I recently curated a panel for the Freeplay Independent Gaming Festival: How Every Little Decision Can Bring You Closer To or Further Away from Creating Crap

A (self-described) “handsome and debonaire stranger” said to me the best way to avoid creating dull projects is “don’t work for shit companies” and “only go indie if you have a brain”. But what happens if you (think) you don’t work for a shit company and you have a brain? Are there still little things you can do that gradually and inevitably steer your project into the sea of mediocrity? This session is a discussion about how all of those little design and process decisions build to make or break your game.

And now, thanks to Stephan Schutze, I can share the audio from the panel!:

I opened with a short intro, and then moved to Floyd Mueller, who directs the Exertion Games Lab at RMIT. He spoke about how you can avoid crap game design during prototyping:

Freeplay2011-Avoiding Crap Game Design-Floyd Mueller by christydena

Then David May, Lead Programmer at Big Ant Studios, shared things he’s learnt from working for 12 years on mainly console games:

Freeplay2011-Avoiding Crap Game Design-David May by christydena

We then introduced Tom Killen, co-founder of The Voxel Agents, who generously replaced the flight-disrupted Luke Muscat. Tom spoke about methods his company use to prototype games:

Photo by Jason Poley, 2011
Freeplay2011-Avoiding Crap Game Design-Tom Killen by christydena

I then quickly wrapped up (we were running out of time), with some quick methods I’ve learnt regarding writing:
Freeplay2011-Avoiding Crap Game Design-Christy Dena by christydena

Let us know what you think!

Righto! Looks like we already have some questions rolling in. As a default I won’t publish names of the person who asked the question (so let me know if you don’t mind!).

• So, first, one person wants to know “if anyone can provide ‘measurement’ with their experiences…personal opinions are great…but at the end of the day…clients all want measurable results or findings”. Aha! As a start I’ll refer you to my ol’ resources pages on alternate reality games and extended entertainment experiences: ARG Stats & ARGs Around the World. These need updating and of course they don’t give the whole picture, just what people are prepared to publish. In other words, you suck at publicly published measurements of transmedia projects! So, what is needed is a discussion about lessons learned in measurement.
• From some discussions, it also seems a chat about the iterative nature of many transmedia projects would be a good topic.
• In another discussion space there has also been a query about how medium specificity operates in transmedia.
• Lastly, a question in the Solve my Suck section is about “where is the best place (or what is the best way) to find like minded lunatics who want to spend countless hours working on a project”? I’ve pointed out the Unfiction Unforums, but there may be some people on this site that contact the questioner directly, or there may be another place on web. This question has been asked at many industry events too. So, if it doesn’t exist (cannot recall any place right now), then someone needs to make it happen.

OK, so these are topics to be explored. I’ll put together some posts, but there is plenty to be said about all of them, so if you have any thoughts or would like to write a post – do it! But a reminder: this is not a site for posts explaining things for newcomers. There are plenty of sites that take care of that now. Instead, here is where you talk about things that suck in your own and others projects. You’re addressing your peers. Oh, or you can talk about whatever you damn well please.