2025 schedule

Ready to learn from some of the sharpest minds in game development?

MIGS25 returns with more stages, more speakers, and more opportunities to grow your business and career.

This year features four content stages – spanning business, marketing, audio, external development strategies, and game development tracks – to deliver the insights, strategies, and stories shaping what’s next.

From AAA giants to trailblazing indies, these industry experts have built worlds, launched hits, and led global teams.

Stage A Stage B Stage C Port Centre Cafeteria

9:15 am

9:30 am

10:30 am

11:30 am

12:00 pm

12:30 pm

1:00 pm

2:00 pm

3:00 pm

3:30 pm

4:00 pm

4:30 pm

5:00 pm

Opening & Welcoming Remarks

9:15 am - 9:30 am (15 min)
Stage A

The Combat of ‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’

9:30 am - 10:30 am (60 min)
Stage A
Michel Nohra
Lead Game Designer, Sandfall Interactive

External Development as the Backbone of AAA Production

10:30 am - 11:30 am (60 min)
Stage A
Kat Carson
Senior Business Development Manager, Wizards of the Coast
Rob Clarke
Director, Partner Sourcing, Sony Interactive Entertainment | PlayStation Studios
Jason Smith
CEO, Game Caviar
Wilson Mui
Head of Animation & Cinematics, Warner Bros. Games Montreal

How to Design and Build Killer Game UI

10:30 am - 11:30 am (60 min)
Stage B
Tod Bouris
Developer Relations Engineer, Rive
Dave Doherty
Strategic Account Executive, Rive

From Vision to Evolution: Growing Without Losing Yourself

10:30 am - 11:30 am (60 min)
Stage C
William Dubé
CEO, Thunder Lotus Games
Marwan Bitar
Founder & President, Innoprofits Solution (Marwan Bitar inc.)
Thierry Boulanger
CEO / Creative Director, Sabotage Studio

Objects that Speak: Shaping Narrative through Audio and Object Interaction

10:30 am - 11:30 am (60 min)
Port Centre
Beatrix Moersch
Audio Lead, Don't Nod Montreal
Julien Goyon
Sound Designer, Don't Nod Montreal

The 10 Moves Every Studio Needs to Make Before It’s Too Late

11:30 am - 12:30 pm (60 min)
Stage A
Adam Boyes
Founder & CEO, Vivrato

Prioritization Framework for Game Design Features

11:30 am - 12:30 pm (60 min)
Stage B
Osama Dorias
Creative Director, Heartloop Games

Visions of the Future for the Canadian Video Game Business

11:30 am - 12:30 pm (60 min)
Stage C
Joshua Nilson
Founder, Maskwa Games
Christopher Chancey
Cofounder & GM, Indie Asylum
John Nguyen
Regional Vice-President - Canada, Xsolla
Lysane Perreault
Studio Head, Norsfell Games

Ubisoft and SOCAN Foundation Screen Music Lab: Empowering Creative Collaboration in Games

11:30 am - 12:00 pm (30 min)
Port Centre
Simon Landry
Music Supervisor, Ubisoft
Julien Boumard Coallier
Gestionnaire des programmes de subvention, Fondation SOCAN

Rolling Back The Curtain – Designing for Rollback Netcode

12:30 pm - 1:00 pm (30 min)
Stage A
Yona Montineri
Programmer, Thunder Lotus

Building Scalable Creator Programs

12:30 pm - 1:00 pm (30 min)
Stage B
Justin Sacks
CEO, Nexus

Cheating on My CPU with Distributed Unreal Builds: A UBA Love Story

12:30 pm - 1:00 pm (30 min)
Stage C
Mike Seese
Head of Unreal Tooling, Hathora

Balatro’: Turning Low Resolution into High Praise

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (60 min)
Stage A
Wout van Halderen
Communications Director, Playstack

Views from Anywhere: International Approaches to Overcoming Global Indie Challenges

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (60 min)
Stage B
Luca Cannellotto
Head of National Funding, Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council
Ignacio Baldini Pescarmona
CEO, Byzantium
Kristian Roberts
CEO, Nordicity
Tony Shong
Global Head of Developer Relations, Gamirror Games / indieLight

From the Story of Four to the Fate of Forty Thousand

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (60 min)
Stage C
Maciej Sułecki
Game Director, 11 bit studios

Wwise Tour 2025

1:00 pm - 5:00 pm (240 min)
Port Centre
Thiago Schiefer
Audio Designer, Yellow Brick Games
Todd Baker
Music & Audio Artist / Director, Freelance
Joakim Enigk Sjöberg
Senior Technical Sound Designer, Hazelight
Philip Eriksson
Audio Director, Hazelight

The MIGS Indie Pitch Competition

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm (60 min)
Stage A
Jason Della Rocca
Founder, Execution Labs

Ask Games Lawyers Anything Roundtable

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm (60 min)
Cafeteria
Tyson Gratton
Lawyer, DLA Piper (Canada) LLP
Madeleine Brown
Litigation, Entertainment & Media Lawyer, Stohn Hay Cafazzo Heim Finlay LLP

Players As Creators. UGC in the Age of AI

3:30 pm - 4:00 pm (30 min)
Stage B
Andy Mauro
CEO, Storycraft

Establishing Publishing Functions Within a Game Studio

3:30 pm - 4:00 pm (30 min)
Stage C
Elizabeth Howard
GM, FarBridge

Epic Games Store PC + Mobile: Current and Future States

4:00 pm - 4:30 pm (30 min)
Stage A
Sarah Thomson
BD Director, Epic Games Store PC + mobile, Epic Games Store

Beyond Surface Metrics: Uncovering the Human Behind Player Behavior

4:00 pm - 4:30 pm (30 min)
Stage B
Andrew Pappas
Founder, Rengen Marketing

The Hybrid Future: Artists + AI in Game Development

4:00 pm - 4:30 pm (30 min)
Stage C
Justin Webber
Head of Game Development, Shutterstock Studios
Michael Casalino
Executive Creative Director, Shutterstock Studios

over the hill: From Announcement to 200k Wishlists in a Month

4:30 pm - 5:00 pm (30 min)
Stage A
Dune Casu
Founder & Creative Director, Funselektor

Inside the Indie Playbook: Our Lessons From Self-Publishing (Big Wins, Some Fails, and Everything In Between)

4:30 pm - 5:00 pm (30 min)
Stage B
Reid Schneider
Studio Head, Raccoon Logic

Audiokinetic Happy Hour

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm (120 min)
Port Centre
Stage A Stage B Stage C Port Centre VIP Lounge

9:30 am

10:30 am

11:30 am

12:00 pm

12:30 pm

1:00 pm

2:00 pm

3:00 pm

3:15 pm

3:45 pm

4:00 pm

4:30 pm

5:00 pm

Friendly Fire: Surviving Success as a Studio

9:30 am - 10:30 am (60 min)
Stage A
Linda Tiger
Chief Operating Officer, Arrowhead Game Studios

Crafting the Music and Audio of The Outer Worlds 2

9:30 am - 10:30 am (60 min)
Port Centre
Christian Hurst
Co-Founder, Managing Director, Interleave
Oleksa Lozowchuk
Co-Founder/Creative Director, Interleave
Logan Wall
Senior Sound Designer, Interleave Creative
Andy Frech
Senior Sound Designer, Interleave Creative
James Duncan
Senior Sound Designer, Interleave Creative

Everything Sucks and I Have No Time: Self-Publishing and Marketing

10:30 am - 11:30 am (60 min)
Stage A
Victoria Tran
Communications Director, Innersloth

Advancing AI Game Development with AMD and GPUOpen

10:30 am - 11:30 am (60 min)
Stage B
Tian Yue Liu
Sr. Software Development Engineer, AMD
Alexander Cann
Staff Software Engineer, AMD
Max Kiehn
Senior Fellow Software Development, AMD
Alex Blake-Davies
Sr. Developer Product Marketing Specialist, AMD

Building and Operating Teams with a Live Service Mentality

10:30 am - 11:30 am (60 min)
Stage C
Matt Lee
Executive Producer / Game Manager, Gameloft Montréal

Creative Collaboration in Game Audio Development

10:30 am - 11:30 am (60 min)
Port Centre
Oleksa Lozowchuk
Co-Founder/Creative Director, Interleave
Rob Bridgett
Senior Manager, Sound, Sony Interactive Entertainment / Creative Arts
Audrey Dubois
Producer, Cloud Chamber
Bénédicte Ouimet
Music Supervisor, Ubisoft
Louis-Philippe Dion
Audio Director, Haven Studio

