Marcus Vlaar
About This Project
Marcus Vlaar – &ranj
Marcus Vlaar is founder and creative director at &ranj games. Since 1987 Marcus has been active as visual artist, animator, scriptwriter and game designer, and is an industry thought leader in digital media and serious gaming. In 1999 he founded game design studio &ranj games, a pioneer in the development of applied games and gamification. &ranj employs 40 visual artists, programmers, game designers and behavioral scientists, who have been collaborating in the development of over 400 games for clients in Europe, North America and Asia.
Workshop 17th of October 13:15 – 15:45
Erasmus University College
In this active workshop serious game designer Marcus Vlaar, neuroscientist Marcia Goddard, and YOU, will design solutions to nasty societal or health related problems that might benefit from a transdisciplinary approach. The workshop will consist of two parts and is based on game thinking, a comprehensive and human-centered approach to problem solving, and perfect for mixing scientific methods and creative toolkits.
Part 1 is for scientific analysis. Marcia will provide insightful scientific background to the topic. Together we will explore problem space, draw empathy maps to understand our subject and dig up root causes to reframe the problem.
Part 2 is for imagination and artistic exploration. We will explore solution space, use brainwriting and gamification matchmaking techniques and surprise ourselves with amazing solutions.
Day 1’s theme (Oct 17th) is autism at work. Design question is: “How might we make applying for a job a great experience to people with autism?”
Day 2’s theme (Oct 18th) is stress amongst children. Design question is: “How might we design an awesome alternative for the super stressful CITO (secondary school) test?”