Chris Swain (game designer)

Chris Swain is an American game designer, entrepreneur, and professor. He is the founder of two venture-backed game companies. He worked full-time as a professor at The University of Southern California from 2004-2011.

Career

Swain started his career in at Robert Abel’s interactive software company Synapse Technologies. Chris was VP of Programming at game developer Spiderdance, Inc, where his work included participatory television projects. He was a founding member of R/GA Interactive.[1] Swain co-founded the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab at USC and served as the director of the USC Games Institute.[1] He co-authored the first edition of Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping, & Playtesting Games with Tracy Fullerton and Steven Hoffman in 2004.[2]

Notable projects in his early career include: Netwits for the Microsoft Network,[3] Multiplayer Jeopardy![4] and Multiplayer Wheel of Fortune[5] for Sony Online, Stickerworld for Children's Television Workshop,[6] and Poetry of Structure, the interactive companion to Ken Burns’ documentary about Frank Lloyd Wright.[7]

Swain served on the board of directors of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences from 2000 to 2004.[1]

The games SurgeWorld and Immune Attack (2006) address health topics.[1][8] The Redistricting Game (2006) models gerrymandering, aimed at informing voters.[9][10][11] Enhanced Learning with Creative Technologies (ELECT) is a project funded by the US Military which produced a game on urbanism,[1] as well as a game about bi-lateral negotiation.[12]

Swain is also known for his mentorship of students at USC. Several projects by his students, for which he was their advisor, have gone on to become published games. These include fl0w (Sony PlayStation), Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom (2K Games), and Reflection (Konami).[13]

In 2010, Swain founded the games studio Talkie for story-driven social games. They created the Facebook game Ecotopia to promote environmental conservation, launched in 2011.[14][15]

References
  1. Karen, Schrier; David, Gibson (2010-02-28). Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values through Play: Teaching Values through Play. IGI Global. p. 358. ISBN 978-1-61520-846-3.
  2. "Game Design Workshop - Bookverdict.com". bookverdict.mediasourceinc.net. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  3. "NetWits for Windows (1996)". MobyGames.
  4. "Sony Pictures". www.sonypictures.com. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  5. "Sony Pictures Games | Wheel of Fortune 2". March 17, 2007. Archived from the original on 17 March 2007.
  6. "Sesame Workshop - Sticker World". March 12, 2007. Archived from the original on 12 March 2007.
  7. "Watch Frank Lloyd Wright | Ken Burns | PBS". Frank Lloyd Wright | Ken Burns | PBS.
  8. "Video Games: Medicine For The Body". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  9. Musgrove, Mike (2007-06-10). "Mike Musgrove - The New Political Games Make a Point". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  10. "New video games play to serious objectives - USATODAY.com". usatoday30.usatoday.com. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  11. "A Gamer's Guide to Redistricting". The New York Times. 2007-06-14. ProQuest 2223197439.
  12. "SIGNAL Magazine". 2007-09-27. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  13. "Chris Swain, Director USC Games Institute, to Give 2nd Keynote for IGC West". Business Wire. 2009-10-28. ProQuest 443824334.
  14. "Talkie Teams with Conservation International, Sets out to Save the Environment One Facebook Gamer at a Time with Ecotopia". Business Wire. 2011-03-11. ProQuest 855443476.
  15. "Talkie rolls out green social game Ecotopia on Facebook". VentureBeat. 2011-04-04. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
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