IndieCade East 2016: Full Schedule

10:30am EDT

Showcase: Strange Arcade

For designers of games and interactive experiences, the challenge of creating experiences that are both expressive and replicable has proved a productive tension, resulting in unique controllers, unusual displays, and novel interactions that incite curiosity and undermine expectations.

Strange Arcade features dozens of games and experiences that use costume controllers, embedded media technologies, reappropriated consumer devices, and other subverted technologies to create strange play performances and explore new ways of sharing stories.

Friday April 29, 2016 10:30am - 8:00pm EDT
3rd Floor

Showcase: Strange Arcade

12:00pm EDT

eSports Showcase: SkyHook

Moderators

Josh Melnick

Josh Melnick is a writer, game designer, and button masher. He is currently a student at NYU pursuing a degree in Game Studies. Melnick is active in a number of local and national fighting game communities, where he helps run events that he promptly loses at. He has placed top 8... Read More →

Speakers

Christian "Skisonic" Sutton

Christian "Skisonic" Sutton is a well-known fighting game commentator with years of experience, a wealth of knowledge, and an overflowing amount of passion. Having commentated many of the most prestigious fighting game tournaments such as Evolution, Final Round, and CEO. Ski has made... Read More →

Friday April 29, 2016 12:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Video Screening Amphitheater

eSports

12:30pm EDT

Lightning Talks 1

Subversive Humor and The Absurdity of Real Life Experience -- Yifat Shaik

I am here to advocate on behalf of the ridiculous. To be more specific, I aim to show you that we need more subversive humor in games and why you don’t actually have to be ‘serious’ to be serious. I will also draw from my experience of making Real Army Simulator, to highlight how you can make a game that subvert popular game concepts ("fun" in this case) while still being enjoyable

Real Army Simulator is the often humorous, slightly satirical and sometime real account of what is really like to be a soldier in the army. Pulled from Yifat and a few of her personal friends real account of their mandatory army service in the Israeli army, Real Army Simulator tries to show a more realistic view of the army and what it’s like to be part of it. The game presents life in the army as being part of a large bureaucratic and mundane machine rather than the glorified heroic experience often depicted in game

Verbs: How to Make Life Experiences Reflect in Your Games -- Charles Babb
My talk is about how to live a life of doing things for the sake of improving game ideas, game designs, and one’s creative process. I discuss my personal and professional lives (separately and together). I provide instruction on how to get the most out of each experiences and perpetually exist in a state of flow connecting activity to activity while critically analyzing and cataloging the events for creative processing and sharing in one’s games and other creative endeavors.

I discuss my personal life from traveling and studying throughout the world to working across various entertainment industries: music, manga (comics), television, film, marketing research, and video games. I focus on the importance of transforming minutes into moments into usable memories to recall throughout your creative process. I discuss how to best utilize your communities and embrace the myriad of experiences that sprout out of collisions and interactions within the community. The combination of your mental and physical activities with your communities’ activities empower one’s creative process to produce enriching and flavorful products.

Speakers

Charles Babb

Founder and CEO, Fairchild Consortium

Yifat Shaik

artist/game designer, The Really Serious Game Company

Friday April 29, 2016 12:30pm - 1:00pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, System Update, Weird Science

12:30pm EDT

Practical Law for Indie Developers

Indie Devs shouldn't have to be afraid of tackling the legal issues of development. Join games attorney Chris Reid as he takes you through five of the legal issues that indie devs are most likely to encounter in their business and provides real-world, practical information about why they should care, when they should care, and what they should know. Chris will cover Starting a Company, Contracts, Intellectual Property, Infringement, and Privacy and attendees will come away with a roadmap of which legal issues they need to think about and when. Cheesy game references guaranteed.

Speakers

Christopher G. Reid

Law Offices of Christopher G. Reid

Chris Reid is a solo games attorney with a practice in Brooklyn, NY, where he represents and works with developers and other members of the games industry on a wide range of legal issues. Chris serves on the New York City Bar Association's Information Technology Law Committee and... Read More →

Friday April 29, 2016 12:30pm - 1:30pm EDT
Paik Room

Paik Workshop

1:00pm EDT

Collaborative Governance in Game Arts

Dames Making Games is a nonprofit organization running a wide range of programs and events for women, nb, gender-nonconforming and queer folks interested in games. This talk will address the current development of the DMG community development kit, funded by Refiguring Innovation in Games and the Toronto Arts Council, and how it facilitates diverse, sustainable, interdisciplinary collaboration in media arts.

Speakers

Izzie Colpitts-Campbell

Co-director, Dames Making Games

Friday April 29, 2016 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, System Update

1:00pm EDT

Arcadia: Live Coding Unity Games with Clojure

In pursuit of a more expressive development experience, we've spent the past year integrating the Clojure programming language into the Unity3D game engine. We call it Arcadia, and it combines the live coded, functional, dynamic programming of Clojure with the ubiquity, vast ecosystem, and powerful builtin libraries of Unity. It has changed the way we make games, and we're excited to share it with you.

Speakers

Tims Gardner

Ramsey Nasser

Experimental games, programming languages, cultural assumptions of computing, motorcycles, musicals.

Friday April 29, 2016 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Weird Science

3:00pm EDT

Invading Institutions: Games in Schools & Libraries

This presentation will highlight the work of NYPLarcade, a project launched in 2012 at the New York Public Library to promote gaming literacy among adult patrons. It has since expanded to include game discussions and Twine workshops in New York City schools, and has been featured on Polygon, Gamasutra, and NPR. In the talk, outreach librarian Thomas Knowlton will detail how independent games are uniquely situated to offer a process-based learning environment and a forum for discussing narrative, design, and social issues.

Speakers

Thomas Knowlton

School Outreach Librarian, MyLibraryNYC, New York Public Library

Teaching Games, Twine

Friday April 29, 2016 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, System Update

3:00pm EDT

Beats, Blips, and Budgets: The Sound of Indie Music in Games

Hip hop artist Cadence Weapon, electronic music composer and game OST tracker Max Coburn, and Alex Jansen Producer of the new indie music game LOUD on Planet X discuss the intersection of music and video games, including original composition, licensing for indies, and how music and video games can inform each other in a lively conversational format.

