Ang Yi Xin writes: "I am an undergraduate at the School of Art, Design and Media in Nanyang Technological University majoring in Digital Animation. I love to play games on PSP and Xbox but I do not own any of them and I am very bad at gaming too. I know a little bit here and there about art history, 3d animation and myself. GAMBIT will be my first experience with game development and I aspire to design interesting looks for games. I am still exploring different career options but I utimately want to do something related to art and design. During my free time, I like watching movies, swimming, drawing and hanging out with my family and friends. My website is www.pencilandpixel.net."

Bruce Chia Bruce Chia is a fourth year undergraduate of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore. He has a strong interest in developing games in all aspects. He specializes in programming but also has a keen eye for colors, a keen ear for music and a keen mind for game design. Working on games allows him to express his creativity in all areas and never fails to be less than an extremely fulfilling experience for him. During his spare time at his university, he ran a Game Developer Interest Group and influenced the student game developing scene by organizing workshops and competitions, including Singapore's very first Contrast Game Design competition. He also achieved the Best Technical game in the 2006 Code-a-thon competition and became the lead programmer for the GAMBIT games AudiOdyssey and CarneyVale: Showtime. He aspires to one day develop games which would inspire the world, just as other great games have inspired his world.

Munir Hussin is a computing student from National University of Singapore, majoring in Communications and Media. Little is known about him, except that he likes to play classic games, daidee, and do close-up magic. He enjoys making games on various platforms, programming, designing, and do digital art. He dreams of starting a games studio and until then, you shall fall into his hypnotic suggestions and support his dreams 1000%. You shall also get him a Wacom Cintiq. His website can be found at http://www.moonaire.com.

Lynette Lim is pursuing a Diploma in Info-Communications at Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore. Her main focus is on programming and networking. Her interests are playing musical instruments, playing computer games and programming. She likes to take on any challenge.

Lee Fang Liang is a passionate games developer based in the city state of Singapore who likes to tinker with codes in his spare time. He graduated from Nanyang Polytechnic with a diploma in Digital Entertainment Technology. His first experience with game development started when he was making maps for the game Counter-Strike at the age of 14. Since then, he has moved on to bigger and better things. His current experiences include making Flash, XNA, DirectX and OpenGL games. When not writing code, he would be listening to his wide collection of music or playing games along with his friends.

(Jesse) Ong Yit Sin is an undergraduate at the National University of Singapore, majoring in Communications and New Media and minoring in English. She is currently married to World of Warcraft and is on a quest to accumulate as many pets as possible. In reality, she survives on Pepsi, over-uses Photoshop, watches anime and enjoys torturing her rabid rabbit. Occasionally, she would actually get back to work on www.i-petz.com.

Chen Renhao is a graduate from Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore holding a diploma in Digital Entertainment Technology. He has a great passion for games and thus he took this diploma that equips him with the technical skillset for creating a game. His favorite game genre is Japanese role playing games. Beside games, he also enjoys playing badminton. He hopes that one day he can develop a fun game that everyone can enjoy.

Gareth Tan Zi-Gui is a final year student at Republic Polytechnic, majoring in New Media and specializing in Media and Entertainment. He has been passionate about media and the arts since an early age. From comics and design to film and games, he enjoys immersing himself in creative and imaginative works, especially those that contribute to the art of visual storytelling. Gareth believes that through games, the art of visual storytelling can be brought to the next level, where everything is interactive and the audience can become part of the stories themselves. With his background in film and theatre, Gareth hopes to be part of the community that will bring stories alive through games, creating experiences that go beyond the written word. When he's not at work, Gareth can easily be found with his eyes glued to the pages of a wicked graphic novel or with his hands at a game controller, blowing things up and doing what he loves best.

Desmond Wong is a graduate of Nanyang Polytechnic, majoring in Digital Media Design and specializing in game design and game art and animation. Coming out top in his entire cohort, Desmond is a mentor in leadership position in the Singapore Games Creation Community and has worked on a number of commercial projects, such as an arcade shooter for the Singapore Navy. He is also the lead artist in Wiip and Showtime, games that have been developed by GAMBIT, and showcased at numerous events. He has also won Best Game Concept in a Battle of the Concepts competition held by Nanyang Polytechnic, and numerous other competions as well. Some of which being the Best Overall game in the 2007 Contrast Game making competition, and Best Technical game in the 2007 Code' a thon competition as well. Other than being a game artist, Desmond also has experience in compositing in After Effects and Shake, and High Poly animations in 3D Max as well. His interests are playing video games, digital painting and playing badminton.

Yee Kar Kin is an avid designer who thrives in flexible, entrepreneurial environments. He revels in the exploration of a broad spectrum of media, though he is most enthusiastic about animation, photography and video production. Kar Kin is currently pursuing his Diploma in Moving Images at Temasek Design School, Singapore. He also enjoys having long walks and talks as it tends to stimulate the inquisitive mind.

This is Guo Yuan, a graduate from Republic Polytechnic's Diploma in New Media. She enjoys dabbling with not only music composition, synthesis and production, but also doodling and animation. She wishes Singapore sells Dr Pepper off the shelves. Her other main interests are cats, video games and electronic dance music. And she loves her fat cat, friends, and family. Visit her site at http://www.gynation.net.

Joel Zhang is a 3rd year undergraduate from NUS who enjoys playing most genres of games, but leans towards strategy and RPGs, especially those that do not require massive amounts of twitch skills. He also enjoys programming and hopes to be able to make a career in the game development industry when he graduates.

Yeuhi Abe is a computer science graduate student at MIT, where he has been doing research in computer animation with his advisor Jovan Popovic since September 2004. The focus of his work is on the use of physical simulation and control to drive the motion of virtual creatures in interactive applications such as video games. When not subjecting virtual creatures to brutal physical stress tests, he can usually be found subjecting himself to similar conditions on the mountain tops of New England. His website can be found at http://people.csail.mit.edu/yeuhi.

Golam Ashraf's background is in analytical techniques in computer animation and graphical models. In his Ph.D. thesis on semantic correspondence-based motion editing for humanoids, he proposed intuitive kinematics techniques for motion analysis, correspondence and interpolation. He has worked for 2 1/2 years on movie production tools and pipelines for fur and character animation. Over the last 4 years in NUS, he has produced real time models for fur, amorphous phenomena, fluid simulation, crowd AI and rendering, and layered anatomical models. He teaches game development and interactive media, covering practical methods, algorithms and content pipelines. His students explore next generation techniques in interaction, real time rendering, and artificial intelligence, and pedagogical themes focused on children. His course output has been showcased at various public venues like Singapore Science Center and Microsoft Singapore. Outside academia, he has considerable stage theater experience in acting, direction and technical production. His current research is geared towards engaging edutainment applications with interactive character creation/manipulation tools for toddlers, children and young adults. His website can be found at http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~ashraf/.

