David Perry is a 26-year veteran of the video game business—and he’s also probably the tallest in the business! Atari bought his development studio, Shiny Entertainment, which was known for titles such as Earthworm Jim, MDK, and The Matrix. These days he’s a co-founder and chief creative officer of Acclaim Games, the number-one American Free-to-Play MMO Publisher (www.acclaim.com). Perry’s games have generated more than a billion dollars in revenue, and he has had numerous number-one hits and “Game of the Year” awards. In his spare time, he helps students into the industry and writes articles for BusinessWeek.com. In the last couple of years, he has been awarded a master’s, a doctorate, and a fellowship for his achievements. He has spoken at almost every major video game conference as well as at major universities, such as MIT, USC, and UCLA, and at the prestigious TED conference. To help the industry grow, Perry is personally funding an initiative to bring together investors, publishers, and developers worldwide (www.GameInvestors.com) and a new Flash gaming site (www.TheFanHub.com). For more information, visit www.dperry.com.

Rusel DeMaria began playing video games in 1967 and has been writing about them since 1981, so although he isn’t as tall as David Perry, he has been around video games since their inception. He has been a senior editor on three magazines, a columnist nationally and internationally, and the founding editor and creative director of Prima Publishing’s strategy guide division, which he started in 1990. He has written more than 60 game-related books, including High Score: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, Reset: Changing the Way We Look at Video Games, Spore: Evolution, and many others, with sales in excess of 2.5 million copies. DeMaria has appeared on TV and radio and was one of the primary commentators and consultants for PBS’ Videogame Revolution. He has been a speaker at several industry events, including GDC, and has also been a game designer and a consultant for companies such as Sega, Maxis, LucasArts, Oddworld, and Acclaim. Currently, he is assistant director of David Perry’s Game Consultants, Inc.