David Surman is Senior Lecturer in Computer Games Design at the Newport School of Art, Media and Design. He is course leader of the Undergraduate Computer Games Design programme. In his research he specialises in contemporary Japanese visual media, digital games design, and media convergence. As a writer and broadcaster his work on gaming and animation has featured in periodicals including Edge, Gamasutra, Kotaku, The Independent, The Boston Globe, Develop, Getting Into Games, Game Career Guide, and The Guardian. He has appeared on television and radio in the UK and Australia advocating the complexity of gaming and animation culture, issues of gender and sexuality in the study of new technology, and Japanese popular culture. He writes a weekly column on games design for GayGamer.net. He is author of _The Videogames Handbook_ (Routledge, 2007) and co-editor of _Animated Worlds_ (John Libbey, 2006). He is currently working as a brand consultant for several British game development houses, and researching a new monograph on the work of Japanese artists Takashi Murakami and Kenji Yanobe.