TREASURER

Philip Conrod was one of the first pioneers in the Christian Game Industry.  He developed his first game on a Commodore PET in 1977.   After graduating from WarrenTech in 1982, Philip co-founded BibleByte Books & Games with his parents. You can watch his CGDC 2016 keynote presentation on the “First 20 Years of Christian Game Development” on our CGDC YouTube channel here.  

Since then, Philip has published dozens of apps and games over the past 40+ years.  He has also  authored, co-authored and edited over two dozen technology related textbooks for the academic market which can be found in online bookstores like Amazon, Walmart and ChristianBook.com. Philip’s applications,  games and textbook tutorials have been downloaded and used by over 1 million people.

Philip has also served in various Information Technology leadership roles for Fortune 500 companies like Sundstrand Aerospace, Safeco Insurance, FamilyLife – CRU, Kenworth Truck Company, Paccar, and SVP/CIO for Darigold.  Philip currently serves as the CEO of Kidware Software and BibleByte Books & Games.  Philip has also taught App & Game Design and  Development to K-12 & University Level students.  

Seth Crofton is a Christian game producer who focuses on the world of gaming and mass media and is the founder of Epos Entertainment, a media company that produces quality children’s entertainment properties that conform to God’s Word. He has released two CCGs (Collectible Card Games): Principality and Prophecy. He has also released an expansion set for his flagship Principality: The Choir of Angels Expansion Set”.

CO-FOUNDER

The CGDC was founded with God’s direction in 2002 by Tim Emmerich. Tim works as an electrical/computer engineer for his day job. And started his own company, Graceworks Interactive, in 1998, dedicated to glorifying our Lord through Software and the Internet. GraceWorks Interactive develops, publishes, and distributes Christian Games.  Inspired Idea’s products were first distributed in 2003.  GraceWorks’ first game, The Interactive Parables, shipped in 2004.  Since then, the Interactive Bible series now has 10 titles with one more in development.  In addition to self-publishing, GraceWorks also publishes for Inspired Idea, Virtue Games, and White Knight Games. 

Tim puts everyone at ease (be forewarned, he likes to give hugs) and ensures that the organization stays true to its core values and mission. Since Tim is an engineer and not an event planner, this is further proof that CGDC’s endurance and growth is a “God thing.”

PRESIDENT

Brock believes the world is a better place when we play together. As co-founder and CTO of PxlPug, he is excited to share that message with the world. PxlPug’s purpose is to create a healthy community where individuals are valued for who they are and are encouraged to grow into who they were created to be. The studio does this by crafting games that bring people together.

Brock is a designer, developer, and entrepreneur. He has a passion for creating video games and a proven track record with over 25 shipped titles and 3+ million downloads. Before entering the games industry, he co-founded the design firm Paper Tower where he served as its creative director for over a decade. In that time, he designed interactive experiences for clients like Coca-Cola, Motorola, and Harvard.

Brock currently resides in a small town in Iowa with his beautiful wife Vanessa and their six children—where he loves to read and blog.

Thomas Henshell took the scenic route to game dev through enterprise software. In the early 2000s he helped build Canada’s largest ecommerce site and in 2005 founded a tech consulting firm building award winning mobile solutions for fortune 500 companies. In 2012 Thomas retired from biz software to pursue games. But God had other plans and threw some other ventures his way including a tabletop gaming store, a grocery store, and a discount fashion store. Thomas is now exploring new territory in AI, emergent story, and procedural generation with Archmage Rises: an RPG/simulator where the world and characters age with the passage of time. One thing that has driven him throughout his career: understanding the underlying principles (the “why”) behind success and failure in different fields: business, entertainment, and art.

Michael Alan Herrera was born in Anaheim, California next to Disneyland, which he always maintains was a divine signal that he belonged in the entertainment industry. His interest in video games began during his childhood, just as video games were emerging as a popular new form of entertainment; his first video game was the original King’s Quest by Sierra Online.

Prior to entering the game industry, Michael obtained a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies at the University of Maine Fort Kent and spent five years in management and supervision while working for the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, a non-profit conservation organization located off the coast of Southern California. This experience helped him obtain the management and people skills necessary for video game production.

In 2011, Michael obtained a second Bachelor degree (Bachelor of Art) in Game Design at Collins College and, in 2012, moved to the Seattle area to pursue working in the game industry. A few years later, he discovered the Christian Game Developers Conference and became involved in building and managing the community online along with assisting in the organization of the conference in Portland, Oregon. In 2015, Michael has presented the annual “Year in Review” which is an account of new, announced, and continuing projects in the Christian Game space. Thereafter, he served on the Board at various times and assisted with Conference organizing.

Kris has a passion for the place where God and games intersect. Coming with years of experience of teaching kids about Jesus at Bible Study Fellowship, he takes his passion into Christian Gaming and Game Development community. Having firmly believing that God’s current role for him is to level up the quality of Christian games, he brought over the tradition of the speedgame or game jam to CGDC and started the new tradition of the Community Game. He currently serves as the creative director of the Community Game and oversees the worldwide network of volunteers to design, develop, test, and launch a free Christian game every year. At the time of this writing, the team has released: Gates of Mansoul (2015), Dreams and Nightmares (2021), and Space Beastz (2022).

 He also has a solo development project he’s working on with BibleByte Games entitled “Exodus Vigil”, a realistic 3D story-driven puzzle game. There he focuses on game design, programming, level design as well as writing. The game is based on Kris’ published historical fiction novel “Exodus: God of the Slave” which follows the familiar story of the Exodus from the Egyptian perspective.

Living in Northern California with his wife and son, Kris enjoys many pastimes. For games, he typically plays Role-playing and Real-time strategy games. In the outdoors he likes to go hiking and camping as well as archery and skiing. He is also a proficient violinist and violist. Professionally, Kris works in the tech industry having experience in Software Development, Embedded Firmware development, Windows Driver Development, Product Engineering, and Product Security.

From Riot to Mojang Studios, Daniel spent the last 15+ years serving game teams as a program manager, producer, and F2P designer. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of SwordSharp.com, developer of the anime-inspired Christian mobile game, Crown Blades RPG.

Daniel is a family man of faith that strives to love the Lord, love people, and help others do the same. Tertiary to God and family, gaming is central to him. When not making or playing video games, he helps live service studios embark on their free-to-play journeys.

Mark Webster has designed video games for over two decades. In that time, he has contributed to several of gaming’s greatest franchises, including fan favorite Guitar Hero, Activision’s multi-billion-dollar Skylanders, and PlayStation’s God of War, 2018’s Game of the Year.

Mark finds great joy in crafting worlds for players to explore and experience. As a father of young creatives, Mark desires to find practical solutions to the game industry’s many challenges.

When not creating new worlds, Mark loves chasing his boys around this one with his wife, Amy, in Redding, California.