Genese Davis's Blog, page 7
May 20, 2015
Games, Novels, and Films Panel at St. Louis Comic Con
Transmedia is enhancing multiple platforms across entertainment including literary, film, and gaming. The art of writing, strong narratives, and memorable characters are foundational for these multi-platforms now more than ever. Join special guest speakers, Genese Davis (The Holder’s Dominion; MMORPG.com), Rob Prior (Heavy Metal; Spawn the Impaler; Terminator 2: Nuclear Twilight), Jenny Gibbons (Woodsy Studio), and Stuart Keating (Dioxin Dump). These authors, screenwriters, table-top writers, video game narrative writers, and all around creatives will divulge the ins and outs for developing worlds in novels, films, and video games, and where and how their synergy intertwines and collide. Don’t miss this panel on creating dynamic storylines; you’ll be glad you attended!
SATURDAY, MAY 23
12:00-12:45p
Room 160
Designing Video Games Panel at Wizard World St. Louis
Designing a video game or interested in design for games? Our panel with Carol Mertz, Ben Triola, and Seth Coster will cover not only the basics but will also give their best practices for working in design in games. Join us this Friday at the Wizard World St. Louis Comic Con!
FRIDAY, MAY 22
5:00-5:45p
Room 142
Designing a Video Game: What Does it Take?
Level design, writing, programming, art… these are the building blocks for designing the various worlds of video games. Hear everything under the sun about how to become a designer in video games, what the day-to-day expectations look like, and more! Join special guest speakers, Genese Davis (The Holder’s Dominion; MMORPG.com), Carol Mertz (Happy Badger Studio), Seth Coster (Butterscotch Shenanigans) and Ben Triola (Happy Badger Studio) as they divulge their secrets and best practices for creative design in the games industry. Our special guests will also discuss just how many opportunities there are for you to become a level designer in games yourself!
May 19, 2015
E3 Takeover Announcement
Hey everyone! I’m Genese Davis and I’m thrilled to announce that I will be a part of an E3 Takeover this year at the 2015 electronic entertainment expo!
For any of you who may be wondering either what is E3 or what is an E3 takeover – E3 is the world’s premier trade show for computer, video and mobile games and related products. At E3, the video game industry’s top talent pack the Los Angeles Convention Center, connecting tens of thousands of the best, brightest, and most innovative professionals in the interactive entertainment industry.
An E3 takeover means our team made up of myself, Patrick Scott Patterson, Paola Alejandra, Rachel Lara, and Brittney Brombacher will share our experiences with the latest and greatest that E3 has to offer in real time on Twitter in conjunction with the ESA and the E3 event itself.
Your takeover group includes passionate rising voices in streaming, content creation, voice acting, hosting, games writing, and more who will take you inside E3’s event from a whole new set of unique perspectives!
I’m honored and excited to be a part of this thrilling opportunity. Huge thanks to E3, ESA, and Patrick Scott Patterson for assembling our team of positive go-getters who stand tall as voices in the video game world.
We would love for you to join us for this official E3 Twitter Takeover on Wednesday, June 17, right from the heart of E3.
Follow all of us on Twitter @GeneseDavis @OriginalPSP @BlondeNerd @IRachelLara and @PancakePow to keep up with us as we run our E3 Twitter Takeover starting at 10 a.m. on Wednesday June 17! And follow the official @E3 Twitter as well, which will be sharing all of our adventures through their official feed.
I’m Genese Davis and we’ll see you at E3, June 16th through the 18th.
May 7, 2015
Be Impactful in the Games Industry
2:00- 2:45PM BE IMPACTFUL: YOUR INFLUENCE IN VIDEO GAME COMMUNITIES AND GAME DEVELOPMENT (ROOM 107)
Guess what? Your voice and your opinion matters in the gaming industry more than you might know! Video game development blossoms from many different points of inspiration that affect not only our entertainment choices, but how we approach our daily lives as well. Join Genese Davis (The Holder’s Dominion, MMORPG.com), Jason Hayes, (Composer, Critical Hit) Johnathan Wendel (Fatal1ty), John Spatola (Lake Effect Applications), and Jamey Stevenson (Tech Valley Space, Spoony Bird) for this exciting topic about how you and the video game community impact each other and game development at large. Be there and share how you’d like the industry to be impacted as well!