Moderators

Alex Jansen

Producer, LOUD on Planet X

LOUD on Planet X is an arcade-style indie music game featuring Tegan and Sara, Purity Ring, METZ, Metric, Lights, July Talk, F*cked Up, Cadence Weapon, Austra and many more! Choose from a cross-section of top current indie music artists, then defend your stage from hordes of quirky... Read More →

Speakers

Max Coburn

Composer/Sound Designer, Maxo

Musician. Latest album: Chordslayer. Game work: Rustbucket Rumble, Sky Chasers, Bum Rush, Izakaya Ōmen... Read More →

Cadence Weapon

Cadence Weapon is rapper, producer, DJ and writer Rollie Pemberton. His albums Breaking Kayfabe and Hope In Dirt City were both shortlist nominees for the Polaris Music Prize. He served as Edmonton’s Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2011. He’s toured the world playing festivals such... Read More →

Friday April 29, 2016 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Alternate Universe

3:00pm EDT

Stream First: The Coming Era of Games for Live Video Platforms and How to Think About Twitch-focused Game Design

At GDC, Twitch, along with three indie game studios, announced Stream First: an approach to game development that puts the design focus squarely on the live streamed experience. Join Brooke Van Dusen, Director of Game Developer Success at Twitch, along with Proletariat (Streamline) and other developers as they discuss best practices for building a game experience for live video communities and what integrating Twitch functionality into gameplay can do for your studio and players.

Speakers

Brooke Van Dusen

Twitch

Brooke is Twitch‘s Director of Game Developer Success, where he works with game studios interested in leveraging the Twitch platform as a central part of their growth and engagement strategies. Previously, he was responsible for Business Development at Twitch and oversaw the company’s... Read More →

Dave Evans

Twitch Plays Claw Machine

Just a fun loving claw machine that is controlled by Twitch chat.Dave has been prototyping various Twitch Plays projects for over twoyears now. Twitch Plays Claw Machine is his latest experiment thatexplores combining the role of Twitch streamer with crowd-interactivehardware.url... Read More →

Kristen Mukai

Producer, Proletariat

Kristen grew up on the internet and loves anything that goes bleep and/or bloop. Before joining Proletariat, she lived in New York doing a number of things, including teaching classes at New York University's Science and Technology Program and producing live webcasts for multiple... Read More →

Seth Sivak

CEO, Proletariat

Seth Sivak is the CEO of Proletariat Inc., a 26 person game studio in Boston, MA. Seth began in the industry as a gameplay programmer and has been a product manager, lead designer, and executive producer. He was creative director and executive producer for World Zombination, an Apple... Read More →

Friday April 29, 2016 3:00pm - 4:00pm EDT
Paik Room

Paik Workshop

3:00pm EDT

eSports Showcase: Regular Human Basketball

Moderators

Josh Melnick

Speakers

Christian "Skisonic" Sutton

Friday April 29, 2016 3:00pm - 6:00pm EDT
Video Screening Amphitheater

eSports

3:30pm EDT

Nigeria Geek Girls Club: Creating a new Face of Africa through Computer Games and Apps Development

Nigeria Geek Girls Club: Creating a new Face of Africa through Computer Games and Apps Development
Founded by Dr Yetunde Folajimi, the Nigeria Geek Girls Club is part the global efforts aimed at increasing female interests in computing, thereby increasing female programmers and making sure that Nigeria is at par with the rest of the world. This is realized by involving women in the digital creativity process through regular summer camps, trainings and hackathons. Over the years, the Nigeria Geegk girls Club has introduced female perspectives to game creation throughout the learning and implementation processes. Consequently, young girls and women in Nigeria have been equipped to create African flavoured games and promote the culture and heritage of Africa in the process. This discussion will showcase our experience, challenges and success story, and present the methods and models that have helped us prepare a new generation of girls and women to be part of global explosion in the computer games industry.

Speakers

Yetunde Folajimi

Founder & Serious Games Evangelist, Nigeria Geek Girls Club

Dr. Yetunde Folajimi (Serious Games Evangelist) is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Northeastern University USA and currently on study leave as a Computer Science lecturer at University of Ibadan, She is also the Leader of University of Ibadan Intelligent Systems Group and the founder... Read More →

Friday April 29, 2016 3:30pm - 4:00pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, System Update

3:30pm EDT

Lightning Talks 2

Brick Shitters: Or The Search for a Better Crafting Game -- Colton Spross
Crafting systems in games usually feel like an afterthought stapled onto an existing game to pad out the experience. They often boil down to tedious grinding and combinatorics. Yet in the real world people pour a great deal of time and passion into traditional crafts like pottery, woodworking, and knitting. Why is crafting in games so boring when real handicrafts are a rewarding and passionate pursuit for millions of people?

Colton Spross, maker of Home Improvisation, talks about taking inspiration from traditional crafts and making hyper-specific games that explore the nuanced and tactile world of handicrafts.

Create a New Passage: Why I Chose Gamemaking to Tell Stories About Healing -- Kaitlin Tremblay
As a writer with a background in literature and an editor at a Canadian publishing house, making games in Twine has been an avenue for healing that literature and publishing doesn’t provide. This healing happens largely through being able to tell stories in our own way, and being able to connect to others who struggling with the same types of pain and recovery.

Kaitlin Tremblay, writer and designer of Say When, Lights Out Please, and other Twines, talks about the relationship between book publishing and video games, and how being an independent gamemaker has opened up a greater space to create art and write stories that enable me to feel more in control of her healing.

Speakers

Colton Spross

Co-Founder & Developer, The Stork Burnt Down

Colton Spross has been an indie game developer since he graduated with a masters in Digital Media from Georgia Tech in 2013. Before that he formally trained for a career in architecture. He likes to make games about building things and about cross-cultural communication. Two of his... Read More →

Kaitlin Tremblay

Kaitlin is a professional editor, writer, and independent gamemaker. Her work focuses on exploring mental illness and feminism through horror. She is the writer and game designer on numerous Twines, including Say When (2016) and Lights Out, Please (2014). She currently works as an... Read More →

Friday April 29, 2016 3:30pm - 4:00pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Alternate Universe

4:30pm EDT

9 Things Every Game Designer Can Do To Be More Inclusive

The only thing stopping games from being inclusive is the developers. Being inclusive is not a "bonus if we have enough time", but needs to be a core focus of a project from the earliest stage to the final product.

This talk will show developers a few simple concepts that they can keep in mind to greatly increase the inclusivity their final products. A large number of developers recognize this is as an important issue, but don’t think they have the resources to do anything about it. If more developers did these things, they could increase their potential audience tremendously. This isn't about altruism, it's just good business practice

Speakers

Adina Shanholtz

Technical Evangelist, Microsoft

Adina Shanholtz (aka the Fey Technologist) is a Technical Evangelist for Microsoft based out of New York City. She uses her passions for Virtual/Mixed Reality, Game Development, and Wearable Technology to empower others through programming. Adina has spoken in front of thousands of... Read More →

Tobiah Zarlez

Game Evangelist, Microsoft

Tobiah Zarlez has been an independent game developer since 2009, and is most famous for the physics based puzzle game "Blast Monkeys". Tobiah started working for Microsoft in 2013 as a Game Evangelist, helping developers make better games.

Friday April 29, 2016 4:30pm - 5:00pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, Weird Science

4:30pm EDT

Innovating on Death Mechanics in Games

Death has been a prevalent mechanic in video games starting almost as early as the birth of the medium. Arcade games like Space Invaders and home console games like Super Mario Bros popularized death mechanics like life-systems (a certain amount of retries designated to a player after they’ve died) and respawning (when a player reappears at a fixed point in the game, after they die) in order to challenge the player and encourage them to continue playing — and paying quarters, in the case of arcade games.

