Hey All, I'm am Bret Wardle. I am a Game/Software professional, currently residing in Salt Lake City, UT. I have spent over 15 years designing (and building) games and software. In that time I have had a number of roles, and worked on various sized teams; from thousands, to indie projects all on my own.
My passion is teaching the convergence of game and software design, research, and development philosophy! Having bounced back and forth between games and software multiple times, the similarities and differences struck my curiosity, and as I have grown as a designer those eccentricities have become my focal point. I think combining the practices and approaches of the two different industries can provide a win/win methodology for each.
One of my favorite examples of what this means is such: Since its inception Game Design capitalizes on usability and "fun". Without that, players will churn and a game's success suffers. Extensive time is spent making that first 15 minutes of a game enjoyable yet informative, in an effort to get the player to buy in. For years, software relied on users simply being forced to use their platform because it was "the only solution to the task" (ex: Microsoft Office). There was little effort to build engagement, because in a workplace environment, there was very little user churn. Well, that has changed! Software, now more than ever, has to engage its users from the second they touch the product. This is just one of many places where game design techniques are being applied to software. Beyond the actual interaction design, I see more and more development methodologies, research activities, and user research techniques crossing the bridge from software to games each and every day!
Below you can check out samples of projects I have worked on, or find me on a number of other interactive platforms. You can contact me for any opportunities at Bret@BretWardle.com
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