SIEGE will include parallel tracks of workshops and presentations Nov. 13-15. The GGDA has begun announcing the session at https://siegecon.net/sessions/2020-sessions/, and they include Will Wright’s keynote, the returns of past keynotes Erin Hoffman-John and Nick Laing, sessions on Unity, Unreal, Twine, Fusion and much more.
We will announce the workshop schedule by Friday, and you will need to register for those in advance. The presentations, however, will be livestreamed on www.youtube.com/GeorgiaGameDevs, so subscribe now to get notified when we go live.
All times subject to change
SIEGE Investment Conference livestreamed 9 am – noon Friday, Nov. 13
Keynotes
Will Wright Keynote 3 pm Nov. 13
The Creative Process
Erin Hoffman-John Keynote 5 pm Nov. 14
A Quest for Meaning in the Dark Age of Middle Information. How does a person find meaning in the chaos of 2020? As game developers, we are technologists, and we are also artists — we inhabit that liminal space between these two intense cultures. This session considers technology and entertainment through the lens of art and the humanities in an attempt to call out critical problems fueling the conflagration that is 2020, and suggest how to begin thinking — and acting — about them. We’ll posit how mathematics and technology can model and illustrate the social crisis, how this intersects with the rise of super-powerful AI, and what game development has to do with any of this.
Nick Laing Keynote 5 pm Nov. 15
Video Game Publishing Framework
Everyone needs a checklist for all the stuff it takes to publish a game. The giant “unsexy” list of things like lawyers and customer service and marketing, build processes qa validation, forecasting …. the things that spell the difference between a successful launch and the ones we try to avoid.
Friday, Nov. 13 Presentations
4 pm Killing Floor 2: A UGC Case Study (Dave Amata, Tripwire Interactive)
The Killing Floor series has been a smash hit, and the addition of user-generated content helped expand that success. Join us for a brief look at workshop content with Killing Floor 2. We will analyze what did and didn’t work in terms of cosmetic content we integrated in-game as part of the seasonal quarterly updates.
5 pm Full Steam Ahead: Optimizing Your Steam Page (Mike Stumhofer, HOF Studios)
You’ve made a game and you want to put it on Steam. But should you spend time doing anything else before “pressing the button” to make it available on the largest PC game store? I’ll walk you through some best practices I’ve found for setting up your Steam page, creating store assets, writing copy and maximizing your launch window. We’ll also discuss other topics such as setting a price, estimating your day 1 and week 1 sales and answer any other questions you may have about launching your game.
6 pm Selling Assets on Epic (Christian Allen, Epic Games)
7 pm New Markets for Mobile Games (Diego Rivera, Samsung)
Saturday, Nov. 14 Presentations
11 am Dynamic Data with Scriptable Objects in Unity (Ryan Kline, Lazer Bread Games)
12 pm How Fantasy Consoles Can Bring Out Your Best (Ben Burgh, Neuro Diversion)
Fantasy Consoles, such as PICO-8 and TIC-80, are a special type of game engines inspired by 8-bit computers. This 30 minute talk will explain how they can sharpen your skills as a developer and an artist, in addition to being super dang fun.
12:30 The Art of the Tweet Cart (Ben Burgh, Neuro Diversion)
1 pm Neurodivergence in the Workplace (Michelle Menard, Oxide Games; Ben Burgh, Neuro Diversion, Catherine Ball)
2 pm Grow Your Creative Business In Good Times and Bad (Allyssa Lewis, My Animation Life)
3 pm Intergenerational Game Design (Dr. Robin Koman, Fullsail University)
3:30 pm How to Run an Esports Tournament
4 pm Gameplay Design Tectonics: Mapping how we interact with (game) design (Simon Hoffiz, C+TC Design Studio)
6 pm Procrastination Rants
7 pm Flashpoint Tournament
7:30 Networking and Gaming
Sunday, Nov. 15 Presentations
12 pm Game Jam Blueprint for Success (Karik Kini, tastypill Games; Eric Cook)
Whether you’re a game jam pro or novice, all attendees will learn a tried-and-true methodology to ensure you are able to complete a game in 48hrs that you are proud of and feels complete.
12:30 pm Zero Trust Security for Game Developers (Christy Smith, Ken Lightner, Ionic Security)
1 pm Crisis Comms 101 for Game Devs – Tackling Sensitive Topics
Communications surrounding sensitive topics are challenging; therefore, preparation is critical to effectively manage a crisis situation. In this panel, we will cover strategies you can use to identify and get ahead of a challenging predicament before you lose control of the story. This includes planning communications around a game’s sensitive content, making meaningful statements on larger issues, and crafting reactive messaging around difficult circumstances.
2 pm Creating Depth in Small Games (Brad Merritt, Cartoon Network Game Studios)
How do you design small, manageable game projects but with deep systems? And all without breaking your scope and timeline? Attendees with will learn how to “design with adverbs” to create compelling, highly replayable game systems with minimal development cost.
3 pm Educating Today’s Youth Through Esports (Wes Byrd, Georgia Scholastic Esports Foundation)
Zoom Workshops (Require Registration)
6 pm Nov. 13 Loads of Dice (Ben Sandfelder)
7 pm Nov. 13 Game Design Improv
11 am Nov. 14 Collaborative Character Drawing (Sandee Chamberlain, KSU)
Spark your creativity and improve your skills by painting with other artists on a shared canvas in real-time with Magma Studio. Hassle-free, no installation required. magmastudio.io
12 pm Nov. 14 Twine: Zero to First Playable (Dov Jacobson, GamesThatWork)
Can you write a text message? Then you have enough technical skill to make your first game. We will use TWINE, an interactive fiction engine that lets you use simple markup to create a handsome, functional choose-your-own adventure games. Bring your computer and a narrative game idea and we will hammer out a real game together.
1 pm Nov. 14 Teaching Game Audio with Unreal
2 pm Nov. 14 Excel at VBA’ing (Michelle Menard, Oxide Games)
Learn more simple VBA routines and cell math magic to make spreadsheets do more work for you with less work from you, and wow your friends with your spreadsheet skills. Will be something like a battle simulator or generic npc character creator. Attendees can access the xlsx files and all vba code and take it with them.
3 pm Nov. 14 Pitching: Winning the Boss Fight (Dov Jacobson, GamesThatWork)
4 pm Nov. 14 Story Structure (Sandee Chamberlain, KSU)
2 pm Nov. 15 Using Gallium Tools
3 pm Nov. 15 Making Sound with Intonal (Andrew Beck, Elastic Audio)
4 pm What a Dev Can Learn from Clickteam Fusion (Kevin Dressel)
More to Come
