Amanda Crispel
Amanda Crispel
Affiliated with Division of Communication and Creative Media, Game Design, Game Programming, Game Sound Design, Master of Fine Arts in Emergent Media
Biography

Amanda Crispel is a veteran of the game industry. She has worked for companies such as Brøderbund, Mattel, Lego, Leapfrog, The Learning Company and Nickelodeon, and specializes in games and interactive media for children and families and games with persuasive or educational purposes. Top franchises she's worked with include Dr. Seuss, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Nickelodeon, Lego Mindstorms and Fischer-Price Little People.

Amanda is a Professor for Game Design and the Assistant Dean of the Game Studio at Champlain College where she oversees a four-degree cohort of students and faculty that include Game Design, Game Art and Animation, Game Programming, and Game Production Management. The Game Studio at Champlain College has consistently been ranked by the Princeton Review in the top 20 of all game programs in higher education in the country.

Quote

"I believe that games created in the 21st century need to be looked at through a different lens than the ones I used when I started in the industry. We now need to explore our understanding of games as popular media, as educational tools, as persuasive rhetorical devices and as cultural artifacts. I find it fascinating that the artifacts of games predate our artifacts of fine art, yet we know so little about how games work, influence, why we play them or what their full cultural potential may be. Because of their active nature, I see in games a means for communicating powerful messages, and a new but also very old art form."