Social Gaming Summit East, December 1, 2010, New York City November 22, 2010
Posted by HubTechInsider in events, Gaming, Startups, Venture Capital, Video Gaming Video Games.Tags: BRIAN BALFOUR, Facebook, MediaBistro, New Yorker Hotel, Social Times, Startups, Venture Capital, WildTangent
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Social Gaming Summit East, December 1, 2010, New York City. The New Yorker Hotel, New York City. Brought to you by MediaBistro, Charles Hudson, and Social Times.
Social Gaming Summit New York
Social Gaming Summit comes to East Coast for the first time December 1 in New York, and will focus on strategies for building, monetizing, and growing social games. Social Gaming Summit unites leaders in free-to-play games, social networking, and payments infrastructure for a full day of panels and talks.
Social Gaming Summit gathers established and emerging leaders in the social gaming space to share their thoughts on what works in the world of social games and the key issues impacting the future of the industry. This one-day event will feature a series of talks organized around several key themes:
Growth
- -How can new social games developers grow on Facebook in the current environment?
- -What does it take to bootstrap a successful new social game?
Distribution
- -What opportunities exist to build successful Facebook games off Facebook?
- -How can developers take advantage of opportunities to build games for international audiences?
Monetization
- -What role will brands play in monetizing social games?
- -What new opportunities are there for social games developers to monetize their games?
>> Register now!
Have a question?
events@mediabistro.com
(212) 547-7867
Program
Venue Info
Speakers
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MANNY ANEKAL oversees the development and sales of Brand Sponsorships for Zynga’s network of games. He focuses on creating high impacting ad integrations, which provide immense ROI to brands through the reach of TV, the measurability of online, and the most engaging advertising products. Before joining Zynga, Manny ran Global Ad Operations for Electronic Arts, which managed advertising across online properties, in game dynamic and static ads for Xbox 360 and PS3, mobile and social networking. Prior to that, Manny spent 2 years at Microsoft/Massive Incorporated, developing new in game advertising technology and worked with the world’s top game publishers and developers to drive advertising revenue. Manny has also held positions at The Nielsen Company, Time Warner, and Accenture. Manny holds an International Finance and Marketing degree from the University of Miami and graduated with Honors.
Follow Manny on Twitter: @mannyanekal |
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BRIAN BALFOUR is a serial entrepreneur and pioneer in the social networking and virtual goods industry. Brian is the founder of Viximo, the largest social game distribution platform beyond Facebook. Prior to founding Viximo, Brian managed new product initiatives at ZoomInfo, and was founder of multiple online community startups, including the first college specific social network in early 2003. In addition, as a founding member of Betahouse, a co-working space for technology entrepreneurs, and co-founder of PopSignal, one of Boston’s largest professional networking organizations, Brian is actively contributing to the growth of Boston’s technology startup scene. Brian holds Bachelor’s degrees in Sports Business, Economics, and Applied Statistics from the University of Michigan.
Follow Brian on Twitter: @bbalfour |
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PAUL CHEN is Director of Business Development at PapayaMobile. In this position, he is responsible for building the ecosystem of game and application developers that support the Papaya social network for Android devices. Prior to joining PapayaMobile, Paul served as lead Product Manager for NVIDIA’s line of Tegra application processors that cater to mobile devices which range from Smartphones to Tablets. Paul has also held various engineering roles at Advanced Micro Devices and covered the technology sector for investment banking firm Salomon Smith Barney. |
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BILL CLIFFORD joined WildTangent in October 2000 and currently manages a global ad sales organization. Bill has been a pioneer of new game advertising models that have fueled award winning campaigns for major global brands like Unilever, P&G, FOX, Paramount, Honda, Sprint, and many other top tier clients. Prior to his current position, Bill served as General Manager of Advertising Platforms as well as Creative Director. And prior to joining WildTangent, Bill was Director of West Coast Sales at News Corporation’s News Digital Media (now Fox Interactive Media). He is currently an active member of the IAB Games Committee and the IAB Sales Executive Council. He is a graduate of Georgetown University. |
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GEOFF COOK is now the CEO of his third multi-million dollar Internet enterprise, all grown from zero traffic and zero revenue to significant market-leading properties. In 1997, at age 19, Geoff founded EssayEdge.com and ResumeEdge.com from a Harvard dorm room. Each property dominated their respective niches: admissions essay and resume writing help. He then sold his companies to The Thomson Corporation where he led the Consumer Market Group for a Thomson Learning division, departing Thomson in 2005. Geoff has been featured in Wired, Rolling Stone, ABC News, CNBC, and USA Today. In 2005, Geoff became the CEO ofmyYearbook, joining forces with his siblings. Geoff was instrumental in raising $20+ million in angel financing, venture capital, and venture debt to build the young company into the largest US social media site. Geoff has an A.B. in Economics from Harvard University and lives in New Jersey with his wife Kerri and daughters Madeline and Elyse.
