Levent Albayrak

Levent Albayrak teaches game design & development at Houston Community College.

Marc Aubanel

Marc Aubanel started making games when he was a teenager on an Apple IIE as well as a Timex Sinclair. What started as a hobby became a career and Marc was lucky enough to work on FIFA Soccer, World Cup, Def Jam Vendetta, Triple Play Baseball, NHL Hockey, Need for Speed Underground to name a few. Marc has been teaching and directing programs in Vancouver and Baton Rouge with hundreds of students graduating and working in Visual Effects and Video Games around the world. He now runs the Digital Media Arts & Engineering master degree at LSU while still teaching classes using Unreal Engine 4 and GameMaker.

Nathan Ayres

I'm a lighting and environment artist with about one and a half years experience in the game industry. I most recently worked as the sole Unity Lighting Artist at BitLoft Games. I graduated from Texas A&M University's department of Visualization in 2017 where I also worked at the LIVE Lab for almost two years as a 3D Environment Artist / Procedural Tech Artist. I'm familiar with a range of software including Unity, UE4, Maya, Houdini, Adobe and Substance softwares. Additionally, I have a love for stylized 3D art, colorful fantasy, and ceaselessly hoarding images for artistic reference on ArtStation and Tumblr.

Sean Christian Bellinger

Sean Christian Bellinger is a creative professional and educator with over twenty years of experience in 3D Modeling, Animation, and Visual Effects for the game, film, military, and corporate industries and this is his fourth year serving as mentor for the Chillennium Game Jam.

His experience also includes 15 years as a teacher and professor developing and facilitating the training of principles and career skills in 3D modeling & rendering, 3D animation, level design, and game project development to high school and undergraduate students.

Additionally, Sean's developer credits include the game "Dreadnought" (GreyBox.com), a tactical, team-based warfare game in space by Six Foot Games where he served as Lead 3D Artist, the independent film "Matt Mercury: Plot of The Galactic Mastermind" (IMDB), a scifi comedy that harkens back to the old science fiction of the 50s and 60s, where he served as visual effects artist, and various award winning AR/VR apps and simulations created for the oil/gas/energy, medical, military, and education industries.

Currently, Sean is a Senior 3D Artist for Vertex Solutions, LLC (VertexSolutions.com), a leader in Department of Defense (DoD) VR technology development, where he creates cutting edge 3D art/animation/technology for immersive and experiential interactive media such as AR/VR/MR, training simulations, and entertainment/serious games for high profile clients such as the DoD and the US Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC).

Lastly, on his free time Sean can be found playing his favorite games or practicing archery. Sean Christian Bellinger is a creative professional and educator with over twenty years of experience in 3D Modeling, Animation, and Visual Effects for the game, film, military, and corporate industries and this is his fourth year serving as mentor for the Chillennium Game Jam.

Michael Bruner

I'm a 2017 alumni from the viz program and have been working as a tech artist and designer for a studio called Part Time Evil in Austin. I'm also a graduate student at UT, studying media for live performance and large scale interactive installations.

Patrick Calhoun

I'm a Gameplay Programmer at Insomniac Games. I have been in the games industry for eight years, and have worked on titles including Madden NFL 13, Madden NFL 25, NCAA Football 13, NCAA Football 14, Dungeon Defenders 2, PWND, and The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners.

I went to college at Cornell University and earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Applied and Engineering Physics. I have a ton of passion for games in general, but I'm the most nostalgic for the games from my childhood which include NES and SNES franchises like Castlevania, Megaman, The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, and Final Fantasy.

Ashlyn Chatelain

Howdy! My name is Ashlyn Chatelain and I'm software jack-of-all-trades and a Texas A&M Mays Alumni, class of 2019. I worked in game development for the past three years, working at LIVE Lab as its Producer and at Redbird Learning as a Senior Project Manager before falling in love with software consulting. I led the Texas A&M Game Developers (TAGD) organization as its president for two years and also served as Chillennium's PR chair in 2017. I currently work at Capco as a software consultant, solving business problems using software solutions - which essentially means I'm a glorified problem solver with a knack for design, development, and organizing chaos.

