East Coast Game Conference Celebrates Eleven Years with Keynotes From Games Industry Veterans Adam Sessler and Warren Robinett
RALEIGH, NC (MARCH 25, 2019) – East Coast Game Conference (ECGC), the largest gathering of video game professionals on the east coast, returns for an impressive eleventh year to the Raleigh Convention Center. From April 16th to 18th, ECGC 2019 will connect some of the greatest minds in the industry through networking opportunities, keynotes, and panels from industry leaders, and engaging programs.
ECGC has announced the attendance of two industry icons who will serve as keynote speakers at this year’s show: Adam Sessler and Warren Robinett.
“We’re thrilled once again to bring interactive entertainment professionals together to build capacity within an industry for which we all share a strong passion,” said Walter Rotenberry, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of East Coast Games Conference. “We have a thriving community of interactive entertainment games industry professionals flocking to the event, this year’s show is poised to be the best one yet.”
“Every year we work to bring the best and brightest from the industry, and this year is no different.” Troy Knight, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of East Coast Games Conference. “This year’s lineup of speakers, including Adam Sessler and Warren Robinett, is sure to inspire all in attendance.”
Best known for his strong opinions, offbeat sense of humor, and deep desire to explain and open up the pleasures of games to a wider audience, Sessler became one of the most recognizable faces of the industry. Formerly a host of television shows Gamespot TV, Extended Play, and X-Play, and editor-in-chief of Rev3Games, Sessler left the camera altogether and used his experience to start a consulting company, TheoryHead Inc. He also is the co-founder of Spiketrap, an AI-driven analytics/sentiment tool that understands the vernacular of video games.
Warren Robinett is a 40-year veteran of the gaming industry who began his career as a game designer with Atari, where he designed Adventure, the first action-adventure game. He became a VR researcher in 1986, first at NASA Ames Research Center, and later at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During 2003-2012, he was a researcher at HP Labs, studying defect-tolerant computing and memristor-based memory systems. He is currently completing a book, Making the Dragon, about his 1979 Atari game Adventure. His talk, From Atari to Virtual Reality will discuss the first few ricochets in that career path leading to present day.
In addition to ECGC 2019’s featured keynote speakers, leading experts and innovators will give talks and panels throughout the show’s duration on various topics related to emerging areas of the game industry. The list of currently confirmed speakers and topics include the following:
- The Ontology Cure: Amazing X-RAY Vision Instantly – Dr. Jeff Howard and Dr. Steve Graham
- Narrative Nightmares & Lessons Learned – Olivier Henriot, Jesse Scoble and Drew Holmes
- Real-Time Dynamic Cover System for Unreal Engine 4 – David Nadaski
- Banishing Player AND Designer Grind with Emergent AI and Procedural Content – Dave Mark
- Choice Design For The Masses – Matthew Weise
- Cut To The Chase: Writing For Cinematics in Games – Ashley Ruhl
- What is Agile? An introduction to modern project management methodologies – Christopher Axthelm
- Reinforcement Learning in Games – Creating Self-Learning Agents that can play any game! – James Tiller
- Don’t Make Me Wait: Developing for VR with a rapid production cycle – John Corn
- Innovation is a Team Sport – Kenneth Hubbell
- The Life of a Video Game Story – Annie Reid
- Augmented Reality to Improve Pediatric Hospitalizations – Steven King and Dr. Richard Hobbs
For more information about speakers, please visit https://ecgconf.com/home/
In conjunction with ECGC, Playthrough, a weekend-long extravaganza showcasing the latest games and opportunities for players to meet others who share their passion, will return for a second year. Attendees of ECGC are invited to participate in the two-day gaming event that features live music, board- and videogame tournaments, guest speakers, and playtesting of unreleased and even unannounced games.
Those interested in attending ECGC may purchase tickets by visiting http://ecgconf.com/
A full press kit including photos from ECGC 2018, Adam Sessler and Warren Robinett, can be found here: https://uberstrategist.
ABOUT EAST COAST GAME CONFERENCE
The East Coast Game Conference (ECGC), the largest gathering of video game professionals on the east coast, returns for its eleventh year. The focus of the conference is to provide video game developers an engaging program and opportunities for networking and collaboration. In 2019, in addition to great keynote speakers, there will be plenty of networking opportunities with some of the greatest minds in the industry. To find out more information about ECGC, please visit the official website: http://ecgconf.com.
