About Us
Who We Are: Ann Burkett is Chair of the Silicon Valley IGDA, a chapter of the IGDA which is a non-profit organization dedicated to benefiting game developers through advocacy, community and fun. She is also CEO of Caught Thinking, a local independent game and web development company. She has experience working with local colleges hosting different game related events including Game Demo Nights, Speaker panels, Game Project Connection Nights and Design and Game Jams. To see videos of some of the events Ann has organized go to Silicon Valley IGDA
In addition to Ann there will be a paid (through the cost of the event) web and database server system administrator. The system administrator will set each participant up with an account on a server with which to develop their application on prior to any sessions. The system administrator will also be available on site in the classroom during each session to provide additional technical help and support.
Ann is also currently in the technology investigation phase of the "Maid Max" minigame series
Contact Us
E-Mail: organizer@socialgamefest.net
Phone: 415 655 1837
Phone: 415 215 3871
Consultants, Advisors and Guests
Liran Nuna: Software Developer. Rumor has it Liran fell out of the cradle and immediately began coding. He hasn't looked back since.
Liran is currently in the technology investigation phase of the
"Maid Max" minigame series. He has programmed a series of casual educational web based games in flash which
can be bundled together for testing or broken apart and adapted to individual website needs.
Liran has a lifelong love of programming for and collection of small handheld game consoles.
Melody Schaeffer:: Art Director. Melody is a professional of the electronic entertainment
industry and has been involved in the production of over 10 game titles since 2001. Melody is currently in the Concept Art Phase of
"Maid Max" minigame series among other projects. Melody is a director at the Silicon Valley IGDA
Matthew Kagle
: Game Designer. Matthew Kagle was born in the Hudson River Valley in the mid 70s.
He dropped out of school at an early age to learn the art of game design from a group of monks,
but quickly learned that monks don’t play games. Eventually, he made his way to the San Francisco
Bay Area where taught himself everything he knows (which didn’t take long). Now he teaches game design
and English at a local college while developing multiple game projects, raising two children, and standing
on his head while whistling the theme song from The Odd Couple.
Frederic Descamps: New Media Business Development.
Frederic has extensive knowledge in connecting people in New Media such as social applications and mobile games.
Frederic organizes ongoing Gaming, Mobile & Entrepreneurship get-togethers and publishes the excellent
gsb-videogames Digest.
Diane Bisgeier: Marketing consultant. Diane is an avid marketer of all things
useful and social; when she is not working to transform how health care is delivered,
she likes to have fun working with the social gaming peeps here.
David Moniz: David Moniz majored in game design
and digital entertainment and will be helping to lend an educated game and graphic design eye at some of the fests. He enjoys level design and teaching, and is
a force to be feared with a video camera.
Kimberly Wiefling: Kimberly Wiefling is a proven expert in enabling
people to achieve what seems impossible, but is merely difficult. The founder of Wiefling Consulting, LLC,
and author of one of the top project management books in the US,
“Scrappy Project Management - The 12 Predictable and Avoidable
Pitfalls Every Project Faces”, a book growing in popularity around the world, and recently published
in Japanese by Nikkei Business Press.
She currently spends about half of her time traveling in Japan with her rubber chicken facilitating leadership, innovation and execution
excellence workshops to help Japanese companies solve global problems profitably.
Community Connections
IRC chat channel: #socialgamefest on EFnet (active during fests)
General Facebook IRC chat channel: #facebook on FreeNode
Hosts and Sponsors