Cameron Christian

Cameron Christian is a 15 year industry veteran that's worked on a variety of genres across all the big publishers. Cameron has a passion for all things level and systems design. Outside of working on Marvel's Spider-Man the most fun he’s had designing games was working on Sunset Overdrive, where he lead the design of the traversal system and the design of the city.

Willer Da Silva

Willer Da Silva has been working with game development and Unity for four years, and worked at the LIVE Lab as a Gameplay Programmer during his enrollment at Texas A&M. He has gone on to work for Bitloft Games and is currently a Software Engineer at WIN Reality. He's participated in game jams before, and has mentored with Chillenium two years and counting.

Matthew Fendt

Dr. Matthew Fendt is a Computer Science lecturer at Baylor University in Waco, TX. He teaches a number of classes in Baylor’s video game design concentration. Dr. Fendt’s students have created numerous games, including three published Steam games, available at baylor.edu/gaming. This is his 4th time bringing students to Chillennium.

Nicholas Forasiepi

I graduated from Texas A&M with a MFA in visualizations in 2018 and I have been working as a freelance 3D artist since then.

Chelsey Gobeli

Howdy! I’m a program specialist at Creative Design Technologies where I help students network and get their foot in the door within game design, game art, 3D animation, 2D animation and motion graphics. I am one of the original co-founders of Chillennium and also worked at the LIVE Lab as a game designer. I have completed my Bachelor of Science and Masters of Science in Visualization from Texas A&M University.

William Good

I am a gameplay programmer at insomniac games. I started making Indy games ~15 years ago, and my passion for creating unique experiences through games has only grown from there.

Chase Hardy

Chase Hardy is a Game Designer at Schell Games in Pittsburgh, PA. He has been in the industry for 4 years and is currently working on Schell’s upcoming VR title, Until you Fall, a hack and slash rogue lite with a focus on satisfying, kinetic melee combat. Touching a little of it all, he has designed levels, combat systems, dialogue systems, narrative, camera systems, and others to name a few. He is passionate about level design, environmental storytelling, and creative problem solving. He is also a Texas A&M Viz 2015 Alumni, guest lecturer, worked in the LIVE Lab, and has competed in past Chillenniums.

Myriah Higgins

Hiya! My name is Myriah Higgins, and I currently work at Bluepoint Games as a lighting artist. I worked at the LIVE Lab while I was a student in Viz at TAMU, and graduated in 2017. Since then, I've worked as a lighter in feature film, animation, and games. Some of my credits include Aquaman, Skyscraper, gen:LOCK, RWBY, and a few other titles currently under NDA's. I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with and be a part of this year's Chillennium!

Ben House

I'm a technical artist at Bluepoint Games, where I develop procedural assets, tools, and workflows to support the my team. I've taught courses on game development and procedural content creation, and am familiar with scripting and development in Unity, Unreal Engine 4, Maya, Houdini, and Substance Designer. I'm also a Viz alumni and one of the co-founders for Chillennium.

Timmy Jordan

Timmy Jordan is a Game Designer at Insomniac Games in Burbank, Calif. He’s shipped nine titles during his eight years in the industry. Timmy specializes in holistic game design, merging story, gameplay, production and teamwork into a single fulfilling and creative experience. He also regularly mentors and collaborates with designers, writers and producers within Insomniac, as well as across the greater Los Angeles game development community. Timmy’s most recent credits include “Marvel’s Spider-Man” and “Marvel’s Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps” post-launch downloadable content.

Bradley Kern

Bradley Kern has worked as an engineer in game development for several years, and currently serves as a gameplay programmer at Viewer Ready in Austin creating VR games. He has also participated in and mentored for many of the past Chillenniums and used to be an engineer for Texas A&M's very own LIVE Lab.

Margarita Kim

Margarita Kim teaches game design & development at Houston Community College.

Nick Kippes

Nick is an Art Generalist who has worked in the home gaming, VR arcade and product visualization industries for 5+ years. He currently works at WIN Reality; creating and managing visual content for mixed reality, sport training software.

