GLS Conference: Full Schedule

8:00am PDT

Breakfast

A diverse buffet of breakfast fare served buffet style in Pacific Ballroom C, to be enjoyed over the morning keynote. Breakfast fare includes assorted muffins, cage-free scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, vegetarian breakfast sausage, a yogurt parfait bar, and of course bucketloads of coffee, tea, and water.

Wednesday June 15, 2022 8:00am - 10:00am PDT
Pacific Ballroom C UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Feeding Time

9:00am PDT

Five Big Metaverse Questions

Speakers

Raph Koster

A professional game designer and frequent writer on issues of interactive design, Raph Koster was the lead designer on the seminal online world ULTIMA ONLINE, which first brought online worlds to the mass market. Until March 2006 he was Chief Creative Officer for Sony Online Entertainment... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 9:00am - 10:00am PDT
Pacific Ballroom C UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Keynotes

10:30am PDT

Designing Wearable Social Co-Located Augmented Reality Applications with Youth Through Participatory Design

Augmented reality has been a long standing curiosity in the HCI field and this interest has ebbed and flowed along the Gartner Hype Cycle (Gartner_Inc, 2018). More recently though, advances in technologies have surged much renewed interest in mixed reality development. Arguably, the most notable catalyst for this renewed interest in the space was the 2016 augmented reality mobile game Pokemon Go, downloaded more than 500 million times within the first two months (Takahashi, 2016). Further, talks of the “metaverse”, the term coined and made popular by Neal Stepheson in his sci-fi novel Snow Crash, is a world where our virtual and real lives intertwine through AR and VR technology (Ravenscraft, 2021). Recently we have seen the world's leading technology firms dramatically shifting their focus onto VR, AR, and wearable technologies. Most notably Facebook changed its name to Meta, to reflect its growing ambitions for mixed reality devices. The interest in mixed reality is also reflected by consumer products like Oculus Quest, which have allowed people to experience immersive gameplay. Mixed reality devices have become much more stronger, feature rich, and accessible to consumers. Most mobile devices are now powerful enough to take advantage of AR features, gaming has paved the way for VR headsets, and more companies are actively developing eyewear form factors with the added use and features of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and multi-modal inputs. Yet little is known about the social implications of wearable AR devices and the ways in which youth specifically conceptualize their use.

As new technologies and their use cases have become more influential in our daily lives we are beginning to understand that biases are being baked into the designs of these technologies and are having unintended consequences for communities, especially those who have been historically marginalized.
As eyewear devices become increasingly more available, feature rich, and affordable it is important to think of a future where these technologies become ubiquitous in the same manner that mobile phones have. The use of all day augmented reality eyewear devices will be especially important to understand as these devices will have AI and machine learning capabilities, for example allowing facial recognition for its users on others. The cultural, political, economic, and ethical consideration will be imperative to understand because mixed reality and AR-enabled eyewear will allow new immersive interactions that can possibly enhance human social interactions across education, health, and commerce domains, but we still do not know yet at what cost.

Understanding social interactions for AR eyewear with youth from these cultural hubs can prove especially useful. Research with youth to understand social co-located interactions can situate researchers, designers, and developers to create experiences that are widely adoptable and useful - while also considering ethical, privacy, cultural, political, and technical tradeoffs of particular designs. These understandings can lead to functional designs and application development not only for ubiquitous consumer products, but also for educational, health, and other niche domains. Researchers have emphasized the lack of research on technology enhancements for co-located social interactions, stating that much is still not understood about the potential of mobile devices for supporting these types of interactions (Olsson et. al., 2020). This research seeks to understand how youth conceptualize social interactions for AR mobile devices via a socially situated, cultural capital approach with youth using design-based research methods.

Master of Ceremonies

Tom Boellstorff

Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine

Knock, Knock!Who’s there?Ken Ken who?Ken I come in?It's cold out here.

Speakers

Richard Martinez

University of California, Irvine

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Police. Police who?Police hurry—I'm freezing out here!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 10:30am - 10:30am PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Better AR/VR

10:30am PDT

Fireside Chat with Raph Koster

Speakers

Raph Koster

Wednesday June 15, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Fireside Chat Alcove UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Fireside Chats

10:30am PDT

Defining Academically Meaningful Play: Meaningful Gameplay, Learning, and Access

What does it mean for a game to engage players in academically meaningful play? Much has been written about the integration of educational learning within the design of games in terms of intrinsic/endogenous design (e.g., Authors, 2015; Habgood & Ainsworth, 2011; Kafai, 1996). While these framings capture the positioning of learning within games, they provide less insight into what might distinguish a game that is powerful in terms of both learning and gameplay from a game that might fall short on one or both of these aspects. In this article, we therefore propose a framework for thinking about academically meaningful play that builds upon and extends more general ideas about meaningful play (Salen & Zimmerman, 2003, 2005). The proposed framework focuses on (a) discernability of choice outcomes, (b) integration of choice outcomes into unfolding game state, (c) meaningful choices grounded in core academic ideas, and (d) thematic and challenge access.

Master of Ceremonies

Richard Halverson

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Water.Water who?Water those plants or they're going to die!

Speakers

Doug Clark

University of Calgary

Knock! Knock!Who’s there?Robin.Robin who?Robin you—hand over the cash!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, The Meta

10:30am PDT

Games (and Art) as Designed Experience for Human Flourishing

The original games and learning movement (at least as I conceptualize it) was inspired by the fact that good video games (where “good” was specified) incorporate good learning as this was then defined in research on human learning, research better reflected, then and now, in good video games than in most schools. The movement, though, had two signal flaws—flaws common across the board in educational research at the time and today, as well. First, it underplayed teaching. Many of the good learning principles argued to be in good games are actually good teaching principles. Recent research on animals and human evolution has shown that teaching is ubiquitous in nature and was foundational for human evolution. Recent research on humans has shown that teaching—though of neither the liberal or conservative sorts seen in school—is essential for furnishing the human mind/brain in ways that enhance survival and, beyond that, human flourishing. It is indicative of the problem here that we have 27 Learning Science programs in the U.S., but not one Teaching Science program (in the requisite sense) as far as I know (and don’t tell me teaching is art, because so is science). The second flaw—one barely spoken to in research on learning, now or then—is that modern work on learning and the human brain has argued that humans learn from experience, but has never specified what experience is or what constitutes a good experience. Experience is composed of inner and outer sensations and yet the word sensation is not in the index of any edition of the supposedly definitive How Humans Learn book from the National Academy. Nor is experience defined or explicated at the level of sensation in the recent Human Experience (“HX”) movement, despite its name. In this talk I will argue that once we get clear about the sorts of teaching essential for human development (though of a sort that both liberals and conservatives would decry) and finally begin to work on a viable theory of affect, sensation, and the ecological roots of cognition we will see, once again, that good games—and, too, good art—represent good learning, teaching, and experience better than do schools or most mainstream educational research. The implications for education are obvious (and will, as always, be ignored in mainstream liberal and conservative educational research and practice). One not so obvious implication for games is that if game designers want to make games that truly rise to teaching and learning for human flourishing in our highly imperiled world they must make games that are art (a fact some game designers are already well aware of). Unfortunately, “art” has become a dirty word to many (liberal and conservative) educators (who can barely stuff it into STEAM before it burns off to become STEM again).

Master of Ceremonies

Richard Halverson

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Water.Water who?Water those plants or they're going to die!

Speakers

James Paul Gee

Arizona State University

Dr. James Paul Gee is the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies and a Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University. He is a member of the National Academy of Education. He earned his BA in philosophy at the University of California at Santa Barbara and his... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, The Meta

10:30am PDT

Using Virtual Reality to Create Impact in Social Justice Work

In this session we will explore best practices for building virtual reality simulations for social impact. Case studies discussed will include a piece on workplace exclusion built for a consulting company, a piece on racial bias built for a Fortune 100 retailer, and a piece on TK built for Homeboy Industries.

Master of Ceremonies

Tom Boellstorff

Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine

Knock, Knock!Who’s there?Ken Ken who?Ken I come in?It's cold out here.

Speakers

Cortney Harding

An experienced founder and content creator, Cortney Harding has a singular mission: to help people leverage the metaverse for social impact. As the founder of the award-winning agency Friends With Holograms, she was a pioneer who created VR training pieces around topics like child... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Better AR/VR

10:30am PDT

Wordle

Come find out why the most popular word game is worth those daily moments invested.

Speakers

Liz Lawley

Professor, RIT Interactive Games & Media

Social computing. Location-based games. Dubrovnik. My kids.

Wednesday June 15, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Well Played

12:00pm PDT

Fireside Chat with James Paul Gee

Master of Ceremonies

Richard Halverson

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Water.Water who?Water those plants or they're going to die!

Speakers

James Paul Gee

Arizona State University

Wednesday June 15, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Fireside Chat Alcove UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Fireside Chats

12:00pm PDT

Interactive Lessons on PBS LearningMedia: Diverse Learners

Over the past two years, educators have turned to digital technologies and media more than ever to meet the needs of students amidst a global pandemic. While many edtech tools enable educators to create interactive materials with digital media (e.g., Nearpod, Kahoot!, Quizizz), educators more often seek existing digital resources to supplement their curriculum rather than create them from scratch (National Center for Education Statistics, 2021). Interactive Lessons (ILs) on PBS LearningMedia, produced by GBH Education and fellow PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) member stations, provide teachers with free, standards-aligned, classroom-ready resources. This panel will discuss how GBH Education develops ILs and the IL authoring platform, including findings from research studies on IL usage. Two educators will also discuss how they participate in IL development and integrate ILs into their classrooms to support diverse learners.

Speakers

Ethan Cayko

Project Manager, WGBH

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Amarillo.Amarillo who?Amarillo nice guy!

Alysha Butler

WGBH Educational Foundation

Knock, knock.Who’s there? Leaf.Leaf Who? Leaf Me Alone!

Paula Halligan

WGBH Educational Foundation

Knock! Knock! Who's there?Two knee. Two knee who? Two knee fish!

Micaela Keating

WGBH Educational Foundation (GBH)

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Olive. Olive who?Olive you and I don't care who knows it!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Panel

12:00pm PDT

AI-Generated Fakery: The State of Deepfake Research and Future Work

Deepfakes, a product of artificial intelligence and software applications used to create
convincing falsified audiovisual content, have entered the international lexicon with
unsettling outcomes. Using deep learning algorithms, “deepfake” videos (or colloquially,
just “deepfakes”) typically substitute one person’s visual and acoustic likeness for
another, presenting viewers with compelling videos of individuals doing and saying
things they never did or said (Vaccari et al., 2020). Although verifying online content and
imagery is not a new phenomenon—in fact, the entire field of image forensics exists for
this purpose—academic research exploring this topic is only recently emerging. With
the assistance of sophisticated software programs,’ very exacting algorithms can create
high-quality videos and manipulated audio of individuals without consent. Deepfakes
are potentially the gateway to dangerous forms of crime, leading to the spread of
serious misinformation, often with devastating consequences. The detection rate of this
digital emergence proliferates exponentially, and the sourcing is challenging to verify,
causing alarms. It only takes one example to cause significant harm. Examples of this
information warfare are deepfakes that include identity theft, discrediting public figures
and celebrities, cyberbullying, blackmail, threats to national security, personal privacy,
intensifying pornography and sexual exploitation, cybersecurity, and baiting hate crimes,
abusing social media platforms, and manipulating metadata. These case uses create
pervasive and unaccountable misinformation that is often difficult to discern. This
presentation will review the state of research on deep fakes and their potential
implications on how users assess trust, possible afflictions on memory, and the future of
policies.

Master of Ceremonies

Kurt Squire

Professor of Informatics, University of California, Irvine

Kurt Squire is a Professor of Informatics at UC, Irvine. His research interest is in making learning meaningful and engaging with technologies, drawing from video games. He is former co-director of the Games + Learning + Society Center, where he led a team of 50+ developers, academics... Read More →

Speakers

Nika Nour

University of California, Irvine

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Needle. Needle who? Needle little help gettin' in the door.

Wednesday June 15, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, On Bullshit

12:00pm PDT

Fake News Cycles: The Repetitive Design of Disinformation Games

This paper analyzes the current landscape of video games that address the topic of fake news.
There are dozens of games that address the topic that typically fall into two categories: those that have
players discern real from fake news, and those that have players create fake news as a form of
‘disinformation officer’. The authors use two case studies in order to exemplify these two types of
games and their underlying design. Several issues are addressed, including the lack of a specific
audience, the designation of fake news spread as a knowledge or education problem, and similarly that
many of these titles lack engaging or innovative mechanics. While there is some research on the efficacy
of these games, the authors argue that deep investigation of the scope of their influence is lacking.

Master of Ceremonies

Kurt Squire

Professor of Informatics, University of California, Irvine

Speakers

Andrew Moger

American University

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you gonna open the door?

Andy Phelps

University of Canterbury

Knock, knockWho's there?JessJess who?Jess me and my shadow

Jocelyn Wagner

American University

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Anita.Anita who?Anita go to the bathroom!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, On Bullshit

12:00pm PDT

Susceptibility to Misinformation and Games as Interventions

Misinformation has grown into a global issue, with bad faith actors producing misleading content intended to confuse, divide, and muddle the public discourse. We are currently witnessing some of the repercussions of this content within the United States, as targeted misinformation campaigns have influenced individuals to violently question the legitimacy of a democratic presidential election and express apprehension towards receiving scientifically-validated vaccinations. Developing interventions to combat these campaigns is essential to improving the public discourse and removing power from those individuals who benefit from the chaos misinformation creates. This paper first examines the different factors that leave individuals susceptible to misinformation. It then assesses the interventions for combatting and preventing misinformation that are currently in use, as well as the theories backing their design. Finally, it more deeply analyzes the existing game-based interventions for the benefits to their approach and how they can be built upon in future iterations.

Master of Ceremonies

Kurt Squire

Professor of Informatics, University of California, Irvine

Speakers

Garrison Wells

University of California, Irvine

Garrison Wells is a PhD student in informatics at the University of California-Irvine, advised by Dr. Constance Steinkuehler. Gary completed his B.A. in Psychology at the University of California-Santa Barbara in 2016, and in 2017 earned his Msc. in Psychological Research from the... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, On Bullshit

12:00pm PDT

The Thrill of Psychomachia: Deciding When Not to Stop Can’t Stop

This piece will explore the ethics of my use of the digitization of the board game Can’t Stop, first to maintain engagement at work and then later to produce a state of psychomachia (“conflict of the soul”) in order to work. These two uses combine to showcase examples of playing when one is only supposed to be working, and working when one is only supposed to be playing. It is designed to answer the following question: When the two are combined - the ludological and the non-ludological - in a manner not transparent to others, is this behavior unethical?

