NEWS: GAME TALK #1: ELIZABETH MALER (FEBRUARY 26 2020)

FEBRUARY 26 2020/26 FEBBRAIO 2020

18:00 - 19:00

Room 135/Aula 135

Università IULM (IULM 1, terzo piano)

Via Carlo Bo, 1

20143 Milan

PLEASE RSVP - REGISTRAZIONE NECESSARIA

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GAMES THAT CHANGE LIVES: SOCIAL IMPACT DONE RIGHT

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Elizabeth Maler is the author of two, highly successful, indie social impact games, A Normal Lost Phone and Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story. In her talk, Maler will share with the audience her innovative design philosophy and her approach to social impact games. The talk will provide useful, practical insights for aspiring game designers and for anybody who is interested in learning about what game can do beyond sheer entertainment. Maler will also address the artist’s responsibility to craft messages through gaming and how to respectfully represent themes, ideas, and above all, human beings.

Elizabeth Maler is a Games User Research specialist and video game author. She worked in Montreal in Canada as a producer and a Games User Researcher on indie games before becoming head of a playtesting lab in France. Over the years, she has helped dozens of indies all along their development cycle take user feedback into account and launch successful games. After creating the company Accidental Queens and releasing the two award-winning games A Normal Lost Phone and its spiritual successor Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story, she left to create a new company, Abiding Bridge. She delivers presentations worldwide about the design of social impact games and shares her knowledge about user testing while highlighting the most common mistakes indie developers make while playtesting. She has been involved in several organizations advocating for minorities representation and women empowerment in and out of the video game industry. She teaches GAME WRITING in the 2019-2020 edition of the Master of Arts in Game Design at IULM University.

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VITE IN GIOCO: L’IMPATTO SOCIALE DEL GAMING

LINGUA: INGLESE

Elizabeth Maler è l'autrice di due giochi indie di grande successo, A Normal Lost Phone e Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story. Nel suo intervento, Maler condividerà con il pubblico la sua filosofia innovativa di desigo e il suo approccio nei confronti dei giochi ad impatto sociale. Il talk fornirà spunti utili e pratici per gli aspiranti game designer e per chiunque sia interessato ad apprendere il potenziale del gaming al di là del mero intrattenimento. Maler affronterà anche il tema della responsabilità dell’artista nel rappresentare temi, idee e, soprattutto, individui.

Elizabeth Maler è un’esperta nel settore della Games User Research e autrice di videogiochi. Ha lavorato a Montreal in Canada come producer e Games User Researcher nel settore indie prima di diventare responsabile di un laboratorio di playtesting in Francia. Nel corso della sua carriera, ha aiutato decine di indie a implementare le loro produzioni integrando il feedback degli utenti e a lanciare giochi di successo. Dopo aver creato lo studio Accidental Queens e prodotto due giochi pluripremiati A Normal Lost Phone e il suo successore spirituale, Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story, ha fondato una nuova società, Abiding Bridge. Elizabeth ha tenuto conferenze e workshop in tutto il mondo sulla progettazione di giochi a impatto sociale e sugli errori che gli sviluppatori indie spesso commettono. È stata membro esecutivo di numerose organizzazioni che rappresentano le minoranze e difendono i diritti delle delle donne all’interno (e all’esterno) dell’industria videoludica. Insegna GAME WRITING nell’edizione 2019-2020 del Master of Arts in Game Design all’Università IULM.

NEWS: PROF. MALER'S LATEST GAME FEATURED IN ARTRIBUNE BEST OF 2019 LIST

Prof. Elizabeth Maler’s (GAME WRITING) latest project, Alt-Frequencies is featured in Artribune’s list of best videogames of 2019.

Alt-Frequencies is an audio mystery game where you use the airwaves to open the world's eyes to the truth. Record, rewind time and broadcast snippets of radio shows to expose radio hosts, conspiracy theorists, politicians, underground activists - and a dog.

Click the image above to read the full article (in Italian).

VIDEO: ELIZABETH MALER'S GDC TALK ON SOCIAL IMPACT GAMES

GAME WRITING professor and designer Elizabeth Maler’s talk at the 2019 Game Design Conference in San Francisco has just been released. Back in March, Maler illustrated a series of innovative ways of designing, writing and playtesting social impact games, and gave precious advice on using them to make a tangible difference. ​An updated version of her talk will kickstart the 2020 GAME TALKS series. Maler’s lecture on February 26, is free and open to the public. Click here to RSVP.

