Dr. Christos Gatzoulis 

ICT Programme Manager , Bahrain Polytechnic

Greece

Dr Christos Gatzoulis is a programme manager for the Bachelor of ICT at Bahrain Polytechnic. His research focuses on artificial intelligence and technical animation for games. Other interests include the general areas of game development and games in education.

Christos also worked as a visiting lecturer at both the Cyprus University of Technology and the University of Cyprus, where he taught courses in game programming, computer graphics and human-computer interaction. He received his PhD in artificial intelligence for computer animation and robotics from the University of Teesside.

FARID BEN SALEM

Jack of All Trades

France

This father from Paris is a jack of all trades. He is: fencing-master, project manager, editor for Casus Beli and Ravage magazines, inventor, game designer (SpellShot a successful hybrid game published by Hasbro in North America), he also worked on rewriting Detective Council for Ystari. Actually, Farid teaches game design, games and gamification at Sciences Po, E-artsup, Paris 8 and Paris 3 universities. And if that were not enough, Farid is also a presenter on WebTV GameStars! All this to serve his purpose: to promote the game at the world’s largest and virtues of the game.

Tariq Mukhttar

Video Games Unit Manager, Manga Productions

Saudi Arabia

Tariq Mukhttar is the manager of the video games unit at Manga Productions, a Saudi based studio for animation and video games. Founder and leader of the Saudi game development community Gamedev Corners that’s active in the Eastern Province and Riyadh. Founder of Happiest Dark Corner Studio and developer of award winning game A Cat’s Manor. Occasional organizer and judge of Arabian Zanga gamejam. Winner of several local gamejams.

Tariq is an advocate, a public speaker for game development in the Arab region, and an activist in helping establish a game development sector in Saudi Arabia.

Moneim Ali

Assistant Tutor, Bahrain Polytechnic

Kingdom Of Bahrain

Moniem Ali is a Game Development Instructor at Bahrain Polytechnic and has over 5 year of experience guiding aspiring game developers.

SALIM ZEIN

Founder, ECDC

France

Salim Zein is the French video game creator of the “Arcademie”, a new game learning methodology and collaborative system, awarded several times for its innovation . He collaborated with Tetsuya Mizuguchi at designing “Escape”, and in 2012, he founded ECDC, a company dedicated to making games for learners.

ARTHUR ROGERY

Project Manager / Lead developer, ECDC

France

Arthur Rogery is an highly-skilled game developer, who had previously worked for Ubisoft and PastaGames. Very fond of learning technologies and innovative game design techniques, he has managed numerous major game jams with ECDC, which he joined in 2015.

DR. SAMA’A ALHASHIMI

Assistant Professor in Graphic Design and Digital Media
Department of Communication, Tourism, and Fine Arts
University of Bahrain

Bahrain

Dr. Sama Al Hashimi has a high experience in multimedia as a presenter and graphic designer and has many participations in various events from the technical, practical and multimedia side.