Shawnee State University’s Shawnee Game Conference (SGC) has announced John Zuur Platten will serve as a keynote speaker at this year’s event. With a twenty-year career in the entertainment business, Zuur Platten has experience in writing for video games, films, television, digital media, and books.

Starting as a tour guide at Universal Studios, he began working in production on shows such as The New Lassie, Matlock, and Harry and the Hendersons. His work as a Visual Effects Producer in the early days of video games led to a relationship with Sega, where he designed, produced, and wrote the highly successful Sega CD, Tomcat Alley. Realizing his love of video games, he would write and produce Johnny Mnemonic for Sony Imagesoft, leading to an overall production agreement with Propaganda Code, where he developed several titles and film properties for Philips Media.

Zuur Platten went on to create Fear Effects for Eidos, which was named the PlayStation action game of the year by IGN. The film Venom, released by Dimension, was based on an original property he co-created with Flint Dille. He has written and designed over sixty projects with every major publisher and studio, including Apache Air Assault, Ghostbusters, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and Dark Athena. His book, “The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing & Design” co-authored by Dille, has remained a top seller on Amazon publishing since its release. His latest projects include writing Jurassic World: Evolution 2 for Universal and Frontier Developments and a new Ghostbusters DLC pack for Planet Coasters.

SGC is the longest-running academic conference in the Midwest. Held on campus for over twenty years, the conference brings together gaming students, industry professionals, and avid gamers alike to explore the newest trends and technology in the gaming world. This year’s conference will be held on campus Nov. 3-4.

To learn more about the Shawnee Game Conference, visit www.shawneegamecon.com.