Speakers

Barry Joseph

Provocateur, Barry Joseph Consulting

Talk to me about whatever you feel passionate about. Ask me about my new books, what games I'm playing, and my new consulting company focused on digital experience design.

Wednesday June 15, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Well Played

1:00pm PDT

Lunch

Surprisingly succulent assorted box lunches including fresh mozzarella, basil and tomato caprese sandwiches, veggie submarine sandwiches with provolone and honey dijon, and a gluten free boxed salad option for those looking for a bit lighter fare. Parceled up for free wandering indoors and out on the lawns. Lemonade, iced tea, and still water, bien sûr!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Feeding Time

1:00pm PDT

Agents of Influence: A Game To Combat Misinformation

Speakers

Anahita Dalmia

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Amira's Blessing

Speakers

Kaitlin Bonfiglio

Jebby Zhang

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Breathless

Speakers

Cloud Tian

University of Southern California

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Continuum

Speakers

Bianca Torres Victoria

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Crash Course in College Readiness: The Game that Mirrors Real Life

Think you can 'ace' your first college semester? Do you know who the Bursar or Registrar is? If you are like most high school seniors and first-year college students, your enthusiasm for going to college is balanced out with some anxiety about how to 'do college.' Success Prints Crash Course is the college life strategy game that challenges players to manage their time strategically across the multiple demands college students face: doing well academically, connecting socially, making new friends, completing assignments, and earning enough money to cover all the costs. Success Prints Crash Course invites players to test their time management strategy and learn about campus resources and supports before the consequences are real.

Speakers

Tricia Seifert

Professor, Montana State University

I am a game designer by accident. Troubled by the number of students who withdraw from college after their first year, I started working with a team of student game devs to create a game about how to "do college." Success Prints Crash Course® is the college success tabletop game... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Death to Love

Speakers

Eric Park

Benjamin Chiaro

Team Lead, Unity Programmer, VGDC @ UCI

I am a 4th year student at UCI in the Computer Game Science program, as well as a recurring team lead, designer, and Unity programmer at UCI's video game design club, where we try to make a game every quarter. My most recent project was a punk rock inspired beat em up by the name... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Delfini

Speakers

Yuwei Lin

Yimeng Chen

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Dr. Sara: Disease Detective: A Mobile Game about Epidemiology

Dr. Sara: Disease Detective is a visual novel mobile game in which students take on the role of the World's Greatest Epidemiologist. In a character-driven simulation of Epidemic Intelligence Officer detective work, students get to investigate and solve outbreaks around the globe. Dr. Sara is a brave, brilliant disease detective taking on severe outbreaks in hotspots around the world—searching for the index case, connecting seemingly disparate dots—confronting fear, both personal and societal—all the while racing against time to find clues to a cure. Featuring high stakes time pressure; compelling character and narrative; perplexing puzzles; and the natural gameplay dynamics that emerge from network science and contact tracing. We hope this new visual novel mobile game game will inspire students to develop an interest in science, medicine, technology, and public health.
Key Links:
Website: https://www.spencerstriker.com/work/disease-detective
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spencerstriker.diseasedetective
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dr-sara-disease-detective/id1584972667
Trailer: https://youtu.be/sDYNPzfNFZg

Speakers

Spencer Striker

Associate Professor of Digital Media Design, Northwestern University in Qatar

Spencer Striker, PhD is Associate Professor of Digital Media Design at Northwestern Qatar. Striker’s work centers on interaction design, mobile media, digital media and learning, video games, and entrepreneurship. He is the creator of History Adventures, World of Characters... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Dwell™: A Tabletop Simulation to Experientially Learn Poverty-Related Struggles

Poverty impacts the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals. It is certain that health care providers will encounter patients navigating an impoverished reality; however, few have the necessary skills to fully assist these individuals. Dwell™, a tabletop poverty simulation experience, was created with the goal of fostering players’ development of empathic service and care skills. In the game, players take on a character and household and have to stay afloat for a simulated 4-week in-game period. By engaging in perspective-taking as part of a facilitated experiential learning tool with compulsory debrief, health care students learn important lessons that can drastically improve their interactions with economically disadvantaged patients and thus enhancing patient care and professional success. The game has been evaluated with positive outcomes including when compared against other simulation-based tools addressing poverty.

Speakers

Deborah Salani

University of Miami

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Wa.Wa who?What are you so excited about?!

Jill Sanko

University of Miami

Knock, knock.Who’s there?A leaf.A leaf who?A leaf you alone if you leaf me alone.

Lien B Tran

Assistant Professor, DePaul University

Lien Tran (she, her, hers) is an assistant professor of games and design at DePaul University's School of Design in the College of Computing and Digital Media. She is director of Matters at Play, a transdisciplinary design lab partnering in the creation of interactive advocacy solutions... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

EnRolled, Playing and Modifying Higher Education

Summary: enRolled is a board game designed to be played in a freshman seminar or similar course. The game gives students a common experience to talk about. Student debt, degree requirements, course options, and random life events all play a part of the college experience.

Objective: Students play enRolled in a semi-competitive environment. Players accumulate debt every turn and the final goal is to meet all the requirements of a selected degree. The “winner” will be the student who graduates first and with the least amount of debt.

The Magic: The real engagement comes when the students start to modify the game. After being presented with a standard college experience, the students/players start to debate the possible modifications of the game based on their expectations and experiences.

Speakers

Andrew Peterson

Ferris State University

Knock, knock Who's there?KentKent who?Kent you tell by my voice?

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Every Letter

Speakers

Violet Fickes

Indie Game Designer, University of Southern California

Hey, I'm Violet, I'm a queer indie game developer, and I especially love game design! I make a lot of solo projects in my free time, like Every Letter: a cozy typewriting game that was featured by Wholesome Games and just got a French localization! I love talking about level design... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Fetch Quest

Speakers

Grant Reed

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Hedge Hug

Speakers

Claire Hu

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Hellevator

Speakers

Matthew Knight

Designer

Level Design DnD RPGs Narrative Design Kingdom Hearts/Skyrim/Undertale Game Studies

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Impasto

Description:
Impasto is a first-person horror adventure game inspired by the works and legacy of Francisco Goya, the revered yet tortured Spanish painter. Set within a world irreversibly altered by his fraying sanity, the player must use both stealth and wits to survive.

This is a student-made project created by undergraduate students at the University of Southern California in collaboration with students from Otis College of Art and Design, and California State University Fullerton, as well as volunteers from around the world.

Links:
Website: https://alextomkow.itch.io/impasto
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1908240/Impasto/
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0rm8A9Q77M

Speakers

Alex Tomkow

Game Director, Impasto

I'm an experienced game designer and developer residing in Los Angeles. I'm currently pursuing a B.A. in Interactive Media and Game Design from the University of Southern California. Even before being a student at USC, I'd been making and releasing games independently and in small... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Inclusive Character Creator

Speakers

Michelle Ma

Michelle Ma is currently a character technical artist in Irvine working on Overwatch. She has a Master of Fine Arts in Interactive Media from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Computer Science and Fine Art from Carnegie Mellon University. In the past, she's worked... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

It Comes In Waves

It Comes In Waves is a narrative-based Twine game prototype about being an essential worker during the ongoing pandemic. It takes as its focus the role social class plays in relation to COVID-19 protocols surrounding workplaces and the subsequent effects these have on everyday life. You play as Beattie, a low-paid caregiver at two different long-term care facilities during the first few months of the pandemic, navigating the challenges of trying to stay safe while doing her two jobs and maintaining social contact with her friends and family. There were two central design goals for the game: first to show how social class inflects our daily experiences, including our employment prospects, opportunities in life, living experiences, and hopes for the future; and second to avoid the trap of becoming either an “empathy machine” or a misery simulator.

Speakers

Courtney Blamey

Concordia University

Courtney Blamey is a PhD student and game designer at Concordia University in the Department of Communication Studies. Her doctoral research concentrates on the process of meaning-making in games tackling serious themes and exploring this relationship between player and designer in... Read More →

Mia Consalvo

Concordia University

Mia Consalvo is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design at Concordia University in Montreal. She is the co-author of Real Games: What's Legitimate and What's Not in Contemporary Videogames (2019) and Players and their Pets: Gaming Communities from Beta to Sunset... Read More →

Lyne Dwyer

Concordia University

Lyne (they/them) is a game maker and researcher in their first year student of Concordia University’s Communication Studies PhD program. Their research interests include sexuality and gender in the media, digital intimacies, and queer game studies, and their MA research focused... Read More →

Michael Iantorno

PhD Candidate, Concordia University

Michael Iantorno is a FRQSC-funded PhD candidate in Concordia University’s Communication program whose doctoral research explores videogame afterlife, fandom, and intellectual property law. His ongoing academic projects involve studying socioeconomic class in games, cataloguing... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

KELVIN

Speakers

Tim Kashani

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Lofi Hip Hop Worlds to Study In

If you want a meditative break from the intensity of the conference, this game can help :) LoFi Hip Hop Worlds to Study In is a collection of 3D worlds full of study spots with instrumental music and ambient sounds. Explore a relaxing beach, paint in a city park, fly through a mystical jungle, lounge in a mysterious submarine, and more.

Students can explore these worlds to relax while they take breaks from studying. The software allows them to set a timer to remind them to come back to their studies. When they do, they can set a new timer; the game-world remains inactive in the background, but the application continues to provide relaxing sounds and beats with no ads.

The game was released on Itch.io in 2021 (https://lofiworlds.itch.io/study) to support fellow students during the pandemic. It has earned high ratings and a glowing review from PC Gamer Magazine.

The game's design is based on user experience (UX) research Matthew and colleagues conducted on mindful gaming:
Hamilton, M., DiSalvo, B., & Fullerton, T. (2021). Mindful gaming: User experiences with Headspace and Walden, a Game. In Fang X. (Ed), HCI in games: Serious and immersive games. HCII 2021. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 12790. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77414-1_1

Speakers

Matthew Coopilton (formerly Hamilton)

PhD Candidate, University of Southern California

I am a researcher, game designer, and teacher. I am currently a PhD candidate in Educational Psychology at the University of Southern California, studying critical digital literacies and gaming; I also took game design MFA classes in the USC Games program.My current work is in the... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Mindful Garden: Snap Colocated AR Mindfulness

In the HCI field, interest in technology to support meditation has also grown significantly, as evidenced by steady increases in research in the topic over the past decade. Researchers have experimented with tracking and visualizing EEG signals that turn invisible aspects of meditative states into shared, visible displays. Among technical approaches to supporting EEG-based meditation, Augmented Reality (AR) offers new forms of social interaction that not only enables emotional awareness, but also promotes connectedness and empathy with others who meditate alongside. In this work, we present Mindful Garden, a system that extends the Snap HCI team’s Grateful Garden group meditation lens for supporting reflection on biosignals in a mindfulness experience where two people are physically co-located. The Mindful Garden captured a person’s EEG data in the Muse 2 headband, and represented the data as flowers in a shared AR environment in the Snap Spectacles. To overcome the technical limitation, we contribute a pipeline for data streaming from the Muse2 to the Snap Spectacles. The pilot interview with 8 participants sparked questions around people’s perceptions of what mindfulness means as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using technology to augment the practice of mindfulness in a social setting. We point to future opportunities for revised co-located design and integrating with learning from meditation experts' experience.

Speakers

Lika Haizhou Liu

Doctoral Student, University of California, Irvine

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Carmen.Carmen who?Carmen let me in already!

Xi Lu

University of California, Irvine

Knock Knock! Who's There? Snow! Snow who? Snow laughing matter.

Richard Martinez

University of California, Irvine

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Police. Police who?Police hurry—I'm freezing out here!

Dennis Wang

University of California, Irvine

Knock, knock! Who’s there? Wire. Wire who? Wire you always asking ‘who’s there’?

Daniel Epstein

University of California, Irvine

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Figs. Figs who? Figs the doorbell, it's broken!

Kurt Squire

Professor of Informatics, University of California, Irvine

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Mission HydroSci: A Middle School Water Adventure

Mission HydroSci is an educational game consisting of six science content modules: Tutorial, Watersheds, Surface Water Flow, Subsurface Flow, Atmospheric Energy Transfers, and Human Impacts as well as a continuous Scientific Argumentation learning progression.

Speakers

Joe Griffin

University of Missouri

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Voodoo. Voodoo who? Voodoo you think you are asking me so many questions?

James Laffey

Columbia, Missouri, United States of America, University of Missouri

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Santa. Santa who?Santa email reminding you I’d be here, and you STILL make me wait in the cold!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Nijito

Speakers

James Bates

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Oberth Effect: Keeping Physics Real in Games

Oberth Effect is a spaceship design and combat game aimed at exploring how spacecraft combat would work under a more realistic physics setting. On the design side, players can use a pre-packaged vehicle, or create their own unique designs using a block-based vehicle design system. A simple modding system allows advanced players to further customize their experience and share their own take on the game with others. On the simulation side, Oberth Effect aims to be physically realistic and excludes crutch mechanics such as space drag. This, in turn, requires players to discover on their own the most effective ways to navigate and interact in space. Flip-and-burn brachistochrone trajectories and targeting systems accounting for Galilean relativity naturally emerge as results of game mechanics. The hope is that, after playing Oberth Effect, players can more effectively examine and critique representations of space travel and combat in popular science fiction.

Speakers

Jack Sun

University of California, Irvine

Jack is a human residing on Earth, Sol system. He currently studies Computer Game Science and Astrophysics at UCI. He enjoys space games and building games, and likes exploring the concept of "games that teach".

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

OCG (Obsessive Compulsive Game)

OCG (Obsessive Compulsive Game) is a personal, semi-autobiographical game about living with OCD. OCD is a widely misunderstood mental illness, often depicted as an excessive tidiness or a fixation with cleaning. In reality, it is an often-debilitating condition that interferes deeply in the lives of those who have it. This game is intended to give players a greater understanding of the condition through a short game about what it is like to live with (and recover from) OCD.

