The Columbus Interactive Media Festival returns to CSU for another great year of game and sim dev sessions, featuring keynote speaker Michelle Menard, Chief Creative Officer of Dragon Snacks Games. Other fesitvities include a Fantasy/Renaissance costume review with Tygarlily, game tournaments, and free lunch included with your registration.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

9 am Technology's Effect on the Human Experience

10 am Quality Assurance in Games

11 am Keynote: A Recipe for Success: Being Resourceful and Not Prescriptive

Noon Lunch and gaming tournaments run by Holo Haven

1 pm A Solopreneur’s Journey in Successful Game Development

2 pm Starting a Game Studio

3 pm Making Game Audio Great

4 pm Secrets of Game Design

When: 9 am - 5 pm Saturday, March 7, 2026

Where: Columbus State University Center of Commerce and Technology, 4225 University Ave, Columbus, GA

How Much: $5 for GGDA members and CSU students; $10 all others, FREE in costume!

Members can register HERE

Nonmembers can register HERE

Michelle Menard keynote: A Recipe for Success: Being Resourceful and Not Prescriptive

Description: Regardless of what anyone might have said previously, there has never been an easy, full-proof, follow-this-for-guaranteed-results recipe for success in the games industry (if there were we’d all be retired millionaires. Hint: We’re Not.).

However, while there used to be some general guiding principles and touchstones you could base your production schedules and financial projections on, in this post-pandemic landscape fueled by viral video shorts, AI-slop wars, and tech-bro whims, everything we used to take for granted is being being thrown out and reimagined.

Let’s boomer shake some fists at clouds, take a meandering trip down history lane, and look to what success means and can mean in the future of gaming, while also learning some wisdom from pre-19th century cookbooks.

https://www.ggda.org/events/succeeding-with-neurodivergence-in-game-development