Ahmed Wali Aqeel loves tinkering with gadgets. Cameras and handhelds are irresistible in particular. He is an inquisitive learner, passionate about things that are elegant and simplistic. He has an eye for details and ardently studies user behavior and interaction. Emotive objects fascinate him and beware, he clicks his camera randomly. Poor kid still has a thing for LEGOs. He mumbles geekishly about neuromedia, edutainment, robotics, perception, human factors, game design etc. trying to impress you and gets animated when a problem can no longer be solved rationally. Curiosity kills him and doses of lemonade keep him alive.  He is graduating from the National University of Singapore with a major in Electrical Engineering, specializing in Interactive & Digital Media. Rest assured, he is an expert at nothing so you will find him on a constant lookout for talented people to join his team at GameVentures.com.

Don Baey is a third and final-year student from Singapore Management University (SMU), finishing his Bachelor of Science with a double major in Information Systems Management and Advanced Business Technology at the end of 2009. A tech-fanatic, a problem-solver, a musician, a devoted church sound crew, an animal lover and a passionate gamer, Don is inspired by culture-transforming agents such as video games and is fascinated by the design, technology and music of games. He finally has his game development dreams fulfilled in GAMBIT and is looking forward to further his skills, play the latest games and hopefully join the game industry after graduation. His website can be found at http://don.walkingpencil.com.

Bai Jiaqiang writes, "I am an undergrad at National University of Singapore. I enjoy programming solutions to solve challenging problems and also watching code come to life as pretty effects and beautiful virtual interactive worlds. Programming 2d games and network games is my specialization, while I also enjoy game design and doing up 3d stuff. During my leisure time, I watch anime and movies or play MMOs. Producing innovative games to entertain the masses is one of my aspirations."

Steven Bartel writes: "I'm a Senior at MIT, majoring in computer science. I'm interested in game development, programming, and of course playing video games. I'm excited to be working with GAMBIT and making games."

Naftali Beder is a senior at the Rhode Island School of Design. He loves illustration and video game design, as well as cats and bassoons.

Specialties: visual arts, digital art, video game art, video game industry

Jason Beene is GAMBIT's Art Director, helping our team breathe life into the zeros and ones.  Previously, Jason served as Studio Art Director of an internal THQ development group.  During those 7 years, Jason was instrumental in the production of numerous Nintendo handheld titles and had the opportunity to work with the likes of Pixar and Nickelodeon.  His time at THQ was proudly spent doing everything from pixel pushing to managing/mentoring a talented art staff.  Additionally, as an alumni of the Rhode Island School of Design illustration department, Jason aims to offer both industry insight and his own creative talents to help further the efforts of GAMBIT. His artblog can be found at http://jasonbeene.blogspot.com.

Specialties: visual arts, digital art, video game art, video game industry

Jason Begygraduated from Canisius College in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, and in 2008 earned a Master's degree in Professional Writing and Information Design from Northeastern University. Continuing the process of avoiding a career, he then came to CMS as a graduate student where he wrote his master's thesis on the use of metaphor in game criticism and design. Current projects include ongoing research into casual games and modes of representation in games. He blogs about board game semiotics at gamebits.tumblr.com.

Joshua Campoverde is an undergraduate in the joint study of Computer Science and Comparative Media Studies at MIT.  His personal interests lie in how software design affects how people interact with technology, specifically internet enabled technologies.  Memorable acheivements in his gaming life include beating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game for NES without a Game Genie, beating Mario Tennis for N64 with every character in both singles and doubles, and beating Bark at the Moon on expert in the original Guitar Hero.  He can currently be found playing the most recent installment of the FIFA Soccer franchise or harassing people to play Rock Band with him.  Chronicles of his adventures are maintained at www.joshcampoverde.com.

Brandon Cebenka hails out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with big dreams and a frame to match. At a 6'6" he is currently finishing off his student career at the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in illustration, and he is on the lookout for careers involving video games, movies, or anything else that lends a helping hand to defining the adjective "cool".

Chang Wei Kang, Thom writes: "I'm an undergraduate at the School of Art, Design and Media (NTU), majoring in Digital Animation. Despite being a casual gamer, I've always been interested in game designing and hope to develop games that thrill the audience. I am glad to have a twin brother who shares the same passion and he is also here with me at the GAMBIT Summer Program. I have a huge passion for conceptualizing and hope to create visual and sensory experiences through my artworks."

Chang Wei Kiang, Jerly writes: "I'm an undergraduate from the School of Art, Design and Media (NTU), specializing in Digital Animation. I enjoy almost every aspect of animation, especially concept art, 3D modeling and character animation. Being new to the gaming industry, GAMBIT will be my first hands-on experience in game development and I am glad to receive this rare opportunity as an artist to design visually stunning games."

Wong Chang You has finished his freshman year in Digipen Institute of Technology Singapore. He is currently pursuing a degree in Bachelor of Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation. As he is very enthusiastic about becoming a professional game programmer, he has already completed many student game projects. Other than that, Chang You has worked in the Lucasfilm Animation Singapore video games department as a QA tester for 2 major games. His favorite game genre is RPGs. His ambition is to be able to create one of the greatest RPGs of all time. Chang You's website can be found at http://changyouwong.wordpress.com.

Victoria Y. Chastan writes: "Complex and inspirational might be two words to describe myself. I am a game addict at heart and love RPGs and action/adventure games. I'm also a hard-core artist, drawing out whatever pops from my imagination because almost anything, music, TV, games, inspires me. And thus, I combined my two interests as one in choosing game design to bring forth my imagination in games. My goal is to create my own game(s) in the future, which I hope many players will love while playing. I'm very interested in crime/murder shows or books because of how intense yet suspensful the story gets. This kind of feeling is what I put in my designs of characters, pictures or game ideas as they grip the heart to come back for more."

Benjamin Chee Siew Meng writes: "I believe the hand of the diligent will rule, and that if anyone shall not work, neither shall he eat. It is my principle, because giving life is not an easy job. You see, I sacrifice my life so that the dead shall be revived, that the lifeless may breathe and walk and speak. I set my eyes upon the zenith that is before me, enduring the cold winds and the mighty giants, so that I may stand upon the pinnacle and epitomize life itself. Before that, I will humbly await any corrections and criticisms at http://zhaomeng.deviantart.com And I draw pictures. Then I make them dance. Very fast."

