After nearly 50 years of innovation, where are video games headed next? Ars Technica Live returns with guest Tracy Fullerton, an award-winning, experimental game designer and director of USC’s Game Innovation Lab. Tracy has spent her entire career developing games as an entrepreneur, teacher, and designer. The Night Journey is her latest indie game and is a collaboration with artist Bill Viola.

Tracy’s work at USC gives her a broad perspective on what's coming next for games, both technologically and artistically. Join Ars Technica editors Samuel Axon and Annalee Newitz in conversation with Tracy at the next Ars Technica Live on March 21 at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland.

Tracy is the designer and director of Walden, a game, an adaptation of Henry David Thoreau’s experiment at Walden Pond, which was recently awarded “Game of the Year” and “Most Significant Impact” at Game for Change. Currently, she’s director of the USC Game Innovation Lab, a research center that has produced several influential independent games, including Cloud, flOw, and Darfur is Dying. She is the author of Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, a design textbook in use at game programs worldwide, and she holds the Electronic Arts Endowed Chair in Interactive Entertainment. Other recent projects include Collegeology, a suite of college preparation games funded by the Department of Education, the Gilbert Foundation, and the Gates Foundation, and Reality Ends Here, an alternate-reality game for incoming freshmen at the School of Cinematic Arts.

Previously, she was president and founder of the interactive television game developer Spiderdance Inc. Spiderdance’s games included NBC’s Weakest Link, MTV’s webRIOT, The WB’s No Boundaries, History Channel’s History IQ, Sony Game Show Network’s Inquizition, and TBS’s Cyber Bond. Tracy’s work has received numerous honors, including an Emmy nomination for interactive television, Indiecade’s “Sublime Experience,” “Impact,” and “Trailblazer” awards, the Games for Change “Game Changer” award, and the Game Developers Choice “Ambassador” Award. In September 2016, she was named the People’s Choice for most inspiring LA Woman in Los Angeles magazine.

Ars Live takes place on the second Wednesday of every month at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland (3629 MLK Way). This is our last month on the third Wednesday, so take note!

Doors open at 7pm, and the live filming is from 7:30pm to 8:20-ish (be sure to get there early if you want a seat). Stick around afterward for informal discussion, beer, and snacks. Can’t make it out to Oakland? Never fear! Episodes will be posted to Ars Technica the week after the live events.

The event is free but space is limited, so RSVP using Eventbrite. You can also keep up with the latest Ars Live doings on Facebook. See you soon, Bay Area Arsians!