods sales, with continued growth, over the last two years. This talk will examine three case studies of Facebook to Kongregate ports to see what went well, what didn't, and how to design games that can thrive on both social networks and gaming sites.

11:30

Curt BERERTON, GM, San Francisco Studio,
PopCap (recently CEO of ZipZapPlay)

Curt earned his Ph.D. in Robotics from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Curt has recently joined PopCap Games as the GM of San Francisco studio. Before that, he served as the CEO of ZipZapPlay. Prior to co-founding ZipZapPlay, he gained three years of game industry start-up experience at AILive, an artificial intelligence middleware company, developing innovative machine learning tools.

Curt’s passion is to create something from nothing and have it take on a life of its own. Whether it is developing innovative products from concept to release, researching new algorithms and ideas in academia, or starting organizations, his goal is to make things that other people find valuable.[Email Curt]

Any number of things can kill your game before your first player ever sees it. Feature creep, rewriting game engines, market changes, and poor design focus can all lead to lost revenue, heartache and frustration. ZipZapPlay, a small successful Facebook game developer/publisher, spent a great deal of time and money on a single product, only to find it simply wasn't viable in the market! When money gets tight and the clock is counting down, you must make a fun game fast and bring revenue in as soon as your game launches. Curt Bererton from ZipZapPlay speaks about decisions related to foundational functionality required in any game - those "core" features that generate retention, monetization, and virality at launch. Curt will also talk about how to measure performance and when to think about killing your game and moving on to something new.

David SCOTT, Co-Founder,
KIXEYE (Casual Collective)
Paul PREECE, Co-Founder,
KIXEYE (Casual Collective)

David is a founding member of Kixeye, which was originally founded under the name Casual Collective. David is the creator and Executive Producer of the runaway hit game, Backyard Monsters.

With over 11.5 million installs since it's release, Backyard Monsters is among the most successful real-time strategy games ever on the Facebook platform. Hailed as "a social game for gamers who hate social games," Backyard Monsters consistently pushes the boundaries of what people consider casual gaming. [Email David]

Known affectionately as "the Godfather of Tower Defense", Paul is a founding member of Kixeye, which was originally founded under the name Casual Collective. Paul was the creator of Desktop Defender. The original version of Desktop Defender, Desktop Tower Defense, was released in 2007 and has been played over 70 million times - representing more than 10 million hours of global playing time.

Paul is the creator and Executive Producer for the recently released synchronous combat, real-time strategy game Battle Pirates game on Facebook. Battle Pirates has been an early huge success for Kixeye.

Paul holds a computer science degree from Kingston University. [Email Paul]

Dave & Paul, creators of Backyard Monsters & Desktop Tower Defense, talk about their journey from independent game developers to highly successful Facebook game creators. They will discuss some of the challenges they faced and their unique approach to designing games for Facebook.

Raph KOSTER, VP of Creative Design,
Playdom

Raph is VP of Creative Design at Playdom, which acquired his startup METAPLACE in 2010. In past lives, Raph was the lead designer on the seminal online world ULTIMA ONLINE, which first brought online worlds to the mass market, and Chief Creative Officer for Sony Online Entertainment, makers of EVERQUEST, where he previously led the design of STAR WARS GALAXIES. Raph’s essays and writings have appeared in game design textbooks, books on legal theory, and major newspapers, and his book A THEORY OF FUN FOR GAME DESIGN is considered a classic and is widely used in universities. He is a regular speaker at game, technology, and policy conferences all over the world, and still finds time to write on his popular website, http://www.raphkoster.com. [Email Raph]

Designers design inside of contexts: the business model, the distribution channel, the platform, the intended audience. Sometimes, these change, and the change profoundly affects how we create games that players like to play and pay for. Few changes have been as profound as the move from games as fire-and-forget products to services played for months if not years. Raph Koster, VP of Creative Design at Playdom, has been working exclusively in games-as-services for over fifteen years, and in this talk he'll present to you the top ten lessons you need to learn for this environment: What does "service" really mean? What mechanics always work? Why and how do you measure things differently? And what, in the end, makes the games fundamentally different?

Laralyn McWILLIAMS, Creative Director,
Loot Drop

Laralyn McWilliams chose game development over practicing law in the mid-1990′s, and she’s never looked back. Although she started in PC game development, creating an adventure game which she sold to Microprose, she’s covered a wide range of genres and platforms. She’s designed and helped build award-winning social, strategy, simulation, platform, brawler, FPS, and massively multiplayer online games.

Laralyn was Creative Director for the ground-breaking MMO Free Realms, which the New York Times called “a triumph of the company’s own reinvention.” She was also lead designer for the critically acclaimed Full Spectrum Warrior, which was the most nominated game of E3 2003. She shared the top spot in Massive Online Gaming’s 2010 list of the Top 20 Most Influential People in MMOs. She was also on Beckett’s list of the top women in MMOs for 2010, and one of Gamasutra’s 20 most influential women in games in 2008. She’s a frequent speaker on casual game progression and the use of metrics in the design and operation of live game services. She’s also an outspoken advocate for casual players and the need for game developers to look beyond themselves and make great games for broader audiences. [Email Laralyn]

Traditional game design meant placing your bets: create a game you think will be successful, then see what happens after launch. Designing a social or online game means you have almost instant access to player data, and you can make quick changes. Its easy in that environment to let data drive game design, at the cost of originality. Veteran game designer Laralyn McWilliams discusses how her designs have changed after transitioning from traditional to online games. Using real-world examples, she will discuss (and debate) when to go with your gut, and when to look at the numbers. Attendees will gain insight into balancing todays data-driven design environment against creativity and originality, against a backdrop of real-world examples.

Burrito Bison Postmortem - The Challenge of Designing for Two Markets at Once

Yowan LANGLAIS, Co-Founder,
Juicy Beast
Dominique LEMIRE-NAULT, Co-Founder, Juicy Beast

Yowan was very creative as a kid and had a lot of interest in "creating things". Then he became interested in digital creation, which led him to study Multimedia Integration in college. He always knew that he wanted to start his own business, but he only discovered his passion for video game development late during his studies. Right after graduating, he co-founded his dream company, Juicy Beast Studio, even though he had little experience on the market. It's been 2 years now and now he is proud that Juicy Beast has been able to create multiple successful Flash titles. [Email Yowan]

Ever since I was young, I've been dreaming of creating video games. And that's exactly what happened on June 1st, 2009 when I co-founded Juicy Beast Studio with Yowan Langlais! I graduated in 2008 and I've been in the game development industry for less than three years now. I've learned so much during those years, and I still do through my many mistakes! Hopefully I can count on my colleagues to improve my weaknesses and strengths. Despite all the mistakes we've done, we're more than proud to be able to say that Juicy Beast Studio creates fun and original casual games.[Email Dominique]

Not all Flash games are meant to be ported to the iOS platform. Join the creators of Burrito Bison as they reflect on the challenges of synchronous game development for the Flash and iOS markets as well as the secret sauce for their burrito!

Bunny Flags Postmortem: Our Path Of Making A Better Flash IP

Rodrigo CONTRERAS, Owner, Game Producer and Game Designer,
Game Launch Project

I studied Engineering (Operations Research) at Universidad del Desarrollo. I started developing games with a team called Takay Games, and our first creation was a mod called Mutâi for the Make Something Unreal Contest. After that, I went independent and started my first game development company called Cuatic Games, which was dedicated to mobile games. In two years we only made 2 or 3 games and things didn't go well. I closed that company and founded Gamers Making Games (GAMAGA), my actual company. We have developed flash games since 2008 and manage a very small site called Game Launch Project. [Email Rodrigo]

Bunny Flags is the result of a learning process. With two Bunny games before it, we tried to create a successful IP in Kongregate and learn as much as we could about how to monetize a flash game (without the use of virtual goods or invasive in game ads). We'll be analyzing our selling strategy, our marketing strategy, gameplay evolution and how we did to rise our rating from 3.7 to 4.28 on launch day.

12:30

Lunch Break

1:30

Steve MERETZKY, VP Game Design,
Playdom
David ROHRL, Creative Director,
Playdom

It`s hard to have a serious conversation about gaming without mention of Steve. It`s also hard to have a humorous conversation about gaming without mention of him. Steve`s contributions to the industry began in 1981 at the legendary adventure game company Infocom, where his titles included Planetfall, The Hitchhiker`s Guide to the Galaxy (a collaboration with Douglas Adams), Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Zork Zero. Prior to joining Playdom, Steve co-founded Boffo Games and held senior creative posts at Blue Fang Games, Floodgate Entertainment and WorldWinner.com. Over his prolific career, Steve also consulted with teams at Activision, Blizzard, Disney, EA, Harmonix, Hasbro and Legend, to name a few. A former board member of IGDA, Steve is co-organizer of the Social and Online Games Summit at the GDC as well as the annual Game Designers Workshop. Steve holds a BS in construction project management from MIT, but otherwise assures us that he did not waste his four years there. [Email Steve]

David Rohrl is a Creative Director at Playdom where he conceives and designs a variety of new games, helps to improve existing games, mentors junior design staff, and annoys producers. Rohrl has over 15 years of game development experience and previously occupied senior production and game design roles at Zynga, PopCap, EA/Pogo and The Learning Company. He has produced more than two-dozen published titles including casual hits Word Whomp, Tumble Bees, and Casino Island —and has served as managing producer on a dozen more. A long time organizer of the annual Casual Games Summit, Rohrl chairs the IGDA Casual Games SIG and speaks regularly at major industry events.[Email David]

The social games market is still one of the newest and hottest areas of game development, but the market is maturing rapidly. As social games enter an era of less frantic change, what are the latest trends? What’s hot and what’s not? What should you expect to see in the coming year?

Join two of social gaming’s grizzled veterans, Dave Rohrl (Creative Director at Playdom) and Steve Meretzky (VP of Game Design at Playdom) as they identify the leading trends in the industry, selecting examples of social games from the past year (both high profile and hidden gems) to illustrate those trends.

