I had wanted to conduct more research on or at least experimental development of AI in the game industry, but the options to do so in Vanocuver are rather limited. So when a position opened up for a professorship in game research at a local university I had to apply. I thus became a professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. Why did I only stay two terms?...
In 2013 I was a professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology program (I’m still an adjunct professor there, now). Amongst other things, I taught a course called “Foundations of Game Design” (IAT 312) there and used both my background in video game research and my love of boardgames heavily to motivate course materials and design projects. Many of the students had never played modern boardgames, so I familiarized them with some of the concepts by having them play Dominion and Lords of Waterdeep and then asked them to design a game that combined two of the mechanics from these games, Deckbuilding and Worker Placement....