Jalloo Guest Speakers
Darryl Wright
Technical Director Darryl Wright has been a software developer, engineer and leader in information technology for over 20 years. In that time he has seen the rise of small studios and the demise of large corporations. He began typing source code from video game magazines into a second-hand Commodore 64 as a child and entered the east coast telecommunications industry many years later. After serving the requisite time in khakis and cubicles, and living through the first IT bubble burst, Darryl returned to his passion for gaming in 2004 and found a place as employee #12 in the early days of HB Studios in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Pulled west to join Deep Fried Entertainment, a small studio founded by some former HB’ers, Darryl eventually found his way to Electronic Arts where he helped architect FIFA’s transition into the new world of downloadable digital content and live commerce and played a primary role in pioneering online content marketplace systems on console platforms —a design which persists today in numerous EA titles including the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed FIFA Ultimate Team. Never losing sight of his roots and seeing an opportunity to bolster our industry back east, Darryl returned in 2014 and joined some former maritime colleagues to found an ambitious and high profile project under the banner of “Orpheus Interactive”. Despite an as-yet unannounced title in the works, the team has grown to almost 20 in less than 6 months and continues to gain momentum. Jim Hickey
Background/Layout Designer As artist, writer, inventor, adventurer, Thaumaturgic Cartographer and Mystagogue, Jimmy has had the very good fortune to ply the creative waters in the four corners, hidden nooks and crannies and soft white underbelly of this world (and others). He graduated big school by the skin of his teeth, went immediately into the service of his Uncle Sam, married shortly thereafter and became a father before his 21st birthday. After service he developed lettering chops as a vagabond sign writer, but higher education sent him down the darker path toward advertising. Shunning MadAve he found limited opportunities in animation at small studios in L.A. and Toronto where he wore many hats... acquiring tools and experience, but managed to hit the big time when he landed at Hanna Barbera Studios where he stayed for twenty years or so., working on many of the “Limited Animation TV Classics”. It was during this stay that his craft of lettering earned him an Emmy for animated series main title design. He has been many things in animation; a barely adequate animator, an OK story artist, a half decent traditional background painter (sticks with hairs and flasks of pigment... much like early hominids), a pretty darn fine background/layout designer, production designer, and art director. He has enjoyed the kinship of artists in Dublin, Manilla, Taipei, Toronto, Copenhagen, Madrid, Frankfurt, Sydney... always with the common language of the love of the craft of animation. Now retired, he is Minister of Information for the Thimblerig Research Group of Companies where he dabbles in all manner of uncommon astonishments such as; The Secret Library of the Unknowable, The Cabinets of Mystery, Thimblerig Small Arms, and the Congress of Wonders Light Orchestra. He says that it is his mission to blur the edges that separate reason from whimsey, harmony from chaos, and reality from the other stuff. It may be an artifact of his advancing years. Robert Anderson
Producer Robert Anderson has worked in the entertainment industry since 1982, when he got his first taste of the “biz” working on some NFB shorts out of Moncton, New Brunswick. The next few years were spent jumping from theater to small TV productions where and when they could be found. Quickly becoming addicted to the art of all things film and realizing that in order to satisfy his addictions (this was 1986) he moved to the bustling city of Ottawa where he lucked into a job at Crawley Films. Since then he has worked on countless TV shows, a pile of specials, a few Canadian and American features, along with a collection of Flash games, the last 20 years or so as a project manager/producer. Now at DHX Robert is continuing his passion for all things entertainment. Martin Copp
Gameplay Programmer Martin has taken on many roles as a developer including that of programmer, mentor, supervisor, teacher, and project lead. He has a passion for the games industry and building games that are different and inventive. Ryan Henson Creighton
Owner Ryan is the founder and President of Untold Entertainment Inc, a boutique Toronto studio specializing in non-violent, imaginative and good-looking games for intelligent players. He is the co-creator of Sissy's Magical Ponycorn Adventure, an international hit which he developed with his then-5-year-old daughter Cassandra. Prior to founding Untold, Ryan created over 50 games in his role as Senior Game Developer for YTV/Corus Entertainment. Ryan is the Vice President of the International Game Developers Association Toronto Chapter, and the author of Unity 4.x Game Development By Example: A Beginner's Guide from Packt Publishing, now in its third edition. A prolific speaker, Ryan has presented at conferences at home and abroad, including the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Causal Connect in Seattle and TEDx in Toronto. Through Untold, Ryan remains committed to improving technology education in schools. Lauren Cruikshank
