Moore College of Art & Design hosting an event featuring women game artists on February 25

Tom Paine

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Alison Carrier, UI/UX Designer for Red Crow Austin
Panel Host
Courtesey Moore College of Art & Design 

Moore College of Art & Design has obviously gone through significant changes since its founding in 1848. Some of the most recent examples of that change will be on display on February 25.

With the growing popularity of its Animation & Game Arts major, Moore College of Art & Design, the first and only visual arts college for women in the U.S., is hosting an event featuring a dynamic roster of women game artists. The video game and technology industry has been seen as a male interest for the past 20 years. With this major, Moore hopes to close the gender gap.

Game Changers: Women Making Games, will be held on Thursday, February 25, 2016, from 6 – 8 pm at the College, 20th Street and The Parkway. The event is FREE and open to the public. RSVP at womenmakinggames.eventbrite.com.

This event will be live streamed at moore.edu/gamechangers


Game Changers will explore the role of women in the game art and mobile industry drawn from the experience of the speakers.

At 6 pm, Alison Carrier, a UI/UX Designer for Red Crow Austin, a mobile game studio created by Electronic Arts, will moderate a panel discussion about the future of the industry, among other topics. Panelists will include Nicole Kline, an analog game designer, writer and editor; Amanda Renfroe, Production Manager and 3D Character Animator at Steamroller Studios in Central Florida; and Kat Webster, a 3D character artist currently working at BioWare on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

A meet-the-artists reception will follow at 7 pm. The panelists will return to Moore the following day, February 26, to speak with Animation & Game Arts students in their classrooms.

“This is the third year of this event and each year the audience becomes larger and more engaged,” said Stephen Wood, instructor of Animation & Game Arts. “The program is growing rapidly. When I took over the program in 2014, we had about eight students who were declared majors and today we are close to 30.”

This is also the first year that junior AGA majors (Moore, traditionally a two year school, hss sdded a BFA option) will seek out and complete their required summer internships. The Game Changers event is one way for students to start making industry connections, Wood said. “It’s very important to me that the students get out of their comfort zone and speak to professionals working in the field. Game Changers has always been a part of that goal. It’s a great experience for our students.”





PANELIST BIOS

Alison Carrier (Moderator) is currently a UI/UX Designer for Red Crow Austin, a mobile game studio created by Electronic Arts (EA). Known for her passion to deliver world-class user experiences, she has worked in EA’s mobile sphere on several projects, including her most recent work, The Simpsons: Tapped Out. http://www.gameongirl.com/podcast-posts/tag/red-crow-studio

Nicole Klineis busy as an analog game designer, writer and editor. She is half of the analog board game design team Cardboard Fortress Games, creator of the game RESISTOR_. Kline wrote the story for Monsters! by Quadratron Games, copy edited Grimm Bros.'s Dragon Fin Soup and has penned more video and board game reviews than she thought possible. She is the Senior Editor at Warp Zoned, a contributor at Geekadelphia, the co-founder of the Game Makers Guild Philadelphia, Gameloop Philly and Girl Geek Dinners Philadelphia. http://www.cardboardfortressgames.com

Amanda Renfroe is Production Manager and 3D Character Animator at Steamroller Studios in Central Florida. She is currently managing a nine-person team at Steamroller working towards the release of Deadwood: The Forgotten Curse (Kickstarted back in April). She is also animating on various contract work from studios like Volition, Edios, and other game/movie contracts at Steamroller. Renfroe received her B.F.A. a the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2013 and has a true love for facial animation.

Kat Webster is a 3D character artist currently working at BioWare on Star Wars: The Old Republic. She has been in the video games industry for nearly three years and has worked as a general 3D and environment artist, as well as having done her fair share of random design work. Webster received her Bachelor’s degree in Game Art and Design from the Art Institute of California in September 2012 and enjoys multiple aspects of art and design, but creature and character work is where her passion lies.
www.kat3d.weebly.com


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