Session Name: | Selling Out: What a Year of F2P Taught an Art-House Indie |
Speaker(s): | Margaret Robertson |
Company Name(s): | PlayDots |
Track / Format: | Design |
Overview: | What does the transition from deep art-house (city-scale real-world adventures; collaborations with choreographers; interactive dialogues about death) to highly commercial F2P do to a game designer? Is it selling out? Or finally becoming a 'real' game designer? Are there any transferable skills between the two design spaces? Is one kind of design fundamentally more rewarding? Is it a one-way door, or should we be looking for more cross-pollination between these spheres? As a member of Hide&Seek, Margaret Robertson used to make games that tackled bereavement, drove real-world space discovery and made artworks out of drinks coasters. Now, as Game Director at PlayDots, she maximizes the design and business potential of a grid of dots. This session reveals some surprising truths about design practice, business priorities, and career satisfaction in the course of that shift. |