Greg MILLS,
VP of Business Development,
Digital Chocolate

Greg Mills oversees business development and advertising strategy for Digital Chocolate’s social and mobile gaming business. Greg has seventeen years of marketing, advertising and business experience in the games industry. Prior to working at Digital Chocolate, Greg managed AOL’s Games business group and its games.com web site. During his tenure of AOL, the AOL Games group was one of the most profitable channels at the company and won Time’s “50 Best Websites 2010” award. Prior to AOL, Greg worked at two start-up companies, WorldPlay Entertainment and at The 3DO Company, in a variety of marketing and business development positions. Greg earned his Bachelor’s degree from Pomona College and an MBA from Santa Clara University. [Email Greg]

Everyone in the social gaming space is focused almost entirely on upselling its customers with virtual in-game goods. If paying customers typically represent anywhere from 1 to 5 percent of the total game audience, why aren’t companies focusing on ways to monetize the other 95 to 99 percent? Your largest audience will always be the free game players or “freeloaders.” How do companies make money from freeloaders and are they a valuable segment of your audience? Digital Chocolate's lead business development and advertising executive, Greg Mills, answers these questions by analyzing the current state of advertising and sponsorships in casual browser games and in Facebook games. He will give an overview of what is working today as well as illustrate the tradeoffs between advertising customization and revenue with a display of concrete examples from various titles in the marketplace. Anyone working with social games who is looking to introduce and grow ad revenue and better monetize the free game playing audience will benefit from this lecture.

Stephanie KAISER, Product Lead,
wooga

Stephanie Kaiser is the Product Lead of Monster World at wooga (world of gaming), a top 15 social game on Facebook with over 1,2m daily and over 6m monthly active users.

She is responsible for the design and development of Monster World, leading a team of 15. By using data driven design and optimizing the game in weekly iterations since its launch in April 2010, the team has built a game with a sustained organic growth on Facebook.

Prior to joining wooga, she has worked as a Product Manager at Jamba/Jamster and as Manager of Product Development at MTV Networks.

Stephanie attended the Humboldt University Berlin (French Philologies & Information Science) and has a passion for dance and robots. [Email Stephanie]

By now you have all heard others suggest that to succeed with your social game service you must first focus all of your energy on understanding, improving, and thoroughly optimizing your game's initlal conversion and retention. This is absolutely correct, and it's importance cannot be overstated. However, once you have done that - the work keeps coming!

Stephanie Kaiser, Lead Product Manager for Monster World at wooga speaks to what happens once you have a solid, effective conversion funnel, and a large number of those lovable active "Monsters" are running about in your game world, voraciously consuming your game's content! It's a great problem to have, but a challenge nonetheless. Get it wrong and your hard-won conversion can rapidly lead to mid- and late-game player churn. Listen to Stephanie speak about her player feedback loop, analyzing player progression, and the establishment and management of a feature/content pipeline that keeps your active users engaged without running too far ahead.

Crime City: Next-Gen Social RPG

Dan CHAO, Lead Designer,
Funzio

Dan is the lead designer and producer on Crime City and has worked in the game industry for 12 years as an engineer, designer, and producer. He has worked in the console/PC, casual download, and social game space. Nowadays, he works at Funzio and spends most of his time focusing on game mechanics. [Email Dan]

Dan Chao, the lead designer of Crime City, will reflect on making the game. What aspects of the text-based social RPG translated to a graphical world and what aspects didn't? What had to be added to be competitive with the current landscape? The success and failures of certain features will be addressed as well as musings on where the genre is going.

2:30

Nick LIM, CEO,
Sonamine

Nick Lim is CEO and co-founder of Sonamine, developers of predictive network-analysis software used by game developers, telecommunications, financial services and advertising companies. Nick brings over 15 years of data analysis experience from multiple industries. Prior to Sonamine, he developed a real time predictive system for mobile advertising at Enpocket, which resulted in a 5x improvement in conversion rates. At MicroStrategy, Nick was director of product management for its industry leading scalable business intelligence platform. [Email Nick]

We speak of "analytics" as if it were a single, clear, well-understood thing. But a diverse fleet of initiatives sails under that flag, from highly-focused data-collection, through support of A/B testing, to the targeting of individual consumers with optimal offers and experiences. This session will survey the range of analytic goals and methods currently deployed for social media, and especially for games. Predictive analytics will be presented as a general social-network analytical framework, but with a view towards specific results for predicting customer-specific probabilities of conversion, of retention, and of successful cross-promotions. Case studies will demonstrate the integration of predictive analytics into user-experience and marketing decision-making in telecommunications and other industries.

Mark HAHN,
Chief Technical Officer,
TCB Technologies, Inc.

Mark Hahn, Chief Technical Officer at TCB Technologies, has 20 years of experience in securing large scale systems including Wall Street Trading Systems, International Payment Systems and Large MMOs. One of few senior-level consultants who have stayed fully hands-on, Mark cuts through communications issues to bring engineering and executive management to the same page. [Email Mark]

Online games are enjoying enormous, growing popularity. Unfortunately, they also are prime targets for hackers. Getting hacked hurts. Your data is compromised, legal liabilities are raised, but the worst part is the painful loss of consumer confidence that you worked so hard to build. Take a lesson from today’s headlines -- online game publishers must start out-thinking the hackers to protect their game’s reputation, playability and monetary stream.

Are your producers aware of the security and privacy threat landscape? Do they know how to keep a preventable hack from putting your game on the front page? Is your team prepared with a plan to respond to attacks and the countermeasures to use in the future? Come join Mark Hahn, Chief Technical Officer of TCB Technologies, to discuss the foundations on which to build a security plan to protect your players and your business.

Aki JARVINEN, Creative Director, Ph.D., Digital Chocolate

Aki Järvinen works as the Lead Social Designer at Digital Chocolate's Helsinki studio in Finland. He has a decade of experience from designing and producing mobile games, online gambling, and browser-based games. Järvinen has also written a Ph.D. on academic methods of analyzing games from the perspectives of design and psychology. Currently he is writing a book on the design and business of social games. Follow the progress on his blog: http://games4networks.posterous.com.[Email Aki]

What, if anything, makes social games social? What is ‘social’ made of, anyway? Digital Chocolate's Lead Social Designer Aki Järvinen answers the question by analyzing the current state of social exchanges in Facebook games. He introduces concepts such as social presence, social graph, and social space to explain the kind of social interactions these games embrace, and fail to embrace at the moment. The concepts are put into practice with a display of concrete examples from various titles. The talk is targeted at anyone working with social games, regardless of platform. The attendants will walk away with a set of design vocabulary which helps in creating and evaluating engaging social exchanges, and serves as an inspiration to redefine social in social games.

Monster Galaxy: Building Social Games for Gamers

Mike SEGO, CEO,
Gaia Interactive

Mike Sego is the CEO of Gaia Interactive, owner of social gaming community Gaia Online. He previously served as the Chief Product Officer for Gaia. Prior to Gaia, Mike was the creator & sole developer of the popular (fluff) Friends application for Facebook. Previously, Mike served as the technical lead and senior software engineer on Google’s Gmail Frontend engineering team where he was responsible for performance and reliability initiatives. During this time, he was recognized for outstanding work at Google with the prestigious Founder’s Award in 2007 & the Immersion Program Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. Prior to his role at Google, Mike served at Electronic Arts as a software engineer working on The Sims Online. Mike attended Stanford University where he earned a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science, a focus on Human Computer Interaction & Graphics.[Email Mike]

Much like Gaia Online’s bold new Facebook game “Monster Galaxy”, Mike Sego is bringing adventure-packed monster-battlin' mayhem to Casual Connect! Join him as he explores what to expect from a new generation of games that integrate the best elements of social gaming with tried-and-true fundamentals from old-school console games. Defying the recent belief that "real gamers" don't play Facebook games, he will explore the major opportunity in blending top video gaming practices to create an experience that is as appealing to traditional gamers as it is accessible to casual gamers.

3:30

Arjun SETHI, CEO,
Lolapps

As CEO, Arjun is responsible for setting the overall strategic vision for Lolapps and guiding the development of fresh, high quality social products.

Prior to Lolapps, Arjun was the CEO and founder of ROFLplay, a social gaming startup which was acquired by Lolapps in July 2009. Arjun initially served as the Head of Business and Corporate Development for Lolapps and was named CEO in March 2010. Previously, Arjun has held various management roles with the Carlyle Group and Saset Healthcare. In 1999, he also co-founded Advanced Tuning Products, a manufacturing company within the automotive industry.

Arjun holds a B.A , B.S in History, Economics from University of Maryland, College Park. [Email Arjun]

Thriving as a social gaming start-up is a challenge all on its own. But once a developed game has become fully successful in the US, the prospect of internationalization becomes an attractive opportunity for growth and revenue. And while strategies for internationalization have long been discussed, what are the specific questions that social and casual gaming companies should be considering?

Lolapps, makers of the hit Facebook game, Ravenwood Fair, have dealt with this and Arjun will discuss the trials and tribulations he has faced in making Ravenwood Fair global. The session will not be a case study on Lolapps or Ravenwood Fair, but rather will be a forum to discuss these questions:

- What are the hottest global markets to expand your social game too?

- How do you synchronize marketing efforts across various markets?

- Which demographics should companies target in certain regions?

- How to deal with regional payment methods?

Arjun aims to answer these questions and others, will give attendees a look at the challenges Lolapps has faced, and will provide insight on how to be a successful social game developer in the global market.

Rony XU, Co-founder & CPO,
Happy Elements

Previously, Rony was a Senior Manager at RenRen.com, leading RenRen Platform and social game Department.Rony is the first Social Game producer in China and led RenRen.com Open platform strategy. Rony founded 5qzone.net, one of the most popular social website for colleague students at 2003, in his last year at college. In 2005, he successfully sold this website to RenRen.com. [Email Rony]

As social networking and gaming sites continue to explode in popularity, developers are looking to the strengthen their portfolios by distributing their games to a worldwide audience.

Happy Elements has some unique experiences in operating and designing games for an international audience with their one-step publishing resolution. Drawing on experience from operating their games: My Kingdom, My Fish Bowl, Lounge Bar and Boss Vegas on global networks including Facebook, Tencent Pengyou, Tencent Qzone, Mixi, Gree, Hangames, Cyworld, Daum, StuVZ, Kaixin001, RenRen, and Netlog, Rony will share insights on what it takes to succeed globally.

Osma AHVENLAMPI, CTO,
Sulake Corporation
Teemu HUUHTANEN,
Executive VP, Business
Development & Communications,
Sulake Corporation

Since joining Sulake in August 2003, Osma Ahvenlampi has been moving technology, processes and working methods forward to build Habbo Hotel.

Today, Ahvenlampi’s responsibilities range from leading the software development unit to developing both operational business measurements and company-wide strategy processes for Sulake's business.