Rethinking External Asset Creation in the Assassin’s Creed Franchise

11:30 am - 12:30 pm (60 min)
Stage A
Erika Benacka
Senior Outsourcing Production Manager, Ubisoft

Building an OP Cashflow Strategy for your Studio to Thrive

11:30 am - 12:30 pm (60 min)
Stage C
Muddassir Mahmood
Co-founder, Insert Coin
Matthew Walach
Co-founder, Insert Coin

The Role of Sound in Video Games

11:30 am - 12:00 pm (30 min)
Port Centre
Jorge Peirano
Global Creative Audio Director, Gameloft Montréal

Canada’s Video Game Industry – From Strength to Staying Power

12:30 pm - 1:00 pm (30 min)
Stage A
Paul Fogolin
President & CEO, ESAC

D2C in Action: Publisher, Player, and Content Creator Perspectives

12:30 pm - 1:00 pm (30 min)
Stage B
Chip Thurston
Head of Gaming, FastSpring
Justin Sacks
CEO, Nexus

Publisher Panel: Tips and Tricks for Market Success

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (60 min)
Stage A
Jason Della Rocca
Founder, Execution Labs
Ryan Holowaty
CEO, Noodlecake
Matthew White
CEO, Whitethorn Games
Matthew Handrahan
Portfolio Director, kepler interactive

Worldbuilding for a Generated City

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (60 min)
Stage B
Tanya X. Short
Captain, Kitfox Games

A Chat with Behaviour Interactive and AWS: Mastering Global Game Launches

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (60 min)
Stage C
Rémi Veilleux
Senior Programming Technical Director, Behaviour Interactive
Stephen Oliver
Principal Specialist Games, AWS

Building for Xbox Play Anywhere and the New Era of Handhelds

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (60 min)
Port Centre
Nick Landry
Developer Relations PM Lead, Microsoft Xbox

Breaking the Code – Unconventional Advice for Women Leaders in Tech and Video Games

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm (60 min)
Stage A
Stephanie Marchand
Sr VP Production, Behaviour Interactive
Steph Lone
Global Leader, Solutions Architecture, Media Entertainment Games and Sports IBU, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

The Composition and Operations of a (small) Modern Publisher

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm (60 min)
Stage B
Hans Haave
Head of Publishing, Oro Interactive

South of Midnight: My Tales and Takeaways

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm (60 min)
Stage C
Michael Jungbluth
Animation Director, Compulsion Games

Finding Success with ID@Xbox: Getting Started and Partnership Programs

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm (60 min)
Port Centre
Chloé Giusti
ID@Xbox Regional Lead - Americas/ANZ, Microsoft - Xbox

Indie Game Showcase Winner Announced

3:00 pm - 3:15 pm (15 min)
Stage A
Marwan Bitar
Founder & President, Innoprofits Solution (Marwan Bitar inc.)

The Pulse of Canadian Gaming: A Look Ahead with the Canadian Game Awards

3:15 pm - 3:45 pm (30 min)
Stage A
Carl-Edwin Michel
Founder, Canadian Game Awards

How Walmart Is Leaning into Gaming

3:15 pm - 3:45 pm (30 min)
Stage B
John Gaudiosi
President, Moonrock

Maximizing Results on Xbox Platforms

3:15 pm - 4:00 pm (45 min)
Port Centre
Chloé Giusti
ID@Xbox Regional Lead - Americas/ANZ, Microsoft - Xbox

The Influencer Landscape: Common Mistakes and Pitfalls To Avoid in Today’s Market

3:45 pm - 4:30 pm (45 min)
Stage A
Clara Sia
Business & Marketing Consultant, Folks At Play

The Price of Success: Why Making Your 2nd Game is Even Harder

3:45 pm - 4:30 pm (45 min)
Stage B
Abhi Swaminath
Creative Director, Visai Games
Shahrin Khan
Lead Producer, Visai Games

Funding Pathways: How to Combine Public and Private Support to Scale Your Studio

3:45 pm - 4:30 pm (45 min)
Stage C
Ryan Sno-Wood
Director of Marketing & Communications, XP Gaming Inc.
fr_CAFR