New recruits!

With 7 days left on the international application deadline to our Master programme we’ve got some great news to share! Professor Doris C. Rusch and Mischa Hießböck (DePaul University) are moving to the island and joining the department full-time, in June!

Mischa hails from a series of Austrian studios such as Game Gestalt, Sproing and Ferrytells, while Doris founded the Deep Games Laboratory at DePaul, ran the GAMBIT Game Lab, worked at MIT and the Vienna University of Technology. Their work represents a veritable smörgåsbord for our department’s wish list. Not just encouraging, but dragging games to be better: to talk to the human condition; to represent nuance and a range of emotions.

Rusch’s work is focused on the theory and practice of game design, particularly in regard to games that model the human experience. For example she’s made;

• Zombie Yoga a game for emotional empowerment
• Elude – a metaphorical game on depression
• For the Records – an interactive documentary that deals with young adults and mental disorders such as OCD, ADD, eating disorder and bipolar disorder and
• Soteria – Dreams as Currency, a game to teach strategies to overcome anxiety disorders.
• Doris also published the book Making Deep Games, on how to make games about the human experience using metaphor and allegory.

Join us at the Gotland Game Conference (5-6th June) to say hi and welcome them both!