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Playthink

Playthink

Written by: USC Game Innovation Lab
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About this listen

Playthink is a USC-based salon about games, play, art and interactivity. These discussion are recorded live at the USC Game Innovation Lab, which is part of the USC Games Program at the University of Southern California. For more information follow us on Instagram @uscgameinnovationlab or visit our website at www.gameinnovationlab.com/playthink.

Copyright 2018-2025 USC Game Innovation Lab Art Science Fiction
Episodes
  • Richard Lemarchand at Playthink: 11/17/25

    Richard Lemarchand at Playthink: 11/17/25
    Nov 18 2025
    USC Games Professor Richard Lemarchand joins us for this episode of Playthink, to talk about his book A Playful Production Process - For Game Designers (And Everyone). Interviewed by Game Innovation Lab Director Tracy Fullerton, Lemarchand discusses the core aspects of concentric development, digging into the importance of prototyping, macro charts, and truly collaborative design teams. This book, which is the core text for the USC Games Intermediate Project classes comes out of Lemarchand’s deep expertise as a lead or co-lead designer on all three PlayStation 3 games on Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series, as well as his work on the Gex and Soul Reaver games at Crystal Dynamics, and, of course, his experiences teaching game design, development, storytelling, and production as a professor at USC.
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Celia Pearce at Playthink: 11/3/25

    Celia Pearce at Playthink: 11/3/25
    Nov 4 2025
    This episode of Playthink welcomes game designer, scholar, and professor Celia Pearce as we discuss the rich areas of play theory explored in her new book, Playframes: How do we know we are playing? Interviewed by MS candidate Reef (Harith Liew), Pearce leads us through a fascinating set of questions around the metacommunication of play. WIth topics ranging from theme parks, to sports, to cosplay and video games, Pearce creates distinctions for us, both designers and players, that help us understand how better communications around what is play and when we are playing can start to build better and safer playful spaces.
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Chris Totten at Playthink: 10/15/25

    Chris Totten at Playthink: 10/15/25
    Oct 15 2025
    On this episode of Playthink, we welcome game designer and author Chris Totten as we explore his book, An Architectural Approach to Level Design. Interviewed by level designer and MFA candidate Zhutian Zhang, Totten discusses ways in which his approach brings in methods of planning and thinking about levels as playful architectural spaces that bring together the artistic, the cultural, and the technological.
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    1 hr and 8 mins
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