Prior to Sulake, Ahvenlampi worked as a software architect and project manager at financial software firm, Quartal, and as the technology and software engineering lead at the Internet consultancy, Razorfish. He's a proponent of iterative working methods and concrete, short-term targets in all professional contexts. [Email Osma]

As executive vice president, Business Development and Communications, Sulake Corporation, Teemu Huuhtanen is instrumental in leading the continued development and growth of Finnish-based Sulake’s top property, Habbo Hotel, the world’s largest virtual community and social game for teenagers.

Huuhtanen is responsible for cultivating relationships with major music, television and motion picture studios, as well as retail, fashion and sports industries, to generate relevant and interactive brand partnerships. His mission is to bring real-world entertainment properties and brands that are important to Habbo’s teen user base into the social game. [Email Teemu]

The biggest challenge to browser and social games today lies in the fact that their play is almost entirely single-player and asynchronous. This completely negates the “social” in social games. In this session, Osma Ahvenlampi and Teemu Huuhtanen discuss the potential for synchronous, real-time social gaming through the lens of 11 years of success with Habbo Hotel, the world’s largest social game and community for teens.

Julia LEBEDEVA,
Head of Advertising and PR,
Nevosoft

Julia joined Nevosoft and the casual video games industry as a public relations manager in 2009 and took a fresh look on interacting with the casual games audience. She has a master's degree in linguistics and more than three years experience in the entertainment industry, first working as a PR manager and announcer and then as the program director at a radio station. Now Julia is a head of advertising & PR department and her responsibilities include planning PR campaigns, interaction with mass media and working with the players on the Nevosoft’s Russian portal. She also coordinates Nevosoft's participation at various conferences, prepares marketing materials and makes presentations. In addition to her PR duties, Ms. Lebedeva acts as a partner relations manager, responsible for finding new game content and localizing it into Russian. [Email Julia]

Are you looking to grow your business by moving into new markets? More and more companies are looking to the Russian market, testing the waters of opportunity. But does anyone really know the Russian market and how to sail those waters? How many Russians use the Internet and who are they? Do they pay or just play? Do they have any peculiar online behavior? How does the Russian market compare with other markets? Finally, is it worth the effort? For the answers to these questions and more, join Nevosoft’s Julia Lebedeva as she breaks down the Russian casual games market and identifies the opportunities awaiting you.

Are you looking to grow your business by moving into new markets? More and more companies are looking to the Russian market, testing the waters of opportunity. But does anyone really know the Russian market and how to sail those waters? How many Russians use the Internet and who are they? Do they pay or just play? Do they have any peculiar online behavior? How does the Russian market compare with other markets? Finally, is it worth the effort? For the answers to these questions and more, join Nevosoft’s Julia Lebedeva as she breaks down the Russian casual games market and identifies the opportunities awaiting you.

Getting Big on Facebook: Growth Strategies and Gameplay Mechanics that Move the Needle

Jim YING, GM North America,
6waves

Jim Ying is GM, North America for 6waves, one of the largest game publishers on Facebook. In this position, he is responsible for developer outreach and signing partners to join 6waves' network of 40+ million monthly active users. Prior to joining 6waves, he served as Director of Product at GameHouse, the Casual Games Division of RealNetworks. He has also spent time on the core gaming side of the industry, having worked on the Halo and Age of Empires franchises at Microsoft Xbox. Jim has a BA from Williams College and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. [Email Jim]

As Facebook gets more crowded with new games, it’s becoming apparent that a game’s success is dependent on both the developer’s ability to build a great game as well as rapidly acquire players. Lots of best practices around mechanics for Facebook games have emerged, and adding some simple features and mechanics can significantly improve a game's performance. Equally important, there are a variety of ways to grow a game’s user base on Facebook, and the importance of growing fast to capture network effects and fend off competitors is only increasing. Looking to 6waves' portfolio of games from developers around the world and network of 40+ million MAU on Facebook, Jim Ying will highlight the key channels of user growth as well as notable game features that changed trends in key success metrics around monetization, retention and virality. He'll be providing hard examples, complete with screenshots and charts.

Converting Deluxe Download Customers to Social Customers

Nick BERRY, President,
DataGenetics

Nick Berry is the President of DataGenetics, a consultancy firm specializing in data mining and privacy. Although educated as a rocket scientist and aircraft designer, Nick has worked in the casual games industry for over a dozen years, including over ten years at Microsoft, and more recently, as the GM for Analytics at GameHouse. [Email Nick]

You've spent years building up your client base of deluxe download customers, but what do you really know about your users? Developers in the social space have it easy; with simple instrumentation they can learn rich information about the demographics of their users, and these users' affinities for other products. How do you find similar information about your existing customers, and use this to migrate them from the download universe into social?

In this presentation we'll look at a novel way to gain valuable intelligence on your existing users. An explanation of this data-mining technique will be presented along with a real world example showing how this technique has been used to lower customer acquisition costs.

4:30

John SZEDER,
Director, Developer Relations,
hi5 Networks
Sebastian KRIESE,
Head of Strategic Partnerships,
Plinga
Simon PERRY, Managing Director,
Gatcha
Andrew PEDERSEN,
VP & GM of Social Games,
Tagged
Jim GREER, Founder and CEO, Kongregate

John Szeder is a Director of Developer Relations and Mobile at hi5 Networks, Inc, a leading social network for games. Prior to that, he served as Director of New Media for FaceCake Marketing Technologies, and formerly was the cofounder and CEO of Mofactor; a small boutique mobile publisher with many internally developed titles and very efficient porting technology. Mofactor developed and published Duckshot, an AIAS nominated title for game of the year, and many other original and branded mobile titles. [Email John]

Sebastian Kriese is Head of Strategic Partnerships at Plinga. In this position, he is responsible for building new partnerships that support Plinga to grow internationally. He is focussing on extending the business by leveraging all partners and optimizing their monetizations channels. Prior to Plinga, Sebastian was responsible for the gaming business at studivz.net - a popular social network in Germany and earlier in his career he was a Key Account Manager at IBM. [Email Sebastian]

Simon is a seasoned manager in the social and gaming industry. In his last position, Simon managed the Content and Business Development groups at Oberon Media. He brings an extensive experience in Identifying and capturing distribution and content driven opportunities. Currently, Simon is managing the Gatcha (Netlog Games) team is Gent, overseeing a teem of engineers, operations and business development and dedicates his time to planning and building the newly redesigned social gaming site. [Email Simon]

Andrew's the Vice President & General Manager of Social Games and head of Tagged's new in-house Game Studio. A respected visionary with 20 years experience in the design and development of online entertainment and software properties, Andrew knows casual games and the casual gaming audience. Most recently SVP of Creative for BlueNoodle, Pedersen was previously the creative and design lead as Vice President and General Manager for EA’s Pogo. Andrew’s experience also includes senior production and creative roles with Mattel, The Learning Company and Broderbund Software. [Email Andrew]

Jim Greer is the founder and CEO of Kongregate, a portal that combines over 40,000 web games and MMOs with achievements, high scores, chat, profiles, and other community features. Kongregate reaches over 13M unique visitors who spend 27M hours per month earning over 6M achievements. Developers share in ad and virtual goods revenue and retain all rights to their games. Kongregate was acquired by GameStop in July 2010 and operates as an independent subsidiary.

Before founding Kongregate in June 2006, Jim was Technical Director for Pogo at Electronic Arts. He has worked in the game industry since 1991 and holds a Computer Science degree from Princeton. [Email Jim]

Just like real estate, social games now have their own Credits crisis. We have assembled to provide urgent care to all victims of Facebook's creditory revenue practices. Who are these brave social networks who can help? What can they do for you? More importantly, how much longer until they stop talking so I can grab a business card? All these questions and more will be answered in this session.

Founders Room Lectures - From 2011

July 21:
Growth & Exit Strategies
!Updated Schedule!

Emcee:Dougan MILNE, VP of Research, The Corum Group

The Pros from Dover - Buyers, Sellers, Advisors - give you the essential tools you will need to successfully sell your game company in today’s fast-paced M&A market. Hear from some of the biggest names in the industry on their recent experience in the trenches and attend the 1-hour bootcamp on what it takes to earn a fair price for your company, a comfortable outcome for your employees, and positive future for your technologies and products.

July 20:
Emerging Casual Platforms

Emcees: Jussi LAAKKONEN, CEO, Applifier
Drew JOHNSTON

Changes, changes! Everywhere we look there is newness (aka "change") in the casual games business. New game platforms, new global markets, new techniques for enageing, recruiting, and monetizing players, new kinds of players, even new ways to be hacked, defrauded, and DOS'd. It would be unforgivable hyperbole to say that this change is "worse/better than ever," but sorting out what to do now, what to do tomorrow, next quarter, and next year remains a daunting task. Not to mention charting a path that connects them... Embrace the newness! Listen to experts discuss and explore what constitutes "state of the art" business and operations in casual games today.

July 19:
Marketing & Business

Emcee: Robb LEWIS, Director of Marketing, PlaySpan

Changes, changes! Everywhere we look there is newness (aka "change") in the casual games business. New game platforms, new global markets, new techniques for enageing, recruiting, and monetizing players, new kinds of players, even new ways to be hacked, defrauded, and DOS'd. It would be unforgivable hyperbole to say that this change is "worse/better than ever," but sorting out what to do now, what to do tomorrow, next quarter, and next year remains a daunting task. Not to mention charting a path that connects them... Embrace the newness! Listen to experts discuss and explore what constitutes "state of the art" business and operations in casual games today.

