Eric Stein, MA, CAPM

Part Time Instructor in Game Development
It is my singular goal as an instructor that my students be able to leave my classroom at the end of the semester and say, “me too, I’m a game developer.” I believe that university instruction is not only about education but emancipation, about teaching students to say, “I can.”

Eric Stein, MA, CAPM is a games industry professional and a game development instructor at Trinity Western University. He is a graduate of Simon Fraser University (BA Honours in English Literature, Certificate in Creative Writing) and Trinity Western University (MA in Interdisciplinary Humanities). Since completing his master’s thesis, “Fiction in the Integrated Circuit,” Eric has written extensively on games such as Dark Souls, The Last of Us, and Kentucky Route Zero, with special focus on the intersection of narrative and gaming, and has presented his research at conferences across North America. Eric also has a strong interest in tabletop roleplaying games, publishing numerous game zines—including two successful Kickstarter projects, Lost Scriptures and Glitchspiel—as well as conducting research on such tabletop games as Dream Askew / Dream Apart and Trophy Dark. While he is not teaching, Eric is at work finaling FIFA 23 at Electronic Arts and beginning preproduction on EA Sports FC, the next chapter in the storied FIFA franchise, and the future of interactive football.

See: ORCID

  • MA Interdisciplinary Humanities, Trinity Western University, 2018
  • BA Honours English with Distinction, Simon Fraser University, 2016
  • Certificate in Creative Writing, Simon Fraser University, 2016

Expertise

Game Studies, Game Production, Interactive Storytelling, Narrative Design, Project Management

  • “Production and Pedagogy: Teaching Game Development in the University Classroom,” TWU CREATE Conference, Trinity Western University, Langley, BC, August 26, 2022, https://zenodo.org/record/7036777.
  • “Play to Lose: Animation, Failure, and the Milieu in Trophy Dark,” GENeration Analog: The Tabletop Games and Education Virtual Conference, Online, July 28, 2022, https://zenodo.org/record/6932651.
  • “No Dice, No Masters: Procedures for Emancipation in Dream Askew / Dream Apart,” GENeration Analog: The Tabletop Games and Education Virtual Conference, Online, August 5, 2021, https://zenodo.org/record/5156494.
  • “Bodies in Form, 2: Tabletop Roleplaying as Cosmic Poetics,” Bio and Psyche: Reading the Symptomatic Body, Virtual Symposium and Workshop Series, May 28, 2021, https://zenodo.org/record/4824078.
  • “It's More Like a Tendency: Trajectories of the Literary in Kentucky Route Zero,” Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Online, March 12, 2021, https://zenodo.org/record/4603525.
  • “The Dark Sigil Will Guide Thee: The Hollowing Mechanic in FromSoftware's Souls Games,” Northeast Popular Culture Association Annual Conference, Online, October 23, 2020, https://zenodo.org/record/4603519.
  • “It Can’t Be For Nothing: Communicating Intentions for Play Through Trophy Design in The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II,” TWU Research and Creativity Symposium, Trinity Western University, Langley, BC, August 28, 2020, https://zenodo.org/record/4603514.
  • “Pure Vessels: The Insect and the Other in Dark Souls and Hollow Knight,” Insect Entanglements, Centre for Environmental Humanities, University of Bristol, Online, June 19, 2020, https://zenodo.org/record/4603508.
  • “Praise the Sun: The Metaphysics of Dark Souls from the First Flame to the End of Fire,” Canadian Game Studies Association Conference, Congress of the Humanities, Western University, London, ON, June 3, 2020, https://zenodo.org/record/4603500.
  • “The Fire Fades: Navigating the End of the World in FromSoftware’s Dark Souls,” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 19, 2020, https://zenodo.org/record/4603492.
  • “Tactile Thematics: From Power to Skill in FromSoftware’s Souls Games,” Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 19, 2020, https://zenodo.org/record/4603488.
  • “Bodies in Form: Motricity Across Mediums in The Last of Us and The Last of Us: American Dreams,” ImageText in Motion: Animation and Comics, Graduate Comics Organization, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, April 13, 2019, https://zenodo.org/record/4603470.

Awards & Honors

  • Humanities Award (Trinity Western University; 2018)
  • Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement (SSHRC; 2017)
  • Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's (SSHRC; 2016)(
  • Capi Blanchet Scholarship in Fiction (Simon Fraser University; 2015)
  • Philippa Polson Memorial Prize in English (Simon Fraser University; 2015)

Affiliations & Memberships

  • Canadian Game Studies Association
  • International Game Developers Association
  • Project Management Institute

  • GAME 140 Introduction to Game Design
  • GAME 240 Game Design for Video Games
  • GAME 260 Project Management for Game Development
  • GAME 290 Game Development Project I
  • GAME 340 Advanced Game Design
  • GAME 341 Interactive Storytelling
  • GAME 380 Field Placement
  • GAME 390/391 Game Development Project II
  • GAME 471 Video Game Aesthetics
  • GAME 490/491 Game Development Project III