Jason Hayes
A multiple award-winning composer, Jason Hayes is well known for his long-standing relationship with Blizzard Entertainment, contributing music to their games set in the popular worlds of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. He was the original lead composer of World of Warcraft, the most successful online game in the world.
Jason’s music has been performed by symphony orchestras all over the world in various concerts including the touring show “Video Games Live”, which debuted at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic to a crowd of 11,000 people. He’s also been a featured speaker for UCLA, USC, the Film Music Network, ASCAP, the Game Developers Conference, and the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program.
Jason was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a young adult he discovered his passion for music composition while studying piano with the renowned concert pianist, Dr. William Chapman-Nyaho. After spending a year traveling around the country as a touring musician, Jason studied music composition at the University of North Texas. Soon after, he moved to California and began his career as a staff composer at Sierra On-Line, which eventually led to him joining the award-winning development team at Blizzard Entertainment.
Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel
Johnathan Wendel is considered one of the best professional gamers in the world, having won 12 world championship titles, including four Player of the Year awards with the Cyberathlete Professional League and one with the World Cyber Games. His endorsement deals include computer hardware companies, headphone companies and even food companies. Wendel was recently named the highest paid professional video gamer in the world by Business Insider, having earned a total of $454,544.98 from 35 tournaments.
Genese Davis
Genese Davis is an American author, host, columnist, and media personality. She is the author of The Holder’s Dominion, a next-generation thriller heralded as a breakthrough novel by Publishers Weekly. Her writing expertise expands across various genres including thriller, fantasy, gamer-lit, and new adult, as well as screenplay, playwriting, and video game lore. Davis is an in-demand host, speaker, and moderator for TV, radio, web-series, conventions, academic fairs, publishing workshops, and literary and entertainment expos. Davis is a featured columnist at MMORPG.com, and she is the founder of The Gamer In You. She was awarded the iGR Woman of the Year for her outstanding efforts in debunking stereotypes and for bringing the video game industry the first new adult, gaming-thriller, The Holder’s Dominion.
Davis is a thought-leader in video game culture and its social development. Through her passion for the art community, she demonstrates how team-based video games like MMORPGs affect our lives and the new place video games have in fiction and other forms of media.
John Spatola
All his life John has excelled in both art and technology. After attending Syracuse University for his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and a Minor in Computer Science, he completed Lockheed Martin’s Leadership Development Program. He also attained a Masters in Systems Engineering from Cornell University.
In 2009, using his solid engineering background and experience as an avid gamer, he created Stickbo, a side scrolling stick figure shooter. Released in January, 2010, it was number one on iTunes overall free list two times. The follow up, StickBo: Zombies was released for Halloween that same year. With the success of the series, he founded Lake Effect Applications, a company specializing in mobile video games.
As CEO, Lead Designer, and Lead Software Engineer, John started to build TriggerFist, a modern third person shooter targeted towards core gamers. Released in August 2012, it is widely regarded as one of the best shooters on the iTunes App Store. It has over 16 million downloads and has held rankings in the Top 200 for over two and half years.
Lake Effect Applications represents one of the last few strongholds in the mobile gaming marketplace — an independent, self-sustaining game studio that values quality above all else. John and his team are currently working on an unannounced action game.
Jamey Stevenson
Jamey Stevenson is a designer and programmer with over a decade of experience creating video games for handheld, mobile, desktop and web. He is the founder of Tech Valley Game Space, an inclusive game development community and co-working studio in upstate NY, and is also the proprietor of Spoony Bird, an independent game development studio devoted to serving up flighty experiments in tiny, bite-sized portions.
In past lives, Jamey served as an AI Programmer at Realtime Worlds and a Game Designer at Tag Games, and has worked on titles ranging from the large scale online cops and robbers game All Points Bulletin to the cute and cuddly cat breeding sim Cat Tap Feverfor iOS. He has written extensively about game design and related topics, including featured contributions in Gamasutra, Idle Thumbs, Critical Distance, Memory Insufficient, and the book Designing Games for Ethics: Models, Techniques and Frameworks. Jamey is also an outspoken advocate for game development education, and has previously served as a judge and mentor for the Dare to be Digital student game competition and provided guest lectures to elementary, middle and high school students in both the U.S. and U.K. to help spread awareness about careers in digital game creation.
