Games for Change 2015

The Games for Change Festival (April 21-23 & 25), the largest gaming event in New York City, celebrates the positive power of games, again as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. From the most successful mobile games to cutting-edge virtual reality projects, this year brings the best Festival line-up yet.

Beyond Games

• Nicholas Kristof, NY Times columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of A Path Appears
• Sheryl WuDunn, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of A Path Appears
• Morgan Spurlock, Acclaimed Filmmaker, Super Size Me
• Michael Abrash, Chief Scientist, Oculus VR

Game Makers

• Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio Fun Learning, Angry Birds
• Rami Ismail, Vlambeer, Ridiculous Fishing
• Meg Jayanth, Writer, 80 Days (Time Magazine’s Game of the Year)
• Jesse Schell, CEO, Schell Games
• Frank Lantz, Director, NYU Game Center
• Eric Zimmerman, Game Designer, faculty at NYU
• Colleen Macklin, Game Designer, Parsons the New School for Design
• Naomi Clark, Game Designer, Brooklyn Game Ensemble
• Adriaan De Jongh, Game Designer, Bounden
• Cecilia Dolk, Martin Ericsson, Bjarke Pedersen, Nordic LARP creators, Odyssé

The Festival continues to showcase a strong selection of learning games, curated in partnership with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center.

• Angry Birds Fun Learning. The hit mobile game that now has an animated series, educational books, and STEM-themed games is growing their Fun Learning program. With partners such as NASA, CERN, and the National Geographic Society, Angry Birds maker Rovio aims inspire children and feed their curiosity with wonders and challenges of the world.
• Scientific Exploration with NOVA Labs Games: Real science, real data, and you. Learn how NOVA’s latest game, Evolution Lab, tackles the big ideas and misconceptions about evolution and attempts to counter the efforts being made in some states to remove the teaching of evolution in science classrooms by working with their outreach partners.
• Social-Emotional Learning Games: Where are they now and why they’re our future. Hear from leading social-emotional learning (SEL) game developers and come away with a thorough knowledge of how SEL games bolster achievement on the Common Core and 21st-century skills, what’s next for research in this fast-emerging field, and what strategies can be taken for scaling these games in K-12 and informal learning environments nationally.
• From Concept to Market: Building games for schools. The story of Filament’s PLEx Science product is the story of one of the few major commercialization efforts in the games-based learning space. Learn about the entire life cycle of a contemporary learning game – from development to research to launch – and about the philosophies and practices of the largest dedicated learning games developer in the U.S.

Registration is open with a 20% early-bird discount through February 20. Get an additional 10% off with the code 10cooney. Register now.

For the latest information on the Festival, please visit www.gamesforchange.org/festival/