Look Who it Was Random video

Interactive Storytelling is our Project Xanadu

1,776 views · Published 30 August 2010 · 44:57 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: Georgia Tech · 2010 · Education

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Jason Rohrer speaks at the Art History of Games Symposium on February 6, 2010 in the High Museum of Art's Rich Auditorium on the campus of the Woodruff Arts Center, in midtown Atlanta. The symposium was presented by Georgia Tech and the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Imagine freshly-generated dramatic experiences unfurling before your eyes and changing based on your inputs. Imagine dynamic characters that react—grow angry at you, laugh at your jokes, or even fall in love with you. Interactive storytelling is our medium's artistic holy grail. It has haunted almost all of us, stolen decades from some of our brightest minds, and indefinitely postponed "making great art" pending future technological advancements. Our destination is no closer now than it was when we started this 30-year windmill quest. But turning around reveals a curious perspective: perhaps we're there already. Perhaps we've been there all along.

Jason Rohrer is an independent game artist, programmer, and critic. With game designs that explore complex and subtle aspects of the human condition, his work has bolstered the acceptance of games as a serious art form. Rohrer's games have been shown at festivals and art exhibitions in Park City, Toronto, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Seattle and Lleida, Spain. His 2007 release, Passage, received widespread critical acclaim. Wired magazine's Clive Thompson wrote: "More than any game I've ever played, it illustrates how a game can be a fantastically expressive, artistic vehicle for exploring the human condition." Rohrer's 2008 release, Gravitation, won the Jury Prize at IndieCade and Between won the Innovation Award at the 2009 Independent Games Festival. Rohrer was featured in Esquire's December 2008 "Genius Issue" along with 27 other innovators.

Materials hosted by SMARTech, Georgia Tech's institutional repository, ‪‪http://smartech.gatech.edu/.

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