May 6, 2015
What’s Next for Mobile and On-The-Go Gaming – Wizard World
5:30 – 6:15PM AN INSIDE LOOK INTO ON-THE-GO GAMING: WHAT FUTURE DO YOU WANT TO SEE IN MOBILE GAMES? (ROOM 107)
Join Genese Davis (The Holder’s Dominion, MMORPG.com), John Spatola (Lake Effect Applications) and Jamey Stevenson (Tech Valley Space, Spoony Bird), as they discuss this exciting video game genre. Hear what industry pros think about the future for mobile games, and what opportunities and challenges lie ahead for one of the fastest growing industries we’ve seen to date. Be there and share what you’d like to see in the future of gaming as well!
Wizard World Comic Con
Philadelphia 2015
May 7-8-9-10, 2015
Thur-Fri-Sat-Sun
LOCATION
Pennsylvania Convention Center
1101 Arch St.
Philadelphia, PA 19107
SHOW HOURS
Thursday, May 7, 2015 – 3pm – 8pm
Friday, May 8, 2015 – 12pm – 7pm
Saturday, May 9, 2015 – 10am – 7pm
Sunday, May 10, 2015 – 11am – 5pm
The Future of Online Games with Garrett Fuller and Genese Davis
4:30 – 5:15PM THE FUTURE OF ONLINE GAMES AND TECHNOLOGY (ROOM 107)
What does the future hold for online games and technology? Sit in on this exciting panel as Genese Davis (The Holder’s Dominion, MMORPG.com), Garrett Fuller (MMORPG.com), and special surprise guest speakers divulge what they foresee happening in video game and technology industries and just how many opportunities there are for you to help impact this future as well!
Garrett Fuller
After Garrett Fuller graduated college in 1994 and became a teacher for 2 years, before pursuing working in the financial industry. Fuller then worked for Bloomberg News which ignited his passion for news coverage. In 2003 Fuller was able to get back into education and has been working at ETS ever since.
Games in general are a major part of Fuller’s life as well. Playing Dungeons & Dragons when he was 7 years old has led to a life long love for RPGs. Also at age 7, his father came home one day with an Atari 2600, changing his family to passionate gamers.
In 2005 Fuller wrote his first feature at MMORPG.com and has continued a career in game journalism and Industry Relations since that very day. He has been attending GDC, E3, and PAX as far back as 2006 and feels very lucky to know so many great people in this industry, from table top games, to video games, to the folks in the forefront of new technology and development.
As part of both MMORPG.com and TenTonHammer Fuller coordinates over 50 panels for New York Comicon, Penny Arcade Expo, and the Chicago Entertainment Expo. Fuller feels blessed to work in such amazing worlds and continues to seek out what drives people to learn, develop, and most importantly play the games that will shape our future.
Genese Davis
Genese Davis is an American author, host, columnist, and media personality. She is the author of The Holder’s Dominion, a next-generation thriller heralded as a breakthrough novel by Publishers Weekly. Her writing expertise expands across various genres including thriller, fantasy, gamer-lit, and new adult, as well as screenplay, playwriting, and video game lore. Davis is an in-demand host, speaker, and moderator for TV, radio, web-series, conventions, academic fairs, publishing workshops, and literary and entertainment expos. Davis is a featured columnist at MMORPG.com, and she is the founder of The Gamer In You. She was awarded the iGR Woman of the Year for her outstanding efforts in debunking stereotypes and for bringing the video game industry the first new adult, gaming-thriller, The Holder’s Dominion.
Davis is a thought-leader in video game culture and its social development. Through her passion for the art community, she demonstrates how team-based video games like MMORPGs affect our lives and the new place video games have in fiction and other forms of media.
