It's your last chance to grab the LudoNarraCon Supporter Pack! The Supporter Pack will be going offline on June 4, but it's 20% off until then! Don't miss out on the chance to pick up Cyrano, an exclusive game commissioned by Popcannibal, developers of Kind Words, the adaption of the classic stage play. The Supporter Pack also includes wallpapers and a soundtrack from LudoNarraCon 2021 Exhibitors! Pick up the LudoNarraCon Supporter Pack only on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1548650/LudoNarraCon_Supporter_Pack_featuring_Cyrano/

[ 2021-05-31 13:24:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Cyrano is a tragicomedy, but there was just a touch of extra, unintended tragedy that we have removed with this update. And as a bonus we've added in a Save/Load game system! Now if you quit the game, your place in the story will automatically be saved and you will be able to continue from where you left off. Revolutionary! Let's see other games do THAT! Full release notes:

• Your progress is saved when you quit.
• Explicit save wipe option in settings menu.
• Fixed throwing a card never killing more than one enemy.
• Fixed throwing a card damaging dead enemies.
• Fixed issues quitting during a battle.
• Fixed game crash after collecting every card.

[ 2021-04-24 22:49:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

Dan and Kelsey have an informal chat about their time in the games industry and the projects they've worked on.

Speakers

Kelsey Beachum Kelsey is a game writer and narrative designer. She's best known for her narrative work on the BAFTA- and other-award-winning space adventure game Outer Wilds (2019), for which she was named a 2019 Nebula Award finalist. You might also know her as one of the narrative designers from The Outer Worlds DLC. If the similarity of those titles confuses you, dont worry she's confused about how this happened, too. Dan McPhee Programmer and designer and doer of all the things, currently for Obsidian Entertainment.

[ 2021-04-23 08:22:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

Kim and Fahmi have an informal chat about their time in the games industry and the projects they've worked on.

Speakers

Kim Belair Kim Belair is a writer, narrative designer and co-founder of Sweet Baby Inc, a narrative development company based in Montreal. Part of the games industry since 2013, she's worked with companies including Ubisoft, Rocksteady, Insomniac, KO_OP, Valve, and JuVee Productions to bring games and stories to life. Beyond narrative work, Kim is an advocate for representation and inclusion, and is currently leading an initiative aimed at supporting, training and empowering marginalized developers. Find her everywhere @Bagelofdeath. Mohammad Fahmi Fahmi is an indie game developer, consultant, and freelance writer based in Jakarta, Indonesia. He was the chief editor of a local Indonesian game media, Tech in Asia Games, and was the writer and game designer of Coffee Talk and What Comes After. He's currently working on a new game (do I need to mention with whom?) while trying to get more Indonesian games known to the world.

[ 2021-04-23 08:16:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

Colin and Ziba have an informal chat about their time in the games industry and the projects they've worked on.

Speakers

Colin Campbell Colin Campbell has been writing professionally about games for more than three decades, including stints at IGN, The Guardian, Polygon, Edge, and Next Generation. He is currently the author of daily newsletter How Games are Changing the World. www. howgameschangetheworld.com Ziba Scott Ziba Scott calls himself Popcannibal and lounges around Boston making games that explore the lines between fantasy and meaningful actions. And sillier stuff too. His decade as an indie has been full of original games, contract work and friends. Also awards: BAFTA for Games Beyond Entertainment, IndieCade Europe Grand Prix and nominations for The Game Awards, Independent Games Festival and the Unity Awards.

[ 2021-04-23 08:11:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

Davionne and Laura have an informal chat about their time in the games industry and the projects they've worked on.

Speakers

Davionne Gooden Davionne Gooden is a Cleveland-based game developer, filmmaker, photographer, and creative director at Studio Zevere. He is currently hard at work on his studios debut title "She Dreams Elsewhere", set to release for PC and consoles in 2021. He aims to tell stylish, culturally-relevant, and emotionally-rich stories from new perspectives, while empowering others to express their own creative voice. So come on in, relax, and enjoy your stay! Laura Michet Laura Michet is a writer and editor who has works for Riot Games during the day and on indie games at night. She is currently working on Skin Deep by Blendo Games.

[ 2021-04-23 08:05:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

Brooke and Greg have an informal chat about their time in the games industry and the projects they've worked on.

