Jason is the founder of Perimeter Partners, a consultancy focused on helping organizations successfully navigate the game industry ecosystem and maximize their efforts in the interactive digital entertainment sector. For nearly nine years, he served as the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), a professional society committed to advancing the game industry and the careers of developers. Jason was honored for his industry building efforts with the inaugural Ambassador Award at the 8th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. He continues to be an advocate for the expressive power of games and their capacity to change the world.

Behrouz is an experienced leader in the video game industry, equally adept at overseeing small teams or large departments. He has a proven track record of delivering in high-pressure situations and is a specialist in strategy consulting, mobile game development, emerging technologies, international business, client relationships, team building and motivation, project management and technical management. Behrouz holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from McGill University and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Psychology from Concordia University in Montreal.

Ollie has been in the games industry for over 14 years and has over 40 published titles to his name. He is currently the Creative Director of EA Mobile’s Montreal studio and also teaches game and level design at the National Animation and Design Center. A self proclaimed games addict, when he’s not making games, he’s playing them!

David Sears has more than twenty years experience in the video gaming industry. He has been the Lead Designer at Virgin Games, Creative Director at Zipper Interactive, Senior Designer at SCEA, Game Director at Pseudo Interactive, Design Director at Foundation 9 Entertainment and is currently Creative Director at Ubisoft Montreal. One of his many career highlights include designing and directing the SOCOM U.S. Navy Seals franchise for the PS2 and PSP.

Previous positions:

• Producer at Gameloft
• Senior Game Design Manager at EA Mobile
• Game Designer at Gameloft

Max’s career began early 2000 working at a small mobile entertainment company as a graphic artist and web designer. He eventually started developing game design documents for brands such as Family Guy and the NHL and was hired as a game designer at the Jamdat/EA Mobile studio in Montreal. He has worked on games such as Tetris Revolution and Scrabble iPhone. His passion for games dates back to the early 80's: one of his earliest memories was receiving a free copy of Dragon Warrior with his Nintendo Power magazine subscription, which he promptly finished.

Regine Abel landed her first job at EA by creating elaborate content and events for the community of the virtual fantasy world Ultima Online. She later worked for two years on console games at A2M. She then returned to EA as a Game Designer, relocating to Virginia at their Mythic Studio. Within a year, with her second shipped game under her belt, she earned a Lead Game Designer role. Regine came back last year to EA's Montreal studio to work on LPSO, an online virtual world for children and has since moved on to become one of the core members of their new EA Playfish studio.

Specialties:

• MMORPG system and content design
• Fiction Writing, complex chain quests and puzzles
• Designing and enhancing PvP, PvM and Crafting game systems
• Monster AI and level design
• Community interaction

With over ten years of level design experience on AAA videogame titles at Lucas, DoubleFine and Ubisoft studios, Paul is now developing creative Augmented Reality applications at his new Montreal start-up, Hololabs Studio.

Brent George has more than fourteen years in the entertainment industry. Among his many credits are Art Animation Director for Avatar: The Game, and Animation Director and CG Supervisor on “300”. Brent is currently an Animation Director at Ubisoft.

Previously:Gameplay Programmer and Game Designer at Ubisoft

Ethan Larson has more than 10 years experience in the video gaming industry as both a Game Designer and a Programmer. He has worked at GRIP Entertainment, Ubisoft Montreal, Acclaim Cheltenham, Attention to Detail, and Gamesworks Ltd. Some games he has contributed to are: Lazer Zone (Macintosh 1996), Jungle Juggle (Shockwave 2000), Splinter Cell Essentials (PSP 2006), My Word Coach (DS 2007), Linkage (boardgame 2010), and Crystal Shuffle (iPhone 2010). He is currently working on the technical side of AI-systems development at GRIP.

Previously:Gameplay Programmer and Game Designer at Ubisoft

Tiego François-Brosseau has been in the games industry for over 8 years. He started off as a meager graduate student analyzing software development processes in the games industry. He then moved on to being a programmer, then team lead programmer at Ubisoft and has been working on games for the last 6 years. His interests include independent games and getting overly excited about discussing dramatic shifts in the games industry.

Paul Williams is lead sound designer at game studio Behaviour Interactive in Montreal, Canada. He has worked on titles such as NaughtyBear, Rango the Game, and Wet, which was nominated for Best Audio for the Canadian Game Awards. He was educated at Concordia University in the Electroacoustic music program, has been producing electronic music for over 15 years, and has done sound design and music for multiple Indy films and documentaries prior to doing sound design for videogames.  Raised in Winnipeg Canada, he now resides in Montreal with his wife and two children, and is active in multiple music and game projects.