Speakers

Dr. Kelly M Tran

Assistant Professor, High Point University

PhD Student at Arizona State University.

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Poor Not Guilty: Fines and Fees Challenge - Advocating Against the Criminalization of Poverty through Perspective-Taking

Cities and states throughout the United States impose fines for minor offenses at every stage of the criminal justice system. Without any means of escape from a system designed to punish poverty, millions of Americans lose their jobs, homes, and even their children. Two of the major roadblocks to change on addressing the criminalization of poverty are a lack of awareness and a lack of empathy. In order to educate audiences who are less likely to be exposed to or directly impacted by such unfair practices, a team of game designers and legal experts collaborated on Poor Not Guilty: Fines and Fees Challenge, in which players perspective-take with the goal to increase their awareness of unjust monetary penalties and reduce bias towards those who are living in poverty by experiencing the detrimental impact of criminalizing petty offenses.

Speakers

Jess Reed

DePaul University

Knock knockWho's there?AnudderAnudder who?Anudder mosquito.

Lien B Tran

Assistant Professor, DePaul University

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Skin Deep

Speakers

Abby Sherlock

Production Coordinator, Riot Games

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Social Moth

Speakers

Ben Heid

Creative Director, Social Moth Team

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Sugarcane Empire

"Candy Box," "A Dark Room," and the "Clicker Heroes" series have attracted tens-of-thousands of players who sink hundreds of hours and dollars into these idle or "clicker" games. "Sugarcane Empire" is interested in whether the simple yet addictive mechanism of clicker games can be used for a cause, to draw attention to meaningful storytelling, minority experiences, and cultural narratives. The players of "Sugarcane Empire" are asked to build a clicker empire based on buying and selling sugarcane, but the click-and-profit mechanism is used to convey a personal narrative about generational and cultural differences in the Chinese-American immigrant experience. As readers build their sugarcane empire, they find themselves in the boots of three Chinese and Chinese-American women, who relate to the family business in widely differing ways. The format of the game enhances storytelling by applying the addicting mechanism of the idle-game genre for drawing attention to overlooked narratives.

Speakers

Jingjing Xiao

University of Chicago

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Carl.Carl who?A Carl get you there faster than a bike.

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

The Cheat Code For Happiness Is…

Speakers

Jason Pambuena

Student, University of California - Irvine

Hello!I’m the Team Lead for The Cheat Code For Happiness Is…! It’s a rhythm note highway game where you flick the analog sticks to play! Making this game for our Multiplayer Game Course and as a quarterly project for VGDC this quarter was tons of fun! It helped me learn lots... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

The Legend of the Lost Emerald: Searching for Shipwrecks on the Great Lakes

In the Legend of the Lost Emerland you use your skills as a professional maritime archaeologists to investigate a family legend involving your grandfather, a ship captain whose freighter was lost many years ago during a severe storm on the Great Lakes. Could it have really been his fault? It’s up to you to help discover the truth.

Speakers

M. Sarah J Gagnon

Creative Director & Communications, Field Day Lab

I read everything I can about communication. I try to find a repeatable process for everything we do. I study leadership constantly. My favorite book is "The power of one." I've been to every continent except the one where the IceCube lab is located. I collect textiles. The most important... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

The Woods: A Mixed-Reality Cooperative Game

“The Woods” is a mixed-reality, two-player cooperative game that addresses the perils of social isolation by promoting connections between people and actively engaging them through play. Using augmented reality (AR) and 4-channel audio spatialization panning, players choreograph their movement in real-world space while interacting with birds, clouds, and other objects in virtual space. In pursuit of a shared goal, players experience an immersive sonic narrative of rumbling storm clouds and disconnected voices that culminate in stories of hope and reconciliation. The design intent behind “The Woods” is to illuminate human connections to others and to celebrate this through collaborative play.

Speakers

Scott Swearingen

Ohio State University

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Nun.Nun who?Nunya business!

Kyoung Lee Swearingen

Ohio State University

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Hawaii.Hawaii who?I’m fine, Hawaii you?

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Trespasser

Speakers

Marielle Brady

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

1:00pm PDT

Walden, A Game EDU

Walden, a game, EDU adapts the widely acclaimed experimental game based on Thoreau’s Transcendentalist masterpiece as a set of games-based learning modules with integrated standards-based curriculum in ELA, Social Studies, Social and Emotional Learning, History, Civics, and Environmental Science. Created in collaboration with teachers, students, content advisors, games-based learning experts, and evaluators, Walden, a game EDU is a model for online and hybrid games-based learning experience in the humanities. This showcase of Walden, a game EDU will contain completely new content, gameplay, and integrated curriculum that will be fully playable at the showcase and will be the first in-person demonstration of this new educational version of the game.

Speakers

Tracy Fullerton

Professor and Director, USC Game Innovation Lab

Tracy Fullerton is an award-winning experimental game designer, professor, and director of the cross-disciplinary USC Games program, a collaboration between the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the Viterbi School of Engineering. She holds the Electronic Arts Endowed Chair in Interactive... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 1:00pm - Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Arcade, Game

2:30pm PDT

Fireside Chat with Mia Consalvo

Speakers

Mia Consalvo

Concordia University

Wednesday June 15, 2022 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
Fireside Chat Alcove UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Fireside Chats

2:30pm PDT

Games and the Logic of Empire

As with any media, games reflect our culture. They also contribute to forming and informing our culture. We often approach this in a haphazard way, as if there were a 1:1 correlation between representations in game and our experience out of game. Instead, this analysis of games seeks to advance our conversation around cultural values of acquisition and dominance and how they are expressed in games, beginning with a definition of terms and straightforward examples and then venturing into edge cases and more covert expressions.

Master of Ceremonies

Rose O'Leary

University of California, Irvine

Knock, knockWho's there?Lettuce.Lettuce who?Lettuce in, it's cold out here.

Speakers

David Simkins

Associate Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology

David is fascinated by the potential of games, particularly role playing as a tool for facilitating and encouraging learning. He is also fascinated by the constraints and affordances of different games as tools for learning. Fortunately, he is able to study games, write about games... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, The Ill Logic of Empire

2:30pm PDT

Suburban Adults Playing Pokemon: 20 Years Later

The Pokémon franchise is one of the largest in history and subsequently the focus of multiple fields of academic study. In digital gaming, Pokémon game titles have also been the subject of much scrutiny. In this research, the mainline Pokémon titles (not including spin-offs such as Pokémon Go!) provide as case study for understanding the flexibility and changing understandings and engagement of play in contemporary digital game play. This study focuses on a small region outside of a major Canadian city anonymously entitled “The District”, featuring a historical automotive and industrial sector, characterized by primarily suburban, but also rural and urban geographical characteristics. The research investigates historical perceptions of playing Pokémon and exposes some forms of inequality within the District in terms of lingering digital divides, corporate control, and attitudes towards play. This paper investigates how these persistence issues impact adult Pokémon play and forms of resistance to these problems.

Master of Ceremonies

Rose O'Leary

University of California, Irvine

Knock, knockWho's there?Lettuce.Lettuce who?Lettuce in, it's cold out here.

Speakers

Allen Kempton

University of Toronto

Knock! Knock! Who's there?Mary and Abbey.Mary and Abbey who? Mary Christmas and Abbey New Year!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, The Ill Logic of Empire

2:30pm PDT

“I don’t fit in anywhere”: Undergraduates’ Experiences with Avatars and Games in an Education Course

This article presents findings from an investigation into undergraduate students’ experiences with the video game Forge of Empires in an Education course. I share details from one student’s personal life experiences and I illustrate how those experiences relate to her reflections on her gaming assignments. I also contrast her reactions to Forge of Empires’ avatar choices with the reactions of the other participants in this study. I conclude by recommending that preservice teachers be simultaneously trained in critical pedagogies and the use of video games for instruction. The inclusion of critical pedagogies such as Critical Media Literacy, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, and Critical Race Theory in courses about educational uses of video games can help prepare teachers for difficult conversations that will arise when students come across the issues of biases, inequities, and the underrepresentation of marginalized groups.

Master of Ceremonies

Rose O'Leary

University of California, Irvine

Knock, knockWho's there?Lettuce.Lettuce who?Lettuce in, it's cold out here.

Speakers

Darnel Degand

Assistant Professor, University of California, Davis

Darnel Degand joined the University of California Davis School of Education as an assistant professor in July 2017. He studies the various ways media and society influence the development of social success skills by exploring the social processes that exist within media production... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, The Ill Logic of Empire

2:30pm PDT

Towards a Public Pathway for Careers in Gaming: NYC Youth and Agency

In April 2022, the City University of New York (CCNY) announced a new public pathway to gaming careers to meet the workforce needs of the growing video gaming and related industries in New York City. This presentation explores this new pathway in three ways. First, we will explore highlights from the 2021 study undertaken with area high school-aged youth to inform the development of this project. It will highlight key lessons learned about youth and games while sharing techniques developed to surface examples of youth agency within gaming ecosystems. Second, we will explore what is means to create a new public option offering a bachelor’s degree for youth who want to pursue careers in these industries but lack the means to attend the more expensive private universities offering similar degree programs. Finally, the last third of this symposium will introduce the Weston Game Lab at the University of Chicago and representatives from both programs will explore how both public and private universities can work with local communities to prepare Black and brown youth for a game-oriented career trajectory. The Pathway is a new partnership between New York City’s MoME (Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment) and a team led by CCNY consisting of SAENY (Science and Arts Engagement New York) and UAP (Urban Arts Partnership).

Speakers

Nick Fortugno

Chief Creative Officer, Playmatics

Nick Fortugno is a designer of games and interactive narrative experiences and co-founder of Playmatics. Fortugno has been lead designer on dozens of works, including leading interactive narrative design on Frankenstein AI, shown at Sundance New Frontier, and on games and experiences... Read More →

Barry Joseph

Provocateur, Barry Joseph Consulting

Talk to me about whatever you feel passionate about. Ask me about my new books, what games I'm playing, and my new consulting company focused on digital experience design.

Ashlyn Sparrow

Assistant Director of the Weston Game Lab, University of Chicago

Ashlyn Sparrow's work focuses on creating socially impactful games and health-focused app interventions. In 2013, Ashlyn was the Learning Technology Director of the Game Changer Chicago Design Lab at the University of Chicago, devoted to creating game-based health interventions supported... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Symposium

2:30pm PDT

Global Pandemics - a Story of Survival & Resilience

Introducing Global Pandemics: Plague of Athens, a cutting-edge, browser-based, digital learning experience—designed to enhance student understanding of the role of pandemics in world history. One year in the making, and involving a talented, interdisciplinary team from around the world—the new learning product features cutting-edge digital learning design, web animation, interaction design, and digital storytelling. Global Pandemics provides historical context for students about the challenges COVID-19 has presented to people around the world. The design of Global Pandemics is positioned at the nexus of innovative pedagogical, theoretical, and technological practices—including narrative studies, multimodal literacies, and game-based learning research. Synthesizing the best of history games, visual learning, interactive textbooks, and history apps, Global Pandemics introduces novel features, design elements, and affordances—demonstrating the effectiveness of applied educational research to enhance learning outcomes.

Desktop Chrome browser web app: https://pandemics.historyadventures.app
Learn More: https://www.spencerstriker.com/work/pandemics
Video Walkthrough: https://youtu.be/wZ-HVOJvqSs

Speakers

Spencer Striker

Associate Professor of Digital Media Design, Northwestern University in Qatar

Wednesday June 15, 2022 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Well Played

4:00pm PDT

Fireside Chat with Cortney Harding

Speakers

Cortney Harding

Wednesday June 15, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Fireside Chat Alcove UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Fireside Chats

4:00pm PDT

Are We Fiddling While Rome Burns? A Call to Action for Academic Game Archives

There is a critical need for preservation of games created in academic contexts by faculty and students. While there has been significant work done in exploring the ways in which games--and their ancillary materials--could be effectively archived, little of this theoretical work has resulted in functional archives of work. In this paper, we argue that there is a critical need for game archiving to move from theory to implementation.

Master of Ceremonies

Roger Altizer

Associate Director, Entertainment Arts and Engineering

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Hike.Hike who?I didn't know you liked Japanese poetry!

Speakers

Liz Lawley

Professor, RIT Interactive Games & Media

Social computing. Location-based games. Dubrovnik. My kids.

Wednesday June 15, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Building a Better Game Design Pipeline

4:00pm PDT

Developing the Learning Games Lab Toolkit: Engaging Learners from Diverse Backgrounds in Game Design

Members within and outside game design and game studies communities have critiqued the lack of diversity in the fields. Encouraging school-age children and youth from diverse backgrounds is one approach to addressing this concern. A [university outreach lab] has developed a Toolkit that enhances children and youth’s interests in being game developers, knowledge and skill in reviewing games and digital media, and engagement in the game design process. By using teaching and learning principles based in Universal Design for Learning, culturally responsive education, and media literacy, the [lab] creates learning experiences that cultivate a sense of belonging in game communities and foster critical thinking and creativity for children and youth of diverse backgrounds.

Master of Ceremonies

Roger Altizer

Associate Director, Entertainment Arts and Engineering

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Hike.Hike who?I didn't know you liked Japanese poetry!

Speakers

Barbara Chamberlin

Professor, New Mexico State University

Barbara Chamberlin directs game and media development at New Mexico State University’s Learning Games Lab. The production team works on a variety of content and audiences, most recently completing Math Snacks games for mid school learners (mathsnacks.org). Dr. Chamberlin also conducts... Read More →

Amanda LaTasha Armstrong

Games Lab Coordinator, New Mexico State University

Amanda LaTasha Armstrong earned her master’s degree in child development with a specialization in administration from Erikson Institute. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate at New Mexico State University (NMSU) in the College of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Building a Better Game Design Pipeline

4:00pm PDT

Learning Engineering to Develop Personalized Systems at Scale

Digital media offer a promising platform for personalized, adaptive learning at scale, enabling multimodal, interactive educational experiences for learners of all ages. For young children, it is essential to design learning experiences appropriate to developmental stages and cognitive growth. Learning engineering processes can be leveraged in application to design to address this need at scale. This paper describes a learning engineering framework that applies learning science principles, design for playful engagement, and design-based research in a real-world production setting. To build processes that enable high-impact design decisions, we employ learning engineering as a cross-disciplinary team sport. The flexible approach drove the different stages of design and development of a developmentally appropriate, immersive, personalized learning experience for young learners. From early curriculum to immersion and interaction design, spanning overall system design and final product development with considerations for evidence and data collection, this framework enables a comprehensive view of the child and their learning environments, quick and actionable insights for iterative design improvements, and a pathway to measurable learning outcomes.

