Asi Burak
Asi Burak is a video game creator who works with interactive media to increase social awareness, civic engagement and promote positive social change.
Asi is the creator of PeaceMaker, a game in which players are assigned a government role in the simulated Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a common goal—to create peace. “There is nothing more challenging than expressing empathy for the other side, especially when your side is under attack,” says Asi. Distributed in over 60 countries including Israel and the West Bank, the game has generated awareness and empathy among players, many of them students.
In 2016, Asi founded Power Play, a media consulting agency creating interactive portfolios for entertainment and media firms. Previously, Asi served as President of Games for Change, the leading organization supporting digital games for social good for five years, and was the executive producer for the Half the Sky Movement games (based on the bestselling book by Pulitzer Prize winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn).
Asi is a former captain in Israeli Defense Forces, faculty at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon and the Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem.