The Games for Change festival today announced its lineup of keynote speakers, including Jenova Chen, Jane McGonigal and Noah Falstein.
Taking place from April 22-24, 2014, at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York, the event looks at how games can be used to improve lives. Now in its 11th year, Games for Change will be held as part of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.
Jenova Chen is best known as one of the designers of Journey at thatgamecompany, and a vocal proponent of video games that use emotional language. Jane McGonigal is a game designer and the author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. Noah Falstein is chief game designer at Google.
Other speakers will include behaviorist and author Dan Ariely; neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley; professor of computer science Deborah Estrin and Josh Larson, designer of That Dragon, Cancer.
"We're thrilled to see such a heightened level of interest in this year's festival," said Ken Weber, chair of Games for Change. "Games with social impact elements are increasingly finding their way into people's daily lives, into leisure time, classrooms, even medical research. This year's speakers are proof that creative people at the top of their fields are thinking about how games can change lives for the better."