Speakers

Brooke Maggs Brooke Maggs an award-winning narrative designer who has worked onControl,The Gardens Between,PaperbarkandFlorence. She works as a Senior Narrative Designer at Remedy Entertainment. Outside of games, she is a published author, writes about the digital and traditional literature, and tends to her succulents in cute pots. www.brookemaggs.com Greg Kavasin Greg Kasavin is writer and creative director at Supergiant Games, the small independent studio behind Hades, Pyre, Transistor, and Bastion. Prior to Supergiant, he worked at 2K Games, Electronic Arts, and GameSpot.

[ 2021-04-23 08:00:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

Sam and Natalie have an informal chat about their time in the games industry and the projects they've worked on.

Speakers

Sam Barlow Sam Barlow is the founder of Half Mermaid Productions and best known as a director and writer of games that push the boundaries of interactive narrative. With Silent Hill: Shattered Memories he created a classic that psychologically profiled its players and in Her Story he reinvented the detective genre for the YouTube generation. In 2019 he released his most ambitious title yet, the investigative thriller Telling Lies. He is currently working on a mystery project about cinema and death. Natalie Watson Associate Producer at Half Mermaid. Formerly of Waypoint VICE.

[ 2021-04-23 07:54:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

Designer Greg Lobanov (Chicory, Wandersong) takes a look at how characters and story can be leveraged to solve age-old game design problems.

Speaker

Greg Lobanov Greg Lobanov is a game designer from Philadelphia living in Vancouver, Canada. He likes making colorful, whimsical adventure games in Game Maker and has been doing so for over 10 years now. Projects include Chicory: A Colorful Tale, Wandersong and many others.

[ 2021-04-22 12:41:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

Charles Cecil, renown developer for Revolution Software, 40 years has developed titles across all formats and has dedicated his time towards the ever growing field of narrative in video games. From turn of the century Paris to the far fetched future where A.I must be subverted, there are no subjects that he's not thought about, or written about.

Speaker

Charles Cecil Charles Cecil MBE Industry Legend has 40 years experience in games. In 1990 he founded Revolution, today one of the worlds leading adventure game companies. Charles, is a BAFTA Cymru award winner for BBCs Doctor Who games, and was nominated for a Writers Guild award for Broken Sword - The Angel of Death. He Executive Produced Sonys The Da Vinci Code game, and Robert Zemeckis Christmas Carol. Charles sits on the Screen Yorkshire Boards and has been a visiting lecturer at York University and NFTS.

[ 2021-04-22 12:39:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

Tune in for an overview of the work we've been doing at Flavourworks to innovate new storytelling technologies and design philosophies, starting with our debut experiment "ERICA" and leading to increasing ambitions over 2021.

Speaker

Jack Attridge Jack Attridge is Creative Director and co-founder of Flavourworks, a digital entertainment studio based in London. Jacks career spans across studios such as EA, Rebellion, Mind Candy, and 22cans. In 2015 he setup Flavourworks to realise his vision for a new form of interactive storytelling. The studios breakthrough design and technology has gained support from some of the industrys biggest names. Their first title ERICA, an interactive live action drama, launched in 2019 for PS4, and 2021 for iOS.

[ 2021-04-22 12:37:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

So you want to break into narrative design & writing for games. Awesome! Where do you start? Tune into this 15-minute blitz where we'll lay out the roadmap to get you making games, building a portfolio, and setting yourself up as a Narrative Designer to watch. We'll laser focus on actionable tips that you can get started on right away.

Speaker

Karrie Shirou Karrie Shirou has launched over 50 titles as a narrative designer, producer, and marketing and communications director. Her narrative credits include League of Legends, Per Aspera, Totemic, and several upcoming titles. She's also produced on League of Legends, Hello Neighbor, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, and many more.

[ 2021-04-22 12:31:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

In a time where equity and inclusion is at the forefront of people's minds, we find that our writing reflects efforts of diversity and intersectionality in previouslyuntold ways, which leads us to ask: What does the work look like aswe seek to tell these previously untold stories? What does good representation look like, and how can we achieve intentional, authentic representation for otherwise underrepresented voices? Rowan Williams talks about their experience leading the effort for Tyari the Traveler, Riot's first openly transgender character, and working on the cast of A Long Journey to an Uncertain End.

Speaker

Rowan Williams Rowan is a writer and narrative designer who has worked in the gaming industry off and on for just over a decade. Some of the titles they've worked on include Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within, Minecraft: Story Mode for Netflix, Pathfinder Adventures, Legends of Runeterra, and A Long Journey to an Uncertain End.

