Playaway Game Design

4 Mar 2020 2 days to go, Playaway Events, Playaway Game Design, PlayAway Games, Education & Wellbeing

Games & Empathy Mini-Talks

Tinderbox Collective

Thu 4th Mar, 13:00 – 14:00 (GMT)

Mini-Talks (Zoom Event)
Games & Empathy

Speakers:
Marina Diez (3 of Cups Games)
Alastair Low (Lowtek Games)
Natalie Schmidt
Nida Ahmad

Series of short talks from specialist game designers about cultivating empathy and improving accessibility in games design.

Marina Diez
Marina Díez is a Spanish award-winning game designer based in London, UK. She’s the CEO and Creative Director at Three of Cups Games, a games studio based in London. Besides, she is the lead game designer of Dordogne at Un Je Ne Sais Quoi Studios and game designer for Me-säätiö in Helsinki, Finland.

Marina will be talking about finding your voice as a professional with special attention to her role as an emotional game designer and how she approached her

work starting there.

Website: marinadiez.carrd.co
Twitter: @ninfa_dp

Alastair Low (Ally)
After working as an artist in the games industry for 7+ years Ally finally took the plunge to start his own indie studio Lowtek Games. His work explores making fun, retro, challenging, dyslexia friendly games.

Ally is on the board of the SGDA (Scottish Games Developers Association) helping to organise game jams and play parties and also used to help run Dundee’s local makerspace.

Lowtek Games has had a strong focus on retro games and is working on tools to help games be more accessible to dyslexic players. Ally is dyslexic himself and wants to help make change happen.

Website: lowtek.games
Twitter: @wallmasterr
Facebook: lowtekgames
Artstation: lowtek

Natalie Schmidt
Natalie is a writer and game designer based in Los Angeles, CA. Having studied both dramaturgy and game design at Carnegie Mellon University, Natalie specializes in narrative design and script development for multi-media storytelling. She’s designed small-scale TTRPGs, and her previous narrative work for Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute explored human-AI decision-making via branching interactive stories.

She is particularly passionate about meaningful representation of BIPOC within the TTRPG space, as well as accessibility of design within interactive entertainment. Natalie is currently working freelance, as well as on several personal projects.

Websites:
natalie-schmidt.wixsite.com/portfolio
medium.com/@s.natalie25

Nida Ahmad

Nida is a UX Designer with a focus on creating playful user experiences with accessibility and psychology in mind. She has worked on Warhammer Combat Cards and currently an upcoming social MMO. She is an advocate for integrating UX processes into game development, having spoken at industry conferences and was nominated for the Game Dev Heroes Awards as a result. She is also a mentor for students studying games, was a reader for the BAFTA Young Game Designer Awards and is on the founding team of POC in Play, who strive to increase the inclusion of POC in the industry.

Twitter: @NidaAhmad_

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3 Mar 2020 PlayAway Ar & Vr, Playaway Creative Technology, Playaway Events, Playaway Game Design

Virtual Reality (VR) Mini-Talks

Tinderbox Collective

Wed 3rd Mar, 13:00 – 14:00 (GMT)

Virtual Reality Mini-Talks

Speakers:
Jung In Jung
Paul Blackham
Brian Allen (Bearharmmer Games)
Thomas Kildren (Fletcher Studios)
Andy Antoniou (Furry Tail Dragon)

Game designers and creative technologists working in the field of Virtual Reality will demo and talk about their work in a series of 5-15 minute fascinating mini-talks, exploring the range and creative possibility of VR as an interactive artform.

More info coming soon!

Jung In Jung

Jung In Jung is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher. Her work focuses on the playful and intimate relationship with sound, movement, and interactive technology. She has presented her work at various international conferences and festivals. In 2019, she joined the research centre InGAME: Innovation for Games and Media Enterprise based in Dundee, Scotland as a research and development fellow. Her research interests lie in interactive engagement, experimentation with different senses, accessibility, diversity, and inclusivity. Currently, she is involved in several projects from InGAME such as developing and testing a new Text-to-Speech plugin for dyslexic players with Lowtek Games and running the Experimental Games Lab with the partner organisation Biome Collective as a Brain Trust.

