All are welcome to join a workshop with special guest Eric Zimmerman! Eric’s professional life is about inventing new ways for people to play and teaching others about the craft and relevance of games. He has taught at MIT, NYU, Parsons School of Design, The School of Visual Arts, and has led hundreds of classes and workshops on game design around the world. He is a founding faculty and Arts Professor at the NYU Game Center, Tisch School of the Arts.
He has also worked in the game industry for more than 30 years, designing award-winning digital games, tabletop games, and large-scale installations and writing books that helped establish the discipline of game design.
Where: Tampere University, Pinni B, Kanslerinrinne 1, 33014, 33100 Tampere
When: Saturday, June 6th, 2026, 12:00-16:00
THE IMPOSSIBLE BALANCE: A game design workshop
Contemporary game designers often face the challenge of designing large-scale “heterogeneous” systems. In genres like Roguelikes, RPGs, MOBAs, CCGs, and strategy games, there are interacting systems of abilities, skills, equipment, etc – that create design challenges of nearly infinite complexity. This workshop focuses specifically on methods and concepts for solving these kinds of wicked design problems, using hands-on exercises as the basis for learning and practicing skills. We will look closely at how network effects happen and try out a number of approaches for balancing massively complex problems in a many-to-many character battling game. Along the way, we will discuss and learn about relevant game design concepts like the advantages and disadvantages of automated testing, and how to leverage systems in content design. Please come to the session prepared to actively play and participate.
If you would like to join please sign up here