Last week was the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, so we hosted a special episode of Ars Technica Live about the future of game design. Ars Reviews Editor Samuel Axon joined me to ask Tracy Fullerton about where games are headed in the future. An award-winning game developer, Tracy heads the Game Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. She gave us her perspective as a creator and as a teacher of the next generation of game creators.

We began by talking about two of Tracy's best-known games, Walden and The Night Journey, both of which push the definition of what counts as a game. In Walden, the player takes on the identity of American philosopher Henry David Thoreau during the mid-19th century when he built a tiny cabin in the woods and tried to live off the land. That experience became his famous book Walden, and Tracy recreated it in her game by allowing players to build a cabin, wander a set of paths around the pond based on actual maps from the period, and watch thousands of different trees transform with the seasons.

The Night Journey is a very abstract game whose goal is nothing short of spiritual enlightenment for the player. Based on the writings of mystics like Rumi, the game takes players through dreamy landscapes that inspire a meditative state. Though it almost feels like an anti-game, Tracy said "there are two ways to win." (So the next time you seek enlightenment, just remember there are two ways to level up to it.) Ultimately, the point of both Walden and The Night Journey, she said, is to expand our ideas about what we can do with games.

We also talked to Tracy about her work with two of her former students, Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago, who have become famous for games like Cloud, Flow, Flower, and Journey. These are also games that present players with non-competitive goals and try to inspire feelings of peace, contemplation, and fun. Tracy explained that her approach with students is to expose them to things they aren't already doing. Many students come to her program with considerable programming or design skills, so she asks them to try something new. If they're obsessed with VR, she asks them to make a board game. If they love strategy games, she suggests a character-driven story game.

One of the most interesting parts of the conversation was when we talked about how games are going to change in the next 10 years. Tracy said she's seen students pulling back from social media-driven games that use Twitch or other platforms. Instead, she's seeing a push toward "private" games that are shared only by a small group or that have significant offline components. Some of her students, like Lishan AZ, are working on games that combine real objects with digital puzzles, creating what she called an "artisanal" feeling of uniqueness to the game experience.

We concluded with some great questions from the audience. Tracy emphasized that her goal as a designer is always to ask questions about how new tech can help us tell stories. The story always has to come first.

Ars Technica Live is filmed before a live audience at Eli's Mile High Club in Oakland, California on the second Wednesday of every month. Our next guest, on April 11, is economist Brad DeLong, who will be discussing the tech economy and the fate of democracy. Tickets are free, via Eventbrite.

You can watch previous episodes of Ars Technica Live here.