Jeremy Spillmann

is a Game Designer, Lecturer, Collector and Speaker 

At the Zürich University of the Arts (ZHdK) he graduated in 2012 as one of the first designers of Switzerland with a Master of Arts in Game Design. His Masters project analyzed and implemented the possibilities of branding for independent games in open digital marketplaces, which culminated in the mini-games series FullColorPlanet. 

since 2014 he is the Creative Director & Co-Founder of Blindflug Studios, one of Switzerlands most recognized game studios. Within a year, Blindflug Studios was awarded Switzerlands most notable new ICT company, winning the SwissICT newcomer award. He also worked as a Game Designer for research groups, software companies and creative agencies.

Since 2016 he is Lecturer at SAE institute for Game Design & Conception as well as Game Business, teaching upcoming designers, artists and programmers insights into his experience of over 10 years of developing, showcasing and marketing games, so not everyone has to do that rocky quest themselves.

Jeremy is also a Collector of video games from early 90ies to today. His collection spans over 1600 games, which he regularly tries to slim down and fails. He is currently working on trying to complete the European Dreamcast Set and has successfully collected all European and Japanese Neo Geo Pocket Color games. Don’t ask him about them though, he wont shut up.

He is also a regular Speaker on industry insights at international game development Events such as, the Game Developers conference GDC in San Francisco, Gamescom Devcom Cologne Germany, Amaze Play Festival in Johannesburg South Africa, the Brazilian Independent Games Festival BIG Sao Paulo Brazil or GIC Conference Poznan Poland just to name a few.

If you are interested to get in touch, please do so with the form below

Media Selection

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Tages Anzeiger - “So wird die Steuererklährung zum Spiel”
Gamification explained applied on online taxes (2021)

SRF Kultur Kontext - “Wie Videospiele unsere Zeit prägen”
Games culture medium panel (2020)

SRF Digital - “Geek Sofa 146: Wie ist es für Apple zu arbeiten”
Fireside chat on being in Apple Arcade (2019)

NZZ am Sonntag “... und dann fliegt der Planet in die Luft”
full page studio feature on Stellar Commanders (2019)

SRF Digital - “Geek Sofa 89: Spielemacher und 2 Kracher”
Fireside chat on Airheart and console development (2018)

Berner Zeitung - “Spielentwickler in neuen Sphären”
Feature on Airhearts release and portrait (2018)

20 Minuten - “Die meisten Games rentieren nicht”
Article on game business and the industry state (2017)

SRF 10vor10 - “Abrüsten Gibt Punkte”
Prime time studio portrait about Blindflug (2015)

SRF Tagesschau - “Erstes Schweizer Game Festival”
first time on TV. Making the prediction there might be no smartphones in 5y. Yikes 😅 (2014)

Speaker Resumée

Game Festival Talks (Selection)

  • GDC Game Developers Conference - San Francisco USA
    Upholding studio creativity with ideation and prototyping (2024)

  • GIC Games Conference - Poznan Poland
    Remastering: First Strike and its 7 year road to Multiplayer (2021)

  • Devcom Gamescom - Cologne Germany
    Remastering for indies, how to keep your games going for years (2021)

  • Ludicious Game Festival - Zürich Switzerland
    Developing for consoles for indies, practical tips and tricks (2019)

  • GameZFestival - Zürich Switzerland
    Cloud Chasers and designing Serious Games (2016)

  • Brazilian Independent Games Festival - Sao Paolo Brazil
    The complete post-mortem of Cloud Chasers (2016)

  • Respawn Games Conference - Cologne Germany
    Airheart: Subversively making games with a message (2015)

  • Amaze Play Festival - Johannesburg South Africa
    How to use game mechanism to play the other side of the refugee crisis (2015)

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Input Talks (Selection)

  • Staatskantine Bern - Bern Switzerland
    How gamification could be used to make taxes fun (2020)

  • Ostschweizer Innovationstagung - St.Gallen Switzerland
    Do you understand fun? Games and ludo-narrative dissonance (2019) 

  • Swiss ICT Assembly - Zürich Switzerland
    The current state of the Swiss games industry and potential of eSports (2019)

  • Informatiksicherheitstagung des Bundes - Bern Switzerland
    Using role-reversals in video games for educational purposes (2019)

  • Pro Helvetia Stiftungsrat - Zürich Switzerland
    Presenting the Swiss industry overview to federal council president Alain Berset (2018)

  • Grafik18 Design Exhibition - Zürich Switzerland
    Comparison of different narrative systems in video games (2018)

  • GBS Swiss Interactive Media Design Day - St.Gallen Switzerland
    Designing for interactivity as a game developer (2016)

  • IMUC Music Managers Assembly - Usedom Germany
    The potential of artist branded games as companion pieces (2014)

Getting in contact

Are you Interested in talking about a potential speaker engagement, are you having use for gamification expertise, would you like to have me represent a game topic in the media or curious about anything related to game collecting?

I’d love to get in touch. Send me a message, the magical letter-mice will scurry the plains deliver it straight to my desk.

And in the meantime you can find me on Twitter with the link below.

Cheers and talk to you soon!
- Jeremy