Cheong Wei Yang, Aaron writes: "I am quite a reserved person. I love music, especially jazz, free improvisation, classic rock, southern rock, blues, etc. People who love music will find it really easy to talk to me."

Benjamin Chua writes: "I am an avid gamer, occasional hobbyist writer, and hopeful budding game developer. I love stories and have been engrossed with fantasy and science fiction stories and worlds since I was quite young. I've played many, many RPGs and strategy games and a few less FPSes and hope to one day make a critically acclaimed RPG or space strategy game."

Chuang Xuejin writes: "Want to do crazy things? Call me =)"

Genevieve Conley is a fourth year student in the Brain and Cognitive Science program at MIT. She began her 'work' at GAMBIT in prototype design and subsequently moved on to help produce a live-action game for GAMBIT's debut at PAX East, 2010. This opportunity has left her thoroughly terrified of large groups of people. Conley is particularly interested in designing games for academic and corporate educational applications. When not in lab, she can be found playing, watching, or writing about videogames and, occasionally, doing classwork.

Joshua Diaz went from a BA in Liberal Arts from St. John's College (2004) to working within the computer games industry. His game industry experiences include working in QA at Electronic Arts' Los Angeles Studio, serving as systems designer for the PlayStation 2 title The Sopranos: Road to Respect and working as a game designer for DS platform games at Seven Studios. Diaz reports that "the rigorous and interdisciplinary approach [he was taught in the St. John's 'Great Books' program] would later be of great benefit, as I found game design almost always involves negotiating between aesthetic and technological requirements and in translating principles from one field into others." His academic interests focus on exploring the relationship between video games and cognition, in studying the relations between amateur and professional practitioners, and in developing new ways to talk, think and teach learning.

Kevin Driscoll earned his BA in Visual Art from Assumption College in 2002. He joined CMS after three years teaching Computer Science at Prospect Hill Academy Charter School in Cambridge, MA. There he explored issues of identity management, media production, literacy, hacking, and hip-hop with the consistently brilliant students in grades 6-12. Inspired by a challenging first year in the classroom, Kevin co-founded a non-profit organization called TeachForward (later re-named Developing Curriculum, Inc.) to encourage the sharing and development of high-quality, free learning materials on the web. In addition to his work in education. Kevin is a frequent collaborator with internet-based artist Claire Chanel and a hip-hop dj responsible for Gold Chain and Todo Mundo events. His website can be found at http://kevindriscoll.info.

As Systems Administrator for Comparative Media Studies, GAMBIT, and Project NML, Rik Eberhardt's current duties include maintaining the ever growing array of servers, lab computers, websites, and databases generated by our research projects, procuring and distributing equipment, and providing hands-on support for CMS faculty, students, researchers, and staff. A 2002 graduate from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, he received his Bachelor of Arts with a Literary & Cultural Studies concentration in Postmodern Literature, 'Cyberpunk' Science Fiction, and Contemporary Japanese Literature in Translation. His previous professional experience was as a Desktop and Lab Systems Technician for Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. The ending to Shadow of the Colossus made him cry.

Claxton Everett is pursuing a Bachelors in Comparative Media Studies with a minor in Music. He is also a QA Tester and the Communications Assistant for the MIT-GAMBIT Lab. (Basically, he's in GAMBIT as much as the lights are.) He enjoys gaming, video editing, online social utilities such as Facebook and Twitter (perhaps a bit too much), singing, and learning to play new instruments. His current favorites are clarinet and piano, but then again those are the only two instruments he knows how to play. Claxton is excited to work in GAMBIT and be in the presence of such enthusiastic gamers and game-culturists like himself. He looks forward to all upcoming games in the GAMBIT scope.

Clara Fernández-Vara is a Research Associate at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. Her research concentrates on the development of videogame theory, focusing on adventure games and the design of players' experience with the aid of storytelling. She is particularly interested in cross-media artifacts from the standpoint of textual analysis and performance.

Clara holds a BA in English Studies by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2000), and was awarded a fellowship from the La Caixa Foundation to pursue a Masters in Comparative Media Studies from MIT (2004). She is a PhD candidate in Digital Media from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and is writing her thesis while she is not doing work for GAMBIT, or playing games, or watching movies, or reading books.

Jacquelin Frank is an undergraduate at the Rhode Island School of Design and will graduate this spring of 2010 with a BFA in Illustration. She will go on to hopefully do concept art as a career, cover illustrations, or children's book illustrations. Her art is creating single illustrations based on creatures, animals, and fantasy environments. Her passions include music, soccer, paintball, collecting Beast-wars transformers and stuffed animals.

Jennifer Fu is a current MIT freshman majoring in Management and Comparative Media Studies. Her interests lie a bit more heavily in anime and manga than in video games, but it's all good; she loves being active of this kind of intense and energetic creative experience. In her spare time, she enjoys reading/writing/drawing manga, karaoke, and daydreaming – about everything.

Jeffrey Gan writes: "I am a game programmer from Nanyang Polytechnic who is interested in various graphical aspects in the creation of games. I am highly interested in the game industry and hope to garner more experience from this event. I can be rather careless at times so I ask for your patience, as well as being sometimes blunt. I look forward to working with you all. My favourite games are Team Fortress 2 and World of Warcraft, as well as the Final Fantasy series."

Adalberto "Nick" Garza writes: "I'm an ex-rancher, now 3rd year CMS undergrad who currently wants to work in educational games. My spare time activities include exploring the internet, video games, plotting out zombie survival scenarios, and cursing at Computer. I occasionally dabble in programming, only to swear after every project 'Never Again'."

Fabiola Garza has spent the last four years studying illustration at Rhode Island School of Design, where one hopes she has learned a thing or two about art. She is fascinated by visual storytelling and hopes to find a home where she can tell stories too. Fabiola spent her childhood living in Mexico, Colombia, Turkey, and the United States, but has no intention of settling down yet. She plans to go to Ireland so she can meet the fairies and learn to fake the accent. She thinks it is important to have adventures often, and to never skip breakfast. Other than sitting down and doodling for love (and, hopefully, money) she enjoys good company, books and the many blessings God has given her. Her website can be found at www.fabiolagarza.com.

