Lindsay Grace

Last updated

Lindsay Grace
Lindsay Grace at the 2016 GDC Education Summit (cropped).jpg
Grace at the 2016 GDC Education Summit
Occupation(s) video game designer, artist, professor
Employer University of Miami
Known for Critical Gameplay
Website www.lgrace.com

Lindsay Grace is an American academic, artist, and video game designer. [1] He currently serves as the Knight Chair of Interactive Media and is also an Associate Professor at the School of Communication, University of Miami. . [2] [3]

Contents

Grace is well known as an academic game designer who employs critical design. He is the 2019 Games for Change Vanguard Award winner and Knight Chair at the University of Miami. [4] He served as founding director of the American University Game Lab and Studio (JOLT), [5] which includes the Fake News game, Factitious, [6] the NPR game Commuter Challenge and Miami Herald's Gaming the System. [7] In 2013 his game, Wait was inducted in the Games for Change Hall of Fame as one of the five most significant games for change in the last decade. Other notable games include Big Huggin', a game controlled by a giant stuffed animal that players must hug to meet game goals. Big Huggin' was Kickstarted with notable support from Jane McGonigal and selected for the ACM SIGGRAPH's Aesthetics of Gameplay Show. [8]

Grace has created more than 15 independent games, acting as the sole designer, developer, and artist. He has written articles about this process and supports such activity as one of 8 executive board members organizing the Global Game Jam. He also exhibits art internationally and curates exhibits. He co-curated the Indie Arcade 2014 and 2016 events at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Lindsay Grace has publicly opposed the link between video games and violence. [9] He was featured in the 2023 PBS American Experience Documentary, Ruthless: Monopoly's Secret History about the board game Monopoly's history.

Early life and education

Grace is an alumnus of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois as well as two degrees from Northwestern University. [10] [11]

Career

From 2013 to 2018, Grace established and led the American University Game Lab and Studio. [12] [13] Between 2014 and 2019, he contributed as a Vice President and board member for the Global Game Jam non-profit. [12] Earlier, from 2009 to 2013, he held the position of C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Creative Arts at Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies, Miami University. [14] He taught video game design, interaction design and theory at American University. [15] Prior to becoming a professor, Lindsay was a software developer and designer, a buyer and a data warehousing integrity analyst at an investment firm. [2]

Grace also had a tenure as a board member for the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) during 2013-2015. [2]

Research and work

Grace publishes writing and video games that relate the concept of "philosophy of software" [16] and Critical Design as practice in the arts and games. This practice falls between captology and critical design. [16]

Grace's independent video game publications include Penguin Roll , [17] Zombie Master , [18] Polyglot Cubed and several games under the Mindtoggle Software company. [19] He also writes about games and independent game-making. [20]

In 2008, Grace created Polyglot Cubed which was recognized at the Meaningful play conference at Michigan State, [21] was a serious games showcase finalist at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference IITSEC, [22] and the International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology. [23] Gamasutra ran an article about it. [24] His research includes algorithmic music generation using visual emergent behavior.

Grace lead the games program at American University School of Communication in Washington D.C. [25]

Bibliography

See also

Related Research Articles

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membership group, reporting nearly 110,000 student and professional members as of 2022. Its headquarters are in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SIGGRAPH</span> Conference on computer graphics

SIGGRAPH is an annual conference centered around computer graphics organized by ACM, starting in 1974 in Boulder, CO. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia, a second conference held annually, has been held since 2008 in countries throughout Asia.

Video game design is the process of designing the rules and content of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdisciplines are world design, level design, system design, content design, and user interface design. Within the video game industry, video game design is usually just referred to as "game design", which is a more general term elsewhere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terragen</span> Scenery generator software

Terragen is a scenery generator program for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X developed and published by Planetside Software. It can be used to create renderings and animations of landscapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development</span> Former division of Nintendo

Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development Division, commonly abbreviated as Nintendo EAD and formerly known as Nintendo Research & Development No.4 Department, was the largest software development division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. It was preceded by the Creative Department, a team of designers with backgrounds in art responsible for many different tasks, to which Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka originally belonged. Both served as managers of the EARD studios and were credited in every game developed by the division, with varying degrees of involvement. Nintendo EAD was best known for its work on games in the Donkey Kong, Mario, The Legend of Zelda, F-Zero, Star Fox, Animal Crossing, Pikmin, and Wii series.

Thomas Albert "Tom" DeFanti is an American computer graphics researcher and pioneer. His work has ranged from early computer animation, to scientific visualization, virtual reality, and grid computing. He is a distinguished professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a research scientist at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Hanrahan</span> American computer graphics researcher

Patrick M. Hanrahan is an American computer graphics researcher, the Canon USA Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in the Computer Graphics Laboratory at Stanford University. His research focuses on rendering algorithms, graphics processing units, as well as scientific illustration and visualization. He has received numerous awards, including the 2019 Turing Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Allen (artist)</span> American digital artist

Rebecca Allen is an internationally recognized digital artist inspired by the aesthetics of motion, the study of perception and behavior and the potential of advanced technology. Her artwork, which spans five decades and takes the form of experimental video, large-scale performances, live simulations and virtual and augmented reality art installations, addresses issues of gender, identity and what it means to be human as technology redefines our sense of reality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracy Fullerton</span> American game designer, educator and writer

Tracy Fullerton is an American game designer, educator and writer, best known for Walden, a game (2017). She is a Professor in the USC Interactive Media & Games Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and Director of the Game Innovation Lab at USC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Capps (executive)</span> American video game designer

Michael V. Capps or Mike Capps is an American video game designer who was the president of Epic Games, based in Cary, North Carolina from 2002 to 2012. In 2018, he co-founded a new artificial intelligence company called Howso. He has been described as "a legendary figure in the video game industry."

