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Websites
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http://www.kennyroy.com
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http://www.arconyx.com
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Activity
8K followers
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Kenny Roy posted thisIt’s a crazy feeling to see some of my students names now showing up in the animation supervisor or animation Director roles on films that I enjoy. If that’s you, know that I’m super proud!!!!
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Kenny Roy shared thisGame studios are giving away the most valuable media their games create. Only.Games helps them take it back. I’ll be at San Diego Comic-Con meeting with brands, publishers, and agencies who want a first look at a new advertising model built specifically for the streaming age. Only.Games turns live gameplay into brand-safe, sponsorable moments. Not pre-roll. Not mid-roll. Not banners pasted over content. Not ads that interrupt the thing people came to watch. Instead, Only.Games detects the high-value moments already happening inside live gameplay, then lets brands activate around those moments in ways that reward the streamer, reward the audience, and enhance the game experience. The larger shift is simple: Game developers and publishers create the worlds, characters, communities, and moments that power billions of hours of video content. The major video platforms monetize that attention. Only.Games is built to help games, creators, and brands participate in that value directly. For brands attending SDCC, this is a chance to see a live demo of an entirely new advertising paradigm: positive, contextual, moment-aware brand integration designed for gaming culture rather than forced into it. I’ll be taking a limited number of meetings in San Diego. #SDCC #SanDiegoComicCon #OnlyGames #GamingMarketing #BrandMarketing #Advertising #AdTech #GameIndustry #LiveStreaming #CreatorEconomy #GamingCreators #GameDevelopers #Publishers #ExperientialMarketing #BrandSafety
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Kenny Roy reposted thisKenny Roy reposted thisKenny Roy and I got together and completely rewrote the How To Cheat In Maya book for 2026. This book does cover many new Maya tools, but we really focused on common issues animation students experience. We focused on the How, Why, and When to use the tools and techniques when animating. I wanted to thank everyone who contributed to the book. And I hope you will check the book out. I recommend it as a robust resource for new animators or as a refresher for those of you who have been working for awhile.
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Kenny Roy reposted thisKenny Roy reposted thisDeadline this Saturday, May 23! Pop on over to Anomalia.eu and sign up for the Doug Sweetland directing workshop this July in gorgeous Bohemia! Laugh, learn, and love, y'all! #anomalia #animation #directing #czechia
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Kenny Roy reposted thisKenny Roy reposted thisThe animation industry is going through a deeper shift. Not only because of AI, but because of changes in financing, distribution, audience behavior, and the economics of production itself. That is why we keep asking what kind of professional growth still makes sense for artists today. For years, schools have often sold a comforting idea: study hard, finish the program, build a portfolio, and you will be ready for the industry. But even before the current layoffs, that promise was already shaky. The animation industry was never able to absorb everyone who wanted in. During the pandemic, some people mistook a temporary spike for a new normal. It was not. At ANOMALIA, this forced us to question ourselves too. Is classical training over? Does a place like ours still have a reason to exist? Do we need to pivot and simply teach AI tools to stay relevant? So far, after three years of AI in public space, our answer is no. What is becoming clearer is not the death of human value, but its concentration. Storytelling, authorship, art direction, taste, judgment, decision-making, and leadership are not becoming less important. They are becoming the center. And not as a solo skill, but a full package, ideally. AI did not erase the need for human direction. It exposed how essential it always was. That is why being only a good artist is no longer enough. More and more, artists will need to step up into wider creative responsibility: to understand story, make stronger choices, hold coherence, and carry projects beyond execution alone. At ANOMALIA, we are fortunate to discuss these questions with top professionals from the field as we keep searching for what artists truly need in order to remain relevant and survive. For a long time, many people could build careers in service roles without needing to think deeply about story, direction, taste, leadership, or authorship. A small group carried that responsibility. Now that burden is spreading. As tools get smarter, human value shifts upward: judgment, vision, creative direction, decision-making, responsibility, and the ability