Member Project

The Future of Gaming is Empathy: The key to acquiring and retaining players

Joe Schaeppi

This talk will focus on the importance of understanding your players beyond behavior and the risks of armchair psychology. A deep psychological understanding of your players and your game’s ability to reflect as well as engage a gamer’s feelings and psychological needs is the key to unlocking high quality installs while creating long term, sustainable, engagement that’s healthy for both gamers and game developers.

Joe is the co-founder and CEO of 12traits where they believe that the path to a better future lies in unlocking the true potential of humankind through deep psychological insights. He is a startup advisor and a clinical counselor specializing in adventure-based psychotherapy as well as neuropsychology and published author on the Harvard Business Review. Previously, Joe was the head of UX at Big Fish Games, the co-founder of Epicstoke, and a UX director at McCann Erickson, creating experiences grounded in applied psychology for companies like Intel, Verizon, and Cisco. Joe has a M.S. in clinical psychology from Prescott College with a specialization in adventure-based psychotherapy and B.S. degrees in psychology and anthropology from the University of Wisconsin- Madison.

Main Presentation

Epic Games: No Screens Required

Austin Blanch

Making games for groups of 100+. In this talk, Austin Blanch will go through the process of brainstorming, creating, and facilitating games that can be played by everyone and their mother.

Austin Blanch is a Co-Founder of Trailhead Games (http://trailheadgames.com/), a company geared towards crafting narrative game experiences for summer camps, schools, and organizations. They have written and run over forty 100+ player programs, each with unique and relevant storylines and game mechanics.

Plug My Thing!

In addition to informal verbal plugs, we’ll also show your trailer, user group, recruitment page, promo video, demo reel, etc. Grab the appropriate ticket – first come, first served.

Guidelines:

• Short and sweet. 3 minutes max!
• Related to games, gaming and or game development in some way. (Exceptions can be made, but please consult us first.)
• 1 short URL, Zero setup (Media is streamable from fast/reliable site like YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)
• Your Contact info is on page or in video.
• You were a part of this project, are attending the meeting, and will introduce it.
• Meet us in the auditorium at least 5-10 minutes early, so we can load your page.

Agenda (approximate)

• 6:00 Pizza and drinks (thanks to the Nerdery!) and socialize.
• 6:30 Meeting starts. Announcements and Plug My Thing!
• 6:45 Member Project
• 7:30 Main Presentation

We’ll be heading to Joe Sensers in Bloomington after the event. Come socialize with other local developers.

Many, many thanks to The Nerdery for hosting the IGDA Twin Cities events over the years.

This event is open to the public. An IGDA Membership not required.