Website: @mrfaceplant

Session: MakerU Board Games

Adam Clare specializes in serious games and is a professor of game design at George Brown. At Wero Creative he manages educational gaming portal Kidoid. His work on games and education has been presented at conferences around the world. In 2010, Adam co-founded Board Game Jam and, for fun, he runs ThingsAreGood.com.

Website: Microsoft App Hub

Session: How XNA Gets Your Game To Market Quicker—Sponsored by Microsoft Windows Phone

Alex is an Academic Developer Evangelist at Microsoft Canada. In his spare time he is an indie game developer concentrating primarily on the mobile platform. His indie work ranges from published game titles (Sudoku3D) to open source projects (Tranquillity).

Website: Spooky Squid

Session: They Sweat, Bleed, and Tear Pixels—The Evolution of A Bloody Gothic Art Game

Andrew works at Spooky Squid Games Inc. as Lead Curmudgeon and Programmer.

Website: Andrewkeenan.com
Twitter: @tall_andy

Session: Cheating As A Game Mechanic

Andy Keenan is a PhD student at the University of Toronto. He researches decision-making in games and how interfaces can keep us from making satisfying decisions. Andy worked on Seek Your Own Proof with DiscoveryKids and is currently developing an energy conservation game that uses the thermostat as the controller.

Website: Benjaminrivers.com
Twitter: @benjaminrivers

Session: Tell Me Another One—Pushing The Storytelling Potential In Games

Benjamin Rivers is an accomplished illustrator and graphic novelist and the creator of independent, narrative-based games such as Snow and Home. In addition, he leads the design and development of company and promotional websites
such as From 3 to 3 and teaches at OCAD University.

Website: netgrindgames.com
Twitter: @netgrind

Sessions: Emerging Artist Showcase

Cale Bradbury is a fountain of game design ideas. He’s been making a prolific amount of small game “thingys” over the last 4 years and is now pushing out of his comfort zone with his current title.

Website: DrinkBoxstudios.com
Twitter: @c_j_harvey

Session: DrinkBox Days—Bringing Blobs and Guacamelee To Life

Chris Harvey is Co-Founder and Technical Director of DrinkBox Studios, a small independent studio in Toronto. DrinkBox released its first game, Tales from Space: About a Blob, earlier this year. Chris is now hard at work on the follow-up to Blob called Mutant Blobs Attack and Guacamelee!

Website: coryschmitz.com

Session:Finding My Way Into Games (As a Graphic Designer)

Cory Schmitz is a graphic designer from Seattle WA, temporarily living in Toronto to work on a video game. In the year after publishing video game culture magazines EXP and The Controller, he has done design projects for Sworcery, Uncharted 3, Anamanaguchi, Joystiq, and more.

Website: Superbrothers.ca
Twitter: @the1console

Session: Peripherals Theatre Demo

Craig Adams is a representative of Superbrothers Inc., the art and design organization that co-created the award-winning game Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, with Capybara Games and composer Jim Guthrie. He also participated in the Peripherals Initiative and is co-creator Eye Pilot, possibly the world’s first optically-controlled video game.

Website: Damiansommer.tumblr.com
Twitter: @damiansommer

Sessions: Peripherals Theatre Demo; Emerging Artist Showcase; I MAEK GAMES AND SO CAN YOU!

Damian Sommer has been making computer games since he was 10. Since then, he has released a mountain of Flash, PC, and iOS games. He is a notorious game jam junkie and loves making tons of tiny little games. (Also, he doesn’t really like anime.)

Website: Atmosphere Industries
Twitter: @fonograph

Sessions: MakerU Physical Games and Recess.TO

David Fono creates award-winning big games that spill out into the everyday world. He has created street, alternate reality, and social media games that have been exhibited at festivals worldwide. Currently, with Atmosphere Industries, he is making a game for children about online privacy. In addition, he runs Toronto games meetup recess.to.

Website: dreamsake.org

Session:Emerging Artist Showcase

Derek Gallant is a game programming student at Humber College who has been captivated by game development for over a decade. He has a passion for indie games, and is currently putting the finishing touches on Ballin, a 2D physics game.

