The Play Story Press™ Editorial Advisory is comprised of entertainment technology industry professionals, academics, and media professionals. The Advisory works with the Editor-in-Chief to inform our publishing decisions and provides input on how the press grows and evolves.
Play Story Press Editor-in-Chief
Drew Davidson is a professor, producer and player of interactive media. His background spans academic, industry and professional worlds and he is interested in stories and transformational experiences across texts, comics, games and other media. He explores the art, design, and science of making media that matters, working to expand our notions of what media are capable of doing, and what we are capable of doing with media. He is an expert in leading creative collaborations with interdisciplinary groups, orchestrating change, and building initiatives focused on making positive social impact. He is a Teaching Professor at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University and is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Play Story Press, an open community publishing consortium, and the Well Played series and journal.
Play Story Press Editorial Advisory
Caitlin Burns (she/her) is Senior Director of Story at Candy Digital, where she’s creating superfan experiences for partners including DC, Warner Bros. Discovery, Major League Baseball and UMG. A globally recognized expert in franchise storytelling, experience design and brand strategy. She has spent more than a decade creating multiplatform content strategies for well-known IP, Brands and institutions including: Pirates of the Caribbean, Descendants and Tron Legacy for Disney, James Cameron’s Avatar for Fox, Halo for Microsoft, The Happiness Factory for The Coca-Cola Company, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Nickelodeon and Transformers for Hasbro, Dexter for Showtime, and UNICEF Kid Power. Previously serving on the Board of the Producers’ Guild of America’s New Media Council for 6 years, with 3 as Vice Chair, Caitlin is recognized as a global specialist in emerging media production and fan development. Find more about her work here.
Sabrina Culyba (she/her) is a Pittsburgh-based game designer and founder of Ludoliminal. Her professional work has spanned online games, VR, mobile apps, location-based entertainment, and board games across a variety of industries from entertainment to education. Her most recent game is the board game Diatoms, a game about making microscopic mosaics from algae. Sabrina is the author of The Transformational Framework. She serves on the Board for Global Game Jam and Broke the Game, and is an affiliate designer at Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Transformational Play.
Christy Dena is an artist-educator-researcher of cross-media and interactive projects. She’s worked creatively for 30 years across theatre, feature and short film, TV commercials and series, installations, tabletop, pervasive, and digital games, and literature as a writer, designer, performer, producer, and/or director. Her original games include Bakers of Anarchy, AUTHENTIC IN ALL CAPS, Magister Ludi, DIYSPY, and (forthcoming) Bugging Humans. She has interactive writing awards from the Aust Writers’ Guild, WA Premier’s Book Awards, and noms from Freeplay and the International New Media Writing Prize. Their work has been an Official Selection for places such as Babycastles, NYC; Contours Exhibition on Australian Independent Games; Freeplay Independent Games Festival’s Parallels; PAX AUS Collaboratory, CHIPlay; and Electronic Literature Org. Her original labs include Forward Slash Story, VR Writers Room, Crafting Intangibles, Extended Entertainment Experiences, and Transmedia Victoria. She has a PhD in Transmedia Practice (Syd Uni) with publications including The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, The Routledge Companion to Transmedia Studies, Convergence Journal, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, ToDiGRA. She has presented at conferences, festivals, labs, and academic institutions around the world, with positions at various boards and institutions. Dena is currently developing games and why-to narrative design books.
Lisa Forbes, Ph.D. is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Counseling Program at the University of Colorado Denver. Lisa earned her Master’s degree in Clinical Counseling and her Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision with an emphasis in Couples and Family Therapy both from the University of Northern Colorado. Lisa is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and a Registered Play Therapist (RPT). Currently, Lisa has a small play therapy practice working with children from 3 to 8 years old. Lisa is the co-founder of a global faculty network called Professors at Play which invites educators to explore the transformative power of play higher education. Through community, resources and events, Professors at Play looks to challenge existing norms of academia to allow learning to be more engaged, inclusive, and meaningful. Professors at Play has published the Professors at Play PlayBook aned has hosted several events including three “Playposiums” which have highlighted play experts such as Stuart Brown, Gary Ware, Pat Kane, Alison James, and more.