Since then we’ve seen death evolve in mechanically and narratively interesting ways, from replacing health bars with damage vignettes (Call of Duty 2), to altering gameplay by making death permanent (Mass Effect, Spelunky, Undertale). Game developers are innovating on how death is treated in their games, and adapting it to fit new technologies.

In this talk we will be looking at the various death mechanics video games have utilized in the past, how game developers are innovating on death to best fit their games, and the future of death in video games — with a focus on how it’s being used in future technologies like virtual and augmented reality.

Speakers

Gabby DaRienzo

Co-Founder and Artist, Laundry Bear Games

Gabby DaRienzo is a Toronto-based independent video game developer whose work is often influenced by death. She has written pieces for Killscreen and A MAZE Mag about death positivity in video games, and is the host and producer of the Play Dead Podcast which talks with game developers... Read More →

Friday April 29, 2016 4:30pm - 5:00pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Weird Science

5:30pm EDT

Making Weird Things With Deep Machine Learning

Over the last few years, the world of machine learning has been turned upside down by recurrent neural networks and so-called "deep learning".

Research applications aside, it turns out that these sorts of neural networks are incredibly good at creating generative art. From Google's "Deep Dream" to Twitter bots like @RoboRosewater and @DeepForger, people are starting to use deep learning to create procedurally-generated artworks with far more complex and beautiful output than traditional procedural content generation techniques can produce. Machine learning seems scary and inaccessible, but in actuality there are a lot of high-level tools that make it easy to train your own neural networks. You too can make cool and weird things with machine learning, even with zero background knowledge!

This talk will start with a (very high-level, aggressively approachable) conceptual overview of what machine learning is, and quickly move into a more practical discussion of how game designers and creative coders can use existing deep learning libraries/tools to do all sorts of different kinds of procedural generation, as well as the relative strengths and weaknesses of neural networks as opposed to other forms of procedural generation.

Speakers

Mike Lazer-Walker

Playful Systems, MIT Media Lab

Let's talk interactive fiction! Or interaction design! Or functional programming! Or hardware!

Friday April 29, 2016 5:30pm - 6:00pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Weird Science

5:30pm EDT

Beyond Basic Representation: Subversive Diversity to Improve Our Games

The discussion around diversity in games is one that often stops at character types and skin tones. At this juncture many people see a few superficial changes to characters to be a success. Some fear for their game's financial future if they are "forced" to do the bare minimum. Others refuse to examine their choices, get defensive when asked about them, and continue making games that usually uphold the status quo, consciously or not. Just as games are not solely defined by their graphics, or stories, however, neither should the conversation about diversity in games be limited in that fashion. Here we'll be examining several games by an array of creators and will be breaking down how each game tackled, subverted or perhaps avoided the deeper conversation around diversity in games.

Speakers

Shawn Alexander Allen

Director, Nuchallenger

Artist. Writer. Designer. Activist. Critic. Speaker. Thinker. Philosopher. Wannabe poet. Occasional demagogue. Working on Treachery in Beatdown City. Support #blackgamedev

Tanya X. Short

Director, Kitfox Games

I worked in MMOs for years before going indie. Kitfox Games made Shattered Planet and then Moon Hunters. Talk to me about game design, level design, procedural content design, writing, mythology, procedural personalities, Pixelles and other women-in-games non-profits, indie bizdev... Read More →

Catt Small

Product Designer, Etsy

Catt is a product designer, game maker, and developer. She is currently making awesome things at Etsy. With a design career spanning over ten years, she has done design work for companies of all sizes including SoundCloud, Bedrocket, and Nasdaq. She started coding around the age... Read More →

Friday April 29, 2016 5:30pm - 6:30pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, System Update

6:00pm EDT

36 Reasons to Make One Game 36 Times

Experimental game maker Pippin Barr wants you to make the same game 36 times for fun, learning, and probably-non-profit. Drawing on his own games PONGS and BREAKSOUT, Pippin will challenge you to take a journey of discovery into what games are made of (paddles and balls, mostly), how code and design intertwine (a lot), and how to adapt the pottery scene from the movie Ghost into a game of Breakout (come and find out!).

Speakers

Pippin Barr

░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░ GAME IDEA ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░ YOU WIN ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░ BUT YOU'RE NOT SURE ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░ IF YOU WON... Read More →

Friday April 29, 2016 6:00pm - 6:30pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Weird Science

6:30pm EDT

Opening Night Party

Craft beer, loud music, party games and great people! Enjoy sets by DJ Cadence Weapon and featured games including Gang Beasts, LOUD on Planet X and more ... Thank you to Single Cut Brewery and to OMCD for their support!

Friday April 29, 2016 6:30pm - 9:30pm EDT
Digital Learning Suite

Event

10:30am EDT

Showcase: Strange Arcade

Saturday April 30, 2016 10:30am - 7:00pm EDT
3rd Floor

Showcase: Strange Arcade

11:00am EDT

Ninja Showdown

Join IndieCade East’s organizers in a live, on-stage game of Ninja. Prizes will be awarded for smooth moves and swift gestures -- may the best ninjas win! Sign-up upon arrival.

Prizes include: t-shirts, controllers & IndieCade game submission vouchers!

Moderators

Samuel Roberts

Saturday April 30, 2016 11:00am - 11:30am EDT
Redstone Theater

Event Redstone

11:00am EDT

Show & Tell Session 1

Get a sneak peek and play some great games that indie developers are currently working on. It's a great opportunity to give your feedback on unreleased games and prototypes, talk with developers, and help shape tomorrow's games.

This session will be showing:
Joggernauts
Space King
Vidar
Helheim
Space Cucumber
1979 Revolution: BLACK FRIDAY
Super Hazard Quest
Epic Lutes
PANORAMICAL

Saturday April 30, 2016 11:00am - 1:00pm EDT
Digital Learning Suite

11:30am EDT

Keynote - VR Games: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why - Presented by Sony

Virtual reality is finally here and it is amazing! And VR is especially amazing for games, but there are fundamental differences as compared to standard 2d displays. VR provides a sense of presence that enables entirely new games that leverage the scale and space cues that are lost with a 2d display. VR also has a set of new challenges related to locomotion and interaction. This talk explores a wide variety of techniques and game mechanics for VR, some which work well and others which do not, and provides a technological explanation for why this is the case.

