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CULVER CITY, CA, (September 18, 2009) – IndieCade announced today that its annual flagship festival, the International Festival of Independent Games, will take place on October 1-4, 2009 in Culver City, California.The culmination and celebration of its annual competition, IndieCade 2009 will present 30 independent games selected from hundreds of entries.

The International Festival of Independent Games marks the only independent gaming event in the US open to the public. Finalist games represent the best creativity, vision and work of independent game designers from around the world. Finalists being announced today include Papermint from Avaloop in Austria, Moon Stories by Argentinian developer Daniel Benmergui, and Gray by Mike Boxleiter & Greg Wohlwend of the United States.

“IndieCade continues to nurture and attract the fringe talent that is paving the future of game development,” says Sam Roberts, IndieCade Festival Director.  We’re anticipating the best festival ever thanks to a tremendous roster of participants and amazing support from Culver City.”

Opening Reception: The festival will open on October 1 and run through October 4.  There will be a gala opening night event “IndieCade Happening” (VIP from 6:00 to 8:00pm – open to the public from 8:00 to 10:00 pm) at the Royal/T gallery/shop/café, featuring capsule-sized introductions to selected gamemakers, hosted by Richard Lemarchand (of Santa Monica’s own Naughty Dog Studios).

Hands-on Exhibitions: The top 30 finalists’ work will be showcased during the entire run of IndieCade 2009 at three Culver City locations: Wonderful World of Art Gallery, Culver Hotel Mezzanine and Gregg Fleishman Gallery daily from 10:00am to 7:00pm daily.

Festival Conference: IndieCade 2009 is offering an extensive conference program October 2-4. Featuring artist talks, salon discussions, master classes, workshops, panels and keynotes, the conference will be held at nine locations in and around Culver City.  Each day the conference will focus on a particular theme:

• Friday, October 2: Emotional Depth and Challenging Topics
• Saturday, October 3: Art and Innovation
• Sunday, October 4: Aspiring Gamemakers – Young and Old

To review the full conference schedule of talks, workshops and events, please go to www.indiecade.org.

Keynote Speakers: On Friday, Keita Takahashi (Katamari Damacy), Jenova Chen (Cloud, flOw, Flower), and Robin Hunicke (BOOM BLOX, MySims) will work directly with audience suggestions to brainstorm “Fresh Perspectives for First and Third-Person Shooters”.  On Saturday, legendary game maker Will Wright (The Sims, Spore) will share his vision for his new venture, Stupid Fun Club. The company has recently expanded its mission to embrace trans-media, creating entertainment content that spans multiple platforms. In this highly anticipated keynote, Wright will discuss the company’s current projects and activities.

Live Performances: The Festival will also include two special live games.  “Urban Bingo” by David Jimison (Dirt Party, Shark!) is a twist on the traditional community game sending teams of players throughout downtown in search of everyday objects.  “Chalk Games” is a public game design class that will be led by local developer Robin Hunicke (thatgamecompany) on Saturday and Sunday afternoons in the Culver City Plaza where festival-goers will learn how to make games with a little chalk… and a lot of imagination!

Awards: The 2009 IndieCade Awards Ceremony will be held at The Sony Pictures Plaza on October 2 from 7:00 to 10:00pm.  Finalists will be chosen by a panel of illustrious jurors as well as IndieCade attendees.  Awards will be presented for Aesthetics, Gameplay Innovation, Fun/Compelling, Sublime Experience, Technical Innovation, World/Story, Jury Award/Best in Show, Finalist Choice and Audience Choice.

Festival Tickets:Tickets for the IndieCade 2009 range from $20.00 for day of hands-on gameplay to $275.00 for a full festival /conference pass.  To purchase tickets please go to www.indiecade.org.

About the Festival: To date IndieCade’s festival and series of showcase events have been instrumental in highlighting the cultural significance of independent games and securing industry recognition and public attention for the games, the gamemakers, and the medium. IndieCade President Stephanie Barish adds, “Many games shown at IndieCade events have secured deals with major game studios including And Yet it Moves, that has been picked up for the Nintendo Wii, and Richard Boeser’s Ibb and Obb, now in production at Sony.  Popular titles such as Braid, Everyday Shooter, Blueberry Garden, Machinarium and N are other successful games that have been showcased at IndieCade events.  In addition to securing deals with major publishers, IndieCade has also made it possible for games such as Flywrench to be presented at the New Museum in New York and levelHead, which has been presented at galleries and museums throughout Europe.”

