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 GUEST SPEAKERS

UPDATED for online!
 

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Logan Cavaliere

Co-Founder, Glass Robot Games

Logan Cavaliere is the Co-Founder and Team Lead from your friendly neighborhood game developer, Glass Robot Games. With over 6 years in developing impactful experiences under his belt, he has managed projects across entertainment media. From producing and developing effective video presentations, satisfying graphic designs, and fun video game-related events, Logan’s endeavors have had him interviewed on CBS Channel 2 News, Cheddar University (formerly MTVu Programming), and at the Legislator’s Building in Nassau County.

 

Logan has taught about the game development field at local businesses throughout New York, across the Valley Stream Central High School District, Adelphi University and Hofstra University, and also regularly instructs about how to design interactive experiences at the Roosevelt School District. He is a strong proponent in the idea that the video game medium has an immense potential to improve the lives of everybody and anybody, and he is always looking for opportunities to spread that belief.

 

Moving forward with Glass Robot Games, Logan is collaborating with the IGDA NYC Chapter to bring more wonderful and exciting experiences such as Waffle Games across Long Island.

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Logan is an alumnus of both SUNY And CUNY, earning his associates at Nassau Community College and his bachelors at Queens College

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Will Roberts

Director, VR Diamond League

For over a decade, Will Roberts has been generating characters and environments in the film, publishing, and technology industry. Outside of his illusory creations, Roberts is passionate about real-world activities such as documenting the lives of Liberian war orphans or leading “L.I.F.T” (Learn It For Tomorrow), a youth empowerment workshop. His perspective on design and virtual world building is heavily influenced by his everyday encounters and connections. Virtual and augmented reality may be his vehicle, but connecting and giving back to heritage and culture is his ultimate purpose.
 

As a director, VR artist, and immersive designer, his longtime interest has been exploring the intersection between technology, folklore, and the human experience. Roberts’ personal work fuses a highly stylized 3D aesthetic with Afrofuturist concepts, ultimately creating tangible immersive designs and stories that celebrate the cultures of marginalized populations. While earning an MFA in 3D Animation and Sound Art, Roberts got his start in VR as a researcher, entrepreneur, and virtual world builder in the popular VR platform “SecondLife.”

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Laurence Mascia

Lead Designer, Goodnight Games

Lawrence Mascia is the lead designer for Goodnight Games. He has released titles on all major mobile platforms with Goodnight Games. He is currently supervising their move to PC games with the space horror game Never Go Home. Lawrence also teaches Interactivity and Game Design at Ramapo College.

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Laura Tallardy

Co-Founder, Luna Beat Games

Laura Tallardy is a game developer, artist and adjunct professor at Long Island University Post. She is co-founder of LunaBeat Games, an indie mobile and VR games studio, along with developer Scott Adelman. Their latest game is Paranormal Detective: Escape from the 80's, a VR escape room for the Oculus Rift & HTC Vive that was successfully Kickstarted and released in 2019.  The player is a detective who's tasked with finding a child who went missing in the 80's using the clues in his retro game room. Their first VR game was Cinderella VR, released in 2018, and they have a catalog of over 50 children's mobile applications for iOS & Android.  

 

Check out http://www.lunabeat.com/ to view their games.

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Follow LunaBeat Games on Twitter: @LunaBeatGames
Follow Laura on Twitter: @LTallardy

 

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Huimin Zhuo

COO, EGD Collective

Huimin joined the Esports and Game Design Collective of Hunter College in 2017, where she was the original League of Legends Coordinator for 2 years, and acting Treasurer for 1 year. She founded and managed EGD-HC's original varsity League of Legends team for 2 cLoL seasons. She currently works as an administrative assistant for mental health counseling service provider Breakthrough Solutions, and is preparing for graduate study in social work. As COO of EGD Collective, she oversees the day-to-day operations of the nonprofit and its crisis management and counseling programs.

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Huimin is a CUNY alumna, having recieved her BA in Psychology from Hunter College.
 

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Michael Cooper

Developer, Xcite Interactive

Michael Cooper is a game developer in the New York Metropolitan Area, where he is working many game projects. He has worked on several types of experiences, from virtual reality to interactive advertising to medical simulation. As a student studying Game Development at Rochester Institute of Technology, he was a lead developer on the student-led game Fragile Equilibrium. Michael presented that game on the show floor of GDC.

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During the 2020 Global Game Jam, he is part of the award-winning team for the Best Game Overall made for Blinks, the world’s first smart tabletop game system. Their game will release officially as part of future Blinks game packs.

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He currently works for Xcite Interactive as an Unreal Engine developer, making games for event entertainment. Their games are played in stadiums all over America. 