9:30

IGDA SIG Whitepaper: State of Casual Games in India

IGDA Casual Games SIG Planning Meeting

10:30

DIY: Indie Game Dev from Napkin to Profitability

Jake BIRKETT, Owner,
Grey Alien Games
Ola ROGULA, Owner,
Doll Divine
Shane NEVILLE, Founder,
Ninja Robot Dinosaur
discussion led by Mark BAXTER, VP Product & Creative and Co-founder,
Vivity Labs

Jake Birkett is the owner of Grey Alien Games and has been producing, designing and programming casual games since 2005. He has seven casual games under his belt including the top-selling Fairway Solitaire and Unwell Mel download titles. Having been both an independent developer and an employee in the casual game industry at Big Fish Games, he can offer his perspectives of these different approaches. Jake is also co-founder of Full Indie, a 450-strong Vancouver-based meetup group for independent game developers. [Email Jake]

Ola Rogula started dabbling in Flash-based dress up games in 2008 as a hobby. As her website grew in popularity, she started getting more serious about game development. In mid 2010 she made the switch from geneticist to full time indie developer, and hasn't looked back. Her website, Doll Divine, is pushing the standard of traditional web-based fashion games and is attracting female gamers of many age groups. [Email Ola]

Shane Neville is an award-winning video game producer and solo game creator who develops games and consults at his company, Ninja Robot Dinosaur. Since joining the game industry in 1997 Shane has been a studio manager, producer, marketing manager, creative lead, writer and tester before starting Ninja Robot Dinosaur full time in 2010. Shane is an expert in agile development, game design, interactive narrative and mobile games. Shane lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada with his beautiful wife, wonderful daughter and the most annoying cat in the world. [Email Shane]

Mark Baxter is VP Product & Creative and Co-founder of Vivity Labs, a developer of life-relevant casual gaming experiences across Mobile, Web and Social platforms. He was the President & Founder of Gnosis Games, a casual games studio with multiple #1 titles that was sold to Threewave Software. He has been in the games industry for more than 10 years as a designer and producer of Console, Casual, Serious and Multiplayer games. Mark believes that games have great potential to be a powerful medium for self-improvement, and is dedicated to making this a reality. [Email Mark]

Working on games you aren't passionate about? Want to be your own boss? With the explosion of new platforms and distribution options for smaller games, casual gaming experiences have more options than ever to reach wider audiences and achieve profitability. This panel discusses stories from the trenches from independent developers who have built their own companies, many of them having left larger companies in the Triple-A and Casual Gaming spaces, to bring their personal passion for games to the forefront of their livelihoods. This panel explores the following topics:

1. Making the switch: stories from the trenches.
2. More than a hobby: key funding, revenue and distribution opportunities.
3. Sustainability: how the panelists are achieving (or plan to achieve) financial stability.
4. The challenges of being an indie developer, and how to deal with them.

Casual Games Rule Cross-Platform

Ken MURPHY, VP of Studios, RealNetworks
Jim YING, SVP, Publishing, 6waves
Olivier DELFOSSE, VP Interactive, Mobile, Digital Content, FremantleMedia
Lars JORNOW, Director of Product Performance, Social & Mobile, King.com
discussion led by AJ GLASSER, Lead Writer, Inside Social Games

Ken Murphy is Vice President of studios for GameHouse, RealNetworks’ games division, and leads a global team responsible for some of the industry’s most recognized and acclaimed casual games franchises, including: “Collapse!,” “Delicious!,” and “UNO.” In this role he has refocused the organization on social gaming while significantly improving profitability. Ken joined RealNetworks in 2006 to manage business planning and operations for the games division. Prior to joining RealNetworks, he held a variety of roles with The Walt Disney Company’s world-renowned theme park division, and was a founding executive team member of Disney Creative Entertainment. In 2003, he co-founded Mousetrappe, Inc., an award-winning media production company. Originally a professional musician, Ken holds a bachelor’s degree from the prestigious Eastman School of Music and an MBA from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. [Email Ken]

Jim Ying is GM of North America for 6waves, the largest publisher of independent games on Facebook. In this position, he is responsible for developer outreach and growing 6waves' network of 55+ million monthly active users and games. Prior to joining 6waves, he served as Director of Product at GameHouse, the casual games division of RealNetworks. He has also spent time on the core gaming side of the industry, having worked on the Halo and Age of Empires franchises at Microsoft Xbox. Jim has a BA from Williams College and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. [Email Jim]

Olivier Delfosse is the Vice President, Interactive, Mobile and Digital Content, North America for FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME), based in the company’s offices in Burbank, California.

At FME Olivier is responsible for all sales, product development, marketing and new business initiatives for interactive, mobile and digital content in North America across the whole spectrum of FremantleMedia’s television shows and third party brands. These include American Idol, America’s Got Talent, The Price Is Right, Family Feud, Let’s Make A Deal, as well as the much anticipated US version of The X Factor. [Email Olivier]

Lars Jörnow is King.com's Director of Product Performance, Social and Mobile, leading the company’s Facebook, mobile and tablet games portfolio. He works with an eye towards monetization, metrics-driven development and cross-platform integration to maintain the company’s proven track record of delivering successful competitive and pastime gaming experiences to millions of people across the globe – anywhere, anytime.

Lars is also the product manager for Miner Speed, King.com's first cross-platform play – the game is enjoyed by millions of players on Facebook, iOS, Android and King.com. Prior to joining King.com, Lars worked as a strategy and operations consultant at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He has a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Denison University. [Email Lars]

AJ Glasser is lead writer for Inside Social Games, Inside Network’s resource for analysis and news covering the social games industry. Previously, she served as News Editor at GamePro Media and as San Francisco Correspondent for Gawker Media games blog, Kotaku. Her work can also be found in Future US Inc. publications like GamesRadar.com and the Official PlayStation and Xbox magazines. AJ earned her Masters of Journalism from Stanford University, and her undergraduate degree in International Relations from Mills College. [Email AJ]

Casual games are versatile and adaptable in the demographics it attracts, forms of monetization, ability to leverage for branding and for many other reasons. And, in the era of smartphones and tablets, casual games most importantly rule when it comes to their attraction across all consumer platforms. Games prove constantly to be one of the most widely used applications on the Web, social networks, mobiles and tablets. This panel takes a case study approach to discuss the rapid evolution of casual games across all platforms. Attendees will hear from industry experts in the mobile/tablet, social networking, gaming and entertainment industries about how the emergence of new platforms is changing the landscape of each industry, while creating new monetization and user engagement approaches across the board.

Virtual Economics - Don't Just Act...REACT!

Simon JONES, VP, Strategic Solutions,
Plimus

A Silicon Valley veteran, Simon Jones is currently in charge of ensuring that Plimus offerings meet the needs of our markets, including the needs of the casual games market place. Simon has worked for software companies like Interwoven, Hyperion and Adobe for over a dozen years and has been working at Plimus for 5 years developing our e-Commerce strategy. [Email Simon]

During this talk you will see how three successful companies grew their total revenue by: using pre- and post-sale promotions to increase Average Order Value; used multivariate testing on the checkout page to turbo-charge close rates; and built higher Total Lifetime Value from their customers through innovative use of direct customer management and single sign-on. The ReACT Model shows every studio how to flex its marketing strengths to drive revenues that can only work in the online world.

Selling Pixels: Real-world data on virtual-world sales from Mobile & Facebook games

Rob CARROLL, Director of Publishing,
Tapjoy

Rob Carroll is the Director of Publishing for Tapjoy, where he collaborates with mobile and social game publishers of all sizes to improve their monetization, game mechanics and viral distribution. Before joining the Tapjoy team, Rob was a Facebook and MySpace game producer for Zynga and Hive7 and a console game producer at LucasArts. Odds are you have played one of his titles, such as Mafia Wars, Vampire Wars, Street Racer, Pirates, YoVille, Knighthood, The Sindicate, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Star Wars: Elite Squadron and many others. [Email Rob]

As the free to play market continues to grow, developers are looking for insight on how to bring their games into the fremium space. With in-app monetization proving, for some games, to be more than 25 times more effective than paid, it’s easy to see why. By implementing the right items and marketing techniques, developers can increase their Daily ARPU 3 times in just a few days. During this session we’ll be taking a look at the breakdown of in-game virtual good items sales from some successful Facebook and mobile games to see what works in these virtual goods driven titles. Map packs, clothing, pets, energy boosts, weapons and so on, we’ll review what sells and what does not from games that are currently live.

11:30

Selling Up and Selling Out

Nat BURGESS, President,
The Corum Group

Nat joined Corum in 1996 and brings a diverse background in technology M&A, Gaming and Law. Working with Activision in the mid-90s, he led the company’s on-line business development for multi-player technologies when the Internet was just getting fast enough to support these games.

While with the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Nat helped identify and build cases against securities fraud schemes. With the Strategic Development Division of Morgan Stanley's M&A group, Nat worked on cross-border acquisitions of U.S. and European companies by Japanese firms, and on financings by large Japanese public companies. Nat moved to Morgan Stanley's Tokyo office, where he reported directly to the President of Morgan Stanley, Japan Ltd. and focused exclusively on cross-border M&A.

Nat co-founded Postcard Software, a creator of advertiser-driven bilingual (English and Japanese) Internet content.

Nat earned an undergraduate degree in Japanese literature from Yale College and a law degree from UCLA. While in law school, Nat wrote articles for the International Forum at Yale, Tokyo Journal. [Email Nat]

Corum Group takes us through a condensed, 60-minute bootcamp on how to prepare your software/internet company for an eventual strategic sale. Nat Burgess will walk us through the 5 vital steps of Preparation, Valuation, Structure, Due Diligence, and Negotiations. The expanded version of this presentation has been running in major cities around the world for over 20 years, helping founders and CEO's create additional value for their companies.

How Multi-platform Gaming is Making Classic Franchises Accessible to Larger Audiences

Carlson CHOI, VP of Marketing,
NAMCO BANDAI Games America

Carlson Choi has always been at the forefront of driving creative yet technological solutions that address critical business issues. With more than 12 years of experience in digital business concept development, corporate branding and strategy, web, product marketing, marketing operations, creative services, community marketing and investor relations, Carlson has been involved in driving company culture and business transformation, establishing new business lines, and launching new products.

Carlson currently serves as the Vice President of Marketing at NAMCO BANDAI Games America. He is responsible for driving all marketing functions, product development, global product strategy and planning for all of NAMCO BANDAI Games’ brands, which includes well-known franchises like PAC-MAN®, Ridge Racer® and Tekken®. [Email Carlson]

Gone are the days when there was one console to rule them all. When releasing a single product on a single platform would reach the lion’s share of gamers.

To reach today’s gamers — and to allow those gamers to access their favorite gaming franchises anywhere, anytime — companies must publish compelling interactive content that spans multiple genres and demographics with titles and franchises that appear on both mobile and console platforms, including all major video game consoles, Apple iOS and Android products, PC and the Web.

This session will show how NAMCO BANDAI GAMES is at the vanguard of gaming across multiple multiplatform gaming, exploring the lessons it has learned and the insights it has gained in bringing a traditional gaming company into the new digital publishing environment.

The entirety of the current gaming roster from NAMCO BANDAI GAMES features titles that are accessible for almost anyone: families, children, mobile gamers, fitness enthusiasts, and hardcore gamers published across multiple platforms; with franchises like the enduring PAC-MAN seeing titles released in the past 12 months on the Nintendo Wii with PAC-MAN Party, on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network with PAC-MAN Championship DX, and on mobile phones and smart devices with PAC-MAN Kart Rally.

