Talks and workshops

Playing with Efficiency

Intention: Problem-solving workshop

When working on important topics, be it alone or with others, we want to deliver results and optimise the time of everyone. All good intentions, but what if focusing on the goal was helping us miss the point?
From the design of video games, we learn that challenges are at the heart of fun: lots of little obstacles carefully placed between the players and the objective, to test their skills and send them on a path to mastery. Throughout this session we experience the value of "unnecessary" obstacles and experiment with techniques from video game design. Can we make the journey more worthwhile by making it more challenging?

The cursed Workshop

Intention: Analytical redesign

In game design, a cursed problem is a problem with an inherent contradiction of goals. No matter how hard you work to solve it, you can never reconcile the contradiction. Think of playing Pokemon Go, a game based on geolocalisation, while at the same time retaining full control of where you play. It can't be done. A cursed problem demands a sacrifice.
In this workshop we explore the difference between problems that are "just" hard to solve and those that are really cursed. With the help of techniques inspired by game designer Alex Jaffe, we team up to depart from these plagued lands and travel back to the realm of workable problems.

The Paradox of the Black Box

(Le Paradoxe de la Boîte Noire)

Audience: Opening keynote at Agile Mans 2020

The alchemy of Agile teams amazes the uninitiated, who would love to open its doors and learn its secrets. We would like to dissect it, measure it, shred it into data. Alas, it is not enough to follow the manual to assemble it, as if it was a shelf that we'd like to resell in parts.
Agile is a black box, with a very specific content that you can only discover through self-transmutation.
If you try to open it, it will slip away... and what you were measuring will be irreparably damaged. To unseal it, you can't cut it: you have to dive into it wholly. So, who is afraid to step into the black box?
Details and slide deck here [in French].

Better living through Game Design

Audience: Institute of Digital Games - University of Malta

Human existence is a game that is poorly designed. We struggle to get by, suffer a lot, destroy the planet, and in the end... we die. Every day brings its share of bad news and warns us that we are on the brink of extinction. But what if we got it all wrong? What if we could turn it around?
Drawing from headstrong experiments in applied game design, this talk takes us on a collective journey through morality, hyperconnectedness, music and the meaning of life. A message of hope at the age of anxiety, and a rallying cry for the reconquest of our true freedom.

Designing systemic Change

Audience: Institute of Digital Games - University of Malta

A few years ago, I started looking into one of the most pressing challenges of our time: the alarming rate at which we are depleting our planet's resources, leaving behind huge quantities of useless waste. It soon appeared that to steer away from the dead-end of "take-make-dispose", raising awareness on sustainability would not be enough. We will have to change our entire system.
Together with game designer Sofía Montuori, I founded the social enterprise Inaloop Games to contribute to the transition to a circular economy. In this talk, I presented some of our findings and experience on designing game systems to bring about systemic change.

Games

Antura and the Letters

Role: Project management
Type: Learning game
Platform: PC, iOS, Android
Status: Published by Video Games Without Borders

Antura and the Letters is a learning game developed in partnership with Cologne University, Video Games Without Borders and Wixel Studios in Lebanon. I managed the project during the Alpha phase, coordinating teams across several countries. Designed to teach out-of-school children how to read and write Arabic, Antura won the EduApp4Syria competition and the Titanium Award for best serious game.

Squla

Role: Project management, copywriting, QA
Type: Educative platform
Platform: PC, iOS, Android
Status: Published by Squla

I was in charge of content production for the launch of the French version of Squla, a popular gamified platform. For this project I hired, trained and coordinated the work of a dozen teachers and copywriters. A rich and insightful experience that I documented in a blog post:
3 things I learned on Agile with primary school teachers

Creators

Role: Project management, UX research and design
Type: Educational game
Platform: Board game
Status: Shelved

Creators is a board game on the topic of circular economy that I created as part of Inaloop Games, the startup that I cofounded with Game Designer Sofía Montuori. Although we successfully tested and finalised the game, we did not find a suitable manufacturing strategy to bring it to the market as a fully circular product. On this project I worked with Sofía on the design to bring a maximum of simplicity while keeping the essence of the game alive.

Kite Crush

Role: Project management, level design, UX, copywriting
Type: Platformer game
Platform: Mobile, native app
Status: Beta

On this project, which I managed with Gamious, we had a promising concept but a very small team. With limited resources, I worked hands-on on many levels, created content for the game and did a lot of tests. We reached about 80% of completion of the levels and started testing communication assets. After I left Gamious the project was put on hold and hasn’t been picked up again at this stage.

Briquid

Role: QA, localization
Type: Puzzle game
Platform: Mobile, native app
Status: Published by Gamious

On Briquid, I mainly assisted the development team in testing and selecting the levels - a hundred in total. Because it is a puzzle game, the mastery of the learning curve and difficulty was of utmost importance. I also localized the text from English to French, taking great pleasure in transposing every pun so that French speakers would also have a laugh when playing.

Ubi 4 Newbies

Role: Project management, UI and system design, copywriting
Type: Learning game
Platform: PC, browser-based
Status: Deployed in Ubisoft’s 50 studios and subsidiaries

Ubi 4 Newbies was my first video game project. I coordinated a team of 15 people across 5 locations, from the infancy of the project until the final delivery. I was working hand-in-hand with Game Designer Charles Bensoussan to create the content.