slides (6 MB)
Right now, we’re churning a single game mechanic until it’s been smooshed into the ground. While its fiscally responsible and good to give players what they want, the opportunity to soar above the noise is always there. Let's challenge ourselves to innovate.
In one hour, attended and facilitated by some of the top industry movers and shakers, the audience will break out into teams, blue sky, pare down and pitch never-before-done breakout game ideas. This session will model brainstorming, thinking out of the box, and how to drive your competition crazy. Big pads of paper, fruit scented pens, and awards. Though competitive in nature, true to a brainstorm, all ideas will be heralded as genius. Sure to be fun, stimulate thought, and take us out of our comfort zones.
Delivered at Casual Connect Amsterdam, February 2008
DOWNLOAD
Kevin Richardson (email)
Kevin Richardson is currently a consultant for the casual games business. He has produced over 30 “E” rated games, including the Family Feud games and several Hasbro titles at iwin.com. Kevin also worked as executive producer on numerous Reader Rabbit and ClueFinders adventures while at The Learning Company/Mattel Interactive. Kevin can be reached at krichardson123@yahoo.com or http://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinrichardsonproducer.
Greg Rahn (email)
Greg Rahn has been composing music and sound for interactive games since 1994. In the casual games genre, he has provided audio for over 75 titles including such hits as Family Feud Online Party, The Poppit Show, Jewel Quest Solitaire, and Casino Island. Other notable titles include Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80’s, Splinter Cell Double Agent, Carmen Sandiego and and Riven The Sequel To Myst. His soundtracks have been honored with various industry awards.
As a recording studio musician, Greg provided keyboard session work on spots for Huggies, Hershey’s, and Rice a Roni. and has performed with a diverse range of artists from Latin jazz great Pete Escovedo to rock guitar legend Ronnie Montrose.
Juan Gril (email)
Juan Gril heads the game development studio at Joju Games, overseeing both business and game development. Joju Games produces casual games for a variety of platforms and distribution methods including web, downloadable, PC, console and mobile phone. Joju Games also produces custom games for clients such as RealNetworks, MTV Networks, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon. Prior to founding Joju Games, Juan worked at Yahoo! Games, leading content acquisition for downloadable games and community management of multi-player games. He was also the head of the Yahoo! Games Studios.
Juan is one of the editors of the yearly IGDA Casual Games White Paper and is a frequent speaker and advisor at industry events. Juan holds a BFA in Electronic Media from the University of Illinois.
Vinny Carrella (email)
Vinny Carrella wrote and directed Bad Mojo, the 2004 Adventure Game of the Year and has writing and design credits on award-winning games such as Iron Helix and Space Bunnies Must Die! His debut novel, Serpent Box (Harper-Collins, Perennial) is due out in the Summer of 2007. He currently works at Shockwave.com and can be reached for comment at vinny@shockwave.com