Cross-Platform Games: Lessons from the Trenches

Michael KALKOWSKI,
Co-Founder & Creative Director,
GameDuell

Michael (38) is co-founder and Creative Director of GameDuell and is responsible for the company's games, websites, and player communities. He has produced more than 60 casual and social games and has a passion for creating great teams and products that people love. Michael started his ventures as a serial entrepreneur 12 years ago as a founder of dooyoo.com. In his previous life he worked as an international product and marketing consultant. He holds several business degrees from Germany and an MBA from Eastern Illinois University (USA). [Email Michael]

Is connected content across multiple platforms the new Holy Grail of the games industry? What works and what doesn't? How can you leverage the various channels to outperform your competition? In this talk Michael will showcase key learnings from several cross-platform games. He will reveal what made GameDuell one of the best monetizing and largest cross-platform communities in the world for casual games. Hear about their newest explorations across the web, social networks, iPhone and Android.

Show Me The Money: Game Monetization Secrets

Amit FULAY, Product Manager,
Google

Amit Fulay is a Product Manager at Google. Amit leads the development of Google's In-App Payments platform. Previously, Amit was the Director of Product Management at Jambool, a leading virtual currency monetization startup that was acquired by Google in August 2010. Before Jambool, Amit worked in the advertising division at Microsoft helping the company create a targeting platform for Display Ads. Amit holds a Master's and Bachelor's degree in Computer Science.[Email Amit]

In this session, Amit will talk about what it takes to build a successful business in the casual gaming world. Learn the tools, tips and tricks on how to build your games, sell your goods and handle payments. Monetization is more than just creating virtual goods. This session will discuss the top factors that can make or break your revenue stream.

Gameology: Gamer Behaviors and Interesting Juxtapositions on Attitudes and Engagement with Game Virtual Goods and Currencies

Robb LEWIS, Director of Marketing, PlaySpan

Robb is a start-up executive with over 15 years experience creating innovative products and marketing programs for the monetization of digital content. A start up veteran, Robb has been creating innovative products and marketing programs for digital media and games since 1996. He's driven the concept and development of many successful products and marketing programs for digital commerce including those focused on enabling effective merchandising and monetization of digital goods. Prior to PlaySpan, Robb was the VP of Marketing for GameStreamer and also a consultant to Sony, advising them on digital distribution strategies. [Email Robb]

PlaySpan will present its new Virtual Goods gameology report. The report presents gamer attitudes and motivations along with engagement and usage of virtual goods and game currencies. The Gameology report demonstrates the tremendous monetization opportunities available to publishers and developers through the sale of digital goods and use of virtual currencies, such as the Ultimate Game Card. Each type of digital good has a unique level of demand, and the amount of money that a consumer spends on digital goods varies by genre. Publishers can use this insight to forecast revenue, make the right development investments, and effectively allocate marketing dollars. The result is higher profitability through optimization of an existing digital goods revenue stream and the development of new, effective digital content.

12:30

M&A Interview with the Sellers

Jim PERKINS, CEO & Owner,
Radar Group
Trevor FENCOTT, CEO,
Bedlam Games, Inc
Emily GREER, COO,
Kongregate
discussion led by Dougan MILNE,
Vice President of Research,
The Corum Group

Jim Perkins is a well-known video game industry entrepreneur and senior executive with an 18-year track record of publishing best selling hit games. Prior to jumping into the video game industry in 1989, he spent seven years at IBM in sales, marketing and competitive analysis. Jim co-founded and grew two highly successful video game publishing companies, FormGen and World Entertainment Broadcasting (Arush), from start-ups to multi-million dollar enterprises. He is credited with publishing such hit franchises as Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein, Doom, Driver, Unreal, Powerslide, Hunting Unlimited, and Playboy, among many others.

Perkins has appeared on CNN, CNBC, Fox, and in other media showcasing his companies and products. This success has earned him a high level of respect and integrity with top level industry executives, console manufacturers and technology companies. Jim has strong working relationships with the world’s largest video game publishers and most experienced and successful game development studios. His leadership qualities and business experience are well suited to the success of Radar and its unique breakthrough approach to the video game industry. [Email Jim]

Trevor Fencott brings over 11 years of interactive industry experience to his role as Co-CEO of Ascension Crossmedia, a multi-platform game and technology company. Prior to Ascension, he co-founded Groove Games, an international publisher of console and PC games and Bedlam, a developer of console and PC games. He has been credited on the creation and publication of more than 30 video game titles. Trevor serves as a Director of Interactive Ontario and on both the Screen-Based and Interactive Advisory Committees of the Ontario Media Development Corporation. He holds an Honours degree from Queen's University and a law degree from the University of Western Ontario. [Email Trevor]

Before returning to the States in 2009 to assume the role of Director for Corum's Research Department, Dougan was previously a Research Analyst working with Corum's international group headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. Prior to joining Corum's team in 2005, Dougan spent three years working in the banking industry with Bank of America, and Citigroup's Private Wealth business unit. Before entering finance and investment banking, Dougan founded the successful garment distribution business, Billions Apparel.

In 2006 Dougan founded MODO Marketing, a vertical advertising company serving the motorsports industry.
Dougan has a Bachelors degree in Economics from the University of San Diego. [Email Dougan]

What does it take to sell your game company? Find out from four CEOs who just did. The good, the bad and the ugly... hear the first-hand stories from these founders about what it takes for a successful exit. If you are think about a potential strategic sale in the near future, this is a panel you won’t want to miss.

Aggressively Compatible Android Games

Dan GALPIN,
Android Developer Relations,
Google

Dan Galpin is a Developer Advocate for the Google Android team focused on Games. He has lectured around the world about Android gaming technologies, including native development, in-app purchases, license verification, and Android frameworks. Before joining Google, Dan had been working extensively with Android; He developed several Android media applications, created an Android instructional video, and was a technical reviewer for a popular Android book. He has spent the last ten years working in the mobile space, developing at almost every layer of the phone stack. In his spare time, he performs with local opera companies. [Email Dan]

Android is a HUGE market. With over 100 million device activations. and a user base growing at a rate of 400k per day, mobile and tablet game developers cannot afford to ignore the platform.

With the design of the Android platform, developers are able to use a single code base that runs on devices with varied form factors and hardware capabilities. New features within Android Market allow for more flexibility than ever when it comes to packaging, marketing, and distributing your application. This session will explain how to approach device diversity, leverage Android Market to improve distribution, and build aggressively compatible Android games.

Super Happy Modern HTML5 Browser Games

Vincent SCHEIB, Software Engineer,
Google

Vincent is a software engineer at Google, working on Chrome like it's a game engine. Previously he contributed to Fallout 3, Civilization IV, Warhammer Online, and hundreds more games via his work on the Gamebryo engine. Vincent started his professional game career in 1999 working on 5 console titles, NASCAR Rumble, Wrath Unleashed, Star Wars Episode 3, WrestleMania 21, and Mark Ecko’s Getting Up. [Email Vincent]

HTML 5 is here. Big companies are making big bets on this collection of technologies to enable a next generation of rich game capabilities without the need for browser plugins. Vincent Scheib from the Google Chrome team has a console game and engine development background. Join Vince while he walks us through the current capabilities, short-term and long-term potential, and challenges of HTML5, and what the successful deployment of modern browser games means to casual game development.

Live Focus Group: Moms Got Game Across All Platforms - Mobile, Social Media and Web

Owais FAROOQUI, GM of North America, King.com

Owais is the GM of North America for King.com, where he manages initiatives surrounding the leading provider of social games’ marketing, strategy and partnerships in the region. He works with the company to maintain its proven track record of delivering successful social, competitive and pastime gaming experiences to millions of people across the globe. Owais has more than a decade of experience in business development and marketing and is responsible for King.com’s groundbreaking partnerships with NBC, CBS, Yahoo!, Real Networks, and Lifetime, enabling the major media networks to extend interactivity and entertainment to consumers.

Prior to King.com, Owais was Senior Director of Marketing at Knowledge Adventure, the leader in adventure-based 3D virtual worlds for kids, and Senior Director of Marketing at Academy123, which was acquired by Discovery Communications. He has spoken at leading trade and consumer conferences including SXSW Interactive, Casual Connect, NY Games Conference and Digital Media Summit. Owais is also a regular contributor and advisor to the Casual Games Association and can be seen doing a stand-up comedy routine at famous venues like the Laugh Factory.

Owais received his Bachelors of Applied Sciences in Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto. [Email Owais]

The largest demographic of online game players are women over 35. And, many of these women are playing across all platforms - mobile, social media and Web. When you meld this and the proliferation of mobile and tablet devices, the potential outcomes are plenty.

However, many questions linger about this group and their habits when it comes to the emerging era of mobile and social games. This panel will address such questions as: How do these new devices change the way this group experiences gameplay? When and how do they play from their tablets or mobile devices and how do their actions change when they play on mobile vs online? Does the specific hardware play a significant role in their decision to play particular games since the experience differs? Do tablets make gameplay more fun? What do they like and dislike about playing casual games on portal sites vs on platforms like Facebook? Are they actively clicking ads or open to marketing across all platforms? King's GM of North America, Owais Farooqui, moderates a panel of five avid online, mobile and social gamers from this demographic in an effort to explore this and more. Be sure to bring your own questions, as we'll be taking input from the audience live and through Twitter.

1:30

Mergers and Acquisitions: Market Overview

Dougan MILNE,
Vice President of Research,
The Corum Group

Corum Group presents a 10,000 foot view of the industry's consolidation, trends & drivers, and expectations for the coming few years in-and-around gaming, social, and media. Analysis presented by Dougan Milne, Vice President of Research for the Corum Group.

Boob Tube Evolution Accelerates : The Rise of "Smart" TV

Anthony JOHNSON, Commercial Director,
PlayJam
Paul NOWOSAD, VP,
TransGaming
Sevan KESSISSIAN,
VP of Content & Strategy,
G-cluster

Anthony joined PlayJam one year ago as the company's Commercial Director and is responsible for negotiating both content and distribution agreements for PlayJam's Aggregated Games Platform on Smart TV. Prior to PlayJam, Anthony has led start-up and transformation efforts across a wide range of businesses in the UK, US and ASPAC regions. [Email Anthony]

Paul leads TransGaming's global content acquisition strategy and company-wide licensing and distribution businesses. Prior to joining TransGaming, Paul led the corporate strategy team at Ontario Lottery & Gaming (OLG), Canada's largest lottery and gaming corporation. Prior to OLG, Paul held senior management positions at Yahoo!, Transcontinental, and the Walt Disney Company. During his tenure with Yahoo!, Paul was focused on the growth of Canadian partnerships, leading the team to establish strategic MSO partnerships, such as the Rogers-Yahoo! ISP relationship visible in Canada today. Paul plays an active role in the University of Toronto – Rotman Business Management School, offering his time as both a program advisor and student mentor. Paul has also been an active member of the Rouge Valley Health Foundation Hospital Board and is part of several not-for-profit charity activities. Paul holds a Masters degree from Colorado, and two undergraduate degrees from the University of Calgary, and University of Western Ontario. [Email Paul]

Sevan Kessissian is a game industry and digital innovation expert since 2002.

