August 20, 2008
News for SITACon 2008:
SITACon 2008 announces second round of guests
UTICA, NY (20 August 2008) - SITACon 2008 is pleased to announce it's second round of guests for its 2008 show. Industry guests OCRemix, independant game developer James Silva, and Yamila Abraham, founder of Yaoi Press LLC; manga artist Misako Rocks!; voice actor Douglas Smith, the lead in Goldenboy as well as an accomplished artist; and bellydancing troupe Raqs Attaq!.
ABOUT OCREMIX:
Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Its primary focus is www.ocremix.org, a website featuring hundreds of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans. OverClocked ReMix recently partnered with Capcom to provide the remixed soundtrack to Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, marking the first major game title ever scored by the fan community.
ABOUT JAMES SILVA:
A resident of Marcy, New York, James Silva received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from SUNYIT in 2005 and his master's degree in Computer Science from SUNYIT in 2007. Since then James has been catapulted to fame as a celebrated independent game developer. As one of the winners of Microsoft's "Dream-Build-Play" contest in 2007, James was awarded a contract to publish his game "The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai" on Xbox LIVE® Arcade.
In his brief professional career James has picked up recognition as "a one-man game maker" (Barbara Ortutay, Associated Press), "the most buzzed-about indie game developer of the moment" (Jason Killingsworth, Paste Magazine), and "the poster boy of Microsoft's efforts to 'democratize game development'" (Chris Kohler, wired.com). In June 2008 an Associated Press article featuring James headlined CNN.com's technology news and was the 8th most popular technology link of the day on Digg.com. In addition, James and "Dishwasher" were featured on stage during Microsoft's keynote address at the 2008 Game Developers Conference. All of this attention has made James an inspiration among young, aspiring game developers who - like James - have dreamed of making video games most of their life.
James returned to his alma mater in January 2008 as the featured speaker for SUNYIT's first annual Geek Week and he plans to reprise his presentation at the college's second SITACON this October. James maintains a development blog at http://skasoftware.blogspot.com where he shares the latest developments on "Dishwasher," his personal development process, and his thoughts on the gaming industry.
ABOUT YAMILA ABRAHAM:
Yamila Abraham is a prolific writer of yaoi graphic novels. Her work has been published world-wide, in English, Italian, and German. She's best known for her Winter Demon and Dark Prince graphic novel series. In 2004 Abraham founded Yaoi Press LLC, the largest publisher of original English language yaoi graphic novels in North America.
ABOUT MISAKO ROCKS!:
Misako Rocks! grew up in a Police Officers' family in Tokyo, Japan before moving to New York City in 2001 after finishing college.
Her first break came when the Onion decided to use her illustrations for their now famous "Savage Love" column. Shortly thereafter Misako scored a two-book deal with Hyperion, then a three-book deal with Henry Holt and a writing gig for Archie comics.
She has been featured in many magazines and newspapers, including Elle Girl and the New York Times. The BBC also featured her in a documentary about comic book creators. On top of that, she has recently received the Venice Beach, LA Playwright award!
Misako is currently working on Detective Jermain vol2 and David Fickling's comic magazine DFC which is based in the UK. She lives in Brooklyn and spends her free time riding her vintage bike, making hip hop, dancing to Michael Jackson's music and eating lots of Onigiri!!!
ABOUT DOUGLAS SMITH:
Doug Smith is a veteran in the anime industry and has been for over 10 years. He is an accomplished artist/voice actor to boot who has done many voice over roles for ADV and Funimation. His most memorable role is the main lead (Kintaro Oe) in "Goldenboy". To see the list of voice over work Mr. Smith has done, you can check out his IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) Profile at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0808008/ or his website: www.dougsmithart.com
Doug's art accomplishments stretch out into the CD cover designs and illustrations, Magazines, Comics, Posters, DVD's and even TV. Many a times he's offered his art services to anime conventions and the attendees through out the US. Doug is also involved with a non profit organization helping many different charities Called "Voices For" . To find out more about "Voices For Inc." visit their website: www.voicesfor.com Be sure to stop by Doug's table, view his art and say hi.
ABOUT RAQS ATTAQ!:
Raqs Attaq! - Led by Rose, a professional oriental dancer and a director/choreographer, this dance troupe brings their love of anime, Asian culture and bellydancing together. Rose has brought the ever-popular Otaku-Dance fusion back home to the United States from Japan. Raqs Attaq! is a group of dancers, all representing different styles of bellydance, who dance to cutting-edge techno/hip-hop/anime ect.- fusion bellydance music, the most kicking tunes in the world of anime, and incorporate cosplays of choice into their costuming, joined together by their love of anime/manga, Japanese culture and/or gaming. Not only that, but they also perform comedy skits along with our performance at times, they are artists, and do bellydance workshop panels and Japanese-language panels at conventions.
...In conclusion - making bellydance costumes which incorporate elements of cosplay, dancing to cutting-edge music, and kicking 'ketsu' in general.
Rose and her troupe have performed at several other events in both Japan and the USA and we're really delighted to have them at SITACon 2008!
For more information on Raqs Attaq! please go to their website http://www.raqsattaq.com
