IGDA Wisconsin Board Candidates

Nominations for the IGDA Wisconsin board are closed, meaning the polls are now open.  Registered members of IGDA Wisconsin may vote. If you are an IGDA Wisconsin member whose account is not assigned to the Wisconsin group, please contact us immediately. Voting ends March 13 at 11:59 PM.

Candidate information is below. Voting is conducted through the IGDA Wisconsin portal.

When you have finished browsing and selecting candidates for IGDA Wisconsin, be sure to vote in the IGDA national board election, ending soon!

This extra line is here to pad out the portal preview so that no candidates unfairly get face time above the jump!

Candidates for Secretary

Jason Compton

I am completing a term as Treasurer of IGDA Wisconsin and would like to continue to serve the chapter in the role of Secretary. I have experience fulfilling some of the key responsibilities of the Secretary in recent years, taking notes and compiling minutes at several chapter meetings. I led the push to pre-announce an annual meeting schedule in 2009, and again in 2010, to help ensure active participation and regular networking opportunities. In working closely with outgoing chairman Eric Francksen in recent years, I feel I have provided valuable balance and perspective to the development of the chapter.

In the same way that I have played a hybrid role on the IGDA Wisconsin, I play a hybrid role in the game industry. As a writer and editor, over the past 15 years I have published several game reviews, news stories, and feature articles in publications such as Maximum PC, Game Developer, and PC Gamer. As a hobbyist, I have created and contributed to several popular game mods. Currently, I am nearing completion on an independently financed CRPG. These experiences give me a broad range of perspectives on both the business and the pleasures of game-making, and I do my best to use what I have learned to ensure that IGDA Wisconsin serves all of its constituents.

Luke Marty

Graduated with a bachelors in game design from Herzing University December
2009
Former president of the Madison Student Chapter IGDA
Currently developing Flash games using Actionscript 3.0 as an independent
contractor for WeMeme LLC
When I was elected president of the student IGDA chapter, the organization really lacked leadership or purpose. Since that time, we have more than doubled both the student chapter's attendance and funding. With the help of the other students involved in the organization, we were able to help send a group of 10 students to GDC this March. I also head up and organize a monthly IGDA meeting open to anyone interested in the Madison area. We have worked with Sharendipity and held some of these "after hours" meetings in their space. We are also working with other area schools (including MATC, UW-Madison, Madison Media Institute) to get students from outside of Herzing involved. I've been quite committed to developing a stronger sense of community within the IGDA, and we've also teamed up with students from ITT in Green Bay for several events. I believe my leadership and commitment would be valuable assets to the IGDA officer panel.

Candidates for Treasurer

Noah Klosinski

Hello, my name is Noah Klosinski and I am running for Treasurer.  I am Chief Technical Officer at Forever Interactive and have been with the company since June 2008.  I have been a member of the Madison chapter of IGDA since our first meeting and have attended almost every meeting since then.  I have also served as a volunteer filming the meetings for the past couple years.

My goals for the position of treasurer are to find ways to raise money for the chapter.  One idea I had was to host an independent game development competition.  For an entrance fee, local hobbyist and student development groups could get their
projects critiqued by local industry experts and receive valuable feedback and prizes would be awarded to the best projects.  This would raise money for the chapter as well as help aspiring game developers on their goal of breaking into the industry.  Other ideas I had were to host a LAN party or game tournament to raise money.  I would also like to seek out industry sponsors for the chapter.  I liked how we used to give out t-shirts and other goodies at the meetings and would like to see that brought back.  These are my goals for being treasurer.

Ray Ratelis

My name is Ray Ratelis and I am running for treasurer of IDGA
Wisconsin. I have been in computer game development for over 10 years and am Vice President and senior software engineer of Guild Software, Inc, developers of the space combat MMO Vendetta Online. After having been involved with IGDA, being web moderator and helping change the chapter from IGDA Madison to IGDA Wisconsin, I feel that I can help take the chapter to the next level. I will work on getting funding from the national IGDA and from other sources, such as selling merchandise and getting sponsership from other organizations. I can also help in other areas such as continuing web and listserv moderation and looking for additional venues and guests.

Last but not least, our sole candidate for President

Manveer Heir

With the current President stepping down, I believe the Wisconsin Chapter of the IGDA needs leadership from a professional developer to organize and keep the Wisconsin IGDA chapter going strong and having relevancy to professional developers. As a Lead Designer at Raven Software, I have experience in leadership opportunities as well as access to a wealth of contacts for fellow developers to keep our chapter strong. I'm already very active in the industry, having spoken at major conferences such as GDC, DICE, Wisconsin's local Games+Learning+Society conference, and the IGDA's own Leadership Forum. Additionally, I have industry experience, having worked on titles such as 2009's first-person shooter Wolfenstein. I believe I can utilize that experience to continue to build on the IGDA's mission of enhancing the careers and lives of game developers, with a focus on those of us in the Wisconsin area, by catering to the professional developer and their needs from an organization such as the IGDA.

I regularly contribute to the community and believe that the strength in the medium is in the people, and that the more we connect people and share ideas the faster and better we will grow as a medium. I want to keep the Wisconsin IGDA chapter going strong and grow it to regularly involve all of the studios in Wisconsin, from the small two man teams to the larger AAA console developers. I want to help make Wisconsin the premier game development area in the Midwest, and I feel that a strong Wisconsin IGDA chapter is important to that. Developers go where other developers are, and while I cannot promise to bring new development opportunities to the area, I can promise to promote communication and collaboration to those developers that are already in the state.