• ShortFest Panel

    The Creative Process of Video Game Development

  • ShortFest Panel

    The Creative Process of Video Game Development

Video games tell stories through each character, plot twist and environment in which they take place, much like a film. The overlap in the creative development of both films and participant-driven video games may seem forced, but the true and various parallels can be surprising.

Guests: John Schimmel, script development, Cloud Imperium; David Chontos, creator of Kismet/filmmaker; and Micah Wright, WGA Videogame Writer's Caucus
Moderator: Natalie Zfat, Writer/Social Media Influencer

Moderator: Natalie Zfat

n zfatNatalie Zfat is a writer, entrepreneur and social media influencer with a professional mantra that success means never doing the same thing twice (unless it was really fun). Natalie has partnered with some of the largest brands in the world, including Rolling Stone, Food Network, American Express, Levi's and Dell. This year, Google named Natalie one of 60 Fun and Interesting People to Follow on Google Plus.

Event Details

Date: Jun 23 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

David Chontos

d chontosDavid graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a BFA in Experimental Animation and Visual Psychology and joined Psyop in 2006. Since then, he has created award-winning commercials, game trailers, and installations for a wide variety of clients including Xbox, Apple, DTS, and Toyota. David combines a unique creative passion and technical aptitude to create fantastic worlds filled with beautiful characters that participate in a well-constructed, thoughtful and interactive narrative.

John Schimmel

j schimmelJohn Schimmel is in the middle of an extraordinarily diverse career as a writer/producer. He's been the President of Furthur Films and Ascendant Pictures, an executive at Douglas-Reuther Productions, Belair Entertainment, and Warner Bros, co-penned the Tony-nominated musical "Pump Boys And Dinettes," and published fiction and nonfiction. He is currently senior producer (content) for Cloud Imperium Games/Roberts Space Industries. His first book, Screenwriting Behind Enemy Lines: Lessons from Inside the Studio Gates, was published in January, 2013.

Micah Wright

m wrightMicah Ian Wright is an award-winning writer, director, game designer, and VR pioneer who started in animation on shows like SpongeBob SquarePants & The Angry Beavers, and created Nickelodeon's first action show, Constant Payne. Micah has written for over 50 videogames, including games in the Looney Tunes, Transformers, and Call of Duty franchises. He recently won 2 awards for his Virtual Reality work.His new comedy-thriller feature, They're Watching, recently opened in theaters and is available now on all digital platforms.

2016 ShortFest Archive