[ 2021-04-22 12:22:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

Writer Charlene Putney shares some tips and techniques for letting your inner weirdo shine. From her work writing Divinity: Original Sin 2, to writing the indie game NUTS, to designing and writing the upcoming word puzzler VITRIOL, to her current role as Story Lead on an upcoming title at Die Gute Fabrik, Charlenes work has always been infused with a genuine cosmic weirdness (VICE review of NUTS). In this talk, she will demonstrate how she brings approachable weirdness and warmth to her stories and characters.

Speaker

Charlene Putney Charlene Putney is an award-winning writer and teacher from Ireland. After working at Google and Facebook in management positions, she turned to the more creative side of tech and began writing for videogames in 2013. Before moving to Denmark, she worked on Divinity: Original Sin 2 and story for the upcoming Baldur's Gate 3. She now works as Story Lead at Die Gute Fabrik in Copenhagen. She also teaches interactive fiction at university level and yoga on the weekends.

[ 2021-04-22 12:17:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Talk

With the constant discussion of whether games should be political there is often not much discussion on how. Often times games which attempt to tackle political themes can seem exploitive or shallow at discussing this topic. However political discourse has a long history with Games and some of the greatest games of all time reflected their societal evils so expertly the removal of those political elements would reduce the work. In this discussion Tali Faulkner will be explaining the concepts of Respectful Design and how this was used as a framework to find earnest critique of 2020 in the critically acclaimed Umurangi Generation.

Speaker

Naphtali Faulkner Naphtali Faulkner is a Ngai Te Rangi designer currently observing the connections between Indigenous Knowledge and Game Design.

[ 2021-04-22 12:12:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Panel

Game designers often have a unique challenge: storytelling with death as a beat, rather than an end of a character. The average roguelike has more deaths in it than three Hamlets. How do you make your games and narratives "make sense" in this low-key morbid situation? Listen to designers of various kinds of games think through these problems, and mistakes they've made regarding it in the past!

Panelists

Tanya X. Short, Tyler Sigman, Tarn Adams, Adam Saltsman

Tanya X. Short

The Captain of Kitfox Games and lead designer of Boyfriend Dungeon, Moon Hunters, and more. She also co-edited Procedural Generation in Game Design and Procedural Storytelling in Game Design.

Tyler Sigman

Tyler is the lead designer and co-founder at Red Hook Games, famous for the Darkest Dungeon series.

Tarn Adams

Tarn Adams is also known as the Toady One, co-creator of Dwarf Fortress. He also co-edited Procedural Generation in Game Design and Procedural Storytelling in Game Design.

Adam Saltsman

Adam Saltsman is the lead designer and co-founder of Finji, creators of Overland and publishers of Night in the Woods. He also created the legendary Canabalt.

[ 2021-04-20 12:40:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Panel

Can games make the world better? They can certainly try. Each of the games in this panel -- Garden Story, To Be With You, and Solace State -- has a message and goal that goes beyond the hope of "having fun". In addition to providing an engaging experience, they are trying to convey specific areas of reflection and action they hope their players take by the time they've reached the credits. We'll discuss the power of narrative, and how each of these developers fuse real-world experiences, storytelling, and game design to create an unique experience that helps players consider the world we live in today, reflect on how they can make it better, and perhaps, begin to take action.

Panelists

Jenny Windom, Cara Hillstock, Picogram, Tanya Kan

Cara Hillstock

Cara is a queer, chronically ill, black writer, narrative designer, and variety streamer on Twitch. She's passionate about reframing the associations tied to gaming and gamers, making room for diversity, inclusivity, and compassion in the gaming space. She's also passionate about exploring interactivity through game design, and crafting experiences through games that expand empathy and help people learn about the world.

Picogram

I'm a Filipino gamedev from Hawaii, developing and pixeling since I was a kid! I enjoy long walks on the beach and being bad at video games. Currently, I'm working on Garden Story, my first full-length title, which is set for release in 2021.

Tanya Kan

Tanya Kan is the Executive Producer and Director of Vivid Foundry, a Canadian game studio creating dramatic games that reflect the social changes of our time. Tanya has worked in the Interactive Digital Media industry for 8.5 years, creating digital media for games, an amusement park, fashion storefronts, real estate, illustration software, and providing narrative and game design consultation to incubators and studios. Tanya is currently developing the award-winning Solace State, a cyberpunk choice-driven drama game about young hackers and activists speaking truth to power in a militarized biotech city-state.