Acknowledgements

Presenting Sponsors: Culver City Redevelopment Agency, Culver Hotel, Ivy Substation, Wonderful World Art Gallery, Gregg Fleishman Gallery, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Principal Sponsors: Royal T, Rush Street, EEDAR, Best Buy, Game City, Siggraph, EA Partners
Contributing Sponsor:, Microsoft XNA, Westfield
Friends and Patrons of IndieCade: thatgamecompany, Garage Games, Eagle Sports, Theme Park Studios, Adobe, The Hollywood Hill, Stone Brewery, Mary-Margaret Network, Jonathan Blow, Jeff Roberts, One PR, A&R, Lost Moon Radio, Psychic Bunny
Academic Sponsors: The USC/EA Game Innovation Lab, IT University Copenhagen, Parsons New School of Design, National University, UCLA Games Lab, and Georgia Tech Experimental Game Lab.

I’ve posted my last two talks, with notes and a few fixups for broken or missing fonts/pix. These are both works-in-progress… UX is the more polished, I think… but time will tell. I learned a TON in the process of writing them, delivering them and discussing them with the UX community.

Both trips were wonderful, especially the part where I got to meet and exchange ideas with people who are not in my own industry. Special shout-out to everyone who wrote following both talks – nothing is better than hearing from people as the ideas evolve in their own heads – especially when they continue the dialog with refinements, suggestions and questions. If I haven’t written back it isn’t because I’m not going to – it’s cause I’m busy with upcoming IndieCade events – and just plain old work!

For those of you who don’t have time to download and page through all the slides – the gist is that being at TGC has exposed me to the idea of “juicy feedback” – a squishy term that feels fun to say and is even more fun when in the game. The first talk explores my search for a way to relate “juicyness” to the MDA framework, and the second blends this more with notions about how UX & Game Design are converging.

A huge bonus for set of trips was that I got to spend some quality time with the folks from Stamen and BERG (formerly known as Schulze & Webb). Ben, Mike, Webb and Jones each had very interesting and helpful things to say – and speakers/attendees from both events (including folks at Last FM, Sifteo, Mint.com, Adaptive Path and Nokia) gave me a lot to look forward to.

I’m really grateful to live just a short distance (in the design continuum) from such wonderful people. Thank you for being so “juicy”!

In prepping for my UX talk, I came across this great post on what it takes to be a great UX designer. Concidentally – this is *also* what it takes to be a great Game Designer.

I get asked about this topic often – especially in email, from aspiring designers & students.  So – here is a slightly streamlined version – with a few key edits to emphasize the connection:

#1: A Deep Understanding of People
If you don’t understand people, you won’t be a good game designer. It takes talent and empathy to understand how people enjoy playing – and to play with them! This isn’t something just anyone can do.

#2: Competence in the Basics of Procedural Design
Designing a process/system of rules is difficult! You need tools to help you define and structure your work. For me, this means breaking designs down into three elements: mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics. For you – it could be just about anything! Whatever works: find it, and get comfortable with it. Procedural Design is an art – but it is also a science!

#3: An Awareness of and Interest in Technology
It isn’t essential that you code every day – but it is essential that you are fluent in the tools and technologies of your medium. Period.

#4: Verbal & Visual Communication Skills
Game Design is all about abstractions… until suddenly they are concrete and very expensive to fix. You must be able to clearly communicate your ideas and the research findings they’re based on before that happens.

You must be able to verbally describe everything from squishy player motivations to rigid, detailed sequences of events. But words can have different interpretations – so you should be able to supplement verbal communication with visuals. You don’t need to be an artist, but you do need to be able to sketch your ideas on a whiteboard and create clean, clear prototypes on paper.

#5: Moderate Familiarity with Business, Deep Familiarity with Your Business
You need to understand the basics of how the business world works in order to effectively elicit and understand business goals. On top of that, you need to be familiar with why your customers find your games valuable. To do that, you must deeply understand the commercial context in which they are acquired, shared, enjoyed and discussed.

#6: The Ability to Quickly Learn a Subject Matter Area
Game designers must understand and craft the player experience from multiple perspectives. Deep knowledge of relevant subject matter creates context for that understanding. Read widely, experience widely – and you’ll often have good backup material in a pinch!

