Level Up 2010 Judges

Chris Avellone
Currently creative lead and co-owner of Obsidian Entertainment, Chris started his career by freelancing for a number of pen-and-paper role-playing game companies in high school before Interplay hired him as a game designer in 1996. He worked on most, if not all, of Black Isle’s internally developed projects, including Planescape: Torment (Lead Designer), Fallout 2, the whole Icewind Dale series, and Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, and a number of canceled titles, including Baldur’s Gate 3, and Fallout 3. Chris was the lead designer on Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, moved on to a senior design role on Neverwinter Nights 2 and Mask of the Betrayer, worked briefly as the creative lead of the Aliens RPG, then went on to lead design on Alpha Protocol, Obsidian's espionage RPG. He is currently working on Fallout: New Vegas as a senior designer.

Vic Davis
Vic Davis is the owner and operator of Cryptic Comet Inc., a small indie gaming company that caters to turn-based strategy aficionados whether young,
grizzled, or slightly geeky. His first game was a collectible card game-inspired design called Armageddon Empires set in a bleak post-apocalyptic wasteland. His follow-up title Solium Infernum pits players against each other as competing Archfiends vying for the Infernal Throne of Hell. In a previous life he was a U.S. Navy cryptologist trained in Arabic and Russian, logging over 1,500 hours in the EP-3E aircraft. Vic is an avid board gamer and draws inspiration for his digital creations from many of his favorite cardboard games. In his spare time he trains his son and daughter to become world-class soccer players, and is hoping to get rich with a hefty finder’s fee.

Todd Hollenshead
Todd Hollenshead is president of id Software. With a background in public accounting, including twin degrees in accounting from The University of North Texas and years of experience working with public and private high-tech companies at Arthur Andersen, Hollenshead assumed the CEO position at id Software in 1996. He remained in that position until assuming the role of president after last year’s merger with ZeniMax Media, Inc. In his time at id, he has continued to establish the company’s reputation as a smoothly run business. Under Hollenshead’s leadership, id Software has added multiple pieces of hardware to the trophy case for business achievement, in addition to the accolades the team has won for its legendary development prowess. He brings a unique ability to blend a strong financial and business background together with a hardcore gamer’s enthusiasm for the industry—especially when it comes to id Software titles.

Todd Howard
Todd Howard is a designer, director, and producer at Bethesda Game Studios. He joined Bethesda in 1994, and has created some of the industry’s most successful games by pioneering open-world gameplay. GamePro magazine named him one of the Top 20 Most Influential People in Gaming over the last 20 years. He is also one of IGN’s Top Game Creators of All Time. Most recently he was game director and executive producer of Fallout 3, the 2008 winner of E3’s Best of Show, and Game of the Year from the Game Developers Choice Awards, The Associated Press, Yahoo, Gamespy, IGN, PC Gamer, and more. Prior to that he led the creation of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the 2006 Game of the Year winner from the VGAs, G4, Computer Gaming World, AIAS, and more.

His other major credits include project leader and designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002), producer and designer of The Terminator: Future Shock (1995) and SkyNET (1996), and project leader and designer of The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard (1998). Todd is a frequent speaker at industry events and his games have been featured in everythingfrom Newsweek, CNN, USA Today, and The Today Show, to magazine covers worldwide.

Rod Humble
As the executive vice president and head of the EA Play Label, Rod Humble provides creative and business leadership for blockbuster franchises including the best-selling PC franchise of all time, The Sims, Harry Potter, MySims, SimCity, and the Hasbro portfolio in addition to new IP. The EA Play Label recently celebrated EA’s biggest PC launch in its history with the award-winning title, The Sims 3, which also became the #1 best-selling PC game in NA and Europe in 2009. The Hasbro-branded video games have sold a combined total of more than eight million units at retail globally. EA has launched 20 different Hasbro brands on 18 major digital platforms since the strategic alliance between EA and Hasbro was formed in August 2007 and the EA Play Label will oversee the increase of more than a dozen product launches in 2010 across all brands within the Play Label. Having been employed in the game industry since 1990, Rod Humble has worked on more than 200 different games and his impressive career includes working with Sony Online Entertainment and LucasArts and on top brands such as The Humans and Brutal.

