Roundtables

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D.I.C.E. Dubrovnik features focused roundtable, break-out sessions to facilitate networking opportunities that will enrich the attendee experience. Year over year the roundtables are often described as a favorite amongst attendees because of the interesting conversations and the access it provides. 

Roundtable break-out sessions are intimate, moderated group discourses where attendees can discuss amongst peers a variety of topics important to the interactive entertainment industry.  The roundtables will take place in a room with multiple roundtables occurring simultaneously, seating 10 per table including the table leader. The objective is to trade ideas/thoughts with other engaged individuals with similar interests and questions. 

If you would like to submit a roundtable topic for consideration by the Programming Committee, please email Debby Chen at [email protected]

Simon Bennett

Simon Bennett

Roll7, CEO
Your video games studio might be a waste of space
How studios of any size can thrive using distributed Development, the upsides and downsides of running a remote Studio in 2019. Covering the benefits of remote teams, insights into 5 years of Roll7's experience of the cloud and best practice across a number of studio functions.

Chelsea Blasko

Chelsea Blasko

Iron Galaxy Studios, COO
Scaling Employee Development
How can you scale employee development while honoring the values of your organization? Iron Galaxy has gone from 13 to 140 people in the last ten years. Over that time, we have made conscious (and sometimes unintentional) decisions about how to develop our employees and support individual growth. Over the years, as we’ve added new people with varying levels of experience and very different personalities to the mix, our needs have changed frequently and significantly. One of the big questions we ask ourselves is: "How do we create scalable approaches to employee development without compromising on our small company 'feel' or our core values? Strategies you may have used before might not scale or meet the needs of transfers and new recruits. Let’s talk about tactics to get ahead of the needs of an exploding staff.

Adam Boyes

Adam Boyes

Iron Galaxy Studios, CEO
Platform Overload: Which Ones to Choose
With so many established platforms and storefronts across PC, mobile, console, and streaming, it can be very overwhelming for developers and publishers to choose which platforms to launch on, in what regions, and how close together. Many of the stores want to trade funds or marketing support for some sort of exclusivity – let’s discuss when it’s a good idea, when it’s a bad idea, or when it’s too soon to make a call.

 
Chris Charla

Chris Charla

ID@Xbox, Senior Director
Subscriptions, Streaming, and Discovery: Maximizing New Distribution Technologies to Get Your Game Noticed
This roundtable will focus on using the new PC and console distribution technologies of streaming and subscriptions to help your game or portfolio break through. Join Chris to discuss best practices, look at examples and talk about where the business models may be heading, and how developers and publishers can use them to connect with new players.

James Dobrowski

James Dobrowski

CCP Games, VP, Product Development
Virtual Worlds: More Meaningful Than Real Life.
The boundaries between our real social world and the virtual world of games are disappearing. Digital currencies, cross-play between platforms - allowing access to your chosen game universe anytime, anywhere - and an increasing movement of real-world social mechanics onto the web are quickly becoming the norm. The boundaries between the real and the virtual when it comes to social interactions have become increasingly fuzzy, and modern technology is increasing the scale at which these interactions can occur. At CCP, our mission is to “Make Virtual Worlds More Meaningful Than Real Life”, and the boundaries and cross-over between the real and the virtual is a topic very close to our heart. Let’s discuss what this could mean for the future of gaming, it’s implications across both our real and virtual worlds, as well as the creative and technical challenges we face in realizing our dreams for the future.

Emily Greer

Emily Greer

Double Loop Games, CEO
Deciding What Game To Make
Committing to make a particular game is one of the most consequential decisions that a studio makes, with millions of dollars and, especially for small studios, survival on the line. There are radical differences from companies on how to approach this, from deep market research to extensive prototyping. What works best? What's right for your team? How do you build consensus? And when do you pull the plug?

 
Abbie Heppe

Abbie Heppe

Media Molecule, Communications Manager
Fostering Diverse Studios
It’s easy to speak about the need to create and foster diverse work spaces, but what actions can we take today to improve diversity and opportunity in our companies? Media Molecule’s Abbie Heppe guides this discussion on how to build and maintain a diverse studio and shares her insight on how Media Molecule has found success with revised hiring practices and policies.

Leanne Loombe

Leanne Loombe

Riot Games, Head of Riot Labs
How can/does the industry balance ethical pricing and monetization design with business needs?
We've all seen the current scandals in the media concerning loot boxes and monetization designs within some high profile games, players are ~rightly~ voicing their concerns over content being gated behind pay walls and governments are worried about unregulated gambling. Are developers concerned about doing free-to-play or pay-to-win models in the current climate? Do players want more traditional box products so they can pay a flat fee and not worry about being pressured into spending more money within the game?

