How did a few students playing Dungeons & Dragons and messing with Unity in a basement result in an organization that serves over 2000 students? Meet the people leading the gaming revolution at CUNY and the wider NYC area. Join us for a discussion on why gaming communities, affordable game design education, and collegiate esports are so important, what roadblocks our students currently face from the industry and college administration, our vision for the future, and how students, faculty, and games industry professionals can get involved in reshaping the landscape. Opening remarks by Anne del Castillo, Commissioner of the NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. Followed by a Q&A. 

Environmental storytelling, by its very nature, seems elegant and simple. Which is good. For players. But the process of designing a level or location that serves your gameplay while also telling a story isn't nearly as simple as its end result. In this talk, David Kuelz walks through his favorite strategies for designing levels that also tells stories, including how to use your art, music, and animation to your advantage, how to adjust your story structure to fit a place (rather than a 120-page script), and how to take a static environment and make it feel like a living, breathing place.

I launched the game Fragile Equilibrium on PC and Xbox in my last year of school. As a student making games, I learned a lot about teamwork, working on long-term projects, and game development. Fragile Equilibrium is still one of the biggest projects I worked on despite being student-led. I used the success of the project to help land jobs. Years later, there are things I wish I knew at the beginning of the development of the game that I do now. This is a retrospective on the creation of Fragile Equilibrium and the lessons learned along the way. You can download Fragile Equilibrium free: https://www.fragileequilibrium.net

Ever wondered what it takes to make a game? Look no further! Join us for this talk for a brief introduction to the free and low-cost resources available to you to start building games today! We will spend 10 minutes each on game engines, art, and sound, respectively.

After graduating from Stony Brook University with a Master's in Computer Science in December 2018 Jesse took the bold risk of working on games full time. His current project is Chromavaders, a love letter to the golden age of arcade games coupled with thirty-five years of lessons learned. From working with a publisher to convincing Nintendo to port your game to the Swtitch, the minute you decide to sell your game for money your development process will become more complicated. This talk will help you understand what to expect. 

Laura is a game developer, artist and adjunct professor at Long Island University Post. She is co-founder of LunaBeat Games, an indie mobile and VR games studio. Their latest game is Paranormal Detective: Escape from the 80's, a VR escape room for the Oculus Rift & HTC Vive that was successfully Kickstarted and released in 2019, as well as a catalog of over 50 children's mobile applications for iOS & Android. Join Laura for an easy guide on how colors work, and how to choose a color palette that really makes your game pop!

The Game Studio Program is EGD's game development program open to all students at Hunter College, regardless of major, class standing, or experience level. Starting next year, GSP will be open to students at CUNY community colleges. New for 2020-2021 is it's sister program, the Esports Management Program, open to all CUNY Students! Whether you are a prospective student or a curious educator, we invite you to join us to learn more about these exciting programs and learn how you can get involved.

Rotoscoping is an animation technique where fluid, life-like motion is created by tracing over individual frames of filmed footage. It has been used in Disney animated features, Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings, and notably in video games like Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia, The Last Express, and Another World. In this lecture, Francisco will give a brief overview of the history of rotoscoping's use in video games, explain how he has incorporated rotoscoping into his own work, and provide a tutorial for animators interested in adopting the technique themselves. Although the focus of the talk will be on rotoscoping's use in video games, anyone interested in learning about the technique is encouraged to attend.

Learn about how to land internships! Rachel is a student at Carnegie Mellon University who formerly interned at Epic Games, and Stevie is a student at Rochester Institute of Technology who formerly interned at PlayStation. Both are incoming interns at CORSAIR! Ask them anything.

Em is a jack-of-all-trades, with two novels in the works (one fantasy and one scifi), a TV pilot, and serving as lead designer on the currently in-development indie game, Refuge. Em is editor and co-host of the Deep Listens podcast, where she and her friends review video games, and regularly GMs for and plays in a preponderance of tabletop RPGs, some of which are released as actual-play podcasts on the Old Magic Gaming podcast network, where she is Social Media Manager, Business Manager and Tech Mistress. With a strong focus on LGBT+ narratives, Em strives to make the representation she wants to see in the world. Taylor has completed four novels in science fiction and fantasy, planning to release his first in 2020. He has written several screenplays, including one full length feature film fantasy and one modern spy thriller hour-pilot with speculative themes. He got his start in writing in literary roleplaying forums, with his crown achievement in that realm was a five year long DC universe roleplay from 2003-2008 that had actual fans. He currently works as the social media intern-in-residence for the Hudson Valley Writers Center.

Vicky is a co-founder at Redstart Interactive and is a developer and designer on the upcoming indie-platformer Get-A-Grip Chip. In this talk, she will discuss the progression of a character from first to final iteration with its visual and mechanical design.

Kevin is the Partnerships Account Manager at Twitch. He currently works on the Twitch Student program and has dedicated himself to creating gaming and esports opportunities for students and universities around the world. Prior to Twitch, Kevin founded the Washington Gaming Association at University of Washington and was an analyst at Team SoloMid. He's worked on hundreds of official university esports programs and sits on the board of advisors for University of California Irvine Esports and CSU Entertainment Alliance.

Join Will Roberts, VR Designer/Developer and Creative Commissioner of the VR Diamond League. During this talk, designers, developers and athletes will learn what makes a great VR competitive title and gain insight on how to push VR Esports forward. Attendees will also get a behind the scenes look at the design process of Will’s upcoming VR arena title, Volla; a free-roaming PvP competitive experience. As an ex-Division 1 athlete, storyteller and fighting game junkie, Will’s VR game design journey is unique but is a real asset as he embarks on designing spatial games for augmented and virtual reality. In the name of competition, Will is on a mission to design virtual experiences that helps one maximize their physical potential.

Lawrence is the CEO and lead designer for Goodnight Games, where he released titles on all major mobile platforms. He is currently supervising their move to PC games with the space horror game Never Go Home. Lawrence also teaches Interactivity and Game Design at Ramapo College. This talk is for people who want to make a game but have no idea where to start, and how to work with the skills you have in order to make the thing you want to make!