Professor Media Arts and Culture Lauren Cruikshank is a professor from the Media Arts and Cultures program in the Department of Culture and Language Studies at the University of New Brunswick- Fredericton. She has been doing research in the academic field of game studies for over a decade, with a specific focus on avatars and aspects of virtual embodiment. She has developed courses on games and gameplay, digital culture, social media, gender and media, television and popular culture in the Media Arts and Cultures program at UNB. She is also is in the process of developing a game studies research group and an interactive media laboratory on the UNB campus to further advance the academic study of games here in Atlantic Canada.. Dominique Dussault
Project Manager, Original Production Dominique Dussault, Project Manager, Original Production for TELETOON Canada Inc., the country’s first and only 24-hour animation station, with English and French language networks. In this role, Dominique is responsible for all pitches submitted to TELETOON. She oversees the pitch review process, from being the first point of entry, to managing the review with the OP team and responding to producers. She is also responsible for supervising the French versioning of original programming and acquisitions. Since joining TELETOON in December 2005, Ms. Dussault has been involved in many aspects of television production including assisting with CMF applications, budgets and business affairs. Ms. Dussault is fluent in English and French, and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Concordia University.. Erin Glidden
Game Designer Erin was born in St John's, Newfoundland. She grew up there with her mother, Dawn, and her grandparents, John and Marina, before moving to New Brunswick. She attended Memorial University of NL then moved to Fredericton to begin anew at art college to study game design. She worked at FatKat animation for 3 years and at Gogii Games for another two. Now she hangs her hat in Halifax NS as a game designer for Karma Games. She also runs her own online store called Blind Leviathan. Jeff Mundee
Game Designer Jeff Mundee has worked in the video game industry for over 10 years starting in Vancouver with Factory1 Games, learning the ropes of game design and environment modelling as an intern. He then worked with Electronic Arts for three years as a motion capture specialist, and was involved in the production of animation for most EA games released from 2006-2009. Most notably, Fight Night Round 3, FIFA, Dragon Age, Skate, Dead Space, and Need For Speed. He then became a mission designer at Activision where he worked on Sleeping Dogs, later published by Square Enix. For 5 years he taught many game design courses at Art Institute of Vancouver. This involved mentoring of hundreds of students in various disciplines, many of whom are now professionals in the industry themselves. While teaching, he worked on several independent projects including Red Rolling Hood with Holy Mountain Games. He most recently has been working on independent titles with Fuflespoot games, and continues to teach several game design courses for UNB's MAAC program. Kirsten Tomlinson
President/CEO Kirsten began her media career 14 years ago as a freelance production assistant on hectic live action television and movie sets. Not satisfied with the real world drama of the movie business and craving the sort of creative absurdity one could only find amongst unwashed animators, she made the move to become a production coordinator at Collideascope Digital Productions in Halifax. In the animation world she had the opportunity to work on numerous award winning and critically acclaimed series as she scaled the monkey bars upwards earning more responsibility as an associate producer, and eventually as a producer. Loved by her crew, and integral to the successful planning and execution of tight budgets and schedules, Kirsten learned a lot about the artistic process and how to organize large teams of creative individuals towards a common goal by building stable productions and fostering an atmosphere of respect, teamwork, and productivity. Always up for a new challenge, Kirsten decided to leave the industry she loved to take on a new role as a video game Producer for HB Studios in Lunenburg. She accepted the challenge of learning an entirely different production model in a new technology sector, quickly rising to the role of Senior Project Manager. During her time with HB Kirsten successfully produced a number of world-class console games with top clients from around the gaming world, and helped the company expand their business while managing numerous productions at two separate facilities. After experiencing work-life in a large gaming facility, Kirsten decided to make a sideways swing into a smaller boutique gaming and e-learning environment. Acting as Senior Production Manager for Raised Media, she has immersed herself in the world of education based games and online branding, all the while learning how to make a smaller company perform like a well oiled multi-national brand. Kirsten’s in depth and rounded work experience in media, television, feature films and games gives her a stunning array of skills and attributes any client will find indispensable. She has evolved her career towards serving the interests of her clients and her craft, and she represents the missing link between left-brain artistic creatives and goal-focused executives. Kirsten’s professional, positive attitude and her infectious humour make her a joy to work with, and we are proud and fortunate to have her as Fourth Monkey’s top banana. |
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© 2013 Jalloo Foundation
© 2013 Jalloo Foundation