Speakers

Richard Marks

Director, PlayStation Magic Lab, Sony Interactive Entertainment

Richard Marks directs the PlayStation Magic Lab in Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Research & Development division. Magic Lab was founded by Marks to push the boundaries of play by investigating how technology can be used to create new entertainment experiences. Marks joined... Read More →

Saturday April 30, 2016 11:30am - 12:30pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Keynote, Weird Science | Redstone, Weird Science | Sponsored Session, Weird Science

11:30am EDT

eSports Showcase: Soccertron

Moderators

Josh Melnick

Speakers

Samantha "Persia" Hancock

Samantha "Persia" Hancock is an avid gamer and enjoys competitive multiplayer across multiple gaming genres. From FPS to Fighting Games, Persia loves to delve deep into the fighting mind of competitive play. She even holds two Guinness World Records for Tetris DS! She has turned her... Read More →

Christian "Skisonic" Sutton

Saturday April 30, 2016 11:30am - 1:30pm EDT
Video Screening Amphitheater

eSports

12:30pm EDT

Playful Tools For Abstract Worlds: Creating PANORAMICAL

This presentation will provide the first ever look behind the creative process of PANORAMICAL, the award-winning IGF-nominated collection of abstract musical landscapes with analog controls. Co-creator Fernando Ramallo will show how essential it was to create tools that allowed him to perform and play while creating each world, how creating the game was very similar to playing it, how through encouraging playfulness, experimentation and discovery 'by accident', Fernando found a process that allowed him to create interesting immersive abstract environments and complex audiovisual interactions with intuitive controls.

Topics will include: How one simple tool shaped the entire game; Playfulness In Creation as a principle, letting go of planning and visualization; How interactive visuals and sounds work together in PANORAMICAL; Creating the dazzling introduction sequence with unpredictable flowing figures and colors; Curating randomness and giving the player control while keeping the output interesting; Designing for multiple controllers, including analog MIDI devices; Challenges and rewards of collaborating with other artists; Simple shaders that create infinitely complex effects; Explaining innovative controls and failing, how I rewrote the tutorial 5 times; How well did it sell? (Hint: not well) and moving on;

Speakers

Fernando Ramallo

Maker of things. I made PANORAMICAL http://panoramic.al/

Saturday April 30, 2016 12:30pm - 1:00pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, Weird Science

12:30pm EDT

GameSlam!

Here's your chance to pitch your game at IndieCade. In this popular workshop, indie developers are given a microphone, a TV monitor, and 120 seconds to rapid-fire pitch their games. Sign up early at the registration desk to secure your slot. Open to all registrants.

Please note: make sure that the computer or tablet you bring to show your game supports HDMI.

Speakers

Juan Gril

Studio Manager, Joju Games

Joju Games Founder and Studio Manager Juan Gril has more than 18 years of experience developing casual games. Joju Games produces casual games for international clients including Dreamworks, MTV Networks, and Atari. Juan is Advisor for the Smartphone Summit at GDC, co-chair of the... Read More →

Matt Parker

Saturday April 30, 2016 12:30pm - 1:30pm EDT
Fox Ampitheater

Fox Ampitheater Workshop

1:00pm EDT

DIY ROI

Kickstarters and crowdfunding campaigns have become a new normal for independent games, but how do you tackle this stuff if you're not a Double Fine or a Star Citizen? In this talk, merritt will share some insights from her experience crowdfunding small to medium-sized political, personal, and creative projects. You'll learn tricks like rolling your own campaign platforms to keep your costs low, working with your networks to raise interest in your project, and telling a story without giving yourself away. Because everybody needs money. That's why they call it money.

Speakers

Merritt Kopas

merritt kopas is a Canadian writer and designer whose work investigates the conditions of intimacy in precarious settings. Her first book, Videogames for Humans, is an exploration of contemporary interactive fiction, published by Instar Books in 2015. She is the author of dozens of... Read More →

Saturday April 30, 2016 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, System Update

1:00pm EDT

Soviet Vector Hardware Games and the Strange Path Leading There

Our team built VEC9 -- the first new vector arcade game in 30 years, but it did not start out to do that. This presentation is an exploration of the creative advantages, engineering challenges, and uncomfortable personal psychological revelations about building a game based on weird technology.

The path to making a Soviet arcade game began with a broken Asteroids vector monitor, went on to spawn custom digital hardware to draw hip hop stars, a handwritten 3d engine used to draw spinning sausages, and ultimately ended in (OBVIOUSLY) a game about nuclear annihilation and the cold war.

The entire process was born of exploring either antiquated or atypical hardware, and the not-always-obvious gameplay and aesthetics that it ultimately suggested.

Sometimes this was inspiring and led to exciting creative leaps we never might have made, other times it led to months of trying square pegs in round holes, but it ultimately ended in a unique thing. This talk is part inspirational speech, part engineering textbook and part cautionary tale.

Speakers

Todd Bailey

Wizard-In-Training, Narrat1ve, 68Krew

Electron beams, magnetic flux, and the cold love of Soviet Steel. The other stuff I make is here: http://narrat1ve.com/

Michael Dooley

Software Engineer, 68Krew

Andy Reitano

Electrical Engineer, Batlab Electronics

KD2DZM - electrical engineer by day - NES / genesis homebrew developer by night - hired goon 24hrs (ask for rates) http://andrewreitano.com

Saturday April 30, 2016 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Weird Science

1:30pm EDT

Show & Tell Session 2

Get a sneak peek and play some great games that indie developers are currently working on. It's a great opportunity to give your feedback on unreleased games and prototypes, talk with developers, and help shape tomorrow's games.

This session will be showing:
Time Bandid: Adventures in Search of Lost Time
Magical Warriors of Summer
ReOPAF
Real Army Simulator
Rubi
Infiniball
Where Shadows Slumber
Solace State
Ein

Saturday April 30, 2016 1:30pm - 3:30pm EDT
Digital Learning Suite

1:30pm EDT

eSports Showcase: Shoot Shoot Mega Pack

Moderators

Josh Melnick

Speakers

Samantha "Persia" Hancock

Christian "Skisonic" Sutton

Saturday April 30, 2016 1:30pm - 3:30pm EDT
Video Screening Amphitheater

eSports

2:00pm EDT

Creating Joy Through Accessibility & Pug Butts

This talk will discuss how Butt Sniffin Pugs changed from ordinary game to an accessible meditation on the joy of play through hardware design.

Gabe & Michelle Telepak will discuss how they designed not through game feel, but through analyzing emotions and alternative controllers to make a game about "joy".

Speakers

Gabe Telepak

Founder & Game Designer, SpaceBeagles

I poop out indie games + pixels // Director of Butt Sniffin Pugs // also busy running SpaceBeagles with my wife Michelle and our pug army

Saturday April 30, 2016 2:00pm - 2:30pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, Weird Science

2:00pm EDT

How We Won Game Dev by Rolling Our Own Tech

Did you know you can make successful games faster, cheaper and more reliable by building your own tech instead of using a third party engine?
With a small team and no budget, KillHouse Games managed to make 2014's best tactics game (Door Kickers) in a very short time, with a huge amount of content, on 5 platforms. Without using any third-party engines or tools.
Instead of adding tech, they removed tech. They kept removing until there was almost nothing left. Sounds counter-intuitive? Think of it this way: simpler means faster, cheaper and more reliable.
Learn about the extreme simplicity of the production pipeline and the "unified everything" game engine used for Door Kickers.
Learn that developing a game can also be done in a very smart and simple way, instead of spending years or $$$$$ on game engines. Learn how to focus on what is important and that finding the simplest solutions is usually the hardest.

