Jim Babb

Jim Babb is a game designer and transmedia storyteller with a background in avant-garde cinema. He co-founded Awkward Hug, a game studio that makes fun in the awkward space between the digital and real world.  He is also a strategist at Undercurrent where he has advised clients like Ford, GE, and Pepsi in digital mechanics. Jim has spoken at prestigious events like Power to the Pixel, Indiecade, Parsons The New School For Design, and ARGfest.




What Jim will be doing at DIY DAYS

Where Games and Stories Meet

There may be no new stories, but the ways in which we tell stories is constantly changing. Since the advent of the internet, the audiences’ role has changed. The internet as a medium is flexible and allows us to give shape to platforms that echo the emotions of an experience. Jim Babb explores how games mechanics can be applied to cross-platform storytelling, and how to creatively use mechanics to translate the agency of the audience into meaningful choices.

 

DIY DAYS asks Jim

 

What are you currently working on that you’re excited about?

I’m currently exploring the storytelling and gaming potential of physical computing. There are some exciting possibilities for telling great stories at the physical intersection between our digital and real worlds.

What are some of your favorite sites and / or mobile apps and brief why?

I love KillScreen’s blog, Gamasutra, Rhizome’s Blog, as well as ARGn. They keep me up to date on the awesome things that are going on in gaming and new media art space.

What are you currently watching, reading or playing?

I just finished Portal 2 and have been playing Tiny Heros on my iPhone. Tiny Heros is a really great tower defense game that is consistently challenging and fun. 
Fiction: The Night’s Dawn Trilogy, by Peter F. Hamilton
Non-Fiction: The Lords Of Strategy, by Walter Kiechelm – How To Do Things With Videogames, by Ian Bogost

For more on Jim and his work visit

Twitter:
@jimbabb
Site:
http://SocksInc.com