Website: Dustin Freeman
Twitter: @dustinfreeman

Session: Kinect Hacking The Love Child of Tetris and Hole In The Wall

Dustin Freeman combines his backgrounds in math and improvisational theatre in his PhD research on expressive gestural interfaces at the University of Toronto. Previously working on the Microsoft Surface, he recently worked with the Kinect at Microsoft Research Cambridge. He likes beer and travelling the world extensively.

Website: Bigpants Games
Twitter: @emmiemcg

Sessions: Getting Things Done: Turning Limitations Into Creativity; Indie Games Tournaments; Peripherals Demos

Emilie McGinley is co-founder of Bigpants Games, behind the award-winning 3D game Depths to Which I Sink, and Toronto Video Game Jam, one of the largest and longest running game development jams globally. She also leads the TIFF Nexus Peripherals Initiative, a collaboration between game developers and hardware hackers.

Website: OCAD

Session: Crafting A Mindset For Play As Adults

Emma is a professor in Game Design at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD-U) University in Toronto. She has worked in the game industry for over 17 years: in development, research, and the academy. (This makes her older than the average game geek.) She plays, teaches, makes, writes, and talks about games and play to anyone who stands still long enough to listen.

Website: jpkgames.com
Twitter: @JasonPKaplan

Session: MakerU Iron Chef Competition

Jason P. Kaplan is a game developer and designer, and founder and organizer of the Game Prototype Challenge. He values finding fun and depth in games, and considers himself a student of the changing face of the world as technology advances—specifically, the fusion of people and technology.

Website: Edge Lab
Twitter: @jasonnolan

Session: Crafting A Mindset For Play As Adults

Jason Nolan is a professor of Early Childhood Education at Ryerson University and director of the Experiential Design and Gaming Environments (EDGE) Lab. Jason’s research interests include science and technology education, virtual learning environments, and adaptive design for young children.

Website: Bigpants Games
Twitter: @misterbigpants

Sessions: A Walk Through the Trash: Celebrating the Games & People of the TRS-80 Microcomputer; Indie Game Tournaments

Jim McGinley was creating indie games long before that was a term. He recently left a lovely wage to pursue Bigpants full time, in hopes of creating something amazing. In October, their latest game, The Depths To Which I Sink, won the Audience Choice Award at the international games festival IndieCade.

Website: Silicon Knights
Twitter: @JulianSpillane

Session: Sticking The Landing—Strategies On Shepherding The Next Big Project

Julian is a Director at Silicon Knights having most recently worked on X-Men Destiny. Prior to that he founded and operated Toronto indie studio Frozen North. It’s rumoured he was born a piece of unsculpted piece of clay who through a lifetime of cartoons, imagination, and gaming, grew up to become a game developer.

Website: k4t3
Twitter: @oceanpark

Sessions: MakerU Physical Games and Recess.TO

Kate is a pervasive game designer, researcher, and educator. She is the co-founder of Atmosphere Industries, an award-winning game design non-profit, and an Associate at Six to Start. Currently, she is heading up the development of a privacy literacy game co-created with children (gamingprivacy.org) funded by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Website: Metanet Software
Twitter: @metanetsoftware

Sessions: Getting Things Done: Turning Limitations Into Creativity

Mare Sheppard is a board member of the Hand Eye Society and one half of indie game developer Metanet. Metanet is now feverishly working on an update to its game N, two new games, three top-secret projects… and a partridge in a pear tree. Mare has never quite gotten the hang of writing in the third person.

Website: Get Set Games
Twitter: @getsetgames

Session: Sticking The Landing—Strategies On Shepherding The Next Big Project

Matt Coombe has been working as a digital artist for 12 years. He has
worked with various developers including Valve, Gearbox, Sony, and NCsoft as a UI designer, environment and character modeller, texture artist, and digital painter. He is a co-founder of Get Set Games.

Website: Matthammill.com
Twitter: @matthammill

Session: The Visual Medium Is The Message: Exploring The Art of Gesundheit!

