About
Zachary is a writer, game maker, and theorist. His works explore the role of fantasy, games, and play in the realization of Postcapitalism and eutopian spaces. His teaching and research interests include interactive storytelling, narrative design, worldbuilding, game mechanics, ludology, game studies, utopian and dystopian narratives, Nietzschean philosophy, and Marxist and materialist critique.
He has written in a variety of mediums, from print, to web, to film, for scholarly and humor audiences, and worked both within and outside the mainstream film, gaming, and media industries. Recent creative and scholarly work include presentations at the Open Engagement Conference on the potential of gaming to repair social relations and alienation under capitalism. Zachary is presently writing a forthcoming long-form, critical work on the revolutionary and utopian potential of games to envision, direct, and enable systemic change.
He also makes and plays games on an almost daily basis.
Before returning to CCA, Zachary taught games studies, creative writing, and literature at the University of South Dakota, and film studies and screenwriting at Eastern Oregon University. Current and forthcoming classes at CCA include " "Interactive Storytelling " "Interactive Worldbuilding for Game Development" and "Game Arts 1" in Fall 2024.
Zachary is also the designer and founding Chair of the Game Arts program. Presently, Zachary serves as the Program Lead for Game Arts at CCA.
BA, University of California, Santa Cruz; MFA, California College of the Arts; PhD, University of South Dakota