Slides for my FDG17 talk on Reconciling Games

I have posted up slides for the keynote talk I gave at the Foundations of Digital Games conference. It was called “Reconciling Games” and it was about fish tanks. Well, fish tanks as an example of a naturally occurring ludic system that offers up surprising lessons for game design, across many disciplines: internal game economics and systems balancing, but also narrative, community design, and more.

Among the key quotes from the talk (based on tweeted comments from attendees) are

“When game devs start a game, they usually don’t know what they’re making.”
“Games were born multiplayer.”
“Games are a medium of communication between players.”
“How many things are we not making because they aren’t framed as ‘games?'”
“The ball is not the game, the physics system around it is.”
“My favorite game is making games…. it’s one hell of a ludic system.”
“We all live in a digital fishbowl.”
“Every game I make is a society I tend.”

Unfortunately, the talk wasn’t recorded, and I spoke without notes. So you’ll have to decide for yourselves where those fall on the slides.

As a side note… this was actually the first time that I have ever attended FDG, or its original parent conference (famously held on cruise ships). I had been asked to attend many many times, particularly by the key mover in getting the whole thing going, John Nordlinger. It was really wonderful, and I wish I had been able to stay for the full event.

John passed away only a few weeks ago from accelerated ALS which had only recently been diagnosed. Sorry I took so long to go, John. You built an amazing community.