Draft:Steffen P. Walz
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Steffen P. Walz | |
|---|---|
| Pen name | Steffen Strom |
| Nationality | German |
| Citizenship | Germany |
Steffen P. Walz (aka Steffen Strom), born in 1973, is a German innovation strategist, game designer, academic, curator, and musician.
Steffen P. Walz studied Cultural Anthropology, Political Science, and General Rhetoric at the University of Tübingen. He earned a Doctor of Sciences in Computer Aided Architectural Design at the ETH Zurich, where his research focused on the interplay between architecture, play, and digital games. He has worked extensively in game design, behavioural and motivational design.[1], as well as in AI-driven foresight[2], product innovation[3], digital strategy, and with sustainability- and resilience-related initiatives[4]
Together with de:Gerhard M. Buurman and funded by the Swiss federal government, he developed and co-founded the Game Design B.A. program at the Zurich University of the Arts in 2004, at the time the first program of its kind in German speaking countries.[5][6] He is the co-founder and curator of the annual bizplay conference series in Karlsruhe (since 2012)[7], the co-founder of the creatables sustainability initiative [8], and the inventor of the product innovation card game FUTUREDECK.[9][10] Walz co-edited “The Gameful World” (MIT Press, 2015), a book delving into the integration of gaming technologies and elements into various aspects of everyday life and culture.[11] Under his artist name Steffen Strom, political party Alliance 90/The Greens (German: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) released his power pop track “Angie (Nein, Nein)”[12], a satirical song about then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during the 2004 German federal election campaign. The song garnered major public attention.[13] Walz frequently speaks at technology events and is as jury member of the Innovation Fund of the Wissenschafts-Pressekonferenz, a German professional association of science journalists.[14]
Career
[edit]Walz has worked in both academic and in corporate settings. He has previously held professorial positions at RMIT University (2011-2016), where he had founded the Games & Experimental Entertainment Laboratory (GEElab) to conduct applied, game-focused research and development for domains such as automotive, digital health, and education[15]; from 2016 to 2017, he served as Professor of Design/Art at Curtin University[16]; and 2017-2018, as a Professorial Fellow in the Center of Design Innovation at Swinburne University of Technology[17]. After having relocated from Australia to Germany, between 2019 and 2022, Walz was Director Innovation at Volkswagen Group's digital transformation subsidiary, diconium, following which he became Principal, Innovation & Cooperation, at CARIAD, Volkswagen Group's car software organisation (2022-2024). Currently, Walz serves as Managing Director of icon group, a Berlin-based product innovation agency majority owned by WPP plc, the world's largest advertising company, as of 2023.[18][19]. Next to these positions, Walz is an angel investor in impact-driven start-ups and the owner of boutique consultancy, playbe.[20]
Awards and honours
[edit]Walz is Visiting Professional at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center[21], as well as Adjunct Lecturer at the University of St. Gallen Executive School of Management, Technology and Law [22].
His Master's thesis “On the Move between Proximate Distance an Distant Proximity” and the associated design project, M.A.D. Countdown, a hybrid reality multiplayer game designed to study deception and group dynamics[23], were awarded a prize at the International Bauhaus Award 2002.[24]
In 2009, Walz was awarded one of the inaugural Vice-Chancellor's Senior Research Fellowships at RMIT University.[25]
Commissioned by carmaker Mercedes-Benz Group in 2018, Walz executive produced the alternate reality game transmission.vin, created by Melbourne game studio 2Pt Interactive.[26] The tech talent recruitment game was used multiple times at technology conferences such as Web Summit and Slush, and won a number of awards, including the Red Dot Design Award.[27]
Books
[edit]- with Friedrich von Borries, Matthias Böttger (Eds.): Space Time Play – Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism: The Next Level. Birkhäuser, Boston Basel Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-7643-8414-2.
- with Sebastian Deterding (Eds.): The Gameful World: Approaches, Issues, Applications. (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 2015, ISBN 978-0-262-02800-4.
- Toward a Ludic Architecture: The Space Of Play and Games. Play Story Press, Pittsburgh, PA 2025, ISBN 978-1300688778.