James Paul Gee is a member of the National Academy of Education. His book Sociolinguistics and Literacies (1990, Fifth Edition 2015) was one of the founding documents in the formation of the “New Literacy Studies”, an interdisciplinary field devoted to studying language, learning, and literacy in an integrated way in the full range of their cognitive, social, and cultural contexts.
His book An Introduction to Discourse Analysis (1999, Fourth Edition 2014) brings together his work on a methodology for studying communication in its cultural settings, an approach that has been widely influential over the last two decades. Professor Gee’s most recent books deal with video games, language, and learning. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (2003, Second Edition 2007) argues that good video games are designed to enhance learning through effective learning principles supported by research in the Learning Sciences. Situated Language and Learning (2004) places video games within an overall theory of learning and literacy and shows how they can help us in thinking about the reform of schools.
Women as Gamers: The Sims and 21st-Century Learning (2010) and Language and Learning in the Digital Age (2011), both written with Elisabeth Hayes, have continued his earlier work on games and learning. His most recent books are: The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students through Digital Learning (2013); Unified Discourse Analysis: Language, Reality, Virtual Worlds, and Video Games (2014); Literacy and Education (2014); The Essential James Gee: An Introduction to Discourse Analysis (2015); and Teaching, Learning, Literacy in Our High-Risk High-Tech World: A Framework for Becoming Human (2017). Professor Gee has published widely in journals in linguistics, psychology, the social sciences, and education.
Lindsay is Knight Chair and director of the Master of Fine Arts at the University of Miami. He is the 2019 recipient of the Games for Change Vanguard award. He was the founding director of the American University Game Center and the Vice President of the Global Game Jam non-profit and HEVGA.
Lindsay’s book, Doing Things with Games, Social Impact through Design, is a well-received guide to game design and his first of three books on games. He has authored or coauthored more than 100 peer -reviewed articles, papers, chapters and books on games, play and human computer-interaction. He curated the 20th Games for Change Festival (2023), and has juried events as varied as Independent Games Festival (IGF Student competition) and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s IndieArcade.
He has given talks at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), SXSW, Games for Change Festival, the Online News Association, the Society for News Design, and others. He has given invited guest lectures at Yale University, Singapore Institute of Technology, Ritsumeikan University (Japan), Anant National University (India), University of Science Malaysia, and for several embassy organized events in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. He consults internationally on game design, education and advocacy.
J.C. Herz is cofounder of IonChannel, a data and delivery platform for software supply chain intelligence and OSS devops. In 2006, she founded Batchtags, a startup that pioneered novel visual interfaces for large, highly interconnected networks. Batchtags was acquired by a defense firm in 2012.
Publications: J.C.’s four books have been translated into seven languages. As a New York Times columnist, J.C. published 100 essays on the grammar and syntax of game design. She has also written for Rolling Stone, Wired, and GQ. She is the co-author of A Dark and Dismal Flower, a gothic children’s fairy tale with interactive illustrations (available for iOS and Android).
Zoe is a dedicated advocate for knowledge justice, focusing on how open publishing and open infrastructure can increase access to and participation in knowledge creation globally. As Founder and Director of Radish Press, an independent press, consultancy and research hub, she works hands on to realise the radical possibilities of the future of publishing. Her previous experience spans the non-profit and university publishing technology sectors in strategic leadership, community development, fundraising, product development, service design and business development. Zoe has co-authored a number of publications, notably The Rebus Guide to Publishing Open Textbooks (So Far) and An Open Approach to Scholarly Reading and Knowledge Management, and partnered with countless others to help bring their publishing projects to life.
