Ken Eklund

Ken Eklund (born May 17, 1957) is an American game and experience designer known as Writerguy. He is perhaps most famous for World Without Oil, an early "serious game" in the alternate reality game genre he created and ran in 2007. His recent projects "explore the positive social effects of collaborative experiences and open-ended, creative play. "

Eklund creates immersive games that intend to have a socially relevant, transformative effect and to be informal learning experiences and crowdsourcing for good. Much of his recent transmedia work explores how contributing to 'authentic fictions' (real-seeming yet fictional stories) engages people directly in real-world issues by allowing them to have fun collaborating on storymaking, positive solutions and action. By creating "barely fictional" gameful situations he creates a new kind of space for negotiating reality, where the candor afforded by interacting with fictional characters presenting the reality of social issues is seemingly more impactful than the realities themselves.

As an artist, Eklund's emphasis on response plus respect for diversity "charges notions of the 'vox pop' with an appealing edge as a tool for transformation 'from the inside'.He speaks on how to use alternate reality experiences and other playful "what if?" spaces in pursuit of serious goals and the potential for gamelike activities to help solve global problems.

• FutureCoast (2014-2016, director)
• Rogue Squirrelbot and other cellphone adventures (2015, director-producer)
• Ruination: City of Dust (2014, game designer)
• Hiss Pop (2012, co-creator)
• Ed Zed Omega (2012, director and lead producer)
• Giskin Anomaly (2010, creator and writer)
• Urgent Evoke (2010, community lead)
• Zorop (2010, co-creator)
• Ruby's Bequest (2009, creator)
• World Without Oil (2007, creator)
• DRIV3R: LAS VEGAS (mobile) (2006, writer)
• Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (mobile) (2006, writer)
• In Her Shoes (mobile) (2006, writer)
• Move It! (2005, game designer and writer)
• Mr. And Mrs. Smith (mobile) (2005, writer)
• Strange Dead Bird (educational science mystery) (2004, creator)
• Tigo Learning Kit (2003, writer)
• Two Forks, Idaho (educational science mystery) (2002, creator)
• Mystery of the Poison Dart Frog (educational science mystery) (2002, creator)
• Pool of Radiance II: Ruins of Myth Drannor (2001, writer and game designer)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Harbinger (1995, writer and game designer)
• World of Aden: Entomorph - Plague of the Darkfall (1995, writer)
• Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse (1994, writer)
• Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager (1994, writer)
• Eagle Eye Mysteries in London (1994, writer, game and character designer)
• Eagle Eye Mysteries (1993, writer, game and character designer)
• Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed (1992 writer)
• The Dark Queen of Krynn (1992, writer)
• Death Knights of Krynn (1991, writer)
• Buck Rogers: Countown to Doomsday (1990, writer)

• Michael Andersen "Reinventing Education For The Disaffected With Ed Zed Omega" Wired Aug 21, 2012 [1]
• Mike Janssen, "With young actors, Localore’s interactive Ed Zed Omega critiques education system" Current.org, November 2, 2012 [2]