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Ian Verchere is the Chief Creative Officer of Roadhouse Interactive, one of Vancouver’s most important and most successful video game producers. Ian has been a “must-see” part of this course ever since version 2.0 began. His talks are always deeply and passionately rooted in the creator’s ethos. It is through that core lens that Ian explores legal and normative constraints and freedoms with insight and frequent surprises .

Ian’s Linked In profile (quoted below) gives you that much more information:

“Verchere is a creative producer, writer and visual artist. Since graduating with honors from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (ECIAD) in 1989, he has been involved in the creation and production of over 30 video and computer games, including creative producer on the million-plus selling SSX Tricky and NBA Street V.2 for Electronic Arts, and designing and producing the classic, best-selling Sega Genesis title Beavis and Butt-head for MTV.

Verchere was one of the founders of Radical Entertainment, and was instrumental in growing the company into one of the world’s largest independent game developers. After serving as Studio Creative Director, he left in 1998 to join Electronic Arts (Canada) as a Producer.

In 1994, he wrote and directed The Divide: Enemies Within for Sony PlayStation. This award-winning title was recognized for its original story, and for the innovative CG short film that opened the game. In 1998, he brought the greatest action star in the world to the video game world, signing Jackie Chan to an exclusive worldwide deal.

He co-wrote Mom’s Cookies, a screenplay with Douglas Coupland that was bought by Disney, and is a member of the WGAw. As Executive Creative Director for Millions of Us, he helped MoU secure an exclusive agreement with Sony to create and develop virtual worlds and lobbies for PlayStation Home, including Sony’s own Home Lobby and Orientation Experience.”

jon

For the first part of the next class we will explore the various mechanisms and modalities of the “Quest de Integro Ludus” collaborative group projects. First Richard Tape of UBC CTLT will help ensure that everyone is on-line without problem, and to answer any technical or feature questions related to the course website. Then Erin Field of UBC Libraries will take us through the resources for the Quests including available research materials, the UBC Wiki pages dedicated to the Quests, and the new badge structure for the Quests. Finally, my colleague at the Centre for Digital Media, Patrick Pennefather will help us understand how to get the most out of the collaborative nature of the Quests, and will help everyone form teams to get going.

Biographies follow:

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blogs.ubc.ca/gabriel

Richard Tape is a Programmer Analyst with the UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning & Technology. Richard develops WordPress plugins and themes to help people share and publish content across the University. He is a WordPress core contributor who fully embraces the open-source nature of the platform and believes it can provide a solid foundation for developing new and innovative teaching and learning systems.

Erin Fields is a Liaison Librarian and Flexible Learning Coordinator for the UBC Library. She is also lead of the Open Badges UBC project.

Patrick Pennefather (BFA, MFA, CELTA, PHD Candidate) is a founding faculty member at the Master of Digital Media Program. Patrick embodies the spirit of disruption; a hybrid Trickster who unlocks the creative problem-solving potential that a person has and relentlessly coerces it to surface. In Patrick’s courses, students learn how to identify then systematically deconstruct a problem, structure it through visual maps, adapt to changes fluidly, improve communication abilities, understand the kind of collaborators they are, re-learn that play is an essential component of creation, build impossible structures spontaneously then scope them down, negotiate creative impulses with others, trust their team mates, practice listening, and through persistent reflection take ownership over solving problems. 

He empowers learners to transform into creative and effective collaborators on multi-disciplinary project teams with the end goal of becoming the designers of their own digital future. His innovative/iterative approach as an educator is fueled by ongoing research into collaborative practices, project-based learning, and a relentless commitment to bridging the gap between what he designs and teaches, and what is demanded by a rapidly changing, team-based digital media industry. He has shared his ‘project-based learning evangelism’, work shopped his methods for educators, and is regularly requested at various institutions and conferences internationally in Canada, China, Japan and most recently at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

The path to achieve these ‘soft’ skills that are usually taken for granted, are through systematic practice of improvisational techniques gathered from many artistic disciplines. In addition, his choice of tools and method of facilitating their assimilation are based on his experience leading and being led on interdisciplinary teams as a designer, producer and comedic performer on over a thousand large-scale events and performances, from live theatre productions to international ad oriented campaigns situated in large scale sports events with Palmer Jarvis, Cossette Communications, and DDB.

He has mentored, managed and designed instruction on the MDM Program’s industry-funded projects with Ubisoft, Microsoft, Exploding Barrel Games/Kabam, Roadhouse Interactive, Skybox Labs, Disruptive Media, Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition 2010, First Nations Technology Council and more. As an international award-winning sound designer and composer, he has worked with numerous clients including Bard on the Beach, Push Festival, Electric Company Theatre, Touchstone, Arts Club Theatre, University of Florida, UCLA Long Beach, CBC Radio & Television and Bravo Television. He has also led interdisciplinary teams. For ongoing writings on collaboration, teaching, and to hear some of his music and the stories around their creation, head to his living blogs. 

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Looking forward to seeing everyone Wednesday.

jon