Speaker
Speaker Info
- Name
- David Cohen
- Organization
- University of Texas at Austin, Department of Arts and Entertainment Technologies
- Country
- United States
- Biography
- David (D.S.) Cohen is a video game industry veteran and award-winning educator whose career spans more than two decades of transformational game design, production, narrative design, and game-based learning. Throughout his professional career in the video game industry and in academia, he has developed Transparent Game Design, a framework that embeds therapeutic and educational goals directly into gameplay systems. His current role as a Professional Track Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Arts and Entertainment Technologies at The University of Texas at Austin continues to inform and expand this approach, applying commercial game design techniques to integrate methods in education, health, and well-being into the experience in ways that are seamless and unnoticed by the user. Through his flagship initiative, the AET Games for Good course at UT Austin, Cohen directs interdisciplinary student teams in collaboration with clinicians and researchers to develop prototypes that advance health, rehabilitation, and education. Projects include The Adventures of Ranger Raccoon, a respiration health game; MedPets, a mobile diabetes coaching game; and GaitWay Arcade, a motion-controlled rehabilitation game for stroke recovery. These projects have been supported by the UT Bold Inquiry Incubator Grant and the CHITA SPARK Grant and are now preparing for clinical testing. Cohen’s work demonstrates how commercial game design methods can drive meaningful impact beyond entertainment, creating engaging interventions that improve health outcomes, expand educational access, and foster empathy-driven design in the next generation of creators.
- www.linkedin.com/in/dscreativity/
Photo
- Photo
Presentation Info
- Title
- Transparent Game Design: A Framework for Making Learning, Health, and Rehabilitation Playable
- Summary
- Transparent Game Design is a framework for applying commercial game design principles to learning, health, and rehabilitation in ways that support sustained engagement and stronger outcomes. Many applied games struggle with long-term participation, measurable impact, and alignment between play and purpose. Instructional and therapeutic goals can feel disconnected from the experience itself, making it difficult to maintain engagement or demonstrate lasting change. Transparent Game Design was developed to address these challenges by treating educational, therapeutic, and behavioral objectives as inseparable from the act of play. Rather than laying gameplay from health or educational content, this framework embeds intent directly into mechanics, systems, and progression structures. From the player’s perspective, the experience remains focused on goals, challenges, and play. Learning, adherence, and habit formation emerge through interaction and repetition, remaining invisible to the user while supporting real-world behavior change. Players are not asked to reflect on what they are learning or practicing; they are simply playing a game that works because of how it is designed. This presentation will introduce Transparent Game Design as a practical methodology for researchers, clinicians, educators, and game designers. It will examine how the framework addresses persistent challenges in engagement and outcome validation, and will share strategies for designing experiences that remain compelling while supporting learning, rehabilitation, and long-term behavior change through play.
- Keynote
- Presentation
- GFHEU Year
- 2026
Info
- Info