Follow Geoff on Twitter: @geoffcook |
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ANDREY FADEEV is the founder and CEO ofProgrestar. Progrestar employs over 50 highly professional developers in its offices in Moscow. Owing to this invaluable asset Progrestar released almost 15 projects, highly appreciated by users of the most popular social networks, including Facebook.com. Progrestar projects have over 20,000,000 registered users from over 100 countries around the globe. The newest Digger game has 3.0 M users across the three Russian social networks but of course it number is growing every day. Firstly Progrestar has launched on Facebook multilanguage social game ‘Digger’ available for not only Russian speaking users but also for English, Spanish, Turkey speaking users too. Russian social game developer Progrestar Inc. integrates Facebook credits exclusively.
Follow Progrestar on Twitter: @progrestar |
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TRIP HAWKINS, founder and CEO of Digital Chocolate, also founded and built Electronic Arts. Best known for Millionaire City, MMA Pro Fighter, Rollercoaster Rush and Tower Bloxx, Digital Chocolate led all software companies in App Store downloads in 2009 and in 2010 has been the fastest-growing maker of Facebook social games with virtual goods. Hawkins got the world’s first college degree in video games and was the first game business executive named to the Hall of Fame by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. The inventor of three patents and the NanoStar virtual goods platform, he has also led the design and production of many hit games including John Madden Football.
Follow Trip on his blog: http://blog.digitalchocolate.comand on Twitter: @DChocGames |
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ALEXEY KOSTAREV graduated from the Urals State Technical University in 2001, and founded an Internet provider, Medialt, that succeeded to become the most profitable one in Ekaterinburg just after four years. In 2005, Alexey decided to concentrate on games, and co-founded i-Jet Media as a browser-based game developer. In 2007, i-Jet Media published first titles on Rambler.ru, and the cult social game Maffia New was launched. Following its success, Alexey left for the USA to study the social games market. After his return, the partners decided to step aside from the game development and focus on publishing ‘games for friends’ on social networks. In 2009, i-Jet Media published Happy Harvest which exploded the Russian Internet: 10 million users, $20 million in less than a year, Google Trend prize as the best game of 2009. Today, i-Jet Media is the largest publisher and distributor of social games in Russia and Eastern Europe.
Follow i-Jet Media on Twitter: @ijetmedia |
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ALBERT LAI is a co-founder and president of Kontagent, a Facebook funded viral analytics platform venture. Albert sold his first internet company, the MyDesktop Network while in his teens to JupiterMedia (JUPM) for 7 digits in cash. Most recently he was the founder/CEO of BubbleShare, a photo-sharing company sold to Kaboose/Disney in 2007. He is now hard at work on Kontagent, his 5th internet startup based out of San Francisco and Toronto. In his spare time, Albert blogs athttp://simplyalbert.blogspot.com
Follow Albert on Twitter: @albertsupdates |
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KATHARINE LEWIS has 15 years experience in the media and investment industry, working in the Americas and Asian markets. As Deputy Head of FM Ventures, she is responsible for the team’s Americas portfolio. and specializes in investments in high growth areas of media, including casual gaming, social networks and branded content. FM Ventures is the strategic venture arm of FremantleMedia, the world’s largest independent television production and general entertainment company, which is best known for its global brands such as American Idol and Price is Right. Prior to FremantleMedia, Katharine held commercial and investment positions at eBay, PwC, various startups including GovWorks, Bloomberg and BZW Investment Bank. |
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DAVIN MIYOSHI leads GSN’s Games application, a top 20 game on Facebook, where over 7 million users play casual Flash games and compete in tournaments for virtual currency every month. Previously, Davin was a Co-Founder and CEO of Mesmo, a leading social game developer that since the launch of the Facebook platform in 2007 had engaged over 25 million users on Facebook, MySpace, hi5 and Bebo. In addition, Davin helped build two other Internet start-ups. At Intraware, a pioneer in online digital media distribution, he was integral in helping the company achieve a $2+ billion market cap and $50 million in annual revenues. After Intraware, Davin joined as VP of Business Development and one of the first employees at EQuill, an early social web discovery company that was acquired by Microsoft. He started his career in Investment Banking at Montgomery Securities (acquired by Banc America Securities) and also led corporate development initiatives at 3Com. Davin serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for Hands On Bay Area, a Bay Area non-profit where he previously served as the Board Chair and Treasurer. He received a Bachelors degree in Economics with honors from the University of California at Berkeley.
