Matteo Uguzzoni was our Game Designer in Residence over course of the 2018-2019 academic year. Matteo taught three sections of our course Game/Play and developed/taught a new course Games and Theater. In that course students researched, designed and produced a series of projects exploring immersive and playful theater experiences .

The focus of Matteo’s research during his residency focused on studying the history of Immersive experiences and how current AR,VR and other forms of experience design can be influenced by non technologically focused histories of theater, ritual and play. His work culminated in the development of the Wander Conference, a two day experimental conference about immersive storytelling where the participants walk and explore nature as they hold talks and workshops.

The first conference took place in Corvallis Oregon in June 2019 and served as a prototype for future conferences.

More about Matteo:

Matteo Uguzzoni is an architect and a game designer, his practice focus on creating transformative experience blending real life game and theater. He co-founded Urban Games Factory an Italian collective active in different form since 2009. He is also the host of “The Playcast” a podcast about immersive theater, real life games and everything in between. theplaycast.co & www.urbangames-factory.it

Matteo Uguzzoni – 2018 Game Designer in Residence, Part 1 from MICA Game Lab on Vimeo.

Matteo Uguzzoni – 2018 Game Designer in Residence, Part 2 from MICA Game Lab on Vimeo.