Master of Ceremonies

Craig G Anderson

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Craig is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota. His interests include experiences of failure in video games and learning environments, and is currently studying how players solve puzzles in Baba is You.

Speakers

Meagan Rothchild

VP Design Research & Consumer Insights, Age of Learning

Dr. Rothschild oversees formative and user research across Age of Learning’s educational programs as VP of Design Research and Consumer Insights. She came to Age of Learning from WIDA, a leading educational research and program development organization within the Wisconsin Center... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Tailoring to the Person

4:00pm PDT

Leveraging Cluster Analysis to Understand Educational Game Player Styles and Support Design

The ability for an educational game designer to understand their audience’s play styles and resulting experience is an essential tool for improving their game’s design. As a game is subjected to large-scale player testing, the designers require inexpensive, automated methods for categorizing patterns of player-game interactions. In this paper we present a simple, reusable process using best practices for data clustering, feasible for use within a small educational game studio. We utilize the method to analyze a real-time strategy game, processing game telemetry data to determine categories of players based on their in-game actions, the feedback they received, and their progress through the game. An interpretive analysis of these clusters results in actionable insights for the game’s designers.

Master of Ceremonies

Craig G Anderson

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Speakers

David Gagnon

Director, Field Day Lab @ UW-Madison

I make and study games, mostly in schools but sometimes not. See fielddaylab.wisc.edu for my best plan to date.

Erik Karpstead

Pittsburgh, PA, USA, Carnegie Mellon University

Knock! Knock!Who's there?WandaWanda who?Wanda hang out with me right now?

John Mccloskey

University of Wisconsin

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Otto. Otto who?Otto know what's taking you so long!

Jennifer Scianna

Founder, Koshkonong Trails

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Hike.Hike who?I didn’t know you liked Japanese poetry!

Stefan Slater

Doctoral Student, University of Pennsylvania

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Candice.Candice who?Candice joke get any worse?!

Nicholas Spevacek

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Saul.Saul who?Saul there is — there ain’t no more!

Luke Swanson

Graduate Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison

I am a graduate student in Computer Sciences at UW-Madison, and just completed my fifth year in the doctoral program.I work on the data team at Field Day Lab, where I've spent the last few years building infrastructure for capturing, analyzing, and visualizing gameplay data.I like... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Tailoring to the Person

4:00pm PDT

Personalized Learning as Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

Culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) is an approach to teaching and learning that draws upon the cultural resources of learners to support the development of new knowledge, skills and dispositions. Personalized learning is a set of practices educators use to organize learning environments around student needs and interests. While arguments for personalized learning and CSP often exist in parallel, Rich Halverson will provide compelling reasons to bring these two discourse communities together. Personalized learning can provide a set of strategies for educators to build learning relationships based on student interests and needs; while CSP offers a rationale for an equity-focused design for learning. Together, these ideas outline a powerful, attainable vision for the future of education in and outside of the classroom.

Master of Ceremonies

Craig G Anderson

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Speakers

Richard Halverson

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Water.Water who?Water those plants or they're going to die!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Tailoring to the Person

4:00pm PDT

The Life and Near Death of the Learning Games Network

The structures of academic institutions facilitate work on grant-funded projects and the production of research. They are not typically well-designed for the creation of products that live beyond the grant-funded stage and continue to have an impact on the world. In the early 2000s our teams at MIT and UW Madison found ourselves with this conundrum - how do we create and sustain products and provide services that draw upon our expertise, but don't fit well within our institutions. As a result, we created the Learning Games Network, a non-profit that grew to span two locations, and spawned many award-winning products. But like many startups, the Learning Games Network ran into a number of challenges. Sharing experiences and lessons learned we hope to help others who are exploring non-profit mechanisms for bridging the university boundaries, from this non-profit now in its second decade.

Master of Ceremonies

Roger Altizer

Associate Director, Entertainment Arts and Engineering

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Hike.Hike who?I didn't know you liked Japanese poetry!

Speakers

Eric Klopfer

Professor, MIT

Dr. Eric Klopfer is Professor and Director of the Scheller Teacher Education Program and The Education Arcade at MIT. Klopfer’s research focuses on the development and use of computer games and simulations for building understanding of science and complex systems. His research explores... Read More →

Scot Osterweil

Creative Director, MIT

Scot Osterweil is Creative Director of the Education Arcade in the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program. He has designed award-winning games in both academic and commercial environments, focusing on what is authentically playful in challenging academic subjects. Designs include the... Read More →

Kurt Squire

Professor of Informatics, University of California, Irvine

Wednesday June 15, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Building a Better Game Design Pipeline

4:00pm PDT

Spiritfarer: A Relaxing Exploration Around Themes of Death and Loss

Spiritfarer is a cozy resource and relationship management game focused on caring for passengers and helping them to address their unfinished business before ultimately guiding them to the afterlife. The game features repeated learning opportunities for practicing the grieving process in a safer game-based environment as well as requiring players to learn the unique needs of each other character that make them human. This Well Played session will demonstrate critical game design elements that align with the embedded opportunities for learning.

Speakers

Noah Glaser

Assistant Professor in the School of Information Science & Learning Technologies, University of Missouri

Noah Glaser is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri and the Director of the Information Experience Lab. His research is concerned with designing and evaluating technology-driven learning experiences through... Read More →

Maggie Center

Connecting With Center LLC

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Nun. Nun who? Nun of your business!

Joe Griffin

University of Missouri

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Voodoo. Voodoo who? Voodoo you think you are asking me so many questions?

Lucas Jensen

Georgia Southern University

Knock! Knock! Who's there?Control Freak. Con— Okay, now you say, "Control Freak who?"

Tina Riedy

Instructional Designer, Miami University

Tina Riedy (she/her) is a queer instructional designer and multimedia specialist based in Ohio who has produced hundreds of online courses for adult and teen learners. She has served in many different roles over the years including instructional designer, educational game designer/developer... Read More →

Jim Shifflett

Old Dominion University

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Ice cream soda.Ice cream soda who?Ice scream soda people can hear me!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Well Played

5:00pm PDT

AOC is Among Us: Learning to be a Crewmate, or an Impostor, in a Gaming Community of Practice

This project focuses on United States Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s playing and learning in the social deduction video game, Among Us. Using sociocultural learning theory as a lens, this project analyzes Ocasio-Cortez’s gameplay videos posted in Twitch. Attention will be given to her interactions with others to identify situated meanings and social moves that allow her to become a more legitimate participant in the community. This project analyzes how Ocasio-Cortez uses discourse to position herself, as well as how her actions are perceived and acted upon by others. The discursive social moves she engages in where coded as “noob positioning” and her actions that showed lack of literacy in the game were coded as “noob moves.” Another type of interaction identified was coded “experts explaining things” which was often a reaction to noob moves or noob positioning. These types of interactions are likely a ubiquitous occurrence in communities of practice and affinity groups.

Speakers

Raul Figueroa-Rivera

Doctoral Student, University of Illinois at Chicago

Hello!I'm Raúl (Rah-OOl). I'm from Puerto Rico. I'm a lifelong gamer, my first favorite game was probably Breath of Fire on the Super Nintendo! I always attribute some of my learning of English to that game as well as other games like Pokemon and MTG card games. I have degrees... Read More →

GLS 2022 Poster AOC pdf

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

Co-Designing a STEM-based VR Game For and With Neurodiverse Learners

As part of developing and researching a virtual reality (VR) game intended to increase access to and broaden participation in STEM learning, designers and researchers from [Institution] and interns from [Institution], a post-secondary institute for learners with autism, ADHD, and other learning differences, are immersed in an intensive co-design process. Co-design embraces the ‘nothing about us without us’ movement by ensuring stakeholder voices, in this case neurodiverse learners, have a prominent role throughout the design process. In this poster, we’ll describe our co-design process, key lessons learned, important game-design decisions, and the experiences and perspectives of individual co-design participants. Recommendations will be provided to help guide others who are interested in implementing a co-design process of their own.

Speakers

Zac Alstad

EdGE at TERC

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Needle. Needle who? Needle little help getting in the door!

Gerald Belton

Landmark College

Knock, knock! Who’s there? Wire. Wire who? Wire you always asking ‘who’s there’?

Ibrahim Dahlstrom-Hakki

Senior Research Scientist, Technical Education Research Centers (TERC)

Knock! Knock!Who’s there?Howl.Howl who?Howl you know if you don't open the door?

Teon Edwards

Lead Designer, EdGE at TERC

Games for learning;Play for learning;Using the digital to engage people in the world around them;Tacit learning in STEM-based games;XR/AR/VR affordances for learning;Co-Design;Zoombinis (Hip, hip, Zoombinis!!!)

Ian Hagberg

Landmark College

Knock! Knock!Who's there? Honeydew.Honeydew who? Honeydew you want to hear some garden jokes?

Katherine Hoder

Landmark College

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Turnip. Turnip who?Turnip the volume, I love this song!

James L Larsen

EdGE at TERC

I'm interested in leveraging games and play to get people outside or to better connect people to real world experiences. My projects include STEMlandia XR, SportsLab, and Mission to Europa (a VR mystery).

Becky Scheff

Landmark College

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Quiche.Quiche who?Can I have a hug and a quiche?

David E Soltero

Landmark College

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Banana.Banana who?Knock, knock.Who’s there?Banana.Banana who?Knock, knock.Who’s there?Orange.Orange who?Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

Co-telling our Futures: Counterstory as Design Learning Technique

Many great thinkers have called for us to imagine a better possible future but how do we facilitate learning to do so? (Freire, Le Guin, Butler). Stories help us imagine the way the world works and what is possible within it (Horkheimer & Adorno). Storytelling in design and critical ways of imagining story are crucial to helping our future generations create survivance in eras of massive change (Vizenor). Utilizing and combining methods from Critical Computational Literacy, Critical Media Literacy, Critical Race Theory, Indigenous STEAM, Transformative Learning and Constructionist art making, this poster session explores how we might co-design counterstory centered learning environments that both utilize and critically examine digital technology in our lives.

Speakers

Rose O'Leary

University of California, Irvine

Knock, knockWho's there?Lettuce.Lettuce who?Lettuce in, it's cold out here.

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

Environmental Brightness, Clutter, and Hue Game Preferences Among Neurodiverse Versus Neurotypical Players

As part of an NSF-funded project, this study reports on data collected from neurotypical and neurodiverse learners to inform the development of an inclusive informal STEM learning game. Data was collected from 66 neurotypical and 41 neurodiverse participants regarding their preference for different values of scene brightness, hue, and amount of clutter. Results indicate that while optimal values were similar across the two groups, neurodiverse participants had stronger and more consistent preference for those values. Implications for game development are discussed.

Speakers

Zac Alstad

EdGE at TERC

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Needle. Needle who? Needle little help getting in the door!

Ibrahim Dahlstrom-Hakki

Senior Research Scientist, Technical Education Research Centers (TERC)

Knock! Knock!Who’s there?Howl.Howl who?Howl you know if you don't open the door?

Teon Edwards

Lead Designer, EdGE at TERC

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

Final Fantasy and Black Reality: The Changing Cultural Context of JRPGs

To fans of the role-playing game (RPG) genre, this legacy of antiquated depictions of Blackness is perhaps best exemplified by Barret Wallace from SquareSoft’s videogame Final Fantasy VII (1997). Robust, imposing, and equipped with a literal gun for an arm; Barret was for many their first Black playable character in an RPG. Embodying much of the industry's ideas on race, Barret was in many ways a window into how Blackness operated in gaming: controllable but secondary, righteous but unhinged, and hypermasculine yet desexualized. In 2020 SquareEnix would be faced with updating Barret from the gruff Mr.T-modeled entity of the ‘90s to a modern character befitting Final Fantasy VII: Remake.

As one of few notable characters of color who have been readapted for shifting cultural expectations, Barret Wallace provides a unique character study of racial representation across gaming contexts and time. Using Barret as a subject, this poster seeks to explore three questions: How has the character changed between releases? How do these changes reflect an evolving representational context in video games and society? And, how might Barret’s current depiction serve as a lens to interpret Blackness?

Speakers

Reginald Gardner

Doctoral Student, University of California, Irvine

Reginald is currently a Eugene Cota Robles Fellow, pursuing a Ph.D. in Informatics at The University of California – Irvine. Under the tutelage of Constance Steinkuehler, they study fighting games as artifacts, the Fighting Game Community (FGC), and esports in university settings... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom C UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

Flatland XR: An Embodied Geometry Game Using Shared Holographic AR

This Extended Reality (XR) video game, Flatland XR, explores collaborative embodiment of geometric reasoning. The technological simulations utilize Augmented Reality (AR) that projects virtual holograms of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) geometric shapes layered on top of the users’ physical world. Recent advances in shared holographic AR (shAR), have allowed for a multi-user learning experience for collaborative manipulation of the same hologram, creating opportunities for research in embodied learning. Embodiment for our simulation uses physical motion, gestures, and perception of shapes. This alternative modality of learning provides different affordances for understanding geometry by illustrating dynamic transformations, 3D objects, and allows for joint task and simulation feedback. This project explores eight different geometric simulations modeled after the 1800s fictional novella, Flatland, about an imaginary world run by geometric shapes.

Speakers

Jonathan Hunnicutt

Southern Methodist University

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Beets.Beets who?Beets me!

Candace Walkington

Southern Methodist University

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Dejav. Dejav who?Knock, knock.

Julianna C Washington

Southern Methodist University

Ph.D. Student & Graduate Research AssistantEducation & Human DevelopmentDepartment of Teaching and LearningMath, STEM, VR/AR/XR FocusM.Ed. focused in STEM, BA Economics

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

Gamify! Teacher PD for Gameful Learning and Gamification with Classcraft

Gameful learning design involves systematic approaches to instructional design to make learning activities more game-like and playful. A panel of five speakers (researchers, middle-school teachers, and a professional trainer) will discuss an ongoing teacher professional learning (PL) program called Gamify!, which introduces subject-area teachers to gameful learning design and gamification. To foster personally meaningful and engaging learning experiences for students, the online PL program emphasizes the use of gameful design approaches to fulfill the underlying psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness theorized by self-determination theory. Classcraft, an online platform that supports gameful learning experiences, is a central component of the PL. Ten to twelve teachers from six schools are creating and implementing two five-day gameful lessons with approximately 300 students in grades 6–8 by May 2022. Discussion topics will include implementation outcomes, preliminary research findings, the challenges of meaningfully gamifying K–12 instruction, and other lessons learned.

