Chris Swain

Chris Swain is an American game designer, entrepreneur, and professor. He is the founder and CEO of Talkie, a venture-funded game developer creating a transmedia social games. He is a professor in the USC School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media Division.

Talkie's first game is Ecotopia, Play the Game Save the Planet, Ecotopia is a cinematic, story-driven game with real-world tie-ins that allow users to not only play the game, but also make a real difference in their homes and communities.

At USC Chris was co-founder of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab and currently directs the USC Games Institute, a collaboration between the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Viterbi School of Engineering, and Annenberg School for Communications. Chris is co-author of the book "Game Design Workshop" which is used at many of the over 700 college game programs around the world. He served as a faculty advisor on the game fl0w which began as an MFA thesis project and was released by Sony Computer Entertainment of America for the PlayStation 3. In addition he was a faculty advisor to seven student games accepted into the Independent Games Festival including the award-winning Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom.

His USC research projects include:

• The Redistricting Game – funded by the Annenberg Center for Communication. This is a game that attempts to educate people about the issues surrounding congressional redistricting. In addition it attempts to empower people to take civic action regarding redistricting reform.[1]

• Immune Attack – funded by National Science Foundation. An immersive 3D game set at in the human blood stream at the level of immune cells. The game teaches immunobiology to AP biology students. It was created in collaboration with Brown University, the USC Gamepipe Lab, and the Federation of American Scientists.[2]

• The New New Deal – funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. A simulation game based on the writings of Los Angeles Times economics correspondent Peter Gossellin. The game explores the shifts in the US economy from a new deal economy (in which economic risk was largely shouldered by government and corporations) to an ownership economy (in which risk is shouldered more by individual households).

• Enhanced Learning with Creative Technologies (ELECT-BiLat) – funded by the United States Army. It’s a PC game that teaches cultural sensitivity and bi-lateral negotiation. This game has a unique conversation engine that allows players to derive meaningful play from conversational actions vs physical actions. The project was produced for USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies.[3]

Prior to coming to USC Chris was a founding member of the New York design firm R/GA Interactive. At R/GA he led development of over 150 interactive products for clients that include Microsoft, Sony, Disney, Activision, America Online, Warner Bros., PBS, BBC, Intel, IBM, Kodak, Discovery Channel, Ticketmaster, and many other companies. Notable projects include: Netwits for the Microsoft Network, Multiplayer Jeopardy! and Multiplayer Wheel of Fortune for Sony Online, Stickerworld for Children's Television Workshop, and Poetry of Structure – the interactive companion to Ken Burns’ documentary about Frank Lloyd Wright.

Chris was VP of Programming at venture-funded game developer Spiderdance, Inc. Spiderdance’s participatory television projects included webRIOT[4] for MTV and Weakest Link Interactive for NBC among others.

Chris has served on the Board of Directors of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmy’s) and on the Board of Advisors for the American Film Institute’s Enhanced Television Workshop, Games for Change, Annenberg Innovation Lab, Game Education Summit, and other organizations. He started his career in 1991 at Robert Abel’s pioneering interactive software company Synapse Technologies.

His projects have received many awards including Time Magazine’s Best of the Web.

External links

• USC School of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media Division site
• Video of Chris Swain speaking at MIT on the Future of Games
• Interview in Forbes about independent games
• USC Faculty