After a start at Compaq computers, he joins Boonty a leading casual game distribution platform as Director of Content in 2005. There, he make deals with today's casual gaming leaders and became a pioneer in launching AAA games digitally before retail with Ubisoft and Codemasters. In 2006 he went 'social and multiplayer' and creates the content strategy and team of Cafe.com/Weka, the 1st social gaming company to become listed in France (Nyse alwek). In 2008 he joined G-cluster as Vice President of content & strategy. In October 2010 he brought cloud gaming from R&D to commercial reality and success with tier 1 carrier SFR in France. Today, with 2.9 million STB connected to IPTV, G-cluster is the leading white label cloud gaming platform in the world. Sevan is graduated from ISC Paris business school. [Email Sevan]

Remember the days when you owned a television for years and years? Ever since the advent of large-format flat screens, it seems that technical innovation and heightened manufacturer competition have driven down prices and shortened life-cycles of America's favorite and most prolific home appliance. Today, a confluence of new TV technologies—built-in internet connectivity, natural-motion control devices, built-in processing power, and software to support digital "app" distribution—promises digitally direct access to 230 million consumer living rooms by 2014. But is the future really here today? In this discussion, the early successes in this space talk about why this is "real" this time, and not the vaporware promises of past ITV directives, and the real opportunity and challenges faced today and in the future for games on connected TV's.

Casual Games 2.0: The Brutal Truth

George DONOVAN, CEO,
Gogii Games

Gogii Games is a growing game development studio in Moncton with a development team in Prague. Gogii Games is able to rapidly develop products, yet still maintain a strong quality bar which has resulted in 7 #1 titles in the last 14 months. The company regularly launches an average of 8-10 titles per year in 10 languages. Since opening in 2006, Gogii Games has produced 26 products, titles are available in multiple formats including Online, PC/MAC retail, Nintendo Wii, NDS, iPhone, iPad, and Mobile Phones. [Email George]

With all the excitement being generated in the industry about the growth of the casual gaming market, we at Gogii wanted to take the time to reflect on the growth we have seen, and outline what we project for the next two years. Online distribution (trial to purchase), Facebook, iOS/Android, console, retail, and license revenue all played a part in the story, and there were some surprises and a lot of brutal truths that we will all need to face. Looking back and into the future, we will “lift our skirts” on a number of key stats that will give the industry a peek behind the magic curtain and us at Gogii Games.

2:30

M&A Interview with the Buyers

Josh YGUADO, SVP Corp Dev,
MindJolt
Josh GRANT, SVP Corp Dev,
RockYou
Chris PETROVIC, GM,
GameStop
discussion led by Nat BURGESS, President, The Corum Group

As Senior Vice President of Mindjolt, a San Francisco-based social games platform, Yguado leads a team focused on delivering strategic business opportunities and building the organization through distribution and content partnerships.

Yguado draws on a long history of media strategy and business development experience at leading entertainment and media companies. He joined MindJolt from Fox Network Group and previously held strategic planning and corporate development positions at MTV/Nickolodeon and Univision. Yguado began his career in M&A Investment Banking with ING Barings and Furman Selz in New York.

He is a graduate of Harvard College and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. [Email Josh]

Josh brings a strong operational background in digital entertainment to his Strategy and Corporate Development role at RockYou. In various management roles, Josh launched more than 25 games and applications across a wide array of emerging entertainment platforms, including: Facebook, Valve’s Steam, Apple's iTunes, Google's Android, Amazon's Kindle, Verizon and AT&T. Josh has worked in the social gaming industry since its emergence and brings a solid understanding of the evolving games and entertainment markets. Formerly the VP of Content Strategy and Acquisition at Vivendi Games Mobile and later the Chief Operating Officer at Sonic Boom, he's spearheaded publishing, licensing and strategic planning management for both mobile and social media platforms. Prior to entering the interactive entertainment market as an operator, Josh worked in Venture Capital, at Rustic Canyon Ventures and Argo Global Capital. He began his career in media and technology Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch. Grant has a strong background across public financial markets, venture capital and gaming sectors, and has helped build a number of exciting and successful partnerships at RockYou. He holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from Claremont McKenna College. [Email Josh]

Chris Petrovic serves as GM of GameStop Digital Ventures, the digital strategy, M&A and incubation arm for GameStop, the world’s largest provider of video game products and services. As a member of the company's senior management team, Chris serves as the principal leader of GameStop's global digital strategy. He is responsible for building on the company's ongoing efforts to integrate digital initiatives into the company's multi-channel strategy, as well as overseeing the development and execution of digital acquisitions (Jolt Online Games, Kongregate, Impulse & Spawn Labs), strategic partnerships (IGN) and investments. This includes leveraging the company's unique and distinctive relationship with customers in-store, online and around the globe.

Chris has over 12 years of experience in digital media, having held senior level positions at Playboy, AG Interactive (a division of American Greetings), drkoop.com and theglobe.com. He began his career in the late 90’s as an entrepreneur, serving as the CEO of Internet start-up BannerGreetings.com. From there he went on to become COO of Buzztone.com, a leading interactive marketing agency, before joining Prime Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm started by current Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt. [Email Chris]

This forum will put four of the biggest names in the gaming industry on the stage for a round-robin of Q&A. What are buyers looking for in acquisition targets -- Stable founders, creativity, headcount, revenue, profitability, market potential, or all of the above?

Brands on Facebook: Live Fast, Die Young?

Bertram CHAN,
Playfish
James JONES, VP of Creative Production,
Hasbro
Joel BRODIE, Founder,
Gamezebo
Davin MIYOSHI, VP Social Games,
GSN
discussion led by Mike VORHAUS, President, Magid Advisors

Bertram ("Bert") Chan heads Strategic Partner Marketing for Playfish, handling all aspects of sponsorships, in-game advertising opportunities and endorsements. Prior to joining Playfish, he worked as a strategy consultant at the Monitor Group and in investment banking for Credit Suisse. Bert holds an MBA at London Business School and a BA from Yale University. [Email Bertram]

James Jones is a veteran games industry executive with over 15 years in digital media and online leadership. He has served integral roles in the design, production, operations, and executive management on nine MMOs/Virtual Worlds since 1999 and has diverse experience across almost all gaming platforms having shipped product on over a dozen platforms; Xbox360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS, PSP, iPhone/iPad/android, PC, Browser, Social Network (Facebook), mobile, XBLA, and PSN. In his current role as Vice President of Creative Production for Hasbro, Inc., James oversees digital media and game production on all Hasbro brands, including Transformers, Magic the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, GI Joe, Monopoly, Scrabble, Battleship, Risk, and Nerf. [Email James]

Joel is the founder and the self-appointed Chief of Gamezebo. Previously, Joel was head of business development for Yahoo! Games, where he was responsible for building numerous enterprising products, including Yahoo! Games Downloads, Games on Demand, and Video Games. Joel graduated from University of Maryland with degrees in economics and political science. [Email Joel]

Davin leads GSN’s “Games” application (http://GSNgames.com), the leading casual game portal on Facebook with over 7 million monthly active users. Prior to GSN, Davin was Co-Founder and CEO of Mesmo, an early pioneer and leading social game developer that engaged over 25 million users on Facebook, MySpace, hi5, and Bebo. Davin was also an early Internet entrepreneur at Intraware, a pioneer in online digital media distribution where he helped drive a $2+ billion market cap and $50 million in annual revenues. After Intraware, Davin was VP of Business Development at EQuill, an early social web discovery company that was acquired by Microsoft. He started his career in Investment Banking at Montgomery Securities (acquired by Banc America Securities) and also led corporate development initiatives at 3Com. Davin serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for Hands On Bay Area, a Bay Area non-profit where he previously served as the Board Chair and Treasurer. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics with honors from the University of California at Berkeley.[Email Davin]

Mike Vorhaus is the President of Magid Advisors, a unit of Frank N. Magid Associates. Mr. Vorhaus founded the Internet and New Media practice in 1995, with AOL and Excite as his first two clients. Magid has completed over 2,500 engagements with over 100 clients including Google, Digg, LinkedIn, Metacafe, MSN, Ask Jeeves, Yahoo!, Warner Bros, Reuters, AOL, Dow Jones, NY Times, Tribune, USAToday and NBC.

Mr. Vorhaus began the Gaming practice in 2001 with EA and Sony as his first two clients. Mike now works with most of the major game publishers. He provides research and consulting services to a number of major traditional media companies in regard to their new media initiatives, as well as consulting a number of leading Internet and gaming companies. Mr. Vorhaus has consulted on a number of film projects such as You've Got Mail and The Matrix. He has also led Magid's efforts providing investment and strategic advice to investment firms regarding media and related assets. [Email Mike]

A panel of industry leaders having an open debate about what makes content on Facebook thrive, survive, or dive. Discussion to address key issues such as, whether or not branded content belongs on Facebook, what can be learned from the veterans, if new social game brands can co-exist with established game brands, if brands are focused enough on Facebook and do they know what they are getting in to, and more.

Make a Rockstar App – Get Groupies!

Adam BOYDEN, President, Conduit

Adam Boyden is responsible for strategic direction, marketing and business development for Conduit. Previously, Boyden was an executive at Xfire (acquired by MTV Networks for $110 million in 2006). He was the co-founder and former CEO of Autodaq (now OpenLane), the leading online automotive marketing company. He founded the China Consultancy, an advisory firm to companies entering the Chinese market. Boyden holds a 1st Class Honors B.Sc. in Engineering Science from Exeter University, and an M.B.A from Stanford University. Adam is a contributor to Entrepreneur Magazine, iMediaConnection, Direct Marketing, MarketingProfs, MediaPost and SMBCEO. [Email Adam]

The most successful casual game creators have their own groupies — a following that is addicted to their game. For example, have you heard of a little game called, Angry Birds? How can you catapult your game into success? Adam will discuss how to successfully develop a game that will expand your usual audience. He will discuss components to creating an irresistible UI, creating retention among users, and getting your game to go viral using social media tactics. And he’s not done there…he will face the million dollar question: how can you make money from your game? He will review monetization models, and key measurement metrics, tools and methods and provide case studies of companies to model business after such as, Zynga, Playdom, SPILGAMES, and iWin.

