Coming Soon to a Lobby Near You
So I’ll be speaking at the next Gaming Seminar hosted by NYU this coming Friday, and the topic will be ‘Independent Game Designers’. I’ve been thinking about what I want to talk about and it occurred to me that it would be really useful to know you all want to hear. I feel like the folks that read this blog represent a great cross-section of different perspectives on games and game design and your input is as valuable as any I could get. Here are a few ideas for topics that I’ve been tossing around:
- Independent vs. Indie.
- Innovation and independence.
- The history of independent game design.
- Designing games for specific audiences.
- The process of building an independent game (i.e. Casablanca).
- The experience of building your first game.
- My education as a game designer and the reality of starting a career in game design.
Is there anything that catches any interest in any of you all? Is there something that I’m not thinking of? I’ll be working on the presentation throughout the week and any feedback you guys have on these initials thoughts or otherwise would be greatly appreciated. Of course, I hope to see you all there!
Author’s Note: How about them Giants?
The first three combined… sort of a past, present, future as to what it means to be an independent/indie game designer or developer. Something I was thinking about after the Ken Levine Bioshock talk is this: how high is the bar currently set as to games being made at an amateur level, using the word amateur to describe something being done solely out of love. So much money is tied into most titles (because of the work force needed to create big games) that much is compromised in the design. Independent film didn’t see its growth spurt and rise to prominence until the medium became a more affordable one in terms of production.
Is it being taped at all? I have class at that time.
How about a salute to some of your favorite game design teachers at ITP?
You mean the only game design teacher at ITP?
Besides Amit Pitaru, anyway.
so how’d it go?
It went alright. I was a little under-prepared and the room was freezing. All in all though I think I succeeded at my meta-goal, which was to show people how wide a variety of independent games there is.