Lindsay Grace

Lindsay Grace is a video game designer, artist, and professor who currently lives in Washington, D.C. he is best known as an academic game designer who employs critical design. 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. Created in 2009, players must navigate a 3D world that fades away when the player moves, and grows more detailed as they wait. If players fail to move for long, the world also recedes. 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.

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 eventsat the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Grace leads the games program at American University School of Communication in Washington D.C. Grace has published more than 45 academic articles since 2009.

He was the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Creative Arts at Miami University/Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies at Miami University where he runs the Persuasive Play Laboratory. He teaches video game design, interaction design and theory at American University.

He publishes writing and video games that relate the concept of “philosophy of software”and Critical Design as practice in the arts and games. This practice falls between captology and critical design.

The Critical Gameplay gamesemploy theories in the design of video games and society. The work for Critical Gameplay has been shown in more than 15 cities including Athens, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Vancouver, Taipei, Chicago, Paris and Istanbul. It is internationally recognized.

Grace's independent video game publications include Penguin Roll, Zombie Master, Polyglot Cubed and several games under the Mindtoggle Software company. He also writes about games and independent game-making. According to App Annie statistics, his Game Black Like Me was a top 100 game in 3 countries (United States, Sweden and South Korea) by number of daily downloads.

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

He is an alumnus of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois as well as two degrees from Northwestern University.

2005

• Cineme Midwestern Game Developers Conference (2005) - Lecturer
• Westwood College PAC Curriculum - Advisory committee

2008

• Meaningful play, Michigan State University (2008) - Game Exhibitor
• International Conferences on Advances in Human Computer Interaction, Mexico (2009) - A Universally Designed, Device-Independent Email Client

2009

• IITSEC, Orlando, Florida (2009) - Serious Games Showcase
• International Conferences on Advancements in Computer Entertainment, Athens, Greece (2009) - Game Exhibitor
• International Digital Media and Arts Association, Ball State University, USA

2010

• CHI (conference), Atlanta, USA

2011

• ISEA, Istanbul, USA
• Games, Learning and Society, Wisconsin, USA

2012

• Electronic Language International Festival, São Paulo, Brazil
• Artscape (festival), Baltimore, USA
• Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Austin, Texas

2013

• Games for Change, New York, USA
• Electronic Language International Festival, São Paulo, Brazil
• CHI (conference), Paris, France

2014

• ArtScience Museum, Singapore, Singapore
• SIGGRAPH, New York, USA
• College Art Association Annual Conference, Cassidy Theater at the Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, USA

2015

• Game Developers Conference, "In the Hearts of Players: Affection Games and Mobile Love" (March 2015), Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, California, United States
• Game Developers Conference, "Education Soapbox" (March 2015), Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, California, United States
• SXSW, "Gaming 4 Gov Impact" (March 2015), SXSW, Austin, Texas, Texas, United States

2016

• Game Developers Conference, "Community Engagement at the Intersection of Games and News" (March 2016), Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, California, United States
• Game Developers Conference, "Who Owns What and Why? Student IP, Faculty IP, and Game Design Programs" (March 2016), Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, California, United States
• Online News Association, Keynote "What Journalists Can Learn from Game Designers About Engagement" (April 2016), Online News Association, London