Speakers
Eric Zimmerman, Game Designer & Arts Professor, NYU Game Center
Eric is a veteran game designer who makes award-winning games on and off the computer. Along with Peter Lee, he was the co-founder of Gamelab, an New York City-based studio that created original games like Diner Dash and worked with companies like Lego to create dozens of online titles. Other digital games include SiSSYFiGHT (with word.com), an online game about little girls in social conflict on a playground; Leela (with Curious Pictures), an X-Box Kinect launch title about play and meditation; and Dear Reader (with Local No.12), an Apple Arcade launch title that uses public domain literature as the basis of word puzzles. He was a co-founder of the Institute of Play, which designed entire schools where the curriculum was based on play and games as the model for learning. Tabletop titles include Quantum (with FunForge) and The Metagame (with Local No.12). With architect Nathalie Pozzi, he has designed installations that have been shown in the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and other festivals and museums around the world. He is the co-founder of the top-ranked NYU Game Center, where he teaches as an Arts Professor. Eric's books include Rules of Play (co-authored with Katie Salen), a textbook that helped establish game design as a discipline; and The Rules We Break, a compendium of his game design exercises. He teaches and lectures extensively about game design and is always ready to play.