Breaking into the Micro-press publishing Industry
Time: 11/5/2011 5:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
Description: This seminar will cover topics that those wanting to break into micro-press publishing will want to know about. Topics ranging from financing, to advertising, and sales outlets will be covered as well as an extensive period of Q&A for the second half of the seminar.
Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Kevin Rohan, Ben Overmyer / Silver Gryphon Games
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Time: 11/5/2011 3:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
Description: Assuming a gameplay-centric approach, this talk aims to map the dark territory of the survival horror genre. In the first place, it demonstrates how the presence of traditional horrific iconography or confrontation with horrific creatures is not enough to communicate a fear that is deeper than the typical emotion felt by any gamer under the stress of overcoming a series of obstacles or of fleeing from a threat. Secondly, it defines and analyzes the common interactive figures (i.e. the actual manipulations transposed into imaginary actions) and their typical implementation in the genre as well as various scare tactics (such as point of view impairment, audio and visual forewarnings and scarcity of resources) which obviously play a determining role in the creation of scary games.
Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Bernard Perron / iDig
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Choosing ‘Independent Creator’ as a Career
Time: 11/5/2011 7:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
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Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Rob Balder / iDig
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Time: 11/5/2011 6:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
Description: This seminar will cover Core Mechanic Design in RPGs but will provide information that computer game designers may find interesting and useful as well.
Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Kevin Rohan / Silver Gryphon Games
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Time: 11/5/2011 3:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
Description: A LARP is a Live Action Role Playing system that allows players to actually walk around as a character instead of sitting around a table describing what actions they are taking. Writing for a LARP can be difficult and writing for a horror based LARP because of having to set the ambience and mood of a world that is not normally like the space we are playing in. The world of a horror LARP has to be fun and interesting to keep the players involved with yet versatile and flexible to be able played in over and over again without feeling like it is used up. This talk and short design workshop will walk through the steps on what is needed to create a long lasting LARP that players will enjoy. For this workshop, Society in Shadows rule system will be used.
Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Sean Hegdahl / iDig
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Creating Female Characters for Female Gamers – An Outsider’s View of Realistic Design
Time: 11/5/2011 6:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
Description: Character creation is one of the more difficult aspects of game design. This difficulty is increased when designers consider gender preferences. The horror genre offers a unique twist to this challenge when it comes to creating female characters. Not only do women react differently from men when in stressful situations – looking to bond with others for survival, using more creative solutions to problems, remembering more details in larger quantities – but the female gamers playing as or interacting with women in-game are going to view these characters differently from male gamers. Because women are more likely to “tend and befriend” under duress in real life, they are more likely to form close bonds with their game characters when in terrifying scenarios. This makes it crucial for game designers to keep their female characters realistic enough for their female audiences. For example, women who are trained in combat must still react appropriately to a scary situation, even if the reaction is not the same as that of a woman who has never even held a weapon before. Women who are not under direct control of the player also need to react accordingly, regardless of their affiliations in-game. Developers need to ask serious questions when placing females in their horrific environments: How has she dealt with fear before (if applicable) and how will it help/hinder her now? How vocal will she be about pain and discomfort in comparison to the men around her? Will these events slowly drive her mad or will she have the mental fortitude to overcome them? How would she solve this puzzle if the men are solving it this way? It is not enough to hand the women weapons and send them off, or to make them fly into a fit of rage for no reason other than “women are moodier than men,” or to make them shrug off monsters because that’s how the men are doing it, or fit them into a million other stereotypes. There needs to be an added layer of realism to appeal to female gamers. Overall, women want the same thing men do in horror games – to have the pants scared right off their legs. What they don’t want is every female to fall into well-oiled roles or to simply respond with “fight or flight” like men are more inclined to do. Examples will include women from Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Clock Tower, Haunting Ground, Splatterhouse, Fatal Frame, Deadly Premonition, Rule of Rose, Siren, and Deception. All scientific studies referenced will have proper citations on relevant slides. Examples will include women from Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Clock Tower, Haunting Ground, Splatterhouse, Fatal Frame, Deadly Premonition, Rule of Rose, Siren, and Deception. All scientific studies referenced will have proper citations on relevant slides.
Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Elyze Rozelle / iDig
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Demon’s Souls, Horror, and Holistic Design
Time: 11/5/2011 6:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
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Event Organizer: Matthew Weise / iDig
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Demonik and the Ludic Legacy of Clive Barker
Time: 11/5/2011 3:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
Description: The horror writer and transmedia artist Clive Barker has long been a champion of videogames as an art form, and he has made good on his theoretical manifestoes by contributing to the narrative design of two games that bear his name: Clive Barker’s Undying and Clive Barker’s Jericho. However, the true contribution of Clive Barker to the field of horror game design resides not in the stories he has written for videogames but rather in the profound and often disturbing concepts of gameplay suggested in his texts, such as a puzzle box whose solution opens a gateway to hell. Consequently, the most inspiring Clive Barker games with the greatest lessons for contemporary game designers are those that were never completed or adequately publicized, because their lack of completion often indicates an authentic attempt to grapple with the most difficult and sophisticated concepts in Barker’s oeuvre, including the metaphysical significance of puzzles and the ritualistic mysticism inherent in play itself. This presentation will offer an analytical history of Barker’s videogame design focusing on the most obscure and overlooked titles. Particular attention will be given to Clive Barker’s unfinished game Demonik, which even in incomplete form suggests one of the most sublime representations of the demonic ever envisioned in a game, as well as the many failed but inspirational attempts at adapting the Hellraiser franchise into game form. The presentation will conclude with thoughts on how the author proposes to adapt the spirit of Barker’s ludic texts through game mechanics and rather than a slavish imitation of his intellectual property.
Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Jeff Howard / iDig
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Experimental Hands-On Integrated Design Exercise
Time: 11/5/2011 3:00:00 PM Duration: 2hr(s) Number of players: 0
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Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Steve Graham / iDig
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Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog: Key Ingredients of Successful Horror Games
Time: 11/5/2011 3:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
Description: Horror games are a unique species of video game, defined by a singular design goal: to scare the living daylights out of you. But to produce genuine fear, the horror game designer must rely on a number of tactics to continuously increase the player’s level of stress. In this lecture we’ll take a rusty scalpel to the best and worst games in the genre, peel back the outer layers and examine what makes them tick.
Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Chris Pruett / iDig
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Life and Death Problems and the Generation of Tension
Time: 11/5/2011 2:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
Description: Go is well known -- it's a deterministic, complete information, turn-based strategy game -- the antithesis of a horror game. Yet elements of Go strike many of the same affective chords as horror. This strange conflation and incongruence between Go and horror reveals unexpected experiences and opportunities for tension.
Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Steve Graham / iDig
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Time: 11/5/2011 6:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
Description: This is an examination of the visual interface elements of horror games. Horror games use these elements to heighten tension and to encourage mystery on top of their basic functions. In most horror games the maps will be plainly laid out but key items and goals will not be highlighted. On the meta level they also use the layout to mislead the players expectations; for example, in Silent Hill 2, there is a large locked off courtyard in a prison area, leading the player to believe there will be a boss fight in that area but when the player enters the courtyard it is devoid of enemies. Defying the players expectations leave them uneasy and cautious. The menu systems also encourage mystery, as most health gauges are ambiguous of the exact amount. Limited inventory turns the key fetch quest into a puzzle in and of itself. As well as examining items unlock puzzles and give clues. Most horror games do not display health, weapon types, or ammunition on the HUD, instead having the information in the menus. This keeps the player guessing about their stats while playing. They instead rely on the posturing of the character to display health. Games that do have a HUD usually have a type of proximity detector to alert the player that an enemy is near, but without saying how close or from where. Through concealing and misleading basic information causes players to err to caution and rely on critical thinking. This all culminates to create an atmosphere of self reliance and survival.
Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Steve Amm / iDig
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Methods of Interactivity in Horror Video Game Narratives
Time: 11/5/2011 4:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
Description: Video games, like literature, movies, and most other forms of media, are ideal vehicles for storytelling. A game's effectiveness in conveying a story to the player hinges on its aesthetic value – its ability to create emotion in the player. Unlike other genre distinctions that derive their names from ludic elements (action, puzzle, etc.), the intended aesthetic experience of horror games is clear – make the player scared. Conversely, strategies on the production of fear are unclear. Complications and risk of failure arise when a game's success rests on subjective, story-driven concepts like fear, as opposed (or in addition) to more objective, gameplay oriented goals. Compromises are often made that sacrifice the narrative strength of a game, and reduce its literary significance. Fortunately, the small volume of published horror games, combined with their specific goal of scaring the player, creates an ideal set of material for studying the interaction between player and narrative. The two predominating modes of instilling fear in the player are sympathetic fear and authentic fear. When an audience is aware that a threat is fictive, it becomes difficult – or perhaps even impossible – for them to experience authentic fear. What this sympathetic/authentic distinction suggests is that the future of horror video games may benefit from employing new technology in order to make the player fear for herself, rather than just the on-screen character. Alternatively, revising the methods of creating sympathy from the player to the character improves the player's aesthetic experience; applying these changes should allow the conditions for a more effective form of storytelling. Some horror games have already implemented such player-intensive elements to produce authentic fear. For example, Manhunt creates a sense of authenticity through the narratologically significant elements of its instruction booklet. The booklet still contains traditional instructions, but it recasts them as items in a mail or phone-order catalog. This catalog perspective of the game's elements actually serves to contextualize the game; as the player controls the murderous protagonist in-game, she cannot help but notice the shaky, hand-held camcorder point-of-view that frames and focuses on the main character's brutal killings. The player's actions are given a context not only in the fictional world of Manhunt, but in the real world as well – she is playing a game, but she is also making snuff films.
Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Jacob Butcher / iDig
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Necroludology: Discovering How to Make Zombies Scary Again through Gameplay
Time: 11/5/2011 4:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
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Special Equipment: N/A
Event Organizer: Chris Totten / iDig
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Time: 11/5/2011 3:00:00 PM Duration: 1hr(s) Number of players: 0
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Special Equipment: n/a
Event Organizer: Jeff Howard / iDig
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