Follow Davin on Twitter: @dmiyoshi |
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DAN PORTER is the CEO of OMGPOP, a social games developer and leader in the real-time multiplayer space. At OMGPOP he oversees the team, business and strategy. OMGPOP is funded by Bessemer Venture Partners and Spark Capital. Prior, Dan was the SVP Corporate Development for Richard Branson and The Virgin Group in North America where he led investments and sat on a number of Boards of Virgin Companies. Dan was also President of TicketWeb, the first online ticketing company, which he sold to Ticketmaster City Search. Before getting into business, Dan was a founder and President of Teach For America, launched some of the first Charter schools in NYC and was a public school teacher in Brooklyn. Dan has a B.A. from Princeton University, an M.A. in Latin American Studies from NYU and lives in Brooklyn with his wife, kids, various pets and guitars.
Follow Dan on Twitter: @tfadp |
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NIMA POURSHASB is VP of Strategy and Corporate Development at Live Gamer, the premiere virtual goods commerce platform. His background includes Business Development at MTV Networks, where he led M&A deals with social media properties, and a Senior Project Manager role in strategy consulting at Oliver Wyman, specializing in Emerging Markets. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, during which he worked part-time at venture capital firm General Catalyst, helping launch an online advertising company. Other work experience includes Goldman Sachs and PWC, and he also holds a Masters in Engineering from Imperial College, London. |
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JESSICA ROVELLO is the president and co-founder ofArkadium, a gaming powerhouse for online and social game solution development. Under her stewardship, Arkadium has become a multi-million dollar company with over 100 employees, two offices and a library of over 300 games. As one of only a handful of technology businesses based in New York City, Arkadium’s client list reads like a “Who’s Who” of top media companies, boasting CBS, ABC, Disney, ESPN, Lifetime, Hearst Digital, Discovery, National Geographic Channel and Microsoft to name a few. At age 24, Jessica pioneered digital viral marketing as the Director of Online Services for Artisan Entertainment, whereS she produced the website for The Blair Witch Project. Blairwitch.com has been cited as a ground breaking event in the history of film and the internet and was acknowledged as a key driver in making The Blair Witch Project the most successful independent film of all time. Jessica is the winner of the 2009 American Business Award for Executive of the Year and the 2008 Stevie Award for Entrepreneur of Year. She writes a weekly technology blog for the Huffington Post and was recently named as one of Crain’s New York 2010 “40 Under 40.”