Website: www.junginjung.com

Twitter: @junginjung_

Paul Blackham

I am a game artist and research assistant at InGAME. My skillset predominantly focuses on 3D modelling and texturing, but I also work in rapid prototyping of interactive media. I joined InGAME after completing a Professional Masters in Games Development at Abertay University. My experience in a variety of additional areas, such as shader programming and pipeline tool development allow me to work holistically on prototypes or assist in projects wherever needed.

Website: paulblackham.co.uk

Twitter: @mrPaulBalckham

Brian Allen
Independent Unreal Engine VR Game Developer, prior Producer/Product Manager at Studio Roqovan, Gameloft, Gamehouse Canada, and Spinmaster.

Originally from Toronto, Canada but moved to Edinburgh two years ago.

During his talk Brian will showcase virtual reality action RPG (role-playing game) combat & exploration.

Website: Steam
Twitter: @bearhammergames

Thomas Kildren
Hi. I’m Thomas. I’m a stay at home dad; and I’m making a VR game based on the drawings of my kid.

He’s on the autism spectrum and doesn’t talk much – but he really likes to draw. The game is a 3rd person platformer centered around exploration, helping others and solving problems. If the game takes off – I want to donate part of the proceeds to autism awareness and acceptance.

–

Thomas ‘Fletcher’ Kildren is a creative powerhouse from NYC, now living in the gritty Rust Belt. Trained as an illustrator, he made the jump to digital as a Photo Editor at the New York Post. He soon taught himself other disciplines like 3D modeling & animation. VR development has been his biggest achievement, as its the culmination of all his previous disciplines & his fervent hope is that ‘Booper, Get Home!’ will be the launch of his game dev career. He is currently juggling game dev while being a stay-at-home dad tending to a wife, 2 boys and a neurotic housecat.

Website: fletcherstudios.net
Twitter: @thomaskildren

Andy Antoniou
Designer and founder of FurryTailDragon

Andy designs games and immersive experiences with inclusivity at the forefront. He is also an award-winning generalist, creative consultant and director – working across several creative industries. Andy has most recently delivered for the likes of Sky, Nat Geo and Johnson & Johnson.

M is a VR “sitting-simulator” in which snippets of memories are discovered when light and shadows come to life. Orphaned shadows can be picked up and then become physical objects, which are used to alter a fragmented and abstract environment.

This mini-talk will explore some of the ways in which M’s demo was built with accessibility in mind, to make a better VR experience.

Website: FurryTailDragon.com

Twitter: FurryTailDragon

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2 Mar 2020 Playaway Creative Technology, Playaway Events, Playaway Game Design, PlayAway Workshops

Introduction to Bitsy Workshop: Making Games with Small Tools – with Claire Morwood (Biome Collective)

Tinderbox Collective

Tue 2nd Mar, 09:30 – 12:30 (GMT)

Workshop (Zoom Event)

Introduction to Bitsy Workshop: Making Games with Small Tools – with Claire Morwood (Biome Collective)

Price £10/£5 (conc)

If you are on low income please get in touch at admin@tinderboxcollective.org to ask about free spaces

Play the 16 games made!

PlayAway Jam Bitsy Games

In this workshop with game designer and co-founder of 3-Fold Games Claire Morwood (Biome Collective), we will be introduced to the basics of game design, the history of small digital tools, and set off on making your own Bitsy game!

Suitable for anyone interested in creative technology, completely new to game design, and experienced game designers with an interest in learning new tools.

During the day, Tinderbox is also running a Bitsy One-Day Game Jam! This is open to anyone (whether you attend the workshop or not) to join and share your games.

For ages 16+.

This workshop is held via a Zoom Call and spaces are limited – please register to attend

About Bitsy:
Bitsy is a free-to-use online/browser-based game-making tool created by Adam Le Doux, that allows you to make small games & interactive pieces without programming. You don’t need to download anything to run Bitsy – you’ll just need to have this page open during the workshop to work on your own game:
https://ledoux.itch.io/bitsy

You will need:
A computer or laptop
Access to internet

Claire Morwood
Claire is a self-taught programmer, artist, game designer, and member of games & digital art community Biome Collective. She works freelance as well as on her own personal projects, and has a number of creative interests including pixel art, claymation, programming and developing in Unity.
She is particularly interested in games that promote exploration, personal and diverse narratives, and non-violence. She is also a big fan of small tools such as Bitsy, and their accessible nature. She has run events and game jams (such as Fuse Jam), which aim to provide open creative spaces for people to play and collaborate. Claire’s most recent project is Before I Forget with her company 3-Fold Games, a narrative exploration game about a woman living with dementia.