Katherine Isbister is Professor of Computational Media and Jack Baskin Endowed Chair in Engineering at University of California Santa Cruz, where she directs the Social Emotional Technology Lab https://setlab.ucsc.edu/. Her research team creates interactive experiences at the intersection of HCI and Games/Play to heighten social and emotional connections and wellbeing, with over 150 peer-reviewed publications. Their research-through-design practice often includes elements of games and play. Industry support includes Intel, Google, Mozilla, and others, with federal support from NSF and NIH. Isbister is a recipient of MIT Technology Review’s Young Innovator Award, and is an ACM Distinguished Scientist. http://www.katherineinterface.com/
Dr. Eric Klopfer is Professor and Director of the Scheller Teacher Education Program and The Education Arcade at MIT. He is also co-PI of MIT’s RAISE initiative in AI education. His research focuses on technology and pedagogy for building understanding of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and systems. He has special interests in games, simulations and computing as pathways to STEM learning. He is the co-author of the books, “Adventures in Modeling”, “The More We Know, and “Resonant Games”, as well as author of “Augmented Learning.” His lab has produced software (from casual mobile games to MMOs to AR/VR) and platforms (including StarLogo Nova and Taleblazer) used by millions of people, as well as online courses that have reached hundreds of thousands. Klopfer is also the co-founder and past President of the non-profit Learning Games Network.
Rachel Kowert, Ph.D is a research psychologist, award winning author, and globally recognized leander in facilitating global policy development with non-profit, governmental, and non-governmental agencies for more than 15 years through data-driven research focused on mental health and trust and safety in digital games. She is a world-renowned researcher on the uses and effects of digital games, including their impact on physical, social, and psychological well-being, with more than 100 publications on these topics. She has spoken about her work to thousands of people across the globe, including the United States Congress, United Nations, and Department of Homeland Security. She also serves as the editor of the Routledge Debates in Media Studies series and the series from Play Story Press, The Psychgeist of Pop Culture. In 2020, she founded Psychgeist, a multimedia content production studio for the science of games and pop culture. In 2021, Dr. Kowert was chosen as a member of The Game Awards Future Class, representing the best and brightest of the future of video games. Dr. Kowert has been featured in various media outlets, including NPR, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, New York Times, and Wired Magazine. To learn more about Rachel and her work, visit www.rkowert.com.
Dr. Janet Murray is a Professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication. She received her PhD in English from Harvard. Her primary research interests are interactive design, interactive narrative, and the history and development of representational media. Her widely known book, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, asks whether we can expect this new medium to support a new expressive art form, comparable to the Shakespearean theater or the Victorian novel in its ability to move and enlighten us. She is mostly optimistic about this possibility. Her textbook, Inventing the Medium: Principles of Interaction Design as a Cultural Practice (MIT Press, 2011) unites the myriad traditional disciplines in which interactive designers are now trained into a single coherent digitally focused design vocabulary. Her Prototyping eNarrative group (PENlab) creates prototypes of emerging narrative structures including interactive television, story-games, and virtual/augmented reality (http://penlab.gatech.ed). She is an emerita member of the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute and the Board of the Peabody Awards, an Inaugural Fellow of the Higher Education Video Game Alliance, and a frequent keynote speaker for conferences at the intersection of games and narrative.
Eli Neiburger is Director of the Ann Arbor District Library, where he led the creation of Fifth Avenue Press, a locally focused and publicly owned library publishing imprint, and the Summer Game, AADL’s breakthrough online community engagement system for players of all ages.
He is a past contributor to Well Played, BOOK: a Manifesto, and VOYA, and is the author of Gamers.. in the Library?! In his spare time he enjoys arranging videogame music and / or 80s hits for his family band and / or karaoke tuba. His alter ego is a sock named Herschel with a talk show.
Professor Charles Palmer stands at the forefront of innovation in higher education, where his role as Academic Program Lead has allowed him to develop groundbreaking degree programs that emphasize experiential learning and real-world preparation. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and leveraging cutting-edge educational technologies, Palmer has transformed traditional teaching methods, creating dynamic learning environments that better prepare students for the complexities of the modern workforce. His research on linguistic analysis in online communities not only contributes to academic discourse but also promotes digital inclusivity, reflecting his commitment to making a broader societal impact. Widely recognized for his pioneering work, Palmer has garnered numerous accolades for his innovative programs and teaching methods, while his positions as Founding Program Lead and Executive Director have enabled him to significantly advance his university’s strategic goals. With his extensive expertise in curriculum development and academic leadership, Professor Palmer continues to shape the landscape of higher education, inspiring both students and colleagues to push the boundaries of academic achievement and prepare for the challenges of an ever-evolving global marketplace.
