Instructors > Advisory Board

Game development is a constantly changing field—how do art schools make sure their game art/design curriculum is up-to-date and relevant?

We don't know about other schools, but the Sessions Game Art program is networked to an Advisory Board of senior industry pros. Their goal is to make sure the program keeps pace with the vortex of change that is the game industry.

Beth A. Dillon
International Game Developers Association (IGDA)
Committees for Game Education

Beth A. Dillon is the former editor of Gamasutra's GameCareerGuide.com and Education Editor for Gamasutra.com.  She currently serves on the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Committees for Game Education and Game Writing groups.  She has been a presenter /panelist at many major game industry conferences including "Getting In to the Game: Careers in the Game Industry," FuturePlay 2006, October 10 - 12, 2006, London & Ontario and "Meet the Press," Indie Games Conference, October 7 - 9, 2005, Eugene, Oregon.

Beth holds a Bachelor of Arts and Letters with emphases in Native American studies, creative writing, and technical communication and a Master of Arts in Writing from Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia to facilitate game Development. Beth is of Irish, Anishinaabe, and Metis(Native American) descent and her overarching efforts address indigenous representations in commercial games and development of games with indigenous content.

Jolene Spry
President and Executive Producer,
Angry Robot Games

Jolene Spry is currently the president and executive producer of a next-generation development studio, Angry Robot Games, as well as a casual games studio, Atomic Wedgie Games.  She is also a freelance writer for a number of top media outlets covering the video game and tech industries, including a weekly segment on Playboy Radio on Sirius and continues to speak at video game, entertainment and convergence-related events.  She is the public relations chair for Women in Games International and serves on several other video game and entertainment advisory boards and committees.

Throughout her career, Spry has managed several companies and developed corporate strategies and-high profile public relations and marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 corporations including Starbucks, McDonald's, Diageo-Guinness USA, Starwood, Ritz-Carlton and Microsoft.  Her event planning experience includes an international animation festival, as well as national and regional on-premise promotions.  She began her career in advertising and has created numerous multi-channel broadcast, interactive and print campaigns. 

Chris Cross
Former Design Director, Electronic Arts
Contributing Author, Game Creation and Careers, Peachpit

Chris Cross first entered the video game industry as a game tester for Blizzard. After testing Warcraft II, Beyond The Dark Portal expansion pack and Diablo for the company, Cross moved to DreamWorks Interactive where he served as assistant lead tester for Chaos Island. Cross then moved to production where he helped design Trespasser, before being promoted to lead designer on Small Soldiers. With the acquisition of DreamWorks Interactive by Electronic Arts, Cross took over as lead designer for the original Medal of Honor, as well as its successor, the international bestseller Medal of Honor Frontline. He then served as game design director, overseeing a team of ten designers on the EALA studio team.

Lewis Peterson
President/CEO
7 Studios

At 7 Studios, Lewis leads the company in day-to-day operations, overseeing the growth and development of the studio as well as game production.   Lewis brings twelve years industry experience to the company, as well as degrees in Quantitative Economics from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa) and a J.D. from Yale Law School with a focus in business law. 

Prior to founding 7 Studios, Lewis was a Producer at Westwood Studios in Las Vegas.  Lewis directly supervised and shipped all new products for Westwood during his last year there.  His responsibilities included management of five teams, including at one point all of Westwood's external development, accounting for over 100 people.  During his tenure at Westwood, he directly managed and released 4 products that reached the top ten in sales.

Lewis was responsible for overall vision, design, staffing & project management for two key Westwood franchises and product lines: Dune, and the ongoing development of Command & Conquer.  He created renewed interest in and revived the Dune franchise - the continuation of the popular RTS Dune 2.  His management of the Command & Conquer franchise included continuing development of the Red Alert property, expanding the C&C line to the consoles, and developing a new direction for the franchise with the recently released Command & Conquer: Renegade, a 3D action game set in the C&C universe.

Lewis initiated relationships with external developers, including locating teams, negotiating development agreements, and continued project management.  He was also involved in licensing negotiations, and maintaining relationships with major licensors.  Additional responsibilities included participation in Westwood’s Product Review Board, consulting and advising on product development for Westwood.

Perhaps most important, Lewis was the Regional runner-up in the national Tron videogame competition in 1983, narrowly missing a trip to Madison Square Garden for the finals by a few thousand points.

Lyle Hall
VP and Executive Producer, THQ

Lyle Hall currently oversees multiple internal studios as VP, Product Development for THQ.  In 1990, he began his game career as a producer for Virgin Mastertronic and over the last fifteen years, he has designed and/or produced some of the industry’s defining titles.  Lyle wrote the game design for 1992’s Game of the Year, Global Gladiators, produced Westwood Studios’ genre spawning Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty, and established the game vision for Silicon Knight’s original Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen.  In 1995, he created, designed and produced the first 32-bit character action game GEX – ‘95’s Game of the Year, which was bundled with the 3DO hardware, licensed by Microsoft for Windows and a multi-million unit seller on PSOne.  With a career defined by key contributions to cutting-edge development studios such as Virgin Games, Crystal Dynamics, Kalisto and DreamWorks Interactive, Lyle has spent the last four years serving as General Manager for THQ’s Los Angeles development studio, Heavy Iron, where he has executive produced a string of multi-million unit selling games based on Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob Squarepants and Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles properties.

Lyle is credited on the following game titles:

The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer (2005), THQ, Inc.
The Incredibles (2004), THQ, Inc.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie (2004), THQ, Inc.
Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo (2003), THQ, Inc.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (2003), THQ, Inc.
Scooby-Doo!: Night of 100 Frights (2002), THQ, Inc.
Gex 3D: Enter the Gecko (1997), Eidos Inc.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (1996), Crystal Dynamics, Inc.
Dark Legions (1994), Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Gex (1994), BMG Interactive Entertainment Robocop Versus the Terminator (1993), Virgin Games, Inc.
Wolfchild (1993), Virgin Games, Inc.
Chuck Rock (1992), Core Design Ltd.
Curse of Enchantia (1992), Core Design Ltd.
Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (1992), Virgin Games, Inc.
Heimdall (1992), Virgin Games, Inc.
The Legend of Kyrandia (1992), Virgin Games, Inc.
M.C. Kids (1992), Virgin Games, Inc.
The Terminator (1992), Virgin Games, Inc.
Conan: The Cimmerian (1991), Virgin Games, Inc.
Realms (1991), Virgin Games, Inc.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Virgin Games, Inc.
Vengeance of Excalibur (1991), Avalon Interactive

Kevin Beardslee
Vice President of Game Design, NCSoft
VP Game Design at NCSoft. 

Kevin is credited on the following game titles:

World of Warcraft (2004), Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (2003), Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002), Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Diablo II (2000), Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Diablo II (Collector's Edition) (2000), Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Descent to Undermountain (1998), Interplay Productions, Inc.
StarCraft: Brood War (1998), Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Stonekeep (1995), Interplay Entertainment Corp.
SimCity Enhanced CD-ROM (1993), Interplay Entertainment Corp., Maxis Software Inc.