Silvia Wipfler

Warhorse Studios, Freelance

Job Application Demystified: how to apply and get hired

For many people applying for a job is a scary and tricky thing. What does the company expect? What should I put into my portfolio? How do you write an application letter? And what is relevant and what not? This talk provides you with a step-by-step guideline on how to prepare properly before you apply for a job. It helps you to find your strengths and weaknesses and teaches you to use the latter to your advantage. You will get insight into recruitment processes and assessment strategies, learn how to write application letters and how to survive job interviews.

Wolfgang Tschauko

Freelance

Body presence in VR

The talk will be about the importance of body similiarity in virtual environments and its impact on immersion. The posibility to customize your playable avatar or to use the actual player of the body should always be considered. A short overview of how the actual body of players have been used in kinect games in the past will be given and how this could be translated to the future of VR. The talks aims to inspire the audience to see the virtual body as more than just a tool to press hotspots but as an interactive shape thats worth exploring. Wolfgang Tschauko studied Media Technology and Design at FH Hagenberg and Interaction Design at FH Joanneum.

Joshua Hollendonner

Stuffed Wombat

All by myself

This talk explores the merits and horrors of being a solo developer, the temptation of making games without stories and the best game of 2017. Josh has published a bunch of small games as "Stuffed Wombat" on the internet and is making one game per month in 2017.

Alexander Grenus

stillalive Studios

Turning Stupidity into Games

At Game Dev Days Graz 2016 Alexander's stupidity resulted in some painful experiences. In this talk he is going to explain, how he used these events as inspiration and motivation to create personal games about his life. Alexander Grenus works as game designer at stillalive studios. He worked on the award winning action-adventure Son of Nor and Bus Simulator 16. He released his first game in 2007 and worked as an artist for architecture and product visualization, before he joined stillalive studios in 2012.

Alain Xalabarde

A-line Games

Games & Films: A Love Story

Attendees shall leave with a better understanding of the relation shared between both industries; historically, socially and pragmatically. There is much that can be learned from previous pioneering industries and their present recessions serve as prophecies of our own possible future. Alain is a freelance Game Designer at A-line Games. He has a strong background in the film industry and has even written a book on the subject, "The Film Textbook". Under his belt are many other board games and mobile games. Lately, he was guest speaker at GamiLearn'17 and will also talk this June at Taipei Game Dev Forum.

Srđan Laterza

Freelance

Exploring the city with gamified chatbots

Chatbots in messenger apps are a buzzword, but the format hasn't yet reached its creative maturity. Srđan Laterza will share his experience in developing chatbots and show what he discovered exploring the creative potential of the medium. He will present his work-in-progress gamified chatbot Bok Bot which allows the visitors of Zagreb to explore the city, while chatting with intriguing historical figures that once lived in the city. Srđan Laterza is an independent creative consultant, writer, screenwriter and game designer. He is currently focused on exploring the potentials of messenger chatbots by creating and testing prototypes of innovative bots. He collaborates with the leading regional IT companies, advertising agencies and startups.

Lorenz Jäger

Graz University of Technology

VR Content Creation

This talk will present a number of rules and guidelines that you should have in mind when creating immersive VR applications - from the subjects of 3D and 2D objects up to sound, environments and user interfaces. These basic rules will enable you to make the user's experience the most comfortable and comprehensible. Lorenz Jäger is working as a project assistant, researcher and software engineer at the Institute of Computer Graphics and Vision (ICG) at TU Graz. His research interests lie both in Computer Vision as well as Graphics with a focus on real-time applications and games.

Rainer Angermann

Rarebyte

Designing and Producing Games for Live Masses

Designing games for live events, where people are waiting in long lines to play the game poses several challenges. The game should not only entertain the actual player, but interacting with it should also engage passers-by to stop, watch, and play as well. Additionally, it is both crucial to entertain people waiting in the line and to give them a first learning experience how to play the game until it is their turn to play. In this talk Rainer will introduce and discuss guidelines how to design and produce such games, with focus on engaging players with interesting game interfaces and controls, and entertaining and attracting visitors by implementing fun competitive elements. After finishing his studies in telematics and network engineering Rainer co-founded the Austrian-based game studio Rarebyte in 2006. Since then he has worked as producer, programmer, and designer on more than 25 titles covering all major platforms.

