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Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Full Lineup, & A Bit About The Venue

Posted on: by David Hayward 2 Comments

MS Stubnitz at Canary Wharf, photo by Phalque
(Photo by Phalque, from MS. Stubnitz)

A momentary break in posting, to put the full running order in one place. Bit of Alright on Stubnitz will have things by:

Mike Bithell (Independent game developer)
Ben Milsom (MindCandy) & Mark Shaw
Holly Gramazio (Hide&Seek)
George Buckenham (Die Gute Fabrik)
Jonathan Whiting
Stephen Morris (Greenfly Studios)
Tom Betts (Big Robot)
Lawrie Russell (Trash TV)
Caspian Prince (Puppy Games)
Mitu Khandaker (The Tiniest Shark)
Alistair Lindsay (Freelance composer and sound designer)
Cara Ellison (Littleloud/Rock Paper Shotgun)
Jonathan Brodsky (Lucky Frame)
Andrew Smith (Spilt Milk Studios) & Andrew Roper
Nat Marco (Honeyslug)
Richard Hogg
Jonatan Van Hove (Glitchnap)

As well as that, there’ll be more games by Bennett Foddy and Droqen.

Also, you can read a bit more about the fantastic venue here. As well as being a really well appointed place for all sorts of events, MS Stubnitz is a fascinating project, which has been touring European cities and hosting interesting things since 1991. We’re *really* excited about doing this and getting you all together there.

If you haven’t got them yet, you can still get tickets at bitofalright2013.eventbrite.co.uk

Kerry Turner and Simon Parkin: I Get So Emotional Baby

Posted on: by David Hayward 1 Comment

Sweatshop

Kerry and Simon both work for LittleLoud, and one of their recent games was Sweatshop. Sweatshop made me feel horrifically guilty, because running my factory at optimum efficiency and profitability meant employing little slave kids to put on the end of my production line. It’s brilliant because it feels like gaming you know, but is making you do dreadful things to succeed.

This session will explore that idea and some related ones. It reminds me a little of Jenova Chen talking about time attack modes in early prototypes of Flower, which they removed because play-testers were screaming “fuck yeah!” at new records, and that wasn’t quite what the designers were going for. This isn’t about some stupid question like “Can games make you cry?”, it’s not a Countdown To Tears™. It’s about nuanced game design. How do games make you feel angry, or guilty, or dirty?