Follow Jessica on Twitter: @jessrovello |
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DENNIS RYAN joined PopCap in 2005 and runs global marketing, sales, business development, social business operations, and product management. Prior to PopCap, Dennis was a General Manager and Vice President at Click Commerce, Inc., where he ran a business unit for a software-as-a-service (SaaS) CRM solution. Previously, he was CEO of Allegis Corporation for five years when it pioneered on-demand SaaS for enterprise channel management. He was also CEO at Net-It Software, which developed intranet document management software, and Vice President at EO, Inc, which created early smart phones for AT&T. In 1987, Dennis was a founding team member of Claris Corporation (now FileMaker, Inc.) where he was group manager for information management products, including the ever-popular FileMaker database product line. Prior to Claris, he was a product manager at Apple Computer, Inc. |
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ARJUN SETHI is currently the CEO of LOLapps. Prior to Lolapps, Arjun was the CEO and founder of ROFLplay, a social gaming startup which was acquired by Lolapps in July 2009. Arjun initially served as the Head of Business and Corporate Development for Lolapps and was named CEO in March 2010. Previously, Arjun has held various management roles with the Carlyle Group and Saset Healthcare. In 1999, he also co-founded Advanced Tuning Products, a manufacturing company within the automotive industry. Arjun currently serves on the Board of Advisors for isocket and is an active angel investor. Arjun holds a B.A , B.S in History, Economics from University of Maryland, College Park.
Follow Arjun on Twitter: @arjunsethi |
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ROBERT TOMKINSON brings a career-long passion for e-commerce to his role as head of marketing at Playfish, an Electronic Arts company and a pioneer in social games. Robert oversees integrated global marketing strategies for the company’s portfolio of social games to build Playfish’s active and loyal community, which numbers in the tens of millions. Prior to Playfish, Robert was global marketing director at Shopping.com (an eBay Company), and held leadership roles at eBay and eBay Motors in the US and Australia. His career also spans venture capital and management consulting – but none of that was as much fun as social games! Robert holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University.
Follow Robert on Twitter: @rtomkinson |
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PETER WEXLER is TrialPay’s Director of Strategic Partnerships, where he is responsible for all worldwide advertising partnership initiatives. Peter comes to TrialPay from GetConnected, Inc. where he held Senior Business Development and Account Management positions focused on growing industry adoption of GetConnected’s digital services platform that enabled merchants to seamlessly sell high speed Internet, VoIP, Satellite, Wireless and Cable services through their various sales channels. Earlier in his career, Peter held senior leadership positions with both Grant Thornton LLP and Arthur Andersen LLP specializing in network security implementation and consulting, as well as financial data modeling solutions. Peter holds an MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from Babson and BS from The University of Delaware.
Follow Peter on Twitter: @trialpay |
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Boston’s Ayeah Games raises venture capital from Lead Dog and Eureeka Ventures August 23, 2010
Posted by HubTechInsider in Startups, Venture Capital, Video Gaming Video Games.Tags: Ayeah Games, boston, Business, Eureeka Ventures, Financial Services, Gaming, Lead Dog Ventures, social, Social Media, Startups, Venture Capital, Video Games, Video Gaming
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Boston’s Ayeah Games , a developer of “social reality games”, raises an undisclosed amount of venture capital equity funding from Lead Dog Ventures and Eureeka Ventures.
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Media Giant Time Warner Inc. acquires Westwood’s Online Gaming Powerhouse Turbine Entertainment April 21, 2010
Posted by HubTechInsider in Acquisitions, Gaming, Video Gaming Video Games.Tags: Acquisitions, Gaming, Turbine, Video Games, Video Gaming, Westwood
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Turbine Inc., one of the Boston area’s biggest video game companies, has been acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Inc. of Burbank, Calif., a business unit of Time Warner Inc.
The deal underscores Greater Boston’s increasing prominence as a center for video game development. Financial details of the deal were not released, but a source close to the negotiations said that Warner Bros. will pay as much as $160 million, including sums to be paid to Turbine shareholders in future years if the company meets certain financial targets.
Turbine, a privately-held, venture-backed company in Westwood, is one of the leading makers of Internet-based, multi-player adventure games. The company produces Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and Asheron’s Call. Thousands of players subscribe to Lord of the Rings and Asheron’s Call, paying monthly fees of around $15 for the right to play and socialize with one another online. More than one million players play Dungeons & Dragons Online.
Acquiring Turbine will give Warner Bros. total control over all future video games based on author J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved Lord of the Rings novels. Turbine holds an exclusive license to make an Internet-based game based on the books, while last year, Warner Bros. won a license to make non-Internet-based Tolkien video games.