Speakers

Mihai Gosa

CTO/CEO, KillHouse Games

Turning the passion of playing games (pro-gamer) into the passion of developing them (programmer), I started making games through high-school and worked for big game development studios like EA and Ubisoft, before taking matters into my own hands and becoming an indie videogames... Read More →

Saturday April 30, 2016 2:00pm - 2:30pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Weird Science

2:30pm EDT

Jumpstart Your Game with Facebook Presented by Facebook

Facebook provides free tools and services for game developers to immediately tap into the 550 million people who play games on Facebook.com and on Facebook connected devices every month. With solutions that are people-centric and cross-platform as opposed to device–centric, successful game developers worldwide are leveraging the power of Facebook to build, grow, and monetize their games across multiple screens. For game developers who are just starting out, Facebook offers valuable tools and services that can help jump start your startup – allowing you to build better, scale faster, and connect the world.

Speakers

AJ Glasser

AJ Glasser is a former games journalist trained at StanfordUniversity and is currently a developer relations manager for indie game developers at Facebook. She previously wrote for GamePro (back when there was a GamePro), Kotaku, Ploygon, and edited The Sims

Saturday April 30, 2016 2:30pm - 3:00pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

2:30pm EDT

Sustainability for Artists: Supporting Creators at the Edges

As the indie landscape expands to include those who are truly “outside the box"—artists, poets, zinesters, radicals—there is a growing need to create support for long-term sustainability. To help IndieCade understand those needs, we are hosting a pair of hands-on workshops with gamemakers more interested in expression and expanding games to be outside of conventional distribution and commercialization models. Join us to begin building a stronger support system for artists.

Moderators

Celia Pearce

Festival Chair, IndieCade

Celia Pearce is a game designer, artist, curator, scholar, author, teacher and serial instigator. She has a “day gig” as an Associate Professor of Game Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, where she helped launch their BFA in Games. She has authored, co-authored or... Read More →

John Sharp

John makes a living biting off more than he can chew. Sporting a PhD in Art History, a former career as a DJ, and ongoing work in game scholarship, media design, and game development, John is a proud workaholic. He is the Associate Professor of Games and Learning in the School of... Read More →

Saturday April 30, 2016 2:30pm - 3:30pm EDT
Paik Room

Paik Workshop

3:00pm EDT

**CANCELED** Unlawful Invisibles: A Guided Tour of ZZT Hacking

ZZT was a simple level editor made by Tim Sweeney (founder of Epic Games) to create simple puzzle adventure shareware titles. The community it created hacked, modded and riffed off each other's work to create games and experiments wildly beyond anything Sweeney could have envisioned. In this curated tour of games from the ZZT community, I'll trace tools, techniques and trends from game to game to show how a bunch of weird queer and trans teens reinvented a twenty-year-old game-making tool again and again.

Speakers

anna anthropy

Elder Witch, Sorry Not Sorry Games

don't talk to me

Saturday April 30, 2016 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, Weird Science

3:00pm EDT

A Friend, A Stranger and Myself; Segregation of Color in the Games Industry

There is a disconnect when it comes to viewing racism in the industry of games and tech. We hear the anecdotal stories and we read the numbers, but there is a lack of understanding of how segregation of color happens in this industry. There is a view of not my problem and not in my backyard as we move ever closer to a frightening wave of right wing nationalism. If we truly want to see more diversity a lot of hard truths have to be confronted, with out it we are in the midst of repeating the ugliest parts of our history.

Speakers

Archie Prakash

Professor, USC IMGD

Longtime industry engineer working in both AAA and Indie Games. Have helped founded a number of institutions to teach and provide opportunities in Computer Science and STEM to POC, recent work includes Watts Robotics and Pokey Club w/ Urban TxT.

Saturday April 30, 2016 3:00pm - 4:00pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, System Update

3:30pm EDT

eSports Showcase: Pocket Rumble

Moderators

Josh Melnick

Speakers

Samantha "Persia" Hancock

Christian "Skisonic" Sutton

Saturday April 30, 2016 3:30pm - 6:30pm EDT
Video Screening Amphitheater

eSports

3:45pm EDT

Myth of Bootstrapping: Learning from a LongStory

How do the games we produce offer metaphors for the culture we aspire to create as indie game developers?

Quench is a story-driven puzzle game set in a colourful, geometric landscape. You play as Shepherd, an avatar of nature, and you have the power to control the weather to guide herds of animals on a perilous journey. LongStory is an inclusive episodic dating/adventure game about surviving your teenage years.

In this discussion, Tabby Rose, Executive Producer of Quench (http://quenchgame.com/) and Miriam Verburg Executive Producer of LongStory game will discuss the importance of connection and reciprocity, both in terms of the central vision for their respective games and in their work as indie game producers.

Through a frank discussion of the strategies and tactics they have utilized to fund and create their projects Tabby and Miriam will explore how reciprocity and community helped them gain the resources and supports neccesary to bring their indie game projects into existence. In discussing a more collaborative view of start-up culture they will critique the narrative of the 'bootstrap' entrepreneur, and offer participants a fresh perspective on the start up process as a collective effort that often succeeds best when individual projects are understood to exist in a broad eco-system that includes families, friends, agencies, and even the occasional hot meal.

Speakers

Tabby Rose

Tabby Rose is a producer, game designer, illustrator and writer based in Toronto, Canada. Graduating with a Masters of Science in Biomedical Communications from the University of Toronto, Tabby started her career creating educational applications for medical students and clinicians... Read More →

Miriam Verburg

Founder, Bloom Digital Media

I am the founder of Bloom Digital Media and Executive Producer of LongStory Game: A queer & love positive dating game for the 21st century. Come talk to me about dating games, narrative design, starting a game company and how to alienate your friends and loved ones by working over... Read More →

Saturday April 30, 2016 3:45pm - 4:30pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, System Update

4:00pm EDT

Developing and Publishing on PlayStation

Join us to learn more in-depth about self-publishing your games on PlayStation platforms. Bring your questions for Brian Silva of SIEA.

Saturday April 30, 2016 4:00pm - 4:30pm EDT
Paik Room

4:00pm EDT

Show & Tell Session 3

Get a sneak peek and play some great games that indie developers are currently working on. It's a great opportunity to give your feedback on unreleased games and prototypes, talk with developers, and help shape tomorrow's games.

