 Our exceptional panel at PAX East 2012, HOW YOUNG IS TOO YOUNG FOR GAMES? HEY GAMER PARENTS: Are you excited to tabletop with your kids? Do you wonder if an iPad game is better than TV for your children? Come join the discussion/ranting as an all-star cast of leading Kid Games Developers, Wizards, and Mad Scientists discuss parenting issues and opportunities around gaming and the development of games specifically for kids. Also, we will be including an interactive portion of the talk that will be a fundraiser for Child’s Play, at no cost to the audience, thanks to our corporate sponsor, Aerva!
|
||
| MEET THE PANELISTS | ||
Jason Wiser (Moderator) – Creative Director, Yaya Play LLC
Jason worked as an artist on console games Dance Central by Harmonix Music Systems (360/Kinect, predevelopment) and Slam Bolt Scrappers by Fire Hose Games (PS3) before being inspired by his then 1-year old daughter to explore game design for little kids. Jason got his MFA at Emerson College and his BA at Wesleyan University. He teaches at The New England Institute of Art and has taught at Pixar Studios, the Art Institute of California – San Francisco, and in Baltimore Public Schools as a member of Teach For America. |
||
Dave McMahon – Art Director, 360 Kid 
Dave has been a professional illustrator, animator, graphic designer and art director for over fifteen years. He has worked with the biggest names in entertainment and education, from Comedy Central’s Daily Show and South Park to Pearson Learning Group, McGraw-Hill, Leapfrog, Pokémon, Scholastic, Hasbro and Electronic Arts to name just a few. Dave’s specialty is informing and educating children while at the same time keeping them completely engaged and involved. Dave has an incredible ability to transform challenging, complex, and often boring information into engaging and fun interactive experiences. This skill has earned him numerous education and entertainment accolades and awards. Dave has a B.S. in Antropology, specializing in Archeology, from Wesleyan University. |
||
Scott Traylor – Chief Creative Officer, 360 Kid 
Scott defines the vision behind the Boston-based digital development and consulting firm known as 360KID. 360KID helps businesses discover how best to engage kids through a variety of digital media platforms. A former computer science teacher and working in the kids industry for over 20 years, Scott is actively involved in research, writing, and speaking about kids, consumer products, virtual worlds and social media. Scott is a Board of Director member of the Association for Educational Publishing (AEP) and Board of Trustee member to Exploration Schools, a summer enrichment program that engages students in constructivist learning for students in grades 3 through 12 on the campuses of Yale University, Wellesley College, and the Saint Marks School. Scott also advises a small number of venture backed eLearning startups and social & virtual worlds for kids. Scott has earned a B.A. in Graphic Design, an A.S. in Photographic Science, and an A.A. in Industrial Design from the Rochester Institute of Technology, all while double- majoring for three consecutive years. |
||
Traci Lawson – Game Designer, Arkadium 
Traci is a game designer at Arkadium in New York City. She specializes in casual games that are easy to learn, and children’s games that integrate learning into the act of play. Her published games include Frogs & Fireflies, Move Like Me, and Jewel River, on the iOS App Store, and Rosita’s Fiesta on the PBS Sesame Street website. She holds an M.A. in Cognitive Studies in Education, Intelligent Technologies from Teachers College, Columbia University. In her free time, Traci co-leads a Girl Scout troop, and enjoys playing German-style board games with friends. |
||
DaveSchlafman – Creative Director, CloudKid 
Dave is a two-time Emmy-nominated producer, as well as an award-winning animation director, and children’s book illustrator. He has worked in children’s media for clients such as Penguin Publishing, Hasbro Toys, Parker Brothers, UNICEF, PBS Kids, Scholastic, as well as American Greetings. Dave’s short film, The Sky Is Falling, won Current TV’s 60 Seconds to Save the Earth contest and Al Gore presented it at the TED Conference during his global warming presentation. In 2009, Dave founded CloudKid, a transmedia studio dedicated to creating character-driven interactive content for kids and families. CloudKid co-created and produces PBS Kids’ web-only series, Fizzy’s Lunch Lab. Dave lives in Boston with his wife and world-traveling dog, Bunte. |
||
Naomi Greenfield – Director of Marketing and Creative Strategist, FableVision 
Naomi is the proud mother of 17-month-old Sylvia whose first words included “hat,” Elmo” and “iPhone.” Naomi is also the Director of Marketing and Creative Strategist at FableVision Studios in Boston, where she has worked for the past 5 years on projects such as the Mister Rogers website on PBSKids.org, Berenstain Bears and SuperWhy online worlds for PBS Kids Play and an animated literacy segment for Sesame Street. Prior to working at FableVision, Naomi worked in children’s programming at WGBH, Scholastic, Little Airplane Productions, Sesame Workshop and Fox Family Channel. Naomi produced and directed a feature-length documentary, TWISTED: A Balloonamentary, that screened in 15 film festivals and had a theatrical run in 10 cities across the country before being picked up for distribution by WGBH International. Naomi has an Ed. M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Technology, Innovation and Education Program. |
||
Eric Hardman – Independent Game Designer 
Eric is a game designer and creative director who has worked for Disney, Hasbro, Scholastic, and independently creating digital entertainment for over 20 years. His high energy creative zeal is matched with practical production knowledge and a passion for building teams and products like Disney’s Blast, Scholastic’s Outernet online gaming site, Monopoly Planet, and educational MMO GEARS Online. Eric is an avid D&D and board game player currently working on Difficult-Terrain.com, a tabletop RPG startup venture, as well as developing original games and IP. He can be contacted at eric@hardmancreative.com
|
||
Scot Osterweil – Creative Director, MIT Education Arcade 
Scot is the Creative Director of the MIT Education Arcade and a research director in the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program. He is a designer of award-winning educational games, working in both academic and commercial environments, and his work has focused on what is authentically playful in challenging academic subjects. He has designed games for computers, handheld devices, and multi-player on-line environments. Scot is the creator of the acclaimed Zoombinis series of math and logic games, and has lead a number of projects in the Education Arcade, including Vanished: The MIT/Smithsonian Curated Game (environmental science), Labyrinth (math), Kids Survey Network (data and statistics), Caduceus (medical science), and iCue (history and civics). He is a founding member, and Creative Director of the Learning Games Network (www.learninggamesnetwork.org) where he leads the Gates Foundation’s Language Learning Initiative (ESL). |
|
Home |
Privacy |
About |
Mailing List | Videos and Links
Parenting and Games Stories | Online Classes | Free Games |
| Check out our award-winning cooperative family card game, Monsters In The Elevator |  |