Warner Bros. Interactive has bought a number of game development houses in recent years, in a bid to become a major power in video gaming. In 2007, the company purchased TT Games, a British firm that develops family-friendly products like Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman. In 2009, Warner Bros. bought the assets of bankrupt Chicago game company Midway, maker of the popular Mortal Kombat games. And earlier this year, it acquired a majority stake in Rocksteady Studios, another British developer, which created the hit game Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Boston’s Hangout Industries, Inc., a developer of a social gaming platform, has raised $2 Million in new equity financing April 6, 2010
Posted by HubTechInsider in Gaming, Startups, Venture Capital, Video Gaming Video Games.Tags: boston, Startups, Venture Capital, Video Games, Video Gaming, waltham
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Boston’s Hangout Industries, Inc., a developer of a social gaming platform designed to run on Facebook and other social media networks, has raised $2 Million in new equity financing from Highland Capital Partners and Waltham’s Polaris Venture Partners.
Boston Post Mortem Video Game Developers meeting: December 8th at 7pm, The Skellig Pub in Waltham November 30, 2009
Posted by HubTechInsider in events, Gaming, Video Gaming Video Games.Tags: boston postmortem, developers, events, gatherings, meetups, postmortem, Startups, Venture Capital, Video Games, Video Gaming, waltham
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The Skellig Pub - Waltham
The December Boston Post Mortem Video Game Developers meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 8th at 7pm at The Skellig in Waltham. In addition to the usual year-in-review (or Post Mortem Post Mortem), it has been announced that IGDA (Independent Game Developers Association) Executive Director Joshua Caulfield will be the special guest speaker! He’ll be providing an update on the IGDA in general, what to expect for the coming year, and will be taking any IGDA-related questions attendees may have.
Logistics:
Tuesday, December 8th
7pm-10pm @ The Skellig, Waltham
So please show up with your best questions and comments about the IGDA or about the Boston Post Mortem. If you see me there, please come up and introduce yourself!
The Video Game Orchestra at Boston’s Berklee Performance Center, Saturday, December 5th, 2009 7:00pm November 19, 2009
Posted by HubTechInsider in events, Gaming, Video Gaming Video Games.Tags: boston, boston postmortem, events, Gaming, gatherings, meetups, news, postmortem, Video Games, Video Gaming
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Video Game Orchestra Flyer
The doors will open at 7:00pm, and the performance will begin at 7:30pm.
136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
The Video Game Orchestra was Founded by Artistic Director and Arranger Shota Nakama, is Conducted by Musical Director Yohei Sato, and the performance on December 5th will feature Special Musical Guest Wataru Hokoyama, who created the music for video game titles “Afrika” and “Resident Evil 5”.
The Video Game Orchestra’s performance of “Awakening” on December 5th will feature music from smash hit video games Super Mario Brothers, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII, Silent Hill 2, Afrika, Chrono Cross, and many more!
Students, 18 and Under: $10 ($15 The Day of the event)
General Public: $15 ($20 The Day of the event)
Tickets are available at Ticketmaster and Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02116
More information is available online at www.vgo-online.org and the Video Game Orchestra’s Founder and Artistic Director is Shota Nakama, shotanakama@gmail.com
Waltham’s Skellig Pub hosts the Boston Postmortem Video Game Developers Meeting on Video Game AI Programming November 19, 2009
Posted by HubTechInsider in events, Software, Video Gaming Video Games.Tags: Artificial Intelligence, boston postmortem, events, Gaming, gatherings, meetups, postmortem, Software, Software Development, Video Games, Video Gaming, waltham
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Wednesday night in Waltham was the November monthly Boston Postmortem networking event, held at the Skellig Pub on Waltham’s Moody Street, next to the Charles River.
As regular readers of The Hub Tech Insider will doubtless already know, I attend this event regularly and blog about it on these pages. It is a super event I highly recommend. In addition, Boston Postmortem is one of my favorite Boston tech networking groups because the crowd is unpretentious, the topics are interesting and the presenters and presentations are well prepared and excellent, and you can sit at the bar in the huge back room where the event is held at the Skellig Pub on Moody Street in Waltham, and order bangers and mash or fish and chips or a bacon cheeseburger while you drink beers and schmooze.
The Boston Postmortem Networking Group is for Video Game Developers, Animators, Designers, Digital Artists of all kinds, and people interested in Video Games and Video Game Development. Admission is Free.