Websites: shimmerwitch.space | 3foldgames.uk
Twitter: @shimmerwitch

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If you have booked a space for the workshop, please read this Guide from Claire in advance:

Get Setup With Bitsy Guide

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2 Mar 2020 Playaway Events, Playaway Game Design, PlayAway Workshops

Bitsy One-Day Game Jam! & Let’s Play with Zoë Sams

Tinderbox Collective

2Mar_TinderboxPlayAwayGamesFest_BitsyJam

Tue 2nd Mar, 9:00 – 20:00 (GMT)

Casual Game Jam – Taking place all day on itch.io
Bitsy One-Day Game Jam! and Let’s Play with Zoë Sams

FREE – TAKE PART HERE

Play the 16 games made!

PlayAway Jam Bitsy Games

We’re inviting everyone around the world to join us in getting creative with game design using Bitsy!

Throughout the day we’ll be making and sharing games here.

We’ll announce a theme in the morning, and will end the jam with a Twitch play-through of the games submitted at 7pm with Let’s Player Zoë Sams.

Schedule:

09:00 – Jam starts! Sign up on Itch.io

09:30-12:30 – Bitsy Workshop – see more & signup below!

18:00 – Deadline to submit games on Itch.io

19:00-20:00 – Livestream with Zoë Sams (Twitch)

Introduction to Bitsy Workshop
From 9:30 – 12:30 we are also holding an Introduction to Bitsy workshop with game designer Claire Morwood – if you’re new to game-making or Bitsy, then this is a great event to join to learn more!

Please register for the Bitsy workshop if you wish to attend as spaces are limited.

We can’t wait to see what you make!

About Bitsy
Bitsy is a free-to-use online/browser-based game-making tool created by Adam Le Doux, that allows you to make small games & interactive pieces without programming. You don’t need to download anything to run Bitsy – you’ll just need to have this page open during the workshop to work on your own game:
https://ledoux.itch.io/bitsy

FREE – TAKE PART ON itch.io HERE

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27 Feb 2020 Playaway Events, Playaway Game Design, PlayAway Games, Education & Wellbeing, PlayAway Workshops, Uncategorized

Youth Workshop – Introduction to Game Design and Reimagining History!

Tinderbox Collective

Sat 27th Feb, 2pm-3.30pm

Youth Workshop – Introduction to Game Design and Reimagining History!

with Tinderbox Collective, Claire Morwood & National Galleries of Scotland

For Ages 10-16
Note: You will need a computer or laptop for this workshop

Play the game made at the workshop!

Escape the Labyrinth of the King

Learn the basics of game design through reimagining old pictures from the National Galleries of Scotland!

The workshop will take place in Zoom and will involve a mix of creative writing, storytelling and designing a game using Bitsy, a simple 2D game design programme.

Note: You will need a computer or laptop for this workshop

Tinderbox Collective run a range of music and arts projects and workshops with young people.

Claire Morwood is a game designer and member of Biome Collective in Dundee.

The workshop is part of a project and upcoming exhibition called “Ruined” (12th June – 29th Aug 2021, Scottish National Portrait Gallery) which invites you to re-invent Scottish history by imaginatively ‘mashing-up’ paintings in the Scottish art collection. You will be in a time-machine of multiple video projections, in a set of ruins, where the shocking events and ghosts from Scotland’s past appear before your eyes!

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26 Feb 2020 Playaway Events, Playaway Game Design, PlayAway Workshops

Virtual Play Party! With SGDA

Tinderbox Collective

Fri 26th Feb, 19:00 – 21:00 (GMT)

Livestream (Twitch)
Virtual Play Party!
[Live – Watch on Twitch]

Send in your games to the SGDA to be shown as part of the Livestream!

With the Scottish Games Developers Association (SGDA)

This event is a livestream held on Twitch – you don’t need to register to attend, but if you’d like to receive an email reminder for it, please register for a space and we’ll let you know nearer the event.