#7: Mediation, Facilitation, & Translation Skills
While player goals can be uncovered through empathetic, open-minded research, business goals are often much harder. Different disciplines & departments often have different or even conflicting goals. Keeping these groups on the same page is critical. On top of that, then you have to make it work in whatever technological context is required. This job is not easy.

#8: Curiosity, Creativity & Vision
You need these 3 skills to innovate consciously and (more importantly) to encourage innovation in others. This means having an ability to envision the big picture and the drive to craft details – from system designs to tuning targets.

#9: Passion
Game Design is a worldview – something you just can’t turn off.

Passionate Game Designers constantly watch people & analyze their behaviors. They can’t help but redesign bad experiences in their heads after suffering through them – or sifting through good ones to find key learnings. Obsession with details, especially the “why” of things – this is what ties it all together.

If a passion for Game Design is all you have, that’s a good place to start. That passion will drive you to cultivate the rest and success will soon follow.

I ended up using this example as a key point in my talk – to underscore how UX designers and Game Designers are essentially the same thing. It created a great launch pad for the dialog I had in SF about why “juicy feedback” isn’t just a game thing – and why being a “gamer” is actually crucial to good UX research. So lucky to have found it!!

Huge kudos and thanks to the original author, Fred Beecher who took the time to write these down in the first place. You are a fantastic communicator!!

Looks like I will be in SF for “Park(ing) Day” – a celebration of parks taken to the streets. I’m going up to the city for the UX Week conference – and attendees have been encouraged to submit a design! The park should take up 2 parallel parking spots for $200 or less.

Here’s what I submitted – inspired by a desire for something simple & thrifty, contemplative… with minimal water requirements:

Transient Bonsai Appreciation Park

Flooring: Soft, earth-toned cotton sheets, held down along edges with smooth river stones.

Content: Small bonsai placed at measured intervels within the space, at ground level. In front of each bonsai is a large, soft pillow that you can sit on, so as to appreciate the bonsai’s smallness in the scale of the city.

Requires: a few modest but beautiful bonsai (can be purchased in Japantown), cushions & some flat sheets, 1-2 bags of river stones.

• Bonus #1: Sand can also be poured inside the sheets, in a rectangle below the bonsai to create a zen-garden feel.
• Bonus #2: Extra stones can be used to create a small sculpture near each bonsai, or be given away as totems from the experience.
• Bonus #3: Bonsai can be donated to conference organizers post-display, to encourage continued focus on small, beautiful, living designs!

Looking forward to the trip, and the UX park designs!!!!

Silvio’s team has gone live with their latest project – now available for the iPhone!

Do you love vinyl toys? Do you love having fun? Then what are you waiting for? Go check it out!

In the quest for juciness and feedback in the systems we use to communicate – I’ve become increasingly interested in this particular culture of VJ/DJ remixing:

I like when it’s nostalgic, and plays with tone…

When it creates a pairing for the visual experience based on inspiration…

But this one is by far the most interesting – making something new out of something difficult and sad.

Is it pretty? A song? Does it trivialize the event or the apology?

I’m not sure – but it is definitely stuck in my head!

Saw a bunch on my trip – this saves me having to post them!

Wondering when the make-your-own will appear on Facebook…

It’s nice to know that while I’ve been gone, the raging debate about health care has continued to provide engaging, well-considered commentary from men and women all over the country. Even “newscasters”!

Actually going to the doctor when I get back to the states – wondering if the entire building will have melted in the aftermath of so many bullshit meteors. Maybe I should stay here in the UK?

Two random but very cool sites I found while working on my Talk for dConstruct this week:

A & B.

Design. Heart!

Met up with Davey & Ian for dinner last night – at Mosob, just near the annual Notting Hill Carnival!

Wow, what a fantastic festival! Music, smiles, dancing… Red Stripe – what could be better?

Special super wonderful thanks to Kass for introducing us to the lovely family that runs Mosob and of course, feeding us such delicious food.

Safely arrived in London – and Heather did as well! Today we try to keep her awake till dinner & drinks… and I continue to polish the slides for my dConstruct talk.

Which reminds me – you should be keeping tabs on her work. And… you should check this awesome review of her latest (starts at about 03:15)!

May pop up to West London tomorrow to lunch with DIGRA-ing folks. Who knew life on this side of the pond could be so much fun?