Two time BAFTA award winner Austin Wintory is best-known for his work on Journey, which earned him his first Grammy nomination (the first of its kind) and picked up another nomination for the 2023 Grammys for Aliens: Fireteam Elite! His resume also includes work on Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Command and Conquer: Rivals!
Austin has been a feature of Super MAGFests past and we're excited to bring him back for Super MAGFest Melee – you'll be able to catch him and Mason Lieberman at their Q&A!
Wes Johnson sleeps rather soundly for a murderer. Or wait, maybe that's one of his characters. The lines tend to blur.
Wes goes by many other names: Sheogorath. Lucien Lachance. The Silver Shroud. Fawkes. Moe Cronin. Hermaeus Mora. Imperial Guards. Hey You! Just to name a few. Here are a few details...
Wes was the guy who questioned you fresh off the boat in Bethesda Game Studio's "MORROWIND." He was both the Criminal Scum and the Guards who arrested them in "OBLIVION" as well as a Daedric Price of Madness named Sheogorath. Wes returned to Tamriel and the Elder Scrolls series in "SKYRIM", reprising Sheo, Lucien, and Hermaeus Mora. He reprised his Arena Announcer and Sheogorath from OBLIVION in ELDER SCROLLS: LEGENDS and ELDER SCROLLS: BLADES. He recently portrayed The Despot of Markarth, Ard Caddach in ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE: MARKARTH.
Wes was every Protectron Robot in Fallout 76, FO4 and FO3, fought for JUSTICE as The Silver Shroud and sold "Swattahs" in the wastelands of "FALLOUT 4." Wes stole your kills as Fawkes, swayed you to to do evil as Mr Burke, and bitched a lot as Scribe Bigsley in in "FALLOUT 3." He fought famous Starship Captains as Klingons in "STAR TREK: LEGACY and CONQUEST, can be found as Maghar Orcs in "World of Warcraft."
There are other things he cannot talk about... YET.
Wes voices NHRA Racing and has been proudly UNLEASHING THE FURY and calling goals for the NHL's WASHINGTON CAPITALS since forever (and has a great big Championship ring to show for it).
Wes has been SEEN as well as heard in feature films such as Adam McKay’s "Don't Look Up," John Waters' "A Dirty Shame," Chris Rock's "Head of State," "The Invasion," "For Richer or Poorer," and has made appearances on HBO's "VEEP," "The Wire," and NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Street." Wes was in a pilot with the late, great Ed Asner and has voiced SpongeBob Squarepants promos on Nickelodeon.
A comedian and impressionist, Wes worked morning radio at WHFS-FM, was the comedy co-host on a national radio show with the late Wolfman Jack, and has performed songs on "The Doctor Demento Show." In the end, Wes is happiest about his role as husband to Kim and father to Ben, Sam and Max. He is owned by a spoiled Chi-weenie.
Joining forces with FIBRE is the mastermind behind the R&B infused record Discoholics Anonymous – Discoholic!
He slings grooves like a bartender serves your favorite discoholic beverages, and the bar is stocked full with your favorite flavors of future funk, R&B, and of course, their 21st century disco style, garnished with fun-loving physical comedy and the most buttery transitions. Like FIBRE, he’s turned up and chilled out the crowds of Super MAGFest before and we’re excited to welcome him back!
This year, these two will be holding a Jam Clinic panel on Friday night from 9pm to 10pm, drawing on their historical and technological wisdom to host “Future Funk: How It’s Made”, where they’ll teach you all about the history and production of future funk as they create an entire track from scratch without samples!
We have the founder of Montaime, and a producer and songwriter whose future funk sound is a mix of infectious grooves and technologic chill, welcome to the Melee, FIBRE! This Baltimore-based baron of the beat lab has brought their knowledge and grooves to Super MAGFests past and this year they’ll be working with one of their collaborators and artists releasing music on Montaime, Discoholic!
This year, these two will be holding a Jam Clinic panel on Friday night from 9pm to 10pm, drawing on their historical and technological wisdom to host “Future Funk: How It’s Made”, where they’ll teach you all about the history and production of future funk as they create an entire track from scratch without samples!