The talk on Wednesday was about Artificial intelligence (AI) programming in video games.
There was an august panel of subject matter experts who fielded questions from the audience:
Christian Baekkelund (moderator)
Christian Baekkelund has worked games-related jobs in the areas of design, programming, and QA, at Electronic Arts, for the British school system, briefly at Harmonix, and most recently at 38 Studios. Between various jobs, he attended MIT, studying computer science and Comparative Media Studies, focusing on games and AI. Christian has also spoken at the Game Developers Conference and written in the AI Programming Wisdom series of books about AI, learning methods, and game design.
John Abercrombie (panelist)
John Abercrombie was the AI Lead on BIOSHOCK and SWAT 4 and is now the Lead Programmer on 2K Boston’s unannounced title. He graduated from Brandeis University with a degree in Computer Science in 2000, and has worked at Irrational Games / 2K Boston ever since.
Damián Isla (panelist)
Damián Isla has been working on and writing about game technology for almost a decade. Recently, he helped found Moonshot Games, a studio dedicated to the creation of downloadable games with triple-A production values and technology. Before Moonshot, Damián was AI and Gameplay engineering lead at Bungie Studios, where he was responsible for the AI for the mega-hit first-person shooters Halo 2 and Halo 3.
An expert in the field of Artificial Intelligence for Games, Damián has spoken on games, AI and character technology at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), at the AI and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference (AIIDE), and at Siggraph, and is a frequent speaker at the Game Developers Conference (GDC).
Before joining the industry, Damián earned a Masters Degree at the M.I.T. Media Lab, where he did research on learning and behavior for synthetic characters. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science, also from M.I.T.
Jeff Orkin (panelist)
Jeff Orkin is a PhD candidate in the Cognitive Machines Group at the MIT Media Lab. Jeff’s research focuses on Artificial Intelligence for characters that learn to communicate and collaborate by observing humans playing online multiplayer games.
Prior to enrolling at the Media Lab, Jeff developed several generations of AI systems in the game industry. As a Senior Engineer at Monolith Productions, Jeff focused on goal-oriented autonomous character behavior and planning, while developing AI systems for the award winning titles No One Lives Forever 2 and F.E.A.R.
Jeff is a Contributing Author and Section Editor of the AI Game Programming Wisdom book series, has presented at the Game Developer’s Conference, the AI and Interactive Digital Entertainment conference (AIIDE), and the Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Sytems (AAMAS) conference, and holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Washington and Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Tufts University with a minor in Studio Art.
Zeemote, a Chelmsford, MA-based startup that developed a handheld game controller for use with games on mobile handsets, has closed its doors November 11, 2009
Posted by HubTechInsider in Ecommerce, Hardware, Telecommunications, Venture Capital, Video Gaming Video Games.Tags: boston postmortem, Chelmsford, ecommerce, Gaming, Hardware, postmortem, Startups, Venture Capital, Video Games, Video Gaming, waltham
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Zeemote, a Chelmsford, MA-based startup that developed a handheld game controller for use with games on mobile handsets, has closed its doors and is putting its assets up for sale. Founded in 2005 by famed Boston-area entrepreneur Beth Marcus, the company worked with handset manufacturers Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, and RIM to make its Bluetooth-based device compatible with their phones. A partner from Waltham, MA -based Zeemote backer Commonwealth Capital Ventures confirmed the closure but offered no further details.
I was lucky enough to have met in person the CEO of Zeemote, Beth Marcus. Beth is a famed entrepreneur in the Boston area, and I met her at the time of her involvement with an Internet retailer named Glow Dog. Beth is active in the MIT Enterprise Forum and some 128 Networking and entrepreneurship circles, and after attending one of Beth’s talks on company valuation one early morning at the Newton Marriot in Newton, MA (a well-known and heavily traveled local hotspot for technology and software, hardware startups’ networking and professional group meetings in the area) Beth and I struck up a conversation, which was followed by Beth granting me a private tour of Glow Dog’s facility and retail store along Great Road in Bedford center and lunch at a local Japanese Restaurant.
