Workshops – SIEGE

In need of more hands-on continuing education and professional development? Check out our Thursday workshops at SIEGE.

A lot of people think the fun only starts Friday afternoon. But these free, hands-on workshops the day before SIEGE officially opens are a stealthy way to get even more out of your badge.

These workshops are free, but priority goes to SIEGE volunteers, sponsors and paid attendees. The workshops run from 3 pm – 7 pm Thursday, Oct. 4.

Game Concept Art Contest/Panel

Tom Biondolillo, Craig Brasco

3 pm – 5 pm

This 2-hour panel/competition will help you take your concept art to the next level. First, with help from the audience, our panelists will choose a Game Story Concept. Then a select group of *Audience Volunteer Contestants (individuals or teams) will be given Concept Prompts and 1 hour to do some Speed-Drawing and create Concept Art. While the contestants are off doing their thing- the discussion will continue, and the audience will have an opportunity to ask questions. Finally the contestants will come back to present their work and compete for the best concept. The winners will get free SIEGE T-shirts and special recognition at the Awards Ceremony at the Town Hall meeting on Sunday.

Let’s Make a Game: No Experience? No Problem!

Brian Miller, ZapMil LLC

3 pm – 5 pm

**No programming experience needed!**

Love games, but not sure where to get started on designing one of your own?

Join this interactive “crash course” as we dive into the basics of game design, and level up your game development abilities. We’ll be using Fusion 2.5, which does not use any programming language, and is purely based on logic.

By learning a few simple essentials, you’ll capture the basic concepts of game design, without the complexities of learning a new programming language. At the end of this course, you’ll walk out with with new skills and the understanding to quickly generate new games and apps.

Bring your laptop, a readiness to learn, and let’s get started on a game!

Program Note: Before attending this workshop, please download and install Clickteam’s Fusion 2.5 Free Version: https://www.clickteam.com/clickteam-fusion-2-5-free-edition

From Basement to Corner Office: How to Start, or Not Start, Your Own Company.

Andrew Baker & Dan Baker, Oxide Engineering.

5 pm-7 pm

Come join the Brothers Baker in an interactive workshop on the do’s don’ts, maybes, wish-I-had’s, and what-now’s of starting up and running your own game business. Topics covered will include how to find and approach investors for seed funds, writing a business plan, how to hire, how to manage (and whether you or someone you hire should manage), and most importantly, when you’re actually ready (if at all) to leave your current job and make the jump to starting your own gig. Bring your company ideas, draft business plans, hiring issues, and any and all questions business-related.

Dynamic Spreadsheeting for Prototyping and Balance: VBA Is Not Scary.

Michelle Menard, Oxide Engineering.

5 pm – 7 pm

While Excel is often used for storing mountains of game data and equations, are you using it to its fullest possible potential? Want to run some aggregation reports on some game data and don’t know what to do? Want to tweak some algorithms based on changeable game states before heading over to your game engine? Bring your laptops (like, seriously, bring your laptops) and we’ll work through setting up a sample workbook: how to access the developer tab and write some simple VBA, insert and hookup a variety of ActiveX controls, and how to query data in your sheets to create a working (and dynamically, completely tweakable) prototype of a sample game system. No coding experience is necessary, although some familiarity with Excel will be useful. Fully coded sample workbooks will be available for workshop participants afterwards to take home and customize.