Jeannie Lee Novak, MA

Jeannie Lee Novak, MA is the founder of Indiespace — one of the first companies to promote and distribute interactive entertainment online, where she consults with creative professionals in the music, film, and television industries to help them migrate to the game industry. In addition to being series editor and lead author of the Game Development Essentials series, Jeannie is the coauthor of many pioneering books on the interactive entertainment industry — including Creating Internet Entertainment.
 
Jeannie was chosen as one of the 100 most influential people in high-technology by MicroTimes magazine — and she has been profiled by CNN, Billboard Magazine, Sundance Channel, Daily Variety, and the Los Angeles Times.
 
She authored Game Development Essentials: An Introduction and coauthored Game Development Essentials: Game Project Management, Game Development Essentials: Game Interface Design, Game Development Essentials: Gameplay Mechanics, Game Development Essentials: Game Story & Character Development, Game Development Essentials: Game Level Design, Game Development Essentials: Game Artificial Intelligence, Game Development Essentials: Online Game Development, Game Development Essentials: Game Simulation Development, Game Development Essentials: Game Audio Development, Web Developer.com™ Guide to Producing Live Webcasts, Internet World Guide to Maintaining and Updating Dynamic Web Sites, and Play the Game: The Parent’s Guide to Video Games.
 
Jeannie is Online Academic Department Director of the Game Art & Design and Media Arts & Animation departments at the Art Institute Online. She has consulted for UC Berkeley’s Center for New Media and UCLA Extension’s Entertainment Studies department. She has also taught game development courses and has been a curriculum advisor at UCLA Extension, Art Center College of Design, Academy of Entertainment and Technology at Santa Monica College, DeVry University, ITT Technical Institute, and Westwood College.
 
She has developed or participated in game workshops and panels at Macworld, Digital Hollywood, and iHollywood Forum. She is a member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and has served on selection committees for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) and the ALT+CTRL Festival of Independent & Alternative Games.
 
Jeannie earned an M.A. in Communication Management from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2003, where she focused on games in online distance learning. She earned a B.A. in Mass Communication from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1992 — graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. When she isn’t writing and teaching, Jeannie spends most of her time recording, performing, and composing music.
 
Listen to her CD Reign of Fire. Listen to her Parachute, Magic Carpet Ride, Mizar, Virtue, and Awake, and her works in progress Belle, Lightning (Some Way), and Preview. Read her GameZone interview Jeannie Novak talks about the state of the perceptions of gaming. Read her LinkedIn profile.