Rebecca Rouse, Phd is an Associate Professor in Media Arts, Aesthetics & Narration and co-director of PlayLab in the Division of Game Development at University of Skövde, Sweden. Her research focuses on investigating new forms of storytelling with new technologies such as immersive and responsive systems. Rouse’s applied design and artistic research is complemented by work in critical pedagogies, design methods, and history of technology. www.rebeccarouse.com
Jesse Schell is the CEO of Schell Games, a team of more than 150 people in Pittsburgh, PA who strive to make the world’s greatest educational and entertainment games, including Yale Medical’s PlayForward: Elm City Stories, HoloLAB Champions, the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood games, and Happy Atoms.
Schell Games also creates pure entertainment content, such as the award-winning VR games Among Us VR, the I Expect You To Die franchise, and Until You Fall, a critically-acclaimed VR sword fighting game. Jesse also serves as Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University. Jesse has worked on a wide variety of innovative game and simulation projects for both entertainment and education, but he is best known for his award-winning book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, now in its third edition, and his predictions about the future of gaming technology. He is a previous chair of the International Game Developers Association and former Creative Director of the Disney Virtual Reality Studio.
Dr. Karen (Kat) Schrier is Full Professor and Director of Games & Emerging Media at Marist. She is also a game design consultant for World Health Organization (WHO) and CEO of PlatyPlay, LLC, which designs games for care, health, and inclusion. Dr. Schrier is the author/editor of over 100 published works, including We the Gamers(Oxford University Press) and Knowledge Games (JHU Press). She has over 20 years of experience in game development, and has worked for Nickelodeon, Scholastic, and BrainPOP. See more at: https://www.karenschrier.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/katschrier/.
David Thomas, PhD is an expert on fun in the workplace, the architecture of fun and fun in general. He has written books about the aesthetics of games, how to have fun at work and a compendium of playful techniques for the higher education classroom. When not researching, inventing and having fun, David is the executive director of online programs at the University of Denver, is an assistant professor, attendant, in the Department of Architecture at CU Denver and is the co-founder of the global organization Professors at Play, a group that encourages the use of playful pedagogy in higher education. His research focuses on the architecture of fun, delving into the deep human connection created by play, and argues for the ability of fun to transform our daily lives.
Dr Steffen P Walz is a designer—producer—researcher of play, games and various other interactive media formats, and this way, has been an explorer of novel types of engagement and intervention.
In the past, Steffen has filled innovation roles at e.g. Volkswagen Group, with a focus on in-car gaming, health & wellbeing, and he has founded and sold companies in said domains. For a few years, Steffen served as Full Professor of Design Innovation / Game Design at universities in Australia. Currently, Steffen is Group Managing Director at icon group GmbH, an Berlin-headquartered international agency that specializes in Automotive HMI incl. concept and show cars, and in market agnostic product innovation as-a-service; he is also an impact angel investor.
Steffen is the co-editor of The Gameful World (MIT Press, 2015), which explores how games, game mechanics and technologies pervade and even colonize everyday activities, and how in turn, the everyday shapes games and play. He holds a PhD in Computer Aided Architectural Design (ETH Zurich), as well as a M.A. in Cultural Anthropology, Rhetoric and Political Science (University of Tuebingen). Many moons ago, Steffen worked as a satire TV journalist; tried to beat his dad at Table Tennis; and as Steffen Strom, had landed a download hit in Germany with a song about then-chancellor, Angela Merkel.
Dr. José P. Zagal is a game scholar and avid game player as well. He is also a Professor with the University of Utah’s nationally ranked Division of Games where, among other things, he teaches courses on game design, ethics in videogames, and experimental games. He taught his first university-level class in 2000, has since supervised multiple award-winning student projects, and many of his former students work at leading game studios worldwide. Dr. Zagal has edited and authored numerous books and articles on game ethics, games education, game design, role-playing games, and more. He most recently co-authored Seeing Red: Nintendo’s Virtual Boy and co-edited Fifty Years of Dungeons & Dragons and both published by MIT Press in 2024. He was honored as a Distinguished Scholar by the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) and named a Fellow of the Higher-Education Videogame Alliance (HEVGA) for his contributions to games research. He also serves as the Editor-In-Chief of DiGRA’s flagship journal Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association (ToDiGRA).