Speakers

James Diamond

Johns Hopkins University

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Art Art who? R2-D2, of course.

Anu Sharma

Johns Hopkins University

Knock, knock.Who’s there?A little old lady.A little old lady who?Wow, I didn’t know you could yodel!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

Mission HydroSci: Outcomes, Scale and Sustainability

Mission HydroSci (MHS) is a game-based virtual learning environment to build important science knowledge and competencies in ways that fit the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2013). MHS was developed with the support of funds from the U.S. Department of Education and has been played by over 1000 middle school students. Based on significant student learning gains from the first grant period and a plan for extended evaluation as well as moving to scale and sustainability our team has been awarded a second grant. The poster will present (1) key aspects of gameplay, (2) learning outcomes and lessons learned from the first grant period, and (3) plans for additional development, evaluation and sustainability.

Speakers

Joe Griffin

University of Missouri

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Voodoo. Voodoo who? Voodoo you think you are asking me so many questions?

James Laffey

Columbia, Missouri, United States of America, University of Missouri

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Santa. Santa who?Santa email reminding you I’d be here, and you STILL make me wait in the cold!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

Participatory design in machine learning: Culturally sustaining pedagogy for AI co-design

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been used as a tool for social good in applications from global warming to universally accessible healthcare. Despite its potential, AI can fail to positively affect the target community if the community’s expert knowledge is not involved in the project design. My research is about re-inventing participatory design in the age of AI by bringing together the fields of AI, human-computer interaction, education, and team science. Specifically, I seek to bring AI experts into local communities, and through participatory methods and education, produce community-centered tools that reflect the community’s interests and priorities. Using design-based research methods, I seek to demonstrate how AI tools can help urban LatinX communities in the Southwestern United States, and then build models that are broadly applicable. By doing this, we will make sure that AI will be a tool that empowers and serves the people that need it the most.

Speakers

María J. Anderson-Coto

PhD student, University of California, Irvine

Maria J. Anderson-Coto (she/her) is a PhD student from UC Irvine. Her work focuses on the intersection of design, human-computer interaction, education, and computer science. Her work focuses on co-designing with Latinx communities by re-thinking technologies in order to produce justice-centered... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

Scaffolding Zoombinis: Adding Executive Function Surrounds to the Popular, Classic Game

The popular, award-winning game Zoombinis has been around since the 90s, with an updated version launched in 2015 for new devices. Since that relaunch, research has been conducted on the effectiveness of the game and related bridging activities for the teaching and learning of computational thinking (Author, 2021; Author, 2021b; Author, 2019; Author, 2018; Author, 2017). Recently, efforts have been made to design and test executive function (EF) scaffolds that surround puzzles from the game, permitting learners who may have EF challenges, such as issues with working memory, attention, and metacognition, to demonstrate their skills with computational thinking (CT), a logical approach to problem solving which can be applied to any problem, task, or system. On this poster, we’ll present the Zoombinis scaffolds, the intent of their design, and the results of their use with teachers and students, grades 3-8, as part of a larger CT-education project.

Speakers

Jodi Asbell-Clarke

Director, EdGE at TERC

I direct a team of game designers, researchers, and learning scientists who live and work on the edge of science and play.

Ibrahim Dahlstrom-Hakki

Senior Research Scientist, Technical Education Research Centers (TERC)

Knock! Knock!Who’s there?Howl.Howl who?Howl you know if you don't open the door?

Teon Edwards

Lead Designer, EdGE at TERC

Erin Bardar, PhD

Education Materials Director, EdGE at TERC

As Education Materials Director for EdGE at TERC, my role includes elements of game design, outreach, and curriculum development. I work with the design team to help ensure that beneath all the fun, the games we develop are grounded in science that is both accurate and aligned with... Read More →

Tara Robillard

EdGE at TERC

Knock, knock.Who’s there? Lena.Lena who?Lena a little closer, and I’ll tell you another joke!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

The Big Build Up: Prosocial Tabletop Game Relating One’s Self-Esteem to Power and Control Exhibited in Dating Relationships

In the United States, 1 in 3 teens will experience physical, sexual, psychological or emotional abuse by someone they are in a relationship with before they become adults (Talk About It, n.d.). Yet teens often have difficulty differentiating between the characteristics of healthy romantic relationships and abusive behaviors that erode boundaries and undermine their safety and wellbeing, especially in the early stages when the signs are subtle (Olson, 2009). In response to this crisis, a team of game designers has produced a low-cost research-based 2-player cooperative tabletop game. The Big Build Up enables teens to discover the tactics often used to manipulate and control others, even when the effects of those behaviors may not be immediately obvious, and practice strategic decision-making boundary-setting skills in the safe space of gameplay.

Speakers

Lynn Ann Baus

DePaul University

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Figs. Figs who? Figs the doorbell, it's broken!

Lien B Tran

Assistant Professor, DePaul University

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

The Rapid Prototyping Game

The Rapid Prototyping Game is an educational game that pairs best teaching practices with game design. By grouping game elements into manageable categories, and isolating specific components, students can analyze how adding, subtracting, or combining game elements can create dynamic changes in a game. Most students focus on entertainment when playing games without ever thinking analytically about why they are having fun or why they enjoy a game. The Rapid Prototyping Game teaches them to make meaningful choices as they learn the iterative process through play.

Speakers

Andrew Peterson

Ferris State University

Knock, knock Who's there?KentKent who?Kent you tell by my voice?

Matthew Smith

Ferris State University

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Haven.Haven who?Haven you heard enough of these knock-knock jokes?

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

Using Fortnite Creative to Imagine Solutions to World Problems

We've seen how games can change classrooms and communities for the better, but can they really help all of humanity survive — and even thrive? The United Nations has 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These are must-reach targets for the year 2030, and have been crafted with the purpose of supporting continued comfortable human life on Earth. At Epic, we've taken these goals to heart. We're providing lesson plans that you can use with Fortnite Creative to educate a new generation on the importance of sustainability across many aspects of life.

Speakers

Steve Isaacs

Education Program Manager, Epic Games

Steve Isaacs is the Education Program Manager at Epic Games. His mission in this role is to support educators and students in exploring career opportunities that leverage interactive 3d skills. Prior to his role at Epic, Steve was a public school teacher for 28 years, teaching game... Read More →

Benjamin Kelly

Educator, Anglophone East School District

Ben is a Canadian STEM educator who has been celebrated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau twice. He was ISTE's Games and Simulations Network Teacher of the Year in 2020 and his program was FETC's choice for Top High School STEM Program in North America for 2020 as well. He was a guest... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

When Feedback Leads to False Confidence: A Curious Outcome of a Game-Based Health Intervention

Whack-a-Mole is a melanoma identification training game developed to evaluate the effectiveness of different identification training techniques using immediate personalized feedback. Two widely implemented training systems are used to identify malignant melanoma through a skin exam: ABCDE, a mnemonic for the five factors that increase likely diagnoses, and the ugly duckling sign (UDS). The game system randomized the training types the player received, in addition to a hybrid approach and a control condition. The game delivered standard and motivational feedback to a subset of players in each of these conditions as they identified moles. Both the standard feedback and motivational feedback led to higher perceived self-efficacy as compared to conditions with no feedback, regardless of whether or not the player was successful at identifying malignant moles.

Speakers

Clay Ewing

Associate Professor, University of Miami

I'm the director of the New Experience Research and Design Lab (NERDLab), a social impact game studio at the University of Miami. I work with students to design and develop games for public health and social justice. Our lab also works with health communication researchers to evaluate... Read More →

Shasa Hu

University of Miami

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Closure. Closure who? Closure mouth while you're chewing!

Soyoon Kim

University of Miami

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Irish. Irish who?Irish you a Merry Christmas!

Ekaterina Malova

University of Miami

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Sherlock. Sherlock who? Sherlock your door shut tight.

Bingjing Mao

University of Miami

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Robin. Robin who?Robin you! Hand over your cash!

Nick Carcioppolo

University of Miami

Knock! Knock! Who’s there? Radio. Radio who? Radio not, here I come!

Ashley Reynolds

University of Miami

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Leon.Leon who?Leon me when you’re not strong!

Margaret Sanchez

University of Miami

Knock, knock.Who’s there?I am.I am who?Don’t you even know who you are?!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

“Find Ways to Cope:” Games and Gamification Supporting College Student Mental Health During the Pandemic

The COVID- 19 pandemic has created challenges for student mental health in higher education. Emerging literature documents the various challenges that today’s college students encounter, but students’ coping strategies are understudied. Our work examines how college students utilize gaming as a tool to transition into a new campus environment and address mental health. Using a grounded theory approach, our analysis of interviews with freshmen on one campus during Fall 2021 revealed that college students use mental health apps and games in response to pandemic-related stress and anxiety. Students also articulated connecting to their peers as well as to themselves. We argue that gaming plays a critical role in this historic time by supporting students in their pandemic-lives on a college campus under stressful circumstances.

Speakers

Cynthia Carter Ching

Professor of Learning and Mind Sciences, University of California, Davis

Technology and identity, personal data gaming, embodied cognition, games and behavior.

Jade Lee

University of California, Davis

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Snow.Snow who?Snow use. I forgot my name again!

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

5:00pm PDT

“We reserve the right but have no obligations”: An analysis of current policies governing gaming behavior

Moderation in online games and community forums significantly impacts in-game user experience. Establishing clear and consistently enforced rules of engagement can help reduce the normalization of disruptive behavior and the proliferation of anti-democratic beliefs.
To understand the current policies governing gamer behavior, we conducted a comprehensive audit of online legal documents and regulations related to popular online multiplayer games. Such documents include end-user license agreements, terms of services, codes of conduct, community rules, and privacy policies.
We focused on the discourse of game company policy texts and how developers and publishers define such terms as harassment, stalking, threatening, defamation, extremism, and hate speech. We paid particular attention to responsibility and accountability, consequences for breaking the rules, severity of potential retributions, and proposed implementations of these policies.
Our synthesis of current trends and themes will contribute to developing more effective and consistent policies towards governing and moderating user behavior.

Speakers

Agnes Romhanyi

Ph.D. Student, University of California, Irvine

Garrison Wells

University of California, Irvine

Jason G Reitman

Doctoral Student, University of California, Irvine

Jason G. Reitman (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Informatics at the University of California, Irvine advised by Constance Steinkuehler. He studies how teams distribute cognitive work to achieve common goals in high pressure situations. His dissertation investigates team communication... Read More →

Nathan James Villarosa Lacsamana

Student, Producer, and Game Developer, University of California, Irvine

Constance Steinkuehler

Professor of Informatics, University of California–Irvine

Constance Steinkuehler is a Professor in the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine where she researches culture, cognition, and learning in the context of multiplayer online videogames. She is an ADL Belfer Fellow, Chair of UCI’s Game Design and Interactive... Read More →

Wednesday June 15, 2022 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Poster

7:00pm PDT

Game Award Showcase

The Game Showcase Awards is a rowdy, fun-loving, irreverent evening awards event that highlights jury-nominated games from conference arcade. Its format is styled after American Idol but much more playful, with the design team of each nominated title brought up on stage in front of a panel of judges to answer questions about their game and development process as a way to show off their skills, hustle, and style. Eric Zimmerman, our Master of Ceremonies, will open and close the event and generally keep the trains running on time while a panel of 4-6 judges will take turns asking questions of the nominated design teams on stage. Eight games will be nominated across the following four categories:

Creativity & Design
Potential Impact
Student Game
Best of Show

Final award decisions will be made live and announced during the evening's event!

Master of Ceremonies

Eric Zimmerman

Game Designer / Arts Professor, NYU Game Center

I am a game designer and an Arts Professor in the Game Design Department at New York University. A 30-year veteran of the game industry, I have created award-winning games on and off the computer. Highlights of my career include founding and running Gamelab, a 30-person studio that... Read More →

Speakers

Roger Altizer

Associate Director, Entertainment Arts and Engineering

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Hike.Hike who?I didn't know you liked Japanese poetry!

Amanda LaTasha Armstrong

Games Lab Coordinator, New Mexico State University

Andy Phelps

University of Canterbury

Knock, knockWho's there?JessJess who?Jess me and my shadow

Meagan Rothchild

VP Design Research & Consumer Insights, Age of Learning

Wednesday June 15, 2022 7:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Terrace Stage UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

GLS Game Showcase

8:00am PDT

Breakfast

A diverse buffet of breakfast fare served buffet style in Pacific Ballroom C, to be enjoyed over the morning keynote. Breakfast fare includes assorted muffins, cage-free scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, vegetarian breakfast sausage, an oatmeal bar, and of course bucketloads of coffee, tea, and water.

Thursday June 16, 2022 8:00am - 10:00am PDT
Pacific Ballroom C UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Feeding Time

9:00am PDT

Networks of Privilege: Connecting Games and Race in the 20th Century

The histories of race and games in the 20th century have long
been siloed. Popular histories of games often render invisible the race
of the white men that they celebrate, thus inviting readers to take for
granted the somewhat homogenous demographics of the games industry. Far
from being coincidental, I argue that race has been central to the
history of games. I will present historical research in this talk that
shows how the early leaders of the game industry were able to thrive due
to their community ties. I term these white communities "networks of
privilege" and offer evidence for how these networks developed of the
course of the 20th century and used dog whistles to keep people of color
out. As game scholars, we must foreground how the invisible politics of
whiteness have shaped our area of study. Recognizing the insidious
nature of these networks is a small but essential step toward achieving
this goal.

Speakers

Aaron Trammell

University of California, Irvine

Aaron Trammell is an Assistant Professor of Informatics and Core Faculty in Visual Studies at UC Irvine. He write about how Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and board games inform the lived experiences of their players. Specifically, he is interested in how these games further... Read More →

Thursday June 16, 2022 9:00am - 10:00am PDT
Pacific Ballroom C UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Keynotes

10:30am PDT

Fireside Chat with Aaron Trammell

Speakers

Aaron Trammell

University of California, Irvine

Thursday June 16, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Fireside Chat Alcove UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Fireside Chats

10:30am PDT

Increasing Equity in Entertainment Through Education

This panel discusses how to challenge the status quo and create alternative career opportunities, especially for diverse talent. Through career technical education programs and the development of a registered youth apprenticeship for Animation, Game Design, and VFX, young people will have access to industry training as a part of their free and public education.

Speakers

Arabian Prince

CEO, NWA

Allison Frenzel

Education Programs Consultant, California Department of Education

Knock! Knock! Who's there? An extraterrestrialAn extraterrestrial who? Wait–how many extraterrestrials do you know?

Nicole Hendrix

Executive Director & Co-Founder, BRIC Foundation

Nicole Hendrix is an Emmy & winning PromaxBDA GOLD Producer & Creative Director. With a multi-disciplinary background, Nicole has used storytelling as the main ingredient in her successful campaigns that span across television, games, live events, and film. She is currently working... Read More →

Steve Isaacs

Education Program Manager, Epic Games

KiMi Wilson

GRX Immersive

Thursday June 16, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Panel

10:30am PDT

Cognitive Effects of Casual Games: A Research Synthesis

Games have long been associated with the rhetoric of learning, progress and growth, but meaningful empirical demonstration has remained somewhat elusive (Sutton-Smith, 1992). Empirical studies do demonstrate specific cognitive benefits of playing games, such as an improved ability to track moving objects on screen (Green & Bavelier, 2006, 2007) but such findings, although important for understanding basic perceptual systems or even hand-eye coordination, do not address our more pressing concerns such as the aging brain, emotional wellness, self-regulation, or even stress. Cognitive training, or so called “brain games,” are often designed toward these more pressing outcomes, although their actual benefits remain hotly debated. Research in the area reports various increases in cognitive performance as a result of game play (Gates et al, 2020; Hardy et al., 2015), but critics observe that some of the game titles used are little more than cognitive test prep, producing increases not in meaningful, transferable skills but only in routinized and narrowly defined laboratory tasks (Max Planck Institute and the Stanford Center on Longevity, 2014).

In this presentation, we present a critical and systematic review of research on the cognitive and emotional benefits of casual games across the lifespan. We summarize the trends, results, contradictions, and ambiguities across 317 published research articles, chapters, and manuscripts with a median publication year of 2017. Here, we review findings related to cognition, neural change, social and emotional health, and tackle some of the conceptual and methodological issues germane to the study of casual games more broadly.

Master of Ceremonies

James Paul Gee

Arizona State University

Speakers

Kurt Squire

Professor of Informatics, University of California, Irvine

Garrison Wells

University of California, Irvine

María J. Anderson-Coto

PhD student, University of California, Irvine

Constance Steinkuehler

Professor of Informatics, University of California–Irvine

Thursday June 16, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, On Sense and Sensability

10:30am PDT

Exploring Players’ Experience of Humor and Snark in a Grade 3-6 History Practices Game

In this paper we use an existing history learning game with an active audience as a research platform for exploring how humor and “snarkiness” in the dialog script affect students' progression and attitudes about the game. We conducted a 2x2 randomized experiment with 11,804 anonymous 3rd-6th grade students. Using standard and poisson linear regressions we find that changes to the script produced measurable results in the self-reported perceived humor of the game and the likeability of the player character. Different scripts did not produce significant results in player completion of the game, but did lead to different times playing the game. Perceived humor, likeability of the player character, enjoyment of the game, as well as grade level and self-perceived reading skill all contributed significantly to progress in the game.

Master of Ceremonies

James Paul Gee

Arizona State University

Speakers

David Gagnon

Director, Field Day Lab @ UW-Madison

I make and study games, mostly in schools but sometimes not. See fielddaylab.wisc.edu for my best plan to date.

Thursday June 16, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, On Sense and Sensability

10:30am PDT

Toward a Systematic Approach to Evaluating Emotional Design in Learning Games

Emotional design has emerged as a critical area of research in game-based learning (GBL). Initial studies have yielded promising results indicating that learning games can be designed to purposefully induce specific emotions that support learning processes and outcomes. Yet, existing studies have not always yielded consistent results with regard to the expected effects of emotional design in learning games (Plass & Hovey, 2021). In order to make sustained and significant progress in this area, researchers have called for a systematic approach to evaluating the impact of emotional design on players’ emotions, learning processes, and learning outcomes (Loderer et al., 2019; Plass et al., 2019; Plass & Hovey, 2021). This paper draws upon research approaches from existing emotional design studies to propose an initial outline for such a systematic approach.

Master of Ceremonies

James Paul Gee

Arizona State University

Speakers

Jeff Brenneman

Instructional Designer, PhD Student, New York University

Jeff is an instructional designer at NYU Tandon Online, and a PhD student in the Educational Communication & Technology program at NYU Steinhardt. He earned his BA in Mathematics from Michigan State University, his MEd in Curriculum & Instruction from American College of Education... Read More →

Thursday June 16, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, On Sense and Sensability

10:30am PDT

The Digital Animal: Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days and the Aesthetic of Error

This live gameplay presentation will analyze the use of visual glitches and high framerate images in Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days (IO Interactive, 2010), in order to demonstrate how the game’s visual style functions as a critique of digital capitalism. Kane and Lynch 2’s glitches and HFR images imitate the image production of a low-quality digital camera, creating an aesthetic of digital photorealism: this realism, however, is not a realism characterized by an imitation of analog photography (and therefore a true-to-life visualization of the real world), but a realism characterized by ‘poor’ images: that is, low-quality images which attest to their real conditions of production. Kane and Lynch 2 uses its emulation of the image production of a digital camera to offer a critique of the normative spatial logics of perceptual realism in videogames and to disrupt player empowerment by unveiling the material base of digital ludic spaces.

Speakers

Justin Keever

University of California, Irvine

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Ho-ho. Ho-ho who?You know, your Santa impression could use a little work.

Thursday June 16, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Well Played

12:00pm PDT

Fireside Chat with North America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF)

Fireside chats are designed to allow conversation between luminaries in the field and event attendees. The format is intimate and casual, staged in a soft seating area next to a digital fire with limited space by design to encourage connection, conversation, and interaction. Each year we select only a handful of key leaders in the field for such sessions. No slides, no streaming, just deeper conversations between influencers and attendees.

Growing A Global Community of Educators Around Scholastic Esports

The North America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF) provides opportunities for all students to use esports as a platform to acquire critical communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills needed to thrive in work and in life. The NASEF Scholastic Fellow Program provides a professional learning community, mentorship, tools, resources and instructional coaching for educators interested in connecting esports and learning in schools and out-of-school time / community-based organizations across the globe. Originally launched in 2019 with an inaugural national cohort, the program has now entered it’s third consecutive year to include over 50 educators from across 14+ countries around the world.

Join Jorrel Batac, Director of the Scholastic Fellow Program in learning how educators in the community are working together to share successes, challenges, and best practices in designing, developing, and implementing Scholastic Esports programs.

Speakers

Jorrel Batac

Director, Scholastic Fellow Program / Esports Scholastic Instructional Coach, NASEF

Jorrel holds a BA in Human Development and a Career Technical Education (CTE) Credential. He grew his roots as an instructor for various nonprofits, taught English in South Korea, volunteered as a virtual educator for students in India, designed a statewide STEM enrichment program... Read More →

Carolyn Navarro

North America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF)

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Noah. Noah who?Noah any place I can get a bite to eat?

Thursday June 16, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Fireside Chat Alcove UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Fireside Chats, Panel

12:00pm PDT

Panel on Leading Academic Game Studios: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

After a generation of pioneering game studios like Games Learning and Society, Tiltfactor Labs, and Schell games what’s it like running an academic game studio today? This panel brings together faculty who have run the second generation of game studios staffed by students and alumni and run under the constraints and opportunities of academic institutions. How do such studios operate as academic institutions have started new communities of entrepreneurial incubators, matured their intellectual property strategies, and reframed collaborative research? The panel discusses hot topics in leading and operating academic game studios focused on learning and social impact from the lenses of faculty and staff. What has worked, what is no longer working, and what may the future hold?

Panel comprised of faculty leading client centered game studios in learning, social impact and health. These studios operate within private and public universities, in urban and rural locations, of varying research profiles in the US and abroad. These include American University, University of Canterbury, DePaul University, Miami University (of Ohio), University of Miami, University of Utah

Speakers

Lindsay Grace

Knight Chair, University of Miami

Lindsay is Knight Chair in Interactive Media and an associate professor at the University of Miami School of Communication, where he directs the MFA in Interactive Media. He is Vice President for the Higher Education Video Game Alliance and the 2019 recipient of the Games for... Read More →

Roger Altizer

Associate Director, Entertainment Arts and Engineering

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Hike.Hike who?I didn't know you liked Japanese poetry!

Clay Ewing

Associate Professor, University of Miami

Lien B Tran

Assistant Professor, DePaul University

Thursday June 16, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Panel

12:00pm PDT

Baba is Hint - Designing a Scaffolding Guidebook for Game-Based Learning

Providing guidance to learners navigating a game-based learning environment requires walking a fine line between encouraging progression toward learning goals without disrupting playful engagement in the game. In this paper, we present a scaffolding guidebook developed for tutors to provide guidance in game-based learning environments that encourages exploration of the problem space and solving puzzles without disrupting engagement. Scaffolding strategies were coded and categorized from Baba is You gameplay recordings of 13 middle school students and then situated based on guiding principles from relevant literature into a scaffolding guide. Here, we describe this guidebook and its development, which could provide educators with important tools that can help their students progress through game-based learning environments without interfering with engagement.

Master of Ceremonies

Constance Steinkuehler

Professor of Informatics, University of California–Irvine

Speakers

Craig G Anderson

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Zachary L Carpenter

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Knock, Knock. Who’s there? Cargo! Cargo who? Car go beep, beep!

David DeLiema

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Knock! Knock!Who’s there?Cash.Cash who?No thanks, I prefer peanuts.

Megan Goeke

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Candice.Candice who? Candice door open, or what?

Basel Hussein

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Godiva. Godiva who?Godiva terrible headache, do you have an aspirin?

Shima Salehi

Assistant Professor, Stanford University

I am a Research Assistant Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education, and the director of IDEAL research lab, the research component of Stanford IDEAL initiative to promote inclusivity, diversity, equity and access in learning communities. My research focuses on how to use... Read More →

Thursday June 16, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Parents, Props & Patrons

12:00pm PDT

Gamer-parents: Positioning identity between gamers and parents

The data used in this article is part of our project Norwegian gamer-parents and how they domesticate digital games for their families (GAME). Gamers and parents are seemingly opposite identities where gaming is pertaining to children, to frivolous, irresponsible while parents are adults and responsible. However, today, many parents play and self-identify as gamers. In this paper we explore how gamer-parents, that is, those who were gamers before becoming parents negotiate and position themselves and their identity work. Being both a gamer and parent; how do gamer-parents position themselves and their identities in a realm of potential animosity?

Master of Ceremonies

Constance Steinkuehler

Professor of Informatics, University of California–Irvine

Speakers

Ingvild Kvale Sørenssen

NTNU

As a childhood studies, media studies and education scholar, my research interests revolve around children's age identity, socialization, and meaning-making in the interplay of popular culture, friendships, and family life. Theoretically, my focus is on the relationality of human... Read More →

Thursday June 16, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Parents, Props & Patrons

12:00pm PDT

Parenting Games

Organized youth esports poses a remediated context for parents’ making sense of their children's gaming lives. We interviewed parents to explore how they understand their children’s participation in school-sanctioned esports. Findings show that the framing of esports as a “sport” shapes parents’ expectations of the merits and drawbacks of participation. Concerns over gaming remained, but parents also perceived benefits such as increased community, school affiliation, life skills, teamsmanship, and for some, increased GPA. Parenting strategies around gameplay could be categorized as (1) restriction strategies that limit access based on consequences and rules; (2) regulation strategies that constrain gaming through conversation and negotiation with the child; or (3) enrichment strategies that build on the child’s interest in games as a means for connection, collaboration and learning. While half of interviewed parents used restriction strategies, all engaged in regulation and enrichment, suggesting opportunities for families in relation to this popular youth activity.

Master of Ceremonies

Constance Steinkuehler

Professor of Informatics, University of California–Irvine

Speakers

Minerva Wu

Doctoral Student, University of California, Irvine

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Cargo.Cargo who?Cargo beep, beep and vroom, vroom!

Thursday June 16, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Parents, Props & Patrons

12:00pm PDT

The Multidimensional Meanings of Intellivision’s Space Hawk

In this paper we closely analyze Space Hawk (1982), an Intellivision videogame developed by Mattel Electronics, from multiple perspectives, including gameplay dynamics, code, and history. First, we show how a holistic reading of a single videogame provides a microcosm of Intellivision’s significance. This includes, for example, its technical constraints and affordances, interface and controls, use of manuals and overlay system, and social and historical development. Second, we argue that a multidimensional analysis of second-generation videogames—taking into account gameplay, paratextual materials, original code, programmer interviews, social and historical contexts, and archival documentation—can counter more superficial interpretations of early videogames as simplistic. In contrast, a multidimensional analysis reveals the complex processes of game development in the nascent videogame industry.

Speakers

Braxton Soderman

University of California, Irvine

Braxton Soderman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film & Media Studies at The University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Against Flow: Video Games and the Flowing Subject (MIT Press, 2021) which critically analyzes Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow... Read More →

Tom Boellstorff

Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine

Knock, Knock!Who’s there?Ken Ken who?Ken I come in?It's cold out here.

Thursday June 16, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Well Played

1:00pm PDT

Lunch

Surprisingly succulent assorted box lunches including sesame tofu garden salad boxes, kale quinoa panzanella salad boxes, and mediterranean quinoa salad boxes. Parceled up for free wandering indoors and out on the lawns. Lemonade, iced tea, and still water, bien sûr!

