President, The Inspiracy (San Francisco)

Head of the longest-running Game Design Consultancy company in the world, and specialist in applying game design principles to new technologies.

Noah Falstein has been a professional game developer since 1980, and was one of the first few employees at LucasArts Entertainment, The 3DO Company, and Dreamworks Interactive. As head of The Inspiracy, a freelance game design consultant since 1996, he has been an industry leader in applying timeless game design principles to new areas including location based entertainment, serious games, mobile games, social games, motion-sensor devices, and more. Most recently he is a co-founder of a stealth-mode startup specializing in location based technology with some revolutionary applications in entertainment and business. His clients have included Disney, Hasbro, LucasArts, Sega, Shell Oil, Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, and Citibank. He was the first elected head of the International Game Developers Association and the design columnist for Game Developer magazine for 6 years.

Falstein will be speaking on fundamental principles of game design and how they need to be re-evaluated to match the creative, technical, social, and business considerations of geolocation-based titles.