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W Love Games 2020
In 2020 with the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the conference took place fully online.
Check out the recordings of the talks and panel discussions
Speakers
Camilla Avellar / Supercell
Camilla is a Brazilian game designer who, for the last six years, has worked on Hay Day, at Supercell. She has experience developing free to play mobile games, virtual worlds and educational experiences. On any given day, you’ll find her playing farming games, lazing around with her cat, or thinking up stories about chill beachside witches.
Renee Gittins / IGDA
Renee is the Executive Director of the IGDA, and a multi-disciplinary leader with expertise in software engineering and creative direction. She is a passionate advocate and connector for developers and diversity in the game industry, with a background that spans across engineering, design, and production. She is outspoken about initiatives to increase diversity both within the game industry and gaming overall to help the game industry grow and improve for everyone.
Ruth Falconer
Women in Games WIGJ
Professor Ruth Falconer leads the Games Technology and Mathematics programs at Abertay University. As an ambassador for female participation in the games industry, Prof Falconer was recently appointed an executive board member for Women in Games and named one of the 100 most influential women in the industry, based on work to support diversity in the educational pipeline.
Drussila Hollanda-Grönberg / Supercell
Drussila is a Brazilian games industry veteran with background in Game Design and leadership, from companies like Supercell, Wooga and Rovio. In Supercell, as a Game Lead, she worked on titles like Hay Day and new game prototypes. As a creative problem-solver with a passion for learning and inclusion, she led the founding of Hive Helsinki - a new kind of coding school in Finland.
Maria Maunula / Nitro Games
With over 10+ years of experience in customer service and relations, Maria Maunula from Nitro Games is here to share her best practices on crisis management and preparations. Maria Maunula is a Community Manager and Associate Producer at Nitro Games.
As an Associate Producer, she ensures that best practices and tools are used and maintained efficiently in the company’s game production.
Madalina-Georgiana Vladau
Ubisoft RedLynx
I’m currently an Associate Live Ops Manager at Ubisoft RedLynx. I first started out as a game tester in Ubisoft Bucharest, where I found my passion while working on Ghost Recon: Wildlands by specializing in testing methodologies for the game store, game events, and the player’s experience with monetization.
Olesja Marjalaakso
Next Games
Olesja Marjalaakso started her gaming career in Digital Chocolate in 2007. Olesja has worked on several female focused games in her career and founded Polka Dot Studio in March 2017 to create new gaming experiences for women. If you need a title you can use just Gaming Professional.
Phylicia Koh / Play Ventures
Phylicia is an investor at Play Ventures, the leading early stage, global gaming VC fund. She has also worked with gaming startups like Mighty Bear Games and has over 8 years experience leading marketing and growth at startups and organisations like the Singapore Economic Development Board.
Salla Hiiskoski
Futureplay Games
Salla Hiiskoski does Game Art and Art Outsourcing at Futureplay Games. She currently works in the Merge Gardens team, bringing the merge chains to life by concepting, outsourcing, creating and art directing. In her free time, she does pro bono work with We in Games, where she leads the WiGFi Mentorship program and the newly founded Inclusive Leadership Program.
Claudio Lins / Cornfox & Brothers Ltd.
Claudio Lins is a Brazilian longtime Game Producer and Game Designer with 20+ years of experience in the games industry. He founded/co-founded game studios in Brazil and Europe, as well worked on 30+ different games for several platforms, such as Consoles, Handhelds, PC, Mobile, VR, Arcade Cabinets and more.
xEdu Panel: EdTech Women Leaders
Can you learn while playing a game? Can you play games in school? What is the role of play in education? We will discuss these and other questions in a panel with 3 wonderful female founders of edtech startups.
Eve Crevoshay / TakeThis
Eve Crevoshay joined Take This as Executive Director in 2018. She is a 15-year veteran of the nonprofit sector, with a focus on fundraising and executing strategy. Her background spans education, social services, and the arts, and she is committed to identifying and enabling systemic change.
Raisa Krogerus
Unicorn Pirates
Raisa Krogerus is the HR Manager of Unicorn Pirates Studio, a developer that proudly stands for feminism, diversity, and LGBTQ+ rights. With a background as an occupational therapist Raisa has been in the gaming industry for several years, growing and sharing her great passion for equal rights.
Female E-Sports
Female Gaming Finland ry (FGF) is a new association for women and gender minorities of all ages. We aim to promote the position of our target group in the gaming community in Finland and worldwide. President Marianne and vice president Emilia dream of seeing a better, non-toxic gaming community for everyone.
Workshop Facilitators
Bogdina Buvaeva / Google
Bogdina works with growing mobile developers and publishers in EMEA on ad monetization from 2018.
Bogdina's team helps apps & gaming developers build sustainable monetization strategy.
Before joining Google, Bogdina worked in innovations and the startup industry in Russia.
Dina Ramse
Green Meadow Games
With nearly 15 years of experience in game testing of both table top and digital games, Dina combines it with her love for game design, to this workshop. Dina is deaf /hoh (hard of hearing), and brings a unique insight to accessibility challenges game designers face when making games.
Lamees Ouzon / Google
Working with publishers and app developers to help them monetize their content using Google's solutions. Prior to the role in Apps & Gaming, I worked with Channel partners, Web and news publishers across the Emerging Markets.
Christopher Hamilton / Genvid
His video gaming adventure began 2007 in St. Petersburg, Russia providing culturally adaptive translations for games at Nevosoft. Since then, he has worked primarily in partner relations, and the production and publishing of premium and F2P casual games for PC, mobile, and smart TV at companies like Rovio, Playcademy (MadData), and GameHouse.
Marke Kivijärvi, D.Sc.
Marke Kivijärvi, D.Sc. (Econ. & Bus.Adm.), is an Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher in the field of management and leadership, based in Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics. Her current Academy of Finland funded research project looks at gender and gender equality in the video game industry.
Vesa Raudasoja
City of Helsinki
Vesa is a game industry consultant and ecosystem developer based in Finland. He works for the City of Helsinki as a Business Advisor supporting game companies. He has over a decade of experience in the industry in various positions, from startups to AAA. He has been a leader with IGDA Finland for almost 15 years and an enthusiastic Game Jam organizer at Finnish Game Jam scene since 2010.
Leadership workshop: Empathetic Communication by We in Games Finland Ry
Empathy is an essential skill for effective people-oriented leadership. In this workshop we will explore empathetic communication and the tools for having difficult conversations at the workplace.
We in Games Finland is a non-profit organization for everyone looking to improve diversity and inclusiveness within the games industry.
Sergei Panin / Remedy
I am from Russia, educated as an engineer, but then decided to change my work and moved into games as an 3d artist. My main focus - environment art. I have worked on different projects from mobile ones to AAA, and started my own discord community for environment artists from CIS and then step by step it growth into online class about environment art with Smirnov School collaboration.
