Sam Roberts is a games curator, educator, and designer whose passion for collaboration and creativity was sparked by Dungeons and Dragons in 1988. He specializes in innovative development practice and building design communities. He is most widely known for founding and content directing IndieCade, the ‘Sundance of Games,’ and currently works at USC Games, the #1 game design school in the world, overseeing operations, building curriculum, and teaching classes on tabletop roleplaying game design.
About Me
Learning & Advancement
As an educator, Sam works in emerging areas of creativity to build curriculum that invites potential designers from underserved communities in. He brings thoughtful educational design to emerging fields that have not yet established fixed methods. He believes deeply in interdisciplinary work, and finding related fields that provide key points of practice and extant teaching models to build on.
Programming & Content
Sam begins any content selection process with the belief that a multitude of voices telling a multitude of stories is the best way to create interesting collisions and innovation. Much of his work is curating exhibits of playful artistic work and selecting content for conferences and channels focused on communities of design. Sam has also worked managing creative portfolios for publishers with very distinct, focused brands, and believes strategic content planning is essential in building a recognizable brand.
Selected Projects
Sam’s creative portfolio spans decades and includes both personal projects and client based projects. Sam’s personal work focuses on systemically rich narrative driven experiences that explore alternative inputs, framings, and audience sizes, while his contract work attempts to solve new or emergent interaction design problems for clients in adjacent industries often exploring games or specific game genres for the first time.
Consulting & Speaking
As a consultant, Sam specializes in large-scale user experience design, entrepreneurship, and ecosystem development. He has worked with companies such as Sony Interactive Entertainment, Nexus Studios, and Giant Eagle. Sam regularly speaks on independent games, innovative design, and tabletop role-playing games