Wizard World Comic Con
Philadelphia 2015
May 7-8-9-10, 2015
Thur-Fri-Sat-Sun
LOCATION
Pennsylvania Convention Center
1101 Arch St.
Philadelphia, PA 19107
SHOW HOURS
Thursday, May 7, 2015 – 3pm – 8pm
Friday, May 8, 2015 – 12pm – 7pm
Saturday, May 9, 2015 – 10am – 7pm
Sunday, May 10, 2015 – 11am – 5pm
May 5, 2015
The Scoop on Designing VideoGames – Wizard World Comic Con
12:30 – 1:15PM DESIGNING THE WORLD: AN INSIDE LOOK INTO THE DESIGN OF VIDEO GAMES (ROOM 109)
Level design, writing, programming, art… these are the building blocks for designing the various worlds of video games. Hear from Genese Davis (The Holder’s Dominion, MMORPG.com), Nick Covington (N-Fusion), John Spatola (Lake Effect Applications), and Carissa Isolano (N-Fusion) as they divulge their secrets and best practices for creative design in the games industry. Our special guests will also discuss just how many opportunities there are for you to become a level designer in games yourself!
John Spatola
All his life John has excelled in both art and technology. After attending Syracuse University for his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and a Minor in Computer Science, he completed Lockheed Martin’s Leadership Development Program. He also attained a Masters in Systems Engineering from Cornell University.
In 2009, using his solid engineering background and experience as an avid gamer, he created Stickbo, a side scrolling stick figure shooter. Released in January, 2010, it was number one on iTunes overall free list two times. The follow up, StickBo: Zombies was released for Halloween that same year. With the success of the series, he founded Lake Effect Applications, a company specializing in mobile video games.
As CEO, Lead Designer, and Lead Software Engineer, John started to build TriggerFist, a modern third person shooter targeted towards core gamers. Released in August 2012, it is widely regarded as one of the best shooters on the iTunes App Store. It has over 16 million downloads and has held rankings in the Top 200 for over two and half years.
Lake Effect Applications represents one of the last few strongholds in the mobile gaming marketplace — an independent, self-sustaining game studio that values quality above all else. John and his team are currently working on an unannounced action game.
Carissa Isolano
Carissa Isolano has been working in the Video Game Industry for 8 years. She attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for Video Game Art and Design, and began working as a 3D Artist on Wii titles. In 2011 she worked as the sole artist on her first mobile game with N-Fusion Interactive, Airmail. Airmail received many awards, most notably Best Visual Experience by Unity Technologies, and was featured by Apple as Editors Choice. Carissa took up the role of Art Director as well as Lead Artist on Deus Ex: The Fall as one of her next titles. DX:TF is regarded as one of the best graphical achievements on mobile for its time. As Art Director at N-Fusion, Carissa both manages the team and creates a lot of the artwork used in N-Fusion’s titles. With a strong understanding of both the artistic and technical sides of game development, it enables her to create strategies to tackle the toughest hardware and timeline restrictions.
Nick Covington
Nick Covington is a seven-year multidisciplinary game developer whose work has encompassed multiple large franchises such as the Hunger Games, Mission Impossible, and Guitar Hero. Nick has contributed to mobile games which have won multiple Webbies and has had projects featured at Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier Story Lab. Nick focuses his energies on tool development, real-time graphics, and perfecting his favorite stir-fry recipe. He currently works on building large real-time worlds for mobile and PC platforms at N-Fusion Interactive in New Jersey.
Genese Davis
Genese Davis is an American author, host, columnist, and media personality. She is the author of The Holder’s Dominion, a next-generation thriller heralded as a breakthrough novel by Publishers Weekly. Her writing expertise expands across various genres including thriller, fantasy, gamer-lit, and new adult, as well as screenplay, playwriting, and video game lore. Davis is an in-demand host, speaker, and moderator for TV, radio, web-series, conventions, academic fairs, publishing workshops, and literary and entertainment expos. Davis is a featured columnist at MMORPG.com, and she is the founder of The Gamer In You. She was awarded the iGR Woman of the Year for her outstanding efforts in debunking stereotypes and for bringing the video game industry the first new adult, gaming-thriller, The Holder’s Dominion.