Games
[edit]- holoride: Devised in the context of the 2011 Audi Urban Future Summit, Walz and team developed early concepts and prototypes for what would become a Virtual Reality-based in-vehicle entertainment platform and start-up spinning out of carmaker Audi.[28][29][30][31]
- Emergency (video game series): Game design and business development consultancy for the long-running German franchise by Promotion Software / sixteen tons entertainment.
- Mission: Schweinehund (English: Mission: Your Own Worst Enemy): A mobile, motion tracking game created for Novartis Pharma to motivate Diabetes Type 2 and COPD patients, by way of individualised exercise and physical activity promotion as well as an elaborate, entertaining storyline, to improve daily physical activity mid- to long-term. The project was developed 2013-2016 by Walz’s team at RMIT University’s GEElab[32], in conjunction with game studio Serious Games Solutions[33], and the University of Basel’s sports medicine department.[34] Clinical evaluations accompanied the game's production, showing that the game significantly increases daily physical activity (steps/day) and aerobic capacity in inactive Diabetes Type 2 patients after 24 weeks.[35][36]
References
[edit]- ^ "Steffen P. Walz".
- ^ "Stories from Mobility Futures: Berlin". 21 May 2021.
- ^ https://k3-karlsruhe.de/sites/default/files/2020-01/bizplay_flyer_138x297_rs_druck.pdf
- ^ "Services - creatables".
- ^ "Gründung Game Design, ZHDK – postmodular".
- ^ https://gamedesign.zhdk.ch
- ^ https://www.bizplay.org
- ^ https://creatables.de
- ^ "DPMAregister | Marken - Registerauskunft".
- ^ "FutureDeck®".
- ^ "The Gameful World".
- ^ "Angie (Nein, Nein)". Spotify.
- ^ Musharbash, Yassin (23 August 2005). "Wahlkampf musikalisch: Grüne kriegen Anti-Merkel-Hymne geschenkt". Der Spiegel.
- ^ "Die Jury".
- ^ http://geelab.eu
- ^ "Researcher to take concepts of gaming and play to the next level | News at Curtin". 5 August 2016.
- ^ "Our people".
- ^ "The world's biggest ad agency is going all in on AI with Nvidia's help | CNN Business". 29 May 2023.
- ^ https://www.icongroup.com
- ^ https://www.playbe.com
- ^ "Steffenwalz | Entertainment Technology Center".
- ^ "Executive education at the University of St.Gallen (HSG) - Executive School of Management, Technology and Law (ES-HSG)". 18 March 2022.
- ^ Walz, Steffen P. (2005). "Constituents of Hybrid Reality: Cultural Anthropological Reflections and a Serious Game Design Experiment Merging Mobility, Media and Computing". Total Interaction. pp. 123–141. doi:10.1007/3-7643-7677-5_9. ISBN 3-7643-7076-9.
- ^ "Körperkino - Bauhaus Award 2002 verliehen". 28 October 2002.
- ^ "Vice-Chancellor's Senior Research Fellows".
- ^ "Transmission Ep. 1 | 2pt Interactive".
- ^ "Red Dot Design Award: Transmission.vin at Web Summit 2017".
- ^ "Drive to set future game technology in motion".
- ^ "AUDI Urban Future Summit | GEElab".
- ^ Parker, Laura (30 September 2011). "Drive time: RMIT's new in-car entertainment system". The Guardian.
- ^ "Adding thrill to every ride".
- ^ "Novartis – Mission: Schweinehund | GEElab".
- ^ "Serious Games Solutions » Games for Health".
- ^ "Bei Diabetes erfolgreich mit Exergaming gegen den Inneren Schweinehund". 22 May 2019.
- ^ https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(19)30118-7/abstract
- ^ Höchsmann, C.; Müller, O.; Ambühl, M.; Klenk, C.; Königstein, K.; Infanger, D.; Walz, S. P.; Schmidt-Trucksäss, A. (2019). "Novel Smartphone Game Improves Physical Activity Behavior in Type 2 Diabetes". American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 57 (1): 41–50. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2019.02.017. PMC 7719398. PMID 31128953.