Currently on Leave through June 30, 2023.
Professor Hunicke joined UCSC in 2014 to develop and promote undergraduate and graduate education that explores games as a medium of critical, social and expressive artistic practice. This mission informs her teaching within DANM, her work in Games & Playable media BA and BS programs, and her research within the Ludo Lab Center for Games, Play & Social Practice.
Her most cited academic work is the MDA framework for deconstructing game design, which informs her teaching, research and profesisonal work on the award-winning PlayStation title Journey, as well as Boom Blox, MySims, and TheSims 2. She is currently developing three projects at her independent game studio Funomena: the PC/VR puzzle game & creativity experience Luna, Google’s Project Tango AR Project Woorld, and the whimsical console game Wattam.
As an active evangelist for diversity of thought and participation in arts and games, Robin co-organizes the annual Experimental Gameplay Workshop, sits on the PlaySFMOMA, FDG & VRDC advisory boards, and volunteers in support of a variety of causes - including the original Indie Game Jam, Global Game Jam, GDC Game Design Workshop, IGDA Education SIG, Lexus Design Award, Girls Make Games, Anita Borg Foundation, Google Made with Code, HEVGA and the CS For Allinitiative.
Experimental & user-centered game design, games & learning, games & social impact, building sustainable & deliberately developmental creative cultures, supporting diversity & innovation for Arts entrepreneurship.