AIIDE’05
Invited Speakers
Details on invited speakers coming soon.
BRUCE BLUMBERG
Blue Fang Games
Bruce leads Blue Fang’s Synthetic Animal Team, which is focused on creating the technology, tools and processes that will enable Blue Fang to create expressive, intelligent and engrossing animal characters that will set the bar for the next generation of digital entertainment experiences.
Prior to joining Blue Fang, Bruce was an Associate Professor at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab where he served as the Director of the Synthetic Characters Group. This group performed ground breaking research on behavior, learning and motor control for autonomous animated characters.
As Director of the Synthetic Characters Group, Bruce has led teams that created and developed numerous award-winning interactive installations at such prestigious venues as SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica, E3, and AAAI. An impressive list of published papers can be added to the list of awards he and his group have received, including Grand prize for “AlphaWolf” at the 2002 Digital Art Awards.
Prior to joining the MIT Media Lab, Bruce held management positions at Apple Computer and NeXT Computer.
Bruce holds a Master of Science degree in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Laboratory.
WOLFF DOBSON
AiLive
Wolff Daniel Dobson received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Northwestern University, specializing in artificial intelligence and intelligent interfaces for educational software. He worked as a post-doctoral researcher on educational software and distributed visualization systems before taking a job with Visual Concepts in Marin County. At Visual Concepts, he worked on emotional behavior on NBA2K for Dreamcast, and then became co-lead for artificial intelligence on NBA2K1 (which went on to be named Sports Game of the Year by Electronic Gaming Monthly). For the past 5 years he has worked for AiLive Inc., a startup devoted to next-generation artificial intelligence in games. Working as a designer, producer, engineer, and artist Wolff has been instrumental is developing two commercial products, LiveMove and LiveCombat, that bring ground breaking real-time machine learning technology to the computer entertainment industry.
Pandemic Studios
Quinn Dunki is an AI programmer at Pandemic Studios. She was born and raised in Canada, but has been living and working in California for the past 8 years. She has been making games for a little over 20 years, the last 11 of which have been professional. In her spare time, she races cars, writes, and travels as much as she can. She also looks forward to berating her co-workers with multi-layered sarcasm each and every day.
Maxis / Electronic Arts
Richard Evans is senior AI engineer on The Sims 3 at Electronic Arts, where he is responsible for the AI architecture, but also likes to get involved in game design.
Previously, he was Head of AI at Lionhead Studios, where he designed and implemented the AI for Black & White. The artificial creature in Black & White holds the Guinness World Record for most intelligent being in a game. He holds a degree in philosophy from Cambridge and a Masters in AI from Edinburgh University. He is an exotic combination of English and Welsh.
AiLive
John Funge is a co-founder and one of the lead scientists at AiLive Inc. At AiLive he is part of the team that developed LiveMove and LiveCombat, two commercial products that bring ground breaking real-time machine learning technology to the computer entertainment industry. John previously worked at Sony Computer Entertainment America's (SCEA) research lab. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto and also holds degrees from the University of Oxford and King's College London.
John is the author of numerous technical papers and two books on Game AI, including his latest book "Artificial Intelligence for Computer Games: An Introduction". John is an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Intelligent Games and Simulation (IJIGS) and a member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Artificial Intelligence Interface Standards Committee (AIISC).
Technology Fellow, Maxis / Electronic Arts
Chris focuses on solving hard game design and technical problems found at the intersection of gameplay, aesthetics, and engineering. He is an outspoken advocate for pushing the current boundaries of design and interactivity, in the hope that games will achieve their full potential as an art and entertainment form. To this end he helps organize the yearly Indie Game Jam and the Experimental Gameplay Workshop, and his recent work at Maxis has centered around using advanced proceduralism to enhance player creativity and agency. Chris has been on the advisory board for the Game Developers Conference for many years and is a regular speaker at the GDC, SIGGRAPH, and other conferences. A frequent contributor to Game Developer magazine, Chris was the technical columnist for the magazine for two years and the Editor-at-Large for three. Before joining Maxis he was an indie game developer for 8 years with his company definition six, inc. He is also on the editorial board of the computer graphics research publication, The Journal of Graphics Tools.
Lead Designer and AI Programmer, Firaxis Games
Soren Johnson served as the project lead, lead designer, and AI programmer for Sid Meier's CIVILIZATION IV, which was Gamespy’s Game of the Year for 2006. He also programmed the AI and co-designed CIVILIZATION III. He joined Firaxis in 2000, after serving an internship at Electronic Arts working on KNOCKOUT KINGS for the PSX. Soren has completed a B.A. in History and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University. His thoughts on game design can be found at www.designer-notes.com.
Lionhead Studios
Peter Molyneux is one of the best-known names in the international world of computer games. He co-founded Bullfrog Productions in 1987 and created a new genre of computer games, “ the god game” with the release of Populous. Since then Peter has been responsible for a string of massive selling games including Powermonger, Theme Park, Magic Carpet and Dungeon Keeper. Cumulative sales of these Bullfrog games are around ten million worldwide. In 1997 Peter left Bullfrog Productions to form a new games development company Lionhead Studios. The company has released five games Black & White in 2001, Fable in 2004 Black & White 2 (PC), The Movies (PC) and Fable The Lost Chapters (PC and Xbox) in 2005. Cumulative sales are approaching the 5 million mark. Lionhead now numbers over 135 employees. In April 2006 Lionhead Studios was sold to Microsoft Corp.
Peter is recognised as one of the computer games industry’s most articulate and eloquent speakers on the subject of the development of computer games. He has recently received an honorary doctorate from the University of Abertay and was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. Peter was also awarded an OBE in the 2005 New Years Honours List for services to the computer video games industry.
New York University
NEIL YOUNG
Vice President and General Manager, EA Los Angeles
As Vice President and General Manager of EA Los Angeles (EALA), Neil Young oversees all aspects of the studio that is responsible for the blockbuster franchises, Medal of Honor, Command & Conquer and Lord of the Rings. Prior to taking the helm of EALA, Young was General Manager of the award-winning Maxis studio, where he was responsible for delivering The Sims 2, the sequel to the best selling PC game of all time. In 2002 and 2003, Young led EA Redwood Shores on the development of the first two Lord of the Rings games - The Two Towers and The Return of the King - which have seen sales of over eight million units worldwide.
British-born Young began is career in the interactive entertainment industry in 1988, as a programmer and then producer at UK based Imagitec & Probe Software respectively. In 1992 Young joined Virgin Interactive when he moved to the United States. At Virgin, he produced a number of Disney™-licensed titles and was promoted to Vice President for Product Development. By 1997, Young moved on from Virgin was named Vice President and General Manager of ORIGIN Systems, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. During that time, Young supervised the launch of the world's first Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing game, Ultima Online.
Since that time, Young has flourished at EA. He was the creator and driving force behind Majestic, the first Internet-based interactive game that places players in the center of an unfolding conspiracy-thriller. Majestic blurred the line between fiction and reality by engaging players through non-traditional gaming media such as the telephone, email and fax.
CHRIS BATEMAN
Managing Director of International Hobo
Chris Bateman is Managing Director of International Hobo, a specialist company in the field of market-oriented game design and narrative. He has worked in game design and writing for over a decade, originally with tabletop role-playing games, and later in computer entertainment after completing a Masters degree in Artificial Intelligence / Cognitive Science. He has two published novels, and his games include Discworld Noir, Ghost Master and Play with Fire. He is co-author of 21st Century Game Design, the leading textbook on game audience models, and editor of Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames. An active member of the IGDA, he was recently honoured with their MVP Award.
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