Davis is a thought-leader in video game culture and its social development. Through her passion for the art community, she demonstrates how team-based video games like MMORPGs affect our lives and the new place video games have in fiction and other forms of media.
Working in the Games Industry
1:30 – 2:15PM A CAREER IN VIDEO GAMES: IS IT ALL IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE? (ROOM 105)
As one of the fastest evolving industries we’ve seen to date, find out what to expect when seeking a career in gaming. Genese Davis (The Holder’s Dominion, MMORPG.com), Johnathan Wendel (Fatal1ty), John Spatola (Lake Effect Applications), and Jeff Birns (N-Fusion) will discuss the opportunities as well as the challenges. You won’t want to miss this vital panel!
Jason Hayes
A multiple award-winning composer, Jason Hayes is well known for his long-standing relationship with Blizzard Entertainment, contributing music to their games set in the popular worlds of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. He was the original lead composer of World of Warcraft, the most successful online game in the world.
Jason’s music has been performed by symphony orchestras all over the world in various concerts including the touring show “Video Games Live”, which debuted at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic to a crowd of 11,000 people. He’s also been a featured speaker for UCLA, USC, the Film Music Network, ASCAP, the Game Developers Conference, and the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program.
Jason was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a young adult he discovered his passion for music composition while studying piano with the renowned concert pianist, Dr. William Chapman-Nyaho. After spending a year traveling around the country as a touring musician, Jason studied music composition at the University of North Texas. Soon after, he moved to California and began his career as a staff composer at Sierra On-Line, which eventually led to him joining the award-winning development team at Blizzard Entertainment.
Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel
Johnathan Wendel is considered one of the best professional gamers in the world, having won 12 world championship titles, including four Player of the Year awards with the Cyberathlete Professional League and one with the World Cyber Games. His endorsement deals include computer hardware companies, headphone companies and even food companies. Wendel was recently named the highest paid professional video gamer in the world by Business Insider, having earned a total of $454,544.98 from 35 tournaments.
Genese Davis
Genese Davis is an American author, host, columnist, and media personality. She is the author of The Holder’s Dominion, a next-generation thriller heralded as a breakthrough novel by Publishers Weekly. Her writing expertise expands across various genres including thriller, fantasy, gamer-lit, and new adult, as well as screenplay, playwriting, and video game lore. Davis is an in-demand host, speaker, and moderator for TV, radio, web-series, conventions, academic fairs, publishing workshops, and literary and entertainment expos. Davis is a featured columnist at MMORPG.com, and she is the founder of The Gamer In You. She was awarded the iGR Woman of the Year for her outstanding efforts in debunking stereotypes and for bringing the video game industry the first new adult, gaming-thriller, The Holder’s Dominion.
Davis is a thought-leader in video game culture and its social development. Through her passion for the art community, she demonstrates how team-based video games like MMORPGs affect our lives and the new place video games have in fiction and other forms of media.
Jeff Birns
Jeff Birns is a dedicated game developer with twenty-two years of experience in the video game industry. His initial work in the field started him as a fledgling 3D game artist diligently pursuing creativity; in 1997, Jeff further nourished his artistic passions and founded New Jersey-based studio N-Fusion Interactive to allow him the freedom to take innovative risk in his own creations. With an emphasis on guild-established principles, Jeff has been able to attract a solid team of talented and equally passionate game developers under his wing. Through his guidance, N-Fusion has developed over forty unique titles spanning numerous genres and platforms met with praise and acclaim, including award-winning mobile games “Air Mail” and “Deus Ex: The Fall.”
John Spatola
All his life John has excelled in both art and technology. After attending Syracuse University for his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and a Minor in Computer Science, he completed Lockheed Martin’s Leadership Development Program. He also attained a Masters in Systems Engineering from Cornell University.
In 2009, using his solid engineering background and experience as an avid gamer, he created Stickbo, a side scrolling stick figure shooter. Released in January, 2010, it was number one on iTunes overall free list two times. The follow up, StickBo: Zombies was released for Halloween that same year. With the success of the series, he founded Lake Effect Applications, a company specializing in mobile video games.
