[Rerun] Climate Game Jam Showcase

Speakers

• Alenda Chang
  

  Alenda Chang

  Alenda Y. Chang is an Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose research and teaching encompass environmental media, game studies, science and technology studies, and sound studies. Her first book, Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games, develops environmentally informed frameworks for understanding and designing digital games (University of Minnesota Press, December 2019). Chang co-directs Wireframe, a UCSB studio that promotes collaborative theoretical and creative media practice with investments in global social and environmental justice. She is also the founding co-editor of a new UC Press open-access journal, Media+Environment.

  Chang served as a mentor for the recent IndieCade/Games for our Future Climate game jam.

• Ben Ash
  

  Ben Ash

  “Ben is a composer and sound designer for video games, film, and concert music from Seattle. Notable film credits include “”Coming Out”” (2015) and the short film “”Femme”” (2018), both by filmmaker Alden Peters; “”Femme”” was recently picked up for a series adaptation. He was also a finalist for the 2018 Berlin International Film Scoring Competition.

  Recent concert credits include “”Collide-o-Scope,”” a 15-minute work commissioned by the Seattle Youth Symphony for their 2016-2017 season, and being the winner of the Illinois Philharmonic’s inaugural Classical Evolve competition; Ben served as the IPO’s composer-in-residence for the 2018-2019 season, premiering 3 orchestral works.

  ​Ben also holds a Masters Degree in composing for film and video games from the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program at the Seattle Film Institute.

  In addition to working on as many game jams as he can, Ben is currently composing/sound designing for a TBA Seattle-based indie dungeon crawler, and has an affinity for the outdoors, metal music, and drinking as much coffee as humanly possible.”

• Chelsea Brtis
  

  Chelsea Brtis

  “Chelsea Brtis (her/she) is a game designer who creates with the purpose of critically thinking through topics such as climate change, consumption, and gender representation. The games are meant to spark conversation about these serious issues in hopes of encouraging the players to confront them in everyday life. Her educational background includes a Bachelor’s of Architecture and an MFA in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication where she focused in Game Studies and Development. Currently she is an adjunct professor for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Communication Arts Department.
  During 2020’s social distancing procedures, Chelsea has started participating in IndieCade’s various GameJams. As climate change and the environment are a large part of her work, she created a character customization game, Local Goods, for IndieCade’s ClimateJam, which was awarded their Most Adventurous category. Local Goods points towards how our individual, seemingly simple choices, have a large-scale impact on our environment. Additionally, Chelsea participated in Jamming the Curve to create a visual narrative, Together, to compare the mental load and struggles between two people during the pandemic. Together focuses on the player’s empathy and understanding around the importance of social distancing and caring for others’ well-being.”

• Max Loy
  

  Max Loy

  “I have been developing video games professionally for almost a decade, working for small to mid-sized developers in Victoria, BC, such as Codename Entertainment and TinyMob Games. I have also produced a number of solo games, which you can find on itch.io.

  In early 2020 I was honoured to have my Climate Jam entry, Fire Season, be selected as the Grand Jury Winner.

  I also stream live fiddle music on Twitch on a regular basis.”
  twitch.com/sharkfists

• Seth Paxton
  

  Seth Paxton

  “Paxton is a indie game dev, writer, artist, and husband who lives in the Seattle, Washington area. They are a frequent game jammer, a long time advocate for small game dev communities, and currently a Narrative Technical Designer for Bungie working on Destiny 2. You can find Paxton physically at Seattle Indies events, Diversity Collective socials, Global Game Jam, and at Redmond / Eastside developer meetups (except during a pandemic, when they stay at home with two lovely cats).

  Paxton focuses on games that explore stories in new ways, including tabletop RPGs, Alexa-based games, interactive fiction, and mainstream commercial games. Before moving to Washington State they were part of the Central Ohio Gamedev Group and supported budding independent developers across the Midwest.

  Paxton participates annually in events like Global Game Jam, GMTK Jam, Ludum Dare, NaNoWriMo, IF Comp, and Games for our Future. Usually Paxton tries to collaborate with new or different developers in each event. They are always willing to talk about nuances in design, unique narrative moments in games, and books over on Twitter @sethpaxton.”

• Tim Cullings
  

  Tim Cullings

  Tim has been in the games industry for over 10 years with multiple shipped titles at Airtight Games and hardware devices at Oculus. Tim is a Systems Administrator at Oculus and the President of the Board for Seattle Indies, a member of the Executive Committee for Global Game Jam and the Northwest Regional Coordinator for IGDA and on the IGDA Seattle Board. He also helped found Games For Our Future, a collaboration between the games industry and sciences to host game jams based on societal issues like climate change and the COVID pandemic and he co-founded GUILD which aims to bring indie game development community organizers together for support, knowledge sharing and networking. He also helps organize the Northwest IndieCade Alumni group.

• Todd Little
  

  Todd Little

  Hello! I’m Todd. I’m creative problem solver who is very attached to the Seattle area. I thought I was going to be an Urban Farmer when I grew up and as I grew older I realized my passion was in game design. I always get excited for the Climate Game Jam every year that is put on by the Seattle Indies among others because I can combine both of those interests: the study of the natural world and games. This year was special with Indiecade supporting it.

  During my day job – I work at Fair Worlds as UX Design Engineer. We work with clients to create immersive experiences. So it makes perfect sense that I would want to use my expertise in VR to create an experience showcasing the natural world. I created with the help of my parents – an advocation of using mason bees in your backyard called BeeCycle. You play as a guardian spirit that creates habitat for the bees. I’m thrilled that it was awarded an honorable mention.