TRACK KEYNOTE
Designing Fun: Easier Said Than Done
CONFERENCE
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INDEPENDENT GAMES
The Independent Games Festival China (IGF China) serves to promote the development of independent games, showcase the best-of-breed products and foster collaboration among the Chinese game development community. During these tough economic times, the Independent Games Summit will facilitate the sharing of best practices and the improvement of business models. Additionally, this summit strives to create business opportunities in order to help original Chinese games flourish not only in design and technology, but also in content and more.
The Independent Games Summit will be held in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival China taking place at GDC China 2012. The Independent Games Summit takes place November 19. Visit www.igf.com for more information of Independent Game Festival.
View all GDC China 2012 sessions
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HIGHLIGHTED SESSIONS
Kim Swift (Airtight Games)
The game industry is a fascinating field to work in and everyone's experience is vastly different. Kim's path has definitely been a unique one, from creating the hit game Portal, straight out of DigiPen for Valve, to becoming a Creative Director for Airtight Games at an early age. During this talk, Kim will walk through her game industry design experience to talk about lessons learned, good moments and not so good moments in an attempt to amuse and to educate. Hear about design principles for creating games for a more mass appeal, how to work best with a team of talented, passionate developers, and how to create an enjoyable and fun game.
FTL: Faster Than Light Postmortem
Matthew Davis (Subset Games)
The story of how two guys who didn't really know what they were doing managed to make something people wanted to play. Matthew will be covering the FTL development from its early prototyping onward, through its successful Kickstarter, beta period, and ultimately successful launch on Steam. They managed to learn a few things on the way and he hopes to pass some of it on to other aspiring developers.
The Unlikely Story of Johann Sebastian Joust
Douglas Wilson (Die Gute Fabrik)
In this talk, game designer Douglas Wilson reflects on his no-graphics motion-controlled game, Johann Sebastian Joust. He tells the story behind the game, from its origins as a simple game jam prototype to an award-winning title exhibited around the world. Based on these experiences, Doug shares some of the actionable lessons he's learned along the way. He explains how folk games and playground games offer useful precedents for developers working on physical games, and explains why he finds it fruitful to think about motion-controlled games in terms of slapstick and subversion.
First Steps: Starting as an Independent Game Developer
Ichiro Lambe (Dejobaan Games, LLC)
All indie studios -- whether in Shanghai, Boston, or Tasmania -- face similar startup challenges. Studio founders coming from AAA or other industries must now simultaneously manage a brand new team, convince the press to write about an unproven entity, and explore new publishing opportunities, all the while creating great games. In this session, Ichiro Lambe (creator of the award-winning indie game AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity and contributor to the Portal 2 ARG) discusses how to start a small studio, avoid common pitfalls, and grow into a successful company.
Building a Brand as an Independent Developer
Chris Charla (Microsoft Studios)
"Smaller, cheaper, faster" could be a mantra for independent development. But building a game is only half the challenge of success. In the olden days, developers could leaving marketing up to the publisher. Today, as an independent developer, that's not an option. So how does a developer without access to large-scale resources cut through the noise in the marketplace and ensure that their audience actually knows about their game and is eager to buy it? In this one hour session we'll look at some strategies from across the game industry that have succeeded and failed, as well as questioning some "conventional wisdom" about promoting your game. Attendees will leave with concrete information about successful strategies for building a brand and audience as an independent developer.
Self-Publishing or Find a Publisher?
Wen Chen (Coconut Island Studio)
As digital distribution is playing a more and more important role in game distribution, the wall that used to stand in the middle of indie developers and end customers has been dissolved for good. Self-publishing becomes the dominant choice of most indies while we still have another publishing mode namely finding a publisher. This session will compare these two different publishing modes based on our own experience and give the audiences our suggestions.
ALL INDEPENDENT GAMES SUMMIT SESSIONS
| TRACK KEYNOTE Designing Fun: Easier Said Than Done Kim Swift (Airtight Games) |
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| Building a Brand as an Independent Developer Chris Charla (Microsoft Studios) |
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| Creating the Trailers your Game Deserves! Kert Gartner (Independent) |
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| First Steps: Starting as an Independent Game Developer Ichiro Lambe (Dejobaan Games, LLC) |
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| FTL: Faster Than Light Postmortem Matthew Davis (Subset Games) |
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| Self-Publishing or Find a Publisher? Wen Chen (Coconut Island Studio) |
| The Unlikely Story of Johann Sebastian Joust Douglas Wilson (Die Gute Fabrik) |
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