Jenny Windom

Jenny Windom specializes in communications and community for indie games, and is most interested in using both those fields to make room for increased kindness and equity across all facets of the industry. In addition to working at studios like Rose City Games (Garden Story, Floppy Knights) and funds like Kowloon Nights, Jenny also strives to curate and highlight indie games through her livestreams and content creation.

[ 2021-04-20 12:34:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Panel

Game developers and localizers will discuss what helps immersion and what breaks it when the game is localized. What must be lost in translation, and what should be created anew. We will see how different workflows between developers and localization team can influence the players experience.

Panelists

Vladimir Konoplitsky, Ramn Mndez, Eric Holweck, Ash Tregay

Ash Tregay

Producer at Rebellion for Evil Genius 2: World Domination. Previously a Development Manager at IBM on all manner of far less narratively interesting software.

Eric Holweck

Translator of more than 25 years experience working on games and novels. Working almost exclusively on computer games since 2000, as a translator or project manager. Experienced in games from every genre, with a focus on RPG's and MMORPG's. French team leader for Riotloc. Selected titles include Divinity: Original Sin 2, TES: Morrowind, TES: Skyrim, Lord of the Rings Online, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Ramn Mndez

Working in the video game industry as a translator, interpreter, and editor since 2003. He has more than 30 awards and nominations for his localization work. Teacher at the University of Vigo, where he created the Specialized Degree in Translation for the Video Game Industry. Author of six books and several academic papers to date. Spanish team leader for Riotloc. Selected titles include The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Far Cry 4, Cuphead, Octopath Traveler, Return of The Obra Dinn, Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2.

Vladimir Konoplitsky

Translator, editor and project manager in video games since 2008. Specialist in QA and localization tools. Team leader and a humble overmind at the localization studio Riotloc. Organizer of the localization workshops, and game development hackathons like Global Game Jam. Selected titles include Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Divinity: Original Sin 2.

[ 2021-04-20 12:25:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Panel

In this casual panel we explore games and developers who faced the difficult challenge of ending their games. The panel will go over the topics such as branching narratives and how multiple endings function, the impression that a game leaves at the end of the experience, and the challenges which were faced in bringing everything together in a conclusive and satisfying manner.

Panelists

George Ziets, Annie VanderMeer, Mrten Rattasepp, Ata Sergey Nowak

Ata Sergey Nowak

Ata Sergey Nowak is a game developer from Germany with an intercultural background. Eight years ago, his passion for games began to transform into a professional career, since then he worked on several games like Hearts of Iron 3: Their Finest Hour, East vs West, Squad, Terminal Conflict and acclaimed mods like Black ICE and Project Reality. While studying in Turkey, his experiences of political tension and instability inspired him to work on a new game to dive deeper in the subject. This led to the creation of Suzerain; a political narrative game where the player steps in the shoes of Anton Rayne, an upcoming President of Sordland in a fictional 50's universe.

Annie VanderMeer

Annie VanderMeer has been in the game industry since 2004, working on both AAA and indie projects, and in both design and writing roles. In 2009 she helped start DoubleBear Productions, was a senior writer/designer on their first title (Dead State) as well as directing its successful Kickstarter campaign, and the project lead on the second (PANIC! at Multiverse High). She has also contributed to tabletop projects (such as Fantasy FlightsThe Legacy of Dragonholt, Arkham Horror, andThe Legend of the Five Rings), and freelance narrative design for the upcoming gameUnpacking. In 2019 she founded the Tiamat Collective - an organization for creatives of all stripes to find exciting opportunities and provide guidance to one another and in very early 2020 she released a solo project,The Passenger, onitch.io. Her work has spanned from bizarre comedy to grim realism, genres from horror to high fantasy, and humor from dry wit to fart jokes. Annie is currently working full-time as a senior game designer at ArenaNet, as well as freelancing in the occasional writing gig to ""keep her skills sharp"" (as well as a chance to write dumb lines about jalapeo poppers).