Daniil Leiderman

Daniil Leiderman is an Instructional Assistant Professor at the Department of Visualization at Texas A&M. While his expertise is in Art History, specializing in the underground, dissident and protest art of the Soviet Union, he also teaches Game Design and Game History and is working on a book on the epistemology of games.

Alex Magee

I graduated from Texas A&M in May of 2019 with a BS in Visualization and participated in Chillennium during my time there. I currently run my own business, AEM Creations, with two other A&M grads in Dallas. Most importantly, I am very passionate about making and playing games and have been involved in game-making since 2008. I am proficient at programming, game design, and asset creation and I would love to share my experience with the Chillennium participants!

Haley Migl

Howdy! My name is Haley Migl and I am a Houdini Artist at Visual Concepts in Foothill Ranch, CA where I specialize in procedural content creation. I’m an Aggie alumni and I have both participated in and organized Chillennium in the past and am excited to get the chance this year to come back as a mentor!

Schaefer A Mitchell

Hello!! I'm a former vizzer (M.S. in 2016? 2017??) and current technical artist at EA. My current focus is the creation of Houdini tools that enable artist friendly, procedural workflows in Maya. Other interests include shading, lighting, and more procedural modeling. See you sooooooooooooon!! :)

Tracey L Moore

Teach art and design courses in the Prairie View A&M University Digital Media Arts Program

Danicka Oglesby

Danicka Oglesby is a former Visualization grad student and a current senior technical artist at Intific in Austin, TX. She was formerly a technical artist at Moontower VFX and a games intern at SideFX. She focuses on pipeline tools for game engines, and recently presented her work at GDC and participated in a FX panel at SIGGRAPH.

Tyler Padgett

I'm a game designer and previous event director for Chillennium. I am currently working on independent projects. I graduated from Texas A&M with a Bachelor's in Architecture and Design. Most recently I worked as a UX designer for Bitloft studios. I care a lot about the player experience and like to prioritize great UX.

I like hiking and mcdoubles. (Feed me burgers).

Jeffrey Pease

2 Years of QA at SCEA, 1 Year QA at SOE, 5 Years Game Master at Blizzard Entertainment, 1 Year as lead QA specialist at Cloud Imperium Games, 1 Year as LiveOps Technician at Cloud Imperium Games, 2 Years DevOps Engineer at Cloud Imperium Games

Caleb Perkins

Caleb Perkins is a recent graduate from Texas A&M University and a new developer at MorningStar Software. During his time at Texas A&M, he worked in the LIVE Lab as a Technical Designer. Outside of work and classes, he also served as an officer in the Texas Aggie Game Developer student organization, and last year his team won the VR Award for their game, Dimensional Shift.

Michael Pezok

I've been working at Bluepoint games for over a year as a Technical Animator and attended the College for Creative Studies in Detroit focusing on animation and storytelling.

Kyle Purser

Kyle Purser is a Generalist Gameplay Programmer specializing in procedural content generation, art implementation, graphics and physics. He has been working in the industry for 5 years and is currently at Robot Entertainment located in Dallas, TX. Before joining the Robot team, he was the Lead Engineer at the LIVE Lab for 2 years and a Senior Gameplay Programmer at Saltyverse in Los Angeles. Proficient in Unity, Unreal Engine 4, and multiple art software packages, he has been involved in the development of over 6 shipped/shipping titles across multiple platforms including the upcoming "Orcs Must Die! 3" for the new Google Stadia platform, and "ReadySet Heroes" for the Playstation 4 and PC. He is an Aggie alum with a bachelors in Computer Science and minors in Game Design & Development and Art in New Media and has been involved in Chillenium since it started. He has been both a competitor and a mentor at the jam and was a member of the 1st place overall team in 2015.

Pramod Ramesh

Pramod Ramesh is a Game Designer and Scripter with a specialty in Unreal Engine development for PC and VR platforms.

