SOWN [Screening Committee] | TOKYO GAME SHOW 2016

Cooperation by : International Game Developers Association Japan Chapter(IDGA Japan)

2016 Screening Committee

Selection of presenters will be conducted by following members of SOWN Screening Committee.

Journalist（Game, IT）: Tokyo VR Startups board member
Kiyoshi Shin; VR game company Yomune.co representative, Digital Hollywood University associate professor
Born in 1970, He is Journalist (Video Game / IT) and the Founder and Director Emeritus of International Game Developers Association Japan (IGDA Japan). Currently he manage the VR developers' community which is his primary focus as of now. He published a book called "Shock of VR business Virtual reality bring up gigantic money"

UBM Tech: Group EVP
Simon Carless; Simon is the EVP of UBM Tech's Game Network, meaning that he manages products such as leading global game industry event Game Developers Conference and industry website Gamasutra.com. He is Chairman Emeritus of the yearly 'Sundance Festival for games', the Independent Games Festival, which holds its awards at Game Developers Conference yearly, and helps to program the Independent Games Summit event.

Joju Games: Studio Manager
Juan Gril; Joju Games Founder and Studio Manager Juan Gril has more than 18 years of experience developing casual games. Joju Games produces casual games for international clients including Dreamworks, MTV Networks, and Atari.
Juan is Advisor for the Smartphone and Tablet Games Summit at GDC, co-chair of the IndieXchange program at Indiecade, and judge for the "Sense of Wonder Night" Game Festival at Tokyo Game Show.

Shindenken: Circle head, Game Planner, Programmer
Isao Kitayama; Kitayama has established Shindenken in 2002. He has served Comic Market 20 times and has addressed Dorkbot, Sense of Wonder Night, and IGDA conference. He has developed more than 20 game titles including "I will be God of the Forest World", "Genius Scientist Bio Ruru", and "QUALIA". His game creation continues especially in the areas applied with AI technologies such as artificial life, and celluar automation.

A Crowd of Monsters: CEO
Ramon Naeval; Ramon began with videogames at 1992, at the age of 12 years old. Then he decided that this is the best medium for express himself. Has been writing for spanish media since 1999 (Onez, Ociojoven, Anaitgames, Eurogamer, Videoshock and Vandal) and has made games since 2003 (Nerlaska, Gameloft, Digital Legends, Abylight, U Play, Blit Software and A Crowd of Monsters). Appart from that he teaches about videogames in several universities, and is part of several videogames developer association.

Necrosoft Games: Director
Brandon Sheffield; Brandon Sheffield is director of indie game studio Necrosoft Games, former editor in chief of Game Developer magazine, and co-founder of the east bay game dev group, and multiple game jams. He occasionally still writes for Gamasutra.com as their senior contributing editor, and is an adviser to multiple game conferences and competitions, including GDC, Digital Dragons, Sense of Wonder Night, Pixel Heaven, and GDC China. He likes connecting people, making weird things, living in Oakland, and speaking at game conferences in exotic places.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia: Strategic Planning/Business Planning Group Manager
Koji Tada; Koji joined SCE in 1994 and has produced multiple titles for PlayStation® as a director. He managed Motion Capture Studio and Sound Team, then engaged in production of several game titles as a producer from 2000. Since 2013 he had been in charge of developer relation of Asia region in SCE. Currently he manages the projects of PlayStation®VR.

NPO OcuFes: Kenji Takahashi; Kenji joined KOEI in 1998 and had engaged in Dynasty Warriors 1 -4 series. In 2008 he joined Creatures Inc. to be a director of PokePark. 2013 was the year he got OculusRift DK1 as a kickstarter, then he started OcuFes（current Japan VR Fest) as release event of VR softwware. He became independent as a VR professional and incorporated OcuFes in 2014. He is actively in charge of VR promotion in Japan and trailblazing work for VR business development internationally.

Zako-Zako: Zako-Zako achieved three consecutive years' presentations and awards winning Hudson/GMO award in SOWN2011, GMO award in 2012 and BestPresentationAward by TSURI last year. Every year is shocking game idea brought on the stage with heavy excitement from audience. Presentation style may be much to do with such excitement. Regardless of a rumor that awarded games would be ghost-written, they are selected as screening member. They are a middle age creative gang caring for applications without scenario.