Mrten Rattasepp

Mrten is an ex-academic with a background in literary and cultural theory/criticism, with a side of semiotics, philosophy and classical philology. During his researcher days he focused mostly on modernism-postmodernism-amodernism, historiography and metafiction. Over the past ten years he has written a whole heap of reviews of books, movies, theatre and music, although that's been happening less as of late. After several years of grinding away at the analytical-theoretical angle, he decided not to pursue a doctorate (at least for the moment), and instead stumbled into video game writing. Starting off, Mrten worked as a Writer and Editor for Disco Elysium, then as a Lead Writer / Narrative Designer for Death and Taxes. He enjoys going on lengthy, several-hour-long walks (daily, if at all possible) and occasionally playing the drums (at a mediocre skill level). He currently works as a Narrative Designer for Digimancy Entertainment.

George Ziets

George Ziets has been a narrative designer and writer since 2001. He spent the first part of his career on MMOs like Lord of the Rings Online and D&D Online before running off to make more traditional RPGs. While working at Obsidian Entertainment and InXile, he designed or contributed to branching narratives on RPGs like Wasteland 3, Pillars of Eternity, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, Fallout: New Vegas, and many more. In 2019, George co-founded a new RPG studio, Digimancy Entertainment, where hes hard at work on a super-secret, publisher-funded project.

[ 2021-04-20 12:17:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Panel

Thanks to either the 30-year retro loop of pop culture, the adult authority of the generation that lived it, or just the awesome aesthetic attitude that continues to inspire younger gens since, the 90s is an undeniably unique and radical decade that warrants being explored through its own narratives. This panel will bring together unique perspectives on the 90s: both from those who lived it AND those who have mastered its style through study; and we'll try to understand the universal appeal and challenges of exploring stories about, like, everything totally 90s that went into 'The Big Con'.

Panelists

Dave Proctor, Saffron Aurora, Yash Kulkarni, Corina Diaz

Dave Proctor

Dave Proctor is the sole director and founder of Mighty Yell Studios, and lead designer on The Big Con. His first shipped title, Runbow from 13AM Games, was a breakout hit on the Nintendo Wii U, and helped him gain the experience, reputation, and contacts to bring his ideas to any platform. He is a published author, and a professor of Screenwriting and Narrative Design at George Brown College. He is currently wrapping an interactive narrative consultancy on the upcoming mobile title Emergent Fates. His first full-length novel, Gross, is currently being adapted to a film.

Saffron Aurora

Saffron Aurora is a Eurasian-Canadian artist based in Toronto, Canada. She is Art Director at Mighty Yell, as well as Art/Design Lead on Pekoe at Kitten Cup Studio. She mainly works as an artist and art director for video games and comics, but also takes commissions or interesting side-gigs.

Yash Kulkarni

Yash Kulkarni is a Toronto based video game producer and narrative designer. He has an undergraduate degree in business from Mumbai University and a postgraduate certificate in screenwriting and narrative design from George Brown College. He worked in advertising for six years before working in the games industry. He currently works as a Jr. Producer at Mighty Yell Studios and as a Production Manager at A-Game Studios. His credits include The Big Con, PeoPoli and a yet unannounced project.

Corina Diaz

Corina has spent the past 10+ years working on marketing and community strategy in entertainment & games. She has developed social content and managed communities for multiple titles in indie games including A Fold Apart, Last Year and Night Lights. Corina has also been a speaker at the Canadian Gaming Expo, Interactive Ontario's iLunch series and Canadian Music Week, is a judge for the IGF awards, and has freelanced with several games media outlets.

[ 2021-04-20 11:50:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Panel

Videogames give us places to experience and explore. Stories offer us escape and example. The advantages and appeal of spending time in the many worlds or stories on offer through videogames has never been more clear, but the spaces where we spend our time shape us, even as they are shaped by us. Videogames are more than portals to other situations; they are places. At least, that is (part of) how these artists see them. Join videogame developers Nathalie Lawhead, Jord Farrell, Zoyander Street, and Claris Cyarron as they discuss the structural, material, and experiential aspects of their artforms.

Panelists

Claris Cyarron, Zoyander Street, Nathalie Lawhead, Jord Farrell

Claris Cyarron

Claris Cyarron is an architecturally-trained storyteller, multidisciplinary designer, queer artist, and ever-aspiring adventurer. Claris is committed to crafting narratives, encounters, and worlds as intentionally as an architect designs a building. While guiding creative projects, she carefully hones their meaning, and aims to make them more thematically resonant. As a narrative designer and consultant, she has had the pleasure of working on incredible games like Timespinner, Celeste, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Wandersong, and more. In her spare time, she sails ships, rides bikes, and plays music with her pet synthesizers.

