Guest Artists and Speakers

Each semester, journalists, studio founders, musicians, developers, and business leaders will tell you about all facets of the industry. 

Recent speakers include:

• Ken Rolston, who worked with West End Games on The Elder Scrolls.
• Jay Posey, author of such novels as Outriders, Dawnbreaker, and Sungrazer.
• Rafael Chandler, who worked on SoCom4 and Rainbow Six: Lockdown.
• Peter Lipman, who worked on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and Dungeon Keeper
• Bruce Nesmith, a senior game designer at Bethesda Game Studios, where he’s worked on titles such as Fallout 3, Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and as lead designer on Skyrim.

In collaboration with its partners at Virginia Serious Game Institute (VSGI), the Game Design program also hosts opportunities for notable speakers to share their insights and their work. Students have the chance to learn about the many aspects of the game design world from these experts, ranging from popular entertainment games to serious games, which educate audiences about new ideas and explore solutions to real-world issues via gamification.  

Below you can watch past lectures from Nolan Bushnell, Thomas Dolby, Chris Kohler, and Derek Brinkmann in the VSGI Speaker Series.

Nolan Bushnell

Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, visited the College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University on February 9th, 2017. During his visit, he discussed several trends in game design, along with nascent technologies like virtual reality, and a bit of humor.

Thomas Dolby

Thomas Dolby, is an English musician, producer, entrepreneur and teacher. He came to prominence in the 1980s, releasing hit singles including She Blinded Me with Science and Hyperactive! In the 1990s he founded Beatnik, a Silicon Valley software company whose technology was used to create the Nokia tune. He was also the music director for the TED Conference. On faculty at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University since 2014, Dolby leads Peabody's Music for New Media program. He spoke at Mason on February 24, 2020.

Chris Kohler

So you’ve released a video game and want to get the press talking about it. Easier said than done, especially if you’re a small studio without a big public relations department to back you up. And even if you do hire a PR firm, there’s no guarantee they can get you any sort of coverage. It’s a massive uphill battle, but how can you set yourself up for success? Chris Kohler, a 24-year veteran of the games media, will discuss the do’s and don’ts of approaching the press with a pitch, and answer your questions about how the process works. He spoke at Mason on February 10, 2021.

Derek Brinkmann

The process of forming your own studio and launching a commercial product is much more complex than it appears on the surface. In this talk Derek Brinkmann, the CEO of Citadel Studios, discusses what it takes to make this a successful endeavor as well as pitfalls and common mistakes to avoid. He spoke at Mason on November 18, 2020.