Tipi Ilmonen is the Creative Director and one of founders of Punnu Games, a small game company founded in 2019 at Turku, Finland. Tipi has worked on educational game projects since the early days of Punnu Games as a programmer, game designer and a writer. Tipi has an extensive experience on the field of software development and over 10 years of experience in team & project management. Currently her goal is to learn all she can about “Emotion by design” techniques and Narrative design.
After working on an educational game Fantastic Energy, Tipi decided to start exploring how to make a game that has educational content, without appearing as a straightforward edu-game for the player. This has inspired her to develop ways to convey meaningful messages through games without compromising the enjoyment and immersion of the players. Currently Tipi is working on a new game Arrival of the Punnu, which tells an epic story about a little boy and alien creatures saving the Planet Earth together. The game has an underlying layer expressing the incredible diversity of Life on Planet Earth.
In her free time Tipi loves (in addition to play all kinds of narrative games whenever possible) to tend to her aquariums and enjoy the outdoor and nature either in her garden, summerhouse or hiking. Nature is the best place for her to get inspired!
Tipi’s talk is exploring the non-compromising design philosophy of educational games, where we can share the impact messages through game worlds and pertaining the unique entertainment value of games as a medium. Tipi will explain why this design approach was chosen at Punnu Games and illustrate in details how this is accomplished in the game Arrival of the Punnu.