Dave Fennoy is one of the most sought after and versatile voices in the market today.Although he regularly voices commercials, narrations, and TV promos, he has become a celebrity voice in world of video games. IMDB named Dave Fennoy “one of the 20 best male video game voices of... Read More →
Friday September 30, 2016 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
Until recently, David Gaider worked with famed RPG developer BioWare on such titles as 'Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn', 'Knights of the Old Republic', and the `Dragon Age` series with `Dragon Age: Inquisition` being his most recent release in 2014. BioWare is well-regarded for the strides it's made on the issue of representation, but it's also had its share of criticism on the subject and encountered its share of setbacks. While David can't talk about where BioWare will be going in the future, he can talk frankly about how it got to where it is now and what those problems were - and maybe offer some observations on how they parallel issues in the industry at large."
David worked for BioWare as narrative designer on such games as Baldur’s Gate 2, Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, and was lead writer on the Dragon Age series: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, and (most recently) 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition. This year he moved... Read More →
Friday September 30, 2016 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
Steffeny "Steffo" Messinger (My Parents Favorite Music) has been creating music since the year 2000. She is also a video game nerd. She is also a transgender woman. This particular trinity makes for some interesting stories. Join Steffo as she discusses her experiences with gender, privilege, and sexism in the video game music industry.
Steffeny “Steffo” Messinger a.k.a. “My Parents Favorite Music”, is the world’s most attractive, funny, smart, kind, humble, not to mention attractive chiptune hip hop transgender musician. She creates video game and nerd culture influenced songs, paired up with nostalgia-heavy... Read More →
Friday September 30, 2016 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
Founder / Executive Director, The AbleGamers Charity
Mark Barlet is the Founder and Executive Director of the AbleGamers Charity. Winner of the 2012 Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award and considered one of the founding-fathers of game accessibility, Mark has used games for over a decade to breaking down the walls of social isolation that... Read More →
Friday September 30, 2016 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
Having been in the game industry for thirty five years, I will give personal examples of the wide range of things that have changed in that time, including increasing diversity in gender, race and sexual orientation, increasing budget and team sizes (paired with developer specialization), technological change and its effect on games, and social acceptance of gaming and a game development career.
Tim Cain is a video game developer best known as the producer, lead programmer and designer of the 1997 computer game Fallout. He has developed games since 1981, both in award winning series such as Bard’s Tale, Star Trek, D&D, Vampire: The Masquerade, and South Park, and the original... Read More →
Friday September 30, 2016 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
Come and join the fun as Kitty Powers hosts the most fabulous and nerdiest game show you've ever seen! Two teams battle it out to see who can win the Trophy!
Kitty Powers is the world’s first drag queen game developer, and star of ‘Kitty Powers’ Matchmaker’ and the upcoming ‘Kitty Powers’ Love Life’.She is the alter ego of game dev Richard Franke, a 20 year games industry veteran who has worked on many award winning titles... Read More →
Founder / Executive Director, The AbleGamers Charity
Mark Barlet is the Founder and Executive Director of the AbleGamers Charity. Winner of the 2012 Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award and considered one of the founding-fathers of game accessibility, Mark has used games for over a decade to breaking down the walls of social isolation that... Read More →
Narrative Designer, Writer, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant
Whitney “Strix” Beltrán is Project Narrative Director at Hidden Path Entertainment, currently developing a AAA Dungeons & Dragons video game. She is an award winning Mexican-American narrative designer and writer with a Master’s degree in Mythological Studies. She’s previously... Read More →
Tim Cain is a video game developer best known as the producer, lead programmer and designer of the 1997 computer game Fallout. He has developed games since 1981, both in award winning series such as Bard’s Tale, Star Trek, D&D, Vampire: The Masquerade, and South Park, and the original... Read More →
Matt Conn is the founder of Gaymer X and producer of Read Only Memories, Matt believes in making gaming accessible to everyone regardless of gender identity or sexual identity. He continues to strive to achieve equal representation in gaming for the LBGT community. He also likes olives... Read More →
Art Director, producer, occasional artist, and all around creative team superstar living in Seattle. They are a voice and supporter for sex, gender, body and just about every other sort of -positivity out there.