Social Gaming in the Cloud

Nathan TOTTEN, Technical Evangelist,
Microsoft

Nathan Totten is a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft specializing in Windows Azure and web development. He is also the creator and lead developer of the Facebook C# SDK (http://facebooksdk.codeplex.com). Before Microsoft, Nathan was a Senior Software Engineer at Thuzi where he worked on social media applications and analytics tools. He has experience building Windows Azure applications that handle large traffic spikes and maintain high availability and performance. He is also actively involved in open source development and the developer community. You will regularly find him answering questions on Stackoverflow.com or the Codeplex discussions. [Email Nathan]

So you are developing a social game and you hope it will be a hit. What do you do when your game suddenly becomes popular? This session will show you how you can leverage the cloud to develop and deploy your social game app quickly, and handle thousands or millions of users with techniques such as caching, global traffic distribution and load balancing. You’ll also learn how to go viral through integration with Facebook, and monetize your game with in-app purchases. This session will include a case study of a successful social game campaign deployed on Windows Azure.

3:30

Meet The Investors

Viney SINGAL, Managing Director,
Valtus Capital Group
Hany NADA, Partner,
GGV Capital
Greg GOTTESMAN, Managing Director,
Madrona Venture Group
Tim CHANG, Partner
Norwest Venture Partners
Kushal SAHA, Managing Director
Cascadia Capital
discussion led by Tim MEREL,
Managing Director, Digi-Capital

Viney Singal (Managing Director) - Mr. Singal is the founder of Valtus Capital Group and has over 18 years of experience in investment banking. Valtus Capital provides merger and acquisition advising and capital raising services for companies in the gaming, lodging, real estate, hospitality, and consumer industries. From 1992 to 1998, Mr. Singal worked in the Investment Banking Division of Bear Stearns concentrating on the Real Estate and Gaming sector. His experience includes real estate development finance, REIT valuation analysis and gaming and lodging valuation and financing. Clients included Sunstone Investors, MGM Grand, Hard Rock Casino, Coast Resorts and Herbst Gaming. From 1998 to 2001, he was a Senior Vice President in Lehman Brothers' Financial Sponsors Group, where he assisted in the structuring and negotiation of acquisition finance offerings. In addition, Mr. Singal actively covered client portfolio companies on an advisory capacity and assisted in structuring exit strategies and offerings. Mr. Singal received his B.S. in Finance from the University of Southern California. [Email Viney]

As a leading venture investor, Hany made his first investment in China in 2001, and has led the firm's successful investments in athenahealth (NASDAQ:ATHN), Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU), Kintana (acquired by Mercury Interactive) and Xfire (acquired by Viacom). Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors for Tudou, China's leading video content provider, Vocera Communications, and three gaming companies, Glu Mobile, Turbine and Wild Tangent. In addition to actively making investments in the mobile and gaming sectors in the US and China, Hany is responsible for one of the industry's most successful China/US investment teams as well as general oversight of the firm's funds. [Email Hany]

Greg Gottesman is a Managing Director of Madrona Venture Group. He joined Madrona in 1997 and currently serves on the boards of AdReady, Bocada, BuddyTV, Cheezburger Network, Nimbic, Intrepid Learning Solutions, ThinkFire, and WildTangent. He is the founder and interim CEO of A Place for Rover and a board observer of Giant Thinkwell.

Greg managed the firm's investments in Dantz Development Corporation (prior to its acquisition by EMC), Rendition Networks (prior to its acquisition by Opsware), Singingfish.com (prior to its acquisition by Thomson Consumer Electronics), LiveBid.com (prior to its acquisition by Amazon.com), and AdRelevance (prior to its acquisition by Media Metrix). Before joining Madrona, he worked as an Associate of the Boston Consulting Group. [Email Greg]

Kushal Saha is a Managing Director in the Information Technology practice with a focus on the Internet and New Media theme. He originates, manages and executes all facets of M&A, recapitalizations, private equity and debt placement transactions.

Prior to joining Cascadia Capital, Kushal was part of the leadership of the Internet & Digital Media/Technology Investment Banking Group for Merrill Lynch & Co., where he spearheaded the OpenTable IPO, advised eBay on acquisitions, and oversaw the financing for IACI spin-outs.

Kushal received undergraduate degree from the University of Mumbai in India and a M.B.A from Boston University. [Email Kushal]

Do you want to meet investors interested in the gaming space face to face? Investors will be attending sessions and exploring the exhibitions, and now is your opportunity to ask them questions about their thoughts on the casual games industry. Listen to a short panel discussion among several investors and then fire away (your questions that is)!

Casual Gaming in the Department of Defense

Alicia SANCHEZ, Games Czar,
Defense Acquisition University

Dr. Alicia Sanchez is the Games Czar for Defense Acquisition University where she specializes in the implementation of games and simulations in a variety of learning environments. Alicia completed her PhD at the University of Central Florida in the Modeling and Simulation program. Alicia has served as a Research Psychologist at the Naval Air Warfare Center, as research faculty for the Institute of Simulation and Training, as adjunct faculty for UCF’s Digital Media program and as a research scientist for the Virginia Modeling Analysis and Simulation Center. Alicia’s work with simulation and games has focused on K-12 literacy and STEM, Intact Team Training, and most recently acquisition. Within those areas Alicia has served as Executive Producer and/or designer on over 20 games and earned recognition from CLO, Brandon Hall, PBS, and the SGS&C. Alicia has presented internationally at conferences including SGS-GDC, NATO, Harvard, GLS, and IITSEC. [Email Alicia]

This session will provide an overview of the initial launch of the first ever Department of Defense (DoD) Casual Games site at Defense Acquisition University (DAU), the DoD's premier corporate university. DAU recognized that their student base, the acquisition workforce was demographically similar to the players of games within the casual games industry and seized the opportunity to provide games that are based wholly on acquisition principles to them in a casual gameplay setting.

DAUs goal was to provide low level acquisition concepts that the entire acquisition community of 147,000 civilians and military service members would be familiar enough with to learn from and play successfully and to wrap those games into a website that those students would expect to have in their non-educational casual games experiences. Those expectations include being able to collect achievements and badges for their play, to rate the games, to make comments about the games, to save their favorites and to compete when possible using leader boards.

The site launched with 13 games and received over 100,000 hits in its first month. DAU plans to release a new game on the site each month. The games range from a diner dash style game on the acquisition life cycle and a Bond style game about contracting, to a choose your adventure style game on procurement fraud. Each of the games on the site were designed to be easy to learn how to use, easy to play and to last approximately 10 minutes in legnth. While some of the games on the site were developed specifically for the purpose being used here, several of the games come from DAU's two other award winning games initiatives. The site includes games that represent each of the major acquisition functional areas including general acquisition, logistics, contracting, business cost & finance and systems engineering. Each game's primary focus is increasing the retention and engagement between learners and content. DAU expects the acquisition workforce to use and enjoy using these games and therefore have learning opportunities wherever they are.

Casual for Kids: Leveraging Casual Gaming as Marketing

Brianna KLEMM, Games Specialist,
LEGO®

Brianna has worked as a game specialist at LEGO for the past year. Her focus is on designing fun, easily accessible web and mobile games that give children the opportunity to play with the LEGO bricks that they love - in a new digital environment. Her latest releases are Spinjitzu Smash (available on ninjago.com) and Spinjitzu Scavenger Hunt (available in the Apple iTunes Store).

Brianna started her game career as a programmer before moving into production and light game design. She specializes in vendor management, team organization and serving as the bridge between game development and product owners.

When not working on the next great game she enjoys perfecting her grapefruit margarita recipe, spying on gibbons in the jungles of Laos and cultivating peppers and tomatoes on her tiny Brooklyn patio. [Email Brianna]

Brianna Klemm, Game Specialist at LEGO, will lead a discussion on the best ways that gaming can be used to engage children with physical product. Topics to be covered are:
* Connecting physical and virtual worlds.
* Leveraging gaming to create product buzz
* Creating a safe play space online
* Pushing products without being pushy

Make Real Money on Android without Giving Away Your IP

Matt SHEA, EVP Products and Technology, WildTangent

Matt is an executive with over 15 years experience in the online games space. At WildTangent he is responsible for the platforms and products for both WildTangent Games and WildTangent Media. This includes being co-founder of the WildCoins digital currency business model and creating the BrandBoost advertising platform. Prior to WildTangent, he has held leadership positions at InfoSpace and Go2Net and got his start in the games industry as a developer for Sony Interactive Studios. He holds a degree in Computer Science from University of California at San Diego. [Email Matt]

Let’s talk reality…the Android Market is complete chaos. Or more specifically, the vast majority of mobile App Stores are complete chaos. No effective DRM to protect your game, poor merchandising and discoverability, confusing and changing policies, and worst of all, abysmal business models. I’ll share our take on navigating the choices you need to make from App Stores and advertising networks to monetization. And we’ll highlight what the future holds for successful monetization strategies on Android. WildTangent has just brought its wholly unique business model to Android to address this mess, both for consumers and developers. If you’re going to sit in one session, this is it. Quit praying your IP will be successful on Android. Come listen and talk with us to make the Android revenue promise a reality for you.

Amazon Appstore for Android: Exposure and Monetization

Aaron RUBENSON,
Director, Amazon Appstore,
Amazon

As Director, Amazon Appstore at Amazon.com, Aaron Rubenson is responsible for strategy and business operations of the recently launched Amazon Appstore for Android. Previously at Amazon, Aaron managed AmazonWireless.com, Amazon’s specialty website for wireless products and services, the wireless store on Amazon.com, and various categories in the electronics segment. Prior to joining Amazon, Aaron provided strategy and technology consulting to leading wireless and technology companies. [Email Aaron]

As a developer you have many opportunities to get exposure for your app(s). Where does the Amazon Appstore for Android fit in here? How do developers who submit their apps to the Amazon Appstore get discovered and get exposure? During this 30-min lecture with Aaron Rubenson, Director of the Amazon Appstore, learn how Amazon's innovative marketing and merchandising features have been extended to the Amazon Appstore and can help you get your app in front of more customers.

4:30

Growth & Exit Mingle

Catch up with your favorites from the Investors panel at the Growth and Exit Mingle.

