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DMW Games LA GAMES CONFERENCE

2014 Event Review Part Two 5-21-2014

5-21-2014 - Written By David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV Howard
Hobson Funk Gumbo Radio Raymond C. Reed Global Media Village
Auggie Cavanagh FuTurXTV Partners David Velo Stewart & Brandon Bowlin


(L-R) Raymond C. Reed, Global Media Village, #LAGC attendee & David L. $Money Train$ Watts,
FuTurXTV and Funk Gumbo Radio and media partners www.hhbmedia.com & www.thedarkroome.com
The Future of Gaming in a F2P and Cross Platform World
Blossom Room
Keynote Conversation with Owen Mahoney, CEO & President, Nexon and Mike Vorhaus,
President, Magid Advisors
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(L-R) Owen Mahoney, CEO & President, Nexon and Mike Vorhaus, President, Magid Advisors & Ned
Sherman, CEO & Publisher Digital Media Wire

Owen: Big upfront marketing does not move gamers in the free to play market. It is bad
enough that over half of the free mobile games on the iTunes store are Flappy Bird clones.
Hollywood & Games: Opportunities at the Intersection of Content
and Technology Academy Room
This panel brings together a mix of companies and executives from the movie, television
and games industries to share ideas about relationship between games and Hollywood and
how to create new business opportunities at the intersection of these two exciting media
industries.
PANELISTS
Susan Cummings, Executive Producer, Doctor Who: Legacy
Jon Radoff, Founder & CEO, Disruptor Beam
Paulus Bannink, Creative Technical Director, Zoic Studios
Jean Mathews, Consultant, Strategy & Business Development, iMAGINATE
Avi Gandhi, Digital Agent, William Morris Endeavor
Moderator: Marc Graser, Senior Editor, Variety

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Jean: Disney Interactive tried to develop a Beyonce fashion mobile game that in the end did
not work. Beyonce is more known as a singer than a fashion designer, so one has to really
make sure a game is good before spending a lot of money. One can build a long term game
development strategy and not rely on a hit driven console game solely.
Avi: I disagree with Jean and that only works with free to play games.
Susan: And I disagree with Avi because our Doctor Who: Legacy free to play game will be
big over time and not need premium charges to be successful.
Jon: Zynga stresses Zynga relies on analysis data driven games.

I felt this panel was well represented by many diverse interests in Hollywood gaming. And I
truly enjoyed Jean talking about re-skinning a game like Temple Run and take an existing
engine to create a new hit game. Or other discussions about the Fast & Furious 6 and
Hobbit games went to Kabam Games for development. My suggestion for this panel next
year is to have major actors or celebs who are either hardcore gamers themselves or are
regularly doing voice-overs or motion capture as avatars for a big platform game release.

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Playing it Smart from classroom to consoles with Game Design
Graduates Academy Room
USC is home to the #1 Game Design Program in North America, and counts among its
graduates innovative developers who are breaking ground in all areas of the industry, from
mobile to VR, and experimental to educational games. Meet some of the young designers
and entrepreneurs who are at the heart of projects such as Journey, The Unfinished Swan,
Nevermind and Thralled.
PANELISTS
Jenova Chen, Founder & Creative Director, thatgamecompany
Ian Dallas, Creative Director, The Unfinished Swan
Erin Reynolds, Creative Director & Creator, Nevermind / Founder, Flying Mollusk
Miguel Oliveira, Team Lead, Thralled
Moderator: Tracy Fullerton, Electronic Arts Endowed Chair of Interactive Entertainment and Associate
Professor USC School of Cinematic Arts, Director, USC Game Innovation Lab

Miguel: I have been working well with the new Ouya indie game console and platform.
Ian: I think the type of people who typically makes games are making games that they like
to play.
Jenova: Mobile games will get better if the gaming industry wants to have longer
development times than 2 or 3 months.
Ironically, there were many USC graduates like myself asking questions. I actually
wondered now if USC has taken such a decisive lead with offering gaming courses and
cranking out many successful indie game developers, then how far behind are other top
Southern Cal colleges like UCLA, The Claremont Colleges, Irvine, Pepperdine and USCB.
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I actually liked this panel as one of the best at #LAGC because it involved something that
the LA Games Conference has badly needed for as long as I have been covering them and
that is actual young game developers. I almost feel that many of the #LAGC attendees
should be high school and college gaming students and Indie Cade game developers
because this event needs to be not always about what major game publishers like EA,
Activision, Zynga, etc., are doing. But the LA Games Conference in my opinion needs to be
where gaming is going next and most importantly who in Los Angeles is making
groundbreaking games, profitable games or just something that is simple and fun to play.
We need young people to not only be consumers of video games, but also realize that they
themselves can use many free mobile game building apps like Appy Pie to easily create
their own mobile games:
Appy Pies driving mission is to make the entire app creation process effortless and
enjoyable, where anyone can create a mobile app in 3 easy steps, Appy Pie founder Abhinav
Girdhar said. The public launch of Game Builder is an extension of that goal, and were
looking forward to seeing the plethora of mobile games generated on our Game Builder
platform, the worlds first cloud-based mobile game creator with HTML5 technology.