Jon Georgievski is a dedicated musician, audio engineer and sound designer. He's been a serious gamer since his father brought home a NES some 15 years ago. Jon's favorite games are known for their excellent music (Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Zelda, etc.). His other hobbies include fixing electronics, understanding concepts of theoretical astrophysics, and ice hockey. Jon is planning on pursuing a career in interactive sound design and hopes to own his own home studio.

Thanks to two wonderfully dedicated game-playing grandmothers, Andrew Grant started playing games before he could hold the cards. From there, he went on to explore board games, strategy games, role-playing games, and computer games. This exploration shows no signs of slowing down.

Andrew graduated from MIT in 1993 with Bachelor's degrees in both Computer Science and Mathematics (6 and 18, darnit) and a minor in Creative Writing. After 6 months in the real world, he discovered that someone would actually pay him to design and program computer games, so he returned to his gamer roots by joining Looking Glass Technologies, and then DreamWorks Interactive. Since then, Andrew has survived 10 years as a programmer-for-hire and independent developer in projects ranging from underwater robotics to yet more games. Now, Andrew is the Technical Director for GAMBIT, applying his rather eclectic skillset to the wide array of technologies used in the lab.

Specialties: computer programming, computer game development, game design, tabletop role playing games

Nina Guo is a student at MIT (class of 2010) studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. If she's not in the student center doing work, she is probably sleeping or eating. She also enjoys anime and video games and is a big fan of the Super Smash Bros series.

Naomi Hinchen is a junior majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Theater Arts; making video games is one of the few areas that allows her to combine both. When not programming she enjoys writing thirty-day novels, cooking, acting, playing the harmonica, and making elaborate period costumes that she hardly ever gets to wear. However, she is often sidetracked from the above activities by the sweet, sweet siren call of the Internet. Oh, TV Tropes Wiki, why must you fascinate me so?

Ho Qingxiang writes: "I love to dream. Other than the usual vivid interest for games, story and experience, I am someone who always aspires to surpass limits and break barriers. I like to take on challenges and learn more about myself in the process. Through countless trials and tribulations that encourage me to continue expanding my own limits, through accumulated encounters with loss and success, I learn from others as well as from myself more about what it means to live a dream. To make dreams a reality, I have set forth to learn the skills necessary to create. In the end, I want to create something that will resonate in the consciousness of many. I've got a story and an idea to tell, and I hope the world will listen."

Hoe Jia Chang Kenny writes: "As an avid gamer I enjoy playing a variety of games, whether it's on the computer, console or simply playing cards. I enjoy taking on challenges to constantly improve myself regardless of the outcome. During my free time, I love listening to songs, heading out for sports or just hanging out with friends for some fun and games. I would say that I am a friendly, cheerful, honest, trustworthy, responsible, considerate person and a quick thinker. I am also always looking forward to making new friends and learning more about others and the world."

Kyle Hormann has been a guitarist, singer and songwriter for over 10 years and has a certificate in audio production from the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University. While studying at CDIA, Kyle became introduced to the wonderful world of audio technology where he has made animations come to life with realistic sound effects and composed music that turned the mundane into ear candy. Along with his love for video games (from the retro Sonic the Hedgehog to super-polished modern games) Kyle comes to GAMBIT ready to contribute towards bringing game audio to its highest possible level.

Soh Jing Chang writes: "I have a passion for gaming hence I game a lot everyday. I am happy to learn and try out new kinds of game play, play different genre of games and my favorite game changes every now and then. I like playing Pokémon as I want to be a Pokémon master, and I also enjoy winning in Team Fortress 2 too. Through this internship, I hope to experience developing games in a professional way."

Ben Jones is a current freshman who plans on majoring in Comparative Media Studies. With some previous QA experience at Firaxis, video game production is the only career he can see himself in. This passion for videogames translates into the dream to become the lead designer for a triple A title that is well received. Besides playing far too much DotA in his free time, Ben enjoys black and white photography, film editing, and making people happy.

Jamie Jones is a junior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pursuing a major in Comparitive Media Studies. She is currently trying to decide between video game design and video game art as a career path. In her free time she likes reading, throwing things, running, drawing, and pwning n00bs.

Jesper Juul is a video game researcher at GAMBIT. He has worked with video game theory since the field's early days in the late 1990s. Though originally trained in literature, he tries to consider video games in a broader perspective, also spanning psychology, computer science, and player studies. He is currently examining the emergence of casual games: video games that reach outside the traditional video game audience.

Prior to his appointment at GAMBIT, Jesper was an assistant professor at the Centre for Computer Game Research Copenhagen where he also earned his Ph.D. While Jesper works with and thoroughly appreciates pure theory, he is also interested in the intersection of video game theory and development practice. He has worked as a designer and programmer of multiplayer web-based games and, more recently, casual games.

Jesper's book on video game theory Half-Real was published by MIT Press in 2005. His blog on video game theory, The Ludologist, can be found at http://www.jesperjuul.net/ludologist and a collection of his writings can be found at http://www.jesperjuul.net/text.

Specialties: video game theory, video game design, video game audiences, video game industry, casual games, video games and academia

Eunice Khoo writes: "Hi, I graduated from Lasalle College of the Arts in 2009 doing a bachelor degree in Animation Arts. I love to doodle a lot and watch sitcoms during spare time, and I am also very passionate about the arts. I aspire to live by this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: 'Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.'"

Mushfique Junayed Khurshid writes: "I am a year 3 Electrical Engineering student in NUS. I am an avid gaming fan, and enjoy programming. Being involved in making games will be a great experience for me and am looking forward to being involved in this program."

Eric Klopfer is the Director of the MIT Teacher Education Program and the Scheller Career Development Professor of Science Education and Educational Technology at MIT. Klopfer's research focuses on the development and use of computer games and simulations for building understanding of science and complex systems. His research explores simulations and games on desktop computers as well as handhelds. He currently runs the StarLogo, http://education.mit.edu/starlogo, project, a desktop platform that enables students and teachers to create computer simulations of complex systems. He is also the creator of StarLogo TNG, a new platform for helping kids create 3D simulations and games using a graphical programming language. On handhelds, Klopfer's work includes Participatory Simulations, http://education.mit.edu/pda, which embed users inside of complex systems, and Augmented Reality simulations, http://education.mit.edu/ar, which create a hybrid virtual/real space for exploring intricate scenarios in real time. He is the co-director of The Education Arcade, which is advancing the development and use of games in K-12 education.