This session will be showing:
Space Cats in Space!
Larkilite Game Lantern
Four Horsemen
Rescue
WARRIOR
Dungeon Punks
Neon Krieger Yamato
Bar? Hop In!
3 Nights in Chicago
Le Parker: Sous Chef Extraordinaire

Saturday April 30, 2016 4:00pm - 6:00pm EDT
Digital Learning Suite

4:30pm EDT

Replicating a Vertical Slice of the Mainstream Industry?: Curating Diversity in the IndieMegabooth

Organizations like the IndieMegabooth don’t make games; rather they take on much of the emotional labour or “worry work” associated with maintaining relationships with stakeholders and facilitating the production, distribution, and reception of indie games. Although there’s a general consensus that the IMB is a positive force in indie gaming, it’s difficult for them to parse the actual impact and relevance of their activities, especially in terms of improving the diversity and sustainability of indie developers.

This talk shares findings of the Indie Interfaces research study, which surveyed and interviewed indie developers exhibiting at events such as PAXPrime. While the IMB is committed to upholding indie games as a space of diversity, inclusivity, and innovation, we found in practice they mirror many of the same issues. For example, at PaxPRIME 2015, 93% surveyed respondents were male, 82% self-identify as white, and the average income was over $70,000USD. Accordingly, we’ll discuss the current demographic composition of Megabooth exhibitors and some of the initiatives currently underway with the IMB to “curate diversity”. We’ll present takeaways on how other organizations like the IMB can contribute to increasing diversity and inclusivity in the game industry.

Speakers

Felan Parker

Saturday April 30, 2016 4:30pm - 5:00pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, System Update

4:30pm EDT

Solace State: The People's Negotiation on the Politics of Affect

Solace State is a Visual Novel about a young woman who must reunite with her friends across ideological divisions, as a cyberpunk city-state threatens to upend in revolt and despotism. It is created out of the developer's passion and background in political science, cinema studies, creative writing and 3D game arts.

Tanya Kan, solo developer of Vivid Foundry, will discuss her design process in creating an experimental game that does not have many blueprints in existing conventions. Solace State is a game that arose out of examinations of political identities and the politics of affect. Over time, she has come to design around a game that can offer humanistic fictional storytelling of personal tragedies and hopes, as well as those shared within a community, involving citizens from all walks of life.

The game's production process has explored fictional representations of social identity-formation in non-egalitarian states, and the emotional passage of fear, hope, disorientation, belonging and shame in shared urban experiences and mythologies. It also explores the concept of the politics of affect, characterized by change and transformation as the norm for sociopolitical experiences. The talk will focus on game design and writing considerations that highlight community-building, negotiation and social identity-formation in an organic speculative science fiction.

No prerequisite knowledge in political science and media studies is required. This will be a great introduction for those who are interested in a convergent product between art, academic theory, and game development.

Speakers

Tanya Kan

Founder and Game Designer, Vivid Foundry

Tanya Kan is a game and interactive media designer. She specializes in creating narrative-driven experiences, centering on personal stories that explore sociopolitical challenges. She combines her background in political science and cinema studies at University of Toronto and 3D game... Read More →

Saturday April 30, 2016 4:30pm - 5:00pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Alternate Universe

5:30pm EDT

Rendered Emotions

Surreal mechanics and visual effects are great for “wow” factor, but in Anamorphine we use them to reinforce the narrative and reflect the emotional state of the characters through the environment. We’re being literally figurative, telling a story by actually representing the mind of our character for players to spatially explore.

We will explain how we convey the emotionally strong memories the character is traversing without dialogue, cut scenes, UI or action buttons, and how we use the minimalistic acts of looking and walking around as storytelling tools.

Speakers

Mohannad Al-Khatib

Creative Lead / Co-founder, Artifact 5

Mo is the Creative Director and a co-founder at Artifact 5, a Montreal-based indie studio. He has a technical and artistic background in games and interactive installations, and a BFA in Computation Arts from Concordia University.

Ramy Daghstani

Technical Director/ Co-Founder, Artifact 5

Ramy is the Technical Director and a co-founder at Artifact 5, a Montreal-based indie studio. He has a background in graphics, gameplay and server programming. He previously worked at Behaviour Interactive. He has a BFA in Computation Arts from Concordia University.

Saturday April 30, 2016 5:30pm - 6:00pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Weird Science

5:30pm EDT

Arts Funding for Indies

This panel brings in experts from funding agencies in both the US and Canada to discuss arts funding for game creators. Our goal is to help the IndieCade community identify pathways to economic sustainability within a fine arts context through a review of possible resources and strategies of funding.

Moderators

Celia Pearce

Festival Chair, IndieCade

Speakers

Anya Combs

Senior Games Outreach, Kickstarter

Kickstarter helps artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, and other creators find the resources and support they need to make their ideas a reality. To date, tens of thousands of creative projects — big and small — have come to life with the support of the Kickstarter comm... Read More →

Mark Haslam

Media Arts Officer, Ontario Arts Council

Mark Haslam is the Media Arts Officer at the Ontario Arts Council. Previously, he was the founder and Executive Director of the Planet in Focus: International Environmental Film and Video Festival; produced and directed for three documentary series - on human affairs, the arts... Read More →

Dylan McKenzie

Incubator Director, NYU Game Center

Dylan McKenzie is a game developer, teacher, and community organizer living in New York City. He is the Incubator Director and Program Coordinator of the NYU Game Center. His work has been shown at important institutions ranging from the Smithsonian American Art Museum to the Brooklyn... Read More →

Saturday April 30, 2016 5:30pm - 6:30pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, System Update

6:00pm EDT

Let's Get Lit: How To Light Your Game Like a Strip Club

(CONTENT WARNING: this talk features frequent footage of hunky dudes taking their clothes off... but nothing hardcore.)
Game designers, developers, and players often have very little formalized knowledge of lighting design. Indies, in particular, generally distrust complex 3D engine middleware as tainted demonic magick that is either beneath or beyond them. But it doesn't have to be like that! What can game lighting mean, and how can games use lighting to affect mood? In this talk inspired by the seminal beefcake film Magic Mike (2012), we will learn about contemporary game lighting technologies and workflows, as well as watch a lot of men take their clothes off. Let's get lit!

Speakers

Robert Yang

Robert Yang is an indie game developer, academic, and writer, based in New York City. He regularly teaches game development and design within NYU Game Center at New York University, IDM at NYU Poly School of Engineering, and MFADT at Parsons the New School for Design.

Saturday April 30, 2016 6:00pm - 6:30pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Weird Science

7:00pm EDT

eSports Showcase: Icarus Proudbottom: Typing Party

Moderators

Josh Melnick

Speakers

Samantha "Persia" Hancock

Christian "Skisonic" Sutton

Saturday April 30, 2016 7:00pm - 10:00pm EDT
Video Screening Amphitheater

eSports Night Games

7:00pm EDT

Night Games

Saturday night from 7-10pm is our annual Night Games event, curated by Come Out & Play. Bring your sneakers and your game face, it's gonna get wacky.

