SOPHIE SAMPSON

I’m a digital producer, researcher and writer based in London. I make games and other interactive experiences for broadcasters, museums, and commercial clients, and specialize in playful, research-led factual projects.

 My work has covered many different expressions of cross platform work, from alternate reality games which run partly live and partly on the internet, to designing digital versions of poetry and art books. I’ve built prototypes to help grow online communities around their passions, and researched how games can support learning in the classroom.

I’ve been lucky enough to work on some great projects, for example Tim Kring’s multi-award-winning Conspiracy for Good. While flawed, it investigated hugely important areas, from how we can put gamers’ energy to use in helping charities, to novel thoughts about how the funding for live games and the funding for movies could be multiplied to the benefit of both. It was also an excellent primer in developing online communities, which I later put to use in developing prototypes around peoples’ passions for the BBC funded by the IC Tomorrow scheme.

My two large-scale projects for Warner Brothers 221B and Green Lantern were exercises in using game mechanics to get across key messages, and I’ve been putting what I learned to use since in my work for museums and educational projects. Working with Oxford University to get gamers participating in real citizen science as part of the Green Lantern live game was especially rewarding.

I’m currently working on Conversation Pieces with academics at Exeter University developing lessons that use games and historical objects to deliver more effective sex education classes.

I also develop content for playful factual projects, including developing historical content for Coney’s House of Cards interactive exhibition, House of Shadows for the V&A, and Tate Trumps for Tate Modern, which got people playing with artworks in the gallery.  Recently, I was also a mentor on the Stellar Network’s development programmer for Transmedia creators.

Games are a brilliant primer in how to make interaction fun, and how to simplify messages into sure and positive interactions. A lot of my work no longer has actual games as outcomes, but I use those lenses as part of my kit of development tools often. I’m currently developing prototypes around digital documentary making, and working with museums and other clients to prototype interaction- based learning tools.