Arne Meyer

Arne Meyer

Naughty Dog, Director of Communications
Promoting Single-Player Story Games in a Multiplayer World
Story driven single-player games are alive and thriving, but the days of conventional promotional campaigns that publicize them can feel like they are numbered. Shorter news cycles and “snackable content” seem to be in favor of games with frequent content updates and copious possibilities for emergent storytelling. So, how can publishers and developers from indie to AAA leverage the unique aspects of story driven single-player games and craft promotional campaigns worthy of the rich characters and worlds these games possess? At this roundtable, we’ll share our personal experiences of past marketing campaigns and conceptualize relevant strategies to transform how we promote future single-player games and continue to elevate them as the new medium to deliver complex, powerful tales that rival that of film and television.

 
Henrique Olifiers

Henrique Olifiers

Bossa Studios, Co-Founder and Gamer-In-Chief
Creating Games With Your Players
A deep dive discussion on User Generated Content, players as brand advocates and the future of game content production in an industry post-Minecraft and Roblox.The purpose of the round table is to briefly identify the major drives behind audiences' expectations of participating in the universe of games in development and their after-launch life cycles, understanding the Makers generation and what lies behind the impetus to devote time to create content for the titles they play. We'll discuss opportunities, risks and best practices based on a swath of real-world examples, both successes and failures, and picture the true potential of co-developing games with their communities.

Kellee Santiago

Kellee Santiago

Niantic, Head of Developer Relations
When Games are All Around Us - Designing for New Technologies in AR and Geolocation
The last few years have seen a rise in tech that allow us to track and augment our daily lives - mobile GPS, wearable devices, AI assitants, mobile AR - and of course game developers are finding ways to use them to make our routines and the real world even more delightful. But what new considerations arise from merging the "Player Character" with just the player themself? Kellee Santiago, Niantic's new Head of Developer Relations, will lead a discussion on the new genres and play possibilities these technologies could enable, and what design challenges they might present to even the most seasoned video game designer.

Maria Sayans

Maria Sayans

ustwo, CEO
A New Golden Age for Premium Mobile Games
Recent years have been tough for premium mobile games, and Free to Play and Game as a Service models have dominated the market. Evolving landscape of platforms, distribution business models set the conditions for a renaissance in the premium mobile game space? What would need to be the case in order for this to happen? What does “Premium” mean in this new environment?

 
Mike Schmalz

Mike Schmalz

Digital Extremes, President
Independent Developer Survival Guide
What is the current state of the game industry for independent game developers? What attributes do independent game developers typically have that give them an advantage against larger publisher/developers? How should independent game developers be thinking about their next development project to set them apart from the blockbluster content being produced by the giants of the industry? Or, perhaps it makes sense to collaborate with large publishing houses. What type of projects make sense for global publishers to seek out independent development partnerships. From business models to game genres to distribution platforms, what are the best paths for independent developers’ success in 2019.

Christopher Schmitz

Christopher Schmitz

Remedy Entertainment, COO
Remedy Entertainment: Efficient Game Development at Scale
Three years ago Remedy set a new strategy, that would require a big and challenging transformation: Creating longer-lasting, world-class games much faster, than what Remedy had done in the past, without losing the creativity. That required going from a classic single-project studio organization to a multi project approach, including significant growth of our development forces and a reorganization of how to drive things forward in basically all aspects. Let's discuss how Remedy is tackling the challenges of driving the transformation of the studio, how we empower our teams to deliver excellence, while minimizing waste, and what we learned so far in the process.

 
Feargus Urquhart

"The roundtables at D.I.C.E. 2016 let me connect with a bunch of great people, some of whom I met for the first time along with colleagues I have known for many years. The format let us talk and move the conversation into areas that mattered to us, and really helped me get some insights into how my peers are thinking about issues affecting our industry right now."
- Feargus Urquhart, Obsidian Entertainment CEO

Laura Naviaux

"D.I.C.E. roundtables are a great way connect at a much deeper, more engaged level...you get to the meat of a topic quickly. I find comparing notes and real world experiences among 8-10 industry peers leads to helpful, actionable takeaways."
- Laura Naviaux, Daybreak Games Chief Publishing Officer

Lorne Lanning

“The D.I.C.E. roundtable sessions have proven incredibly valuable and are now a cherished portion of the Summit where I look forward to participating. It’s such an extremely rare opportunity to have point blank discussions with luminaries who are all seeking greater answers, yet are already at the top of their game. Priceless.
- Lorne Lanning, Oddworld Inhabitants CEO

Kyle Kennedy

“I heard great things about the roundtables at D.I.C.E. Europe and was curious to see how the event would scale at the Summit in Las Vegas. The sessions exceeded my expectations. They were engaging, informative, and fun. It gave me an opportunity to discuss topical issues with peers who could offer a fresh perspective.”
- Kyle Kennedy, Six Foot Executive Director of Publishing

 

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