Go here to watch the stream on the night: twitch.tv/tinderboxplayaway

Other events with the SGDA:
Fostering an Engaged Community Virtually and Beyond Panel with SGDA
Mon 1st Mar 13:00-14:00 (GMT)
(Zoom Event)

Go here to find out more

Join the SGDA and friends for a livestreamed series of mini playthroughs, featuring local game developers and the games they made at the recent Global Game Jam

Tune in on Twitch to see the creators play through their games and show you what it’s about, while you hear about the process of making games in a game jam.

And audience members will get the chance to vote on their favourite, with the winner receiving the SGDA Community Award!

For ages 16+

Are you a game-maker?

If you make your own games – send them to us for a chance to appear in the Play Party!
Games can be submitted to the SGDA here

You can showcase any project made at a game jam during the past 12 months – whether at Global Game Jam 2021 or any game jam in 2020.

The deadline for submissions is Monday 22nd Feb ahead of the livestream showcase on Friday 26th Feb.

Fostering an Engaged Community Virtually and Beyond Panel with SGDA

Join Jaime Cross of the Scottish Game Developers Association (SGDA), Creative Producer Susie Buchan, and Beverley McMillan of BAFTA Scotland discussing building & engaging online and real-world communities inside and outside of games.

More info & registration here

Scottish Game Developers Association

The Scottish chapter of the IGDA has proudly worked to serve developers around the country since 2011, and are one of the most active chapters in Europe.

Website: scotgamedev.org
Twitter: @scotgamedev

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23 Feb 2020 Playaway Creative Technology, Playaway Events, Playaway Game Design, Playaway Games & Theatre

Mixed Realities: Virtual and Physical Interaction

Tinderbox Collective

Tue 23rd Feb, 18:00 – 19:00 (GMT)

Panel Talk (Zoom Event)
Mixed Realities: Virtual and Physical Interaction

Panelists:
Mona Bozdog
Foxdog Studios
Laura E Hall

Chaired by: Yann Seznec

A discussion with artists and game designers who explore the cross-over between virtual and physical experiences, such as alternate reality games (ARGs) and interactive theatre and comedy.

Yann Seznec
Yann Seznec is an artist whose work focuses on sound, music, physical interaction, games, and building new instruments. Recent projects include residencies at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Floating Cinema in London, Playable City Lagos, and Timespan in the Scottish Highlands. He has performed at The Roundhouse London, Mutek Montreal, Melbourne Recital Hall, Liquid Rooms Tokyo, Köln Philharmonie, Fak’ugesi Johannesburg, and more. Much of his work involves building custom instruments such as musical pigsties, slinky instruments, candle-based sound installations, electromechanical mushroom spore reactors, and more.

Website: yannseznec.com
Twitter: @yannseznec

Mona Bozdog
Mona is a Lecturer in Immersive Experience Design at Abertay University. Her research is practice-based and focuses on the convergence of contemporary performance practices and video games, particularly designing hybrid forms of storytelling, performative games, mixed-reality and immersive experiences and games for public spaces and heritage sites. Mona is currently working on a series of projects that investigate the potential of games for capturing, preserving and sharing lived experience and oral herstories.

Twitter: @MonaBozdog
Website: performingplay.co.uk

Foxdog Studios
Foxdog Studios, Lloyd Henning and Peter Sutton, are computer programmers turned live performers. They create comedy shows that put the audience in control of interactive games and DIY gadgets. Their live show, “Robot Chef”, was a sell-out at the Edinburgh Fringe and had viewers cook sausage and beans by controlling a robot on their phones (a highlight being firing a hotdog from a cannon).

The pandemic has turned their stage shows into interactive online pieces, streamed live weekly on Twitch, including “Escape The North” which was featured as part of the Guardian’s coverage of comedy streaming.

Website: foxdogstudios.com

Twitch: twitch.tv/foxdogstudios

Twitter: @foxdogstudios

Instagram: instagram.com/foxdogstudios

Facebook: facebook.com/foxdogstudios

Laura E Hall

Laura E. Hall is an artist, writer, puzzle-maker, immersive environment and narrative designer living in Portland, Oregon. Her work focuses on the intersections between arts, culture, and technology, especially in gaming.

She is the founder of puzzle, game, and experience design company Timberview Productions, founder of Portland’s first escape the room game company, the award-winning Meridian Adventure Co., and the author of Katamari Damacy for Boss Fight Books and Planning Your Escape for Simon and Schuster’s Tiller Press. She proudly serves on the board of the Portland Indie Game Squad (PIGSquad), a non-profit organization supporting indie game development and community in Portland.

