Featured Talks

“Play” as in “Instrument”: Creativity Support Tools and Game Design

March 13, 2023

Time: March 13th, 2023 @ 4pm MT Location: PTAB 109 Summary: Creativity is well-known to be difficult. Issues such as writer’s block, the terror of the blank page, and dissatisfaction with the quality of one’s creative output can be enough to frustrate novice and expert creators alike. Research in both human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence […]

Kessler Inducted into HEVGA Fellows

March 3, 2023

Bob Kessler, Ph.D., EAE’s co-founder and founding director, will be posthumously inducted as a HEVGA Fellow during a ceremony to be held at the Game Developers’ Conference in San Francisco, CA, the week of March 20th, 2023.   Kessler was a towering figure in the history of EAE, serving to co-found the program in 2008 […]

Can a Computer Dry Your Tears? Understanding How Players Use Video Games to Manage Difficult Emotions

February 28, 2023

Time: March 2nd, 2023 @ 4-5pm MT Location: PTAB 109 Summary:According to the Entertainment Software Association, 89% of players claim that video games provide them with relief from stress. However, the relationship between stress and gameplay is often misunderstood, with games often thought of merely as idle distractions from people’s problems. This talk will challenge […]

The Dos and Don’ts of Making Your Own Studio

February 27, 2023

March 2nd, 2023 @ 12:30pm MT Bldg 72, 1st floor lecture space Clark Stacey has been building video games and game companies since 1995. He is the co-founder and CEO of WildWorks, the premier global game company specializing in safe, substantive interactive media for children. In 2010 WildWorks launched the online playground Animal Jam, which […]

Divide and Conquer: Game Engines and the Division of Labor

October 28, 2022

December 1st, 5-6pm Bldg 72, Lecture Space 103 This talk offers both a design and labor history of the first graphical game engine, Sierra On-Line’s Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI), which became the backbone of Sierra’s game development process beginning in the early-to-mid 1980s. Through detailed analysis of Sierra’s games , as well as bureaucratic and […]

The Future Fun Experience of Esports

October 10, 2022

October 20, 2022, 5-6pm Lecture Space 103, Bldg 72 Esports are big business and business wants you watching esports at in-person venues. However, it’s hard to beat the experience of watching Twitch from the comfort of your own couch (probably without pants) so how do we design the future experience of esports to be sustainable […]

Truth Necessity and Contingency: The Rhetoric of Historical Games

September 30, 2022

October 6th, 2022 | 5-6pm Bldg 72, Lecture Space 103 Description: How do we square notions of veracity in the design of games which depict a past with their nature as systems of counter-fact? And how does our framing of the past inform our stance toward the present and future? Bio: Dr William Huber is […]

SUMMER PORTFOLIO CRITIQUE SERIES with ABK

June 9, 2022

Introducing the EAE Summer Portfolio Critique Series with Activision Blizzard King! This amazing series is hosted by the ABK Early Careers team, and it is a chance for EAE students to get their portfolios reviewed by professional game developers! This summer’s lineup will be as follows, and students of all levels and disciplines are invited […]

The UX of Fortnite

April 11, 2022

April 14 | 5-6pm EAE Grad Lab Bldg 72(RM 250) User experience (UX) is still a very new mindset to the video game industry, and has specific challenges considering that games need to be fun and engaging. As former director of UX at Epic Games and 14-year+ veteran in the game industry, Celia Hodent will […]

Speedrunning: How do you compete in a single player game?

March 17, 2021
Event Date:

Speedrunning: How do you compete in a single player game? Featuring Kosmic, World Record Speedrunner. Friday March 26th – 10am MT Join Kosmic, one of the top Super Mario Bros speedrunners in the world, as he talks all about the world of video game speedrunning. A large portion of the presentation will be dedicated to […]