Steffeny “Steffo” Messinger a.k.a. “My Parents Favorite Music”, is the world’s most attractive, funny, smart, kind, humble, not to mention attractive chiptune hip hop transgender musician. She creates video game and nerd culture influenced songs, paired up with nostalgia-heavy... Read More →
Karin is Lead Editor for BioWare’s three studios. She has worked at BioWare since 2006, editing Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect 3 Dragon Age II, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins and various DLCs for the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. Karin... Read More →
Friday September 30, 2016 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
Aethernaut returns to GaymerX! The chiptune violinist is back and with even more jams to get you moving!He is classically trained and video gamed, ready to share his sounds with all of you. Drum n bass, rock, electro, and more all laced with the sweet sounds of yesteryear. Be there... Read More →
Steffeny “Steffo” Messinger a.k.a. “My Parents Favorite Music”, is the world’s most attractive, funny, smart, kind, humble, not to mention attractive chiptune hip hop transgender musician. She creates video game and nerd culture influenced songs, paired up with nostalgia-heavy... Read More →
Friday September 30, 2016 8:00pm - 11:30pm PDT
Panels Room A
The world of cosplay and body art can be a mystery. Lets explore this exciting craft, as Brandon McGill takes you on a journey through his techniques. This year he will show you how he built Cthulhu, Cheshire Cat, and other memorable creations. Please join us for this informative (AND FUN!) session. Mature Content.
Brandon McGill has made a name for himself by tackling the unconventional. From the bright and bold, to the dark and mysterious; he is drawn to creating interesting extremes. Primarily known for his body painting work, he recently directed a music video called Notes from Wonderland... Read More →
Join our tabletop Bosses of Honor to talk about queer issues, themes, and experiences in the tabletop gaming hobby and industry. We want to hear from you!
Tim (Tabletop/Roleplaying Game Coordinator for GaymerX) is the founder of Dawson Creek Pride, and a regular volunteer at Pride in his home of Vancouver British Columbia, Canada. He is the Western Canadian Regional Coordinator for the D&D Adventurers League and is a Judge at GenCon... Read More →
Narrative Designer, Writer, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant
Whitney “Strix” Beltrán is Project Narrative Director at Hidden Path Entertainment, currently developing a AAA Dungeons & Dragons video game. She is an award winning Mexican-American narrative designer and writer with a Master’s degree in Mythological Studies. She’s previously... Read More →
Crystal Frasier is a writer, game developer, and graphic designer with eighteen years’ experience, best known for her work on the Pathfinder line of roleplaying games and adventures. She strives to make games worlds where everyone can see themselves reflected. She is a survivor... Read More →
Steve Kenson has been writing and designing in the tabletop RPG industry since 1995. He has written for such diverse games as Shadowrun, Earthdawn, Aberrant, Dungeons & Dragons, and White Wolf’s World of Darkness. Three of his novels for Shadowrun focused on a gay male protagonist... Read More →
OrcaCon is a tabletop games convention, which includes board and card games, role-playing games, and miniatures games. OrcaCon is focused on creating a safe and welcoming space for promoting the tabletop games hobby, supporting diversity in tabletop games, and building a community... Read More →
Saturday October 1, 2016 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
Roleplaying romantic interactions is probably one of the most difficult of interactions in tabletop RPG campaigns. Join us for a discussion of the traps to avoid, the tricks that will help, and a discussion of what consent of both real players at the table and fictional characters in the story looks like.
Content Warning - This talk will feature numerous pictures of butts. Most of these will be clothed, a couple may not be. Butts will be presented in a purely academic and non sexual context. These butts are for learning.
Butts are kind of silly right? They only seem to get discussed when they've been over sexualised, and we rarely go into detail about what we like or what bothers us about them. Well, this panel is designed to demystify the design choices behind video game butts.
Which video game character butt tells us about a woman's sense of body positivity and how she learned to love her own weight? Which video game character is wearing a helmet to hide that their forehead is actually a butt? Which video game character used a butt to save the world? All these questions and more will be answered in this very serious, totally not silly, talk about the art of butts.
Games allow us to step into another life and find solace, wisdom, or empowerment we don’t find in our own. But for many of us, they also offer a safe space to explore a part of ourselves we keep deeply hidden.
Many modern queer gamers first began exploring their gender or sexuality in the freedom of tabletop gaming, or in the anonymity of video games. This panel looks at how games have been used by queer people to become more comfortable with who they really are, and how we can create more opportunities for that same exploration to everyone, whether gay, trans, straight, or cis.
Katherine Cross is a gaming critic, sociologist, and feminist scholar who studies virtual worlds, particularly gender and the dynamics of online harassment. Her academic work has been published in Women's Studies Quarterly and in Loading: The Journal of the Canadian Games Studies... Read More →
Crystal Frasier is a writer, game developer, and graphic designer with eighteen years’ experience, best known for her work on the Pathfinder line of roleplaying games and adventures. She strives to make games worlds where everyone can see themselves reflected. She is a survivor... Read More →
Saturday October 1, 2016 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
So, how *do* you, you know, *do* it? In-game sex has been at the heart of countless controversies over the years, from Hot Coffee, to hot Asari-on-Commander action, to sexualised protagonists like Bayonetta. Are games doomed to portray sex poorly? Will there ever be a Lady Chatterley's Lover or Story of O for videogames? Is Twine the only way forward? Most of these questions and more will be answered in this talk discussing how sexuality is portrayed in games, what lessons can be learned from existing titles, and what the next frontiers are.