Nicholas Kole is a U.S. citizen who has spent most of his life living overseas, most recently in Vienna, Austria. He repatriated to the United States in recent years for important root-beer purposes as well as to attend the Rhode Island School of Design, from which he will be graduating with a bachelor's in Illustration. Nicholas is an aspiring comic-book/conceptual artist with a passion for comics, videogames, movies and any kind of storytelling he can get his hands on.

Igor Kopylov is a senior at MIT, majoring in Computer Science. He loves to program and finds that people like his programs a whole lot better when they're games. In fact, he's quite fond of gaming himself. He's always excited to see the newest titles and spends a good time wondering how they do all those cool effects. He hopes his time at GAMBIT will give him insight into what makes those effects so cool. When he's not in front of a computer, Igor is a member of MIT's varsity fencing team.

Lan Xuan Le, who has BAs in both Biology and Asian Studies from Swarthmore College (2004) and a Masters in Public Health from Boston University (2007), has been part of the "games for health movement," conducting a qualitative study and co-authoring a white paper for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on the use of games to combat childhood obesity. She also has a strong interest in the globalization of media and the construction of alternative understandings of what it means to be Asian and Asian-American through popular culture, an interest which led her to design, research and execute a library exhibition of anime and manga for Swarthmore's McCabe Library. She wrote an undergraduate thesis on problematic gender and sexual representations in Japanese popular culture with a particular focus on Card Captor Sakura, a paper which won the Swarthmore College Asian Studies Program's top writing prize.

Kris Lee Kian Teck writes: "Hi, I'm Kris Lee and I am inspired to become a game designer. My motto is to 'Work hard, Play harder'."

Wee Sun Lee is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore. He obtained his PhD from the Australian National University in 1996 and was a research fellow at the Australian Defence Force Academy from 1996 to 1998 prior to joining the National University of Singapore.

He is interested in machines that learn, perform inference, make decisions and plan. He works on obtaining theoretical understanding of when learning, inference and planning can be done effectively, on developing effective algorithms for these problems, and also on applying the algorithms to applications such as information extraction, natural language understanding, robotics and games.

His website can be found at http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~leews/.

Leau Tat Sin is a 25 year old Singaporean male who loves games, programming, anime and all things geeky.

Poh Li Ting writes: "I am currently a student at SAE Institute Singapore, completing my Bachelor of Recording Arts degree. My passions are music, games and animation. I started out as a bass player, moving on to Electronic Dance Music productions (Drum 'n' Bass, House, Trip Hop, Ambient Techno). In addition, I have been a live sound engineer and been involved in orchestral recordings. For the past 2 years, I've been working in a commercial studio environment doing postproduction for films and animations. And now, I am given this great opportunity to explore my interests in sound production in games."

Yue Li was born in Beijing, China in 1988. He moved to the United States in 1995 and has lived on the East Coast ever since, but a calling to the west has been strong as of late. He currently resides in Providence, RI and attends the Rhode Island School of Design pursuing a BFA in Illustration and a liberal arts concentration in creative writing.

Broy Lim writes: "Hello! My name is Broy. Nice to meet you. I'm currently pursuing the diploma in Games Design and Development at Singapore Polytechnic. Along with that, I take additional Japanese lessons and completed the Certificate of Theatre Production and Performance under Singapore Polytechnic. I enjoy listening to Japanese pop music and enjoy writing my feelings down in the form of poetry during my free time. I believe that so long as I do things to my own standard and satisfy myself, that's enough. Besides, life's about being happy."

Michael Lin is an MIT 2011 majoring in Comparative Media Studies and Materials Science & Engineering. He loves talking movies, television, and games with people who really know what they're talking about, and consequently was naturally attracted to CMS and GAMBIT. He's especially interested in designing games, but doesn't mind playing them when instructed to do so. He'll play just about anything he can get his hands on, but confesses a soft spot for RPGs and action-adventure games.

Lin Yuanqin says, "Sleep is for the weak."

Winston Chaoqun Liu writes: "Cognitively, I am fan of strategy games. My favorite game is still Warcraft. A bit out of date, but I still play it occasionally. Physically, I like basketball and badminton."

Faizah Bte Lokman is an aspiring designer taking her final year studying Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore. During her free time, she loves playing mindless online casual games and is reluctant on MMOs but when forced would spend hours poring over help guides just to not make a fool of herself. She yearns for a riveting game without having to wade through lines of tutorial junk. Apart from all that, she enjoys long walks, doodling, taking photographs and going museum hopping.

Geoffrey Long is the Communications Director for the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab and the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT. He is also a writer, designer, musician, artist, filmmaker, and shameless media addict. His professional career includes a decade-long run as the editor-in-chief of the literature, culture and technology magazine Inkblots and co-founding the software collective Untyped, the film troupe Tohubohu Productions, and the creative consulting company Dreamsbay.

Geoffrey earned his BA in English and Philosophy with concentrations in Creative Writing and IPHS from Kenyon College in 2000 and his Masters in Comparative Media Studies from MIT in 2007. He is a frequent lecturer on narratives in different media, including transmedia storytelling, at conferences including the Game Developers' Conference, SIGGRAPH/Sandbox, SCMS, and FuturePlay, and his own storytelling has appeared in Polaris, Gothik, Hika, {fray} and the iTunes store. His personal website/portfolio can be found at www.geoffreylong.com.

Specialties: fiction; transmedia storytelling; narratives and games, interactive narratives and other digital storytelling; mobisodes, webisodes and other online video; comics, graphic novels and visual narratives; new storytelling technologies and techniques; art and graphic design; toys

Anna Loparev is a senior studying computer science and mathematics at Wellesley College. She began her video game career in the spring of 2008 as a test lead, but plans to try out her programming skills once she fully develops them. A gamer since the age of nine, she enjoys all genres but has a small place in her heart for puzzle games.

Tomas Lozano-Perez is Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at MIT and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He has all his degrees (SB '73, SM '76, PhD '80) from MIT in Computer Science. He has been the Associate Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Associate Head for Computer Science of MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

His research has been in robotics (configuration-space approach to motion planning), computer vision (interpretation-tree approach to objection), machine learning (multiple-instance learning), medimaging (computer-assisted surgery) and computational chemistry (drug activity prediction and protein structure determination from NMR & X-ray data). His current research focuses on decision-theoretic approaches to robot motion planning in the presence of uncertainty. His web site can be found at http://people.csail.mit.edu/tlp/.

Kenji Low describes himself as an "easy-going and fun-loving person that can be unpredictable at times, in a good way of course. :) I can be lazy at times (I do sleep a lot), but when there's work to be done or when I'm doing something I'm passionate about I can crunch like a power drill. Other than that, I don't really know what else to say. However, I do look forward to new experiences and working hard as well as playing hard with a team of like-minded individuals."

