The Game Developers Conference is returning to San Francisco this March 20-24, 2023, and organizers are happy to announce some of the newest advisors for the GDC Summits—along with the return of a popular summit, with a few changes.
GDC 2023 is getting ready to accept submissions to present lectures and panels for the Summits portion of the event, which runs on Monday and Tuesday of the conference. Each summit centers on a niche topic within game development and its relevant community, and has its own set of advisors who define the summit’s editorial goals and review the summit’s submissions.
The conference is pleased to announce that the Board Game Design Summit returns for GDC 2023 as the Tabletop Summit. This summit will encompass everything related to board games, tabletop roleplaying games (RPGs), miniatures games, card games, dice games, and more.
The Tabletop Summit has a new Summit Advisor, along with several other GDC Summits. Here’s the first round of new Summits Advisors that GDC is proud to share (the second round will be released in the coming days).
Free-to-Play Summit
Nika Nour—Head of Partnerships, Genvid Entertainment
Nika Nour joined Genvid in 2021 to manage relationships with game developers, publishers, platforms and IP holders, focused on producing and publishing massive interactive live events (MILEs). Nika spent more than a decade building coalitions and programs for leading internet and video game companies. As the former Executive Director for the International Game Developers Association Foundation, her efforts developed diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts for underrepresented game developers.
Previously the Head of Public Affairs for the Entertainment Software Association, she took a leading role in messaging, consumer outreach, and corporate social responsibility, which included leveraging relationships with key policy leaders and government officials. In addition to her role at the ESA, she also served as the chief strategy officer for Liminal Esports, director of communications and creative strategies for the Internet Association, and new media specialist for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Community Management Summit
Victoria Tran—Community Director, Innersloth
Victoria Tran is the Community Director at Innersloth, creators of Among Us and The Henry Stickmin Collection. Her other credits include being the Community Strategist for the game Unpacking, and was the Communications Director at Kitfox Games, for projects like Boyfriend Dungeon, Dwarf Fortress, Pupperazzi, and more. She also writes about ways to create better game community spaces on her website and newsletter.
Nick van Vugt—Lead Community Manager, East Side Games
Nick van Vugt is the Lead Community Manager at East Side Games; shaping communities across various active titles. Having spent over 10 years in Community Management, Nick is always looking at improving the community landscape for everyone in the industry.
Independent Games Summit
Wren Brier—Creative Director, Unpacking
Wren Brier is the Creative Director of the award-winning indie game Unpacking. She’s been working in the game industry for nine years, starting at Halfbrick and later working as a freelance artist before joining Witch Beam Games.
In addition to her game development roles, Wren has spoken on panels and served as a judge at Australian game industry events. She runs Women in Games Brisbane, mentored at The Working Lunch and ran pixel art workshops at Woodford Folk Festival. Wren curated the pixel art exhibit “Power to the Pixel” with the Brisbane Powerhouse and has given talks at GCAP and Freeplay’s Parallels Showcase, among others.
Sunni Pavlovic—Independent
Sunni Pavlovic is a games industry executive with a focus on nurturing talent while growing the operational strengths and production processes at boutique game studios. In the past 11 years, Sunni has taken on key management and leadership roles across game development, publishing, and events. Specializing in running independent game development studios that make artistic, heartwarming, and gameplay-driven experiences, her goal is to make the industry a more welcoming space for diverse talent to thrive. Prior to the game industry, Sunni was living in Shanghai, China working in film, television, and video.
Tabletop Summit
Banana Chan—Game Designer/Publisher, Game and a Curry
Banana Chan is a Cantonese Canadian game designer, writer and publisher living in the US. They are the owner of a small board game and RPG publishing company called Game and a Curry. Her latest work has been on Deimos Academy, Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous, Exquisite Crime, Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft and Betrayal at House on the Hill: 3rd Edition. They hate Mondays and love lasagna.
GDC 2023 will soon be accepting submissions to present lectures and panels for the Summits portion of the event—along with Game Career Seminar—starting Thursday, September 1 through Friday, October 7 at 11:59pm PT. More information on how to submit for Summits and Game Career Seminar will be shared in the coming days.
GDC returns to San Francisco in March 2023! For more information, be sure to visit our website.
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