View, browse, and sort the ever-growing list of sessions by topic and format.
For more information about conference topics and session formats, visit the GDC Showcase Conference page.
Future of Gaming: Quality and Connection (Presented by Facebook)
Sponsor Speakers: Jason Rubin (Facebook), Michael Verdu (Facebook), Dean Takahashi (GamesBeat at VentureBeat), Denny Unger (Cloudhead Games), Michael Carter (PlayCo)
Track: Business and Marketing
Format: Partner Session
Developing a UX Mindset on Fortnite
Speaker: Celia Hodent (Independent)
Track: Design, Production & Team Management
Format: Discussion Session
Squad Up! - Social and Multiplayer in vr with POPULATION: ONE (Presented by Facebook)
Sponsor Speakers: Chia Chin Lee (BigBox VR), Gabe Brown (BigBox VR), Omid Yazdanshenas (Oculus)
Track: Business and Marketing
Format: Partner Session
Making Great vr Games: A Postmortem on Skydance Interactive's 'The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners'
Speakers: Chris Busse (Skydance Interactive), Guy Costantini (Skydance Media)
Track: Business and Marketing, Design
Format: Discussion Session
Challenges and Opportunities in Gaming Innovation on the PC (Presented by Intel Corporation)
Sponsor Speakers: Kim Pallister (Intel Corporation), Michael Lewis (Take-Two Interactive), Jeff Pobst (Hidden Path), Albert Safstrom (Coffee Stain Publishing)
Track: Business and Marketing
Format: Partner Session
'Homefront' to 'God of War': Using Music to Build Suspense
Speaker: Winifred Phillips (Generations Productions LLC)
Track: Audio
Format: Discussion Session
Title: Head of Studio
Company: Skydance Interactive
Chris Busse leads and executes the strategic vision for Skydance Interactive, and oversees day-to-day operations and business development. Chris is a game industry veteran who previously held the roles of General Manager and SVP of Development at Skydance Interactive, overseeing the studio’s development of the critically-acclaimed VR title The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, delivering on the studio’s promise of next level-VR gaming. The game was met with praise for its physics-based combat and original, immersive storytelling upon its release in 2020. Chris was one of the founding members of leading game developer The Workshop Entertainment, known for their critically-acclaimed titles The Evil Within, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage for Borderlands 2 and more. In 2016, Skydance Media acquired The Workshop to launch Skydance Interactive. Prior to his role of COO and General Manager of The Workshop, Chris helped lead the expansion of Treyarch’s team from 3 to over 200 employees. The company was sold to Activision in 2001 and now leads the Call of Duty franchise.
Title: Co-founder and CEO
Company: BigBox VR
Chia Chin Lee is the co-founder and CEO of BigBox VR, a platform-defining VR game company focusing on multiplayer, social, and games-as-a-service. He has a passion for building products and businesses that combine entertainment, technology, and media. Chia Chin has also worked on top-selling products at Valve, Microsoft, and Sony.
Title: Vice President of Global Interactive Marketing
Company: Skydance Media
Guy Costantini is Vice President of Global Interactive Marketing for Skydance Media, known for high profile blockbusters on cherished franchises like Terminator, Altered Carbon, Mission Impossible, Star Trek and many others. As marketing leader for the Interactive group, Guy worked on 2018’s critically acclaimed VR title Archangel: Hellfire and the award-winning The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, which generated more than $30 million in revenue since its launch in January 2020. While diving head first into virtual reality is his current focus, Guy also serves in an advisory capacity to a select number of companies, out to change the games space for the better. In his career, he has had the chance to work on several industry-shaping games like The Witcher 3, League of Legends, Marvel: Contest of Champions, Arena of Valor and Gwent. The only thing he loves more than games are his family and bringing amazing games to eager players, which he has had the pleasure to do for hundreds of millions. Before getting into the space, he worked several years in the high-growth tech startup and music industries in New York, but he was not in games and was encouraged to wear suits so instead he quit that and went on to doing what he loves in Southern California.
Title: UX Consultant
Company: Independent
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry. Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has over ten years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios. Through her work at Ubisoft (e.g. Rainbow 6 franchise), LucasArts (e.g. Star Wars: 1313), and as Director of UX at Epic Games (e.g. Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR. Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit and author of The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design. She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful.
Hear more from Celia Hodent in the book The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design HERE!
Title: Composer
Company: Generations Productions LLC
Winifred Phillips is an award-winning game composer. Some of her latest video game credits include the triple-A first person shooter Homefront: The Revolution and the virtual reality game Dragon Front. Other credits include five of the biggest and best franchises in gaming: Assassin's Creed, Total War, God of War, LittleBigPlanet, and The Sims. Phillips has received an Interactive Achievement Award / D.I.C.E. Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, three Hollywood Music in Media Awards, six Game Audio Network Guild Awards, five Global Music Awards, an IGN Best Score Award, a GameSpot Best Music Award, a GameZone Score of the Year Award, a GameFocus Award, and three Gracie Awards from the Alliance of Women in Media. In addition, Phillips has been recognized as an expert in music for VR by the Women in Virtual Reality organization. She has released fifteen albums. Her soundtrack album for the Legend of the Guardians video game was the first video game soundtrack album released by WaterTower Music, one of the top labels for film music soundtracks. Phillips is the author of the award-winning bestselling book, A Composer's Guide to Game Music, published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
Title: CEO
Company: Hidden Path
Jeff has been heavily involved in the gaming industry for twenty years with roles as game programmer, producer, and chief operating officer before co-founding HPE. Jeff was also a group leader at Microsoft for the Xbox and Xbox 360 platforms. Jeff has shipped over 40 different game titles on multiple PC, console, and VR platforms. Prior to working on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Defense Grid and other HPE franchises, he’s had the privilege of bringing games in the Half-Life, Homeworld and Lord of the Rings franchises to market.
Title: VP FRL Content
Company: Facebook
Mike Verdu is VP of Content at Facebook Reality Labs where he leads the teams building our VR gaming and developer ecosystem. Mike has led teams creating interactive entertainment experiences for over 25 years. He has been a game designer, producer, senior executive, and serial entrepreneur. Most recently, Mike was SVP of Mobile for Electronic Arts, responsible for the studios that operated SimCity BuildIt, Plants vs. Zombies 2, Real Racing 3, The Sims FreePlay, TheSimpsons: Tapped Out, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, and other mobile game services. Before that, he was President of studios at Kabam (joining that company through the acquisition of his mobile game start-up TapZen). He also served as President of Studios and Chief Creative Officer for Zynga between 2009 and 2012. As a creative leader, Mike contributed to games on multiple platforms (PC, console, Facebook, and mobile) that have garnered tens of millions of online players, sold over 20 million units at retail, and generated over $1.5B in revenue.