WEDNESDAY APRIL 22: Tag-Team Game Industry Talk with Dooma Wendschuh and John Ballantyne

THIS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22ND
Location: Melnitz Hall 2534, The Design Room
Time: 5pm - 6ish or whenever they stop talking
Who: everyone and anyone who wants to learn about the industry from different perspectives.


LUDUS PRESENTS:
Tag-Team Game Industry Talk

Dooma Wendschuh from Sekretagent Productions &
John Ballantyne from EA

John Ballantyne (Electronic Arts) and Dooma Wendschuh (sekretagent Productions) are industry leaders in the video game business. They will be discussing the creative and technical processes behind the most collaborative of all art forms - the making of video games. Their talk will be in three parts: first, an introduction to the video game business, then they will outline the game making process, followed by how to find work in the game industry or get your own game made. Both John and Dooma will be available after their presentation for a Q&A session. This event will be informative and entertaining, and should not be missed!!!

More about Dooma and his company, sekretagent producitons:

"sekretagent Productions creates and/or produces the characters, worlds and stories behind some of the best selling and most critically acclaimed filmed and interactive entertainment on earth. In the business of imagining and producing new, original IP, sekretagent works with the world's leading publishers and studios, providing content creation, screenwriting, development and production services in the film, internet, and video game industries. The Los Angeles-based company was founded by Corey May and Dooma Wendschuh upon their graduation from the University of Southern California’s Peter Stark Producing Program in 2001.Prior to attending USC, May and Wendschuh graduated with honors from Harvard and Princeton universities respectively.

sekretagent is best known for its many successes in the video game industries. The company has helped create several major video games including ARMY OF TWO (2008) ASSASSIN'S CREED (2007), PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE TWO THRONES (2005), BATTLES OF PRINCE OF PERSIA (2005), STOLEN (2005), and PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE WARRIOR WITHIN (2004)." From the sekretagent website.


John's position at EA: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer

Role Overview
"An Artificial Intelligence (AI) Programmer gives the computer game apparent intelligence and codes the non-player entities of a game (path finding, locomotion, collision detection, state machines, game logic, player flocking/cohesion, and animation). AI is a heavily researched and broad topic. It branches into the areas of robotics, biology, and psychology. A beginning AI programmer must study basic algorithms for games and concepts behind AI, such as path finding, patterns, and decision trees. When an AI Programmer understand these concepts, they can move on to more advanced AI concepts, such as Deterministic Automata, Finite State Machines, Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms, Fuzzy State Logic, and A-Life, ensuring that EA researches and implements cutting-edge AI techniques. An AI Programmer must ensure the development and maintenance of advanced AI tools, features, and pipelines." From the EA website