2017 Guests of Honor
Justin Courtney Pierre is the frontman of the rock band Motion City Soundtrack, as well as side projects Farewell Continental, and The Rapture Twins (along with Andrew Reiner). He has written and directed several short films and music videos, including Let Me Come Home & Big Drag by Limbeck and No One Can Touch Us by Sing It Loud. He is also one third of the film podcast Junkshow Cinema and voiced the lead character Tommy in the animated film Godkiller.
Andrew Reiner has been the executive editor of Game Informer Magazine for over 20 years as well as being the host of Replay.
He recently branched out in his writing to co-author the science-fiction novel Prime: A Genesis Series Event with writer Chris Kluwe. He is also working with Kluwe on a board game codenamed Project Grendel which was tested for the first time at 2D Con last year. Reiner is an accomplished musician, playing guitar in a wide range of bands including Fidget, Before We Burn, Tripping Icarus, and his newest venture The Rapture Twins, with Justin Courtney Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack fame.
Chris Kluwe is the acclaimed author of the essay collection Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies (Little, Brown 2013), the co-author, with Andrew Reiner, of the self-published novel Prime: A Genesis Series Event, and the lead designer of the tabletop card game Twilight of the Gods. A former NFL player, Kluwe received wide attention for his TED talk about the future of technology, virtual reality, and empathy, and has been profiled in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Salon, as well as on The Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, NPR’s Weekend Edition, and Ellen.
Karl & Will Brueggemann are the Super Marcato Bros. Together, they form a musical duo, and compose original video game music. Brothers in real life, they share a strong musical connection and vision, which propels them to create together. In addition to composing, Karl & Will host a weekly video game music podcast in which they discuss compositional and technical aspects of game music from all generations. They both share a love of melody, inspired not only from classic video game music, but from the likes of George Gershwin, John Williams, Lennon & McCartney all the way to Dave Grohl. Karl & Will’s music, first and foremost, is melodic and energetic. They strive to compose melodies that will resonate with everyone. Through their podcast, they are able to express the significance of effective game music, and what separates it as an art form. They also interview composers as well. In 2017, their podcast was featured in Buzzfeed’s “22 Podcasts That’ll Make You a More Interesting Person” list. The marcato brothers podcast network also hosts other shows such as the film music podcast UnderScore, with more planned in the future! In addition to composing for indie and mobile games, they have also released many homage albums, capturing the style of classic series, such as Mario, Mega Man, Sonic & more.
A MN-based video game music trio with way more instruments than Bards to play them.
