Speaker: Dan Cermak

Date: October 22nd, 5-6pm, EAE Game Studio(Bldg 72, 2nd Floor)

Talk title: Good, Bad, and Ugly Game Dev Stories: D&D to Saint's Row

Description: Dan Cermak entered the Video game industry in 1984 after teaching himself to program assembly language and creating a game that was published by Strategic Simulations Inc.(SSI) in 1985. Dan joined SSI in 1989 as the Manager of Quality Assurance and External Development.
Over the years Dan has been in most management positions in the industry including Tech Director, Producer, and Exec. Producer. He joined Volition in 2003 as VP of Product Development and became GM in 2011, when the founder retired.
Dan led Volition through the bankruptcy of THQ, their parent company, and restarted the studio as DS (Deep Silver) Volition in 2012 under the ownership of Koch Media out of Munich. Deep Silver Volition is most well known as the makers of the Saint’s Row Franchise which has sold well over 20 million units with revenues over $1 billion dollars.
Dan left DS Volition in 2017 and now teaches video game design and development at University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana.