PART OF
Serious Games Tutorial & Unconference 2012
Ben Sawyer
Serious Games Workshop Leader
Ben Sawyer is the co-founder of Digitalmill, a games consulting firm based in Portland, Maine. Since beginning his career in game development over ten years ago, Sawyer has pioneered major initiatives in the field of serious games and has become a nationally recognized leader within the games community.
For the past seven years, Sawyer has dedicated his professional life to discovering new ways to expand the use of games beyond entertainment. He help co-found both the Serious Games Initiative, and the Games for Health Project. Sawyer also held the first-ever Serious Games Summit and has helped spawn numerous other serious game events and tracks around the world.
As a game developer, Sawyer has worked on over two dozen major serious game projects of all shapes, sizes, and topics. In 2000, Sawyer began producing the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's university simulation game, "Virtual U," which was an award finalist at that year’s Independent Games Festival. Sawyer has also served as a designer, producer, advisor, and/or manager on projects for Cisco, DARPA, ONR, Leimandt Foundation, Cadbury, USAID, Lockheed Martin, and several other Fortune 500 organizations.
His written work has been recognized by both Game Developer Magazine and the Independent Publishing Association. A lifelong gamer, Sawyer often draws his professional inspiration from his extensive personal knowledge of games - including those developed since the original Pong.
Serious Games UnConference
An unconference has no pre-scheduled speakers but check back here later in the spring to see a list of announced participants, many of whom will likely lead sessions and be active within group discussions.