James Ma Weiming writes: "I am currently a computer engineering student from Nanyang Technological University, and I like all things bright and colorful (especially in my programming codes). I love travelling... and nothing gets better than GAMBIT!"

Tim Marsh is currently Assistant Professor in Communications and New Media, and member of the Mixed Reality Lab (MXR) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His Ph.D is in Computer Science specializing in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from the HCI Group, University of York, UK, and Masters degree is in Computer Graphics & Visualization. He teaches graduate modules in serious games and human-computer interaction, covering design, evaluation and prototyping of virtual and gaming environments for purpose, and machinima for learning. Past students of Tim's modules have presented and published their work at ACM SIGGRAPH Video Games Symposium 2008, Los Angeles (recipients of the 2nd best paper award) and ISAGA2009, Singapore. Tim's interdisciplinary research interests are in design and development for experiential use of technological products and digital media. His research in gaming, learning and virtual environments focuses on film informing design for experiential and contemplative gameplay, development of continuous and unobtrusive approach to analyze player's behavior and experience, and using an activity theory-based approach to support design of narrative, story and gameplay. He's previously held positions in the Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) at the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles and at Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. His website can be found at http://ap3.fas.nus.edu.sg/fass/cnmmt/.

Andreas Mas'Oen writes: "I am an animator in-training from Temasek Polytechnic. I enjoy watching Japanese animation and reading Japanese comic books. I also enjoy drawing, doing simple animation and playing various video games as my past times. My favorite conversational topic will be about video games. I may be quiet at times, but once you know me you will think otherwise."

Shota Nakama has been actively composing, arranging, and sequencing for many films and video games after earning a Bachelor's degree in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music. Shota is also known as a versatile classical/electric guitarist and has performed internationally for over 10 years, and recently he was chosen to perform the world premiere of Vuk Kulenovic's Electric Symphony at the Berklee Performance Center. Shota has recently founded an orchestra called V.G.O. (Video Game Orchestra) which exclusively performs orchestral arrangements of video game music. His website is www.shotanakama.com.

Leslie Pack Kaelbling is Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Research Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has previously held positions at Brown University, the Artificial Intelligence Center of SRI International, and at Teleos Research. She received an A. B. in Philosophy in 1983 and a Ph. D. in Computer Science in 1990, both from Stanford University. Prof. Kaelbling has done substantial research on designing situated agents, mobile robotics, reinforcement learning, and decision-theoretic planning. In 2000, she founded the Journal of Machine Learning Research, a high-quality journal that is both freely available electronically as well as published in archival form; she currently serves as editor-in-chief. Prof. Kaelbling is an NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow, a former member of the AAAI Executive Council, the 1997 recipient of the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, a trustee of IJCAII and a fellow of the AAAI. Her web site can be found at http://people.csail.mit.edu/lpk/.

Ng Wei Sheng, aka 'Snake', is an nonconformist with a weird nickname who is just so in love with creating visuals and looking at them. Currently studying Animation in LASALLE College of the arts to pursue his aim of "Creating Life", his passion forges ambition. A friendly person who is open to new ideas and concepts of this tiny little world.

Tina Nirmal writes: "I love to read and write. I enjoy listening to music and playing games on my consoles and PC. I love cars and everything associated with them! I enjoy playing soccer occasionally. I love meeting people from all over the world as I enjoy enriching cultural exchanges with them (that includes learning new languages). I am a huge foodie. I'm up for trying anything that is new, interesting and exciting. I love the thrills from spontaneous fun. I fear heights but I think I will still be up for a ride on a rollercoaster if it means having the time of my life!"

Marleigh Norton is the prototyping manager for the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab and a research manager for the Teacher Education Program's Outdoor Augmented Reality project at the Columbus Zoo. A recent addition to TEP, Marleigh brings years of design experience from both the commercial and academic sectors. Her recent work as an interaction designer for the Waterford Research Institute aimed to teach reading, math, and science to young children through the use of educational games. She holds a master's degree in human-computer interaction from Georgia Tech, where she created an augmented reality 3-D puzzle game. New interaction paradigms are a major interest of hers, and past projects have included collaborative touch-screens for the NASA Ames Research Center and voice user interfaces for major telephone companies.

Randy O'Connor is an animation graduate of Northeastern University making as much art for games as he can.  He works on 3d environments, level design, concept painting, and he enjoys the sensual act of lo-poly 3d modeling.  He loves to cycle all around Boston saving the air and his bank account.  In spare moments he cycles more, plays games (like everyone!), listens to all kinds of music, resists the impending zombie apocalypse, goes bouldering, and attempts to make Flash games.

Rini Ong Zhi Qian says, "Draw, paint, boardgames, digital games, Japanese anime, comedy movies, shopping... Count me in."

Scot Osterweil leads several Education Arcade projects promoting learning in math, literacy, history, science and foreign language. Formerly the Senior Designer at TERC, a research & development center devoted to math and science education, he designed Zoombinis Island Odyssey, winner of the 2003 Bologna New Media Prize, and the most recent game in the Zoombinis line of products (Riverdeep/TLC). He is the creator of the Zoombinis, and with Chris Hancock he co-designed the multi-award winning Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, and its first sequel, Zoombinis Mountain Rescue. He is the also the designer of the games Switchback and Yoiks!. Scot's other software designs included work on InspireData (Inspiration Software). He has participated in research on the role of computer games in learning, and on the use of video in data collection and representation. He previously worked in television, on the production of Public Television's Frontline, Evening at Pops, and American Playhouse, and as an animator on a wide range of programs. He is a graduate of Yale College with a degree in Theater Studies.

Neeraj Pattani writes: "I'm an animation student who is extremely interested in visual effects. I want to be a good lighting artist when I enter the industry. I enjoy watching movies, particularly the ones which are action-packed."

Elliot Maximillian Pinkus earned a BA in Information Science from Cornell University where he focused on game design and development. He was a member of Cornell's first Experimental Game Play Project. During two summers as an undergraduate, he worked as a game designer at MIT's Education Arcade contributing puzzles to Lure of the Labyrinth. As a research assistant with GAMBIT, he has worked on a variety of projects including Moki Combat v2.0 and a live-action pervasive game for the Penny Arcade Expo. His thesis is taking shape, examining how video games create physical/sensual immersion through both diegetic and non-diegetic feedback. Ask him about his design work at Silicon Knights this past summer because he enjoys being able to say that he is sworn to secrecy.

