A one-day celebration of play as culture, engaging game designers in conversation with other digital creatives.
On Friday, May 16, 2014, Kill Screen Media will present Twofivesix, Brooklyn’s second annual videogames and culture conference. Taking a broad look at videogames, Kill Screen has selected a diverse group of thought leaders to participate in structured conversations that address a spectrum of issues relating to games and culture.
Kill Screen co-founder Jamin Warren will moderate the conversations on topics including: Wearable Technologies, The Future of Film, Sound Design, Procedural Storytelling, and Designing Digital Characters.
Sessions will feature Alexis Ohanian (Co-Founder, Reddit), Zach and Tarn Adams (creators, Dwarf Fortress), Catherine Burns (Artistic Director, NPR’s The Moth), Jennifer Hale (Lead Voice Actress, Mass Effect), and Kevin Slavin (Founder, MIT Playful Systems Group).
Additional speakers include Kaho Abe (Artist in Residence, NYU Game Innovation Lab), Patrick Balthrop (Audio Director, BioShock series), Becky Stern (Wearable Electronics Director, Adafruit), Steve Gaynor (Writer/Designer, Gone Home), Aleissia Laidacker (Lead AI Programmer, Assassin’s Creed III), Tamas Kemenczy (Game Designer and Software Artist, Kentucky Route Zero), Jake Barton (Founder, Local Projects), Rana el Kaliouby (Chief Science Officer, Co-Founder, Affectiva), Kevin Bruner (Co-Founder, Telltale Games), Johanna Zorn (Executive Director, Co-Founder, Third Coast International Audio Festival), Miles Ludwig (Managing Director, Content Innovation Lab, Sesame Workshop), Terence Nance (Director, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty), and Mike Woods (Head of Digital, Framestore).
The program will be lively and engaging, appealing to digital creatives, forward-thinking business leaders, students of all disciplines and those with an intellectual curiosity about the reciprocal relationship between games and culture.
The 2014 conference builds on the success of last year’s inaugural conference, which featured the founders of Oculus Rift, Kickstarter, Double Fine, Vimeo and Foursquare among others. Notable reviews include:
- Mashable referred to the conference as “the TED of videogames.”
- Tim Schafer of game design studio Double Fine called the event “incredible, unique, and awesome. I want to come every year!” and referred to host Jamin Warren as “the Ira Glass of gaming.”
- Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, called Twofivesix the “Davos/TED/Sundance of videogames.”
Twofivesix will be held at Roulette Intermedium in Downtown Brooklyn. All Access Tickets are available atwww.two5six.com for $300. A limited number of student and educator tickets are also available for $100, and can be purchased with a valid student ID and .edu email address.
The official Twofivesix afterparty will held at ACME Studio in Williamsburg from 8pm-12pm, where we will be celebrating the release of Kill Screen’s Virtual Reality print magazine issue, with VR games old and new courtesy of Videogames New York, free beer from Brooklyn Brewery, and killer DJ sets by John Stanier of Battles and Nic Offer of !!!, presented by our friends at Warp records.
About Kill Screen Media
Kill Screen is a videogame arts and culture company that wants to show the world why games matter.
Based in Brooklyn, Kill Screen publishes a website and a magazine as well as organizes events such as the groundbreaking Arcade at the Museum of Modern Art. The New Yorker called Kill Screen “the McSweeney’s of interactive media” and TIME said the writing was so “polished that they might help convince doubters that games are worth taking seriously.”
As a production and strategy partner, Kill Screen helps brands and agencies to unlock the power of play. Past clients include GE, IBM, Intel, Tumblr, VICE, BMW, PUMA, and OUYA.
For press inquiries, please contact:
Tom Gregorio
Partner
Kill Screen
