Teaching to the Test: The Impact of Reviews on Game Development
Are we making games for our customers or our critics? The correlation between review performance and sales is clear, but is that because reviews reflect customer opinions or influence them? What is the impact of numerical reviews and aggregate averages, or Metacritic averages making their way into game publishing agreements? Expect a lively panel discussion from representatives of game journalism, development, and publishing.
Panel Moderator
- Julianne GreerEditor-in-Chief, The Escapist
Julianne Greer was a lifelong gamer and relative outsider to traditional gaming journalism when she co-founded The Escapist in July 2005. She has served as Editor-in-Chief for the online magazine since its inception, growing it to over 3.5 million monthly readers. For this reason, she was named One of Gaming's Top 50 Journalists by Next Gen in 2006.
Panelists
- Dana CowleySenior Public Relations Manager, Epic Games
Dana Cowley, Epic Games' senior public relations manager, oversees communications for the award-winning Unreal Engine, and provides PR and marketing support for the multimillion-selling Gears of War and Unreal Tournament franchises. In roles prior to Epic, Dana directed games marketing, PR, business development and publishing operations. Dana co-founded the Triangle Chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) in 2002, and currently runs the chapter.
- Juan BenitoCreative Director, Atomic Games
Juan Benito is Creative Director for Atomic Games. He co-founded Red Storm Entertainment in 1996 and was Executive Producer for the original Rainbow Six. Juan has also created a variety of games and applications at Virtus, Forterra Systems, Destineer, and Columbia University, where he received his undergraduate degree.
- Eric PetersonPresident/CEO, Vicious Cycle
Eric is the President/CEO of Vicious Cycle, which he co-founded in 2000. He has been in the game industry since 1996, formerly an Art Director at MicroProse. Combining a passion for creating games with an entrepreneurial spirit, Eric has created a prosperous company, which was recently purchased by D3Publisher.
- Shaun McCabeProduction Director, Insomniac Games
Shaun McCabe is the Production Director at Insomniac Games' Durham studio. A five-year Insomniac veteran at the Burbank studio prior to moving to the Triangle, Shaun worked on Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Ratchet: Deadlocked and Resistance: Fall of Man as a sound programmer before becoming lead gameplay programmer for Resistance 2. Prior to joining Insomniac, Shaun was an engine programmer at Interplay Entertainment Corp.