As Technology Support Specialist, Michael Rapa is the first point of contact for CMS and GAMBIT technical support. A graduate of The Art Institute of Boston, Rapa received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2007 with focus on Graphic Design and Digital Illustration. He is an avid member of the global video gaming community, regularly sacrificing several hours of his day to owning n00bs. His previous professional experience was as a Desktop, Lab Systems, and A/V Technician for Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.

Trey Reyher is an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, majoring in Brain and Cognitive Science. Although a lifelong gaming enthusiast, this is the first video game project in which he has participated as a developer. His love of Japanese games, art, and culture stem from his childhood days on the island of Okinawa. Since then, he has traveled to Europe, Australia, and Africa, but still considers Japanese to be his second language. Trey's other interests include writing short stories, playing the banjo, and hiking in the great outdoors.

Nick Ristuccia writes: "I'm a junior CMS major at MIT. Now you're probably going to laugh about it, but I could play classic style Mega Man, I could throw a frisbee, and I can make an avatar's head pop. I also enjoy posting disgusting videos on YouTube about professional wrestling. I'm grateful for the opportunity to work in the GAMBIT lab."

Jeremy Rossmann is a freshman at MIT, currently wondering which combination of 'Major in', 'Minor in', 'Chinese', 'Computer Science', and 'Comparative Media Studies' will end up on his degree. He is loving his time in the prototyping group, taking a closer look at what makes games fun and innovative. He's passionate about film and video games. When he's playing/watching one, he can't help but analyze the use of this technique, the pacing of that scene, the emotional impact of the soundtrack, etc... He's also into learning lots of languages, in part because it widens the pool of video game companies he could apply for a job at. His dream du jour is to work for Bioware, because he feels that Bioware makes videogames that are the most like interactive novels and films. And because Baldur's Gate 2 is the best game of all time. He could go on for hours about games, film, and the like. Don't even get him started.

Doris C. Rusch holds a postdoctoral position with the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab in the Programme at Comparative Media Studies at MIT. Before that she did postdoctoral work at the Institute for Design and Assessment of Technology at Vienna University of Technology. In her habilitation project titled "Once More with Meaning", Rusch investigates the medium specific characteristics of digital games and their potential to produce a wide range of emotionally satisfying and deeply meaningful experiences. Although her work is theory-driven, she aims at applicability of her research to actual game design with the goal of pushing the boundaries of games as media. Rusch has an eclectic background having completed studies in German Literature, Philosophy, English and Comparative Literature at the University of Vienna, where she also received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics. Her work in computer game studies is part of a larger interest in "narrative worlds" that expands over books, comics, and films.

Steven Setiawan, Jap writes: "I am currently pursuing a BFA in Interactive Media in NTU School of Art, Design and Media, Singapore. Being an aspiring illustrator, game artist and game designer, I always strive to try out new stuff and stretch my own comfort zone. Just like many others in GAMBIT, I have played quite a number of games, enough to motivate me to want to be involved in their development. What excites me about games is the well-crafted co-existence between imagination and logic. My interests lie more in creating concept art, illustration, character designs and gameplay design (just started to have an interest in it). In my very-hard-to-find free time, I like to listen to music, practice playing the guitar, draw comics, read manga and play games."

Karan Rajendra Shetti writes: "I am currently a 3rd year student at NTU pursuing Computer Engineering. I am a very fun loving and enthusiastic person who likes to balance work and play. I been passionate about computer games especially strategy and RPG games since my childhood. Some of my other passions include reading books, volleyball and swimming."

Ho Choon Sing writes: "My name is Choon Sing, currently a fourth year undergraduate from Nanyang Technological University, School of Computer Engineering. I possess interest in gaming and various 3D modeling and animation techniques. I enjoy playing computer games, watching anime and reading comic books during my spare time."

Sarah Sperry is a senior with a joint major in Computer Science and Comparative Media Studies. She's pretty boring overall, but looooooooves video games and wants to eventually have a huge collection (she welcomes suggestions!). Unfortunately, due to the amount of work over the past three years, her gaming skillz are pretty much nil. She hopes to rectify this with her new addiction to Halo.

She hopes to eventually be a producer who-knows-where, but also likes design. She worked as a design intern for Helixe (division of THQ) during the summer of 2007 and as a scripter/design intern for Shabba Games (division of Activision) during the summer of 2008.

She also loves smilie faces. :)

Mark Sullivan III is an undergraduate at MIT, class of 2010. An obsession with videogames drove him to learn programming, so now he's returning the favor. When not gaming, he can often be found sleeping or eating. He's probably gaming, though.  He's been a bit of a Nintendo fanboy his whole life, drawn to games such as Zelda and Metroid, but he'll play anything.

Jennifer Swann is an MIT undergraduate in Computer Science, slated to graduate in 2011. She is currently enrolled in a rigorous course of programming classes, a gauntlet formed of two parts Python and one part Java. In her free time, which is shrinking daily, she enjoys Salsa, and Casino Rueda. Jennifer has tried out for the MIT Bhangra team twice now, and will probably never be asked to join. She practiced Shotokan Karate for 8 years and hopes to pick it up again once out of school. Her ultimate career goal is game programmer; however, she doesn't mind the odd detour into other fields on the road to her life's calling. Having aspired to be a programmer since middle school, she is somewhat disappointed that programmers are disappearing, replaced by the more nebulous "Software Engineers."

Ian has an incredibly diverse background of experience that he likes to draw on and channel towards any project he is set to complete. Aside from working as a UROP student with GAMBIT, he has taken classes with both Doris and Philip. Any time he can get a spare moment or two, he loves playing games old and new, from a recent run of Diablo II (hey, it's old to me, alright!) up to Modern Warfare. He will also be graduating in the Spring with a Bachelor's Degree in Physics (VIII). His undergraduate thesis is in the field of particle physics, working with a collaboration to build a Dark Matter detector.

Ian is also an avid photographer, primarily focusing on the outdoors, where the rest of his varied experience comes in. He took a year and a half off from school to be a climbing guide for Alpine Ascents International, and spent a season working for Winter Park's Professional Ski Patrol in Colorado, where he developed his leadership skills and ability to work under pressure. He is a student of Hung Gar Kung Fu, and captain of the Alpine Ski Team at MIT (web.mit.edu/skiing/www). So whether you want to climb a frozen waterfall, have a crushing sensation of pain in your chest, or want to discuss how the history of Ancient Greece applies to his current project or the world in general, Ian is the man to talk to.

