EVENT, GALLERY TALK
IndieCade East 2015 (Day One)
Ongoing
Throughout the weekend, IndieCade East attendees may visit the Game Showcase, featuring more than 30 playable games, including IndieCade 2014 award-winners; the e-Sports showcase and exhibitor showcases noted below; while also exploring the Museum’s other galleries. (Links to purchase passes are at the bottom of this page.)
Conference Schedule (for Friday, February 13)
Keynote: Play Design and the Opposite of Boredom
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (Redstone Theater)
Gonzalo Frasca makes math games at okidOkO, focusing on subjects that students find most frustrating. If school is a video game, it has awful tutorials, terrible level design, and the meanest, greediest, most conservative boss monster ever. Gonzalo Frasca offers tips for fighting it.
Workshop: Law 101 for Indie Developers
12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. (Fox Amphitheater)
Chris Reid combines his legal experience and analysis with a keen understanding of the games industry to give developers an overview of the main legal questions and issues they will encounter running or being part of a game studio. Participants will create a hypothetical game studio and walk through the legal issues that arise at the different phases of its business, from founding the company, to publishing multiple titles.
Software and Hardware in Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe
12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Bartos Screening Room)
James Anaipakos is a writer and designer who focuses on user interactions, the history of software, and contemporary technology. He discusses the hardware, software, and video games of post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe from the 1980s through the 2000s with a focus on non-normative uses and aesthetics.
Staying in Tune: The Importance of Creating a Dialogue about Consent
12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Redstone Theater)
Members of Tweed Couch Games discuss the context, intent, and challenges of making In Tune, a game about consent. Allison Cole coordinates mLab, a game research lab at Concordia University. Jessica Rose Marcotte holds a Masters in Creative Writing from Concordia University and is the managing editor of Matrix Magazine. Zachary Miller is a game designer and hacker-minded individual who helped create the Winnitron SK, a communal indie arcade cabinet.
Becoming Play Fluent: Building Global Interaction
1:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Bartos Screening Room)
Joe Spradley spent the last four years living and working in Seoul, South Korea where he led a team to create Tower Defense, became Creative Co-Director of Com2us, and created PlayFluent to help create awareness for Korean games and independent developers. He delves into the challenges Korean independent developers face and their increasing relevance in a global game market.
Subverting Toxic Let’s Play Culture: Inclusivity, Safe Spaces, and Fourplay Show
1:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Redstone Theater)
After a feminist analysis of the personalities and communities of some of the more popular Let’s Play-style programming (including Achievement Hunter and PewDiePie), Matt Albrecht, host of the YouTube show Fourplay, will discuss the need for more inclusive gameplay shows and how he’s creating a safe space on his own show.
Workshop: Crowdfunding: Best Practices for Indie Game Devs
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. (Fox Amphitheater)
Learn about preparing, launching, and reaching (or not reaching) a crowdfunding campaign goal. Crowdfunding isn’t all about the money; it’s about building a rich community invested in your future success. Shawn Alexander Allen is a game designer, artist, and writer. Rachel Presser runs point-and-click adventure game outfit Himalaya Studios. Moderated by Dan Butchko.
Workshop: Developing and Publishing on PlayStation
2:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. (Fox Amphitheater)
Learn how to develop and publish on PlayStation platforms. Brian Silva is an Account Executive in the Developer Relations Group and manages the Pub Fund Program at Sony Computer Entertainment of America. Nick Suttner is the Lead Account Manager at Sony Computer.
Save the World, the Girl, or Your Soul? Underused Conflict Types in Narrative Games
3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Bartos Screening Room)
In most narrative games, players go on a hero’s journey to save the universe or rescue some form of damsel in distress. Francisco Gonzalez highlights games that use other forms of conflict and examines why these are not as common.Gonzalez has been developing point and click adventure games with Adventure Game Studio since 2001. He works for Wadjet Eye Games and is best known for his 8-part freeware saga Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator.
Video Game Art and the Artistic Legitimation of Video Games
3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Redstone Theater)
Sofia Romualdo is a contemporary art curator and researcher investigating video games as an art form. She offers a historical perspective on video game art, tracing its influence on the artistic legitimation of the video game medium.
A 21st Century Digital Art Manifesto
3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Redstone Theater)
Liz Ryerson is an independent game designer, composer, writer, and digital artist. She explores ways to escape the insular values of internet subcultures to engage with cultural issues on a broader level while preserving what is unique new tools and forms of expression available to game designers.
