Playframes (MIT Press) builds on the work of Gregory Bateson and Erving Goffman to take a deep dive into Bateson's primary question: How do we know we're playing? In this book, Celia Pearce addresses this question by building a comprehensive theory of the specific mechanisms that meta-communicate the message "this is play." Join us for a book […]

Picking Up Things in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Join us for a talk on how MachineGames developed a first-person game focused on simulating hands-on experiences and adventure over action. This talk goes through the design process for developing the GRIP system (grab, reach out, interact, push), the hurdles of encouraging hand-to-hand combat over gun […]

Elaine Gómez is a Borikua (Puerto Rican) and Kiskeyan (Dominican) game designer with nearly a decade of experience in game design and development. Her talk will focus on the initiatives, collaboration and advocacy work Latinx in Gaming has launched to best support and uplift Latine developers and creatives, regardless of where they are in the world. […]

Join us for a conversation with Dimma Davidoff, creator of the Mafia game. We will talk about the psychological roots of the game (why was it not created before?), ways to look at it from different perspectives (how come it is not about lying?) and lessons opening the new worlds of play (what games would […]