Raph Koster
Raph Koster is president of Metaplace Inc., a maker of social games. Previously, he was the lead designer of Ultima Online, the creative director of Star Wars Galaxies, and chief creative officer at Sony Online. He is also the author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design, which has been called “an instant classic” and “one of the best books for the game industry.” He speaks frequently at conferences, and maintains a popular blog and website at www.raphkoster.com.

Rick Raymo
Rick Raymo has been happily crushing and crunching his way through his days in the game industry with a childlike joy and enthusiasm for 21-plus years. After starting as a freelance journalist writing for papers and magazines, he decided he was sick of complaining, and wanted to do better. Thus the whole producing games bit. He’s gotten to work with heroes and unsung stars, killed more games than he’s completed, and made a large swath of good ones in the process. Rick has been involved with demo coders at nearly every chance he’s had; from folks like the former Future Crew or Remedy to the wonderful Digital Illusions. Rick has directed first-party for a console company, managed game studios, and worked for publishers and vast media conglomerates. Rick is happily working for Saber Interactive as director of game content and chief instigator, and sees Saber as the best multi-SKU independent studio on the planet. He tries to think he’s not biased.

Bill Roper
Bill Roper has been a well-known figure in the worldwide gaming industry for 15 years. He personally represents the games he works on to the global gaming community, and has built a solid reputation on his strong relationships with press, developers, and gamers. From 1994 to 2003, Bill produced numerous million-selling games and played a key role in the success of the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo series. He oversaw and managed all external projects, coordinated internal development teams, and headed Blizzard's strike teams at Blizzard Entertainment, where he was instrumental in shaping the direction of the games. In 2003, Bill left Blizzard to co-found Flagship Studios and Ping0, where he assumed the role of CEO. In less than five years the companies developed, released and operated their first online game, Hellgate: London, and had a second game, Mythos, in development. Bill joined Cryptic Studios in November 2008 as design director. He is now serving as Cryptic's chief creative officer.

Tim Schafer
Tim Schafer is the president of Double Fine Productions, creators of Psychonauts and Brütal Legend. Prior to Double Fine, Tim was a project leader at LucasArts Entertainment Company, where he was responsible for several award-winning adventure games, including Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. Tim also co-designed Day of the Tentacle, and served as a writer and assistant designer on The Secret of Monkey Island 1 & 2.

Adam Sessler
Adam Sessler is a respected veteran of the gaming industry and the editor-in-chief of Games Content for the G4 Network, as well as the talented host of G4’s X-Play, the most-watched videogame series on television. Each night, Adam delivers in-depth reviews, exclusive sneak peeks, breaking news, and compelling interviews with the biggest names in the videogame industry. Known for his outspoken and articulate views on videogames and the industry as a whole, Adam’s opinion is valued by both game companies and game players. He was named one of the top 50 games journalists by Next Generation Magazine in 2006, and regularly lends his expertise to CNN, MSNBC, AP, KROQ, ABC Radio, and a broad range of videogame media across all platforms. In addition to his on-air presence, Sessler also hosts Sessler's Soapbox, a weekly, script-less Web series, where he tackles the latest and some of the most controversial issues in the industry, and is the moderator for Feedback, a weekly roundtable show on gaming. Both shows are available on g4tv.com.

Jeff Vogel
Jeff Vogel founded Spiderweb Software, a small indie game company, in 1994. Since then, he has written many games, including the Exile, Geneforge, and Avernum series and Nethergate: Resurrection. He has also done much writing, including the Grumpy Gamer series for Computer Games Magazine, the View From the Bottom series for IGN, and the book The Poo Bomb: True Tales of Parental Terror. He is an omnivorous, nocturnal mammal, and the cool, slightly damp confines of his basement are a great comfort to him.