Website: lauraehall.com

Twitter: @lauraehall

Instagram: @lauhall

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22 Feb 2020 Playaway Events, Playaway Game Design

Game Design Panel with Shay Thompson

Tinderbox Collective

Mon 22nd Feb, 19:15 – 20:00 (GMT)

Panel Talk (Zoom Event)
Game Design Panel with Shay Thompson

Panelists:
Jon McKellan (No Code – Untold Stories, Observation)
Dan Pinchbeck (The Chinese Room – Dear Esther, Little Orpheus)
Malath Abbas (Biome Collective – Killbox)

Chaired by: Shay Thompson (BBC Sounds)

On the opening night of the festival, join the directors from award-winning games studios No Code and more with BBC Sounds presenter Shay Thompson, for a discussion around the creative processes behind game design, and the impact and meaning of games on our societies.

Shay Thompson
Shay Thompson is a presenter and video producer working in the games industry. Shay previously hosted McLaren’s Shadowcast and appeared in other McLaren Shadow Project related content on YouTube. Outside of that, Shay has also hosted panels and podcasts for Bafta and is currently appearing on the BBC Sounds podcast, Press X to Continue.

Twitter: @moods_jpg

Instagram: @moods.gif

Jon McKellan

With over a decade of experience in the industry, working on genre-defining games such as Alien: Isolation and Red Dead Redemption 2, Jon formed his own studio No Code with business partner Omar in 2015. Since then, Jon has been the studio’s creative director, writer, and artist on their two critically acclaimed and BAFTA-winning games Stories Untold (2017) and Observation (2019). Having started out in User Interface design and Motion Graphics, Jon’s stories and vision merges his old role with his new, building exciting and surreal narrative experiences that often center around UI driven technology.

Website: nocodestudio.com
Twitter: jon_nocode | _NoCode

Dan Pinchbeck
Dan co-founded The Chinese Room as an experimental mod team back in 2007, releasing their first commercial title, the cult Dear Esther in 2012. He went on to lead the team to produce three more multi-award winning, internationally renowned titles: Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and So Let Us Melt. Since joining the Sumo family in 2018, TCR has released the technicolour adventure Little Orpheus, currently nominated for 2 DICE awards. Dan has a PhD in first-person shooters, which just goes to show it’s possible to get a PhD in anything these days.

Website: thechineseroom.co.uk
Twitter: @chineseroom

Malath Abbas
Malath Abbas is a game designer, artist and producer working on experimental and meaningful games in Scotland. Malath is a founding member of Biome Collective, a creative studio, community and digital space for people to create, collaborate and explore new frontiers in games, digital art and technology.

Malath has produced and created games and interactive installations including Killbox and Shpeel, as well as founding and directing the game festival Arcadia that aims to empower marginalised voices in the game sector. Malath volunteers on a number of boards as trustee and adviser including the Scotland based charity Scottish Game Development Association.

Website: biomecollective.com
Twitter: @maltron3d

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22 Feb 2020 PlayAway Careers & Research, Playaway Events, Playaway Game Design, PlayAway Games, Education & Wellbeing, PlayAway Research in Games

Jane McGonigal Keynote: Fireside Conversation & Q&A

Tinderbox Collective

Mon 22nd Feb, 18:00-19:00 (GMT)

Games, the Pandemic, and the Future

Jane McGonigal Keynote
Fireside Conversation & Q&A

We’re delighted to welcome in our first ever Tinderbox PlayAway Festival with a conversation and Q&A with Jane McGonigal. Jane’s book ‘Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World’ was a major inspiration for some of Tinderbox’s work and we are so excited that she’ll be joining us for this event.

Jane McGonigal
Jane McGonigal, PhD, is the Director of Game Research + Development at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California. She is the author of two New York Times bestselling books: Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World and SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully. Her TED talks on how games can make a better world have more than 15 million views. She has advised companies including Disney, Mattel, Nintendo, Riot Games, Activision and EA on how to create games that build real skills and help players develop emotional and social strengths they can use in their everyday lives. She is also the inventor of SuperBetter, a game that has helped more than a million players recover from symptoms of depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and traumatic brain injury.

Website: janemcgonigal.com
Twitter: @avantgame

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