to lead a project into execution. Story was always hard. That does not become less true with better tools. It becomes more true. The real question is no longer only whether someone is talented enough. It is whether they can grow into a creator with a point of view, taste, resilience, and the discipline to make something matter. That is also why Anomalia is not for everybody. Because let's face it. Animation as a field is not for everybody. At Anomalia, we do not want to sell a romantic picture of the field. And we are not a school in the conventional sense. We are working professionals from animation and filmmaking sharing real experience with artists who want to grow in an environment shaped less like school and more like the actual pressures of the field. #ANOMALIA #Animation #CreativeEducation #Storytelling #AI #Leadership #ArtDirection #FutureOfWork
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Kenny Roy reposted thisKenny Roy reposted thisWe’ve never run a lab like the DIRECTING & COMEDY TRACK. We’ve run story labs where directors developed structure and worked with concept artists, creating a unique collaborative experience focused on the craft of studio storytelling. We’ve also run writing labs where writers experienced a real writers’ room and developed their stories. What excites me about Doug Sweetland’s course is that it does something different: it demystifies directing. I literally asked Doug to bring the hard-earned experience that shaped him through years of pain and suffering. It kills the romantic idea that directing is just about taste, opinions, and calling the shots. It shows what directing actually demands under pressure: decisions, clarity, leadership, communication, and responsibility. Don’t panic. Direct. And I think that matters now more than ever. That’s why I’m genuinely excited that we can finally offer a lab like this at ANOMALIA, not just to inspire people, but to expose them to the real thing before the role finds them. #ANOMALIA #Directing #Storytelling #CreativeLeadership #ComedyWriting
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Kenny Roy reposted thisKenny Roy reposted thisAI is not going anywhere ❌ But that doesn’t mean the end of artists. Listen to Tara Rueping’s take on this topic and tell us what you think. Do you agree? #ANOMALIA #AIArt #ArtDirection #VisualStorytelling #CreativeLeadership
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Kenny Roy reposted thisKenny Roy reposted thisDo you actually want to direct or just like the idea of being a director? If you were under pressure right now, could you actually direct? Coming up with the one and only Doug Sweetland #ANOMALIA #Directing #Animation #Storytelling #CreativeLeadership
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Kenny Roy reposted thisKenny Roy reposted thisThe collapse of old gatekeeping does not remove the need for quality. It shifts the burden of authorship onto the creator. The decline of old gatekeepers is not just a threat. It is also an invitation. But to use that freedom well, creators need to grow beyond execution and into authorship, direction, and creative leadership. #ANOMALIA #AnimationIndustry #Storytelling #CreativeLeadership #CreatorEconomy
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Kenny Roy liked thisSo incredibly thrilled to have Katie taking on this leadership role for Child’s Play and helping shape its bright bright future!Kenny Roy liked thisWe’re thrilled to welcome Katie Stone Perez as our new Executive Director! Katie joins Child’s Play after more than two decades at Xbox, where she played a pivotal role in launching and shaping programs that transformed how millions of people experience play, including Fuzion Frenzy, Xbox Live Arcade, Kinect, ID@Xbox, and Gaming For Everyone. Her career has been defined by a commitment to expanding access to play and building inclusive gaming communities. With a background in child psychology and personal experience navigating pediatric cancer within her own family, Katie brings a deep understanding of the emotional and therapeutic value of play. Her passion for supporting kids, combined with her industry expertise, makes her uniquely suited to lead Child’s Play into its next era of growth. “Play is a fundamental human need,��� said Perez. “I’ve seen firsthand how games can help children push past pain, connect with others, and find moments of joy even on the hardest days. Child’s Play has never shied away from the systemic challenges surrounding therapeutic play, and the team has built innovative, courageous programs that are reshaping pediatric care. I’m honored to help expand that impact.” In her new role, Katie will oversee Child’s Play’s hospital partnerships, therapeutic gaming initiatives, research investments, and community engagement efforts. She will also guide the organization’s strategic development as it continues to grow its network hospitals worldwide. “We are thrilled to welcome Katie to Child’s Play,” said the Board of Directors. “Her leadership, creativity, and deep commitment to children’s wellbeing will strengthen our mission and help ensure that more pediatric patients experience the healing power of play.”