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He is an active part of the NYC game development community. You may catch him at developer meetup events and game jams. He loves making games and, very occasionally, playing games.

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Teddy Hernandez

Pop Culture Afficianado

A lover of philosophy, Dungeons & Dragons, comic books, and video games.

Teddy is a CUNY alumnus, having graduated from Lehman College in 2019.

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Rachel Presser

Founder, Sonic Toad Media

Rachel Presser is a game developer, writer, and entrepreneur from The Bronx. Rachel runs Sonic Toad Media and Consulting which, in addition to marketing and business services, is dedicated to helping people understand the business of games and empowering indie developers, writers, artists, and other creative professionals transform their careers in lieu of working a day job. She also does B2B consulting and project management for organizations interested in working with game developers or the industry as a whole.

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Rachel is the snarker-in-residence at home design blog Home Stratosphere and her work can also be found on Gamasutra and Medium. When she's not traveling the world or petting numerous amphibians, Rachel is working on her visual novel and adventure game hybrid, It's Different When It's Your Own.


Rachel co-ran Himalaya Studios as CFO and Executive Producer from 2011-2017, with her first producer credit being Mage’s Initiation: Reign of the Elements. She spearheaded a successful six-figure Kickstarter campaign in 2013 and taught classes in various business disciplines for game developers at Playcrafting NYC.​


She is also a CUNY alumna of both Hunter College and Lehman College.
 

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Kyra Wills-Umdenstock

CEO, EGD Collecitve

Founder of the original Esports and Game Design Collective at Hunter College, Kyra has over 9 years of experience working within the nonprofit sector, education, events, and games. She currently directs the EGD's Game Studio Program Fellowship and serves as Event Director for the Waffle Games. Outside of EGD, she is a Gaming Expert at the Paley Center for Media, and occasionally does esports event work for Super League Gaming. You can also find her regularly volunteering for games industry events around NYC.

 

Previously, she taught music composition and sound design for games at Game Builder's Academy, was the associate festival coordinator for the 2019 Games for Change Festival, and interned at the Brooklyn Children's Museum. She is also a proud lifetime member of Girl Scouts and received her Gold Award in 2016.​

 

Kyra will be graduating from Hunter College in May 2020 with a BA in Media Studies: Emerging Media

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David Kuelz

Narrative Designer, Awkward Pegasus

David Kuelz is an award-winning narrative designer and public speaker. He has written or consulted for over a dozen games, comics and films, including Starship Commander (Dreamhack 2018: Best VR/AR experience), AVARIAvs (GDC 2018: Best in Play) and Into The Dark: Nakaran (Bit Awards 2018: Mobile Game of the Year). He's spoken at Princeton University, TED, Montalvo Arts Center, and is a rabid devotee of The Great British Baking Show.

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Francisco Gonzalez

Independent Game Developer

Francisco Gonzalez is a writer and designer at Grundislav Games focused primarily on adventure games. His work includes "Lamplight City", “A Golden Wake", “Shardlight", and the Ben Jordan series.

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Jesse Talavera-Greenberg

Director, Corundum Games

Jesse Talavera-Greenberg is a solo indie game developer from Manhattan doing business as Corundum Games. His current project is Chromavaders, a love letter to the golden age of arcade games coupled with thirty-five years of lessons learned. After graduating from Stony Brook University with a Master's in Computer Science in December 2018 he took the bold risk of working on games full time. Whether he likes it or not, he's learning the business of the industry as he goes.

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Ben Reuben

CFO, EGD Collective

Ben joined the Esports and Game Design Collective of Hunter College in 2018 as Treasurer, and is it's acting League of Legends Coordinator. His previous experience in the NYC games industry includes working as a service representative for OS NYC. Ben always had a passion for game design and competitive gaming, with his favorite games being Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Fallout: New Vegas, League of Legends, and Yu-Gi-Oh!

 

Ben will be graduating from Hunter College in December 2020 with a BA in Media Studies: Emerging Media

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Vicky Wei

Co-Founder, Redstart Interactive

Vicky is a co-founder at Redstart Interactive and is a developer and designer on the upcoming indie-platformer Get-A-Grip Chip. Based in Brooklyn, NY, she started her career in video games when she collected all 151 Pokemon in Pokemon Blue. She followed that up with a string of successes fighting notorious baddies in all sorts of realms before hanging up her spurs to spend endless hours studying for a thrilling career in investment management, and gained appreciation for the watch-your-friends-play gamer. Retirement didn’t last long and she soon got back to the journeying, heroing, and experiencing the joy of playing games before setting off to bring joy to others through games.

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Vicky is based in Brooklyn, NY and is an avid triathlete forever doing loops around Prospect 
Park.

 

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