Michael Haberl

Xendex

Mobile Games Distribution outside Google and Apple: Alternative small app stores

When the first mobile phones capable of running games hit the market also the first download portals appeared in the early 2000's. With the huge success of Apple and Google app stores for smartphone these initial telecom stores disappeared - or so it seems. However, there are still (and yet again) dozens of such "non app stores" or portals, mainly in emerging markets where the large app stores are barely used or accessible. There is a whole parallel universe - outside of Apple and Google - of such small stores if you know where to look. Since 2001 Michael managed to grow Xendex from zero to a medium size mobile games developer & publisher (at top 75 people large). He won the majority of large mobile games publishers active in the industry's early days as clients and worked with over 120 developers. Successfully restructured the company in the recent years to a global publisher and distributor which it is today. Xendex became the major provider to EA Mobile since 2013 for global markets outside the two big app stores. Michael also helps games companies in the area of games production, business development and sales and also acts as Associate Partner at i5invest for the games industry.

Alen Ladavac

CTO Croteam

Croatia

Alen Ladavac is leading the technology team as well as working on all aspects of Croteam games since 1993. Now mainly leading the efforts on Serious Sam 4 development, but also tinkering with VR games, Mixed Reality and Serious Sam VR. His previous work includes the world-famous Serious Sam franchise and critically acclaimed The Talos Principle. His broad range of interests and experience spans all technical areas of the game development, from rendering, sound and physics, to build systems and content pipelines.

Tristan Schulze

Artist

Germany

Since his Diploma as Interaction Designer at the Bauhaus Dessau in the year 2009, Tristan Schulze (DE) works as artist, designer, musician and teacher in national and international context. His teaching experience at several German art and design institutions and his working field between art and design since 2008 concluded into his current artistic practice since 2015 in the field of digital media art. He currently lives together with his family in Leipzig, Germany.

Johanna Pirker

TU Graz

Austria

Johanna Pirker is game developer, researcher, and educator, and an active supporter of the local indie developer community. She has long-lasting experience in evaluating, designing, and developing games and virtual realities and believes in them as tools to support learning, collaboration, and to solve real problems At the moment she teaches game development at TU Graz and researches games with focus on HCI, AI, and VR technologies.

Robert Glashüttner

Radio FM4

Austria

Robert Glashüttner is a senior editor at Radio FM4, part of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF, where he is in charge of the game culture department. He is researching on (digital) games as a journalist and in some cases also as an academic for 15 years. Robert is a presenter, consultant and writer for different initiatives and game culture outlets like SUBOTRON, WASD Magazine and Videogame Tourism.

Kris Staber

Head of Animation at arx anima

Austria

Kris Staber is Head of Animation at arx anima, which is an an award-winning animation studio specializing in high-end character animation & development. The studio in conveniently located in central Europe Vienna, and boasts a highly skilled international roster of animators, concept-artists, TD's, modelling, shading, rendering and compositing artists.

Reni Hofmüller

Artist

Austria

Reni Hofmüller is an artist, musician, composer, performer, organizer and activist in the fields of usage of (new) media, technology and politics in general, engaged in development of contemporary art. She focuses on art in technological contexts and looks into relations between art, technology and society. Since a long time she has been working with sound as her main artistic tool, but with the same sort of interest she will go for a walk or found a new network of people to deepen her connection with her surrounding. She is one of the founders of esc medien kunst labor, has been involved in Radio Helsinki (the local noncommcercial community radio), mur.at, and more.

Elisabeth Schlögl

Kunsthaus Graz

Austria

Elisabeth Schlögl studied History of Art at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz and has been working at the Kunsthaus Graz as an Assistant Curator since 2014. She is interested in artistic projects dealing with current social issues. She likes to open up contemporary art discussions with local partners from different directions and create environments that enable a lively, discursive encounter with contemporary art, encouraging participation.