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Kenny Roy liked thisI did a podcast with our local startup community Caffeine Daily about New Zealand's billion-dollar video games industry and RocketWerkz's journey as a hi-tech digital creative company - talking about platforms, agentic coding, exporting and space kittens.Kenny Roy liked thisWhen NZ Hi-Tech Awards winning Auckland game studio RocketWerkz launched their title Icarus on Steam, it hit number one. Steam handled currencies, tax, and some customer support, and put the game in front of players around the world. It also took 30% of everything from launch week, and the customer data. "I don't know my customers' names," COO Stephen Knightly told Courteney. "I don't have a direct relationship with them." So for its newest game, Kitten Space Agency, RocketWerkz is going direct. There are 50,000 engaged players in its Discord, playing an early version of the game and telling the team what they think. A good number of them work at actual space agencies. The result: real rocket scientists giving feedback on a game about rocket science. The full episode is a bite-sized Grounds Up special from the inaugural NZ Tech Expo, the perfect length for a coffee break ☕ Listen wherever you get your podcasts: https://lnkd.in/e8uK6YUs Watch: https://caffeinedaily.co/ Read: https://lnkd.in/e7AhjktM
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Kenny Roy liked thisKenny Roy liked thisAfter an incredible journey, I’m wrapping up the best project I’ve ever worked on, with some of the most amazing and talented people in the world. No conflicts. No issues. No sleepless nights. Just incredible humans doing incredible things, learning from each other, growing together, and changing the world for the better. As one chapter closes, another begins. And I’m excited to reach out to this amazing network of the best people in the world as I look for my next adventure. Because apparently nobody gets fired, nobody quits, no project ever goes sideways, and nothing ever just… ends. We’re all just “wrapping up an incredible journey,” “looking for the next adventure,” and, of course, we’re all “just amazing.” Anyway. Riding the LinkedIn wave.
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Kenny Roy liked thisKenny Roy liked thisThis is the kind of news I like to see. Over $2B went into new gaming-focused funds last quarter. Investors also deployed $2.5B across 96 private rounds, the highest total in a year, plus 51 M&A deals, all while public gaming stocks stayed under pressure. That’s a good sign. As fewer companies stay or will go public, private valuations can trend higher than the market. 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴-𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗤𝟮 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲: - Shamrock Capital: $813M, Content Strategy Fund 3 (media, gaming, creator economy) - Kenseī Capital Group: $500M, early-stage fund (entertainment, games, tech) - Yolo Investments: $250M, Series A-C fund (fintech, crypto, gaming) - Nexon America: $162.2M, five-year investment program for early-stage game developers - Griffin: $100M, project financing fund for indie games - Firstpoint VC: $57M, AI-driven gaming and entertainment (Türkiye, Eastern Europe, SE Asia, Central Asia) - DENMU: $50M, games-only fund backing projects from indie to AAA - UK Games Talent and Finance Community Interest Company: $38.7M, non-profit fund for seed-stage UK gaming companies - AMF Capital AG | Asset Management Frankfurt: $28M, user acquisition fund - vgames: $10M, project financing fund for indie games - SUPERFAST: $8.1M, seed-stage indie gaming fund 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀: The total is one thing. But who’s raising these funds is more interesting. Several were built by people who spent years inside the games industry before raising capital dedicated to it. They know the business of games from the inside, and now they are funding the next wave. Three of them, Griffin Gaming Partners, Denmu, and vgames, are specifically project financing vehicles for indie games. Project financing backs a specific game, and the fund takes a share of that game's revenue instead of equity. Yes it’ll be expensive, similar to debt, but your cap table stays clean. It’s picking up steam and a lot of studio founders are not aware of that option yet. Worth knowing your options go beyond "who do I pitch for equity." Source: Drake Star Global Gaming Report, Q2 2026
Experience & Education
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November Games
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Publications
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Finish Your Film!
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Sam's Teach Yourself Maya in 24 Hours
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How To Cheat in Maya 2014
See publicationAll professional animators know a handful of secrets that give them an edge in a production environment. "How to Cheat in Maya" puts these secrets in your hands! Learn time and energy saving techniques tested in real Hollywood productions in this book, jam-packed with screenshots and scene files designed to get you up to speed quickly.
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How to Cheat in Maya 2013: Tools and Techniques for Character Animation
Focal Press
All professional animators know a handful of secrets that give them an edge in a production environment. "How to Cheat in Maya" puts these secrets in your hands! Learn time and energy-saving techniques tested in real Hollywood productions in this book, jam-packed with screenshots and scene files designed to get you up to speed quickly.
Other authors -
How to Cheat in Maya 2012
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All professional animators know a handful of secrets that give them an edge in a production environment. "How to Cheat in Maya" puts these secrets in your hands! Learn time and energy saving techniques tested in real Hollywood productions in this book, jam-packed with screenshots and scene files designed to get you up to speed quickly.
Other authors
Projects
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Finding Bigfoot
- Present
Honors & Awards
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Gaming for Everyone Award
Microsfot
Recipient of the Gaming for Everyone Award for my work on "I, Hope", an upcoming XBox One title designed for children battling cancer, and 100% donated to GameChanger Charity.
