Sheri has given talks and lectures in schools, universities, conferences and seminars around the world. Her talks have inspired audiences in all areas of tech, science and education as well as the games industry. Contact her to find out how she can tailor a talk for your group!
Game Design
- If it were easy
Explains the role of the game designer, what they do and what it takes to become one
- Five Ways to Ruin a Perfectly Good Game Design
This talk takes a look at some of the most common mistakes new designers make and ways to avoid them.
- From ‘We Create Worlds’ to ‘We Drive Revenue’
– The Changing Role of Designer
A talk about how the role of the designer on the development team today has changed over the past 20 years and what designers need to know to compete in today’s industry
- It’s about time!
A microtalk on microtransaction based social games and where it’s gone wrong and how it can be improved.
- Learning to play
A featured lecture on how to build tutorials to increase player on-ramping using information about knowledge learning styles
- Serious Fun
A keynote lecture on the advantages of using games to teach STEM principles to children and adults
- Game Design: If it were easy, everyone would do it
This featured lecture is a motivational talk for students interested in a career in game development. It contains an overview of the computer game industry, the various roles and what it takes to get in.
- Speaking of: A short talk on interactive conversations
Originally given with Jennifer Hepler at GDC 2013, this is a short talk on the nuts and bolts of interactive conversation construction
Diversity/ Women in Games
- Where do we go from here
A keynote talk on the history of the diversity movement in the games industry, addressing the current backlash and reframing the message to produce positive progress for the future
- Diversity – how to get it, how to keep it
This talk goes over ways to increase gender, ethnic, racial and lifestyle diversity in your workforce and offers ways to retain that diversity once you have it
- Pink Poison – A History of the Pink Game Movement of the 1990’s
This talk looks at the Games for Girls or “Pink Games” of the 1990’s. We look at where they came from, why they happened and what affect they had on the industry, both positive and negative
- A D-Cup and a Laser Pistol – Female Avatars
This talk looks at the physical representation of female player characters in current and past games and discusses misconceptions, myths and ways to improve them
- Games for Girls – A Dead Genre?
This talk addresses the idea of making games for a female audience. It addresses the misconception of the “Pink Game” and talks about how to actually take the female audience into consideration. Based on Sheri’s Book.
- Gender Inclusive Game Design
Based on Sheri’s award winning book, this talk tears apart the myths of what a game for women would look like. It examines the deeper barriers in our current games and talks about how to address them within the parameters of traditional genres
For Children
- Who Wants To make Games?
Given in STEM settings in elementary schools and camps, this talk gives a look at the game industry and the variety of people who can make games. It focuses not only on the different roles in game development but emphasizes diversity
- On My Honor – Everything I know about game development I learned in Girl Scouting
A talk given to Girl Scout troops about the game industry and how scouting can influence girls to be game developers. making games
Workshops
- Guerilla Game Design
A day long workshop on examining the barriers to access for minorities in traditional titles and how to address them while keeping the integrity of genre.
- Two day workshop on building interactive conversations
This is a two day workshop on the nuts and bolts of building strong interactive conversations in computer games