Chris Swain is Director of the USC Games Institute and co-author of the book Game Design Workshop.  He has designed over 50 games and interactive products in industry for companies that include: Microsoft, Sony, Disney, Warner Brothers and many others.  He was co-founder of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab at USC and he has developed game research projects in academia for institutions that include the National Science Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Annenberg Center, and others.  Chris has mentored dozens of students and hundreds of student games.  He has been a lead advisor to three USC student projects published by major publishers - fl0w for Sony Playstation, Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom for 2K Games, and Reflection for Konami.

 

In this presentation Chris distills the core principles taught at the University of Southern California that create innovative, original playable systems.  He breaks down innovation best practices in a game context and presents them in form that can be adopted by any game team.  Chris will talk about why gameplay innovation is a wise strategic choice for indies and best practices for achieving it.  He will also talk about creative distribution strategies beyond iPhone and Facebook for helping a game reach the broadest audience possible.