Episodes
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Taylor Hubler and Nicholas Ambrose
Join our experts for a conversation looking at how to physically design, package, and ship games. We want to make sure that every copy that is printed makes it into the hands of a player, but games can get damaged in transit, or be passed up by game stores due to a physical design misstep. Part one will be going over physical design, layout considerations, and what retailers like to see in a product on their shelves. Part two will be going over why product gets damaged in transit, best packaging practices for distribution, and how avant garde physical design can make shipping difficult. Q and A, as well as workshop elements will be present in this panel.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2024
Presented by Avonelle Wing and Nicholas Ambrose
So, what is "the three-tier system"? What's a consolidator? Hobby? Mass-market? Specialty? Once you have a design that seems viable, there are a lot of steps between here and retail success. Bring your questions, and we'll try to answer them after a brief overview of possible paths forward.
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Missing episodes?
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Avonelle Wing, Curt Covert, and Alex Cutler
You've read game design blogs and Facebook groups. You've delved into conventional wisdom. You did your homework. A game should be replayable. You should set your funding goal as 1/5 of your overall costs to fund fast. A prototype should be a single sheet of paper and some markers. A prototype needs to be full production value. Publish it yourself and sell it out of your bedroom; order fulfillment is easy. All of these things might be true, and they could still be the thing that sinks your ship. Our experts talk about the ways accurate advice can still be wrong for you.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Meguey Baker, Vincent Baker
An introduction to PbtA from a designer's point of view. How and why Apocalypse World works the way it does, what your game can take from it, and how and why your own game should work differently. Highlighting PbtA's conversation model, with an emphasis on consent and communication, and PbtA's model of fiction, with an emphasis on adapting it to your own game's needs.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Cam Banks and Amanda Valentine
Licensed RPGs are a minefield of conflicting interests, stakeholders, and opinions. With the assumption that you've done the hardest part of securing a license, actually designing, developing, and producing the game is often much harder than expected. We'll talk about the process of faithfully adapting someone else's work to a new game project.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Sydney Engelstein and Geoffrey Engelstein
Sydney has taken close to a thousand pitches for Indie Game Studios. Geoff has taught game design and helped designers improve their prototypes for over a decade. Between them they see the same issues with designs over and over again, particularly with newer designers. In this seminar, they will share with you the top things that are wrong with your game, based on this hard won experience. They guess there's a slight chance you've avoided a few of these issues, but probably not. And let's face it - you won't know unless you attend.
NOTE: An insufficiently edited version of this panel was posted earlier, but this is the corrected version for your enjoyment.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker
We've been creating and publishing our own games for almost 25 years. How, why, and what does it take? Why self-publish instead of shopping your work around? How do you plot your own course, build your own audience, and measure your own success? This is about being you, the designer, making your games, owning the fruits of your labor, and keeping both your drive and your passion while holding down your day job and maintaining your relationships.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Jason Pitre
Producing books is a challenge at the best of times, and the printing landscape has changed radically since the pandemic. The panel speakers will explain the process for finding companies to work with you, choosing your print specifications, and other secrets of the trade.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Cam Banks and Amanda Valentine
You've had a successful Kickstarter, you've been hired by a game publisher, you've released your work on Itch or DriveThru. You've done it! But now what? We're here to discuss the aftermath, the fallout, and how to survive that and stay doing what you love to do.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Bill White and Avery Rosen
This panel discusses the theoretical, pedagogical, and practical implications of trying to teach people to run tabletop RPGs as GMs. We're interested in understanding the best practices, the pitfalls, and the contexts in which "teaching people to GM" in any kind of formal way is even possible. We survey the role-playing landscape in order to understand how the technological and cultural shifts of recent years have affected the way people learn to run games.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Jay Dragon and Amanda Valentine
Every game has a voice, from the biggest trad book to an indie zine, and this narrative voice helps a game teach itself and stand on its own. In this round table held by award-winning game designer Jay Dragon we'll talk through a number of examples of games that utilize narrative voice to articulate their game-worlds, and rewrite our own mechanics in ways that emphasize how different perspectives can change the nature of the game on a deep level.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Tristan Zimmerman, Meghan Jaffe, Sean Jaffe
The Indie Game Developer Network (IGDN) is an all-volunteer trade association for tabletop publishers, designers, and freelancers. We offer booth space at conventions, share knowledge, and work to improve the industry. Come ask questions and learn whether the IGDN might be right for you!
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Jack Parra, Lissane Lake, Nicole Amato
Getting high-quality art is key to making a product look professional. Our panel makes with the tips and tricks to controlling costs and Funding the Project.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Jack Parra and Lissane Lake
The panelists will touch on the process of how to find and approach artists, negotiate the contract, and then successfully work together. It's important that publishers get an artist's-eye-view of things so they can better understand what we do, the process, and the time involved and plan projects accordingly.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Nicole Amato
Join Kickstarter's Games Outreach Lead, Nicole Amato, as they discuss best practices for running a crowdfunding campaign. There will also be plenty of time for a Q&A for any questions you might have.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Melissa Lewis-Gentry and Curt Covert.
Receiving feedback is hard. Running a successful playtest is even more complicated. Our experts will share their tools for getting the most out of a playtesting table.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Kat Millar and Curt Covert
Giving good feedback is a skill. Come learn more about how to provide feedback to game designers in useful, productive ways.
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Presented by Jason Pitre, Ash Kreider, Vivian Young, Eric Whalen, Tristan Zimmerman
AI is a hot topic. Authors are suing over their content being used to "train" AI without their consent. Platforms and publishers are taking hard anti-AI positions. Or coming out publicly to declare that they are using AI and nobody can stop them. People who want to use AI for idea generation or to simplify and automate boring tasks are at odds with peers who maintain that there is no ethical way to use AI. We're going to start by defining "AI" and then we'll have a respectful, thoughtful conversation on the topic.
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Recorded at Metatopia 2023
Presented by Jason Pitre, Jenn Adcock, Brennan Taylor, Olivia Montoya
Larpwrights and tabletop game designers have long relied on the power of complex relationship webs to drive dramatic play. Crafting effective characters and their interconnections allows for a living, breathing, and often conflicted world. The panel speakers will share best practices and techniques for designing these webs.
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Recorded at Metatopia Online 2021
Presented by Jon Cole, Oscar Biffi, Katherine Shane, Misha B, Olivia Montoya, Chiara Locatelli.
Some small game projects are created by an auteur, who controls every aspect of production. These panelists rejected that approach to create projects working with a team on behalf of their community. How did they balance the community's needs with their ambition? Is it possible to represent a community via anthology at all? Panelists will discuss the nitty gritty processes behind their projects, revealing what worked and what didn't, answering questions, and sharing their hard-won tips for publishing in community.
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