Featuring:
TetraGrams
Veterinarian's Hospital: Ruff Day
In Tune
Chirp Club
RainboDisko
Shoal
Adventure Society
Icarus Proudbottom Typing Party

Saturday April 30, 2016 7:00pm - 10:00pm EDT
TBA

Event Night Games

10:30am EDT

Showcase: Strange Arcade

Sunday May 1, 2016 10:30am - 7:00pm EDT
3rd Floor

Showcase: Strange Arcade

11:00am EDT

Behind Strange Arcade

Join the curators of the Strange Arcade for a discussion and Q&A about the games and interactive experiences at this year's IndieCade East.

Speakers

Brian S. Chung

Jason Eppink

Curator of Digital Media, Museum of the Moving Image

Jason Eppink is the Curator of Digital Media at Museum of the Moving Image in New York City.

GJ Lee

Co-director, The Sheep's Meow

GJ Lee is an artist, educator, game designer and developer. She is one third of The Sheep's Meow, an independent game studio and community organization based in the NJ/NYC area. Some of her independent work has been shown and played at the Stedelijk Museum 's-Hertogenbosch, IndieCade... Read More →

Samuel Roberts

Sunday May 1, 2016 11:00am - 12:00pm EDT
TBA

11:00am EDT

Show & Tell Session 4

Get a sneak peek and play some great games that indie developers are currently working on. It's a great opportunity to give your feedback on unreleased games and prototypes, talk with developers, and help shape tomorrow's games.

This session will be showing:
Gamify
Elephant Jump
Tinselfly
Rps3: The Ghost Duel
Scrap Station Sigma
Project KYE
Tilt: Quill's Quandry
Planetoid Pioneers
Mraww Mythology

Sunday May 1, 2016 11:00am - 1:00pm EDT
Digital Learning Suite

12:00pm EDT

eSports Showcase: Ultimate Chicken Horse

Moderators

Josh Melnick

Speakers

Samantha "Persia" Hancock

Christian "Skisonic" Sutton

Sunday May 1, 2016 12:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
Video Screening Amphitheater

eSports

12:30pm EDT

The History of Video Games in New York City in Just 22 Minutes

A lot has happened in the Big Apple when it comes to video games over the years. And we’re going to try to cover as much as possible in less than half an hour.

Speakers

Matt Hawkins

editor, Attract Mode

For the past 15+ years, Matt has been a video game designer and journalist, as well as a video game scenester and zinester. When it comes to making games, Matt came fairly close to developing an official Charles In Charge RPG for the PlayStation 1 for Ubisoft, no joke. As for writing... Read More →

Sunday May 1, 2016 12:30pm - 1:00pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, Alternate Universe

12:30pm EDT

The Last of the Red Hot Ryus: Male Sexualization and Desire in Games

In games and games culture, the sexualization of and desire for male characters and bodies is often relegated to the level of a joke. An assumed male audience in games both limits the appearance of male characters that are an object of desire, and downplays or minimizes moments when they do appear.

This panel will discuss the context of male sexualization and desire in video games -- how the downplaying of desire for male characters is part of many bigger discourses about power, femininity, and queer sexuality. We'll examine how that desire is channeled into particular narrow expressions. Finally, we'll discuss how players and fans push back against those expressions and what that pushback can teach designers, developers, and writers about getting more diverse and interesting sexualization of men into their work.

Speakers: Maddy Myers (The Mary Sue), Gita Jackson (Paste Magazine), Dante Douglas (University of Oregon), Todd Harper (University of Baltimore)

Speakers

Todd Harper

Visiting Professor, University of Baltimore, United States of America

Game studies academic who does work on queer and gender issues in games. 1/3 of gay gaming podcast Gayme Bar. Swims with the orcas.

Sunday May 1, 2016 12:30pm - 1:30pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, System Update

1:00pm EDT

Six Things Theatre Taught Us About Game Development

We've been theatre professionals for a number of years, performing -- producing, writing, designing and directing. Our shared love of games inspired us to form Worthing & Moncrieff, a two-man interactive storytelling studio. And we couldn't help but notice the crossover and contrasts between the two narrative mediums. This talk explores the artistic and practical lessons game developers can borrow from live theatre.

Speakers

Eric Hamel

Co-founder and Sound Designer, Worthing & Moncrieff

Eric is a sound designer, composer, game designer and co-founder of the Boston-based indie studio Worthing & Moncrieff. He began his game dev career working on the audio team at Electronic Arts' Mythic Entertainment studio. Prior to working in the games industry, Eric spent a number... Read More →

Marc Harpin

Co-Founder and Art Director, Worthing & Moncrieff

Marc is a writer, print designer, game designer and co-founder of the Boston-based indie studio Worthing & Moncrieff. He holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and splits his time between his design studio, Rhumba, producing for Titanic Theatre Company, playwrighting, and... Read More →

Sunday May 1, 2016 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos, Alternate Universe

1:30pm EDT

Show & Tell Session 5

Get a sneak peek and play some great games that indie developers are currently working on. It's a great opportunity to give your feedback on unreleased games and prototypes, talk with developers, and help shape tomorrow's games.

This session will be showing:
Holiday Wars
Swing Star VR
Burgal's Bounty
Voxiebox
Linelight
Treasure Adventure World
Anamorphine
A Matter of Murder
Super Rock Blasters!

Sunday May 1, 2016 1:30pm - 3:30pm EDT
Digital Learning Suite

2:00pm EDT

Indie Game Oases: Building Dev Communities No Matter Where You Are

Moderators

Jeremy Gibson Bond

Professor of Practice, Michigan State University

Jeremy Gibson Bond is a Professor of Practice teaching game design and development at Michigan State University. Since 2013, he has served the IndieCade independent game festival and conference as the Chair of Education and Advancement, where he co-chairs the IndieXchange summit each... Read More →

Speakers

Chris DeLeon

Chris has been making games for 20 years. He's worked with startups and AAA games, taught game creation at Georgia Tech, and spoken at more than 10 conferences (including GDC, IndieCade, and SIEGE). Over 90,000 students have gone through his online courses, and he's done countless... Read More →

Dawn Rivers

Cinematographer, Harmonix Music Systems

Dawn Rivers is Cinematographer at Harmonix Music Systems. She combines her passion for lighting and her extensive film background from Pixar and the Ringling College of Art and Design on games such as Rock Band 4, Dance Central: Spotlight, and Fantasia Music Evolved and is a pioneer... Read More →

Ben Taylor

Technical Designer, Hasbro

I turn alternative controls for games into conventional controls by getting them in the hands of everyone. As a tech lover, Hasbro allows me to empower a generation by getting new tech, we're always seeing but rarely touching in online videos, in the hands of regular people, making... Read More →

Sunday May 1, 2016 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Bartos Screening Room

Bartos Workshop

2:00pm EDT

NESpectre: Massively Multi-Haunted NES

NESpectre is a genuine 8-bit NES console that will be supernaturally influenced by YOU and the rest of the entire audience. Come haunt our NES and expect the wildly unexpected to happen! We've already said too much... trust us, you won't want to miss this. And please don't tip off our poor unsuspecting speedrunners!