.. Once you have an app of your own, Appy Pie will upload for free to its site. I f you drop some
money, the company will also enable you to upload it to iOS App Store, Google Play, or the
markets for Blackberry and Windows Phone. Not only that, but you can put push notifications
into your software as well as ads and, eventually, in-app purchases. Thats right, you can fully
monetize your gameAppy Pies tools are much more powerful than something like
Code.orgs Flappy Bird game that teaches people how to code a clone of the popular mobile
title, but it may lead to a similar result. While its unlikely that someone will make the next big
hit using Game Builder, the tool is a great way to show people how easy it is to release a
product for millions of people. Several resources have popped up to teach people (mostly
young) how to code its a whole movement. If people can see how simple the process of
publishing apps has become through Appy Pie, its possible they may take the next step and
boot up Code.org to start learning the other parts of the processGameBeat5-20-2014
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Introductory Remarks by Peter Marx, Chief Innovation Technology
Officer Acadamey Room
Introductory Remarks by Peter Marx, Chief Innovation Technology Officer

Peter Marx, Chief Innovation Technology Officer, City of Los Angeles

Peter Marx spoke before the next panel in the Academy Room an introduced himself and
talked about Tech LA on May 31
st
which is already sold-out on Event Brite. Peter was
stressing that he came from the tech and gaming community, so he knows what it takes to
help change or improve the image of Los Angeles and Southern Cali as not only an
entertainment leader, but also a great place for tech and game companies to flourish. Peter
himself had never heard about the LA Games Conference before a few days ago. Which
only reinforces my earlier point that LA is a passive tech and game environment when
compared to Silicon Valley or the Bay Area. People think film and TV first and tech and
gaming last. Peter says one of newly elected Mayor Eric Garcettis mandates is to increase
the amount of new tech and game startups. For example, tech and game start-ups can go
for 3 years without paying city taxes. Something that all the developers on the next panel
had no idea about and were all very interested in exploring as soon as they got back to their
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offices. Peter has an uphill task to convince mainly everyone in Los Angeles and the rest of
the world that tech and gaming companies and start-ups are going to be now better
promoted, marketed and supported by the city. New York is aggressively positioning itself
as they next big place to be other than Silicon Valley or san Fran to open up a start-up. So
it is going to take a Herculean effort by Peter, lots of ad dollars and some more great
stories like Oculus Rift to really change peoples impressions to think tech and gamming
when they think about Los Angeles. But from what I learned about Peter and heard from
him at his #LAGC he seems highly confident and eager to disprove the many LA doubters.

Join Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti, Controller Ron Galperin, and members of the Los
Angeles City Council at the first technology and innovation conference at City Hall.
Speakers from USC, UCLA, Art Center College of Design, Factual, Morphosis, and many
others will be discussing technology and innovation, including:
Technology Track
autonomous self-driving vehicles and the future of transportation
big data, visualization, and sensing
the connected city
Innovation Track
civic innovation and engagement
alternative reality games
the digital divides
There will also be a hack-a-thon operated by Hack for LA.
Hack for LA brings coders, designers, entrepreneurs, students, government agencies,
activists, and other civically engaged individuals together for two days of coding and app
development for civic good. It will be one of the biggest and most important events during
the 2014 National Day of Civic Hacking. Hack for LA offers great prizes to teams
competing in sponsored challenges, and inspires new uses for public data. Hack for LA
events bring together hundreds of technologists focused on innovation for civic good.
Registration is free at http://www.hackforla.org/hackathon_signup_2014
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There will also be a jobs fair organized by Schmoozd.
Schmoozd works closely with partners in the technology and investment community to
design and execute high impactful social events around Los Angeles. Come mix and mingle
up close and personal with some of the hottest tech companies in Los Angeles.
Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-technology-job-fair-tickets-11522581351

