From Pokémon Go to the latest escape room, there is a sense of excitement surrounding in-person experiences that bring groups of friends or strangers together.

As a part of the 2019 East Coast Game Conference, the largest gathering of video game professionals on the east coast, ESI Design’s Director of Content and Activity Design, Jessica Fiorini, will be presenting a talk titled “Designing Hybrid Game Experiences.” She’ll share how our experience design studio has successfully designed location-based immersive play environments that weave together space, game, systems and audio-visual design.

What to Expect: Game Design for Immersive Play Experiences

Hybrid gaming experiences offer multi-point narratives that support a diverse player audience, creating uniquely dynamic social experiences. In this talk, Jessica will address the challenges and opportunities in designing large-scale multiplayer games, including:

• How do you scale for a game that may have two players or may have thirty?
• How does role-playing influence the experience?
• What makes an experience immersive and how do you encourage meaningful interactions?

By focusing on ESI projects such as the Edward M Kennedy Institute for the Senate, a 100-person live-action experience, and ESC Game Theater, a 30-person gaming theater, Jessica will walk through some of the major decisions and hurdles encountered during the design and installation of these projects and more.

Event Details

East Coast Game Conference, Raleigh, SC
Wednesday, April 17
4:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Session 6

Meet the Speaker: Jessica Fiorini

Jessica oversees the discipline at ESI that articulates the vision for new projects and develops the content, educational and experiential goals, and scripting for all related exhibits, media, and interactives. She has 10 years of experience creating multiplayer and individualized games and apps for a wide range of educational, corporate, and independent organizations, including LEGO, McGraw-Hill, Nickelodeon, Scholastic and SMASHWORX. 

Outside of her work at ESI, Jessica is an active game designer. Most recently she designed “Party Animal” a social cocktail party game for American Museum of Natural History’s sleepover experience and “Algebots” an algebra-themed puzzle game for Borough of Manhattan Community College with funding provided by the National Science Foundation. She also helped design “Oceans VR: Net Positive”, a virtual reality experience that explores the impact of overfishing on the high seas, for The Economist.

With a B.F.A. in Creative Writing from Roger Williams University and an M.F.A. in Theatre and Communication Arts from the University of New Orleans, Jessica is skilled at a variety of communication strategies. She ensures players are engaged with the content, as well as with each other. In short, Jessica brings the fun.

Are you heading to ECGC 2019?

Let’s meet up! Email our team to make time for coffee.