Game Dev Advice: The Game Developer’s Podcast
Business:Careers
I welcome Albert “Skip” Rizzo, a clinical psychologist and 25 year veteran of gaming technology and VR for clinical uses. Learn how a patient playing Tetris sparked his interest in gaming, and years later he joined USC to use VR to help kids with ADHD. Hear the critical importance of building content that engages and motivates patients, along with the differences between games and film.
We then dive into the Bravemind program to help vets suffering from PTSD, how he's rebuilt their technology, added new locations, and created a pre-deployment program for soldiers. Learn how he expanded into helping with sexual trama around a civilian context and working on different types of civilian PTSD, along with teenagers who’ve grown up with abuse and difficult living conditions.
Learn Skip’s mission is to get the content into the hands of people who can benefit with ADHD, stroke rehab, pain management, and other areas. We then discuss the importance of mutual respect, a shared purpose, and curiosity. Hear about the need for meaning in one’s work, the heroes who work in healthcare, and the enormous stress they’re under in this COVID world. He then shares a new project for helping healthcare professionals dealing with stress using questions and dialogue.
Hear about his favorite projects around work for autism, ADHD, disadvantaged youth, resilience training for pre-deployment, the importance of narrative, and one of my favorite games I worked on. We then talk about technology, the future, metaverse concerns, and companies investing in VR. Learn how Brainlab is using AR to help neurosurgeons prepare for difficult surgeries and the value of the Magic Leap.
We wrap up with him sharing how he and others worked with a young Palmer Lucky, how he’s getting back into moderate gaming through VR, the challenges he’s had to overcome to gain acceptance in the traditional clinical psychology field, how AI is the next big frontier, and where to find him online.
Bio:
Albert “Skip” Rizzo is a clinical psychologist and Director of Medical Virtual Reality at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. He is also a Research Professor with the USC Dept. of Psychiatry and at the USC Davis School of Gerontology.
His career began as a clinician providing rehabilitative services for persons with traumatic brain injuries and stroke. Over the last 25 years, Skip has conducted research on the design, development and evaluation of VR targeting the areas of clinical assessment, treatment and rehabilitation across the domains of psychological, cognitive and motor functioning in both healthy and clinical populations.
This work has focused on PTSD, TBI, Autism, ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and other clinical conditions. Some of his recent work has involved the creation of artificially intelligent virtual human (VH) patients that novice clinicians can use to practice skills required for challenging diagnostic interviews and for creating online virtual human healthcare guides, and clinical interviewers with automated sensing of facial, gestural, and vocal behaviors useful for inferring the state of the user interacting with these virtual human entities.
Show Links:
* How Video Games Are Saving Those Who Served article
* Full Spectrum Warrior Wikipedia
* My You’re Not Getting Any Younger; Learn How To Ride a Motorcycle article
* Level Ex website
* Brainlab website
Connect Links:
* Skip Rizzo YouTube
* Skip Rizzo Twitter
* Skip Rizzo website
* Skip Rizzo email - rizzo@ict.usc.edu
Game Dev Advice Links:
* Game Dev Advice Patreon - please help support the show if you find it entertaining/useful
* Game Dev Advice Twitter
* Game Dev Advice email (info@gamedevadvice.com)
* Game Dev Advice website
* Level Ex Careers page - we’re hiring for tons of roles!
* Game Dev Advice Hotline: (224) 484-7733
* Subscribe and go to the website for full show notes with links
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Game Dev People, Starting a Studio, Discord’s Power, Send the Resume, Steam’s Dead for Indies, and Dota 2 with Dan Nikolaides from Studio369
Working on Uncharted, 4-Day Work Week, Crunch, XTC, Psychology in Design, Sustainable Game Development, and the USC Games Program with Richard Lemarchand
Marathon Not A Sprint, ArtStation Is Key, Seizing Opportunities, Virtual Boy, Paying It Forward, Working In Mexico, Personal Projects, and My Origin Story with Glenn De Leon Garza
Startup Principles, Working on StarCraft II and Fortnite, Burnout, Empathic Design, UI is Key, Tools Development, VC Ecosystem, Mental Health, and Crossplay with Matt Schembari
Creativity is a Business, LotR’s Inspiration, Toxic Workplace Cultures, Using Agents, Defining Your Terms, Twitter For Connecting, Asking For Advice, and Creating Friendships with Marta Svetek
Battlefield Mobile, Gratitude, Getting Sh*t Done, Marvel XP, Bad Interview, Pareto Principle, Game Dev Identity, and Surviving a Layoff with Justin Fischer of Industrial Toys/EA
Horror Games, Career Strategies, What Publishers Want, Capital Is King, Poland and Israel’s Game Dev Scenes, and Finding Your Own Way with Scott Millard of Feardemic
Self-Taught Coding, Importance of Tools, Crunch, NLP, Snow Crash, Ageism, GitHub, Toastmasters, and Quake’s Elegance with Norman Morse of Perforce Software
Halo 2, Steve Ballmer, IGDA, Gamergate, Star Wars, Diversity and Inclusion, Networking, Going Solo, Cloudpunk, and Developer Leverage with Kate Edwards of Geogrify and the Global Game Jam
Stack the Job Deck, Canada, Iron Galaxy, PSX Conference, Recruiter Horror Stories, Dot-com Bubble, LT, and Wisdom From Perspective with Adam Boyes of Iron Galaxy Studios
Interviewing Tips, Global Teams, NY Comic Con, Running LiveOps, Crunching, Mentors, Mass Effect, Austin Game Dev, QA Life, and Relationships Matter with Patrick Moran of Kongregate
SXSW, Keys to Kickstarter, Smash TV, Editing Challenges, Ready Player One, Games Are Harder Than Film, Persistence, Magic Leap, HoloLens, and Film Festivals with Joshua Tsui of Insert Coin
Artist Turned Indie Filmmaker, Layoff Transition, New Artist Tools, Actor Types, E3 Stories, Key Skills For Getting Hired, and LA Traffic, with Mehran Torgoley of Cult Cinema
Creative Directors, Diversity and Inclusion, Level Ex, Your Mutant Ability, Van Halen, Making For Honor, Mythic Quest, Player Motivation, and Hades with Jason VandenBerghe of Level Ex
Successful Original IP, Design Challenges, Global Teams, Portfolio Matters, Industry Parties, Retro Consoles, GDC Indie Games, and Online Privacy Laws with Clark Stacey of WildWorks
Travis Scott, Activision Pitches, Good Vs. Bad Producers, EQ, Social Networks, MicroProse, Steve Jobs, Taking the High Road with Chris Hewish
Making Warcraft II, Breaking Crunch, Disney Infinity, Pitching Investors, Diablo, Animal Talking, Industry Stories, and Parting Advice with Bill Roper
Working at Epic Games, Avoiding Crunch, Tony Hawk, Better Health, Metallica, The Rookies, Montreal, and Midway Games Floods with Justin Mohlman
PR For Games, Influencers, Working With Nintendo, Metrics Vs. Impact, Value of Live Events, and Relationships Matter with Johner Riehl
Going Indie, Changing Crunch, Mocap SWAT, Bungie, Wild West Days, Management Lessons, and VR with Richard Lico
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Super Best Friends Video Game Sleepover
Weekly Games Chat
Super Gamer Boys
The Life & Times of Video Games
Indie Pod: An Indie Games Podcast