Joystick Labs Announce First Round of Mentors for Fall 2010 Accelerator Program
Joystick Labs, the first seed-stage venture fund and accelerator program focused exclusively on the development of digitally distributed video games, today announced the names of the initial group of mentors that will advise teams selected to participate in its Fall 2010 accelerator program, including video game industry luminaries from Epic Games, Insomniac Games, Playdom, NVIDIA Corp., Republic of Fun and The Escapist, and venture capital investors from Intersouth Partners, Intel Capital and IDEA Fund Partners. Applications for the Fall 2010 accelerator program, which will start September 7, 2010 in Durham, N.C., are being accepted now through August 13, 2010 at http://www.joysticklabs.com/apply.
The initial group of Joystick Labs mentors includes: Dr. Michael Capps, President, Epic Games; Chad Dezern, Studio Director, North Carolina Studio at Insomniac Games; Kirk Owen, Executive Producer, Playdom; Jim Black, Director of Technology Evangelism, NVIDIA Corp.; Michael Rasmussen, President, Republic of Fun; Rett Crocker, Founder, Republic of Fun; Alexander Macris, Publisher and Games Media expert, The Escapist; John Austin, Vice President, Emergent Game Technologies; John Glushik, General Partner, Intersouth Partners; Mark Rostick, Director, Intel Capital; Lister Delgado, Partner, IDEA Fund Partners; Dr. Michael Young, Associate Professor of Computer Science, N.C. State University; Timothy Buie, Assistant Professor, N.C. State University College of Design; and Walter Rotenberry, Instructor, Wake Technical Community College.
The creation of Joystick Labs is one of the latest signs that the video game production and distribution model is changing. With the mass adoption of browser-based and mobile gaming platforms, the market is increasingly shifting its focus away from traditional retail distribution channels to digitally distributed video games that can be downloaded over the Internet, such as games produced for Facebook, iPad, iPhone, Android and other digitally distributed social, mobile, and casual game platforms.
Joystick Labs was co-founded by Juan Benito, venture attorneys Glen Caplan and Justyn Kasierski of Hutchison Law Group, and veteran technology executive Lawrence Steffann, and is backed by a number of the Southeast’s leading angel investors, including NC IDEA, Chris Evans, Brian Handly, Reid Conrad and Eric Huang.
