Presentations

Brett Pennings ( Bowlcut Studios), Bex Saltsman ( Finji Co ), and Levi Schneidewind ( Underbite Games ) discuss their recent trip out to PAX South. They fill you in on what was involved to get there, what to expect at the event, what they learned from the experience, and then they give some advice about the whole thing.

Character Controllers are an essential part of most games, and there are an awful lot of ways for them to work! I'll be covering Kinematic, Dynamic, and Hybrid 3d character controllers and how they work on the INSIDE. Get ready for a journey into the body of your avatar.

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gjcKZ0rPtmjIuiA1UnOqMcxDMvv98S2Bw3VZDt58rL8

All games tell stories. Game writer and reviewer Winston White talks about those stories and how to improve your own writing.

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1a2dsDSnq39CKOLndNZmdn70ERPLdnlpWW8iWyCksDwM/edit

Talk given by Peter Guenther of Grand Circus

7 Gamedev Tips for Veterans and Students Alike -- Mars Ashton (@nujakujata) Virtual Worlds With Ranvier & NodeJS - -Sean O'Donohue (@_seanohue) How to make a baby (and rig it, too) -- Jason Petterson (@ChunkyBrewster)

Presented by Craig Burgess ( zero ) and Kevin Gerber ( XypherOrion )

Let's talk about and demonstrate Oculus Rift, Google Glass, Leap Motion, etc. as they relate to gaming. 

(Presentation starts at the 24:00 mark)

By Austin Whitbeck

How to start and gain a direction based on a couple different starting points. Moving forward from a single word, or a more detailed description. Where to send iterations to the client/art director in the process and things like that.

Finji Co, a local Independent Game Studio, will be giving a panel discussion on what it takes to produce a video game. Bex & Adam Saltsman will give knowledge and insight from their experience with Night in the Woods, their current game Overland, and many other titles over the last 11 years of their studio.

Finji Co is also bringing in Felix Kramer and Andrew Shouldice who are working with Finji Co to produce the game TUNIC, formerly known as Secret Legend.

Presented by Garrett Hoofman

What is a game jam? What jams are out there? 
How to successfully finish a jam with tips & tricks for code, art, and design. 
Finally, what can GamedevGR do for a game jam?

Jason Petterson (Broken Shotgun games and Detroit Labs) will be presenting an introductory talk of how to use Unity and the Standard assets to quickly prototype a standard Platformer game.  If you have never used Unity, but have wanted to start, this is the talk for you!  If you are familiar with Unity already, he'll will also be going over some tricks & shortcuts that you might not know about.

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13ALzO6H5QmPOK4136zqE1aW4ekaDI9ykKQKCU-Rak6c/edit?usp=sharing&authuser=1

By Caleb Wood ( ValiantWafer )

We're discussing the correlation between personality and gameplay, and how to structure your game around your target personality audience. 

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1x6jZQD802HrKXrY5L0adreI3TLGKBUjr3RcHY6WwPYo/edit?usp=sharing

4th wall, types of thought, types of play, mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics, elemental tetrad, iterative process, game feel, flow, skill gap reconciliation, emergence, win percentage, maximizing emotion, positive & negative feedback, information hiding, risk/reward, skill/chance, targeting emotion, and drawing inspiration.

Watch the rest of the MageQuit trailer here! https://youtu.be/CkAHEf5ZxEA