Andrew A. Luckey is an American animator, artist, author, designer, director, illustrator and television producer, primarily of animated works. He also writes and illustrates children's books and Bible studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Flanagan</span>

Mary Flanagan is an American artist, author, educator, and designer. She pioneered the field of game research with her ideas on critical play and has written several books. She is the founding director of the research laboratory and design studio Tiltfactor Lab and the CEO of the board game company Resonym. Flanagan's work as an artist has been shown around the world and won the Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Bogost</span> American philosopher

Ian Bogost is an American academic and video game designer, most known for the game Cow Clicker. He holds a joint professorship at Washington University as director and professor of the Film and Media Studies program in Arts & Sciences and the McKelvey School of Engineering. He previously held a joint professorship in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication and in Interactive Computing in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Chair in Media Studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrence Masson</span> American film producer

Terrence Masson is a computer graphics educator, producer, and lecturer, specializing in animation, storytelling and executive leadership. He is the chair of the MFA Computer Arts Department at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City. He was also founder and CEO of Building Conversation, an augmented reality company located in Boston, MA. He was both the ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Computer Animation Festival Chair and 2010 Conference Chair. He also wrote the book CG 101: A Computer Graphics Industry Reference, and has contributed to films, television programs, and video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hao Li</span> American computer scientist & university professor

Hao Li is a computer scientist, innovator, and entrepreneur from Germany, working in the fields of computer graphics and computer vision. He is co-founder and CEO of Pinscreen, Inc, as well as associate professor of computer vision at the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI). He was previously a Distinguished Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Southern California, and former director of the Vision and Graphics Lab at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. He was also a visiting professor at Weta Digital and a research lead at Industrial Light & Magic / Lucasfilm.

Critical Gameplay is a video game developer, founded in 2009 by game developer Lindsay Grace.

Big Huggin' is an affective video game developed by Critical Gameplay in 2013. It was created by Lindsay Grace. It has been shown in exhibits in United States, Mexico, France, and Brazil.


Mona Kasra is a media artist, projection designer, and interdisciplinary scholar. She is Associate Professor of Digital Media Design at the University of Virginia.

The ACM Student Research Competition is an international computing research competition for university students. The competition is held annually and split into undergraduate and graduate divisions, organized by the Association for Computing Machinery. With several hundred annual participants, the Student Research Competition is considered the world's largest university-level research contest in the field of computing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael F. Cohen</span> American computer scientist

Michael F. Cohen is an American computer scientist and researcher in computer graphics. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Meta in their Generative AI Group. He was a senior research scientist at Microsoft Research for 21 years until he joined Facebook in 2015. In 1998, he received the ACM SIGGRAPH CG Achievement Award for his work in developing radiosity methods for realistic image synthesis. He was elected a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery in 2007 for his "contributions to computer graphics and computer vision." In 2019, he received the ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award for Outstanding Creative Contributions to Computer Graphics for “his groundbreaking work in numerous areas of research—radiosity, motion simulation & editing, light field rendering, matting & compositing, and computational photography”.

References

  1. Kragie, Andrew (July 10, 2017). "Fake news? Game seeks to train readers to separate fact and fiction in the media". Chron.
  2. 1 2 3 "Lindsay Grace". UM School of Communication.
  3. "Oh, the stories they'll tell!". July 10, 2011.
  4. "Nintendo and Ubisoft honored at the 2019 Games for Change Awards". June 19, 2019.
  5. GameLab and School of Communication, American University. "Journalism Innovation Through Game Design". JOLT. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  6. "Factitious".
  7. "Gaming the System". gamingthesystem.journalismgames.com.
  8. "Online Game Art Show Uncovers Fascinating Indie Games". ACM SIGGRAPH. March 20, 2014. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  9. "Video games do not teach people to become shooters in real life". CNN . March 10, 2018.
  10. "EVL alumni".
  11. "American University Faculty Profile". July 3, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  12. 1 2 "Meet Lindsay Grace: A Game Designer Creating Video Games with Social Impact". May 17, 2016.
  13. "Beating sexual harassment is a challenge for women".
  14. "Miami University Who's Who Arts Faculty". Miami School of Fine Arts. May 8, 2010. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  15. "Meet The Game Designer Creating Video Games with Social Impact". Web. May 17, 2016. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  16. 1 2 The Philosophy of Software. IGI. May 11, 2010. ISBN   978-1605663524.
  17. "Penguin Roll" . Retrieved February 22, 2024.
  18. "Zombie Master". CNET. August 6, 2010. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  19. Valdes, Karina. "Lindsay Grace Receives Games for Change Festival Vanguard Award". UM School of Communication.
  20. "Truly Independent Game Development". GameCareerGuide. August 20, 2009. Retrieved August 20, 2009.
  21. "Meaningful Play 2008: Game Exhibition and Competition". meaningfulplay.msu.edu. Archived from the original on June 11, 2010.
  22. "Polyglot". IITSEC. November 29, 2010. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  23. Grace, Lindsay D. (October 29, 2009). Polyglot Cubed: the design of a multi-language learning game. Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 421–422. doi:10.1145/1690388.1690480 via ACM Digital Library.
  24. "Polyglot". Gamasutra. December 12, 2010. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  25. "Journalism Schools Dig Deeper Into Videogames". PBS . November 25, 2013.
  26. "Love and Electronic Affection: A Design Primer". Routledge & CRC Press.
  27. "JournalismGames.org" (PDF).
  28. Grace, Lindsay (November 30, 2021). Black Game Studies: An Introduction to the Games, Game Makers and Scholarship of the African Diaspora. ISBN   978-1794779143.