Eric Zimmerman is a game designer the co-author of four books including Rules of Play with Katie Salen, which was published in November 2004. Eric Zimmerman has written at least 24 essays and white-papers since 1996, mostly pertaining to game development from an academic standpoint. He's currently a founding faculty at the NYU Game Center. Eric Zimmerman is deeply embedded in New York Game scene. Having originally cofounded Gamelab, the studio that went out to create Diner Dash.
In this episode, Eric explains how he designed Gamelab to be a place where people who worked there felt ownership and authorship of the intellectual property that they were creating. We also talk about the value of game design "frameworks" and the practice of game design as a way of being in the world.
"The sweetest pleasure as a game designer is seeing people do things with my games that I never anticipated." - Eric Zimmerman
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Connect with Eric
Twitter: @zimmermaneric
Website: ericzimmerman.com
Waiting Rooms: A Game of Perplexing Emotions
Selected Links from this Episode
Gamelab
Diner Dash
Rules of Play
Katie Salen
Nathalie Pozzi / NAKWORKS
Featured Show Highlights
Eric talks about how being a game designer is not about the knowledge that you have, but something else much more surprising. [10:45]
Eric questions the premise that we can really teach people knowledge directly. [14:00]
Eric talks about how collaborating with people outside of gaming is incredible valuable for him [23:30]
Eric share his vision behind the design and structure of Gamelab and how he believes that was a big part of its success. [24:40]