Beth was generous with her time and expertise and the time she graciously spent with me that day not only provided me with several nearly priceless insights about my business plan and company (I was working on an ecommerce company at the time, TSN Corporation), but also provided a blueprint of how a successful entrepreneur should give back to the community. Beth Marcus is the real deal and I thank her heartily for her time and knowledge sharing.
Beth Marcus has been Founder and CEO of several successful startups, most notably EXOS, Inc., which was venture capital backed and sold to Microsoft in 1996. Since then she has been involved in 12 start-ups in a variety of fields as a founder, investor, or advisor. One of the companies Beth founded was called Glow Dog and was based on Great Road in Bedford. The company was an Internet retailer and sold pet products with a pet safety orientation both at retail and wholesale to many large pet-oriented retail chains both online and off. She has raised equity numerous times and has also done angel investments herself. Several of these ventures have been acquired by public companies.
Part-time between then and now, Beth has worked as a consultant providing patent strategy, litigation support, and other strategic technology-related consulting services. Beth is an acknowledged expert in the hand-device interface space and has been an expert for several of the major players in the industry in support of prior-patents litigations. That knowledge and the clear problems in using a cell phone keypad for anything but number entry led her to invention, filing of a patent application, and the founding of Zeemote, Inc.
Beth has SB and SM in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and a PhD in Biomechanics from the Imperial College, London, where she was a Marshall Scholar. She has more than a dozen patents to her name and numerous publications and public speaking engagements. She has served on the faculty of MIT in the department of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Marcus has been member of the Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum and the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee in Mechanical Engineering. She is also a current member of the Council for the Arts at MIT.
Zeemote JS1 Product Profile and Interview with Beth Marcus, CEO of Zeemote from Ablegamers
Zeemote Hands-On Review from Ubergizmo with Pictures of the Remote Unit for Cellular Telephones
Beth Marcus Profiled at Mass High Tech Magazine
Cambridge based visual effects software provider GenArts acquires St. Louis based Wondertouch, maker of digital animation products, for undisclosed terms November 10, 2009
Posted by HubTechInsider in Video Gaming Video Games.Tags: Cambridge, Gaming, Video Games, Video Gaming
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Cambridge, MA -based visual effects software provider GenArts, Inc. acquires St. Louis, MO -based Wondertouch LLC, maker of digital animation products, for undisclosed terms.
Online Music Video Game Developer Conduit Labs, based in Cambridge MA, raises $3 Million in equity funding October 30, 2009
Posted by HubTechInsider in Gaming, Venture Capital, Video Gaming Video Games.Tags: Cambridge, Gaming, postmortem, Venture Capital, Video Games, Video Gaming, waltham
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Conduit Labs, the Cambridge, MA-based maker of music-driven online games such as Loudcrowd, has collected $3 million in new equity financing, SEC Regulatory documents filed September 15 reveal. Conduit founder and CEO Nabeel Hyatt has publicly stated to a leading technology publication, Mass high Tech, that the funding came from Charles River Ventures of Waltham, MA, and Prism VentureWorks of Westwood, MA; Prism VentureWiorks also provided Conduit’s $5.5 million Series A round concluded in August 2007.
A brief history of the Aspect Ratio April 21, 2009
Posted by HubTechInsider in Definitions, Technology, Video Gaming Video Games.Tags: Aspect ratio, digital video, HDTV, iPad, LinkedIn, Liquid crystal display, mobile video, Telecommunications, Television, Video, Video editing, Widescreen, YouTube
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The 4:3 aspect ratio was originally developed by W.K.L.Dickson in 1889 while he was working at Thomas Edison’s laboratories. Dickson was experimenting with a motion-picture camera called a Kinescope, and he made his film 1 inch wide with frames 0.75 inches high. This film size, and its aspect ratio, became the standard for the film and motion-picture industry because there was no apparent reason to change it. In 1941, when the NTSC proposed standards for television broadcasting, they adopted the same ratio as the film industry.
In the 1950’s, Hollywood wanted to give the public a reason to buy a ticket to attend the theatre rather than sit at home watching the TV. Because our two eyes give us a wider view, a wider movie makes more sense. Widescreen formats are formatted much closer to the way we see. Our field of vision is more rectangular than square. When we view movies in widescreen format, the image fills more of our field of vision and has a stronger visual impact. Wider screens gave the theatre audience a more visually engulfing experience. The 16:9 aspect ratio allows TV to move closer to the movie experience.
