I’ll be at GDC! (Speaking and Showcasing) – small update post

So there are exciting things happening. First of all, I’m going to be at GDC. Yay!
Since “Everything is going to be OK” has been nominated for the Nuovo award, I’ll be showcasing most of the time in the IGF pavilion. If you want to check out “Everything is going to be OK”, or just chat, please come by!

I also finally have a Patreon. People kept asking.
You can donate here: https://www.patreon.com/alienmelon
Every bit goes to supporting the next game or current project. It does help immensely, but if you can’t pay just know that I’m also powered by hugs and positive vibes. Thank you!

In other news, I’ll be giving two talks at GDC!

I’m participating in two sessions. I’m really excited about this, and totally not nervous at all. I’ve always wanted to talk at GDC… actually I never really thought about it… ok, but this is really amazing.
Things are usually so insanely busy, I don’t get much time to do things, or think of things, that are non-game development related. Talks seem like a breath of fresh air right now.

The first session is called “Alternative Paths in Indie Dev”.
It will be held Tuesday, March 20th, 11:20 am.
The session description and takeaway is to learn from indie developers who have found business success by taking other routes.

The second session, is (appropriately) the “Experimental Gameplay Workshop”!
I’m really excited about this one. I’ve put something together already, and I think it’s going to be interesting. I’ll be talking about my design philosophies and some of the thoughts that went into “Everything is going to be OK“. Also how I used different mechanics to convey such personal, and difficult, messages. I’m also discussing the purpose that humor serves.
I think it’s going to be insightful. I hope inspiring.

Also, in other talk related news…
There was this event in Madrid, also named GDC. It’s the good GDC. I put together a talk for them, and it’s now online! You can see it here. I love this one. I think it turned out well… made me laugh while I was making it, so I hope it did the same to others.

I gave a @GDC_Lavapies talk about the historic impact (pun intended) that aquarium sims had on modern video games.https://t.co/Ie7l8e2WPJ
It's a good talk, well worth your time, especially if you are an aquarium sim aficionado.

— Nathalie Lawhead (@alienmelon) February 1, 2018

The talk goes over the early history of aquarium sims and the influence they’ve had on modern gaming… actually it’s mostly a satire talk. I’ve joked a lot about this, so I feel like I’m kicking a dead horse at this point, but what I like about it is that it starts so seemingly innocuous and then totally degrades into this epic conspiracy theory. If you like my stuff, you may enjoy it. Someone said that it is “peak alienmelon”. I’ll leave it at that. :)

I’ve been wanting to give more talks, and I’m so happy that the last couple of months have been about that. I kind of didn’t know that you have to (normally) pitch talks to events. I thought all of them are invite only… knowing this makes me feel much less awkward now. :D

Ok, if you are going to GDC (the bigger one), please come by and say hi! The best way to contact me is probably through twitter message (if you don’t have my email), but I always love chatting. I’ll definitely be at the IGF pavilion so that makes me easy to find.
It’s going to be a good long week…