Trevin York

Founder & Director

About

Trevin has spent over a decade collaborating with talented teams to make games and other interactive experiences focused on effecting lasting change. As Lead Game Designer at Mindblown Labs, Trevin worked with financial institutions, non-profits, and educational organizations to help lead people toward enduring financial wellness. As the founder of Dire Lark, Trevin works with organizations ranging from tech startups to game studios to international firms, bringing game design techniques and processes to projects aiming for real-world positive impacts across a variety of contexts. Trevin has a master’s in design for change from the University of Edinburgh, where he researched, designed, and developed multidisciplinary design interventions addressing wickedly complex social, technical, and environmental problems. His latest work builds on these studies, focusing on the research and design of pro-environmental impact games and interventions. Trevin is a co-author of the IGDA Climate SIG’s Environmental Game Design Playbook and a nonresident senior fellow with the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center.

Country

United Kingdom

City

Edinburgh

Industry

Computer Games

Skill

Game Design, Scripting, Level Design, Unreal Editor, Game Development, Teaching, Maya, Video Games, Computer Games, User Interface Design, Animation, Gameplay, Unity3D, Unreal Engine 3, Environment Art, Photoshop, Art

Experience

Founder & Director

Dire Lark

2023-1 - Present · 3 yrs 9 mos

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

www.direlark.co.uk | Dire Lark is a game design for change studio. In addition to internal projects, we co-design and develop with game studios and "serious" organizations alike craft compelling, impactful, playful experiences.

Head of Game Design

TRAKID

2020-11 - Present · 5 yrs 11 mos

Responsibilities include: Defining, designing, developing and iterating on the TRAKID Explorer Quest and CheQRboard products with the TRAKID team. Developing and implementing processes that ensure the game experience supports the goals of the broader product, organization, and partner institutions while also being really fun for families who play it. Communicating product vision to potential partners. Supporting existing partners with materials, design direction, and training so that they feel comfortable producing and maintaining game content that aligns with and enhances their existing guest experience.

Lead Game Designer

Mindblown Labs

2011-4 - 2020-11 · 9 yrs 8 mos

We design and build games and other interactive experiences that positively impact players and users in a meaningful, measurable way. Shipped titles include: Thrive 'n' Shine Future Tense Bite of Reality

Conversation Assistant

The Community of Madrid

2017-9 - 2018-6 · 10 mos

Madrid, Spain

I developed and taught original English, History, and Art classes or supported a lead teacher's lessons for a total of 16 hours each week at an Institute in the Community of Madrid. I worked very closely with the teachers to whom I was assigned to support and grow the abilities of beginner, intermediate, and advanced level English speaker students.

Lead Instructor and Curriculum Designer

Digital Media Academy

2012-7 - 2017-6 · 5 yrs

Stanford, CA

• Teach 40-hour summer courses: intro and intermediate level gameplay programming, using Python, C++, and C#. • Manage and mentor Teaching Assistants. • Develop and maintain a targeted classroom experience that engages, educates, and supports classes of students with widely varied global, cultural, technological, and socioeconomic backgrounds. • Design, develop, and write game programming and design curricula used nation-wide. • Design and develop online programming and game programming courses with video and interactive content, ensuring the launched project is a well-paced, fun experience.

Citizen Teacher

Citizen Schools

2012-9 - 2012-12 · 4 mos

Redwood City

Taught middle schoolers math and programming for a semester, with a focus on teaching math in the context of things it can actually be used for, so that students could immediately explore the power of the things they were learning.