Valve VP Doug Lombardi to speak at SMU Friday, June 19, 2015

Valve Software executive and digital gaming insider Doug Lombardi will speak on growing opportunities for independent game designers and what it takes to get a game ready for the marketplace in an SMU Guildhall event to be broadcast live on Twitch.

His talk, "Ship Something: The Steam Greenlight Process," takes place at 2 p.m. Friday, June 19, in the Vester Hughes Auditorium, Caruth Hall, 3145 Dyer St. on the SMU main campus. Admission is free, but RSVPs are required, and seating in the auditorium is limited to 130. Attendees may RSVP online until available seats are filled.

In addition, the event will be live-streamed online by Twitch — both on the service's top page and on the SMU Guildhall channel at twitch.tv/smuguildhall.

Lombardi is vice president of marketing with Valve, the company that created the pioneering Steam software distribution platform (steampowered.com). Steam provides distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer support and social networking capabilities to millions of gamers and developers worldwide.

From building a level at home for an existing game to working with 100 teammates on a AAA commercial title, the opportunities for content creators are expanding tremendously via avenues such as Steam Workshop, Greenlight, and Early Access. During the event, Lombardi will explore the many factors content creators should consider as they prepare their work for consumer purchase.

His appearance is a presentation of SMU Guildhall's Game Changers Speaker Series, which delivers insights from today's top talent in the video game industry as an extension of the Guildhall's mission—to educate and inspire the next generation of video game developers. The series brings noted industry professionals to North Texas several times a year to speak on special topics in gaming, art, design, production and programming.

Lombardi spent his early career in the music industry before becoming a game-industry journalist in 1994. He served as a launch editor on boot magazine (today known as Maximum PC) and CNET’s Gamecenter.com. In 1998, he joined Sierra Online as brand manager for Valve’s Half-Life and Relic’s Homeworld game series. In 1999, he accepted a full-time position at Valve. As Valve’s vice president of marketing, Lombardi helps manage and coordinate third-party relations, marketing and press activities. In addition, he has taught as an adjunct professor at SMU Guildhall.

Learn more about the Guildhall at guildhall.smu.edu.

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About SMU Guildhall

SMU Guildhall is one of the premier graduate digital game development programs in the United States and the first in the world to offer a Master of Interactive Technology degree, offering specializations in art creation, level design, production and programming. Since 2003, it has graduated more than 650 students who have worked at more than 250 studios around the world.