Thursday June 16, 2022 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Feeding Time

2:30pm PDT

Fireside Chat with Lindsay Grace

Speakers

Lindsay Grace

Knight Chair, University of Miami

Thursday June 16, 2022 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
Fireside Chat Alcove UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Fireside Chats

2:30pm PDT

Dual Learning through Game-Mediated Activities: Examining Secondary Students’ Multimodal Interaction and Opportunities for Second Language Learning

Games have gained rising acceptance in the context of second language learning in the past years. However, little is known regarding how game-mediated activities support English language learners’ dual learning (i.e., content and language) in secondary school science classes. Guided by a sociocultural model, this study aims to explore participants’ multimodal interaction patterns (e.g., speech, gesture, body movement) and the varied kinds of opportunities for both content and language learning in a game-mediated, classroom-based setting. This exploratory intervention study is part of an ongoing doctoral dissertation project. This presentation intends to share the preliminary findings of this study and seek feedback from the participating audience.

Master of Ceremonies

Constance Steinkuehler

Professor of Informatics, University of California–Irvine

Speakers

Blanche Gao

PhD Candidate & Research Assistant in Learning, Literacies, & Technologies, Arizona State University

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Says.Says who?Says me, that's who!

Thursday June 16, 2022 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Second Language Learning

2:30pm PDT

Mistoria: A Narrative Tool for Language Learning

Learning a new language is an asset for which the benefits have been well documented. However, our educational institutions struggle to provide the opportunities that enable our students to achieve meaningful levels of fluency and proficiency. Mistoria is an initial proposed design solution that leverages the affordances of Second Language Acquisition Theory, Games for Learning, and Learning Analytics to realize a compelling and effective means of learning another language.

Master of Ceremonies

Constance Steinkuehler

Professor of Informatics, University of California–Irvine

Speakers

Maurice Boothe Jr.

PhD Student, New York University

Hailing from the small town of Monfort, Wisconsin, Maurice is an educational researcher, designer, and teacher. After studying Spanish Education and Computer Science at UW-Madison for his BA, he taught both subjects for four years at a high school in Houston, Texas. Maurice has since... Read More →

Thursday June 16, 2022 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Second Language Learning

2:30pm PDT

The Woods: A Mixed-Reality Cooperative Game

While loneliness in our real lives is increasingly recognized as having dire physical, mental, and emotional consequences, cooperative games have been shown to build empathy and provide positive social impact. In this paper, the authors present “The Woods,” a local cooperative, mixed-reality game using augmented reality and 4-channel audio spatialization panning that provides players with face-to-face interactions in pursuit of a shared goal. This paper discusses the narrative, mechanical, and sonic components of the game, as well as the game’s development process and the players’ experiences. The goal of our team is to develop a narrative-driven AR game that promotes collaborative problem-solving and engages players in an emergent physical and digital experience.

Speakers

Kyoung Lee Swearingen

Ohio State University

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Hawaii.Hawaii who?I’m fine, Hawaii you?

Scott Swearingen

Ohio State University

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Nun.Nun who?Nunya business!

Thursday June 16, 2022 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Well Played

2:30pm PDT

Learning Deliberately: Walden, a Game-Based Curriculum

This hands-on workshop will present strategies and examples of how to design game-based learning that treats games as multi-model texts in a broader ecology of learning. As part of the Walden, a game EDU project, an interdisciplinary team of educators, researchers, curriculum designers, evaluators outreach experts, and game designers have re-designed the core experience of the award-winning independent game, Walden, a game (https://www.waldengame.com/educators), to develop inclusive, classroom-friendly, and standards-aligned games-based learning modules. This workshop includes a hands-on demonstration of these new educational game modules and integrated curriculum. These lessons use the game as a text to prompt critical discussion and learning. The session reflects on what we learned when we applied a playcentric design method to the challenges of teaching during COVID-19 and beyond. Participants will engage collaboratively with the lessons and will take away best practices in the use and design of multimodal learning games.

Speakers

Matthew Coopilton (formerly Hamilton)

PhD Candidate, University of Southern California

Tracy Fullerton

Professor and Director, USC Game Innovation Lab

Dr. Matthew Farber

Assistant Professor, University of Northern Colorado

Matthew Farber, Ed.D., is an assistant professor of educational technology at the University of Northern Colorado, where he founded the Gaming SEL Lab. He has been invited to the White House, authored several books and papers, and is a frequent collaborator with UNESCO MGIEP and Games... Read More →

Thursday June 16, 2022 2:30pm - 3:30pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Workshop

4:00pm PDT

Fireside Chat with Tracy Fullerton

Speakers

Tracy Fullerton

Professor and Director, USC Game Innovation Lab

Thursday June 16, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Fireside Chat Alcove UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Fireside Chats

4:00pm PDT

A Failed Context: Reflections on a Mathematics Role-Playing Game about the Flint Water Crisis

We designed a role-playing game based on the Flint Water Crisis for a quantitative reasoning. While the context seemed perfect both in terms of local engagement and in terms of highlighting the power of the mathematics learned in the course to fight for justice, it turned out to be fundamentally flawed.

Master of Ceremonies

Dan Norton

Filament Games

Speakers

Andrew Peterson

Ferris State University

Knock, knock Who's there?KentKent who?Kent you tell by my voice?

Victor Piercey

Professor And Director Of General Education, Ferris State University

Victor Piercey received an interdisciplinary B.A. in humanities from Michigan State University in 1997, a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 2000, a M.S. in mathematics from Michigan State University in 2006, and a Ph.D in mathematics from the University of Arizona in 2012... Read More →

Thursday June 16, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Hall of Failure

4:00pm PDT

Oof. Pandemic. A Story of Enriched Esports as Trojan Horse Turned Lifeboat

In 2017, we helped design, develop, and launch a novel “enriched esports” program for youth with academic, career and social-emotional learning built into its design. Based on close analysis of the professional and collegiate esports scene, we mapped out key roles within the esports ecosystem, tied those roles to academic standards, created enrichment materials and activities to cultivate those connections, and then spent the next four years evaluating its impact – not only on academic interests and affiliation but also on communication, self-regulation, and social-emotional skills. Each year, we crept closer and closer to the great Moby Dick of after-school interest-driven program: empirical rigor.

We followed the steps: Exploratory qualitative work the first, year, trend studies and group comparisons the second, pretest/posttest quasi-experimental design in year three, and then at long last, an alternative one sample pretest-posttest design (Johnson, 1986) that promised to allow us to disambiguate program outcomes from teen maturation, testing effects, historical effects and the like. And then…

Covid happened.

In this presentation, we investigate the devil in the data during our year of unexpected experimental disruption, social isolation among our participants, and unexpectedly positive-ish findings from using the world’s most notoriously competitive (and toxic) context for gameplay as a source for connection, collaboration, and change. Here, we explore how a fairly dicey context for gameplay became a lifeboat for kids and get real about the challenges of finding rigor under even the best of circumstances when it comes to interest-driven programming for kids.

Master of Ceremonies

Dan Norton

Filament Games

Speakers

Constance Steinkuehler

Professor of Informatics, University of California–Irvine

Thursday June 16, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Hall of Failure

4:00pm PDT

When more is less: Designing and Testing the Usability of a Gamified Survey to Capture Relationship Data

Relevate Sign Up is a gamified patient intake survey designed to collect demographic and relationship data from players to customize relationship research dissemination. In this paper, we report the details about the design choices and usability testing of the game. We also discuss lessons learned.

Master of Ceremonies

Dan Norton

Filament Games

Speakers

Joe Griffin

University of Missouri

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Voodoo. Voodoo who? Voodoo you think you are asking me so many questions?

Jhon Bueno Vesga

University of Missouri - Columbia

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Anita.Anita who?Anita go to the bathroom!

Thursday June 16, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Hall of Failure

4:00pm PDT

Kai UnEarthed

This session will provide a pre-release sneak-peek into one of the first abolitionist video games, and a discussion about how to design games to support critical speculative imagination about liberated futures.

Kai UnEarthed invites players to imagine an unpoliced future through branching narrative and open-world play. Teenagers encounter artifacts from back in the 21st century as they go through a coming-of-age ceremony. This involves connecting with us, their ancestors, through interactive analog journals with their own minigames, including writing, drawing, and worldbuilding activities that pair with the computer software. Players can role play as Kai, and can fall in love with their crush Tempest as they explore the reclaimed ruins of a youth jail. They can decide how to hold the pain of their elders and ancestors as they heal together. They can learn how to touch the unknown webs of the artifacts they unEarth.

One of the game's designers will conduct a live play-through of a game prototype, reflecting on the theories and design principles embedded in it. The audience can participate by shouting out suggestions for narrative choices; you will also receive your own journal, allowing you to interact with the analog game mechanics, taking home a personalized record of your journey. In this sense, the session will be a cross between a real-time game analysis and a creative writing workshop. This demonstrates one possible use case for Kai UnEarthed in critical game literacy learning environments and classrooms.

A text-based prototype of Kai UnEarthed is available here: https://kaiunearthed.itch.io/kai-unearthed

Speakers

Matthew Coopilton (formerly Hamilton)

PhD Candidate, University of Southern California

Thursday June 16, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Well Played

4:00pm PDT

Teaching game accessibility to designers and design students

This workshop normalizes the idea that accessibility is valued and doable — but ultimately that it is teachable. While the game community has been increasing its accessibility efforts it can still feel challenging for design teams to prioritize accessibility, particularly on games for learning. Design teams and students may face challenges by incorporating or translating available guidelines to their design process or game decisions. Some guidelines can be overwhelming and intimidating, and may present accessibility contradictions when addressing different players’ needs. Learners need an opportunity to think through accessibility needs on a spectrum, as well as in different categories (such as visual, hearing, motor and cognitive), and review in ways that are meaningful and doable. This workshop will engage participants in a collaborative process to articulate how to approach and teach accessibility. Using an established framework, presenters will guide participants to outline best practices on how to teach accessibility and apply it to the design process of transformational games. The workshop will end with a shared reflection on how to best teach accessibility in formal classes or informal professional settings.

Speakers

Matheus Cezarotto

Post Doctoral Researcher, New Mexico State University

Dr. Matheus Cezarotto is a postdoctoral researcher in the New Mexico State University (NMSU) Innovative Media Research and Extension department and its Learning Games Lab. He researches the Learning Games Lab's products, working through grant development and providing instructional... Read More →

Barbara Chamberlin

Professor, New Mexico State University

Thursday June 16, 2022 4:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Workshop

5:30pm PDT

The Rules We Break: A Playful Game Design Interactive Experience

This open, interactive, outdoor workshop experience takes participants through a series of modifications on playground-style play to explore how games work and how they can be designed to create meaningful experiences for players. Starting with play, discussion, and analysis of the classic Rock-Paper-Scissors, the group will carry the game through a number of transformations, turning it into a psychological multiplayer game, reskinning it with different content, and then finally changing it into a more competitive team-based game. Playing through each transformation, participants will gain insight into how games create meaning, how spaces and structures generate narratives, and how seemingly superficial changes to the design of a game can have deep implications for interactions between people. Join us–and be prepared to play!

Speakers

Eric Zimmerman

Game Designer / Arts Professor, NYU Game Center

Thursday June 16, 2022 5:30pm - 7:00pm PDT
Terrace Stage UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Signature Event, Wide Open Workshop Experience

7:00pm PDT

Dinner and Distractor

Dinner and live music out under the stars! Our marquee dinner event featuring a variety of local fare across three food stations:

A Medi Eats Station, featuring Israeli couscous, roasted Mediterranean vegetables,
sautéed spinach, falafel, tzatziki, baklava, and pita flatbread.
Grown Up Mac &Cheese, featuring gourmet chipotle mac and cheese topped your way with assorted proteins, roasted mushrooms, peas, broccoli bits, and scallions
A Happy Hour Food Station, featuring “pub” style finger foods including chilled spinach dip with tortilla chips, mini cheesesteaks, and buffalo chicken tenders with blue cheese dip
An assorted cheese and fruit tray with fresh garden crudité, seasonable fruits, and desserts

Our beloved local band Distractor will play a set or two! Distractor is a synth punk band from Orange County whose songs range from lo-fi camp to post-punk cool. Maybe the most charming band on the planet, Distractor will send you into orbit with catchy songs & endearing videos from Devotion (2015) and This Time I Got It Figured Out (2018). We're all the same when we play video games.

distractorofficial.bandcamp.com/

So come out and enjoy the evening over a glass of beer or wine, local cuisine, and live music from the best!

Thursday June 16, 2022 7:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Signature Event, Marquee Dinner

8:00am PDT

Breakfast

A diverse buffet of breakfast fare served buffet style in Pacific Ballroom C, to be enjoyed over the morning keynote. Breakfast fare includes orange cinnamon French toast, cage-free scrambled eggs, vegetarian breakfast sausage, a yogurt parfait bar, and of course bucketloads of coffee, tea, and water.

Friday June 17, 2022 8:00am - 10:00am PDT
Pacific Ballroom C UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Feeding Time

9:00am PDT

How the Arts Can Save Education: Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Instruction

The age of accountability in education is losing its momentum. Education is in a time of profound change. We are increasingly aware of how learning outside of school provides life-giving opportunities for our most vulnerable kids. The arts—dance, theater, music, the visual arts, and the digital and design arts—offer us a way to reimagine what good learning and teaching are and how to design learning environments that work for all kids. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools and exposed ever-present in-equities in education. And though it has been heart-wrenching for teachers, students, and families, the disruption has also offered us the opportunity to fundamentally rethink what education can be. Gloria Ladson-Billings has called for a “hard reset” on education and for us to fundamentally recon-sider the kind of human beings we want to produce. In this talk, I will describe how the arts can save education by providing new models for learning that embrace the social, cultural, and historical assets that kids bring to the classroom. I will also share how an arts-based approach to teaching focuses on risk-taking as the most important aspect of a successful classroom. I offer a framework that leverages how arts practitioners do their work to design learning experiences for all subject areas. Throughout, I use my own arts organization, Whoopensocker, as a model for how to reframe learning as acts of metacognitive representation, identity development, and collaboration—and lots and lots of joy.

Speakers

Erica Halverson

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Candice. Candice who? Candice door open, or am I stuck out here?

Friday June 17, 2022 9:00am - 10:00am PDT
Pacific Ballroom C UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Keynotes

10:30am PDT

Fireside Chat with Erica Halverson

Speakers

Erica Halverson

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Candice. Candice who? Candice door open, or am I stuck out here?

Friday June 17, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Fireside Chat Alcove UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Fireside Chats

10:30am PDT

XR Innovations in Industry, Academics & In Between

VR, AR, Mobile Devices, Watches... new platforms are everywhere, and games are flowing across them. Devices, platforms, and contexts are changing. What new forms of interaction are emerging on these platforms? How are developers, artists, and creatives leveraging these new affordances for creative, emotional, or social impact? What do these innovations mean for the future of games?

