Austin Career Catalyst Event

Austin, TX---Tuesday, February 15, 2011---Certain Affinity is pleased to announce their participation in the debut Career Catalyst event in Austin, TX. Scheduled for Saturday, February 19, Career Catalyst is an interactive industry event co-hosted by IGDA Austin, Austin ACM SIGGRAPH and AIGA Austin. Certain Affinity senior staffers Stefan Sinclair and David Prout will be on hand to review portfolios and speak to attendees.

Certain Affinity, an Austin-based game development studio whose recent credits include contributing design work to Call of Duty: Black Ops and Halo: Reach, was invited to be part of Career Catalyst, a new career development conference for digital media, interactive, graphics, video game, film, design and creative industry professionals and students. The afternoon event will contain opportunities for portfolio and resume review by professionals, keynote speakers, career networking and industry enrichment. Career Catalyst is scheduled from 1 pm to 5 pm at J. J. Pickle Research Campus WPR Building, located at 3925 West Braker Lane in Austin, TX. More info is available at:  www.mary-margaret.com/careercatalyst

Stefan Sinclair, director of technology for Certain Affinity, will present Programmers Unite!, an industry overview for both professional and early career programmers. As a technology hiring manger, Stefan will provide insight on the do's and don'ts of game programmer career advancement, including best practices for resume preparation, code samples and interview technique.Sinclair is responsible for the Development Operations and QA/Test departments at Certain Affinity, while leading the engineering team behind the studio's work on the Call of Duty franchise. Prior to joining Certain Affinity, he worked as a software development engineer at Bungie/Microsoft on game titles such as Myth, Oni, Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3.

Dave Prout, lead artist and technical art director at Certain Affinity, will review attendee art portfolios for Portfolio Posse, Austin ACM SIGGRAPH’s special portfolio review and critique session at the Career Catalyst event.  Prout will participate alongside fellow game industry reviewers from Sony Online Entertainment, Bioware and Powerhouse Animation. Prout is a leading technical artist in the games industry, working on titles such as Halo Reach, Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Legendary, and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.  As art team lead at Certain Affinity, Prout is responsible for art management and team direction on AAA console projects.

About IGDA Austin

www.igda.org/austin

The Austin chapter of International Game Developers Association is a nonprofit advocacy group for the video games industry in Austin, Texas. Their goals are focused on strengthening professional game development in the Austin area by fostering a sense of community amongst game developers, keeping and attracting talent and showcasing the fact that Austin has an excellent game development community.

About Austin ACM SIGGRAPH

www.austin.siggraph.org

Austin ACM SIGGRAPH is the local chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH , an international group of researchers, artists, developers, filmmakers, scientists, and other professionals who share an interest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. ACM SIGGRAPH sponsors not only the annual SIGGRAPH conference, but also focused symposia, chapters in cities throughout the world, awards, grants, educational resources, online resources, a public policy program, traveling art show, and the SIGGRAPH Video Review.

AIGA Austin

www.aigaaustin.org

The AIGA Austin Chapter is continued by the hard work of dedicated board members and volunteers within the community. AIGA, the professional association for communication design, is committed to furthering excellence in communication design as a broadly-defined discipline, strategic tool for business and cultural force. AIGA is the place design professionals turn to first to exchange ideas and information, participate in critical analysis and research, and advance education and ethical practice.

About Certain Affinity

www.certainaffinity.com

Certain Affinity was founded in 2006 with the goal of creating innovative, action-oriented multiplayer games. Bringing together an unusually experienced group of top developers together in Austin, Texas, Certain Affinity is an independent game development company which partners with top-tier publishers and developers to make unforgettable games. Certain Affinity has contributed to Halo 2, Left4Dead, Age of Booty, Call of Duty: World at War, Halo Waypoint, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Halo: Reach.

To learn more about Certain Affinity, please contact Tim Fields at  tfields@certainaffinity.com, or Fiona Cherbak at (512) 916-9633 or Fiona@themeparkstudios.com. For more information, visit   www.certainaffinity.com.