Matt Hammill is a Toronto-based animator and game designer. He is the creator of the acclaimed action-puzzle game Gesundheit!, published by Konami for iOS. With a background in TV animation, short films, and children’s books, he is interested in expanding the visual palette of games.

Website: MelanieMcBride.net
Twitter: @melaniemcbride

Session: Crafting A Mindset For Play As Adults

Melanie is an educator and researcher with Ryerson University’s Experiential Design and Gaming Environments (EDGE) lab, where she is exploring autonomous learning and play in situated, informal gaming environments. She is currently at work on a book about emergent learning in convergence culture.

Website: Spooky Squid
Twitter: @spookysquid

Session: They Sweat, Bleed, and Tear Pixels—The Evolution of A Bloody Gothic Art Game

Miguel is a veteran of Toronto’s indie game scene. He is one half of Spooky Squid Games and helps run the Hand Eye Society. His pixel art has enriched the movie Crank, the back cover of Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together, and several mediocre licensed cellphone games. He is currently working on They Bleed Pixels.

Website: TIFF Nexus
Twitter: @nickpagee

Session: Crafting A Mindset For Play As Adults

Nick Pagee is trained professionally as a cat herder. In his spare time he’s a gaming and interactive consultant at TIFF Bell Lightbox, animation programmer at TIFF Kids, independent designer, full-time student, and hacker of digital things soft/hardware.

Website: Get Set Games
Twitter: @robertfsegal

Session: Indie Game Tournament

Rob Segal is a co-founder of the Toronto Video Game Jam, one of the largest and longest running game development jams in the world. With over 10 years of experience in developing software, he is also co-founder of Get Set Games, whose smash hit Mega Jump has over 22 million downloads. Rob is currently working on their follow-up game Mega Run.

Website: Untold Entertainment
Twitter: @untoldent

Session: Sticking The Landing—Strategies On Shepherding The Next Big Project

Ryan Henson Creighton is the founder and president of Untold Entertainment Inc., a boutique studio in Toronto specializing in games and apps for kids, teens, tweens, and preschoolers. With his 5-year-old daughter Cassandra, Ryan co-authored the acclaimed game Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure.

Website: Gamine Expedition
Twitter: @smgrimes

Sessions: Getting Things Done: Turning Limitations Into Creativity

Dr Sara M. Grimes is a professor at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, with expertise in the areas of digital game studies, children’s culture, technology, and play. Her current research examines emerging ethical and policy issues relating to child-generated content in digital games and kids’ cultural participation online.

Website: cs.washington.edu

Session: Using Games To Solve Difficult Real-World Problems

Seth Cooper is the Creative Director of the Center for Game Science at the University of Washington. His main interest is in using video games to solve difficult real-world problems. He is Chief Architect and Lead Designer of Foldit, a membrane-folding puzzle video game that has resulted in players contributing to biochemical scientific research.

Website: Megashaun
Twitter: @megashaun

Sessions: Casual Gala host; They Sweat, Bleed, and Tear Pixels—The Evolution of A Bloody Gothic Art Game

Shaun Hatton is the host of TV shows Electric Playground and Reviews on the Run. His distinguishing characteristics include his big hair, iconic moustache, and his mighty teeth that can chomp through metal—impressive given his height of 127 centimetres and weight of 56 kilos. He enjoys making music and flossing his teeth twice daily.

Website: Shawnyeager.com/
Twitter: @shawnyeager

Sessions: How To Better Beat The Odds—Make Games You Love, Stop Eating KD Every Night

Shawn Yeager has earned the reputation as a mover and shaker by generating over $250 million in revenue for small to mid-sized technology firms. His work centers on bringing promising new technologies to market, a passion sparked by the Atari 2600 and still plays a mean game of Pitfall.

Website: mrghosty.net
Twitter: @mrghostyx

Session: Crafting A Mindset For Play As Adults

Skot Deeming is a media artist, VJ culture writer, and curator preoccupied with intersections between gamer culture, hacker culture, and art. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree, while continuing to curate and program game and art events in Toronto and Winnipeg.