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About the author.
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Boston Area Video Game Companies (list) April 17, 2009
Posted by HubTechInsider in Gaming, Video Gaming Video Games.Tags: boston, events, Gaming, Video Games, Video Gaming
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Boston Area Video Game Development Companies (list)
List of Boston area video game companies
Company – Location
2EastMusic – Cambridge, MA
2K Boston – Quincy, MA
360KID – Newton, MA
38 Studios – Maynard, MA
7-128 Software, LLC – Salem, MA
Activeworlds.com, Inc. – Newburyport, MA
All inPlay – Oxford, MA
Anzovin Studio – Amherst, MA
Arcane Journeys – Northampton, MA
ATI Research – Marlborough, MA
Blink Music – Cambridge, MA
Blue Fang Games – Waltham, MA
Blue Sky Red Design LLC – Somerville, MA
Cecropia – Lexington, MA
Chapter 11 Studios – Cambridge, MA
CogniToy – Acton, MA
Conduit Labs – Cambridge, MA
Cosmic Blobs – Concord, MA
Crate Entertainment – Cambridge, MA
CREAT Studios – Canton, MA
Dejobaan Games – Northborough, MA
Demiurge Studios – Cambridge, MA
Digital Fauxtography – Williamstown, MA
East Coast Games, Inc. – Milford, MA
Evolver – Warner, NH
FableVision – Boston, MA
Fastestmanintheworld Music – Exeter, NH
Fat Frog Studios – Millis, MA
Fire Hose Games – Cambridge, MA
Floodgate Entertainment – Cambridge, MA
Funkitron, Inc. – Boxford, MA
Galactic Village Games – Westford, MA
Gale Games – Greenfield, MA
GameLogic, Inc. – Waltham, MA
Greater Family, LLC – Ridgefield, CT
Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. – Cambridge, MA
ImaginEngine Corp. – Framingham, MA
Injoy Games – Brookline, MA
Macguffin Games – Waltham, MA
Max Gaming Technologies, LLC – Newton, MA
Mecha Software, LLC – Brockton, MA
Metaversal Studios – Boston, MA
Moonset Studios Corp. – Nashua, NH
Motus Games – Cambridge, MA
Muzzy Lane Software – Newburyport, MA
Orbus Gameworks – Cambridge, MA
Paul Hake Productions – Greenfield, MA
Pileated Pictures – Shelburne Falls, MA
Play Hard Sports – Foxborough, MA
Pod Design – Lexington, MA
Rockstar New England – Andover, MA
Small Fry Studios – Cambridge, MA
SONiVOX – Somerville, MA
Sports Mogul, Inc. – Medford, MA
Stock’s Eye – Granby, MA
Tilted Mill Entertainment, Inc. – Wellesley, MA
Turbine, Inc. – Westwood, MA
Twitchy Thumbs Entertainment – Ashland, MA
Vermont Digital Arts – Guilford, VT
Whatif Productions – Belmont, MA
Wicked Noise – a division of The Troupe – Windham, NH
WorldWinner.com – Newton, MA
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Want to know more?
You’re reading Boston’s Hub Tech Insider, a blog stuffed with years of articles about Boston technology startups and venture capital-backed companies,software development, Agile project management, managing software teams, designing web-based business applications, running successful software development projects, ecommerce and telecommunications.
About the author.
I’m Paul Seibert, Editor of Boston’s Hub Tech Insider, a Boston focused technology blog. I have been working in the software engineering and ecommerce industries for over fifteen years. My interests include electronics, robotics, programmable logic and microcontrollers, and I am an avid outdoorsman and guitar player. You can connect with me on LinkedIn, follow me on Twitter, even friend me on Facebook if you’re cool.
I own and am trying to sell a dual-zoned, residential & commercial Office Building in the center of Natick, Massachusetts. I have a professional background in entrepreneurship, ecommerce, telecommunications and software development, I’m the Director, Technical Projects at eSpendWise, I’m a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of Tshirtnow.net.
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