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OUR SPEAKERS
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Lydia Dover is a game developer and programmer at Unity, as well as a board member of GameIS, the Israeli Digital Games Industry Association. She focuses on gameplay programming, playable experiences, and the intersection between technology, design, and games as an artistic medium.
Alongside her professional work, Lydia founded GameDevelopHer, an initiative dedicated to increasing the number of women entering programming roles within the game industry. Through teaching, mentorship, and community work, she actively helps bridge the gap between aspiring developers and the professional ecosystem, supporting new voices entering the field.
Lydia is passionate about games not only as products, but as cultural and emotional experiences that shape how people connect, tell stories, and explore ideas. She regularly speaks about development processes, industry perspectives, and building inclusive pathways into game creation, bringing both technical insight and a grounded industry view to her talks.
Lydia Dover
Game Developer
English, Hebrew
Languages:
Location:
Yokne'am Illit, Israel
Can also give an online talk/webinar
Paid only. Contact speaker for pricing!
MY TALKS
Irregular Games: Breaking the Mold of Traditional Game Design
Inspirational, Innovation, Design, Diversity and Inclusion, UX / UI
What happens when games stop following traditional design rules?
In this talk, game developer Lydia Dover explores “irregular games” - titles that challenge conventional definitions of gameplay, narrative, and player experience. From emotionally driven narratives and philosophical mechanics to non-linear storytelling and unconventional player agency, these games push beyond entertainment into cultural, artistic, and psychological territory.
Drawing on examples such as Getting Over It, Undertale, The Stanley Parable, and works from Harvester Games, the session examines how constraints, player interpretation, and design subversion create deeply meaningful experiences. Through a developer’s lens, Lydia discusses how technical and design decisions shape emotional outcomes, and why embracing irregularity can lead to more impactful and memorable games.
This talk offers both theoretical insight and practical perspective for developers, designers, and anyone interested in games as a creative medium that reflects and challenges the world around us.
Game Development: The Science of Fun
Software Engineering, UX / UI, Design, Innovation, Inspirational, Frontend
Why does one game feel flat, while another feels alive?
In this talk, Lydia Dover breaks down the mechanics behind “game feel” - the invisible yet essential layer that turns basic interaction into something satisfying, responsive, and emotionally engaging. Drawing from real development experience and examples ranging from classic platformers to modern action titles, she explores how input, feedback, physics, camera, sound, and micro-interactions combine to create the sensation players describe simply as “fun.”
The session dives into key concepts such as responsiveness, momentum, friction, feedback loops, emotional framing, and polish - not as abstract theory, but as practical design and engineering tools. Lydia examines how small technical decisions - a 0.01-second pause, a camera shake, a sound cue, a particle burst - can dramatically amplify player satisfaction.
This talk is aimed at developers who want to better understand the relationship between code and emotion, and how to intentionally design interactive systems that feel alive rather than mechanical. Because fun isn’t random - it’s engineered.
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Game Development: The Science of Fun
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