Zoyander Street

Artist-researcher and critic working at the fringes of indie videogames for a decade. My practice focuses on videogames, but also involves other forms of media art and (mis)uses of technology. Led by ethnographic and historical research, I create lo-fi glitchy games and custom hardware for festivals, galleries, and museums, using interaction design to harness the expressive potential of audience participation. After becoming increasingly sensitive to the limitations of linear text, I began exploring interactive and tactile mediums of communication, in order to surface ambiguity and allow mess to stay messy. I like to work with toxic garbage, be that through recycling old computers that were destined for landfill, or through recontextualising trauma.

Nathalie Lawhead

Nathalie Lawhead is a net-artist and award winning game designer that has been creating experimental digital art since the late 90's. Past works include titles such as the IGF winning Tetrageddon Games, "Everything is going to be OK", and the Electric Zine Maker.

Jord Farrell

Jord Farrell is a multidisciplinary artist who's released over 100 games and publishes new art every single day. He also is a local community leader, organizing and running various events.

[ 2021-04-20 11:37:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Panel

The cyberpunk genre offers so much possibility space for presenting alternative identities, non-Western cultures and values, as well as examining social ruptures. These BIPOC indie game creators discuss how their sociocultural examinations and lived experiences reflect in worldbuilding and character development. Join us on a panel discussion about how diverse developers use aesthetics, narrative, and game mechanics to build resonant and meaningful speculative fictions about marginalized groups that challenge the status quo. This can include the investigation of imperialism and hegemony, uneven political access, and discrimination in urban spaces and the periphery. Featuring developers from Love Shore, Solace State, Umurangi Generation, and VA-11 Hall-A!

Panelists

Tanya Kan, Son M., Christopher Ortiz, Naphtali Faulkner

Tanya Kan

Tanya Kan is the Executive Producer and Director of Vivid Foundry, a Canadian game studio creating dramatic games that reflect the social changes of our time. Tanya has worked in the Interactive Digital Media industry for 8.5 years, creating digital media for games, amusement parks, fashion storefronts, real estate, illustration software, and providing narrative and game design consultation to incubators and studios. Tanya is currently developing the award-winning Solace State, a cyberpunk choice-driven drama game about young hackers and activists speaking truth to power in a militarized biotech city.

Son M.

Son M. is the Studio Director of Perfect Garbage and one half of the narrative behind their game Love Shore. Son is a published author, having done work in comics, screenplays, games and more. Theyre known for their love of horror and sci-fi and hope to bring new perspectives and unique stories into these genres.

Christopher Ortiz

Christopher Ortiz (AKA Kiririn51) is the head of Sukeban Games, a Venezuelan game studio now spread all over the world between Argentina, Japan and the US. He directed Cyberpunk Bartender Action VA-11 Hall-A in 2016 and a plethora of smaller games for Jam competitions. He describes his work as "A cocktail of everything I love with a dash of what I hate". He's now working on several secret projects, most notably Cyberpunk Bartender Action N1RV Ann-A, a game about a woman juggling between family, motherhood, gangs, and her work at a bar in the middle of a bustling mega city where finding love under the chrome is an everyday struggle.

Naphtali Faulkner

Naphtali Faulkner is a Ngi Te Rangi designer, he created the award winning Umurangi Generation and its follow up DLC Macro. He is looking to see where Indigenous Knowledge fits in Game Design.

[ 2021-04-20 10:42:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Panel

The past decade has seen a revival tabletop and pen and paper RPGs, with independent, experimental and narrative-focused systems and games reinventing the TTRPG scene. What narrative systems and methods can videogames draw from this reinvention of the form? Three designers and developers talk about the influences they take from running and playing TTRPGs, and how this effects the way they tell stories through games.

Panelists

Gareth Damian Martin, Inari Bourguenolle, Bertine van Hvell, Soraya Een Hajji

Gareth Damian Martin

Gareth is an award-winning writer, designer and artist. Their first game, In Other Waters won the Jury Prix at IndieCade Europe, and was widely praised by critics for its hypnotic art, otherworldly audio and captivating writing (Eurogamer). Their criticism has been published in a wide variety of forms, from Eurogamer and Rock Paper Shotgun to Edge Magazine and Frieze Magazine. They are the editor and creator of Heterotopias, an independent zine about games and architecture, and have lectured on the history and theory of games and architecture at the world-renowned Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

Inari Bourguenolle

I am a narrative designer on the Crew IP at Ubisoft - Ivory Tower. Prior to that, I worked as a game and narrative designer on various platforms - including tabletop RPGs, augmented board games and even TV game shows - and was a game design teacher in various schools. I started working in games 10 years ago, starting with indie TTRPGs and podcasting about them before moving on to mobile and serious gaming the AAA.

