People

Faculty

Michael John

Vice Chair, Games & Playable Media

Computational Media Department

About

Michael John (MJ) is the Program Director for the Games and Playable Media professional masters program at UC Santa Cruz. Prior to UC Santa Cruz, he was Game Director at GlassLab, a groundbreaking collaboration between forces in game development and learning, where he managed both game and technology development. MJ is a 20+ year veteran of the commercial games industry, having worked with companies such as Universal Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment, 2K Games, Electronic Arts, and others. His commercial oeuvre includes the original Spyro the Dragon trilogy, the PSP Classic Daxter and work on the God of War series. He has been an adjunct professor in game design for USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and is a frequent speaker on the creative process, product development, and innovation, as well as advancing the field of games & learning.

Courses (2021 - 2022)

Fall

GAME 200 — Game Design Systems
GAME 271 — Games & Playable Media Studio II
GAME 280A — Games Proseminar – SVC

Winter

GAME 201 — Level Design
GAME 280A — Games Proseminar – SVC

Spring

GAME 221 — Professional Development for Game Makers I
GAME 270 — Games & Playable Media Studio I

Magy Seif El-Nasr

Chair

Computational Media Department

Portfolio | GUII Lab | Email

About

Dr. Seif El-Nasr earned her Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University in Computer Science. Her research focuses on two goals (a) developing automated tools and techniques for authoring, adapting, and personalizing virtual environments (e.g., interactive narrative, believable characters, and visuals), and (b) developing evidence-based methodologies to measure the effectiveness of game environments through the development of novel in-depth behavior mining and visual analytics tools. She published the first book on the subject of game analytics, called Game Analytics: Maximizing the Value of Player Data. Her work is internationally known and cited in several game industry books. Additionally, she has received several awards and recognition within the game research community. Notably, she received four Best Paper Awards and one honorable mention. Further, she was named as a HEVGA (Higher Education Video Game Alliance) Fellow. She also serves as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Games and IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.

Courses (2021 - 2022)

Fall

GAME 256 — Serious Games Studio II

Winter

GAME 257 — Serious Games Studio III

Spring

N/A

Elin Carstensdottir

Assistant Professor

Computational Media Department

Interaction Dynamics Lab | Email

Courses (2021 - 2022)

Fall

N/A

Winter

GAME 272 — Games & Playable Media Studio II

Spring

GAME 252 — Modeling & Simulation (NEW)

Eddie Melcer

Vice Chair, Serious Games

Computational Media Department

Portfolio | ALT Games Lab | Email

About

Eddie Melcer is an independent game developer and Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is also director of the ALT Games Lab. His primary teaching and research interests are at the intersection of games, human-computer interaction, and learning science where he explores the usage of novel designs and interfaces and to enhance educational games. Eddie’s serious games have won awards in venues such as the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge and Games for Learning Design Competition, and his independent games have been featured in a number of venues such as IndieCade, IndieCade East, and Come Out & Play. Eddie received his BS in Computer Science from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (2013), MS in Computer Science from the New York University Tandon School of Engineering (2016), and PhD in Computer Science from the New York University Tandon School of Engineering (2018).