I was fortunate enough recently to be invited to speak as a panelist at Silicon Beach Fest LA. The name of the panel was The Art of Games and it centered around creating immersive and meaningful experiences for increasingly sophisticated audiences. 

The panel included some incredibly talented folks: 

• Daniel Romano, Head of UX at Disney Interactive (@dromano)

• David Collins, Sound Design Manager at Sony Entertainment (@DavidWCollins)

• And Austin Wintory, Grammy-nominated Composer (@awintory). Love the Journey game soundtrack!

We discussed everything from the meaning of art and design, to player engagement and the science behind actually being able to quantify it through applied psychological models. Measuring stuff like mastery, autonomy, and relatedness is a real thing. And, one could even argue that the gaming industry is coming around to it as player-focused experience strategies begin to influence product roadmap priorities.

The creative aspect of scoring a game's soundtrack and functional sound design was also discussed. Sonification is a critical component of the holistic experience and it was great to get some insight from passionate speakers that just totally get it.   

Audience questions ranged from considerations around personalization and customization options, to how to strike a balance between the display of vital information and content overload vs. core gameplay loops. (Um, yeah; it’s not easy). 

Thanks to everyone that attended! And a special shout out to Deborah Beckman (@Debblues) for moderating the panel! 

By the way, the so-called "Silicon Beach" area here in Los Angeles was ranked the #3 startup ecosystem (behind Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, respectively) in a recent Startup Genome report. Some major props to the tech scene here in LA!

Marc