Bertine van Hvell

Bertine van Hvell is a freelance game writer and designer, having worked with both AAA and independent companies. She has been running Lost Again since 2009, creating projects and games both silly and profound. For over 5 years she has co-hosted a Vampire: The Masquerade larp almost every month.

Soraya Een Hajji

Soraya Een Hajji is a Senior Producer at UndeadLabs

[ 2021-04-20 10:28:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Panel

For a medium long known for being "fun," some of our most interesting and challenging games can actually be quite dark in the stories they tell. From horror games to characters with inner torment to games taking on societal critique, this panel explores the appeal of dark stories in games and discuss the advantage and challenges of tackling dark subject matter. We'll also talk about how best to embody the darkness through game mechanics and difficult choices for players to make. The panel will discuss games we think have tackled dark subjects particularly well, and will ponder if it's possible to ever go too far into the darkness.

Panelists

Richard Rouse III, Emily Short, Thomas Grip and Marta Fijak

Richard Rouse III

Richard Rouse III is a creative director, designer, and writer who has worked on a range of titles, including the horror franchise The Suffering, zombie survival simulator State of Decay, and his cult-set experimental narrative game The Church in the Darkness. Previously he was a Design Director/Lead at Microsoft Studios, Ubisoft Montreal, Midway and Surreal Software. Rouse wrote the popular book Game Design: Theory & Practice.

Emily Short

Emily Short works in interactive fiction, narrative design, and conversation modeling, and is currently the Creative Director at Failbetter Games. She has released over two dozen solo games, as well as contributing to indie games such as Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine; she also provided R&D work for Telltale Games and others. Her blog can be found at http://emshort.blog.

Thomas Grip

Co-founder of Frictional Games creative director behind the Penumbra, Amnesia and SOMA franchises.

Marta Fijak

A biologist and computer scientist by education, a game designer by love. Tried every form of gamedev, from basement indie with ~20 players, through a BAFTA nominated game with ~1.5 million players, up to f2p with ~10 million players. Recently did society in Frostpunk and was a lead game designer on an not announced 11 bit studios project. Currently, starting a new adventure, as a creative director at Anshar studios.

[ 2021-04-20 10:10:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the Panel

The stories we tell through video games begin with the player. Although they may be written about characters, it is the player's experience of the story told through the characters that really matters. This idea of narrative projection is explored in both of indie studio The Game Band's two titles - spatial puzzle coming-of-age game, Where Cards Fall, and absurdist text-based baseball simulation, Blaseball. Although wildly different in gameplay and aesthetic style, both Where Cards Fall and Blaseball invite narrative projection in unique ways. Join Sam Rosenthal, Stephen Bell, and Joel Clark as they reflect on the stories being told through these games.

Panelists

Sam Rosenthal, Joel Clark, Stephen Bell

Sam Rosenthal

Sam Rosenthal is the founder and creative director of The Game Band, a studio that aims to inspire hearts and minds with games that reflect the world we live in. The Game Band won an Apple Design Award for its first title, Where Cards Fall, and created the viral sensation Blaseball. The studio name was inspired by his love for bands that stay relevant by defying expectations. Prior to directing Where Cards Fall, he worked as a game designer on What Remains of Edith Finch, Skylanders, and Wheres My Water.

Joel Clark

Joel Clark joined The Game Band in 2017 as a Platform & Tools Engineer after working for almost five years as an engineer on several projects including Emoji Blitz. He was responsible for the suite of design tools the team used to build Where Cards Fall, and created the simulation and much of the voice behind Blaseball.

Stephen Bell

Stephen Bell is a film director, writer and narrative designer who has worked on acclaimed titles including Sky: Children of the Light and 12 Minutes. He was instrumental in shaping the storyline for Where Cards Fall and is one of the key voices behind Blaseballs absurdist humor.

[ 2021-04-20 09:56:51 CET ] [ Original post ]