He has worked on 3 Virtual Reality FPS multiplayer games for the Virtuix Omni arcade attraction over 4 years. His games have recently launched in popular gaming arcades across the United States such as Pinballz (Austin), Dave and Busters (Austin), etc.

He holds a Bachelors in Computer Science and a Masters’ in Interactive Technology at The Guildhall at SMU.

Adam Rehmann

Howdy! My name is Adam Rehmann - I'm a concept artist and Fightin' Texas Aggie, class of 2014. I've been working professionally as a concept artist for 5 years and currently work at Bluepoint Games in Austin, Texas. I was one of the first artists to work at the LIVE Lab at TAMU, and began work after college at Triseum where I worked as Art Lead and Associate Art Director. Since then, I've worked on a variety of titles as a freelance concept artist (mostly still non-disclosed at the moment), and have found my home at Bluepoint Games. I'm excited to be a part of Chillennium, and am looking forward to seeing the next wave of game developers in action!

Barry Rooney

Barry Rooney is a Senior Animator at Robot Entertainment in Plano, TX. He has been working in the industry for over 15 years and is currently working on Orcs Must Die 3 which will be released on Google Stadia this spring. Other titles he’s worked on include Orcs Must Die: Unchained, Ready Set Heroes, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Star Wars Kinect, and The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. He’s also been an animator on the Jimmy Neutron TV show, The Ant Bully film, and several commercials.

Austin Garrett Ruff

Currently an engineer at Playful Studios, working on New Super Lucky's Tale. Helped ship 2 games at Live Lab. Won best in programming at Chillennium 2016. 3 years experience in both Unity and Unreal.

Michael Schmoyer

Senior Manager of an AI/ML product at TTEC. Hosted a home-built online dice game for 10 years. Built amateur games on my path to becoming an engineer and it was what inspired me to get started down this path.

Elizabeth Stephens

I graduated from A&M's Visualization department in 2015 and have worked as an Environment Artist since then (most recently as a freelancer). I specialize in low-poly/highly optimized asset creation.

Michael Stephens

Michael is programmer at virtual reality company in Austin, TX called WIN Reality. He has been working with Unity full time since graduating from A&M three years ago. At A&M he studied computer science as well as being involved with past Chillenniums.

Gracie Arenas Strittmatter

Gracie Arenas Strittmatter is Technical Art Director at BioWare, a division of Electronic Arts (EA), in Austin, Texas. A 11-year veteran of the gaming industry, she works on Anthem and holds credits on multiple AAA titles including Star Wars: The Old Republic, Madden NFL, NBA Live, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. She is passionate about leadership development, problem solving, programming, art tools development, collaborating with artists, leading distributed teams, team building, effective communication, and career management. She also enjoys working with students and professionals to help them find their passion, hone their skills, and unlock their leadership potential on creative projects. As the first female college graduate in her family, she advocates for the power of education and the value of women and minorities in tech. Gracie has volunteered with ACM SIGGRAPH for 16 years and currently serves as SIGGRAPH 2019 Real-Time Live! Chair. She is a Global Co-Chair for EA’s Hispanic/Latino Employee Resource Group and actively partners with EA University Relations to introduce students to careers in games. Gracie also serves on the industry board for the Texas A&M Department of Visualization. She is originally from San Antonio, Texas and holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Master of Science in Visualization Sciences from Texas A&M University.

Kodi Tapie

Software Engineer at WIN Reality, creating MLB training simulators in VR.

Aggie class '14 and former LIVE-Labber.

Reid Tracy

Reid has been a game designer for 4 years and has been involved in all parts of the development pipeline. He has experience designing games, levels, systems, cameras, and dialogue, among others. He is a 2015 Texas A&M Viz graduate and has shipped 3 games in his time working in the LIVE Lab, Triseum, and most recently BitLoft.

Preston White

After graduating from the Visualization department at Texas A&M, I went on to pursue a Master's at SMU Guildhall as a Game Designer with a 3D Art Specialization. After graduating from SMU Guildhall, I got hired by nonPareil Institute, a non-profit that focuses on teaching social engagement and professionalism for adults on the autism spectrum by teaching game development skills and developing video games.