Announcing: San Francisco Game Developer's Workshops!

Hello Bay Area Game Developers,

We have all heard the less than optimistic coverage on games growth. Overall casual and console game sales dropped by 26% in April. Even social game growth, a major growth area over the last few years, is not as easy with Facebook virality changes and the rise of game companies with massive user bases and large marketing muscle.

Feeling depressed? Well don't. Instead come join us July 28th at 7pm to hear Joe Dunn and Josh Rose tell you how to beat the pessimistic forecasts by combining creative design, new technology, and platform agnostic virality to create game experiences players crave, share, and keep coming back for.

There will be a brief interactive Q&A; between each speaker; so designers and developers can get a chance to get some direct opinions or strategies on some of their own games and businesses.

And of course--come party with us after the event to brainstorm, chill, or simply share a beer with awesome fellow game developers.

We look forward to seeing you there,
Sana Choudary and Japheth Dillman

When: July 28th, 7-9pm Afterparty: 9-10pm
Where: Art Institute of California, 4th floor, 10 UN Civic Center Plaza, San Francisco, CA 94102

Afterparty: from 9-10pm, location: Jillian's, downtown in the Metreon

Speaker bios:

Joe Dunn is Co-Founder and CEO of e23 Games, a San Francisco-based startup concentrating on Geo-Located, Social Augmented Reality Games. Joe has a deep background in digital media tools for artists, professionals and the end consumer, and was a key member of the team that built Macromedia into a successful public company. Joe co-founded e23 Games to pursue a fascination

with mixed-world entertainment – building on the experience of successful social games by combining social objects in the real world with social gaming rules and Augmented Reality to produce personal, connected casual fun for the mobile consumer.

Josh Rose is Co-Founder and CEO of Flying Wisdom Studios. Flying Wisdom Studios is Josh’s fourth start-up company; most recently from Lamplighter Studios, Inc. where he built a worldwide team of 80 artists for outsourcing and art services generating $1.2 million in sales in 2008 before sale to Broadcaster.com in 2008.

With over seventeen years in the interactive entertainment industry, Josh is equal parts CEO, producer, game designer, and professor. At Lamplighter Studios Josh managed the team that created Sony Home virtual goods features which netted over $1 million in revenue in the first month. He led sales and management for art outsourcing projects such as Upper Deck for World of Warcraft, BioShock, Aurora Feint and numerous Zynga projects; and expertise in virtual world-building, efficiencies, flash games, even television animation.

Josh’s career was inspired by the early work he saw his friend Loren Carpenter pioneering at Lucasfilm (and later Pixar). Once Josh realized it was possible to actually create art and make games for a living he knew that was what he had to do. His formative years in the industry began in 1993 at Crystal Dynamics amongst some of the industry’s most respected veterans, and he spent time at a few other reputable studios such as 3DO and Stormfront. Josh also spent some time out of the games space as Vice President of Production for the Network Software Development Group. His shipped games include: Solar Eclipse, Blood Omen The Legacy of Kain, Gex 2, Akuji the Heartless, Greed, and Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone.