The Evolution of a Game Designer

Four years ago this month I became Google’s Chief Game Designer.  It seemed an auspicious time to be able to make games at a company known for its world-spanning technology.  Unfortunately, the opportunity to actually build the big, consequential games that I had been hired to help create failed to materialize, even as the world market for games has continued to grow in size, diversity, and geographic reach.  Accordingly, I’ve decided to leave Google, and today, April 6, was my last day.

Google is a tremendous company and I know I will miss the perks, the excitement, and most of all, my colleagues there.  But with 37 years as a professional game developer, making games is in my blood.  I’m not ready to give up on it, certainly not when there are exciting new fields just opening up.  I’m particularly energized by the confluence of games, neuroscience, and VR.  Before I came to Google I had the pleasure of working on a number of health and neuroscience game titles, and that field is now maturing, and I think about to come into its own both in terms of its benefits to humanity, and feasibility as a business.  Related to that, I think the emotional connections possible in VR, most prominently shown in the empathy evoked by a sense of physical proximity and eye contact that no previous technology can match, is going to open up an entire new merging of movies, interaction, and games that may need a new name.  I don’t know what’s next, and that’s part of what attracts me.  The only way that I or my long-term colleagues stay fresh in an industry that is constantly changing is to evolve to meet that adapting environment.

Whether neurogaming, interactive VR films, or some other yet undreamt-of territory will be my next challenge, I’m eager to begin exploring!