IJSFONTEIN (JAN WILLEM HUISMAN)
Masters of Elements
Jan Willem is the co-founder and creative director of game studio IJsfontein.
Jan Willem founded his own game studio, IJsfontein, with two friends, where he is co-founder and creative director. The studio’s very first game, Masters of the Elements, won a BAFTA and was published worldwide. From that first game on, Jan Willem has designed games with a social impact.
For more than 25 years he has been making games that help build a better society. Almost every child in the Netherlands has learned to read and write with the games IJsfontein made for educational publisher Malmberg.
Fun Is Easy. Impact is hard.This talk explores why applied games are the final challenge of game design.
Jan Willem believes play is the most natural way to learn. When you play, you get instant feedback on your assumptions, so you can improve them straight away. That’s simply how our brains learn. Seen that way, it’s hard to imagine leaving play out of the design when you want people to learn some