As CEO, Lead Designer, and Lead Software Engineer, John started to build TriggerFist, a modern third person shooter targeted towards core gamers. Released in August 2012, it is widely regarded as one of the best shooters on the iTunes App Store. It has over 16 million downloads and has held rankings in the Top 200 for over two and half years.
Lake Effect Applications represents one of the last few strongholds in the mobile gaming marketplace — an independent, self-sustaining game studio that values quality above all else. John and his team are currently working on an unannounced action game.
May 4, 2015
eSports Panel at Phiadelphia Comic Con with Fatal1ty and Genese Davis
Legendary professional gamer, Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel will be at the Philadelphia Comic Con revealing the ins and outs of pro gaming, eSports, Twitch, and more, May 8th-10th at Wizard World.
4:30 – 5:15PM THE E-SPORTS PHENOMENA: SPOTLIGHT ON PRO-GAMER JONATHAN WENDEL (FATAL1TY) (ROOM 105)
E-Sports is bringing together every type of gamer from pro to casual. Recently, we have witnessed state-of-the-art gaming competitions and events like never seen before, and the future is bright for even more growth within this industry. Join Genese Davis (The Holder’s Dominion, MMORPG.com) as she interviews legendary pro-gamer, Johnathan Wendel (Fatal1ty), giving you a behind the scenes look into e-Sports. They will discuss the opportunities and obstacles players and fans face as this industry rapidly evolves, as well as everything under the sun about what it takes to get into pro gaming, all things Twitch, and the e-Sports industry at large.
Johnathan Wendel
Johnathan Wendel is considered one of the best professional gamers in the world, having won 12 world championship titles, including four Player of the Year awards with the Cyberathlete Professional League and one with the World Cyber Games. His endorsement deals include computer hardware companies, headphone companies and even food companies. Wendel was recently named the highest paid professional video gamer in the world by Business Insider, having earned a total of $454,544.98 from 35 tournaments.
Genese Davis
Genese Davis is an American author, host, columnist, and media personality. She is the author of The Holder’s Dominion, a next-generation thriller heralded as a breakthrough novel by Publishers Weekly. Her writing expertise expands across various genres including thriller, fantasy, gamer-lit, and new adult, as well as screenplay, playwriting, and video game lore. Davis is an in-demand host, speaker, and moderator for TV, radio, web-series, conventions, academic fairs, publishing workshops, and literary and entertainment expos. Davis is a featured columnist at MMORPG.com, and she is the founder of The Gamer In You. She was awarded the iGR Woman of the Year for her outstanding efforts in debunking stereotypes and for bringing the video game industry the first new adult, gaming-thriller, The Holder’s Dominion.
Davis is a thought-leader in video game culture and its social development. Through her passion for the art community, she demonstrates how team-based video games like MMORPGs affect our lives and the new place video games have in fiction and other forms of media.
April 23, 2015
Who’s the Villain You Love Most?
Chime in with your vote at this highly-anticipated panel at the Wizard World Las Vegas Comic Con!
2:30 – 3:15PM FROM THE JOKER TO SAURON TO CRUELLA DE VILLE: WRITERS DISCUSS WHAT MAKES A GREAT VILLAIN (ROOM S233)
A great villain can leave the most lasting impression and memories! Sometimes even more so than a great hero. Why is that? Hear from Genese Davis (The Holder’s Dominion, MMORPG.com) Pam van Hylckama Vlieg (D4EO Literary Agency)Andrew Taylor (Author, Artist, Speaker – Geek Shock) Eric Kieron Davis (Senior Producer, Creative Director) and Maxwell Alexander Drake (The Genesis of Oblivion Saga, Everquest Next) dive in to what makes their villains memorable and how to transform just an average evil character in your rough draft to an epic evil villain in that final manuscript!
Wizard World Comic Con
Las Vegas 2015
April 24-25-26, 2015
Fri-Sat-Sun
LOCATION
Las Vegas Convention Center
3150 Paradise Rd.
Las Vegas, NV 89109
SHOW HOURS
Friday, April 24, 2015 – 3pm – 8pm
Saturday, April 25, 2015 – 10am – 7pm
Sunday, April 26, 2015 – 11am – 5pm
