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Robyn Potanin

Interactive design and game development professor

Education

  • Ph.D., computer science, University of the Arts London
  • M.A., creative writing, The University of Adelaide
  • B.A., science and media, The University of Queensland

Credentials

  • Professor of interactive design and game development, Fall 2022—present, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
  • Founder, Academy of Interactive Entertainment, Australia
    Founding Head of School, Adelaide Campus managing Games Development and Screen VFX and Animation programs; Deputy-Director Industry Development and Government Relations, promoting the growth of the national games development industry; Curriculum Coordinator AIE Institute, a higher education start-up for AIE.
  • Concept game designer and production coordinator, NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands
  • Creative director, 2009, Transformation Play, Adelaide
  • University lecturer, 2007–09, Adelaide and Singapore
    Co-coordination and instruction of a games and machinima course in Singapore within a Media Arts degree for the Kaplan Institute and UniSA. Tutoring in digital media at the University of Adelaide and lecturing and assessment of games studies at UniSA.
  • Writer, consultant, and coordinator, 2006–08, Adelaide
    Work ranging from the role of animation coordinator on the film Charlotte's Web for Rising Sun Pictures to concept writing and planning on a series of games for Imagination Entertainment.
  • Concept game designer and producer, 2002–06, Ratbag and Midway Studios, Adelaide
    Worked on projects for US publishers Ubisoft, Activision and Midway with designers, animators, sound engineers and voice actors. Co-writing concepts, designs, stories, missions and dialogue across a variety of videogames. Successfully produced five games to market-ready stage and contributed to ten game concepts. Published games include racing and driving action titles for PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2 for publishers lnfogrames (Atari) and Ubisoft
  • Senior producer, 2001, Alpha Multimedia, Sydney
    Proposal development of innovative digital products for the web, PC and Mac platforms. Clients included Fairfax, HSBC, Volkswagen, Bristol Paints and Westpac.
  • Web content producer, 2000–01, Macquarie Bank, Sydney
    Maintained and updated the bank's public website and online investment applications. Strategic analysis and solutions, as well as assistance with navigational and interaction design and the writing of detailed functional specifications.

Awards, recognitions, and honors

  • Finalist and The Advertiser Market-Ready Award winner, e-Challenge (entrepreneurial competition), 2008
  • Finalist, Asia-Pacific IT& T Awards for Global Arts Link and Brisbane Airport web sites, 1999
  • Winner, Asia-Pacific IT& T Awards for Infection Control in Oral Health CD-ROM, 1998
  • Featured in Business Class magazine article on women and technology, November 1998
  • Finalist, Young Professional and Business Woman Awards, 1993

Organizations

  • International Game Developers Association

Publications and presentations

Selected academic publications

  • "Next Level Up: Manifesto of Best Practice in Games Education," VGMED Leonardo Da Vinci Programme, 2014.
  • "Designing the Designer Publisher," DIGRA 2011 Conference Proceedings, Utrecht, 2011.
  • "Forces in Play: The Business and Culture of Videogame Production Publisher," Fun and Games 2010 Conference Proceedings, ACM, 2010.
  • "Machinima: Why think 'games' when thinking 'film'?" in DIY Media: Digital Literacies and Learning through Popular Cultural Production, eds. Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear, Peter Lang, 2011.