Friday, April 15, 2022
Game Writing Job Hunt Misconceptions
Monday, March 21, 2022
Save the Date: Webinars Coming
I just joined Instagram for the first time this week and discovered the drawing that accompanied my quarantine essay, "Dear Daughter," was posted there. The autobiographical essay was the first memoir type of writing that I had ever published and it was later included in Covid-19 memory projects and in ArtsWestchester's exhibition, "Together apART: Creating During Covid." During the pandemic, I discovered what it was like to be considered an artist.
I had also reconnected with Cori Myers (or Gameinatrix) from Gamer Girls Radio (GGR), the longest running all-female gaming podcast in existence.
I learned after-the-fact that I had been included in GGR's March 2021 spotlight of Amazing Asian Women in Tech, Gaming, and Streaming. Thank you!
At the same time, I've been interviewing hiring managers and updating my webinar on game writing portfolios. What I've learned is that hirers are eager to discover that next great writer and find that diamond in the rough. In my webinar, I'll tell you how to make sure they notice you.
Save the Date! Saturday, April 30 will be the next webinar date.
If you're applying to game writing jobs, you want your writing portfolio to stand out. Let your game writing portfolio rise to the top!
In May, I'll debut a brand new webinar dedicated to demystifying the writing test.
Sande Chen is a writer and game designer with over 20 years of experience in the industry. Her writing credits include Independent Games Festival winner Terminus and the PC RPG of the Year, The Witcher, for which she was nominated for a Writers Guild Award in Videogame Writing. She is the co-author of Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform, a founding member of the IGDA Game Design SIG, and an expert in the field of educational game design.Thursday, February 24, 2022
Social Interaction, Zoom, and Early Learning
Friday, February 11, 2022
Interview with Joanna Giordano, Career Coach
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Flavored by Authenticity: How Personal Experiences Amplify Narrative
Digital storytelling is a currently evolving medium and the push-and-pull nature of player interaction in video games provides an opportunity for the inclusion of personal touchstones in order to more deeply connect with and engage a broad audience. Over the past decade, there has been an increase in the examination of personal narrative elements as methods of engagement in teaching and community building, most notably by contributing a level of accessible authenticity.
This keynote examines how personal narratives inform narrative and character design as a whole in a game or virtual setting, Join us for a look at moments in popular games informed by personal narrative, from the indie to the AAA level, and reflect on steps that might be taken in order to retain authenticity while avoiding the pitfalls that naturally come with the wholesale creation of fantastic and fictional spaces.
Profiled as one of the Game Industry's Top 100 Most Influential Women and a 2020 Women in Games Global Hall of Fame winner, Sande Chen is a writer and game designer with over 15 years of experience in the industry. Her writing credits include 1999 Independent Games Festival winner Terminus and the PC RPG of the Year, The Witcher, for which she was nominated for a 2007 Writers Guild Award in Videogame Writing. She is the co-author of Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform and was a contributor to Secrets of the Game Business, Writing For Video Game Genres, and Professional Techniques for Videogame Writing. She has been a speaker at numerous game-related conferences, including the Game Developers Conference, NY Comic Con, PAX East, and SXSW. She has been invited to the White House and represented the USA at the World Conference on Science Literacy. She also has a Grammy nomination.
Matthew Farber
Matthew Farber, Ed.D. is an assistant professor at the University of Northern Colorado, where he founded the Gaming SEL Lab. He has been invited to the White House, authored several books and papers, and is a frequent collaborator with UNESCO and Games for Change. His latest book is Gaming SEL: Games as Transformational to Social and Emotional Learning (bit.ly/GamingSEL). For more, please visit MatthewFarber.com.
Juliana Loh
Juliana Loh is an independent Producer/Artist whose background includes branded entertainment, UX and art direction. In addition to developing educational/gaming experiences, she has honed her artistic skills as a concept and gallery-showing artist while pioneering, empowering and supporting grassroots tech meetups and communities. Currently working as an instructor and immersive artist, she is keenly aware of how emerging technology is changing the way we relate to each other. She is currently designing story-based Pro-Kindness Workshops using VR360 based on user-centered design thinking.
Kimberly Unger
Kimberly made her first videogame back when the 80-column card was the new hot thing and after 20+ years as a pro in that industry, the magic still hasn’t faded. Now she sources leading-edge content for Oculus, lectures on the intersection of art and code for UCSC in Games and Playable Media, wrangles a monthly column on science-fiction in videogames over at Amazing Stories and writes science fiction about how all these app-driven superpowers are going to change the human race. Her debut sci-fi novel, NUCLEATION is available now on Amazon and her next novel The Extractionist will be available in November of 2021. You can find her on Twitter at @Ing3nu or on her blog at www.ungerink.com.
Sunday, January 16, 2022
Watch my interview on Negocios TV
Sunday, January 9, 2022
Launch and Liftoff: Career Workshops in 2022!
Hello! It's January 2022. Though I haven't been updating the blog, that doesn't mean I wasn't presenting or doing interviews. After SXSW and CIMFest, I participated in two MCM London Comic Con panels, "The Art of the Onomatopoeia" and "Creating Diverse Characters for Comics and More." I presented at SIEGE and Serious Play Conferences and was interviewed by Women in Games and Negocios TV.
But on a personal note, I completed the LAUNCH1000 program, an intensive course on entrepreneurship. You may have seen that I did a new, improved version of my webinar on game writing portfolios.
I plan to run more workshops in 2022 and as part of the workshop benefits, will invite all attendees to join in our own supportive community. I've learned from film school that when we all help and support each other, we can all succeed together.
Within the community, I hope to inspire, spotlight resources. and bring guests from recruitment or HR to better inform us on how to prepare for the next exciting opportunity.
I'll be posting my interviews and conference appearances in the coming weeks as well as more career-focused content.
Happy New Year!
Hope to see you at the next workshop!
P.S. If you want to be notified about upcoming workshops, just drop me an e-mail and I'll let you know.