Columbia Design League

Demystifying the Game Discussion Panel

J.J. Shepherd- Moderator

J.J. has created video games for several years and teaches video game design at high schools around SC including The Governor’s School for Science and Math.  He has given presentations about video game research both nationally and internationally as well as published papers on video game research.  J.J. is pursuing his Ph.D at the University of South Carolina in computer science, with field of study in video games.  The working title for his dissertation is Using Technology to Improve Video Games and Using Video Games to Improve Society.  Along with his advisor, he helped bring video game design, creation and research to USC.  He is currently working on an independent game component to the Indie Grits Film Festival.

Micheal White

Michael White is an artist and co-founder of SunnyBoy Entertainment. Following his education at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Michael began his career as a motion designer and art director on commercial campaigns for such clients as Cadillac, Macy's, Pier One, Hewlett-Packard, as well as music videos for Madonna, Jay-Z, and Toni Braxton. In addition to his motion GFX and VFX work, Michael is also an accomplished artist whose work has been published in Wired Magazine, GQ, and Vogue. In 2007, he, along with his two business partners, co-founded SunnyBoy Entertainment, a Los Angeles based creative agency, specializing in original content, marketing, and motion design.  SunnyBoy has worked with major studios in Hollywood to create entertainment marketing for feature films, including The Blind Side, Book of Eli, and Dolphin Tale.

Steve Klipowicz

Steve Klipowicz is currently the Art Director of IDV Inc., the creators of SpeedTree. Steve has been interested in making art for video games since 1993 when he started work on his first ever "mod" of the hit PC game "Doom". While in college he started work at IDV in 2003 as an art intern when SpeedTree was a fledgling software product in need of both art content and direction. Since then, SpeedTree has carved itself into a respected niche market and has gone on to be repeatedly licensed by many of the top video game developers and visual effects studios the world over. Some of SpeedTree’s work includes Gears of War 3, Call of Duty 3 and InFAMOUS 2.

Pat Walsh

Patrick Walsh founded Walsh Family Media, LLC, in November 2002 to produce family branded content with a healthy, hip and fun message. The studio is currently in production on 2 feature length CG animated films written, directed and produced by Patrick Walsh: The Cool Beans We Need a Hit and The Cool Beans: Humbucket Caper as well as developing a number of other properties in-house, and providing 3D animation and illustration services to a host of companies through their services division, WFM Services.  Walsh began his creative career writing and recording children's songs with lifetime friend and Grammy winning recording artist Dan Lavery (Tonic/ The Fray), all of which further solidified the direction of The Cool Beans. Walsh became a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 1994, appearing in many films, television shows and commercials as an actor and stunt man, and remains an active member. Walsh has appeared in films such as The Patriot, Die Hard, Invincible and I Heart. Walsh has recently done motion graphic work with video games as well.

Drew Card

Drew is the Founder and Creative Director of Void Star Creations, LLC. He started Void Star in January 2006 after having worked in the video game industry for over 6 years. As the lead programmer, Drew developed the engine that is the heart of all Void Star’s games. He led the development team including design, programming, art, music and translation for the development of Void Star’s debut title, Poker Smash™, which launched world-wide in nine languages on Xbox Live Arcade on Xbox 360 in February 2008. Drew also led the development of Poker Smash on several mobile platforms, including the iPhone, iPad and iTouch in 2010. Drew has presented at several conferences and events in the video game field and also has articles published in two books, Game Programming Gems 3 and ShaderX. Currently, Drew is leading a team of programmers, artists, animators, modelers and musicians on the development of Void Star’s next project, which is currently unannounced.

David Sease-Sound Designer

David Sease is a high school social studies teacher and sound designer for Void Star Creations.  His musical education began in 1992 when he helped form the hardcore-punk band Stretch Arm Strong from Columbia, South Carolina. In their sixteen years as a band, Stretch Arm Strong recorded five full-length albums and multiple EP’s on various record labels and toured nationally and internationally. In 2006, David became the sound designer for Void Star Creations, composing and recording the music for Pokersmash. He is currently composing music and sounds for Void Star Creations’ newest projects.

Adam Hutchinson

Adam Hutcheson is currently an instructor for the Psychology Department at the University of South Carolina. His research has focused primarily on memory for locations and distance in virtual environments. Recently, he has started to pursue a wider range of learning environments such as video games, augmented reality, and GPS systems as it becomes more necessary to understand how humans interact with new technology. He has recently offered a senior seminar course titled "The Psychology of Video Games" exploring many facets of thought and behavioral interaction in video games.