Turning Mobile Games into Money Makers

Charles YIM,
Strategic Partner Development,
Google

Charles Yim leads games, social networking and mobile application partnerships for Google’s mobile display advertising business. In this role, Charles works with both traditional and emerging game developers in building their smartphone businesses. Charles has extensive experience in the online and mobile games eco-system as a venture capital investor and startup entrepreneur. Prior to Google, Charles was on the business development team at AdMob; he also helped launch Boomerang Networks, a virtual currency monetization startup catering to facebook game developers; and was an associate with TriplePoint Capital, where he was involved with gaming investments such as Acclaim Games (acquired by Playdom/Disney), TwoFish (acquired by LiveGamer) and QuickHit Sports. [Email Charles]

The mobile ecosystem provides unique challenges for game developers. Google's mobile games guru, Charles Yim, will share best practices for monetization, app discovery and marketing. He will also share his thoughts on how to build for the mobile gamer.

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About Us

Casual Games Association produces the premiere events for the casual games industry with over 3,500 professionals attending Casual Connect each year. Casual Connect brings together the most talented and knowledgeable experts in the casual gaming field to further the casual games industry with the best of networking and learning. Contact Us

Lectures

Keynote Torsten Reil on High End Games For Mainstream Audiences

Social Games Ecosystem

Making Your IP Work

Independent IP Evolution

Monthly Active Monsters

The Making of Snoopy Flying Ace

Burrito Bison On Two Markets

Taper Auditorium Lectures - From 2011

July 21: Audio in Games

July 20: Games Everywhere!

July 19: General Industry

9:00

Delivering High-End Games To Mainstream Audiences

Torsten REIL, CEO & Co-Founder, NaturalMotion introduced by Jeremy LEWIS, President and CEO, Big Fish Games

9:30

Techniques for Looping Game Music

Jesse HOLT, Co-founder, Game Audio Alliance

Composing Memorable Melodies for Casual, Social & Mobile Games

Aaron WALZ, Co-founder and Partner, Game Audio Alliance

Beyond Play: Gaming in the Connected Age

Robert TERCEK, President, General Creativity

10:30

Atmosphering Games: What You Should Know About Music and Sound Design

Dmitry KUZMENKO, Founder, Strategic Music William BUCKNUM, Music Producer and Voice-Over Director, Strategic Music

Your Brain on Games: The Hidden Psychology of Gaming

Demetri DETSARIDIS, GM, Zynga New York Michael FERGUSSON, CEO and Founder, Ayogo Games Inc Nicole LAZZARO, Founder and President, XEODesign discussion led by Robert TERCEK, President, General Creativity

10 Things I Hate About Casual Games

Dave ROBERTS, CEO, PopCap Games

11:30

Audio Q&A Panel

discussion led by Kevin TONE, Co-founder, Soundrangers

Smart Gamification: Seven Core Concepts for Creating Compelling Experiences

Amy Jo KIM, CEO, Shufflebrain

How Gaming Transforms the Workplace

Ross SMITH, Director of Test, Microsoft

Nurturing a Robust Social Games Ecosystem

Sean RYAN, Director, Games Partnerships, Facebook

12:30

Lunch Break

Lunch Break

Lunch Break

1:30

Monetizing Your Game Soundtracks

Greg RAHN, Owner, Soundmindz David WEINER, Founder, Atomicon Aaron WALZ, Co-Founder and Partner, Game Audio Alliance Brian CHO, Director of Business Development & Marketing, Booyah

Gamification and SocialTV: The New Way to Watch

Jesse REDNISS, Vice President, Digital USA Network

Watching Market: Gamification

Wanda MELONI, Founder, Senior Analyst, M2 Research

Hype vs. Real Deal

Julian FARRIOR, CEO, Backflip Studios Charles HUDSON, CEO, Bionic Panda Daniel BERNSTEIN, CEO, Sandlot Games Anil DHARNI, CEO, Funzio Lisa MARINO, CEO, RockYou discussion led by Joel BRODIE, Founder, Gamezebo

2:30

ASCAP: Licensing, Royalties and the Game Audio Industry

Shawn LeMONE, VP and GM, Film & Television / New Media Department in ASCAP’s Membership Group

Understanding Music Law as a Game Developer: Basics of Musical Intellectual Property

Mona IBRAHIM, Principal Attorney, Law Offices of Mona A. Ibrahim

Emerging Trends in Gaming

Tim CHANG, Partner, Norwest Venture Partners

The Biggest Market You’re Missing Today: Casual Games for Children

Susan MORROW, VP Content, LeapFrog

3:30

Audio & Game Developers in Perfect Harmony: Best Practices Roundtable

Barry DOWSETT, Co-founder, Soundrangers

Name That (Game) Tune (Game show with audience participation and prizes)

Aaron WALZ, Co-founder and Partner, Game Audio Alliance

Career Networking Levels Up: A BranchOut Case Study

Rick MARINI, Founder & CEO, BranchOut

Gamification For Everyone: What’s Your Strategy?

Keith SMITH, Co-founder & CEO BigDoor

Casual Games on Mobile – Prosperous or Profitless?

Paul THELEN, Founder, Chairman & CSO, Big Fish Games

4:30

What It Takes to Create and Manage Entertainment

LeVar BURTON Dialogue led by Robert TERCEK, President, General Creativity

Playboy Makes Its Move: Applied Game Mechanics in Miss Social 2011

Molly KITTLE, Director of Creative Strategies, Bunchball

Triple Door Lectures - From 2011

July 21: App Stores & Download

July 20: Mobile Trends

July 19: Social Mobile Games

July 21:
Audio in Games

July 20:
Games Everywhere!

July 19:
General Industry

Torsten REIL,
CEO & Co-Founder, NaturalMotion
introduced by Jeremy LEWIS, President and CEO, Big Fish Games

Jesse HOLT, Co-founder,
Game Audio Alliance

Robert TERCEK, President,
General Creativity

Dmitry KUZMENKO, Founder,
Strategic Music
William BUCKNUM,
Music Producer and Voice-Over Director,
Strategic Music

Demetri DETSARIDIS, GM,
Zynga New York
Michael FERGUSSON,
CEO and Founder, Ayogo Games Inc
Nicole LAZZARO, Founder and President,
XEODesign
discussion led by Robert TERCEK, President, General Creativity

Dave ROBERTS, CEO,
PopCap Games

discussion led by Kevin TONE,
Co-founder, Soundrangers

Amy Jo KIM, CEO,
Shufflebrain

Ross SMITH, Director of Test,
Microsoft

Sean RYAN,
Director, Games Partnerships,
Facebook

Greg RAHN, Owner,
Soundmindz
David WEINER, Founder,
Atomicon
Aaron WALZ, Co-Founder and Partner,
Game Audio Alliance
Brian CHO, Director of Business Development & Marketing,
Booyah

Jesse REDNISS, Vice President,
Digital USA Network

Julian FARRIOR, CEO,
Backflip Studios
Charles HUDSON, CEO,
Bionic Panda
Daniel BERNSTEIN, CEO,
Sandlot Games
Anil DHARNI, CEO,
Funzio
Lisa MARINO, CEO,
RockYou
discussion led by Joel BRODIE, Founder,
Gamezebo

Mona IBRAHIM, Principal Attorney,
Law Offices of Mona A. Ibrahim

Tim CHANG, Partner,
Norwest Venture Partners

Susan MORROW, VP Content,
LeapFrog

Barry DOWSETT, Co-founder,
Soundrangers

Rick MARINI, Founder & CEO,
BranchOut

Keith SMITH, Co-founder & CEO
BigDoor

Paul THELEN,
Founder, Chairman & CSO,
Big Fish Games

LeVar BURTON
Dialogue led by Robert TERCEK, President, General Creativity

Molly KITTLE,
Director of Creative Strategies,
Bunchball

July 21:
App Stores & Download

July 20:
Mobile Trends

July 19:
Social Mobile Games

Mike INGLEHART, Producer,
Hothead Games

Shainiel DEO, CEO,
Halfbrick

Hong-Yee WONG,
CEO,
IUGO Mobile Entertainment

Jennifer LU,
Director of Business Development,
TinyCo

Tim MEREL, Managing Director,
Digi-Capital
Andrew CHAN, Senior Product Manager,
Playfish
Jennifer LU,
Director of Business Development,
TinyCo
Matthew TUBERGEN, Product Manager,
Recharge Studios

Clark STACEY,
EVP, Strategy & Business Development,
Smart Bomb Interactive

Shainiel DEO, CEO,
Halfbrick

Chris WILLIAMS, VP & GM, Mobile,
PlayFirst

Lydia HEITMAN, PR Manager,
Com2us USA

Tom HUBINA, VP Community,
Z2Live Games
Thomas CHUNG, VP & GM,
The Playforge

Jesse VENBRUX, Game Designer,
Q-Games

Vivian LEE, Director of Strategic Marketing & Partnerships,
EA Interactive

Mathieu ROY, CEO,
PowPowGames
Alex BORTOLUZZI, CEO,
Xoobis
Jon LAM, President & CEO,
Ph03nix New Media
discussion led by Levi BUCHANAN,
Sr. Manager of Developer Relations Chillingo

Jeferson VALADARES, GM Games,
Flurry

Kyu LEE, VP & Head of
GAMEVIL USA

Naoki AOYAGI, CEO,
GREE International

Dov COHN, VP, Products & Marketing,
Appia
Anders JEPPSSON,
Head of Gaming Strategy,
Research in Motion
Kristian RABE, Head of Mobile,
GameDuell
Bill SCOTT, SVP of Sales &
Business Development,
GetJar
discussion led by Eyal RABINOVICH, Mominis

Quyen QUACH,
Director, Consumer Apps and Games,
AT&T

Anders JEPPSSON,
Head of Gaming Strategy,
Research in Motion

Steve AUGUSTINO, Partner,
Kelley Drye & Warren, LLP

Mobile Goes Social:
One Company Experience

Giancarlo MORI, Chief Creative Officer,
Glu Mobile

Charles COX, Program Manager,
Microsoft

July 21:
Online Social Games

July 20:
Online Social Games

July 19:
Online Games

Challenging Social Success Conventions:
Surf & Turf: Navigating The Red Oceans and Greenfields of Social Gaming

Shanti BERGEL, Head of Global Business Development,
Playfish

Challenging Social Success Conventions:
Who Needs Virality? Or, There’s More Than One Way to Build a Successful Social Game

Andrew SHEPPARD,
Chief Product Officer,
Kabam