Hi. I’m Scott Jon Siegel. The following facts are true.
I’m a game designer.
I can currently be found at Playdom, working on the next generation of blockbuster social games. I spent the year prior at Zynga in San Francisco. During that time I was Lead Designer on Word Scramble for the iPhone, Contributing Designer on Café World, and have provided design and documentation for many of Zynga’s other great titles, including Word Twist, Texas Hold’em Poker, and Pathwords. Prior to Zynga, I published 14 original non-digital games as part of The Escapist’s Game Design Friday.
I have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to game design, and constantly ruminate on new mechanics and new game ideas, particularly in the still-nascent field of games on social networks. I’ll be speaking on the topic in November at the Montreal International Game Summit.
I really, really like interaction.
Call it the intersection of game and interface design. Interaction is key, above all else. So I want to create games where every interaction is meaningful; I want to build experiences with definite rule-sets, but with the potential to invite emergent behavior; I want UIs to bleed away and be counted as part of the game; I want to make players re-evaluate their relationships to screens, to controllers, to themselves, to each other. And, above all else, I want it to be fun.
I’m a Bard alumni.
In May of 2007, I received my B.A. from Bard College in New York, where I majored in Literature and the Integrated Arts, with a concentration in game design. My senior thesis focused on the creation of a theoretical academic curriculum for game design, along with a portfolio of games.
I’m married to a pretty cool girl.
It’s true! On June 21, 2009 I got married to the incomparable Bonnie Ruberg, former freelance journalist and Ph.D. candidate at Berkeley. Changing my relationship status on Facebook was downright surreal.
I’m living in San Francisco
I moved to California from the east coast in March of 2008. I like it here, and I think I’ll stay awhile.
As long as you’re visiting, please feel free to check out my blog, my resume, or any of the other links above.
If you have any questions, or would like to get in contact with me, feel free to send off an e-mail to my first, middle and last name ÄT gmail DÖT com. Thanks for your interest, and have a nice day.
- scottjonsiegel