Games are evolving faster than ever before. Through online gaming, VR, AR, and AI, we experience entirely new possibilities – and this is just the beginning. In this edition of LASER Boston, experts in game design (both analog and digital) will share their experience and their work. This event will explore the art of game design and how we can take advantage of it to shape our future.
So please join us for LASER Boston: Level Up on Thursday, May 27th with experts Philomena Schwab, Patrick Jagoda, and Brenda Romero.
Presented by Swissnex and SciArt Initiative.
In Boston (EST)
12:00 pm – Welcome Remarks
12:15 pm – LASER Speaker Talk 1
12:30 pm – LASER Speaker Talk 2
12:45 pm – LASER Speaker Talk 3
01:00 pm – Q&A and Closing Remarks with questions from the audience
01:30 pm – End of Event
In Switzerland (CET)
06:00 pm – Welcome Remarks
06:15 pm – LASER Speaker Talk 1
06:30 pm – LASER Speaker Talk 2
06:45 pm – LASER Speaker Talk 3
07:00 pm – Q&A and Closing Remarks with questions from the audience
07:30 pm – End of Event
– Philomena Schwab – Fun Games with Learning Aspects: Working at the Intersection of Science and Interactive Entertainment
– Patrick Jagoda – Beyond Gamification: Alternate Reality Games as a Mode of Problem Making
– Brenda Romero – Documenting History: A Ludological Approach
All image credit to Stray Fawn Studio and The Wandering Village.
LASER Boston is co-organized by Swissnex in Boston and New York and SciArt Initiative. LASER is a program of Leonardo/the International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology. LASER Boston meets four times per year, featuring local and visiting artists, scientists, technologists, and creative professionals.
Bio
Philomena Schwab is a game designer and community manager from Zurich, Switzerland. She wrote her master thesis about “Community Building for Indie Developers” and co-founded the indie game studio Stray Fawn in 2016. The studio’s primary focus is the development of procedurally generated simulation games. In 2017 Schwab was named a 30 under 30 in Technology in Europe by Forbes. As a vice president of the Swiss Game Hub, she helps the local game industry grow.
Bio
Patrick Jagoda is a Professor of Cinema & Media Studies and English at the University of Chicago. He is Executive Editor of Critical Inquiry and director of the Weston Game Lab. He is also co-founder of the Game Changer Chicago Design Lab and Transmedia Story Lab and a member of the Fourcast Lab collective. Patrick’s books include Network Aesthetics (2016), The Game Worlds of Jason Rohrer (2016), and Experimental Games: Critique, Play, and Design in the Age of Gamification (2020), as well as several edited volumes and journal special issues. He is currently working on his next book, Story Lab: Narrative Methods for a Transmedia Era. He has also designed numerous alternate reality games, video games, and board games about issues that include climate change, public health, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Jagoda is a recipient of a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship.
Bio
Brenda Romero is a BAFTA award-winning game director, entrepreneur, artist, and Fulbright award recipient and is presently game director and creator of the Empire of Sin franchise. As a game director, she has worked on 50 games and contributed to many seminal titles, including the Wizardry and Jagged Alliance series and titles in the Ghost Recon, Dungeons & Dragons, and Def Jam franchises. Away from the machine, her analog series of six games, called The Mechanic is the Message, has drawn national and international acclaim, mainly Train and Siochán Leat, a game about her family’s history, which currently resides in the National Museum of Play. In addition to a BAFTA and a Fulbright, Romero is also the recipient of multiple lifetime achievement awards, a Grace Hopper Award, a GDC Ambassador Award, and many of the games she has contributed to have won numerous awards. Romero is CEO and co-founder of Romero Games based in Galway, Ireland.