Languages
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Spanish
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Geo Applied Realities
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The Geo AR Games team recently visited EarthFest, Aotearoa New Zealand’s annual STEM festival dedicated to the Earth sciences. At our stand, we invited people to try What’s the Plan, Stan? and our NIWA Earth science games, using hands-on play to explore what to do when floods rise, lightning strikes, or earthquakes rumble. By turning real hazards into interactive choices, the focus was on practical preparedness and building community resilience through play. Earth Sciences New Zealand Auckland War Memorial Museum University of Canterbury National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake
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Creative HQ
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Ready, player one? 🎮 Announcing Creative Tech Activate: Aotearoa’s first programme designed to accelerate the next wave of creative tech startups. 🎬 Wellington is a global creative tech powerhouse - home to leaders in game development, VFX, animation, digital entertainment and software engineering. Now, we’re supporting the people ready to build what comes next. This pre-accelerator is the first step in creating a stronger Creative Tech pipeline for Wellington in 2026 and beyond - backing early-stage founders in games development digital tech software to fast-track ideas, validate markets and connect our ecosystem. 💫 All backed by WellingtonNZ and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Even more exciting, Creative Tech Activate has brought on advisors from PikPok, Beyond, Squirrelball and Goldilocks Productions - bringing real-world creative tech expertise to early-stage founders. 🕹️ This is your space to play and learn. Take the first step to bring your creative tech vision to life. ▶️ Press start → https://lnkd.in/gHAYY_9m
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Frosty Games
273 followers
We’re back for 2026! 🍦 Before we dive into announcements for what's to come, we’re taking a moment to introduce and thank our official sponsors for the coming year: CODE NZ - New Zealand Centre of Digital Excellence and Strange Scaffold 🎉 CODE is New Zealand’s Centre of Digital Excellence for game development, helping indie game studios with grant funding, wrap-around mentorship, capability work, and supporting pathways into the games industry. Find out more at nz-code.nz Strange Scaffold is a games studio committed to making great games consistently, and taking care of the people who make them. Their latest game, Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator is out now! You can buy it! On Steam and on Xbox X|S. Short that baby! We hope you’ll continue to support Frosty Games and our official partners this year, as we work together to help you discover the coolest games made in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand 💙
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Tim Millard
Road Burn Games • 3K followers
Excited to share our latest Burnout Masters update, packed with new content and features. This release brings together new content, deeper progression systems, and a meaningful expansion of the core player experience: - Continued our collaboration with NZ events welcoming GHOST, the Burnout Bully from NZ - Celebrating a world class Aussie builder with Jay Duca’s wild quad-rotor WAS5.0 “Low Standards” build - Big rotary focus with new stock rotary cars for players to build and customise - Introduction of “Rolling Shells” — a new progression layer unlocked through missions - Expansion of the Suburbs free roam map with a brand new Port Industrial area - Day/Night cycle added to enhance immersion and replay ability - Lot's more that we wait for players to discover! For us, this update is about more than just adding cars, it’s about continuing to evolve the Burnout Masters game into a deeper, more engaging platform for car culture. Massive credit to the Road Burn Games team for pushing this one out, and to the community that continues to drive what we build next. #gamedevelopment #gamedev #carculture
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Jair McBain
Midnighters • 2K followers
Having worked with this excellent group of humans, I can heartily reccomend DPC as an excellent company to spend your time with. A marketing focused artist is a rare position in the games industry and I am sure this will be a very impactful and visibile role, in which your artwork can shine and reach a very wide audience.
