Exploring Serious Games
Details
We're looping back to some of our IxD roots to explore the craft aspects of serious games: games with a purpose other than "pure entertainment".
We'll get a behind-the-scenes look at two projects, one from Sam Yuen's Goldsmith's game design MA project "How Will You Play" and Yen Ooi's narrative work on the indie game "Road to Guangdong".
Both offer refreshing views on using games as a medium for engaging with more serious topics, moving us beyond typical game conventions and expectations. Which is the sort of thing we like.
We are charging a small fee of £2 to cover some costs like our Meetup subscription. But we don't want this to limit anyone from joining, so let us know if you'd like a free ticket.
Sam Yuen: Designing for agency as an accidental artist
“How Will You Play?” is a collection of 3 games presenting the public toilet experiences of 28 people around the world through my first large-scale installation art and multiplayer LARP (live action role play). I’ll unpack the multitude of considerations in designing for safety, interaction, and intervention, all made in service of player agency.
About Sam:
Sam works in the messy part of design (change), and crafts playable experiences about being human that are sometimes uncomfortable but always reflective. They care about building capability in noticing, reframing, and intervening on patterns so that we can bring effective use of self when tackling complex problems.
Moving from Singapore to London in 2021 for a game design MA, Sam discovered the joys of sculpture and performance art at Goldsmiths and is weaving strategic design, organisation development, coaching, and serious games into an integrated practice. They were previously Co-Head of Experience Strategy & Design at GovTech, a public service agency driving Singapore’s digital transformation.
Yen Ooi: Are you buzzing with hands shaking and heart pumping, or are you excited?
In all forms of writing, showing and telling are two modes that are commonly used, often unconsciously, to great effect on audience engagement. With examples from game writing and touching upon various other media, I will explore the application of show and tell to investigate why this is important, how we can maximise its application - especially in cultural writing.
About Yen:
Yen Ooi is a writer-researcher whose works explore East and Southeast Asian culture, identity and values. Her projects aim to cultivate cultural engagement in our modern, technology-driven lives. She is a PhD candidate at Royal Holloway, University of London looking at the development of Chinese science fiction by diaspora writers and writers from Chinese-speaking nations. Yen is narrative director and writer on Road to Guangdong, a narrative-style driving game. She is author of Rén: The Ancient Chinese Art of Finding Peace and Fulfilment (non-fiction), Sun: Queens of Earth (novel) and A Suspicious Collection of Short Stories and Poetry (collection). She is also co-editor of Ab Terra, Brain Mill Press's science fiction imprint. When she's not got her head in a book, she lectures, mentors and plays the viola.