I am an award winning cosplayer, and have been cosplaying since 2014. I enjoy utilizing my experience to help others learn and make their own cosplays. I do a little bit of everything when it comes to cosplay; I make armor, props, style wigs, and sew!
Mason Lieberman is an award-winning composer, audio director, and producer known for his contributions to the gaming and anime zeitgeist. He prides himself on being a problem-solver whose biggest passion is always to connect people through music.
Having started his professional journey as a freelance composer, he got his start composing on anime series like Rooster Teeth's RWBY and Beyblade Burst Evolution, amongst many others. His music has enhanced the heroics of franchises like Spider-Man, Mobile Suit Gundam, Ultraman, and Neon Genesis Evangelion, while lending epic gravitas to titles like PUBG Mobile, Apex Legends Mobile, Teamfight Tactics, EVO, Eden, Game for Peace, Devil Engine, Soundfall, Renaine, and many others. In 2019, he partnered with Asia Pacific government officials as an international ambassador to Australia representing the video-game music industry. As a cellist, guitarist, and vocalist, Mason has had the great pleasure of working with a wide variety of film and gaming franchises, with personal favorites including Pokémon, Stars Wars: Visions, The Rising of the Shield Hero, Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. franchise, Riot Games' League of Legends, AMC's The Walking Dead, Made in Abyss, Arknights, Tower of God, Warhammer: Vermintide, Sega’s Sin Chronicle, Hell's Kitchen, and God Eater.
As a public speaker, Mason Lieberman has addressed passionate audiences on subjects related to film scoring, anime music production, video game scoring, and music theory. He has lectured academically at acclaimed academic programs like Harvard University, UCLA Musicians Institute and Berklee College of Music, industry-leading conferences like NAMM, SXSW, and GameSoundCon, and many others.
He is a member of faculty at the University of Southern California, where he lectures on video game audio for the School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media and Games department.
He was thrilled to present the official Cowboy Bebop charity single, ‘The Real Folk Blues’, in collaboration with Funimation, Sunrise, featuring special guest artists like Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts, Steve Blum, and many, many more. This original arrangement hit #6 on Billboard global Digital song sales chart, as well as #1 on rock charts in Japan. In 2021, he shared the ‘Best Score’ award at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards with the rest of the team of ‘Tower of God’. He also received the 2020 GANG award for “Best Casual or Social Game Audio” for his contributions to Tencent’s wildly-popular ‘Game for Peace’ soundtrack. He was honored to be a part of the Forbes 30 under 30, Gaming category for the 2022 list.
He is currently in-house as a senior composer and game audio supervisor for Tencent, the largest video-game company in the world. In this position, he has the indescribable honor of working with many of the best audio professionals in the industry on a daily basis.
Mason endorses the NS Design CR6 Electric Cello and Auralex Acoustics.
George Ledoux’s twenty-five plus years as a voice actor, director and producer have established him as one of the most versatile talents in the video game, narration, and voice-over fields.
Besides being an voice actor and director for the upcoming games, "GhostRunner 2" and "Deadhaus Sonata", he has also appeared in many other video games such as the Playstation VR title, "After The Fall", and "Evil West" . This past year, he has also provided English Dubs for "Kingdom: Season 3" and "AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline" anime.
He is probably best known to fans of his work in the “Mechwarrior" games, “Neverwinter Nights”, “Freedom Force”, and “Majesty”, to name but a few.
He is also well known to MAGFest attendees as the voice of the evil “Count Buff Von Studhorse” in MAGFest Versus!
It's happening all over again! Celebrating its sixth year as a perennial MAGFest favorite, join your host Jesse Cox in the most chaotic live video game game show. Participate for video game supremacy and win prizes, or smash it all in a blaze of glory!
Jesse Cox is returning as the host of MAGFest Versus! He's been talking games on the internet since the days of Cataclysm, and has become a legend in his own right, with fans memeing his jokes into existence (lookin' at you, space butterfly!) and eagerly lining up to listen and watch his podcasts and Twitch streams, and so we're stoked that he'll be returning to host the chaos that is MAGFest Versus!