Storytelling in Games and Musical Theatre: Not So Different?
3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Bartos Screening Room)
Game designers and composers grapple with similar challenges when applying their craft to traditional authored narratives. Mike Lazer-Walker looks at some parallels between contemporary games and musicals, to see what game designers and musical theatre writers can learn from each other. Lazer-Walker is a game designer, artist, and programmer with a background in directing and composing for musical theatre.
Workshop: Unlocking International Markets with Google Play
3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Fox Amphitheater)
Koh Kim is a Business Development Manager for Google Play Games where she leads international market strategy and industry influencer outreach. She discusses how developers can expand into international marks by taking advantage of the growing mobile gaming ecosystem using Google Play’s open platform.
Hardware, Software, People, Games
4:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Bartos Screening Room)
Alex Fleetwood is a game designer, creative director, entrepreneur, and founder of game studio Hide&Seek. He sketches out what a modern arcade might look like and speculates on a future network of arcades that addresses the challenges that makers face and bridges the gap between their work and wider community.
Initiate F**kplan: Consent, Intimacy, and the Future of Sex and Games
4:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Redstone Theater)
Independent designers are exploring new directions in sex and games. Cara Ellison and merritt kopas consider issues around consent, intimacy, and what is to come.Ellison speaks and writes on games and pop culture for The Guardian and Rock Paper Shotgun. kopas is a game designer, runs the alternative games website forest ambassador, and is currently editing Videogames for Humans, an anthology of Twine games.
Workshop: Meet the Press: Game Journalists Discuss Indie Games and What it Takes to Get Noticed
4:45 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. (Fox Amphitheater)
Nick Capozzoli (Gamespot), Sara Clemens (Videodame), Ben Gilber (Engadget), Harold Goldberg, and Chelsea Stark (Mashable) discuss the best independent games of 2014 and how game makers can better pitch their games to publications and websites.
Independent Doesn’t Have to Mean Alone: How to Build a Local Indie Community from Scratch
5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Bartos Screening Room)
Carol Mertz is a partner at independent game studio Happy Badger Studio, chairperson of the St. Louis IGDA chapter, and co-organizer of PixelPop Festival. She explains how the St. Louis game development community was able to grow from just a few members to more than 200 in less than three years, improving both the quality and quantity of games produced by members of the local community.
The Great Game Design Debate
5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (Redstone Theater)
Is there a difference between a game’s mechanic and its content? Mattie Brice, Naomi Clark, Mohini Dutta, and Nick Fortugno, with Leigh Alexander as moderator, hash out one of the great questions facing games today. Leigh Alexander is a critic, writer, and consultant on the art, business and culture of video games. Mattie Brice is a culture critic and game designer, focusing on play, political queerness and illegibility, and social justice advocacy. Naomi Clark is an independent game designer and teaches game design at the NYU Game Center, the School of Visual Arts, and the New York Film Academy. Mohini Dutta is the Co-Founder and Narrative Strategist at Antidote Games, where she occupies the intersection between games, culture, and storytelling. Nick Fortugno is a game designer and entrepreneur of digital and real-world games and a founder of Playmatics.
Let’s Build More Grassroots Game Development Communities
6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (Bartos Screening Room)
For more than two years, The Sheep’s Meow has supported the growth of an active community that includes developers, students, and educators from both sides of the New Jersey/New York City border, with growing racial and gender diversity. They host free events, showcase locally developed games, and run introductory level workshops. Brian S. Chung and GJ Lee share their successes and failures in promoting diversity and inclusiveness and offer a grassroots community “starter kit.”
View the complete IndieCade East schedule here.
eSports Showcase
Play new competitive games or cheer along as commentators narrate the exciting action. Tournaments all weekend long will crown champions of the indie videosports of tomorrow.
Exhibitor Showcase
Play new independent titles made for the Sony PlayStation 4, Vita and the Nintendo Wii U; experiment with some of Facebook’s recent releases; try new games coming out of independent studio JunkLatch, Long Island University, and the NYU Game Center.
Order IndieCade East Passes:
Day Pass (Friday, February 13): $45 ($35 students/seniors/Museum members at the Film Lover level and above)
Full Festival Pass (Friday–Sunday access): $125 ($100 students/seniors/Museum members at the Film Lover level and above)
IndieCade East scheduled talks and workshops have limited capacity and are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Pass holders are not guaranteed admission to all programs.
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