Tan Pin Xun is a third and final-year student from Temasek Polytechnic (TP), currently undertaking a diploma in Game and Entertainment Technology. He has a strong interest in developing games and is passionate about programming. Pin Xun manages GarenaSG and is an administrator of Garena Singapore Forum and Garena client. Besides video games he also enjoys sports, especially basketball.

Bettina Tan mostly Bet, is a third year student studying for a Diploma in New Media at Republic Polytechnic. While not found hooked to her laptop screen in school, you may find her sitting in a snug corner at home exploring the different worlds of online roleplaying games, beating up monsters and playing hero, or typing away on an open Word document with an evil plot in mind. She loves card games, board games, video games and always attempts to step in the spaces and not on the lines.

Abe Stein began making goofy noises when he was very young, creating detailed action sequences and death defying car chases on the kitchen floor with his G.I. Joes and Matchbox cars. Having since been enlightened to the capabilities of recording technology, Abe can still be found in front of a microphone trying to replicate the sound of a 1986 IROC-Z engine with his mouth.

Abe graduated from Haverford College with a Bachelor's degree in Religion, and studied audio engineering and sound design at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts of Boston University. A one-time high school English and History teacher, his sound design, music and mix work can be heard on a variety of educational videos, long and short form documentary films, various promotional shorts, and on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim animated series Assy McGee. Abe comes to the GAMBIT having most recently worked as a sound designer for Blue Fang Games, makers of the Zoo Tycoon franchise. As Audio Director at GAMBIT, Abe is looking forward to exploring new ways to improve the efficacy of sound in games to help create compelling, evocative and meaningful experiences.

Specialties: Vroom, Clang, Zip, Click, Pop, and Boom.

Toh Fu Er just finished her freshman year at Digipen Institute of Technology Singapore, pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Real-Time Interactive Simulation. She is a programming geek at heart but has occasional artistic impulses. Her hobbies are playing games and reading, but all her spare time disappeared when she started working on her game projects. However, she is happy to make that sacrifice, and is proud of all the games she makes. She still has much to learn, and hopes to improve her skills as much as possible before she graduates.

Alec Thomson is a freshman planning to major in Computer Science and Mathematics. He first learned to program long ago by making video games with  the good old LOGO writer in Microsoft DOS. For the past two summers, he's been teaching (crazy) kids how to make games at the TIC Computer Camp in Virginia. Alec probably plays too many video games and has a big collection of all shapes and sizes.

Sara Verrilli has spent her professional career in the videogame industry, starting with the day she walked out of MIT's Course V graduate studies and into a position as QA Lead at Looking Glass Technologies for System Shock. However, her game organizing endeavors started much earlier; she helped found a role-playing club at her high school by disguising it as a bridge group.

Since then, she's been a game designer, a product manager, a producer, and a QA manager, in no particular order. A veteran of both Looking Glass Technologies and Irrational Games, she's worked on eight major published games, and several more that never made it out the door. As Lead Producer at GAMBIT, she looks forward to corralling, encouraging, and exploring the creative chaos that goes into making great games, and figuring out just the right amount of order to inject into the process. And, while she still doesn't understand bridge, she does enjoy whist.

Rich Vreeland creates audio - audio for video games, film, television, radio, and most importantly, for fun. He got his start producing for media in 2006 when he was hired to write music and design sounds for a line of mobile platform titles. He recently graduated with a degree in Music Synthesis at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

Matthew Weise is split right down the middle into equal parts gamer and cinephile, having attended film school before seguing into game studies and then game development. Matt is the lead game designer for the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab and a full-time gamer, which means he not only plays games on a variety of systems but he also completes (most of) them. When he's not playing games or getting obscure DVDs off eBay he's babbling on at length about games and movies to anyone who will listen. With a scholarly (aka nerdy) background in both film and games, his primary research interest lies in their transmedia relationship: in how they each can represent meaningful fictional universes differently. Matthew did his undergrad at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where he studied film production before going rogue to design his own degree. He graduated in 2001 with a degree in Digital Arts, which included videogames (this was before Game Studies was a field). He continued his videogame research at MIT's Comparative Media Studies program where he examined how videogame theory and criticism differs between communities. As a CMS grad student he also worked at The Education Arcade, most notably collaborating on Revolution, a small-scale simulation of colonial America. After leaving MIT in 2004 Matt worked in mobile game development for a few years, occassionally doing some consultancy work, before returning to CMS and MIT in 2007 to work at the newly created Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab.

Lidya Willy is a student from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in August 2009. Currently studying for her Diploma on Media and Design. During her free time, she likes to express her feelings through drawings and experimenting with new ways to do art. To get her inspiration, she likes to do interactive activities like ping pong, shopping with friends, watching movies and videos on Youtube, reading comics, and playing Facebook applications. In the future she hopes to inspire people through her art.

Kenneth Christopher Yong says, "I am a friendly and outgoing person with a bizarre imagination of many things in the world. I love music and everything that has to do with it. It is my passion, my first love, my life and hopefully my future."

Joel Zhang is a 3rd year undergraduate from NUS who enjoys playing most genres of games, but leans towards strategy and RPGs, especially those that do not require massive amounts of twitch skills. He also enjoys programming and hopes to be able to make a career in the game development industry when he graduates.

Mark Zhang cannot find a good photograph of himself. His favorite games are rhythm games: Dance Dance Revolution and Rock Band (especially Beatles Rock Band!). He has only ever owned Nintendo consoles, and his favorite non-rhythm video games are Super Mario Galaxy and Pikmin, due to their peerless design, followed closely by the Super Monkey Ball and Super Smash Brothers series.

He is a freshman at MIT and plans to pursue Course 6, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He has a loving family in Sugar Land, TX, including his parents, Peng and Sharon, his little brother, Kevin, and a dog and a cat, Buddy and Brandy.He loves all of game programming and video games, math, reading anything, writing fantasy stories, learning, sketching, tennis, piano, Tae Kwon Do, and dreaming. He loves nature and animals, and is passionate about the environment and sustainability. He is a vegetarian by choice and will never voluntarily drink, smoke, or take non-prescription drugs.His life's ultimate ambition is three-pronged. One, to make the world a better place. Two, to compose a great multi-media saga spanning games, film/animation, and literature, which will carry his vision of the universe and utopia. Three, to be happy. He will be delighted to fulfill one of these. He always likes meeting new people. He will not think it strange if you e-mail him to say hi. His e-mail is mazhang@mit.edu.