I grew up in the rural mountains of Virginia. My first connection to the outside world was through the computers with Internet access donated to my local libraries. That connection threw open the doors to a world of artists and creators. It wasn’t long before I started sharing my own work, my comics, with them.

Since that time, although my comics have won awards, I’ve had to leave the comics industry for “a real job” in web development. I love CSS and JavaScript as much as I used to love my crow quill pens, but I’ve always been drawing on my experiences and skills from that world of illustration and animation. And now, it all comes full circle as my coding skills have developed enough to combine my two loves: storytelling and interaction.

In this presentation, Tom will highlight his own personal journey as an human being, entrepreneur, artist, software developer, surfer, adrenaline junkie, father – and how he goes about finding inspiration and fulfillment in using his personal passions to fuel his work and lifestyle.

Only by understanding who you are and how you work can you understand why you act the way you do and how to be the best version of yourself.
Recently, this has ignited an interest in learning more about design. I spend every day doing this thing called game design, yet I don’t feel like I have a solid grasp of what this thing is, what distinguishes a beginner from an expert, how to define the process, etc. How can I be a better designer if I don’t have a great grasp of what I’m doing in the first place? The games industry as a whole suffers from this problem – in our race to create the shiniest games there isn’t a lot of room for introspection.
Right now I am in the trenches of this process. I’m talking to designers from other fields of design, as well as digging into what’s been written on design. The end goal is to weave all these disparate threads together into a picture of design that shows us a path. The measure of success will not be whether this picture accurately shows us what game design is, but whether it accurately shows us how to be a better designers.

As it becomes more and more challenging for Indie developers to make a living from the App Store many have started looking outside of its walls for ways to continue their craft. In this talk Josh will share a variety of experiments he did over the previous year while working to expand his craft and business beyond the App Store. Along the way he will explore a number of topics including the relationship between art & money and the roots of impostor syndrome.