Just as the form of XR media is emerging, the institutional contexts for their development are as well. How are innovative XR applications developed in academics, industry, and emerging hybrid contexts? What are the opportunities and challenges for pulling together innovative experiences in hybrid spaces? What have we learned about best design practices?

This session pulls together creative innovators who work across academics, industry, and non-profits to develop innovative experiences. Participants will share their creative work, lessons learned from it, and insights from developing products across various contexts and for diverse audiences in different contexts.

Master of Ceremonies

Kurt Squire

Professor of Informatics, University of California, Irvine

Speakers

Robert Gehorsam

Advisor, Hexagram

I've been on pretty much every side of the equation: corporate exec in games as well as education and health, start-up founder, venture partner, non-profit ED, consultant, start-up advisor, mentor, college trustee, now co-author of upcoming climate book www.thecarbonalmanac.org... Read More →

Kate Parsons

Pepperdine University

Knock! Knock!Who's there?Orange.Orange who? Orange you gonna open the door?

Ben Vance

Wevr

Knock! Knock!Who's there? Needle. Needle who? Needle little help gettin' in the door.

Friday June 17, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Panel

10:30am PDT

Academically Meaningful Play in the Mathematics Classroom: Learning Symmetry and Transformations through Transformations Quest Educational Video Game

This paper aims to analyze how Transformations Quest, an educational block-based videogame designed using the academically meaningful play framework supports middle grade students’ learning of geometric transformations. Data sources include video footage of 18 students’ dialogue with researchers while playing the game on Zoom. We present one illustrative example as evidence of the students’ geometric transformations learning using our game. Findings determined that the game helped students to productively hybridize everyday and mathematical formal experiences in favor of mathematical understandings beyond the curriculum, leading us to conclude that when games are designed with an academically meaningful play lens, they can support the building of conceptual understanding.

Master of Ceremonies

Meagan Rothchild

VP Design Research & Consumer Insights, Age of Learning

Speakers

Sandra Becker

PhD Student, University of Calgary

Knock Knock!Who's There?Snow!Snow who?Snow laughing matter.

Corey Brady

Vanderbilt University

Knock, Knock! Who’s there? Witch. Witch who? Witch one of you will give me some Halloween candy?

Doug Clark

University of Calgary

Knock! Knock!Who’s there?Robin.Robin who?Robin you—hand over the cash!

Jesus Enrique Hernandez Zavaleta

University of Calgary

Knock, knock.Who’s there?To.To who?No, it’s to whom!

Friday June 17, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Making Math Meaningful

10:30am PDT

Leveraging mathematics software data to understand student learning and motivation during the COVID-19 pandemic

School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic presented a threat to student learning and motivation. Suspension of achievement testing created a barrier to understanding the extent of this threat. Leveraging data from a mathematics learning software as a substitute assessment, we found that students had lower engagement with the software during the pandemic, but students who did engage had increased performance. Students also experienced changes in motivation: lowered mathematics expectancy, but also lower emotional cost for mathematics. Results illustrate the potential and pitfalls of using educational technology data in lieu of traditional assessments and draw attention to access and motivation during at-home schooling.

Master of Ceremonies

Meagan Rothchild

VP Design Research & Consumer Insights, Age of Learning

Speakers

Ki Karou

Senior Director of Interactive Learning, Mind Research Institute

As Senior Director of Interactive Learning for MIND Research Institute, Ki Karou leads a team of learning designers, game designers, artists, and mathematicians developing the next generation of the ST Maths interactive programs. Ki has been designing interactive and game-based learning... Read More →

Friday June 17, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Making Math Meaningful

10:30am PDT

Supporting Quantitative Habits of Mind with Role-Play

To support business, health professions, and social work students develop certain habits of mind, including incorporating data in their arguments, identifying agendas that may be behind seemingly objective arguments, and considering ethical quantitative communication, we developed a role-playing game built around a budget crisis at a rural health clinic. The game is used to introduce a quantitative reasoning course.

Master of Ceremonies

Meagan Rothchild

VP Design Research & Consumer Insights, Age of Learning

Speakers

Victor Piercey

Professor And Director Of General Education, Ferris State University

Friday June 17, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Making Math Meaningful

10:30am PDT

Monumental Consequence

Monumental Consequence is a single-session, live action game for classrooms, team building, and social gatherings (ages 14 and up) that asks players if art is ever worth dying for. Players take on the role of villagers in the fictional European town of La Ville where an army has just taken possession of their centuries old church. The villagers must come together to decide whether they risk the lives of their friends and family by attacking the church to save the precious art inside or whether they simply bomb the church and sacrifice the art to save lives. The game blends card mechanics with live action roleplaying to create a vibrant conversation about the cultural value of art and antiquities along with a seamless introduction to classroom roleplaying. This Well Played session will take participants through the entire game with an opportunity for dialogue afterward about the game’s themes, mechanics, and potentially controversial content.

Speakers

Raymond Kimball

Founder and CEO, 42 Educational Games Coaching and Design

I'm an education professional with years of experience in game-based learning and collaborative professional development that meets the needs of diverse teams. I founded 42 Education Games Coaching and Design in 2020 so I could continue my dream of serving higher education faculty... Read More →

Mary Beth Looney

DeSales University

Knock! Knock! Who's there?Ya. Ya who? I'm excited to see you too!

Friday June 17, 2022 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Well Played

12:00pm PDT

Fireside Chat with Gordon Bellamy

Speakers

Gordon Bellamy

CEO, University of Southern California

Gordon teaches at USC Games, serves as head of the USC Bridge incubator and USC esports faculty advisor. He has played key business and product leadership roles at Tencent, Electronic Arts, as a designer on Madden NFL Football, and MTV.Gordon serves as the president / CEO of the Gay... Read More →

Friday June 17, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Fireside Chat Alcove UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Fireside Chats

12:00pm PDT

Black Gamer’s Refuge: Finding Community within the Magic Circle of Whiteness

Today, Black gamers are experiencing countless online attacks by white and non-Black actors. From public incidents like T-Pain being called the N-word while gaming, to Black gamers receiving private hate messages, there is no shortage of issues for Black players. As a result, many gaming spaces are often interpreted as unsafe by Black players. But what fuels these anti-Black transgressions? How are Black players responding to and coping with racialized digital spaces? And how might anthropology provide not only insight, but new ways of looking at this potentially harmful landscape? In this presentation I explore new ways of looking at online games and their players through two concepts I term the Magic Circle of Whiteness and the Black Spoil Sport. Whereby building upon the work of Johann Huizinga, I look at online games not as a space developed by sets of game rules, but instead as sites influenced by a set of white gaming cultural logics. To explore this, I apply these concepts to my ethnographic research, where I examine the unique lived realities of Black players in online spaces. To discuss the problems and possibilities in creating Black space and how Black individuals reshape and reform digital space within the magic circle of whiteness.

Master of Ceremonies

Aaron Trammell

University of California, Irvine

Speakers

Akil Fletcher

Ph.D. Candidate, University of California, Irvine Department of Anthropology

Akil Fletcher is an award-winning researcher and Ph.D. candidate in the Anthropology department at the University of California Irvine. His work focuses on understanding how Black gamers utilize and transform games and online platforms to create Black community. Currently, his work... Read More →

Friday June 17, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, A New Civics

12:00pm PDT

Building the Bridge for Esports and Education

This presentation showcases the educational opportunities that currently exist in the games industry and how creating a holistic experience creates value for students, educators, and scholastic esports. The presenters will share current projects that provide students with tools and resources related to broadcasting, game design, and opportunities around Interactive 3D across the esports ecosystem.

Master of Ceremonies

Mark Deppe

Director, UCI Esports

Speakers

Kenny Sugishita

Esports Manager, Epic Games

Kenny is an Esports Manager at Epic Games working on Fortnite. His primary responsibilities include managing third party tournament organizers, maintaining and updating the community event license terms, and developing the scholastic Fortnite ecosystem.

Steve Isaacs

Education Program Manager, Epic Games

Friday June 17, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Esports

12:00pm PDT

Esports athletes’ group sensemaking of team gameplay data analytics

In this exploratory case study, we investigate how a collegiate esports team makes sense of gameplay data visualizations. Through our intervention we introduced the team to new data collection practices, provided data analysis and visualization support, and organized sensemaking sessions with the team to discuss implications of the analytics. Through an exploratory analysis of video footage, we identified three different sensemaking activities.

Master of Ceremonies

Mark Deppe

Director, UCI Esports

Speakers

Victor R. Lee

Associate Professor, Stanford University

Victor R. Lee is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University and leads the Data Interactions & STEM Teaching and Learning (DISTAL) Lab. Through his research, he asks what STEM knowledge, tools, and practices are important to know to enable active... Read More →

Frederick Poole

Michigan State University

Knock knockWho's there?Amos.Amos who?A mosquito.

Friday June 17, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Esports

12:00pm PDT

How Communication Wins Games

Much of team communication is a trained process for teams in high pressure environments, like the highly regimented checklists that structure aircraft takeoff and landing. Competitive League of Legends teams use communication to maintain tight coordination in the face of chaotic and stressful stimuli. This 2 x 2 factorial design explores differences between in-game communications in League of Legends teams that vary in both experience as a team and experience with the game. The findings describe how content, style, and amount of communication differ between novice and expert teams; whether those differences relate to experience with the game, experience as a team, or both; and whether differences in communication relate to how teams react to stressful in-game situations. The discussion explores whether these same communication patterns and solutions can effectively transfer across domains in the interest of training for safety and performance in higher consequence domains.

Master of Ceremonies

Mark Deppe

Director, UCI Esports

Speakers

Jason G Reitman

Doctoral Student, University of California, Irvine

Friday June 17, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom B UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, Esports

12:00pm PDT

Playing Around with the Civic Imagination

2022 has been marked by an enduring pandemic, war, humanitarian disasters and divisive politics. In the midst of such turmoil, global citizens continue to demonstrate resilience and a drive towards new forms of protest, social mobilization and appeals to shared imagination. From K-Pop activism to resilient pandemic baking and recipe sharing, we see powerful stories of pop cultural content serving to bridge private and public imaginations in service of social change. In this session, we will introduce the civic imagination as a productive lens through which to explore these and other such examples. This approach grows from our work within the Civic Paths Group (Henry Jenkins PI, Sangita Shresthova Co-PI) at the University of Southern California. We define civic imagination as the capacity to imagine alternatives to current cultural, social, political, or economic conditions; one cannot change the world unless one can imagine what a better world might look like. We will offer a historical context and theoretical framework to situate our work on civic imagination. Drawing on our work with communities, we will then introduce participants to hands-on activities that can ignite the civic imagination. Rooted in aspirational approaches to civic action, our workshops help build teams and professional or activist communities through creative storytelling and play.

Master of Ceremonies

Aaron Trammell

University of California, Irvine

Speakers

Do Own (Donna) Kim

University of Southern California

Who’s there?Nobel.Nobel who?No bell. That’s why I knocked.

Friday June 17, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, A New Civics

12:00pm PDT

Quelling Extremism in Online Games

The legacy of Gamergate has been a steady rise in toxicity and extremism in online games. Almost no title, from Roblox to Red Dead Redemption II, has proven itself exempt. Today, 98% of adult gamers experience positive social interactions online while 83% experience some form of hate and harassment (Anti-Defamation League, 2021). We have more than a decade of empirical research documenting how games are powerful vehicles for learning; so what do we do when such spaces are overrun with hate speech, harassment, trolls, and hate raids?
The Games+Learning+Society (GLS) Center, with support from the UCI Confronting Extremism Program, recently hosted an academic summit on extremism in online games among experts across domains in conjunction with the GLS 2022 Conference. In this presentation, we report out on our deliberations to present (1) an agenda for research to better understand and therefore address extremism in online games and (2) a set of actionable recommendations for combating extremism in the gaming communities on our university campuses and beyond them, within the broader community.

Master of Ceremonies

Aaron Trammell

University of California, Irvine

Speakers

Garrison Wells

University of California, Irvine

Constance Steinkuehler

Professor of Informatics, University of California–Irvine

Friday June 17, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom A UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Paper, A New Civics

12:00pm PDT

Poor Not Guilty: Perspective-Taking to Address the Criminalization of Poverty

Cities and states throughout the United States impose fines for minor offenses at every stage of the criminal justice system, trapping individuals in cycles of poverty and punishment. At the same time, almost every city has laws that punish and fine people experiencing homelessness for engaging in necessary activities, such as sleeping in public. These laws are not only cruel and a violation of basic rights but also counterproductive. Two major roadblocks to ending the criminalization of poverty are a lack of awareness and empathy. A team of designers and legal experts engaged in tandem transformational game design to create Poor Not Guilty: Fines and Fees Challenges, in which players perspective-take as someone impacted by the criminalization of such petty offenses. The challenges employ storytelling and seek to generate awareness and empathy of the systemic nature of this criminalization, as part of Street Law curriculum and advocacy supporting policy change.

Speakers

Tamar Ezer

University of Miami

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Déja. Déja who?Knock! Knock!

Lily Frances Fontenot

University of Miami

Knock! Knock! Who's there? Interrupting cowInterruptin- Mooooo!

David Stuzin

University of Miami

Knock, knock.Who’s there?Keith.Keith who?Keith me, my thweet prince!

Lien B Tran

Assistant Professor, DePaul University

Friday June 17, 2022 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
UCI Esports Arena UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Well Played

1:00pm PDT

Lunch and Town Hall

An informal town hall meeting hosted outside in the fresh air over surprisingly succulent assorted box lunches including greek salad wraps, vegan veggie and hummus wraps, and portobello banh mi subs parceled up for free wandering indoors and out on the lawns. Lemonade, iced tea, and still water, bien sûr!

Friday June 17, 2022 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Pacific Ballroom Terrace UCI Conference Center, 311 W Peltason Dr # A, Irvine, CA 92697

Feeding Time

5:00pm PDT

Beach Sunset & Bonfire

Where in newport?
Des?
Title?
Doheny: arrive by 12pm to claim spot #12 (reserved)

Bus pickup: 5:00pm SHARP
sunset: 8:05pm
twilight end: 8:33pm

Friday June 17, 2022 5:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Doheny Beach Capistrano Beach, CA

Signature Event