NEWS: FACULTY AND STUDENTS' GAMES ON DISPLAY IN GENOA THIS WEEKEND!

At the upcoming Game Happens festival in Genoa, visitors will be able to play groundbreaking independent games in the exhibition area. Some of them were developed by our faculty, including Tale of Tales’ Cricoterie (Michaël Samyn, Auriea Harvey) and Accidental Queens’ Alt-Frequencies (Elizabeth Maler), who teach GAME ART and GAME WRITING respectively. Also on display is Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star by former student Lorenzo Redaelli. Lorenzo, Michaël and Auriea will be on site on November 9-10, and so will be members of Genoa-based indie studio Space Backyard, who are featured among the 2020 GAME TALK series. They will present their latest project, Birds of Passage. Ditto for Dario D’Ambra (Maggese), whose talk is scheduled for April 1 2020. Dario will present his game A. The Wanderer. Last but not least, Pietro Polsinelli (Open Lab Games) who gave a GAME TALK in June 2018, will introduce his new game Football Drama. These are just some of the games featured in an impressive lineup, so head to the official website to check them out. And best of all? The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Game Happens (8-10 November @ Genova, Italy) is the international festival dedicated to the cultural, political and social impact of video games. The 2019 theme is Elements of Change.

To learn more about the indie games on display at Game Happens, click here.

NEWS: MEET OUR FACULTY: ELIZABETH MALER

What does it take to write a compelling screenplay for a video game? Meet Elizabeth Maler, the super-talented developer from France who will be sharing her expertise on interactive storytelling with a new generation of game writers.

Meet Elizabeth Maler, a new faculty member of the Master of Arts in Game Design at IULM University. Elizabeth will teach GAME WRITING during the 2019-2020 academic year.

A Games User Research specialist and video game author, Elizabeth worked in Montreal in Canada as a producer and a Games User Researcher on indie games before becoming head of a playtesting lab in France. Over the years, she has helped dozens of indies all along their development cycle take user feedback into account and launch successful games. After creating the company Accidental Queens and releasing the two award-winning games A Normal Lost Phone and its spiritual successor Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story she left to create a new company, Abiding Bridge. She delivers presentations worldwide about the design of social impact games and shares her knowledge about user testing while highlighting the most common mistakes indie developers make while playtesting. She has been involved in several organizations advocating for minorities representation and women empowerment in and out of the video game industry.

GAME WRITING The creation of novel storytelling strategies for digital games is one of the key issues in game development. Narrative games build bridges between dramatic writing for theatre and film, television, and game design, and opens new avenues for new types of writing for digital media. GAME WRITING is a hands-on study of the many ways text and writing can figure into video game design: branching dialog, narrative design, hypertext fiction, and text as digital material. The course combines technical tutorial with writer's workshop. Students will learn how to use Twine and will create their own game by the end of the course.

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Elizabeth Maler è un’esperta nel settore della Games User Research e autrice di videogiochi. Ha lavorato a Montreal in Canada come producer e Games User Researcher nel settore indie prima di diventare responsabile di un laboratorio di playtesting in Francia. Nel corso della sua carriera, ha aiutato decine di indie a implementare le loro produzioni integrando il feedback degli utenti e a lanciare giochi di successo. Dopo aver creato lo studio Accidental Queens e prodotto due giochi pluripremiati A Normal Lost Phone e il suo successore spirituale, Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story, ha fondato una nuova società, Abiding Bridge. Elizabeth ha tenuto conferenze e workshop in tutto il mondo sulla progettazione di giochi a impatto sociale e sugli errori che gli sviluppatori indie spesso commettono. È stata membro esecutivo di numerose organizzazioni che rappresentano le minoranze e difendono i diritti delle delle donne all’interno (e all’esterno) dell’industria videoludica.

Avete mai sognato di scrivere la sceneggiatura di un videogioco? Di trasformare un racconto in un'esperienza interattiva? GAME WRITING ti permette di farlo. Curato dalla designer francese Elizabeth Maler, GAME WRITING propone esercizi pratici per imparare a usare il testo nei processi di design di un videogioco, dalla scrittura dei dialoghi, alla stesura della componente narrativa, dalla struttura ipertestuale all'architettura del racconto - attraverso la piattaforma digitale Ink. Il corso combina un tutorial tecnico con un workshop intensivo di scrittura. Durante il corso verranno esaminati videogiochi, interactive fiction, nonché sceneggiature di film, serie televisive e altre opere letterarie.