Mayor Garcetti today appointed Peter Marx as the city's first Chief Innovation Technology
Officer. A key part of Mayor Garcetti's back to basics agenda, Marx will oversee the
implementation of new tools and technologies across L.A. city government better solve
problems for residents and make City Hall work more efficiently and effectively. In
addition, he will partner with L.A.'s growing tech industry to deploy innovative technology
and promote local job creation.
Among his first projects will be improving MyLA311 for one stop customer
service; revamping the City's scores of web sites to make them more useful and user-
friendly; and capitalize on sharing and analyzing data to upgrade performance throughout
City government in the same way LAPD's COMPSTAT system has been used to drive
down crime.
"Incredibly talented, a force in the tech community, and an L.A. native to boot, Peter was
my top choice from a very strong pool of applicants," said Mayor Garcetti. "I'm thrilled to
have him on the team and look forward to working with him to better serve Angelenos and
foster the already strong tech ecosystem here in the City of Angels. Harnessing technology
is critical to the future of our economy and improving city services."
"I'm looking forward to working with the Mayor to take the city of the future further into
the future," said Peter Marx
Before joining the Mayor's Office, Marx served as the Vice President of Business
Development at Qualcomm Labs, Inc., commercializing a variety of emerging technologies.
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Previously, Marx was the Vice President of the Technology and Digital Studio at Mattel,
Inc. where the company received a Webby award, the highest award for excellence in
online content. Marx managed Analog Protocol, a media-technology consultancy; served as
the Chief Technology Officer for Vivendi-Universal Games and Vice President of
Emerging Technologies for Universal Studios; and held engineering and producer positions
at Electronic Arts. Early in his career, he served as an engineer on a variety of
telemedicine, digital video, radiological imaging, and biomedicine applications for UCLA
and 3M Company.
This appointment is the latest in Mayor Garcetti's efforts to reform and reorganize City
Hall to make it more efficient and effective in serving the people of Los Angeles. Garcetti
cut the number of Deputy Mayors from a dozen to four, focused on the key areas of City
Services, Budget and Innovation, Homeland Security and Public Safety, and Economic
Development.
Within the Mayor's Office, he appointed the city's first Chief Sustainability Officer in
addition to a dedicated point person for immigration affairs, veterans, and the
entertainment industry. Upon taking office, he required every department head to reapply
for his or her job. Last week, he appointed a new General Manager for the Department of
Water and Power and is bringing new leadership to the Fire, Harbor, Transportation, and
Cultural Affairs departments.
To Live and Indie in LA: Indie Game Development in the Southland
Acadamey Room
The Indie Game scene has exploded around the world. Independent developers far and
wide are hard at work redefining the meaning of the word game itself. Platforms from
iPhone to Steam and Android to Ouya offer developers new risks and rewards. So how is
the indie game scene evolving in Los Angeles? What are the unique challenges and
opportunities taking the indie road in SoCal? Join a panel of LAs own to tackle those
questions and more.
PANELISTS
Peter Marx, Chief Innovation Technology Officer, City of Los Angeles
Kellee Santiago, Head of Developer Relations, OUYA / Co-Founder, thatgamecompany
Spencer Yip, Director & Founder, YummyYummyTummy
James Liu, Founder, CEO, Writer, Developer, BoxCat Games
Brendon Chung, Founder, Blendo Games
Mariel Cartwright, Lead Animator, Lab Zero
Moderator: Jamison Selby, VP, Games bspot and Board Member, IGDA Los Angeles

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I felt this was a very good panel that followed up to Peter Marxs short, but meaningful
talk. Again I felt there needs to be a definite emphasis for the LA Games Conference to
showcase and highlight as many new, upcoming and veteran game developers in Los
Angeles, Orange County and Southern California. The only thing that is still missing from
#LAGC is an emphasis to attract more African-American and Hispanic game developers,

gamers and bloggers. There are many talented minorities interested in gaming or already
working in the gaming and tech. But somehow I can usually count on one hand the number
of Black and Hispanic speakers at previous LA Games Conferences. And there have been a
few minority speakers on panels, but I am not that surprised that there was not one Black
speaker or moderator on any #LAGC panels this year. I personally believe we who are
minority game developers or working in the multi-billion game Industry have to be pro-
active and should be doing everything possible to become visible, heard and opportunistic.
Overall, I had a highly enjoyable time at this years LA Games Conference. I wish I could
have spoken to Peter Marx about making the mega-huge E3 Expo more inclusive to indie
game platforms like OUYA like they did at E3 2013. It was kinda beneath E3 organizers to
put up a 50 feet trailer on the Hooters parking lot on Figueroa & Olympic to block a clear
view of OYUAs off-site E3 Expo party/DJ booth/OYUA demo. Peter needs to be able to
make even an E3 not fear a Kickstarter driven company like OYUA and embrace them as
another new gaming opportunity for the city. And I expect #LAGC 2015 to be even better.
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Poolside Reception - Hosted By Fiksu -Tropicana Pool:

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#LAGC 2014 Sponsors & Media Partners:


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