Andrew Reitano (Batsly Adams) and Zachary Johnson (Zachstronaut) will share how they created NESpectre: The Massively Multi-Haunted NES. We'll have some other audience-interactive NES hacks for you to try as well, and we'll talk about our process. This is a great session for hardware hackers, homebrew cartridge enthusiasts, JavaScript and Python geeks, and anybody who loves a good story about random, 48 hour collaborations and the magic of game festivals.

Speakers

Zachary Johnson

Creative Developer, Zachstronaut LLC

I'm a weird, web-obsessed artist and programmer from the midwest. Working on a party game called Joggernauts, a pixel art comedy RPG called The Legend of Equip Pants, and a delicious indie arcade cabinet called The Donutron. Good at remembering fish facts.

Andy Reitano

Electrical Engineer, Batlab Electronics

KD2DZM - electrical engineer by day - NES / genesis homebrew developer by night - hired goon 24hrs (ask for rates) http://andrewreitano.com

Sunday May 1, 2016 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Weird Science

2:00pm EDT

eSports Showcase: Tournament Play

Tournaments featuring:
SkyHook
Pocket Rumble
Regular Human Basketball

Moderators

Josh Melnick

Speakers

Samantha "Persia" Hancock

Christian "Skisonic" Sutton

Sunday May 1, 2016 2:00pm - 5:00pm EDT
Video Screening Amphitheater

eSports

2:30pm EDT

Sustainability for Artists: Supporting Creators at the Edges

Moderators

Celia Pearce

Festival Chair, IndieCade

John Sharp

Sunday May 1, 2016 2:30pm - 3:30pm EDT
Paik Room

Paik Workshop

3:30pm EDT

From Sequential to Interactive: Comic Artists and Visual Novels

Comics and games are closely related in many ways, and nowhere is this closer than in the form of visual novels. From affordability to narrative skill sets, these offer accessible, shared means to create. Join three creators (Kasey Van Hise, Hustle Cat ; Mia Schwartz, We Know the Devil and Strawberries ; AM Cosmos, freelance writer and "otome consultant") who've made the jump from comics to games as we discuss tools, techniques, and total indulgences.

Speakers

AM Cosmos

QA Lead, Dots

I love dating sim and dating sim accessories. Published on Polygon, BoingBoing's Offworld, and Paste Magazine. TCAF Comics vs Games presenter.

Kasey Van Hise

Co-founder, Green Solid

Hello! I co-created and wrote a little game called Hustle Cat, and I'll be doing more Visual Novels soon. I also have a webcomic, Winters in Lavelle, that has been around 5+ years. Ask me about VNs, comics, and the visual storytelling language common between the two. I also love... Read More →

Sunday May 1, 2016 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Alternate Universe

4:00pm EDT

Academic Gameshow! Presented by NYU Game Center, Long Island University, & New York Film Academy

Ever wonder what goes on day-to-day in game design school? Hear from both professors and students from 3 of NYC’s leading game design programs in a Newlyweds-style showdown.

Featured Speakers:
Ramiro Corbetta & Eric Guadara from Long Island University
Matthew Schell & Genaro Reyes from New York Film Academy
Frank Lantz & Aaron Keeth from NYU Game Center

Moderators

Nicole Leffel

Speakers

Ramiro Corbetta

Eric Guadara

The Administrator of This Facility, Dashing Cape Games

Eric Guadara has been working in games since 2010. He started out as a journalist and has been published in Well Played, an academic games journal. Eric has been making games for two years, specializing in audio production and programming. His notable works can be found at ... Read More →

Aaron Keeth

Aaron is a game designer currently interested in designing physical games and games for reality television. He is ultra-competitive and loves when passionate and welcoming communities develop around a particular game.

Frank Lantz

Director of the NYU Game Center.

Genaro Vallejo Reyes

Student, NYFA

A rookie game designer with ambitions and eager to learn. Se habla español :)

Matthew Schell

Sunday May 1, 2016 4:00pm - 5:00pm EDT
Fox Ampitheater

Fox Ampitheater Sponsored Session Workshop

4:00pm EDT

Show & Tell Session 6

Get a sneak peek and play some great games that indie developers are currently working on. It's a great opportunity to give your feedback on unreleased games and prototypes, talk with developers, and help shape tomorrow's games.

This session will be showing:
Launch
Railgun
Ruby & Majesty: Treasure Team
Not Everything Is Flammable (NEIF)
Ghost House
Quench
TexVR
TOWER TOWER TOWER
popcalypse

Sunday May 1, 2016 4:00pm - 6:00pm EDT
Digital Learning Suite

4:30pm EDT

'What Does That Sound Like?' Making Real Sounds for Fake Places

As video games have evolved, their soundtracks have grown and embraced the concept of creating an immersive experience which TV and Film have been building on for decades.

To create a fully immersive experience, it’s important to carve out a sonic identity. You have to consider the big picture as well as the small details in order to make your world, your characters and your story feel real.

We'll review how the history of sound design in TV and film has influenced game audio design, while also recognizing what sets games apart.

Speakers

Jen Costa

Sound Designer

Jen is a freelance Sound Designer who has worked in various creative industries such as Radio, TV, Film and Video Games. Jen has contributed sound on dozens of projects over the past decade including the BAFTA winning TV series ‘Big & Small’, the XBLA/PSN title ‘Sideways... Read More →

Sunday May 1, 2016 4:30pm - 5:00pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Redstone, Alternate Universe

5:30pm EDT

Keynote: Presenting Conceptual & Meaningful Explorations in Interdisciplinary Art Tech Performances

Alt Mode began as a conceptual album written and produced by the artist RYAT. RYAT is a composer/performer and producer who works with new technology and media in her performances and installation work. For Alt Mode, RYAT collaborated with a team of visual interactive artists, animators and choreographer Kate Watson Wallace to present the piece in its conceptual makeup. The show debuted in Central Park, NYC for SummerStage 2015.

For this lecture, we will discuss the process of working these complex technological collaborations, discussing new processes and intentions for art tech work for the future.

Speakers

Kate Parsons

Video Artist, VR Content-Creator, VJ, FLOAT

Video artist and recent graduate of UCLA's Design Media Arts MFA program. Collaborator with musicians such as RYAT, Kid606, Daedelus, Slugabed, and Baths. Always seeking to create meaningful VR and A/V experiences. Collaborator at http://Float.land with Buffalo Vision.

Sunday May 1, 2016 5:30pm - 6:30pm EDT
Redstone Theater

Keynote, Alternate Universe | Redstone, Alternate Universe