Katherine Cross is a gaming critic, sociologist, and feminist scholar who studies virtual worlds, particularly gender and the dynamics of online harassment. Her academic work has been published in Women's Studies Quarterly and in Loading: The Journal of the Canadian Games Studies... Read More →
Saturday October 1, 2016 3:00pm - 3:45pm PDT
Panels Room A
Want to know how to find inclusive groups for gaming? How do you create your own gaming meet-ups? Many game groups play in public, but they're not welcoming.
You need anti-harassment policies, a game host welcoming the new players, and relationship building with the business owner. You can do it! Our panelists will give you tips on creating safe & welcoming spaces for new players in public places.
OrcaCon is a tabletop games convention, which includes board and card games, role-playing games, and miniatures games. OrcaCon is focused on creating a safe and welcoming space for promoting the tabletop games hobby, supporting diversity in tabletop games, and building a community... Read More →
Saturday October 1, 2016 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
Kitty Powers is the world’s first drag queen game developer, and star of ‘Kitty Powers’ Matchmaker’ and the upcoming ‘Kitty Powers’ Love Life’.She is the alter ego of game dev Richard Franke, a 20 year games industry veteran who has worked on many award winning titles... Read More →
Saturday October 1, 2016 6:00pm - 7:15pm PDT
Panels Room A
The big fun wacky awesome party of GaymerX! We will drink and dance all night to our wonderful DJ Alanah Pearce!
Join us as we sit and eye the dance floor and only think to actually step on it once we've had enough drinks in us to have NO BUSINESS being on a dance floor.
Kitty Powers is the world’s first drag queen game developer, and star of ‘Kitty Powers’ Matchmaker’ and the upcoming ‘Kitty Powers’ Love Life’.She is the alter ego of game dev Richard Franke, a 20 year games industry veteran who has worked on many award winning titles... Read More →
Sunday October 2, 2016 11:00am - 1:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
As esports continues to grow, it makes sense that there would be LGBTQ+ folks at the bleeding edge. Particularly, the fighting game community is one that has many at the forefront in various aspects. What is it about fighting games bring these numbers? How can the environment continue to be improved? What's the history with queer folks and representation in fighting games and how does it shape the future?
Wynton “Prog” Smith has been in the world of competitive gaming since 1999. While his roots were in Unreal Tournament and Age of Empires, he fell in love with fighting games, the most. After joining the Super Smash Bros. Melee community in 2005 as a player, he eventually became... Read More →
Sunday October 2, 2016 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
Karin is Lead Editor for BioWare’s three studios. She has worked at BioWare since 2006, editing Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect 3 Dragon Age II, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins and various DLCs for the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. Karin... Read More →
Patrick joined BioWare’s writing team in 2005. Since then, he’s worked on all three games in the Mass Effect trilogy, where he helped write characters including Mordin, Tali, and Samantha Traynor, (along with krogan poets, hanar Spectres, and foul-mouthed asari matriarchs). After... Read More →
Sunday October 2, 2016 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
David worked for BioWare as narrative designer on such games as Baldur’s Gate 2, Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, and was lead writer on the Dragon Age series: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, and (most recently) 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition. This year he moved... Read More →
Karin is Lead Editor for BioWare’s three studios. She has worked at BioWare since 2006, editing Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect 3 Dragon Age II, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins and various DLCs for the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. Karin... Read More →
Patrick joined BioWare’s writing team in 2005. Since then, he’s worked on all three games in the Mass Effect trilogy, where he helped write characters including Mordin, Tali, and Samantha Traynor, (along with krogan poets, hanar Spectres, and foul-mouthed asari matriarchs). After... Read More →
Sunday October 2, 2016 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
Matt Conn is the founder of Gaymer X and producer of Read Only Memories, Matt believes in making gaming accessible to everyone regardless of gender identity or sexual identity. He continues to strive to achieve equal representation in gaming for the LBGT community. He also likes olives... Read More →
Toni Rocca is a feminist and an activist for creating inclusive spaces in gaming and other fandoms. As a trans woman, her expertise tends to revolve around queer issues and creating safer environments to foster creativity and enrich the culture of a space. She is known mainly for... Read More →
Art Director, producer, occasional artist, and all around creative team superstar living in Seattle. They are a voice and supporter for sex, gender, body and just about every other sort of -positivity out there.
Sunday October 2, 2016 6:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Panels Room A
