Skywalker Ranch, Persistence, Game Designer Qualities, Working With Steven Spielberg, Being Bold, The Power of AR and VR, Not Being a Jerk, and Traveling the World with Noah Falstein of The Inspiracy

Nov 27, 2022

53:50

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I welcome Noah Falstein, a legendary Game Designer on this episode. Hear about his current work as a Designer and Consultant, along with how he began straight out of college at Milton Bradley before going to Williams and to create arcade games. Learn about being an early employee at Lucasfilm Games, and working on the amazing Indiana Jones titles along with others.

We then discuss what he’s learned reflecting back to the beginning of his career, moving to California, and advice to expand your horizons beyond triple-A games when starting out. Discover the importance of persistence, curiosity and other key qualities for Game Designers to have, along with learning psychology to understand yourself, co-workers, and players.

Learn about digital therapeutics to treat diseases and disorders, AR, Google Glass, and being bullish on the future. Hear about the one trillion dollar world health market, esports, web3, and threats to the industry being localized versus global. We then talk about the Wii Fit and dive deeper in VR and AR, including Pearl the interactive movie, and Skip Rizzo’s important work. Hear about working with (gamer) Steven Spielberg, working at Skywalker Ranch, for Google, and new technologies impacting games and healthcare.

Towards the end we talk about merging his love of travel by presenting at conferences, where to find Noah online, the differences between the games, movies, and TV industries, plus why you shouldn’t be a jerk.

Bio:

Noah Falstein was one of the first 10 employees at Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts where he led projects including PHM Pegasus, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and co-designed Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. After serving as Google's Chief Game Designer Noah’s been focusing primarily on games for healthcare.

Show Links:

* Milton Bradley Wikipedia

* Lucasfilm Games website

* WMS Industries Wikipedia

* Monkey Island Games Wikipedia

* Akili Interactive website

* E.T. Cartridges Buried in New Mexico PCMag

* Pearl VR and Fun

* The Dig Wikipedia

* Skywalker Ranch Wikipedia

* Level Ex website

Connect Links: