In two-birds-one-stone mode, I spent a week over in Pittsburgh to present at the Korean Game Academy and lecture during the Game Education Summit - both hosted by Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center.

Given the ETC’s relationship with Korea, they welcome a delegation of Korean developers each summer to spend a week of intensive game related training and learning. I did three sessions with them: design theory (covered LeBlanc’s MDA), user research and usability testing, and a serious games overview.

A few days later, the 2nd annual Game Education Summit hosted upwards of 200 faculty, researchers, students, developers and other industry folk. Session quality of high overall, though I did fall asleep in class at least once ;) My lecture was on the need to support a culture of risk taking and experimentation, tolerant to failure.

To kill a bit of time between the two events, I looked up a local Judo dojo and popped in to train. As a special treat, I got to spare with the sensei, a 6th dan black belt (ie, he can whup some serious ass). He mostly tossed me around like a rag doll, but I did score on him once. The experience served as a good personal anecdote of risking taking and failure!

Some quick shots from the week:

 


The ‘09 class of the Korean Game Academy.

 

 


Don Marinelli opens the Game Education Summit with a big ETC welcome.

 

 


Terrence Masson discusses the curriculum at Northeastern Univeristy.

 

 


A terminator bot was guarding the entrance to my lecture room.

 

 


Conference organizer Mark Chuberka welcomes folks to the post-day1 reception.

 

 


Attendees playing the “Irish game”…

 

 


Leah Smith (Texas Film Commission) and Kristy Bowden (Digital Media Council) play a session of Train.

 

 


Andrew Hieronymi (Savannah College of Art and Design) discusses his physical interface gaming projects.