8-Bit, the creator of the 8-Bit Music Theory YouTube Channel, makes videos picking apart just what makes our favourite video game music so great. A mixture of technical music theory analysis and broad musical observations aim to provide musical insights to beginners and experts alike!
Yoga for Gamers is a project that offers gamers a way to connect authentically with their minds, bodies, and creative selves through movement, breathing, and meditation practices. Backed by ambient video game music playlists, participants can enjoy a safe, accepting space where they are encouraged to get curious about their "system of self," and explore the link between the gaming process and the yoga process. All of this is for the purpose of developing the unparalleled power of self-awareness. Each of us was born with a life-controller in our hands; with awareness and intention, we can play both video games and life itself with greater power and precision. Quite simply, we can have more fun this way.
Elisa Meléndez is a Dallas-based voice actor and singer by way of Los Angeles, Miami, and her Puerto Rican hometown. Shortly after moving to Miami, FL, she developed a passion for singing and songwriting. Her experiences as singer for alt-rock band Crimson along with her lifelong love of video games merged to guide her academic research on gender, representation, and music games—earning her a Ph.D. in Comparative Sociology in 2018. Elisa took her findings to the classroom and the video game industry, where she developed her warm, educational voice while also discovering a love for video game character acting and audiobook narration along the way. You can hear her most recently as villainess Tyreen Calypso in Borderlands 3 and narrating as Indir in Lizz Huerta’s The Lost Dreamer.
X-strike Studios is one of the oldest independent movie companies to specialize in video game adaptations and parodies (we'll be turning 20 in the spring). Since MAGFest 2.0, X-strike has had a presence at MAGFest, debuting new content and hosting other panels and game shows along the way.
Whose Roll is it Anyway was born of a simple idea: What if we played D&D... but got a whole bunch of other people to do all the boring stuff FOR us? You know, lame shit like coming up with creatures to fight, or writing a "plot," or having "standards for how friends should treat each other at the table."
Conning rubes to do the heavy lifting for us to create our game has been an honor and a privilege, and one we take very seriously. Since our debut at MAGFest all those years ago, we've been performing our game for audiences in Baltimore with our monthly residency at No Land Beyond. We honestly don't know how we've managed to keep the grift going this long. It's really impressive.
Making their return to Super MAGFest Melee are two legendary talents in their own right that happen to be married – Ellen McLain and John Patrick Lowrie! Both are phenomenal voice actors, with Ellen having portrayed GlaDOS in Portal and Portal 2 and John voicing the Sniper from Team Fortress 2.
Those credits are just the tip of the iceberg for this talented pair – both are musically minded, with Ellen being an acclaimed singer (as heard on the credits for Portal and Portal 2 and the 'Turret Opera' from the latter), while John studied Music Composition at Indiana University and has composition credits under his belt, in addition to having published a science fiction novel!
Ellen and John have both been cornerstones of Super MAGFest for many years, so we are beyond honored and delighted to be able to welcome them back to Super MAGFest Melee for our twentieth anniversary – be on the lookout for all sorts of extra special surprise content from this talented duo!
For over a decade, members of Content Productions have been entertaining MAGFest attendees with ridiculous game shows, interactive workshops, and actual play sessions, all driven by audience suggestions and participants pulled from the crowd. Join them this year for returning favorites like Roll 4 MAGFest and their panels for aspiring Dungeon Masters, plus brand new game shows based on AI art, video game Jeopardy!, and some deeply nerdy trivia competition.
Presenting author, tattooist, artist and creator AJ 'spoopy' Rappaport! In their book, Melee is Broken, they discuss the unique staying power of Super Smash Bros Melee as it relates to its reliance on older hardware, thereby giving life to antiquated media objects.
Their panel will delve into this thesis and discuss the competitive community around SSBM and its culture and longevity – it's a must-attend for anyone who's a fan of competitive Smash and fascinating for anybody interested in gaming culture!
The Video Game History Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to preserving, celebrating, and teaching the history of video games. The VGHF archives provide rare material for study, and their advocacy and educational outreach brings everyone together to do their part in celebrating and discovering video game history.
