Meet the Team
Adrian PhillipsI am currently an MFA student in the Digital Arts and New Media program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with an emphasis in Playable Media. I completed my undergrad education at the University of California, San Diego with a major in Interdisciplinary Computing in the Arts and a minor in Computer Science. In my spare time, I play EVE online, defend the Alliance from the scourge of Azeroth, and lead hordes of daemons in Warhammer 40,000 tabletop.
I am fascinated with complex, emergent game systems as forms of narrative. Rather than games that portray a compelling story, I am interested in games that create compelling stories through the interactions within the world and between players. The emergent economics and politics of EVE online chief among them, it is in this area that I am most interested in. Procedural content generation, Artificial Intelligence, and the design of levels are all areas of fascination for me. http://www.adrianmphillips.com/ |
Ben SpaldingI study storytelling in multiplayer games at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where I'm currently pursuing an MFA in Digital Arts and New Media (same as Adrian!). My thesis work involves creating a narrative-design tool as a form of design research to better understand storytelling in multiplayer digital games. Before begining my current program of study, I completed a B.S. in Media, Culture, and Communications at New York University with double minors in Creative Writing and Game Design.
When I'm not working on games or my upcoming thesis, I enjoy telling stories as a game master for a variety of tabletop roleplaying games, teaching game design to middle and high school students through different programs in my community, and roping the rest of my cohort into games of Four Square. http://www.bnspalding.com/ |