course
description

The world is a confusing place at the moment, moreso than ever. For many of us, never have we had to face such uncertainty and seeming powerlessness within our lifetimes.

Within our own individual spaces of forced isolation, we're all taking a moment to reevaluate our past experiences of life and work and to imagine new possibilities. Creating personal games offers an opportunity to express the things we don't necessarily have the words to explain and a chance to explore these possibilities up close yet from a distance during this time out. What personal stories are you holding onto that might be best expressed through the creation of a personal game?

This online course focuses on the inspiration and tools for getting started making your own personal games! We've curated a very special group of instructors to lead you towards your own inner powers of exploration and self-expression. With a small community of like-minded personal game creators, what will you make?

In each session, there will be space for questions and conversations. There will be weekly assignments all leading up to a final showcase and feedback session of the personal games you all create!

course outline

Week 1: A moment to get to know each other.

There will be introductions of who we all are but also discussions regarding expectations and what you hope to gain from the class. The topic of personal games is VAST and any suggestions as to what interests you the most are welcome! Most importantly, these exchanges will help make the online classroom experience a bit more convivial and a bit less virtual. In these Coronavirus times, physical distancing is recommended but intellectual distancing is not!
#petswelcome #humanconnectedness

Week 2: There are many kinds of play!

Explore your own relationship to play with this one-evening A Kind of Play workshop, and get ready to start building your own personal game. Marie Claire will lead this session with a series of exercises in which you'll generate your own ideas, develop your own stories, explore mechanics, and get a high level overview of possible strategies, tools, and resources to build your game.

You’ll leave this class with a number of possible ideas and a high-level plan on how to get started. Previous participants in this workshop have left feeling inspired, prepared, and eager to start making a personal game.

Week 3: Accessible tools

Easy to use game-making tools are fundamental when it comes to personal games, as they allow creators to fulfill their vision independently, with

little or no external interference from other people.

In this session, Lorenzo will present some of these tools and showcase some of his favourite games made with them. Additional topics in this evenings session include distribution of games once they've been created, paid vs free games, keeping it small, using your neighbourhood as a setting and why you should consider making your game in your own language, not in English.

Week 4: Why are you making this game?

What happens when we create a game which holds personal meaning to us? This session led by Bahiyya is all about setting realistic expectations of ourselves and our work and what we hope to get out of the experience of making personal games. We'll discuss the psychological toll of making a game and how even when you finish working on a game, the game and its players are never really done with you. Finally, we'll also get into how to deal with criticism of a work that's so close to you or even a part of you.

Week 5: Show and Tell

What can we learn from each others stories and experiences of making personal games? This final session we'll come together to see what everyone has made, offer constructive feedback and discuss where to go from here!

who is this class for?

This class is for artists, designers, creative coders, art-games communities, experience designers, personal-games advocates, story-tellers, creatives of all types, and champions of the playful interested in exploring personal self-expression and storytelling as it relates to making personal games. Enthusiastic like-minded community included. No prior experience is required.

about live classes

Classes are 'live' meaning that you can directly interact with the instructor as well as with the other participants from around the world. Classes will also be recorded for playback in case you are unable to attend for any reason. That said, we kindly ask that you please only purchase a ticket if you plan to attend regularly. For specific questions, please email us and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

about tickets

Tickets for this class are currently available via Eventbrite. If you would like to avoid Eventbrite fees, please email us for direct payment options. We kindly ask that all “pay-what-you-can” students register through Eventbrite. Due to reduced staffing, we’re unable to handle specific payment requests for these registrations.

about solidarity

We realise we're living in uncertain times. We are a small organisation with no outside funding and like many, we are also in survival mode. During this time, we are offering a limited number of pay-what-you-can solidarity tickets for this online class. Preference is given to women, POC, LGBTQ+ and persons from underrepresented communities in tech who would otherwise be unable to attend. We are greatly appreciative of your understanding and support.

meet the instructors