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NZ On Air
5K followers
A major milestone for New Zealand game developer Snickerdoodle Games. Just weeks after launching on Steam, Sludgineers has already surpassed 100,000 sales and earned a "Very Positive" rating from players. Snickerdoodle Games is one of the Aotearoa studios supported through NZ On Air's Game Development Sector Rebate (GDSR), which helps game studios invest, grow and compete in an increasingly global industry. Its game Sludgineers is a physics-based puzzle game where players team up as blue-collar technicians to pipe, pump and patch volatile hazardous waste through unstable industrial factories. Snickerdoodle's achievement is just another example of the strength of New Zealand's games sector, where locally developed IP is reaching audiences worldwide and creating new opportunities for sustainable growth. "NZ On Air's backing was instrumental in bringing our latest project to life," the Snickerdoodle team shared. "We are incredibly grateful for the ongoing support." Congratulations to Snickerdoodle Games, and to publisher Funk Games, on an outstanding result. It's great to see another New Zealand success story making its mark on the world stage. #NZOnAir #GDSR #GameDevelopment #CreativeIndustries #snickerdoodlegames #NZGames
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Dr. Johnson Witehira
Massey University • 5K followers
I've been thinking a lot about the difference between inspiration and appropriation in game development. It's an issue that continues to surface in our industry and one that matters deeply in Aotearoa where culture carries histories, responsibilities and relationships. There's a long tradition of games drawing on Indigenous cultures. Sometimes this is handled with care. Other times it is handled with very little understanding of where cultural imagery and ideas come from and who they belong to. Māori culture in particular is too often treated as something to steal from. Treating our taonga tuku iho as simply elements to decorate fantasy worlds. When this happens it creates more than visual inaccuracy. It erases context. It disconnects design from the people it comes from and replaces living stories with new fictional ones. As game developers in NZ we have a responsibility to do better. Our creative work takes place in a country where Te Ao Māori is not optional inspiration but part of the fabric of this place. Over the past two months I have been looking closely at an example of this issue in a major New Zealand game. I will be sharing more on Friday morning, including some specific comparisons that speak for themselves. This is an important kōrero for our industry, especially now, with a booming game sector and growing government investment. If Aotearoa is serious about building a world-leading Game-dev ecosystem, then we need clear guidance for how developers can draw inspiration from these worlds without taking from them. That means knowing how to engage properly with the people who hold our reo, our mātauranga, and our Toi Māori, and creating processes that support respectful, collaborative, and culturally grounded design. More on Friday morning...
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Ayla Derrick
Cave Bear Games • 22K followers
New Zealand should be on your radar, and here is why: I have the absolute pleasure to be attending the NZGDC again this year, run impeccably by the New Zealand Game Developers Association (NZGDA). Every year at this event, the organization release their famous State of the Industry Report. This big year of 2026 is a notable one, especially when compared to the global games industry. This year the NZ games industry hit 1 BILLION NZD in reveanue. This is a first for the country in this sector and continues a trend of impressive growth year over year. 95% of this money is coming from overseas and into the NZ economy (minus publisher fees and whatnot but let's focus on the positive). This number has been growing for nearly a decade (probably more) but has been invigorated over the last 3 years by the Game Development Sector Rebate, a 20% government backed rebate for game studios in NZ. The introduction of the GDSR has had a direct impact on the success of the industry. But that's not all. While the rest of the world is plauged by layoffs and numerous studio closures on the back of more studio closures, with decades of culture and experience lost - NZ experienced only one studio closure during the entire 2025 year. The loss of jobs was equal to roughly 150 developers. Now in a country of around 5 million, this was a depressing blow - but compared to North America, Europe, and the rest of the world, these numbers are miniscule and impressive. New Zealand seems to be faring well in these hard times. Clearly NZ is doing something right. As I continue to work with and mentor numerous young indie studios, I hope to learn exactly how NZ and it's studios (all of which are indies except like one) have succeeded in this hard market, and bring those learning back to the indies of the future.
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RUSH
9K followers
It's time to get behind the gaming industry in Aotearoa (if you haven't already!) Sam Ramlu and Euge Eastlake joined us to discuss the rising tide of the games industry in NZ, and as the founders / creatives behind game and tech studios Mighty Eyes, Mad Carnival (NZ), and Method (NZ) they bring a lot of experience and passion to the table. We also got into the importance of community in gaming, the way new tech and hardware has helped games evolve and what GenAI is doing to their industry. But for those insights, you'll have to watch or listen: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4k1Ge4V Spotify: https://bit.ly/49KDvte Youtube: https://bit.ly/4jWJv5i #HumanInTheLoopPodcast Alaina Luxmoore Hamish Friedlander
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Jessica Manins
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We’ve put thousands of young people through VR. We've watched them duck, dive, and drip with sweat all with a smile on their faces 🏃➡️ When Sport Waikato put out a call for innovative ways to get kids moving, it made sense to take everything we’ve learned and build gamefit® We did the research to back it up, and then we launched our programme. It's now in over ten high schools across New Zealand! We’ve just published a white paper detailing our research, the physiological baselines, and how active gaming is changing the game for youth fitness. The link is in the comments 👇
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