Year of Games Symposium

October 17 - 19

Day(s)

Hour(s)

Minute(s)

Second(s)

Year of Games Kick-Off

Come join us October 17-19 at the Logan Center for the Arts for the Opening Symposium of the Year of Games: three days of game makers, writers, and teachers in conversation about games, their past, present, and future, their place on campus, and—most importantly—what we love about them.

Events will kick-off with a Videogame Music Carillon Concert presented by Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. Friday and Saturday keynotes will take the form of live tapings of journalist Simon Parkin’s My Perfect Console podcast with guests Alex Seropian and Evan Narcisse (the latter session co-presented by the University of Chicago Humanities Day and the Chicago Humanities Festival). We hope you will join us for this exciting event whether you are already a fan of games or have always wondered what the fuss is all about!

Year of Games Symposium

October 17 - 18

Day(s)

Hour(s)

Minute(s)

Second(s)

Year of Games Symposium

October 17 - 18

Day(s)

Hour(s)

Minute(s)

Second(s)

Invited Thinkers and Makers

‧₊˚🎮👽🔫 Friday Keynote 👽🔫🎮‧₊˚

Alex Seropian

Founder of Bungie Studios, Wideload Games, Industrial Toys and Look North World.

‧₊˚🎮📜✍🏿 Saturday Keynote 📜✍🏿🎮‧₊˚

Evan Narcisse

Comic book writer, journalist, and video game narrative designer.

Simon Parkin

Writer for the New Yorker and The Observer. Creator of My Perfect Console Podcast.

Eddo Stern

Artist, game designer, and Professor of Design Media Arts at UCLA.

Chris Granner

Video game and pinball music composer, audio director at Zynga.

Andrew Borman

Director of Digital Preservation at The Strong Museum.

Mitu Khandaker

Game Designer + Arts Professor, NYU Game Center.

Joanna Fang

Foley Artist.

Billy Basso

Game Designer and Studio Founder, projects include Animal Well.

Celia Pearce

Game designer, author, researcher, teacher, curator, and artist, specializing in multiplayer gaming; independent, art, and alternative game genres; and playable theatre. Her most recent publication is Playframes from the MIT Press.

Josh Tsui

Co-Founder of Studio Gigante and Robomodo, Documentary Producer, Director Of Innovation at Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media, DePaul University. Works include the Tony Hawk, Mortal Kombat, and WWE series of games.

Derek Yu

Independent video game designer, video game artist and blogger. His work includes UFO 50 and Spelunky.

Jon Perry

Video game and board game designer. His works include UFO 50, Air Land & Sea, Spots, and Hot Streak.

Tyriq Plummer

Indie game designer, pixel artist, and animator and who has worked on Catacomb Kids, Cadence of Hyrule, and UFO 50. Most recently, he co-founded the Oakland-based game studio “Odd Object”.

Julianne Grasso

Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Florida State University. Her research primarily focuses on music in visual media, especially video games.

Fox Harrell

Professor of Digital Media & Artificial Intelligence in the Comparative Media Studies Program and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT.

Katherine Waterman

Associate Content Producer at Riot Games – League of Legends and Valorant.