Over the years I have worked to support the advancement of game development as a craft, and the growth of the development community, in a variety of ways.

International Game Developers’ Association
Founder and First Chairman, 1994-1997.

Without a doubt, my proudest achievement as a member of the development community. I founded the IGDA (originally called the CGDA) with the logistical and financial support of the Computer Game Developers’ Conference during the 1994 Congressional investigations into violence in interactive entertainment. It was clear to me that while the publishers had their trade association and the parents had their pressure groups, there was no one speaking up for game developers themselves: the creative people who actually design and build the games. The IGDA was founded to give us a voice, and to represent and support the unique needs of this unique community. Since then it has gone on to become the premier professional society of the industry.


Women in Games International
Advisory Board Member, 2006-

The game industry has long suffered from a lack of women developers, which has resulted in games that tend to reflect only a masculine point of view. After some early false starts trying to get female developers together in the mid-90s, Women in Games International was formed in 2005 and has taken off like a rocket. Interest has been enormous. Rather than give one large conference that might be expensive and inconvenient to get to, WIGI gives smaller conferences around the United States and in Europe, with great success. I’ve long been a supporter of their aims, and in the summer of 2006 they asked me to sit on the advisory board.


Independent Games Festival
Juror for the inaugural festival, 1998, and again for the 2003 festival.

The Independent Games Festival is one of the best ideas in a long time: a place to showcase the work of independent developers, operating without publisher funding. The game industry has become so conservative that little real innovation comes out of the mainstream publishers any more. The IGF offers an outlet for design creativity that might otherwise never see the light of day.


PlayStation Art Futura Award for Videogame Creation
Juror for the inaugural competition, 2002

American Association for Artificial Intelligence Symposium on Computer Games and AI
Member of the symposium organizing committee, 1999-2000.

ACM Computers in Entertainment Magazine
Editorial Board, 2004-2005.

Digital Games Research Association
Proposal Review Board, 2005 Conference.